How long was your longest 40K intermission?

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**creeping-deth87**

I started 40K back in 5th ed well over a decade ago, and while I've had a few bouts of total disinterest in painting and playing in that time, I think I'm currently in my longest stretch of apathy toward warhammer. I haven't painted a thing or played a game in over a year. I've been toying with the idea of selling off my collection and using the room I store my models in for something else, but I'm worried I'll regret it down the line somewhere. I can't be the only one who's experienced this before, so tell me how long you've gone in the past with zero interest in the game? What brought you back in?

**PenitentJake**

Started in 89.

Longest break was 2011-2018.

**Insectum7**

About three or four years when I was really focused on other things/life issues, during late 4th through early 5th edition maybe. Sold all my armies too, some of which I still regret a bit.

Started re-collecting in 5th, had a fully painted army late 5th early 6th. Played pretty often, consistently up through right before covid. Games are sparse now.

**jaredb**

I started in 2001 with Warhammer. Took a break in 2012-2013 as I recently moved and didn't have a car to reach communities in other towns.

**Veldrain**

I sold off my stuff shortly after 6th started and only started coming back with the Indomitus box.

**Nevelon**

Wait, we have the option to leave the hobby?

I’ve never completely lost interest. There have been times where life got in the way. I missed most of 2nd and 4th. But I’ve always puttered around at some level.

If you do get out, I’d recommend boxing up your stuff and stashing it somewhere. A lot of people rebound back in, and a common refrain is “I wish I still had my old stuff”. Obviously if finances are tight, old minis are an asset. But try to avoid it.

**ccs**

I had a stretch from the 1st 1/4 (I think) of 6th to the early months of 7th - August 2018 where I only played 1 game.

Interest both within my circle & locally in 40k had waned in 6th & we were playing ever more WWII stuff (wich I am 100% ok with btw).
Now & then there'd be a 40k game though.
That 1 game? I'm TOLD it was an early days 7e game. I had no idea the edition had flipped & the other guys had no idea about my army or that I didn't know. Everything seemed to work. It was years later that I discovered it was a 7th ed game.
And then none of us played (40k) again until 8th.

What brought me back?
I had alot of down time fall if '18. One of the guys at the shop talked me into digging some stuff out as 40k interest was re-kindling with the new edition.
So my SW returned to active duty.

**TangoTwoBravo**

Three years - missed all of 7th (and the tail end of 6th I guess). Didn’t love 6th, deployed for a year and the Edition had changed when I got back. It looked like more of the same so I walked away from 40K.

I wasn’t mad at 40K, though, and I kept everything from my 40K collection. Came back for 8th and haven’t looked back.

**Marshal Loss**

I skipped most of 4th and 5th, from not long after the Thorpe/Cavatore CSM book came out until shortly before 6th's release: so a gap between c. 2007 until 2012, give or take a little.

**Blackie**

I had two breaks: the first during 3rd since the release of 5th (2003-2008) and the second during the last days of 5th since a few months after 7th was released (2011-2014). Both breaks had nothing to do with the actual editions of 40k, I simply had other priorities and interests then. Longest one was the first break that happened when I was still a teen, 5 years.

**Stormonu**

When was 2E?

Hmm, looks like I quit playing from 1994-2011; I still collected (Space Marine, Starters & Tau) and read the rules, but didn't play between then. Came back with the release of the Newcrons.

Dropped out again late 6th through 7th. Picked back up with 8th, gave up around Psychic Awakening.

**Racerguy180**

Dunno, 1990-3/4 then break till 8th in 2017.

**a_typical_hero**

Started in '98 and paused between 6th to end of 8th edition.

Was more a lucky coincidence that I came back, as my local group had long since abandoned the game by then.

**AngryAngel80**

About 3 years awhile back, however now I'm sort of waiting for 10th edition at this point.

**angrygriffin**

I stopped around when 3rd came out - couldn't get past the rule changes at the time and locally people weren't keen on continuing with 2nd - and picked it up again about 18 months ago... so, what, 1998 to 2020?

**techsoldaten**

1993 - 2010. Went to college, plastic army men were the ultimate girl deterrent. Had to leave 40k behind.

Took it back up after the daughter talked to a cunning GW store manager. He convinced her of the need for Orks in her life. Had to step back in to provide guidance on rolling dice.

Concerned this will eventually come full circle.

**Sunny Side Up**

Got distracted by Warmachine so 2005-07-ish and again by X-Wing/Infinity around 2012-14-ish (and some shorter bouts with other games), but ultimately always found the gameplay there growing stale far more quickly and came back to 40K.

