Back in the saddle

 Maybe…..

Earlier today I was sat reading ‘this’ article on 40k for the new professional , Some of what he touches on there is relevant to my situation and general hobby malaise at the moment.

This is not so much an article as a stream of consciousness riffing on some similar feelings.

‘The hobby’ when is it not a hobby ? well for me that’s when it’s not fun ie work, a hobby by definition should bring pleasure in some form, so I want to talk about why I struggle with the hobby, especially 40k at the moment.

Not so long ago I essentially achieved what I thought was the possimpable, I completed a 40k army up to a fully painted 1750, admittedly there is some finishing out that could be done if I choose to, to achieve this I essentially had to sell out my entire life for 3-4 months every waking minute I could stomach painting I had to force myself to paint over and over again, I had help with the assembly, spraying and some of the base-coating too, it is a monstrous investment in time money and effort, that’s no hobby, I honestly felt like I was working two jobs. But that’s what it takes to get an army done in anything approaching a reasonable time frame.

I have about as much again, if not more left to do to have all the DE I own/want to own painted, I honestly cant face it, Army painting is not and never has been fun for me, sitting slumped in a chair for hours at a time that essentially vanish into the void is not my idea of fun/enjoyment, I do that at work already ….. nope, honestly I feel painting is a torture and it is something I only endure as I find an unpainted army about as aesthetically pleasing as a brick covered in slime, there is also a feeling you owe it to your opponents who have often endured the same torture to provide you with a more visually interesting game. The quicker we invent a machine I can program with my color scheme, load with mini’s and come back later to a painted squad/vehicle the better.

The subject of time is important here, I’m an adult (mostly) and I have an hour commute to work either way , I’m out of the house for 11 hours of the day and sleep for 7-8 otherwise I can’t cope with the mind numbing drudgerous monotony/mediocrity of my day to day grind at the salt-pits

If we knock of the hour in the morning getting sorted for work that leaves 5 hours spare a day, however I have to go shopping, attempt something which can pass for a social life /girlfriend, do exercise, household chores /RL stuff, cook/eat and facilitate any other interests in that time, iIncluding writing off one entire evening to run the club and actually play some games.

Weekends too are interesting, you can write off at least most of one day playing catchup from the week etc, Saturday night is often social or for gaming, it’s not often I’ll be able to make time for painting. So Sundays then ? well yeah, that’s pretty much it and often other stuff comes up, realistically on average I think maybe 8 hours a week is about what we are looking at , IF I ‘want’ to paint, which as we have discussed I don’t ….almost ever.

My army took well over 200 hours to sort to its current stage and it will take 200 more to ‘finish’ all the 3-4k , assuming I actually manage my 8 hour weekly average it would take me an entire year of consistent painting to do it… one army ….

Thinking about it I love the concept/design aspect of painting and doing a few test models is a pleasure and even taking that palette scheme and applying it to other types of models in that army but with some variation is again satisfying, this means I actually only enjoyed painting maybe 6-8 models in my entire DE army, woo wer’e partying now ! beyond that its just monotonous drudgerous grind (note the correlation with RL job)

So from a time perspective 40k seems like it is only a suitable hobby for well to do unemployed people with servants and a masochistic back pain fetish with no need for other stimulation….

That’s just the ‘hobby’ aspect of the game lets talk about the game and the other aspects which are ultimately involved.

I have played a-lot of 40k in the last two years, it’s safe to say it had come to dominate my life, if I was not playing it I was writing about it , reading about it doing something involved with it…. It’s taken a while for it to sink in that generally I do not enjoy the game of 40k…

Yeah, go figure… strangely it’s intangible and a variety of factors that make this so. I am comfortable saying that I am good at 40k, none of this has anything to do with success, if that was the one requirement for this hobby to be fulfilling I should and would be happy.

Often as not I get more stressed out and annoyed when I am winning, that means the majority of my games, I was happy enough with my DE, I kinda still am, as long as I continue to pretend GK don’t exist and am never forced to play them, it’ s driven me a bit mad that book, more so than any other book I can think of in my gaming history, I never played warhammer that much and kinda missed out playing against the deamon book that ‘broke’ warhammer so this is my first taste of something like that, books have come and gone that contained some questionable stuff/pointing but we move on and in the main cope with it , IG are a classic example and can be a tough game for DE, but GK I can’t let go of, can’t put it to bed and move on, I’m like a man with an ulcer he can’t stop tonguing…..

