I've been playing wargaming in general for about a year and a half now, and have come quite a long way. It all started with a few of my friends during 6th edition 40k. A friend of mine showed me Dawn of War back in High School, and since then I have loved Necrons and had an appreciation for the world that was 40k. So a friend of mine got into Orks, one friend Space Marines, and my other friend continued to build upon his Dark Eldar (he'd been playing longer than us, obviously). So I hopped on board with Necrons, especially when I saw things that weren't in Dawn of War (DoW was based around 3rd edition, I believe). Flying baked goods, one-eyed sniper assassins, gliding mechanical shrimp, the grim reaper, and of course, the ominous Monolith (in DoW it was devastating, but I soon learnt otherwise....). This army was for me, no doubt about it.

Thus began my wargaming career.

I remember the amazing feeling of picking up my codex (my friend originally had let me look at a PDF before I decided to buy the codex), and I got a box of Warriors and some glue. Raced home, took an Exacto knife (Clippers? What were those??) and began to get to work putting them together. Oh, how excited I was. Within the next few weeks, I purchased a Doom Scythe, a battleforce, and some Wraiths. My first official game with my own models was against my Ork friend, and it literally came down to my Deathmarks kiting his Warboss and a few Nobz around the board, and he won off of kill points. Sure had fun though. Then I got some named characters (I'm looking at you, Imotekh), a Monolith, Immortals, and from there I just kept expanding. I was getting models faster than I could (or wanted to) paint. Life was good.

Then I started expanding into leagues. I did 2 at my local gaming store, running very non-competitive lists. My first league I ran something like Wraiths, a Doomsday Ark, Imotekh, warriors, a Flier or 2, ext. First game was against Tau, first game I ever played against them! He brought 3 Riptides, Broadsides and a Commander behind an Aegis line, two Devilfish, and a mix of infantry in ruins or behind the line. I killed a Riptide with a Necron warrior, in CC. Then I conceded. I swiftly chatted to the TO about the league, as it was advertised as a friendly "come play other people and learn the game" type scenario. Oh I was pissed. This guy was obviously a power-gamer, even with the way he carried himself. I was still a new player at the time, and this was not okay with me. He apologized and said that "Yes, he tends to do that, I should've thought about that, sorry!". I mean, I can't blame him, really. It was a lesson. A lesson that those people exist within this game. I had to learn sometime.

Then 7th edition came out in the middle of my second league. At this point, I was a pretty decent player. I was running a CCB overlord, 2 Ghost Arks, Wraiths, Fliers, 2 A-barges, ext. It was a decent list, but nothing cheesemongerly competitive. I ended up meeting some nice people in that league, and even made it to the top 8! But for simplicity sake, they kept with the 6th edition rules until the league was over, since people were still learning the 7th edition ones. I didn't have a problem with this....until......Taudar. My first game in the top 8 was against a guy (who I later found out is in the same "friend" group as the original Tau guy) who was running 2 Riptides with drones, one of which was accompanied by a Buffmander and a second Commander, the other was followed by a Farseer on a bike. Then he had 2 Skyrays, minimum squads of Firewarriors, and Kroot. Oh, and a 5 man squad of Dire Avengers, you know, cuz yeah. I thought to myself "I have no chance, this guy came to win, and I didn't bring anything that can fight this...". I played smart though. It was Emperor's Will. He got First Blood, I swept his Commanders and his Riptide with nothing but my Overlord's brazen might! Then my overlord got Smashed by the other riptide. So, Slay the Warlord and Slay the Warlord. Then it came down to Linebreaker. I had it, he didn't. It was a tie game! I couldn't believe it! "Oh, we can't leave it at a tie, we have to keep going until someone wins", he said. So he nova'd his Jetpack, and got linebreaker as well. And it was a loss. I was rather hurt by this, but honestly, I put up a hell of a fight. It was a great feeling! Though I will never play that guy again in my life. I also started to realize that GW had no idea what they were doing when it comes to balance.

