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Maybe I’m alone here, but I feel like I’m waiting for GW to hurry up and wake up from a long, bad dream they’ve been in for about 6 years now. Maybe they never will…

I say this, because going back to 2011 and early 2012 we had what I believe to be the best versions of 40k (5th edition) and WFB (8th edition) I ever enjoyed. During that time I bought models, paints, I regularly bought the White Dwarf, and I played as many games of both systems that I could… Now I fast forward to GW’s dark future of 2018: Fantasy Battle is gone and it’s world blown up. Elves and Dwarves replaced with Aelf and Duardin. WTF is an Aelf? The world of 40k continues, but after 5th edition I’ve found that I enjoy each new edition less than the previous.

In years past as I travelled across the country for work and would find time to stop in at local game stores. Each store I went to always had games of 40k and occasionally Fantasy Battle being played. You could see first hand that the game was infectious. There were tournaments, leagues, and campaigns going. The community was alive and thriving.

These days I spend my evenings down in my dungeon looking at rule books and codex books from older 40k and Fantasy systems and reminiscing about games past. I think about a tournament scene that thrived and kept me looking forward to the next one. I think about the Sunday WFB league at my local game store and the group of guys playing to try and make the playoffs. I think about a thriving Wednesday night 40k league where it wasn’t uncommon to have over 30 players show up with their armies ready to throw down. I think about weekend Rogue Trader Tournaments. I think about all that and I’m sad that the scene just isn’t the same… Maybe it’s me and maybe I’m getting old. (Actually, I know I’m getting old.)

So while I’m sad and I miss the old days of GW gaming, what should really be said is that I’m incredibly grateful. Playing GW games and the life-long friends I’ve made in the community got me through some of the roughest times in my life. I went through a divorce, work layoffs, job relocations, broken Eldar armies, and for that I could not be more grateful. I just wish the community was still the same.

Whilst I can understand your sentiment and agree with you on a couple of points my feelings are the exact opposite right now.

I have been in the hobby since 1988 and can honestly say (IMO) we have never had it so good.

I am loving AoS and 40K right now and the specialist games and board games GW are releasing have so far all been a lot of fun.

I wait for WD impatiently each month and spend most of my free time either watching Warhammer TV or one of the several Warhammer channels for battle reports and painting videos.

The move over to almost all models in plastic and the new paint range are great and the minis are amazing (again IMO).

I have a games club that runs twice a week with regularly over 50 people each session and I am gaming more than ever.

However I do agree the tournament scene has changed and not for the better. And that could be an issue for a lot of people without local stores or clubs nearby as this would have been a source of their games.

I also miss WHFB, the old world and all the back story, but AoS is really picking up now and (hopefully) the fluff will get fleshed out with 2nd edition and the new roleplaying game.

I wouldn't say it's old age, I'm 45 and still going strong, but it might just be that you've outgrown GW.

And they're not perfect by any means and I have no issue with anybody having issue with them, although they are making a marked turnaround these days - but for many people it probably is too little too late.

I get that people liked 5th edition, but I really feel like 8th edition is the better one and that it shows. 5th edition had houserules and banned lists, etc. at every other tournament, but 8th has largely kept the confidence of the players. GW is way more communicative, willing to adapt, and willing to address issues than they every have before. We also have better model options and an easier new player ramp up experience.

I'm just hoping this continues and we can all forget about 7th.

Coming from someone who began early 7th, I can confidently say the experience is far far better. It's easier and faster for pick up games, and the ruleset makes sense. I'll say that the tournament scene is abit WAAC and not friendly.

Many of the points you make seem to me as if you're club has died down a little with people quitting in 7th, but most other places I go to are thriving.
My point of view on this topic

I feel they have done a big turnaround, actually. As someone who played 2nd 40k and dropped it at 4th, and didn't buy any GW product since that point, and having previously had no interest in WHFB, AOS actually got me kinda back in. The model quality made a jump back up to the top of the pile (for a while there, GW was definitely not top dog), and the game was actually fun to play. I said then "man, if they do 40k using this core engine, I'll probably be back in that, too." And yup, I am rebuilding a Thousand Sons army.