When people who can’t or have struggled to beat you with other armies for years suddenly brutally white wash you there is a problem, literally the only games I have lost or drawn in recent memory involved GK and are my worst losses in a very long time.

 I’m out of competitive 40k until 6th now (depending) I have resigned from the 40k GT, I simply don’t see it as worth the effort/stress

Hmm, this really lacks any coherency, I’m not satisfied with the game not at all, it’s not fun, maybe that’s my choice of army, but repeatedly failing to pop any kind of armour in a mechanized edition I have built for wears thin, it’s honestly no surprise the DE stick to Commoragh and only raid civvies in the fluff , their primary (only ?) AT guns are dire and overcosted.

Fortunately I like the guys I play with and the way my army looks so I’m not knocking it on the head, just taking a big step back and treating it much more casually, I’ll be interested to see what 6th means for my DE and this blog…

A lot of this has been bought up as I have started to pick up and play Infinity recently and It throws 40k into stark contrast. The game is intuitive with 90% of the rules making sense, as far as I know and can tell all the factions are about as close to balanced with one another as it gets in a wargame, things function and feel how they are described in the fluff and the startup cost is a fraction of a 40k army and even I can paint up a reasonable ‘full sized force’ in a couple of weeks (not half a year), which means I can realistically think about owning and adding to several forces even with my limited spare time.

I don’t need to spam , I will never have to paint more than maybe five of the same model again, due to the way the lists and game is , I’m not trying to find optimal units and min maxing infact in my limited experience it looks like spammy min maxed lists are at disadvantage here, I’m seeing the appeal of periodically changing up things in a given list to see how they work and to keep things interesting. Even more so I will now never have to wait more than a couple of months for something new or interesting for my chosen armies/race. I also feel it important to add, this is not as a neckbeard but as a qualified craftsman that I dislike finecrap, Infinitys alloy is wonderful stuff and I don’t resent coughing up for it, to be fair on a model by model basis it’s largly cheaper than finecrap and I have yet to see so much as a minor miscast or airbubble I particularly love how strong and stiff the fine weapons and blades are. Floppycast weapons set my teeth on edge, that alone is a dealbreaker for me.

I thought GW’s asking price was too much anyway, I won’t be buying anymore (Failcast), lol ,think about the cost of a full sized Beastmaster squad at the moment, when that gets the Fin£ca$t treatment it will be a single unit ‘worth’ as much as some entire armies, I love the models, I have wanted a unit for about a year now I can ’afford’ them they are simply not worth that much money and I doubt I would be comfortable paying half the asking price for a single unit which is sad as it’s the one unit I’ll need to truly complete the Invidious Requiem.

Will I continue to run Rant ? yes, for now, I’ll even get some actual articles up over Crimbo, It would be nice to maybe complete the reviews and hit some summaries, I’ll be looking to expand and expound on Infinity too, though as this is primarily a blog for faildar I will do Infinity ‘feature’ articles here and there unless I can find a better home for it. There wont be much to post beyond DE painting and maybe the odd vid bat rep, I suppose I can have a good write up of Doom of Mymeria, will have to get into gear when 6th comes out as knowing what it means for DE is going to be fundamental, I also anticipate the new Eldar book with eagerness, perhaps my Mechdar will be back? Conversely I am finding writing articles to be quite time consuming so I am considering doing some Shard TV,

Will I finish the Invidious Requiem ? I would like to, wether I can stomach that much painting is another matter entirely, there are still some units that have not seen any paint, Hellions have been asked for repeatedly by you lot , I also have scourges a Court a Reaper and a Tantalus to bring yet more variety to the show, who knows maybe I’ll hit the Tantalus over Crimbo too. There is still the snagging list from the first 1750 to address but it can wait.

Usual humor service will resume shortly. Behold Jewdacris, courtesy  of Lorenzen