My name is Eddie and as soon as I saw this guest article thing on Faeit 212 I had to write something worthy of such an opportunity.This article is about all the things that make 40k great.
Hey guys. Seeing as it's Valentines day (well, was) I thought it would be great to gather some like minded single friends (Yep, that's pretty much all my friends at the moment!) and go to Games Workshop for a little Valentines Day massacre, of a sort. Unfortunately, only me and good friend Alfie ended up going and seeing as he has just got back in to the hobby we decided to scrap the game and get some painting done instead.
It was while we where there that the inspiration for this post popped in to my head. Seeing all the negativity surrounding the 'GW trying to trademark Space Marine' thing on the blogosphere lately, and also reading endless articles on how unbalanced the game is; and how long it takes to paint up a half decent army; and how much it costs to just get in to the hobby, has made me want to sit down and write a list, somewhat, of everything about 40k and other wargames that is good. Things that make us want to start and keep us going when times are bad and keep us buying models to the bitter end. So here goes:
1. The people. The friends. While there are people out there who are dicks about the rules and how much money they've spent on their army, and you'll be lucky to walk in to a GW store without being swamped by a rabble of annoying kids, there are lots and lots of really cool guys who play 40k, and playing games and having a laugh with them is always great fun. I also know that there is at least one person I'd never even talk to if it wasn't for the game, and I think that's just fantastic. Also, it allows you to start great, playful rivalries and vendettas, and make great allies and comrades in arms with others.
2. The internet. I know that without the many people who give up time they could be painting, playing or doing something else to write articles and upload videos about 40k my painting skills would be awful, I probably wouldn't even know how to drybrush, and my life would be quite a bit less interesting. Seeing all the fantastic content that people have created makes you want to give something back, which is why I started this blog. I haven't given much back yet but I'm working on it. Also, getting comments with praise for your work or even criticism on how you could improve is awesome.
3. The creativity. There aren't many pursuits in life that allow quite as much imagination and creativity as our hobby. Not only do we get to decide what we want our force to look like, paint it in whatever colours you can dream of, and play games of your own design with it; but you can develop epic tales of glory and conquest as well as tragic stories of defeat and the deaths of mighty heroes by the dozen. Some people even go so far as to write entire novels about them; I mean, just look at the Black Library website. All those books, that amazing artwork, were created based on this wonderful game. Not to mention the fan fiction.
4. The events. Tournaments, official or not, allow many people from all over the place to gather in one room and play some games. The chances are you would never have met any of them without it, and even if you did, would probably not have discovered their love for the hobby without it. Also the number of game stores and clubs that have opened to provide people with places to play is simply staggering. These events give us exciting places to go on weekends that would otherwise have been dull and rainy. They give us deadlines to keep us motivated to paint our armies. .
I'm going to stop there. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and in fact I openly encourage you to expand upon it. Please leave a comment below and tell me if you enjoyed the article and what things you think make our hobby great.
This is our hobby. And it's brilliant.
Eddie is an overly excitable Space Wolves collector who battle damages his tanks so much you cant even see what color it used to be. He enjoys blogging and writing other things but isn't very good at doing them on time. He occasionally documents his miniature musings on his blog: http://eddielegionofone.blogspot.co.uk/ and would love it if you checked it out some time.
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