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I started with Rogue Trader when I was about 12, and have played it on and off ever since. I'm currently off after hitting a kind of brick-wall in the summer 2019 or so when I couldn't face going to a local tournament.

It's kind of a weird thing actually, since the local Warhammer scene was (and still is) thriving and full of really great people. Mostly I've been repainting my armies, developing my own game (Titanomachina, now available on the Steam Workshop as DLC for Tabletop Simulator), and lurking around here and Warhammer Community. The firehose of content is kind of cool (I love all the comics on Warhammer Community), but I can't bring myself to play the games, particularly when there's other options available.

Most of my gaming group fell apart after 8th edition WHFB came out. Not so much because of the game but mostly because my gaming group members moved away. I was on a hiatus until around 2016 but I was still painting and such during that time although it was mostly for D&D.

I'm back into it now although, like most, I haven't had a game in awhile.

I play 1st ed 40k along with D&D when I was really young with friends at home, plus later Man O' War, then went to a club and played Blood Bowl and 2nd ed 40k. I grew up, got a job, discovered drink and it kind of fell by the wayside until 20 years later Blood Bowl on fummbl. Last year I started playing Man O' War again, this year 40k. Hopefully next year D&D! Plus some 9th ed games. That club is still going.

I used to think painting was a chore and was only interested in playing really, but now I really like painting and haven't had a chance to play.

One of the reasons I got back into it is having a kid, settling down, not going out so much, it just seems to suit my life better. I still don't have much cash to spend on it but I am loving the challenge of putting together an army I like cheaply.

Been GW clean since about 2012, vaguely keep up to date on Space Elfs as at my age that's easier than relearning everything should I want to play again

Quite happy playing other games, well once The Event fups off

 Turnip Jedi wrote:
at my age that's easier than relearning everything should I want to play again

I don't know if it's age even, but every time I try to get into 40k, I quickly find out I am off-put by the pile of stratagems, the bloated wargear list and the positively byzantine army building rules compared to AoS and other games on the market. I've come to the conclusion that I like the idea of playing 40k again more than i actually like the game.

Yeah, for me the complexity of the game and my desire to have a fairly complete understanding before diving in is really offputting.
I just don't really know where to start with all that stuff, it seems really excessive.

As I get older, I find my appetite to fill my head with rules and such gets lower. I want rules-lite games now, whether it is board games, RPGs, or wargames.

I've had a couple of hiatuses from the hobby.

The first was when I was an older teenager and I just found other hobbies to occupy my time, but I cam back to it in my 30s, which is when I started the blog on here.

My latest hiatus (actually a couple of stops and starts) was a few years ago.
I left my job as a teacher as I was burned out, and essentially having a prolonged nervous breakdown. I moved flat, to a much smaller space where I didn't have the room or the money to paint. I got rid of a lot of my hobbying supplies when I moved, and I don't think I ever really intended to come back to it.

But I did, which I am really glad for. Each time I have returned to this hobby it has initiated or coincide with an upswing in my mental health. I really enjoy this strange thing we do! It gives me great satisfaction to paint and to complete a mini to a standard that I'm happy with.

Had two hiatuses so far.

Started in 1997 with 40k, though it was not my first intro to miniatures. My brother and I both played a prepainted wargame called Havok and before that a pair of board games called Legend of Zagor and Dark World. Those minis for those board games were painted with enamel paints and Graffic Traffic pens.

So, began in late 2nd ed and carried through to 3rd ed until about 2000/2001.The result of the first hiatus was a particular breed of bellend manager at our local GW store combined with a number of us "discovering" various other games via the school's internet (also Heresy minis. ), so as we were setting up a club at the school a few of us decided it was the perfect time to dip into Void 1.1. We still kept our fingers on the pulse of GW and also went into the store to buy stuff (no FLGS) as I wasn't entirely divorced from 40k and we eventually came back when a manager whose catchphrase was not "Get out my store!" was in charge.

This would be the case for several years. Playing GW games primarily, but keeping a side eye on other games. It's 2003, BritCon is on at Loughborough uni. So a group of us go up and see a game called Warmachine. I get the rulebook and Menoth box right there and then. Unfortunately I have nowhere to play, as our club disbanded with us all going to uni, but I keep the minis and always have an eye on WMH.