Then we started learning the 7th edition rules. Man, there were so many things I was hoping they'd fix, and I eagerly looked through the book trying to find the things I thought they would set right. Ordnance! Oh man, is my Monolith good now?......No. Uhh.....okay. Well I'll accept it. Doesn't make sense, but whatever. Psychic powers. Nice, taking a bit from Fantasy, I see. I like. So, I only have to deny enough to that you fail to cast, right? Oh....OH. I have to deny every single warp charge, and on a 6....with at most, 6 dice. What is this heresy? Okay, okay. Well, at least Taudar is gone. Yes! Score! Oh man, and my vehicles are harder to kill? I'm liking it! Wait a minute, what's this here? Super Heavies? Gargantuan Creatures? I mean, I have a Transcendant C'Tan, but I never use it. It's too powerful. Wait, they're just apart of the game now? Uhh.....wut. So I bought Escalation for nothing? I can use this guy legally whenever I want? NO.

Overall, I felt 7th edition was a big swing and a miss. But it could've been worse, and for that I was thankful. So I started playing. Ran a CCB against my Space Marine friend. Completely mulched him. Damn, this thing is stupid good now! But, unfortunately, I started to realize a sad truth. I looked at Space Marines, and saw Fearless soldiers of the Imperium, the Emperor's finest. Decent special rules, equipped for any situation. Good CC characters, fluffy rules, options, ext. I looked at Tau. Supporting fire, damn, that's pretty good! Markerlights? Synergy! Something to make for their lack of CC, which is being good at shooting! I looked at Eldar. Oh, so this unit has W, X, Y, and Z special rules. And their gun does this, that, and the other. I looked at even Chaos Space Marines (Whoa now, this is going too far), and I was envious of their special rules! You can give these guys marks to represent different Gods? Dude, awesome! I looked at Tyranids. They require Synapse, sure, but that's awesome! I feel like it makes them tricky to play. And their units have different purposes, and they have....Special Rules!

I then looked at the codex I had come to know through and through, and have loved since day one. My Overlords hit Tac marines on 4s. My named characters feel like they don't know what they want to do, plus they have almost no special rules or decent weapons. I have no customization options. Warscythes were an auto-include, the other weapons weren't even worth the ink they were printed with. Destroyers, Lychguard, Praetorians, Tomb Blades, C'Tans, Lords, Monoliths, Doomsday Arks, Flayed Ones, and most of my characters were, in the grand scheme of things (actually no, in every scheme of things), completely useless! I started analyzing the game from a different perspective. My army was bland, grossly imbalanced within itself, and had 0 flavor at all. To make matters worse, my only special rule was straight up ignored half of the time. These were dark days for me. I had invested in every single unit in my codex (minus Flayed Ones. I mean, seriously, would you have?), and half, if not more, was not even worth putting on the table. I didn't even play in a super competitive meta, and they still weren't worth it!

And so I began to look elsewhere for enjoyment. I looked at Daemons. I really like the fluff of Tzeentch, and I usually play a wizard/necromancer is most RPGs, and this guy is all about spells. Heck yeah! Then I looked at the new Tyranid codex that had just come out. This seemed promising. So, on impulse, I bought the codex and the Tyranid Swarm box. I'm going to play a different army, one that is the exact opposite of mine! No vehicles, psychic powers, decent MCs, decent CC. And, they looked fun to paint! So, thus began my second army. I started getting some MCs, a Hive Tyrant, ext. Started playing some games. And man, I was doing well. Again, not in a competitive meta, but I had played Chaos, Tau, Space Marines, Eldar, Orks, Dark Eldar, and 90% of the time, I was winning. Man it was good feeling. I wasn't even running cheese. It made me feel good that people, like my girlfriend, were afraid of Tyranid Warriors. And occasionally, I'd play my Necrons if someone wanted me to. But it just wasn't....fulfilling. I won most games without resorting to cheese, mainly by walking forward and shooting one of two guns at things. Is that a vehicle? Gauss. Is that infantry? Gauss or Tesla. Is that an MC? I'm screwed. Is that 2+ armor? I'm screwed.

Then, there were the 7th edition codexes. Orks were the first. My friend was excited. We drove 2 hours one night just talking and discussing the new codex. He was not thrilled. I was confused. Yeah, they dumbed down some rules, yeah they took some things away, but they added some stuff too! But, it wasn't enough. They lost Fearless, which I agree doesn't make a lot of sense, and some of their wacky rules changed for the worse. I felt for him, I really did. We played a few games, with both my Necrons and Tyranids. He lost horribly every time. He then proceeded to quit the game entirely.

