Greetings
I just posted my opening introduction in the appropriate forum so head over there to save me repetition:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/275883.page
In a nutshell, I have a large collection of models (and interests) but no recent gaming experience. I would now like to restart this aspect of the hobby and am look for some insights on the current status of the various systems. My personal impressions are formed almost entirely from lurking online (mostly on content sites showing battle reports, how to vidoes, etc and not so much on forums). I skipped at least one edition for all the game systems so my knowledge of "how things are" is pretty limited. I will ask my current questions by game system:
Warhammer: Warhammer was my first love and started it all. I have a few armies from the 90s at reasonable size (200-400 models each) but mostly woefully out of touch with current unit/weapon options. Bretonnia is probably the only vaguely utilizable army under the current rules as their core composition can't really change. My Orcs and Dwarves are likely hopeless (anybody remember "Swedish pikemen" dwarves, Prince Ulther's dragon company, Goblin kings on ghost boar chariots - a the memories of a unit of 50 Fimirs getting stuck on a quicksand spell template...). Undead don't even exist anymore. That leaves my Empire army that I painted up for the early twenty first century tournament circuit. While they miss some of the newer toys, they should still be fieldable. Thus my questions:
1. Is an Empire army with a balanced composition of infantry, cavalry and guns still a viable choice?
2. How much army book creep has occured since the last "wipe-out reset" of the books? Are the various lists still balanced enough to make this game system enjoyable?
3. After the 6th ed reset, how much has the herohammer, magic dominance and small unit style returned to the game?
4. I gather than 8th ed is on the horizon. Any information whether it will be a reset or an update only?
Warhammer
40k: My
40k forces are in slightly better shape than their WFB compatriots, mostly because marines stay marines. The only outlier are likely to be my guardsmen with their Rogue Trader "first multi-part plastic kit" infantry and squat engineering contingent. I guess the tanks are still ok though. Apart from this I have various marine forces, each in the 200 or so model range: Ultramarines, Angels Vermillion (Blood Angels), Emperor's Children and World Eaters. The ~300 models Dark Eldar and Eldar forces are a bit newer from the 2002-2003 circuit and should be reasonably portable.
5. How balanced is the current
40k world?
6. Many of the battle reports online give an impression of
40k having become (even more) a form of checkers rather than chess. Deep striking, drop pods and other "enter from beyond" special rules seem to have created a battlefield where units keep dropping in and out all over the place. I guess
40k has always been a bit absurd in that heavily gunned troops commence a battle within (short) steps of each other and then bang each other on the head with said guns, but this new style seems even more extreme. Am I overreacting to battle reports? How much post-deployment maneuver is left in the game?
7. Related to the above, how small has the tabletop become with the increasing size of models. Online I now see absurdly large (for a 6'x4' table) aircrafts, huge drop pods and various other big kits. Given then deployment style mentioned in my last question, this seems to lead to a visual impression where piles of "stuff" are just, well, piled into a very small area. Is this common?
Lord of the Rings: I have to admit to only have grabbed a few "storyline" models for this system (plus the Battle of Five Armies box which is still unopened somewhere). It would require substantial painting effort to build actual armies for the troop-style versions of this series.
8. Is
LotR "worth it"? In other words, are the game mechanism sufficiently interesting and different from WFB/
40k? Better?
Epic: I have been a longtime fan of Epic - the scale simply makes more sense in the
40k world. My "never sell" policy was the direct result of selling my large Epic collection from the mid-90s only to regain an interest in the scale/models a few years later and having to spends thousands to rebuild large (~500 models/bases each) armies for the common races (Space Marines, Imperial Guard, Eldar, Chaos, Orks and Tyranids) - oh those Gretchins and Termagants who suddenly became worth their weight in gold... The Epic Armageddon system receives a lot of praise on the net.
9. How much of an Epic community is left? Any major tournaments or gaming clubs? I am based in eastern Canada, Montreal to be specific.
Warmaster: In a burst of passion I painted up 2000 point forces for all the offical armies, played a few games in a local group and then watched them gather dust on the shelf...
10. As 9 above, any community left?
Mordheim & Necromunda: These little "gang games" were my outlet for creative energy that didn't stretch to a full army (very few energy bursts ever do but in these cases I recognised it up front). The net result is a warband for each of the ~20 official bands in Mordheim as well as each of the offical Necromunda gangs (some twice as I wanted to try out different paint schemes). Another burst led to the OCD-like casting of what feels like millions of Hirst Art blocks for a full 8'x4' Mordheim table. Materials and kits for a similar Necro table are still in boxes.
11. The rules for Mordheim and Necromunda were always a bit quirky and the direct port from the WFB/
40k mass combat system never really suitable. Did the later Living Rulebook changes fix this or there fan based alternatives?
Man-o-War : Great little system. Loved it enough in the 90s to acquire all the available fleets (talk about weight in gold these days).
12. Is this alive at all anymore?
Blood Bowl: Similar to the other skirmish games, I gathered all the official teams with about 2/3rd of them painted.
13. Has the
PC version (Blood Bowl Digital) wiped this out as a miniature game?
I am not sure if I am stepping on forum boundaries here but I have also dabbled in Flames of War and DBA/DBM/FoG, each with a handful of decent sized armies. If permissable, any input on the gaming community and state of these games would be much appreciated as well.
Well, so much for the questions. I appreciate any and all input to give me an idea where to rebuild my gaming mojo.
cheers
Helge