I played GW games almost exclusively up through 5th edition, I tried getting Void 1.1 and WMH going at the local club, but to no avail, though it was funny seeing Jervis Johnson's reaction when he came up for our club's anniversary and on the most visible table is me and one of the GW store's staff members (in uniform) playing Warmachine.

Then comes along 6th ed 40k. This was like a perfect storm of crap from GW. Terrible edition of 40k, Finecrap, terrible as a company. I'd had enough. Now, I'd peek through a little to see what was going on (it is somewhat unavoidable in this hobby), but I was done with GW. I dove full on into WMH and would quite happily deter people from picking up GW's games. I got a board at home to play WMH and it was a nice little routine. I'd finish work dead early on a Saturday and a couple of friends would come round and we'd play WMH all evening.
Then come 2014 we get an FLGS in our city. Even better. We can expand our little group of WMH players and it's quite nice, obviously I cannot help but take a peek at 40k but this is 2014 so it's 7th ed 40k, the edition that doubled down on the stupid from 6th. Well, seeing as we have an FLGS it was time to take advantage of that fact. I decided to dip my toe into Malifaux (still not gone further than that 6 years later...) and we organise several Steamroller tournaments at said store.

Then the whole destruction of WHFB happens and things tend to get somewhat heated between different players at the FLGS. Now, wargaming circles have always been a bit cliquey IME, like certain WHFB players at the club calling 40k "Kiddy K", cos WHFB was for grown-ups, see? But this was something else... I'm not going to lie, I felt vindicated I'd given GW the heave ho.

Then 2017 comes around with 8th ed 40k and I'm pulled back in. I'd been aware a little of what had been going on, like I said; it is a bit impossible in this hobby, but this was my first foray into GW games in 5 years at that point. I like to think I'm back in, but I'm really not (and somewhat glad in a way, as I really really despise this "storyline" version of 40k and Gulliman and friends narrative), as even though I'm in with the current rulebook etc. getting actual games is a bit of a chore, mainly as the FLGSs alll seem to be closed on the same days I have off.

I started when I was a bairn just before 6th edition WHFB came out, first taste of 40k was the 3rd edition box with Black Templars against Dark Eldar. I had an Eldar army to start with because I played High Elves in fantasy. I've never really gamed much I just like the collecting, narrative and lore and painting aspect and played casually with friends. Real human life unfortunately got in the way, maybe around 2009/10? I'm never really sure on exact dates. So a 10 year hiatus as I've just kind of got back into the hobby this year more or less. I tried to keep up to date but the end of WHFB was a massive surprise.

In between then I played warhammer video games and kind of kept in touch via that.

Joined at 5th 40k stayed with 6th 40k. Also enjoyed 8th WHFB and that LOTR game when it was still a thing. While the 6th ruleset was controversial to say the least (Triptide/ Taudar/ Necron Croissants/ the Tyranid codex), I still quite liked it.

Real life obligations got in the way for a bit, and went on hiatus throughout 7th, 8th, and now 9th. Dropped out of wargaming for a while actually. Missed out on most of The End Times, but I did pick up the event novels. Now that things are less busy, I’m hoping to keep going on the hobby.

Started waaay back in the late 80's. Was and still am a massive Sci-Fi nerd, with at the time the movie Aliens being freshish seeing a game where xenomorphs could be played was a big draw. Space hulk being the gateway game I guess.
From there being able to play a pure genestealer army in 40k was a big draw.
Didn't play much Blood Bowl but Dungeon Bowl was a massive game for us.
Some RPG as well, some D&D and Star Wars but mainly a techno/mage/horror one the name of which escapes me now. I was the DM in those.

That took me right through school and A level years.
University time is when it waned. Nothing gaming like there and on my sporadic returns home, well folk move on don't they. Either their own uni or work commitments.
During this time, my mother, God rest her soul. Decided she wanted my gaming cupboard to use for linen storage or whatever. So took the entirety of my contents, 40k armies, books, boxed games, original Star Wars stuff, etc,etc. to a charity shop and my connection was broken.

