Ive been surfing over at Tabletop Gaming News today as I often do, and came across this article reviewing Warpath, the to-be-40k-competitor by the guys over at Mantic Games. You can read it here:
http://thefrontlinegamer.blogspot.com/2012/03/games-that-currently-intrigue-me.html
But what caught my eye was the comment at the end:
"The reality is that I'm not quite as enamoured with the idea of mass battle games like I once was. It no longer fits with how, or indeed where I want my hobby to go. I've done that for roughly the past 15 years or so and in the end I didn't find it a very enjoyable all round hobby experience. I guess it's because deep down I love painting and being forced to have to paint row after row of identikit miniatures fills me with dread now, no matter how I approach it. Painting them to as high a standard as I can achieve, which is what I'd normally choose to do, scares the hell out of me. Especially when I think of the time commitment I'd have to make to such a joyless task. Yet speed painting them, and just doing the basics isn't what I like doing either and I find it a bit soul destroying. Big games take a big commitment and I guess my life isn't quite in that same 'hobby zone' right now that it used to be."
You've just nailed my attitude exactly. I can't tell you whether it's a general trend or just a few of us, but I'm over the whole fill-the-table-with-28mm models thing. It's an excess I can no longer afford either time-wise or cash-wise.
I love painting, which might be evident in the terrain I have done lately, but I think this is because the pieces themselves are so individualistic that it is almost like a skirmish game with terrain :)
I have a new JR Miniatures building to show, maybe tonight, but I wanted to get this out there. It echoes how I feel a lot too...and is one of the reasons that 6mm is such a joy to me right now.
About Me
- Kealios Achilles-Fang
- My name is Gavin McClements. I am a wargamer and family man, living in Los Gatos, which is a suburb of San Jose, CA. Building terrain is one of my favorite aspects of the wargaming hobby - in fact, lately I've become more interested in making my battlefields "pop" than in actually playing.
Hey, I'm with you, I have started several projects, and have enjoyed the hell out of painting the first unit then could not be bothered doing more, I like the idea of building/painting huge armies but I know in reality I'm a vignette size painter.
ReplyDeleteI actually myself just got into the wargaming hobby not to long ago only about 2 1/2 years. I started with 40k and i felt burt out after painting my first army now i have been more interested in 6mm for mass combat its actually easier to paint tge small stuff go figure and 15mm skirmish level stuff, but finding a lot of people to play those scales with is some what hard...
ReplyDeleteDoom, youre right in that these specialist games (no pun intended!) ARE tricky to get people interested in. However, most gamers, I have found, are willing to play what you put in front of them as long as you provide what they need. Get 2 armies, paint them to a decent standard, get some cool terrain, and do some demos. Even if its only with your best friend, it's worth the effort. Usually because a) you like the game/scale anyway, so second armies are a natural occurance, and b) you have to convert people somehow :)
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