I want to open this article today by “this is not a hit piece”. I’m not here to throw a bunch of hot takes at you in an attempt to hit you with rage bait. That’s not me. It never has been, and never will be.
As many of you know I’ve played Warhammer in some capacity since the mid-to-late 90’s. I bought my first rulebook, a paperback 3rd edition rulebook, from a local store called Valpo Pet and Hobby, which has been closed longer than either of my children have been alive. It was a mainstay of my youth, just like Galactic Greg’s. I won’t give everyone the deep dive, as I’ve already done this, but I will touch on some major plot points in my wargaming history.
While in the military I had a group that did 40k, and towards the end of my time in Active Duty we made the jump to fantasy. I built up my wood elves, we had grand floorhammer battles. Blood was shed, beer was consumed, a grand time was had by all.
Once I returned home I played Fantasy for a while, finding a small group to play with on a regular basis. Then my armies were stolen. This is a long and sad story with a reasonably happy ending, but it is long enough to be a novel- A story for another time.
Once my armies were stolen I had kind of moved on from Warhammer. I focused my energies into other hobbies, focused on bettering myself, and just learning all the things I should have learned in my late teens and early 20’s but didn’t because I did two tours in Iraq instead.
Eventually, however, I did find myself pulled back into the hobby. Initially via Kings of War, but that really was just a short-term fling, and was actually one of my few experiences with a non-GW system. This was around 1st ed KoW, and it left feeling largely unimpressed. But slowly we built up a small Blood Bowl community, and as it does it eventually snowballed into my good friend Bailey from DankLists suckering me into 40k. I was hooked immediately and rapidly threw myself into building one of the largest communities in our region (for the time. This was early 8th, and now in 11th the game has exploded in popularity)
9th came out and it had some growing pains. The core rules were very good, especially compared to 8th, and it felt like the company was at least trying to fix some of the glaring issues caused by the massive rewrite that 8th was. I could dig it. But the codex creep was atrocious in 9th. Sometimes it was small things, like problem units. Ork jets and a Rukkatrukk Squigbuggies were extremely overtuned and once the aircraft/buggy nerf hit the book tanked. Some stuff was book-wide issues. The Custodes/Tau releases were two of the most insanely unbalanced books released that edition, but GW did manage to follow it up with the Votann, which was so horrifically unbalanced that a major event in Europe refused to even let it participate- as well as many other events. Each new batch of books was violently oppressive, one-upping the previous batch. The fatigue was real. I took time off. I explored a handful of other games, but never really dedicated to anything outside of Blood Bowl and Necromunda at the time.
Then 10th hit. Wow! That was fast. Three years again? That seems really fast. I had assumed the 8-9 transition was so fast because 8th was an Index, but here we are in 10th going right back to index. In typical GW fashion the trickled rules out slowly, and the more they leaked, the more I felt that 10th wasn’t for me. The “Simplified, but not simple” mantra was a smokescreen as the game became extremely dumbed down and diluted. It is a great edition for new players, don’t get me wrong, but for people that had played 40k for 20+ years it felt alien. Some oldheads loved it. I did not. I hated it. I made videos on my YouTube channel detailing why 10th wasn’t for me. Never a hit piece. You can like it, I think it’s ass. A year into 10th and I found myself selling almost everything I owned for 40k and diving into other games. It was a fun experience, learning what other companies had to offer, and I made some headway with stuff like Mantic’s Firefight.
Then late 10th I got suckered into a GT in Hawaii. Let’s be real, though, I got to do a few things on my bucket list while there, and the 40k was secondary to surfing and mountain climbing. It was here, though, and my experience working with GW at the Grand Narrative, that I realized that I actually miss the community. The game sucks, but the people, man. No other game has the community the way 40k does. So I found myself slowly playing again in the twilight of 10th.
A few short months later and I was reading updates about 11th. I liked what I was seeing. The core rules changes look very good. The book dropped, and within the 3 ish months since its been out I’ve played 25 games. I thoroughly enjoy the core mechanics of 11th.