From there work, starting a business, meeting my wife, starting a family, business becoming businesses, the usual. 40k completely disappeared from my thoughts.

Fast forward to about 2017/18 and my eldest has a flair for art. Keen to encourage/show her as many facets as I can I remember you can get fantasy miniatures to paint. We head off to a GW store and I enjoyed it more than her. The grim dark had become huge.
Talking to the staff they point me in the direction of a thing called the Black Library and I begin to get drawn back in.

From there I discovered lore and battle report channels on YouTube, Winters SEO being the main one for me.
Then the Sisters re release happened just as I was reading one of the books so I bought the set and I was back in.

Just realized this is turning into an essay, apologies. I will stop there.

DnD when I was 12, and got into GW before RT came out.
I didn't migrate into 2nd ed 40k, and stopped a while later to go to uni.
Over the later years I kept a toe in with Dawn of War, Firewarrior, etc. Got married, and kept a household running with no real budget left over for gaming.

Then, back in 2011, my 2nd wife (allowing for a totally different budget ) sent me into Hobbycraft to find something to get me off the computer games. There was 40k, all laid out, ready to get back into.
Many games systems later, I'm still here.

1989-1997 (ish) just lost interest and was mostly going out drinking watching football etc

Got back into it all around 2010 when wfb 8th was released then gave up on them again when they killed it. Have been playing malifaux , guildball , Batman and similar games since then , have bought myself the new blood bowl so we will see how that goes

Played from 2nd Ed through to the beginning of 6th, decided I didn't like the larger games (folding apocalypse/super heavies in), and the general looseness of the rules, so moved on to malifaux and guild ball as my main games. I keep an eye on 40k, it still looks cool, but every time I take a closer look, nothing has changed about the reasons I left it in the first place. Maybe I'll come back one day, I've sold most of my 40k stuff, but still have at least one army left.

I took a long hiatus that wasn't by choice. At the time I had a vengeful co-worker that really had it in for me, and was actively trying to get my position. When she learned why I needed Tuesday nights off (only games night within 120 miles at the time) she insisted that be her night off. As we were in an employee shortage at the time my boss caved, and I ended up working those hours for the next 2 years. By the time I got back into gaming the group had changed, all the old- guard had moved, and no one knew me.

I took periodic breaks (with some dabbling in content) between 1995 (when I started in 40k) and around 2010'ish.

By 2011 I'd dropped out of the GW world, moved to indie wargaming and mostly stopped consuming GW (or most any other mainstream gaming) content.

In this hobby it's near-impossible to completely ignore GW, (dabbled in old and new Necromunda) but I've been essentially 40k free since 2010.

Still got a few armies of figs and might get into it with my son someday, but even then I'll stick with alternate rulesets as long as he's willing to avoid the (glorious beautiful, aluring, grimdark) GW money pit.

My first game was actually first edition Warzone and Chronopia. After that I took a break from gaming during college. A few jobs and moves later and friends got me into 5th edition 40K. I loved marines and the lore. Ironclad dreadnoughts were the models that got me into marines. Still love them. But I got disgusted with the game shortly into 6th. The Grey Knights codex started it for me, but the introduction of super heavies put me off the game completely. Cashed out most of my models and was done with it.

While I was playing 40K and after I got into many other games. Dystopian Wars was my groups main game for a few years. WarMachine came and went a number of times. I got back into Warzone when Resurrection came around. I picked up a Kings of War army because shark people are great models. Gaslands has been fun for pick up games.

I kept a few models I liked from my marines. The dreadnoughts and a few conversions. I loved running drop pod sternguard and spent a lot of time kitbashing and painting them. I could easily throw together enough for kill team but bothered.

GW finally got me back with Aeronautica. The models are beautiful, I like the rules, and it was actually fun. When 9th came out I picked half an Indomitus box mainly as a painting project. But after watching a few games and seeing the rules the game store will be using for events I have picked up a few more units. So far so good. Once the store is clear for games again, I will be there. And laughing when the opponent with three knights wants a game.

