In praise of the 'Daddy'

Compared to my rant about 40k the other month, of Warhammer I can only say, "Oh, how do I love thee, let me count the ways..."

Possibly a bit overwrought, but by comparison to 40k, it remains a peach of a game. Not least as it works well across all sizes of game, and makes a much better fist of applying tactical doctrines.


Like all wargames, it isn't perfect of course, and as with it's Sci-Fi bast**d (and I use that in the truest sense) offspring, it can suffer from endless rule tinkering and an arms race special rule mentality. But the core of the system is far more predictable and the armies are not nearly so unbalanced; they can be made to be, but also it is easy to exercise some restraint. Play a 40k Space Marine army and you are already bringing a gun to a knife fight!

Last week I had a small 500 point game against a fun little Dwarf army, for example. The dwarf copter ruined any chance I had of a win, but at no point did it feel like it was robbing me of the joy of a game. To be fair, when you mainly play Dogs of War, losing is second nature.

I just know in a 40k context, it would have firstly took twice as long to play out, secondly involved endless rule book referrals, and thirdly, felt utterly joyless - to me anyway. With Warhammer, I at least know the rules well, even if I regularly transpose WAB rules to WFB, and vice-versa, and there are elements of each turn that involve both players, helping keep you involved.

As an aside, there is a lot more activity in terms of painting in our club with WFB armies. And I do like a nicely painted force, whether to play against or just photograph.

An attractive little 500 point Empire army above, and two shots of elements from a Beasts of Chaos army below.



So the up shot of this musing? Well I think at least one of my two remaining 40k armies is for the chop, which remains to be seen, but not for the first time in the last twenty years I've fallen out of love with that particular game, and it may be time to let them find a natural home.

And I suppose the space it would free up would at least allow me to get my other two WFB armies out of storage...