Then more codexes came along, at breakneck speeds! Space Wolves! They seem pretty solid. GW seems to be toning things down, dumbing some rules down, simplifying things, bringing everything into one streamlined power level. I'm okay with this. This is a change for the better, so keep it up GW! Grey Knights came out. They were still good. Can't complain there. Things got better, they got a few cool things, but overall, same trend. Dark Eldar came out. My friend was....disappointed, to say the least. Nerfs to things he liked, buffs to things that didn't need them. No increase in speed or survivability, rules that didn't matter. It was overall a very bad codex, but it was within the same trend of the other 7th edition codexes. They also removed Wracks as troops. This has been another trend. Removing things as troops. I'm like, "Okay, GW wants armies to take more standard troops, and they wanna sell them, damnit!". So, I accepted it, and so did he. In fact, he's been doing rather well with the codex. Then Blood Angels. They were toned down, lost Assault Marines as troops. That hurt, but it kept with the trend. Overall it seemed like a decent dex. Then, my turn. Oh, I was ecstatic. Rumors started flowing of the changes....huh? Mindshackle Scarabs? They're.....useless. Really? That was our one thing we had in CC! Transcendant C'Tan became really....really bad. Tesla was nerfed, made more expensive, and didn't get any extra rules to make it worthwhile. Overall, wasn't liking what I was seeing. Then the codex came out. I was surprised. Special rules! Flayed Ones gained Shred and Fear??? Overlords are decent now? Every single unit has become good? Wow, I was happily surprised, it was a dream come true! Then I read the Decurion. Oh my....a fluffy way to give my army even more special rules? Pinch me. Reanimation actually being good? Synergy options throughout the codex? GW, you have not only proven yourself capable of balancing a codex internally, you have saved me from disliking this game. Or so I thought.

So I started buying more, painting more, playing more. In fact, I shelved my Tyranids for awhile. I was dominating. The Decurion was just too much. Everyone hated Necrons, people reluctantly played me. That's a gakky feeling, I must say. I wasn't even running Destroyers or Wraiths all the time, I mostly ran infantry and some vehicles. But, the confusing part of it all, was the sheer power difference. Necrons started a new trend, and I not only felt bad for playing them, but felt bad for earlier codexes that missed out on this treatment. Why was I the lucky one? But, lets wait and see how the rest of the codexes fair up. Harlequins. Nice, making them their own army. Formations, not too shabby. Then Khorne Daemonkin. Keeps the same trend, but...copy paste much? They didn't fix anything that was wrong with the units in the first place...now that's just lazy. Then the next codex was up. I was praying for Chaos Space Marines, man did they need it! My girlfriend was constantly going up against Necrons. You can imagine how that would fair. Then the rumors. ELDAR? Why do they need an update? They already have an amazing codex! Wait, I've got it! They nerfed everything that was cheesy from the 5th edition Necron codex, so that's probably it. They're probably trying to tone them down as soon as possible, since they are really powerful. They did it with Necrons, it only makes sense!

Then the codex dropped. Oh....my....god. Wraithknight is a Gargantuan Creature, shooting D weapons, and is cheaper than my Obelisk! My Transcendant C'Tan became an MC at 250 points, then made the Wraithknight a GC for 45 points more! The feth? Wraithguard with D-weapons? In regular games? Who wants to play with that in regular games? Okay, okay, calm down. Fluff-wise I guess it makes sense, at least they got more expenvi....nope. Okay....well. The Wraithknight at least makes sense that it's a Gargantuan Creature, so, alright. I'll live with it. Now jetbikes. Dark Eldar jetbikes are Fast Attack and got nerfed. Eldar jetbikes were troops that magically gained a 3+ armor save because reasons. They were stupid good in the last codex, and a lot of people hated them. They had to have nerfed th-nope again! So, they kept them as a troop choice, and now every model can take a heavy weapon? Whatib[e biergoeurhgqegfhwrovgnorewgowrge??R:$!?! Why on earth would they.....oh. There's a new kit to sell. Boom goes the dynamite, that's why they did it.

Okay, well, if that is all, then I can live with....no, oh god, no. A better psychic phase? Better powers? Aspects getting more special rules at no cost? Not only does this not keep with the trend, but it literally gaks on other codexes. Here you go Howling Banshees, here's more stuff. "Oh, what's that Wyches? No, you don't get good stuff. In fact, I'm taking away your Haywire Grenades.". "But daddy! The elves across the street get good stuff! They even got more stuff! Why take away our toys?". "Because dear, life isn't fair, and because Allies." Hey Dark Eldar, like that new $80 dollar bomber you guys got? Eldar have a $60 dollar bomber that is also cheaper in game and infinitely better. Thought your Scourges were cool and could fly through the air? Nah, they just Jump infantry. Dem Swooping Hawks doh, they need to be faster. Ey yo Dark Eldar, your Archons don't know how to ride a bike. "But I thought you never forget how to ride a bike?" Dark Eldar do. But Eldar? Here's a brand few Farseer on a bike. Buy it!

