Something A Little Different

Hey everyone. While myself and my fellow Tech Priests slow down our posting consistency for the summer (if kids get the summer off, so should adults, dammit!) I'm here to throw up a quick post about where I'm at in the hobby. While I'm still working on my Emperor's Children project (albeit slowly while I wait for Forge World to pump out those smexy Noise Marine models,) Privateer Press has managed to Privateer ImPress me with a new line of models (if you didn't chuckle at that pun, you were right not to. Good job.) More after the jump.

First some backstory: While I branch out to other gaming systems here and there, 40k is my mainstay and I don't often drift too far from it. However, I'm a pretty laid back individual; go-with-the-flow. So when my gaming group started moving towards Warmahordes, I tried a couple of games just to get the feel and at the time I really wasn't a fan. For someone with some controlled OCD tendencies a big part of 40k was wanting to know all of the armies, how they functioned and have a general idea of what each unit I see across the table is capable of. This was pretty easy to do with a 0-10 scale statline system, reused weapon profiles and a not too terribly overwhelming special-rule system.

Because of that, Warmahordes didn't appeal to me. Every...single...unit has a bunch of different rules all unique from one another (aside from some generic rules in the main rulebook of course) and a statline system mostly in the 0-20 scale. This was too much for me to keep up with and so, I rejected the game. It also didn't help that the aesthetics of the models really really didn't appeal to me. I realize that magic is involved in this game's story, but it appeared to me that the Warmahordes universe had never heard of the term "top heavy":

Then a few things occurred at once. First, I went to Adepticon and received this in my goody bag for free:

Admittedly, out of all of the armies at the time, Scyrah was the least offensive to me aesthetically. If I had to choose an army to play at the time, Scyrah would be it.

At the same time Adepticon was happening, Games Workshop began to solidify an increasing pace on their release schedule...to the point of ridiculousness. A codex/game a month was the ground they were breaking and while this is fantastic (speaking as someone who played 3rd Edition Necrons for 3 years of 5th Edition), this rapid production of 40k rules combined with a slowing pace of how consistently I was able to play 40k created issues with me keeping every army in my noggin'. You can read battle reports, tournament results and codex reviews all you want; if you're not playing the game you can't keep up. This forced me to break my addiction to knowing the ins-n'-outs of all of the armies.

In addition, around the time of Adepticon I was slowly changing sides from gamer to hobbyist. These last two elements gave me a much more relaxed and carefree perspective on tabletop gaming. And with that my buddy wanted to play a game of Warmahordes a month or so back. So I took my airbrushed Retribution of Scyrah Battlegroup off of their corks, temp glued them on bases and gave it a whirl. With this new relaxed mindset I have to admit I loved it. I cared not for memorizing what my buddy's models exact rules were and just played with a generalized overview of what they could bring to the table. This created a much more enjoyable experience for not only our skirmish, but the game as a whole for me.

I still wasn't too taken with the models themselves, but then Privateer Press whispered in my ear with this:

If you know anything of what pleases me aesthetically, steam-punk and clockwork styles are definitely my cup of tea. Not only did my creative eye get a brain-boner for what is essentially a faction made almost entirely out of clockwork robots, but things that are top-heavy in this army have legs that actually look like they can handle such a design style:

And so, last week I picked up a rulebook and the Battlegroup for these guys. I haven't opened it, yet; forcing myself to finish my Scyrah Battlegroup before I move to my dessert. However, I will have some progress shots and finished products of both for you all in the near future, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, for those of you who have jumped into some new gaming systems, I'm curious what got you into said game(s).