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A while ago I wrote a post on why I’m leaving 40k behind (not that anyone particularly cares, but if there’s somewhere to vent to the empty void it’s Dakka.) And it’s been quite a while since then. I’ve mostly been playing Malifaux since then, and I gotta say, that’s a fantastic game. Well-balanced, good gameplay, and affordable. My friends and I like it so much that we even started a podcast based on it.

However I’d be remiss if I did not mention that there are a few things that I miss about 40k:

The camaraderie: I’ve been to a few big cons to play Malifaux. And I gotta be honest. I never felt more like the forgotten dumb kid eating a bucket of chalk in the corner than I have when going to a big con to play a much smaller game. The feeling of being part of the biggest part of nearly any miniatures event and sharing that experience with your friends and soon-to-be-friends just is not met by these smaller games.

The Scope: Few things look as good as a fully painted 40k army on a beautiful battlefield. Skirmish games just don’t capture that scope. And the WMH aesthetic is… well… not really to my liking (seriously that game is fugly). I’m not going to say that 40k has the best scaled or most accurate this-would-work-in-the-real-world miniatures. But damn do they look good all gathered together.

The “Feel”: Now from an objective POV, the rules for 40k, just are not very good. The balance is totally out of whack. However 40k does have this “feel”. The other games that are objectively better written and much more balanced feel like games. Whereas it’s really hard to pin down the feeling that a game of 40k gives. It feel less like a game, and more like playing green army men with your buddy when your were 6. And that’s not a bad thing. The game is less focused on the mechanics and more focused on the atmosphere and the action. The feeling is really hard to describe and I’m probably off by a few degrees. But those are the words that I found.

Any other 40k ex-pats have similar feelings?

 lordwellingstone wrote:
A while ago I wrote a post on why I’m leaving 40k behind (not that anyone particularly cares, but if there’s somewhere to vent to the empty void it’s Dakka.) And it’s been quite a while since then. I’ve mostly been playing Malifaux since then, and I gotta say, that’s a fantastic game. Well-balanced, good gameplay, and affordable. My friends and I like it so much that we even started a podcast based on it.

However I’d be remiss if I did not mention that there are a few things that I miss about 40k:

The camaraderie: I’ve been to a few big cons to play Malifaux. And I gotta be honest. I never felt more like the forgotten dumb kid eating a bucket of chalk in the corner than I have when going to a big con to play a much smaller game. The feeling of being part of the biggest part of nearly any miniatures event and sharing that experience with your friends and soon-to-be-friends just is not met by these smaller games.

The Scope: Few things look as good as a fully painted 40k army on a beautiful battlefield. Skirmish games just don’t capture that scope. And the WMH aesthetic is… well… not really to my liking (seriously that game is fugly). I’m not going to say that 40k has the best scaled or most accurate this-would-work-in-the-real-world miniatures. But damn do they look good all gathered together.

The “Feel”: Now from an objective POV, the rules for 40k, just are not very good. The balance is totally out of whack. However 40k does have this “feel”. The other games that are objectively better written and much more balanced feel like games. Whereas it’s really hard to pin down the feeling that a game of 40k gives. It feel less like a game, and more like playing green army men with your buddy when your were 6. And that’s not a bad thing. The game is less focused on the mechanics and more focused on the atmosphere and the action. The feeling is really hard to describe and I’m probably off by a few degrees. But those are the words that I found.

Any other 40k ex-pats have similar feelings?

I missed a lot at first, but now I don't miss it at all. I was a little sad when I first sold my space marine army. It was like an end of a 20+ year era, so yeah, emotions ran a little deep. But now I don't regret it at all. I find the fluff and aesthetics of other games to be more to my liking. I'm much happier now than I ever have been in war gaming.
A fully painted army of 40k does look quite impressive though.

 lordwellingstone wrote:
A while ago I wrote a post on why I’m leaving 40k behind (not that anyone particularly cares, but if there’s somewhere to vent to the empty void it’s Dakka.) And it’s been quite a while since then. I’ve mostly been playing Malifaux since then, and I gotta say, that’s a fantastic game. Well-balanced, good gameplay, and affordable. My friends and I like it so much that we even started a podcast based on it.

However I’d be remiss if I did not mention that there are a few things that I miss about 40k:

The camaraderie: I’ve been to a few big cons to play Malifaux. And I gotta be honest. I never felt more like the forgotten dumb kid eating a bucket of chalk in the corner than I have when going to a big con to play a much smaller game. The feeling of being part of the biggest part of nearly any miniatures event and sharing that experience with your friends and soon-to-be-friends just is not met by these smaller games.

The Scope: Few things look as good as a fully painted 40k army on a beautiful battlefield. Skirmish games just don’t capture that scope. And the WMH aesthetic is… well… not really to my liking (seriously that game is fugly). I’m not going to say that 40k has the best scaled or most accurate this-would-work-in-the-real-world miniatures. But damn do they look good all gathered together.

The “Feel”: Now from an objective POV, the rules for 40k, just are not very good. The balance is totally out of whack. However 40k does have this “feel”. The other games that are objectively better written and much more balanced feel like games. Whereas it’s really hard to pin down the feeling that a game of 40k gives. It feel less like a game, and more like playing green army men with your buddy when your were 6. And that’s not a bad thing. The game is less focused on the mechanics and more focused on the atmosphere and the action. The feeling is really hard to describe and I’m probably off by a few degrees. But those are the words that I found.

Any other 40k ex-pats have similar feelings?