Went on hiatus from 2012 to 2018 due to dissatisfaction with 6th and 7th editions, but even 5th was starting to get overwhelming due to the superheavies, flyers, and added complexity, so I hadn't been playing much from 2010 onwards. It just didn't feel as fun as 3rd and 4th editions had been for me.

Tried to get involved again in 2018 when I heard that 8th edition simplified things a lot. I liked the core rules but was terribly disappointed to see that the codices just re-added all the complexity back in, and more. The games I played were thoroughly un-fun and took aaaaaaages to finish. I spent a bunch of money on the new stuff but felt really disappointed with the game.

I'm currently on another hiatus while I work on adapting my homebrew rule system to 40K: https://github.com/Pointedstick/wasteland-tactics/

Pointed Stick wrote:


I'm currently on another hiatus while I work on adapting my homebrew rule system to 40K: https://github.com/Pointedstick/wasteland-tactics/

Yes, yes! Feel the creativity flow through you! Welcome to the dark side of wargaming.

Almost everyone starts by trying to make a game they can use their 40K minis in.

I doubt it's a hiatus. I grew tired of GW and figured that I would wait and see with 8th edition 40k. it had promise initially, but GW quickly disappointed again.

I play other games now and don't care for GW products.

I started in early 2010 with 40K 5th edition, and got hooked. I played 40K up through part of 7th edition, but lost interest after that as I had some truly awful gaming experiences with some of the local players in my area. Also, I was into Warhammer Fantasy Battles and then Age of Sigmar in that time, but I basically dropped AoS when its second edition dropped.

A big part of it was having kids and a long commute for a job. The time and money in that has basically killed my ability to invest into GW games. I'll still pick up some kits on occasion for fun, such as the Warhammer Underworlds warbands, but gone are the days of building and painting a 2000 point army for 40K or AoS.

However, I have not quit wargaming by any means. Three years ago I got into Bolt Action, the year after Beyond the Gates of Antares, and this past year Warlords of Erehwon. Next year I'm strongly considering Hail Caesar and Oathmark as well. Games that are much more laid back, do not require multiple books, have stronger focuses on narrative elements within the games, and the models are much cheaper. Even though these games have their own lines of models, they are also miniatures-agnostic, so you can pick up kits from a huge number of manufacturers for a fraction of the cost. Plus, depending on the kits and the bases, I can use one army for multiple game systems or rule sets - that is such a bonus these days for me, being able to paint up one force and be able to play it in multiple systems.

All that said, one of my wargaming buddies is putting together a group of players for some old school Warhammer Fantasy 8th edition gaming. The global pandemic has kept us from getting many games in, but I've been putting together that Empire army I never got around too. Aside from the fantastical units, I've been able to build a large chunk of infantry for that with some plastic historical kits without getting the official GW sets. And I can use these models in some of the other game systems I've mentioned, so that makes it even better.

I still have a love for painting and modelling GW miniatures for both 40K and AoS, just not for gaming with GW rules.

Stopped playing around 7/8 edition switch. People say Kirby times were bad, but it was nothing compared to 8th. Shallow rules, awful primaries lore, soulless art, Christmas tree models, the worst it all ever was by far imo. I never sold the minis though, and contemplate getting back to paint some and play some modified 5th ed rules.

GW requires massive amounts of time and resource commitment. I don't know anyone who lives a normal life who always has excess of both for GW.

Like most people of my age we would of started with amassing figures for the Dungeons and Dragons game. Then when Warhammer appeared we simply stuck our miniatures to square pieces of cardboard.

I went through the first two box sets of books (1st and 2nd edition) but by the time the nice looking book came out around 1986-87 most of my mates had started dating and pubs and clubs took over. I was no different from them in that respect. I guess for a long while I just grew up and adult life took over.

During this time I did not turn my back on Sci-Fi or Fantasy. It still remained a way of escaping everyday life in the way of films and TV series. Fantasy art still excited me as much as it did back in 1980.

Even though I am now in my 50's I still long for that excitement I had as a teenager for the miniatures and the games. Picking up the first Citadel Compendium from the early 80's brings it all flooding back. There is a great article in there I remember from then about combining certain High age weapons in a Warhammer campaign. I guess later on these ideas would become 40K.

