On Warhammering Again

[danieldwilliam]

So, I'm getting back in to Warhammer, the table top battle game for grown up well paid twelve year olds and their children everywhere.



I used to play a little when I was a teenager and I still have most of my Bretonnian army. I used to have more, I lost some, now I have the core of an army but not enough for a workable one.

The Captain has developed a fascination with Hobbits (based on a conversation he and I had about Dragons and them being robbed by dwarves and a hobbit - I'm still not convinced he has fully accepted that the dwarves are the good guys). Following that he has a large and growing obsession with The Hobbit Shop (aka the Games Workshop shop aka the Warhammer Shop) It is on the way home from nursery and he stared in at the window for weeks before going in. He was entranced. I think that is the word. He decided he wanted a small Hobbit thing for his weekly treat and when we went in I was to buy the Gamesworkshop Hobbit game.

This encourage me to buy the boxed starter set for the current edition of Warhammer.

Hang on -what are these things.

Warhammer is a hobby game. You buy (for vast expense) little plastic soldiers in fantasy themes; knights, elves, skeletons, the forces of Chaos, paint them and use them to fight battles against each other. Warhammer has about 12 different teams you can play. There are lots of different examples of tabletop minature gaming by different sellers but Warhammer is probaby the most famous. And Expensive.

Each team has a number of different troop types, cavarly, infantry, artillery and special forces and they combine to give a different playing style. For a well filled balanced army you probably need about 10 units. The game regulates army size by using a points system - so particular troop types cost points, the better the troop the more points and there is a points limit on the overall game. Some armies have good points density. Bretonnians with their lovely, hard as nails knights have fewer smaller units than Skaven, who are made up of hordes of cheap rats.

The Hobbit is a similar thing, but with different rules, based on the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings films (and books but mainly the films visually). The Hobbit game is a bit simpler. Simple enough that the Captain at 5 can just about play a simple game of it.

So, I bought the Warhammer boxed set - High Elves (posh elves) vs Skaven (fascist rats) which gives me the core for an army in both of these teams and the rules for the game (but not the special rules for the two armies - those are an extra £20-£30, thanks).

What's the plan? Well, I'm going to take up playing again. There is a nice looking minature table top gaming cafe and shop recently opened in the next suburb. They look like they will be running leagues and tournaments and what not - so I can ease myself back in to the hobby. I'm also going to introduce the Captain to the game (slowly, because he's five and currently he like the miniature soldiers but mainly to bash them against each other and they are a wee bit fragile for that). I can also set up few games with my new step-brother who is a reformed Warhammerer.

And I need to avoid being inconvenienced by the upcoming rule change and the rumours of Warhammer being significantly changed - especially when playing with the Captain - which is probabably happening in July.

So, I figure I need four armies, each of sufficient size that they are worth playing against each other and that I'm not relying on model availability past the summer.

I'm going for

Bretonnians (knights with Aurthurian mythos and French names.) (Team Name: Le Cuisinier, le voleur, sa femme et son amant)
High Elves (post elves who live in cities not trees) (Team Name: To Be Confirmed buy toying with Greta Garbo's Wayward Boys and Girls)
Skaven (fascist rats) (Team Name: The Dead for a Ducat Dudes)

(both of which came in the boxed set.

and the Captain's choice

Tomb Kings (Eygptian styled skeletons) (Team Name: Woohoooo!)

I've bought two copies of the boxed set, an additional Big Box of the High Elves and a couple of extra boxes of the Fascist Rats, and I have some Bretonnian models still in the box which gives me

Bretonnians - not quite a workable army. I have a decent amount of stuff still in still in the packages from when I last played but by the time I get it out and painted I'll still not have the right balance of forces. I need some more knights (that is always the analysis when playing Bretonnians) and some infantry. I think, rather than fork out for GW minatures I'll try some of the proxies that are available. It's not like I'll be playing at GW shops (where they throw you out if you turn up with non-Gamesworkshop minatures) . That will be fun in itself, make the army look a little different and spreads the money around.

High Elves - I think I have a workable, large army. I might need a few extra bits and pieces once I've got it all up and assembled but I think I'm pretty much there. Basically, I think I'm at the point where I'm buying stuff because I think it's cool rather than I need something to fill out or balance my forces.

Skaven - I'll need a few more filler units. The problem with Skaven is that the units are points cheap so you need a lot of them and the units are bigger. Compare a maximum size of say 15 Bretonnian knights in one unit of knights, with 40 basic rats (and you'd probably get three units of rats for the points). So, I need some more basic troops and some of the more fun special forces.

Tomb Kings - I have nothing and I'm aiming for a smaller army, basically as a reserve.


What's in it for me in all of this.

Well, I enjoy playing the game. i shall enjoy playing with the Captain as he gets a bit older. I'm not that fussed about the narrative fluff that comes with the game but I like game play and the social side of it. Also (importantly) I find the painting of the models very mediative. It requires good levels of concentration and this clears my mind.



Measuring Sticks Ahoy.

Comments

[andrewducker]

I've never been a Warhammer wargamer, although I did play the RPG a lot at university. It does look like a lot of fun though.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

I was another RPGer, though massively post Uni :)

Dan, to get a firm grip on the Skaven mentality I'd recommend Bill King's "Skaven Slayer" (and also his original "Trollslayer" book).

I never had the patience or skill to paint my own army, and ended up playing the simpler games they later spun off, like Space Hulk, Blood Bowl and um, the one with single characters which was a bit like an RPG with an expanding board...

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

I shall look it up.

Bill's your mate?

It was a sad day when Gamesworkshop pulled out of all the fringe games.

Especially as it happened just before 3d printing became a thing.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Yup, Bill worked for GM in the 90s, first as a game designer then a writer. He got me into the WFRPG, and was our GM for a while before he moved to Prague. One of the joys of my life was walking around Ann Arbor with him, talking about doing a Seven Slayers book (it later became Dragon Slayer) and whether he'd be able to get Horny the Dwarf past GW's editors...

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

It is fun.

There is a lot of consulting of rules and waving of measuring sticks and so on but if you enjoy that sort of thing it is pretty enjoyable.

Part of my Warhammer scheme is to have enough kit in the house so that guests can play without having to maintain their own army.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

From what I remember, the Skaven are a good army for a youngster to play, as you can go for swarm attacks which are immensely enjoyable and not long on strategy. Or was that Snottlings? Mikey first took part in RPGs playing Kevin the War Dog, at the age of around five or six. "Kevin barks to scare the monster" was rolled many a time.

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

I think you are right about the Skaven being a good intro. Just swarm all over my knights and eat them.