Thoughts on Warhammer 40,000

Warhammer 40,000 is definitely the most popular miniatures game out there. Its very popular at my local game store. I like the game. I like the miniatures. At the same time I have a complex relationship with the game. The first issue I have with this game is the way that Games Workshop markets it. They like to push for larger and larger armies. The perfect example of this is their latest product--Apocolypse. If you don't know what that is it provides rules to play extremely large battles. Even before that official tournaments generally play at 1,500 points. For me the game peaks at 500 points and anything over 1,000 points borders on unplayable. I know that there are people that disagree. I challenge any of them to say that they played a game over 1000 points that took 2 hours or less. I have never seen one. Now I know that Games Workshop has good reasons for pushing for larger armies. Larger armies cost more. They are a business and they are looking to make money. I don't have a problem with that. What I'm really saying here is that instead of playing larger and larger games maybe 40k players should consider playing smaller games. They may find them even more enjoyable than the large games.

4th Edition

So I don't know about any body else but I'm already getting excited about the 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons. I've been been trying to follow the statements coming out of Wizards of the Coast. There are some that make me very anxious and some that get me really excited. The stuff that makes me the most anxious is the comments they have made about fighters and their weapons. They seem to be making changes so that the fighter has a main weapon that they use and their abilities are related to. I'm not sure I like this. For me a fighter in D&D is a not tied to his weapon. One of his greatest strengths is that he can pick up and use almost any weapon out there. At the same time, when I think about the games that I've played in fighters did tend to lean toward a certain weapon. Sometimes this was out of a roleplaying decision or because of restrictions put in place by feats. (If somebody spends a feat to use an exotic weapon they stick to that weapon.) So this might not be as big of a change as it seems at first. Some of the changes that get me really pumped out of the box deal with Warlocks and Teiflings. The Warlock class in 3rd edition is awesome. It's everything that the Sorcerer should be. I love how they don't run out of abilities. It's awesome that they are going to be making this a standard class. I also like how Teiflings will be a standard race as well. When You are talking about a race with a lot of flavor it doesn't get much better than Teiflings. There is always a good back story for how they come into the world. I know it's early to be excited about the new edition of D&D but I can't help it. If they do all the stuff they are talking about it seems like this will be an awesome game. If you are looking for information on 4th edition EN World is compiling information here.

A New Character in the Game of Life

For those of you reading this blog you might wonder why I haven't posted in quite some time. Well the reason is that I my wife just gave birth. Her name is Alexandria. A lot has been happening here in the wake of this event. As soon as I can get back to posting regularly I will. If you want to see pictures of Alexandria they can be found here.

Game Store Ethics

I have a favorite local game store. I am there at least once a week. All of the employees there know me by name. In short this is where I hang out. That's why it annoys me when I see somebody being a jerk there. What I'm talking about is the people that hang out at the game store and tell people that they can buy something cheaper online. The people take up the gaming space with games that can not be bought at the store. The people that come and play with home made cardboard chits when the store has painted minis only policy. These are all things that you just shouldn't do. When a game store provides you a place to play your games and hang out you should show some respect. When a store, like mine, provides nice terrain tables you respect them by bringing nice miniatures to play on them. They really aren't asking for much. All they want is for you to purchase some product occasionally. You don't have to buy something every time you go in. You don't have to spend much. But when somebody is providing you a service like this the least you can do is return the favor. I'm not saying you can't buy stuff online. All I'm saying is that when you are at the game store don't brag about it. And when you do go to buy something online maybe you should just ask yourself "Do you think my local game store would have this?" or "Do I really need this now or can it wait till I get a chance to go the the local game store?"