GW has gone through some definite cycles, and IMO the last 3 years have been one of their better periods in history. Actually engaging customers, trying new things again, and not completely litigious over every time someone somewhere used the word "Space Marine" are big things that some of us older gamers appreciate, I think.

Anecdotally, the last couple of years at my LGS I rarely saw any GW games being played, it was all Warmachine/Hordes. Lately, lots more 40k and even a re-growing of some AOS now that the initial butt-hurt from the original release (which, admitted, even I made fun of those original rules with stupid things like getting a bonus if you had a bigger beard). And now I rarely see Warmachine anymore. So with that kind of swing, it doesn't seem GW is doing terribly.

Just in general with games like this and Tabletop RPGs it seems like the one that'll always stick with you as your favorite is the first 1 or 2 systems that you play. People tend to like the edition they started in or the next one that fixed the issues with previous. After that, it tends to go down. Nothing necesarrily wrong with it.

Personally I think the company is in a WAY better spot than when I started. I bought the Dark Vengeance Box Set in around 2013ish and it felt I started in the middle of what people consider one of the darker times for the company. I personally think the company has really turned around in the last 2 years or so since the new CEO took over. Feels like they care about the game side again compared to just models.

Warhammer 40k is thriving in my area, with lots of new faces at a local doubles-tournament. I think it's partly that people are really enjoying 8th edition, and because people are enjoying it enough that there's several people in town (and it's a small town) working hard to promote it (and several more promoting gaming in general, as we have 3 board game cafes within 15 minutes drive).

The bad news for you is that GW has, more or less, awoken. So what you see is much what you can expect. They’re pretty much doing all the things they stopped doing or never did well back in the mid 2000s.

I have adapted, despite being able to empathize with most of what you’re saying, by adopting a very casual/part time attitude toward GWs games.

GW games are no longer the only games I play, or even my primary system. Personally I find AoS/40k rules to be very shallow, unintuitive, and still somehow clunky with all its excessive dice rolling and stubborn insistence on micromanaging model placement. But, they’re at least playable and easier to play casuall than before. I can play a game a month or less and still pick it up with little issue.

It allows me to enjoy what I want without getting bent out of shape over the stuff I don’t.

Going public on the national stock exchange and becoming beholden to share holders changes your company.

Suing, and being sued over intellectual property rights changes your company.

A new President/Chief Executive with very different ideas about how to run a game company changes your company.

Finally, everything changes, and wishing for things to return to the way they were? Never gonna happen.

To the OP, if they're not already doing this, I would suggest historics.

You've got unlimited choice, tons of companies, different scales, cheap paints, books, rulebooks etc etc

I did it a few years back, and it's the best move I ever made.

You can paint, collect, game, whatever, until your heart's content.

 Wolflord Patrick wrote:
Maybe I’m alone here, but I feel like I’m waiting for GW to hurry up and wake up from a long, bad dream they’ve been in for about 6 years now. Maybe they never will…

I say this, because going back to 2011 and early 2012 we had what I believe to be the best versions of 40k (5th edition) and WFB (8th edition) I ever enjoyed.

This GW has already woken up from the nightmare of 2009-2015. That period appears to be all over with. 40k 3rd thru 7th, the worst editions of the game, are over with, and Warhammer 8th, the greatest travesty of rules ever put down on paper, is now in the ash heap of history.

I think maybe you like bad stuff.

Where I am the exact opposite is true. No one played WHFB, my FLGS stocked a half dozen kits that never saw anything but dust. No one wanted it.

People are playing Age of Sigmar. Not as much as in the heyday in like 3rd edition, but far more than the last several editions.

For 40K, the increase in players is INCREDIBLE. The game is far more playable, players are showing up for casual games instead of only for tourneys. Tourneys came back too. The rules simplification makes the game playable and enjoyable.

GW has awoken. Both games are better than they were before. Now if they would just drop prices by 30% or so, that'd be great...