Then there was Adeptus Mechanicus. Alright, cool faction, adding new stuff to the game, alright. Then Cult Mechanicus, okay. I was actually just thinking how "You know what would be healthy for this game? Another army that can spam S6. BUT, only if it can potentially ignore cover, and is also AP3. I thought this game had too many armor saves, we don't have enough that can ignore them. It would also be nice if they could spam Grav, too. Maybe through in some more MCs-that-should-be-walkers." GW delivered with Admech.

Okay, okay. I'm falling too far into this rant. Let me take a breath. Phew. Okay. It's not the end of the world. Let's see how the rest of the codexes pan out. Space Marines? Wait, what about Chaos? Why do Space Marines need a new codex so early too?? Okay, maybe they'll nerf the stuff that needs it. Maybe they'll get it right with this one, maybe. Grav Cents need to be toned down, well Grav in general, really. They should take away bikes as troops, because trends. Shield Eternal is stupid, and they'll probably get rid of it. Chapter Masters don't have a model, if I remember correctly, so they'll probably be removed, so no more Smashfether! Maybe, just maybe. Wait....no. It's just 20 points to upgrade to one? Ugh. Okay. Shield Eternal is...still there. Great, so they didn't kill that build at all. Grav Cents are still just as good, so that build stayed. But wait, ders more! Did you need to eat, breath, sweat and bleed Grav? Well, you got it! Because new models to sell! Then, of course, Gladius and Skyhammer, which we all know about.

I give up.

At least Dark Angels only got a 2+ rerollable cover save. That's the most tame out of it all.

I enjoyed the short time in which I could play C'Tan shards and infantry and not only do well, but have fun. Now? The game is diluted with GCs, Super Heavies, min/maxing, stupid formations, AP2/3, bikes, bikes, bikes, allies, ext. Now, I have to bring Destroyers or Wraiths to even have a chance. And competitive? Oh, lordy. I don't even wanna look at it. Taxi services left and right, allies plugging holes in armies that don't need those holes plugged. All the while we have Codex: Flyrants that struggles even in casual games now if they run anything less than 5 Flyrants, Chaos Space Marines that might as well not exist as a playable army, Orks that have, like, 2 builds worth anything? Blood Angels and Space Wolves that can't keep up with vanilla, and Dark Eldar that see the light of day as a Codex: Eldar supplement.

I recently got into Star Wars X-Wing, and man was it a breath of fresh air. Balanced rules, every ship is usable, not too expensive. I actually went to a tournament, a legit tournament (I am in no means a competitive, tournament goer, in any game) and actually won running things that people don't typically use! Man, that was a great feeling. And then I realized that I haven't expanded upon my armies in 40k for awhile. There's so many things I want to buy for my Necrons and Tyranids. But, why? Tyranids are terrible, so might as well box them up until a new codex. And Necrons are now struggling to compete, and I can't play the units that I enjoyed playing anymore. I'm in this for the game, but I'm realizing it's the game that I hate the most. Don't get me wrong, I love my Necrons to death, I really do. But, I wish they existed in a completely different game, made by a completely different company. I'm slowly slipping away from this game. I've been browsing these forums every day, but it's been slowly more and more about X-wing, or just answer rules debates or discussing how to fix OP armies. Do I really enjoy this game anymore? Is it even worth playing? Or is it even a game? Is it just "Models that have rules".

I hate playing a game where the odds are stacked against me, before anything even starts. "Hey man, wanna play Mortal Kombat?". "Sure bro, lets do it". "Oh, I suck with this character, got my ass kicked, but I can do better! Just gotta practice."

"Hey man, wanna play 40k?". "Sure, I'm playing a fluffy Chaos Space Marine army". "Oh, I'm playing a fluffy Saim Hann army". "Nice! I won't even unpack my models, you win! You deserve it!" That's the kind of game I wanna play. Not. I love how someone can win before the game starts. Totally worth the thousands of dollars invested, right?

No. No it's not.