Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Letter to the 40k League

* The new 40k League is starting up this week, and they wanted to know if we were playing or not. I wanted to let them know I wasn't in an honest, complete, and respectfully direct way. It also serves as an explanation about my feelings about the Warhammer 40,000 game.

Hey fellas,

Katie and I talked, and we're out on the coming league.
As much as I enjoy the company of everyone, I'm not really much of a Warhammer 40,000 player.

I love 40k, as far as the setting, stories, minis etc go, but the game itself not so much.
I think this is largely due to my own expectations of the game, which are honestly unrealistic.

As a 40k (the setting) player, I like to play out what I've read in the novels, but honestly, the Warhammer 40,000 Miniatures game barely has any resemblance of what is written in the novels. Warhammer 40,000 is a game (meaning the competitive type, with a winner and loser) , and tactics in that game are what helps you win: accurate measurement, falling back a half-inch to deny a charge attempt, using a certain number (even/ odd) of models so the mathematical advantage of fire is greater, meat shields, the appropriate use of specialized gear to negate other special gear. Meh.

My experience in gaming is in RPGs for the most part. What is considered tactics in Warhammer 40,000 is considered meta-gaming in RP. So my expectations are all jacked up for playing the minis game. I tend to enjoy moving little dudes around, using cover, shooting at stuff, and killing bad guys...and really, that's as far in to Warhammer 40,000 (the minis game) tactics as I want to go. I'll never be competitive with guys who know how to use the rules better. I'll certainly never be among the GT players.

The problem is entirely mine.
If anyone wants an occasional goof-off game of 40k, and just have fun moving dudes around, I could go for that.
But a league? It's too competitive and I'm only an occasional player at best.

Sorry guys.
JP

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