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I'd shed a tear. Or two. Or a million. I have a sizeable collection, with many conversions and even rare / OOP / expensive pieces.
I'd then probably slowly rebuild what I had lost, exactly as it was before, maybe with little changes here and there, focusing on a smaller-scale army. A whole infantry platoon is not always needed.
Or I's stay only with Killteam.
Or ditched 40k completely and did "regular" scale modeling.

Hard to say...

I would be highly upset, mop a round a lot and then probably start Ad mech, which is NOTHING like any of my current armies.

I'd be more upset about my paint collection going up in flames and all my other items.

Claim it on the contents insurance, put a hefty deposit down on a house.

Lose all my models?
Oddly, I would shed big tears for all the various hobby tools I have collected or made through the years.

It almost fits under the category of a "blessing".
I have such a large collection of partially done work.
I think the largest pain would be the ONE army I have that is complete to my satisfaction being gone.

I think it would almost be like a "rage-quit".
The "I would be free of 40k" seems to have some appeal, I am way too invested in it.

Just to throw it out there, and just playing armchair doctor here...

Autism spectrum disorder can make a person incapable of understanding some conversational norms, like sarcasm. If I joke that I like to hunt flamingoes because I like the taste of pink meat... some people with ASD could take that literally instead of as a joke. My cousin, for example, took me quite literally when I joked about that and I had to explain the *nature* of the humour I was going for.

So for the Dakkites that may be unaware of ASD, please know that some posters may experience that, and to learn about it if you have trouble understanding some posters’ ways.


To the OP, I don’t think I’d rebuild, but I would resume my collecting Kill Teams as I’m having lots of fun with the different models and factions... on top of enjoying the game a great deal.

Honestly, I'd probably be so devestated, I'd never touch the hobby again. I'm more of a collector than anything else, and to see 10+ years of collecting, building, customizing, and painting gone in an instant would crush me. I have have so much stuff that can't easily be replaced, if at all.

Never mind.

Most people are able to separate the core concept from outrage culture?

REDACTED

...egh, for me it'd almost be freedom. I don't get to play with what i have anyway, and sometimes i don't feel like i should have picked up what i do just because of that.

whatever situation would cause my collection to be lost would probably see me restructure my time between all my hobbies anyway.

 greatbigtree wrote:
Autism spectrum disorder can make a person incapable of understanding some conversational norms, like sarcasm. If I joke that I like to hunt flamingoes because I like the taste of pink meat... some people with ASD could take that literally instead of as a joke. My cousin, for example, took me quite literally when I joked about that and I had to explain the *nature* of the humour I was going for.
So for the Dakkites that may be unaware of ASD, please know that some posters may experience that, and to learn about it if you have trouble understanding some posters’ ways.

This is why the MODs and this site ask posts to be written in clear language.
My eldest son has ASD and ADHD so I would say the main thing to avoid is a phrase or mannerism.
BUT there are also a variety of fairly common issues out there like dyslexia that make make some writing challenging.
The most common issue that I happen to like is English may not be their first language, I really like having dakkites from all over the world.
I would say the best "accomodation" that can be made is staying on topic my hypocrisy is not lost on me.

To the OP, I don’t think I’d rebuild, but I would resume my collecting Kill Teams as I’m having lots of fun with the different models and factions... on top of enjoying the game a great deal.

It does seem to be a way to enjoy the hobby cheaply and with good variety.

I'll be in two thoughts over this if this happened to me.

I'll be more upset over the paints/tools I've accumulated, as they will be sorely missed. I currently only have 1 army, which o built using discounts/friends/Conquest so the value it has I paid roughly 40% of that to build it in the first place.

Still, I'll claim on the insurance and start a Chaos Knight army so me and my mate can have a knight off and laugh while shouting mock medieval chivalry insults.

Win win in my book!

To the pub, to get hammered.

I lost a WHFB army once. It was the only fantasy army I had at the time.

1995 while moving house. Boxes were piled up on the front porch. I was carrying my stuff in a couple of boxes at a time - the 40k went first because there was more of it. Came back to get the fantasy box, and it was gone.

Stolen straight off the porch. Also lost a chunk of resin bunker terrain that was oop even then. Back when most of the WHFB stuff was still in metals (except for horsies).

I just stopped playing fantasy for about 17 years.

I'd rebuild, once everything else was settled, but I'd probably start a smaller game system. Fewer models.

I am surprised that so many people have responded that they'd be "free". This is a hobby that you're not being forced to play. If you don't enjoy it, you can stop, and sell off your collection.