**Turnip Jedi**

2013 to till now, no real intention of picking it up again (although am up to date enough that I could provide a punching bag for any 40k player looking for a game at my club)

Might have picked up Kill Team but GW just cant stop the FOMO drip feed bobbins and I'm not enabling that

**Kitane**

I've took multiple breaks. When the 6th edition came out, Nids didn't handle the transition well so I went to paint-only mode for a while.

When their 6th edition codex finally came with an expectation of fixes, it was an unmitigated disaster, almost worse than the previous (already bad) book. I dropped everything 40k related until much later in the 7th edition.

I also started a High Elves army with the Island of Blood set to take a break from Nids. I've got some battalion boxes, extra units, a dragon, characters...and before I could get even one game in, the army got deleted.

10 years into the hobby and with deleted HE, neglected Nids, permanently broken GSC, and now in the 9th edition the weirdly lackluster Blood Angels, I feel like a walking curse

**hobojebus**

2004 to 2012, the Kirby era attitude was to discourage veteran gamers in favour of pumping and dumping kids.

My local store cancelled vet night which was always packed but kept kids night.

We had zero warning we just turned up one week and we we're told, now back in 2004 not all of us had phones or email so we instantly lost touch with most of the local community.

We didn't have our own homes so arranging for places to play was impossible, so we just met up to hang out going to pubs and clubs and not spending anything on gw.

Like a month after Tim the store manager ran into us in Hanley and was practically begging us to start a club and hire pub rooms to do it, kicking the vets with money had not gone at all as planned, but we were all far too angry to do anything to help him out.

When we got our own house we picked it up again but none of us ever played or spent money in the stoke store again.

**vipoid**

I'm not sure - my current one hasn't ended yet.

**Nurglitch**

I'm still painting, because stripping and repainting models is a thing, but I haven't played 40k in a couple of years. I think not since the summer of 2019? I took some time off between 3rd and late 4th, but this might be longer? Meh, I'm playing other games on a weekly basis (I joke it's Warhammer methadone...)

**Sim-Life**

How long was 7th? Cause that. Been involved to some degree since 2nd. I moved country at the start of 7th I think or maybe just before and it took me a while to find new players and when I did find someone the guy was more of a Warmahordes player and he introduced me to that, then eventually I met a WHFB player and 40k got mostly left to the side completely because no one else really played it and I prefered WHFB. Due to the way things went with the timing of WMH Mk.3 and 8th when it was released 8th brought 40k back in a big way and introduced a lot of new people to our group, but the post-PA 8th and 9th killed my enthusiasm, as well as being introduced to board games and the discovery that my wife likes them has made me lose interest in 40k altogether.

So really I've been on a break since 7th with a 3 year blip where I played 8th before GW cocked it up.

**Tokhuah**

Three years and counting because I will never again buy into a system designed by GW. I still purchase their models and paints to use in other game systems.

**Eldarain**

The current one that started when they gave CSM a lazy reprint while super charging Loyalists probably.

**Las**

Been a GW fan since about 7 years old (1998-ish). Once I became a teenager with a job, I played regularly from late 5th to the end of 7th. Stopped from 8th (2017) till about summer 2020. Because of covid, I've only played a single game of 9th and a handful of previous edition kill team games.

Played historicals exclusively throughout that gap. It's nice to be back, even missed GW's bs to some extent. Also, jesus christ is the game ever complex now.

**Tawnis**

I got into 40k in 3rd edition and played on and off until about halfway through 7th. Real life stuff got in the way and I wasn't able to get back into it until the start of 9th.

While I've put so much time and effort into my models, I don't think I'd ever sell them even if I did stop playing, I had a similar experience with Magic the Gathering. I'd stop for years and a time, sell my collection, then get back into it. (It's the only game I've played longer than 40k). I'm in my 4th round of not really being into Magic, I haven't put my cards on the table in about a year, but after the last time, I vowed I'd never sell my collection again and that I'd just wait it out until I was interested again.

**Kcalehc**

Started in '94, collected and played till about 2001, collected for a year or two after that, then sold everything and moved continents.
Picked it back up in 2018.

So somewhere in the region of 15 years as a break.

**Voss**

7th, entirely. I wasn't going to pay for a handful of pages of errata and a psychic phase based on the most exploitable magic system fantasy ever used.

Never really got back to playing regularly, even after 7th was gone, though the pandemic has a lot to blame for that- I was actively looking for groups in nearby stores just as it started spreading globally.

**Da Boss**

I stopped playing at the start of 6th, and pretty soon after stopped painting anything 40K related. That's gradually started changing in the last couple of years as I've gotten really excited about the 40K universe again, but I'm playing Grimdark Future, which I see as pretty much the same thing as playing 40K but just easier and cheaper to get into.

If the chance arises to play a game of 9e though I will take it, I'm curious as to what it is like.