Its only in the last couple of months that I have been seriously thinking about returning to the hobby. But it's more a craving for what I had and what I can remember then anything else. Just trying to recapture that piece of excitement of my teenage years.

Boy ain't adult life dull.

Plumbumbarum wrote:
Stopped playing around 7/8 edition switch. People say Kirby times were bad, but it was nothing compared to 8th. Shallow rules, awful primaries lore, soulless art, Christmas tree models, the worst it all ever was by far imo. I never sold the minis though, and contemplate getting back to paint some and play some modified 5th ed rules.

I'm genuinely glad I skipped that edition.

Batty wrote:
Like most people of my age we would of started with amassing figures for the Dungeons and Dragons game. Then when Warhammer appeared we simply stuck our miniatures to square pieces of cardboard.

I went through the first two box sets of books (1st and 2nd edition) but by the time the nice looking book came out around 1986-87 most of my mates had started dating and pubs and clubs took over. I was no different from them in that respect. I guess for a long while I just grew up and adult life took over.

During this time I did not turn my back on Sci-Fi or Fantasy. It still remained a way of escaping everyday life in the way of films and TV series. Fantasy art still excited me as much as it did back in 1980.

Even though I am now in my 50's I still long for that excitement I had as a teenager for the miniatures and the games. Picking up the first Citadel Compendium from the early 80's brings it all flooding back. There is a great article in there I remember from then about combining certain High age weapons in a Warhammer campaign. I guess later on these ideas would become 40K.

Its only in the last couple of months that I have been seriously thinking about returning to the hobby. But it's more a craving for what I had and what I can remember then anything else. Just trying to recapture that piece of excitement of my teenage years.

Boy ain't adult life dull.

Wonderful post! I wish more older folks joined the hobby.

I haven't played or bought anything 40k related over the past few years as I am finally fed up with the direction of the game:

- balance - a codex can go years without receiving an update. In that time your army will become significantly worse
- chapter approved was introduced to fix the issue above, however, it just means you have to buy and carry around another book (or photocopies)
- the models are becoming too busy and worse yet, in exchange for more dynamic figures, we are losing customization. Your army will probably look exactly like someone else' army unless you put in heavy kitbashing/conversion work
- 6th and 7th edition quickly became garbage due to rule bloat (I don't even know how a new player would have picked up the game during this time without hours of research)
- 8th edition in an attempt to simplify the game, oversimplified and then somehow introduced rule bloat again
- re-rolls have made shooting too consistent. This is awful with the you go/I go format of the game where someone can lose 1/4 to 1/2 of their army without participating other than deployment and rolling saves
- superheavies should have stayed in apocalypse
- flyers never should have been a thing in normal games. Since their inception they have either been OP or unplayable

Honestly to draw me back in at this point there would need to be significant changes such as:

- aim to balance the game around 1000-1500 points lists. This would decrease game time/increase the amount of games you could play
- replace the you go/I go turn format. Imagine how fun the game could be with smaller more reactive armies (I'm here to play tactically not smash my tonka trucks into each other)
- drop trash like chapter approved and just release free faqs/updates digitally so we don't have to wait months with inbalance
- bring back extensive wargear options
- stop making new figures look like toys
- alternatively, it would be great if they would go back to 4th edition and tidy up the rules/balance

None of this will happen though because GW is too reliant on making profit from the inefficiencies. I want to like this game so bad as the fluff and potential for the models is quite high, but I'm just tired of being disappointed.

@gossipmeng-

Free yourself my fellow traveller! Valhalla awaits all shiny and chrome!

https://www.wargamevault.com/

Also, love your avatar!

 Easy E wrote:
@gossipmeng-

Free yourself my fellow traveller! Valhalla awaits all shiny and chrome!

https://www.wargamevault.com/

Also, love your avatar!

Thanks Easy E, I'll be sure to checkout the vault link and see if I can find a game that better suits my preferences. Regarding all things GW related - I may test out kill team once lockdowns are lifted in my area later in the year.