Likewise, many of the comments are people saying that they couldn't deal with it or bring themselves to rebuild their collection. For me, the whole process of collecting, building and painting an army is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the hobby, along with playing of course. I'd be devastated to lose everything I have, but it wouldn't stop me from enjoying the creative aspects of the hobby that make it appeal to me in the first place.

That is not true, at least for me. if I spend money on something and didn't get my out of it, I will not be able to ignore it. I tried not playing the game, but it didn't work, only made me sick and I had to take more medicin again.

And I don't think I am alone on this. People don't just quit gambling, alcohol, drugs or even just doing stuff that isn't good, just because those are bad things.

Robtype0 wrote:
I am surprised that so many people have responded that they'd be "free". This is a hobby that you're not being forced to play. If you don't enjoy it, you can stop, and sell off your collection.

Likewise, many of the comments are people saying that they couldn't deal with it or bring themselves to rebuild their collection. For me, the whole process of collecting, building and painting an army is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the hobby, along with playing of course. I'd be devastated to lose everything I have, but it wouldn't stop me from enjoying the creative aspects of the hobby that make it appeal to me in the first place.

I think the key is all things in moderation.

When you lose the whole of your hobby focus in one massive go its a huge blow. So suddenly people are left with a massive gap in their lives. Sure there are other parts of the hobby - social, creative etc..., but by and large the models are a very central focus.

The freedom people speak of isn't that they hate the hobby, but that it does soak up time and money. If they lose it all it gives an excuse/reason to put it to one side, or reduce it for a long while and use that newly found money and free time to focus on other things. Some might also use the money, in an insurance lump sum, to buy one big expensive thing for something else; since with warhammer you have a limit on how much you can build and paint within a given time frame; so slow regrowth is more practical (unless you pay others to do the work for you).


So its not that they want to give up, but more that they would like to try some new things if given enough of a kick to prompt them to do it. Losing the model collection is what might give them such a kick (remembering that most of us are only guessing at what our reactions would be).

Robtype0 wrote:
I am surprised that so many people have responded that they'd be "free". This is a hobby that you're not being forced to play. If you don't enjoy it, you can stop, and sell off your collection.

Likewise, many of the comments are people saying that they couldn't deal with it or bring themselves to rebuild their collection. For me, the whole process of collecting, building and painting an army is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the hobby, along with playing of course. I'd be devastated to lose everything I have, but it wouldn't stop me from enjoying the creative aspects of the hobby that make it appeal to me in the first place.

For me specifically, I have three or four hobbies that I enjoy. Losing the one that is by far costing me the most money and time just means I can focus on the others. I'm also in a position right now where I'm not really playing as much as I used too, and the only reason I started collecting and painting miniatures was to play their associated games. Were this hypothetical situation to happen to me tomorrow, then I wouldn't start collecting again unless I ended up finding another solid group to play with.

I'm going to assume this is supposed to be one of those "Would you do it all over again?" questions.

Because:
1. I don't feel compelled to play 40K just because I own 40k models.
2. Several of my models have sentimental value for reasons like "The first time I did a really good job on color blending"

If I lost all of my metal GW figures to fire, probably what I'd try to do is salvage the metal out of the ruins and finally see about getting one of those smelting pot things. Gonna build me a memorial to fallen models.

At the moment, I know I don't have enough documentation about my miniature collection for the insurance company to do anything other than "Yeah, yeah, sure. We don't really care what you lost. Your house burned down, and you had to have lost way more than what you were insured for. So here's the check for what you were insured for."

There are specific models and books that I'd track down replacement for, and that I wouldn't mind building again. There's one or two of the Realm of Chaos chaos champions that I really would pay an outrageous amount of money for, for sentimental reasons.

Eldar, Dark Eldar and the random assortment of Rogue Trader humans? Nope, not likely to replace those.
Infinity? There's this Kickstarter going on with a good deal on Shasvastii models! It'll be hard to find a replacement Caskuda though. :(
Malifaux? Oh, sure. Once I finally have a production test figure, my collection gets destroyed. :( Yeah, gonna replace those and finally buy an Obliteration boxed set as commiseration.
Guild Ball? 3/4 of my Guild Ball collection is Adepticon swag. Tears in the rain, baby.
A bunch of other minor games? Funeral service for the ashes of the games that are no longer in production, and check to see how the surviving product lines are doing.

It remains possible that Games Workshop will someday, once again, publish a game that I would like to play. I don't hold 7th edition (or the end of WHFB) against GW.

Robtype0 wrote:
I am surprised that so many people have responded that they'd be "free". This is a hobby that you're not being forced to play. If you don't enjoy it, you can stop, and sell off your collection.

