And don’t come back, you hear?

The best things about Warhammer 40,000 6th edition, well maybe the only thing good about 6th edition, was the discovery of who was and wasn’t a real Warhammer 40k player. When this blog was started the purpose was clear; an attempt to keep in check all the players and groups who did harm to the game I loved. On many levels it has been a success, but no amount of success can keep certain segments of the Warhammer 40k community from pretending like they knew everything or didn’t abuse other players on the table top.

One blog cannot end or change the minds of harden trolls and purveyors of orthodoxies,  strangely though 6th edition did more than Blood of Kittens could ever do. The utter imbalance of the edition did what no one could do; reveal the players who actually enjoyed the totality of Warhammer 40k, not those who disappeared at the first sign trouble. The era of WAAC/Netlisting came to an end, sure it survived to some extent because you can never account for poor social skills within any large community. The WAAC Netlister or as I will now call them: Alt-Hammer saw 6th and 7th as noncompetitive, but what really happened was Games Workshop cut out the great middle tier player from having a chance at the top tables. The middle tier players was the Alt-Hammer player even if they could never get over their own egos.

Now with 8th edition promising a return to “balance”, the Alt-Hammer is already stirring like a Necron tomb waking from a long slumber. Alt-Hammer will make bold claims about what is good and what isn’t good pushing aside anyone who disagrees. Shouting down and ridiculing who ever doesn’t rise to their level of “tactical acumen”, but like always the proof will never be in the pudding, as these players always survive in small pools never venturing out to discover their own mediocrity. They only have the Internet to magnify their out sized voice.

Hopefully I will be wrong, with the community evolving along with the Internet. Open Forums and singular blogs are not the same powerful message engines for drive community competitive discourse. The Alt-Hammer will have to rise in an age where anyone can filter any narrative. Alt-Hammer has to rise in the face of Games Workshop engaged with the community, where if GW chooses can co-op those voices with crumbs of “secret” access.

The Alt-Hammer will crawl from many corners, from games like Warmachine or random self imposed exiles, to pretend like the false Gods they have always been. The truth is there is no right or wrong way to play Warhammer 40k, it is a social contract between the participants, not what is imposed by the Internet. The Alt-Hammer will always try to make the game about the list building and not about actual games. The Alt-Hammer will assume in a vacuum what is good and what isn’t. Looking at the army not the person, never seeing simple things like the same players over and over winning at all levels, regardless of the edition. The Alt-Hammer player will never taste that kind of success, ever hiding in the shadows to only tear thing down.

Like before Blood of Kittens will be waiting, if the Alt-Hammer tries to destroy safe spaces for the average player, if they make average players into socially stunted lemmings, and most importantly if they cheat at a game where hiding behind convoluted rules is no longer an excuse.