I quite like the posiblity that 40k holds, but right now it's dead where I am and it seems up to me to resurrect it. And I am realy not finding enough willpower to.
The things I still like in 40k I think are getting lost to GWs obsessive ineptitude, It's really just becoming grim derp to me at this point.
There is no army I realy like anymore, out of the 5 army's I still have I am not realy finding I am fond off playing any.
The world and lore of 40k is still good, but the story's don't realy even make me curious anymore.

Edit, trying to clean up my tired post.

Apple fox wrote:

 lordwellingstone wrote:
A while ago I wrote a post on why I’m leaving 40k behind (not that anyone particularly cares, but if there’s somewhere to vent to the empty void it’s Dakka.) And it’s been quite a while since then. I’ve mostly been playing Malifaux since then, and I gotta say, that’s a fantastic game. Well-balanced, good gameplay, and affordable. My friends and I like it so much that we even started a podcast based on it.

However I’d be remiss if I did not mention that there are a few things that I miss about 40k:

The camaraderie: I’ve been to a few big cons to play Malifaux. And I gotta be honest. I never felt more like the forgotten dumb kid eating a bucket of chalk in the corner than I have when going to a big con to play a much smaller game. The feeling of being part of the biggest part of nearly any miniatures event and sharing that experience with your friends and soon-to-be-friends just is not met by these smaller games.

The Scope: Few things look as good as a fully painted 40k army on a beautiful battlefield. Skirmish games just don’t capture that scope. And the WMH aesthetic is… well… not really to my liking (seriously that game is fugly). I’m not going to say that 40k has the best scaled or most accurate this-would-work-in-the-real-world miniatures. But damn do they look good all gathered together.

The “Feel”: Now from an objective POV, the rules for 40k, just are not very good. The balance is totally out of whack. However 40k does have this “feel”. The other games that are objectively better written and much more balanced feel like games. Whereas it’s really hard to pin down the feeling that a game of 40k gives. It feel less like a game, and more like playing green army men with your buddy when your were 6. And that’s not a bad thing. The game is less focused on the mechanics and more focused on the atmosphere and the action. The feeling is really hard to describe and I’m probably off by a few degrees. But those are the words that I found.

Any other 40k ex-pats have similar feelings?

I quite like the posiblity that 40k holds, but right now it's dead where I am and it seems up to me to resurrect it. And I am realy not finding enough willpower to.
The things I still like in 40k I think are getting lost to GWs obsessive ineptitude, It's really just becoming grim derp to me at this point.
There is no army I realy like anymore, out of the 5 army's I still have I am not realy finding I am fond off playing any.
The world and lore of 40k is still good, but the story's don't realy even make me curious anymore.

Edit, trying to clean up my tired post.

Before I gave up on GW, I was going to start a SW army, but now when I look at them they just seem to be a parody of what I had always loved.

Actually, pretty much all the things you describe are the reasons I play 40k -- the social aspects, scope, and the immersion into a science-fantasy model world.

To me, these are a much higher priority than whether unit X is balanced against unit Y, possibly, because I rarely play against strangers now. A lot of the games (like Malifaux, which I agree has great mechanics) "feel" like a board game without a board, rather than an enactment of a battle.

Also: I'm much less "competitive" (read: care less about balance) now than I used to be when it comes to tabletop wargames, because there is such a large disparity in player skill. A perfectly balanced game means nothing, if your opponent has a dramatically different skill level, because knowing that I will win 9/10 games is almost as dissatisfying for me as knowing I will lose 9/10 games.

Have you ever played Flames of War?

Similar rules set to 40k, large scale battles, cheaper models especially with 3rd party models (a Flames of War official infantry company is like 50$ a third party is like 30) and it's quite balanced.

It is historical rather than like sci fi fantasy stuff but WW2 has some great varieties of units in it and FOW has ALL of them.

The reasons the OP's put up are why I'm still in 40k at all; playing the game and the feeling that I need to keep buying more stuff to keep up with the power creep are getting increasingly frustrating, but I still love GW's models and I still have a lot of friends who play. I doubt I will ever drop 40k entirely, though it's been on a back burner to WMH, WHFB, and Infinity for me for a long time.

Ah, a bit of a blend here too.

I like the models and still pound away at the rather large armies I have in 40k.

I play scenarios with friends we painstakingly put together and it goes very well, the few times it goes "bad" we make fun of the turkey who messed up... good natured of course.
40k DOES lend itself well to an RPG aspect of gaming to create scenarios of any kind you want and play pretty much anything.

For meeting new people and pick-up games with strangers, the game is a train-wreck.
Those who play for story/fluff, those who are competitive (challenging thing to approach with 40k) and then the WAAC gamers, what an interesting mix with all three groups not quite happy.
Oh, sorry, those mainly in it for "collecting" models, little would effect you.

I miss as an ACTIVE gamer in 40k introducing new people to the game and just finding the fun.
You typically have to quickly butcher you game list when facing someone new and not appear cheating by changing your list after seeing his.
I HATE a tabling for either party.

Since I walked away from 40k during 6th edition I have not missed it at all. At the time I did not have a gaming group (new to the area) so pick up games at the shop was all that I had to play against. The balance of the game really bother me so much that I had to quit playing it just was not fun playing my fluff list of orks against taudar. That certain store had a Waac attitude about 40k and that's the only mini game the store sells. Since that time a new store has opened up in my area and has introduced me to games such as X-wing, warmachine, infinity, and Bolt action. I have had more fun in the past year then I did in all my years of playing 40k.

I got into this game right at the beginning of 5th ed, I love it! I used to play tcg's, but didn't like the lack of tactical options once I put my cards on the table. Then I got into mage knights, which was my first love in regards to tabletop wargames. But that died a sudden death. Then I found 40k, the huge variety of armies means that when I finished basing them, my mageknights returned as Orks, astra militarum, and dark eldar. Been loving this nonsensical game ever since.