“But Chris!” you say. “This article is titled the Emperor Regrets! This sounds too positive!”
Learn some damn patience.
The Ork book is the first one dropped, which already makes me skeptical. As an Ork player, and a long-time GW player, I know what first book means. First to Worst. But its okay, there are some cool new models in the Armageddon box! The new (again) Wartrakk is one of my favorite new ork models ever, I love it! Then the Legends wave hits. Oh. Yeah. I forgot to mention this earlier, that was one of the catalysts for me dumping 40k in 10th. I hated the rules, but I still played, but then I lost 15 Ork datasheets to Legends, and at least 5 are ones that are staples in my lists. And I wasn’t just some casual basement hammer player rollin’ dice and drinkin’ 40s. I was consistently best in faction, threatening podium at GTs, and podium at RTTs. I played a LOT of Warhammer. So having my staple tools taken from me fucking hurt.
And for those that don’t know, Legends is the tag units get when GW decides you shouldn’t play with your toys anymore. They technically don’t disappear, but they are excluded from comp play.
Well 11th rolls around and I lose another 3-5 datasheets (yet to be confirmed), but either way its nearly 20 in 2 editions. It was after I learned this that I realized a few things:
- Warhammer actually just isn’t for me anymore – I’ll keep stuff to play with the homies, but it just isn’t the jam in my sandwich these days.
- I’m so fed up with the business practices of GW that I want to pack my orks into totes, lock them in my basement, and just play other games…. Oh.. I actually did this.
Let’s address number 2 first.
First off, I’d like to say that Legends can eat ass. It’s a stupid system that doesn’t need to exist. They are making datasheets for things anyway, and they sit in legends. Why exclude them from comp play? Just overpoint them, or make the datasheets genuinely bad. That way idiot savants can still take their Nobz on bikes and wreck shop with them despite being bad, but you don’t have to worry about losing sales because the meta-hoppers won’t be 3d printing them. They are bad. Legends is a bad system that punishes players for having old models. And that mentality can go piss.
Next thing I’d like to address is that 3 years is far too fast for an edition cycle. If we do get all of our codexes out within the edition, whomever got the last book also gets a big dose of BOHICA with it because they get maybe 2 months with it. At least give everyone a year with their books. This shit is like Magic: The Gathering and their “Standard/Modern” formats. (I don’t actually know what they are called, I know what they WERE, but this may have changed) These companies keep meta unstable intentionally to drive sales, and rather than worry about customer retention and churn, seem to be more worried about getting those new customers. I understand you need new customers to grow, but I also understand that you need oldheads and communities to thrive. Just slow the fuck down, man. You are making more money licensing your IP than you are on models, so there is no need for this.
Which brings me to the third and final point. The corporate greed is getting stronger by the month. Shrinkflation continuously hits GW as kits like Chaos Warriors lose half of their models but keep the same price point. Single model boxes like the Greater Daemons are creeping closer to $200 a box, and it just feels like people are slowly getting priced out of the game. But this, in my opinion, is part of the business model. Charge so much money that once you account for time spent building and painting, you realize that your $200 model has about 20 hours worth of labor in it. And the sunken cost fallacy creeps in and prevents people from exploring other options. GW doesn’t have to be the best, just the most expensive, the biggest, and the loudest. If they can do those three things the amount of guilt players feel when shedding armies will be strong enough to keep them in the game.
For the second time in 3 years I’m looking at this game, and the company’s practices, and I’m realizing that it isn’t for me, and this is okay. I’ll keep my Emperor’s Children out, they take up far less space on my hobby shelf. I’ll still play and help the local communities grow. But my heart and my efforts are moving on. For me, and my son, Marvel Crisis Protocol has been a breath of fresh air, and not only that I’ve rediscovered an old love from my youth. Suit up, MechWarrior, your Mad Cat awaits.
-Chris