I'd take that with moderation. It's the only option you can pick to express that you won't be picking up the game again after losing your collection.

Likewise, many of the comments are people saying that they couldn't deal with it or bring themselves to rebuild their collection. For me, the whole process of collecting, building and painting an army is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the hobby, along with playing of course. I'd be devastated to lose everything I have, but it wouldn't stop me from enjoying the creative aspects of the hobby that make it appeal to me in the first place.

First of all, no everyone enjoys the game in the same way you do. My primary enjoyment comes from playing the game, then building and collecting models and while I love having painted models I do not enjoy painting a whole lot. The main drive for me to buy, build and paint models is to use them in a game.

The thing is, today is different than 12 years ago. Back then, I was going to college, had a weekend job, and was living with my parents and had no expenses besides deciding whether to get magic cards, pc games, models or beer and more spare time than I knew what to do with.
In the meantime, I have gotten a real job, have a wife and a daughter and need to pay for rent, a car, bills and whatnot. Free time has become rare, something like an ork buggy takes me a month on average to complete and it isn't exactly responsible behavior to spend $500 on models four times a year if there are other things to buy for the family.

The only reason why I can continue to enjoy Warhammer 40k is because I can get away taking almost a year to get 1000 points of orks battle-ready, is because I already have a large collection ready for play. I can just build working armies from what I have and can take all the time I need to finish the new stuff.
If you take my collection away, I can't play anymore, and will take me at least a year to be able do so again. Since I can't play, there won't be any motivation for me to buy, build and paint any models.

In retrospective, that's probably why I dropped the game in 7th - basically my entire ork collection was invalidated and I would have had to buy an entirely new army in order to play the game in a meaningful way. I just stopped playing instead.

Hard to say. I’d probably have bigger issues than replacing my Warhammer. I would probably see myself jumping to a new system or something. Maybe historicals and Star Wars. Maybe Kill Team and just play with my friends’ armies for my WFB fix. I’d probably try to replace my Fantasy at some point and very slowly. That be a huge demoralizer to lose all my models and paints though, not sure I’d even get back into the hobby.

I would download [guilt free] every book I have purchased. So far, I have supported the hobby by not downloading, at significant expense [I have dexes + all the Kill Team books + all CA,

I would live on ebay looking for anything cheap. I'd buy the start collecting DE, the DE battleforce, and the sisters box.

I'd play Kill Team with that, and let those armies grow organically through campaign play. Box sets when I can- I don't mind off-beat models the way some people do; if it's added at a discount, I'll take it.

Hoping for sister KT rules in December Dwarf.

I went down the Blackstone rabbit hole the first time; I might go down the necromunda rabbit hole if I had to do it over. My metal Necromunda minis see a lot of use as cultists, brood brothers, etc. so replacing them would help me grow 2+ armies. The new box looks great- one of the gangs actually is cultists, and the other is enforcers, which I can see being used as Imperial Agents troops. Add Escher and Cawdor.

I would likely not buy anything 40k related besides enough models for a few Kill Teams. Too many other great games out there to play, and it would be a great time to try something new.

First, one or two days of depression. Then start from beginning.( especially fireproof container for valuables).
Hey, they can't hurt you if you're already dead inside

Rebuild. The head cannon would be that chapter was destroyed in a heroic last stand of apocalyptic proportions.

forget 40k and focus just on lotr. 40k price/quality ratio has become too low for rebuild from 0 to be worth it anymore.

Yup... Blessing in disguise.

I might take up Legend of the Five Rings again.

Karol wrote:

Why do you do this to nearly every thread you're in?

I don't understand your question, because am not sure what I do in every thread I write, besides writing, but I don't think your asking why I write, when I write, because that would make no sense. You have to be more specific.

Others have guessed that he was referring to a comprehension thing, but I'm almost certain he's talking about the fact that you try to make every single thread about some awful personal life story only tangentially related to the topic, and some in the past proven to be bs or at the very least, in direct contradiction with other "tragic" stories you've told.

your house burning down isn't tragic, only if your multi milioner, And probably not even that.

The question was what would you do if your collection burned in a house fire. How can you be impersonal about your stuff burning down?

Karol wrote:
your house burning down isn't tragic, only if your multi milioner, And probably not even that.

The question was what would you do if your collection burned in a house fire. How can you be impersonal about your stuff burning down?

The point of the question was "what would you do if your entire collection was lost simultaneously" - the burning house was just the framing device, a plausible way for it to happen with no chance for recovery (since the other likely way to lose an entire collection at once - theft - offers the potential for recovery)

Don't think about the 'house burning down' side, just the 'lose your collection' side.