At a Crossroads

I find myself at a crossroads over the past year. Since this is a new blog I feel the need to provide brief history of my Warhammer gaming.  I have been playing Warhammer Fantasy for over a decade collectively.  Starting in the 4th over 17 years ago, with a few friends during the weekend.  I started with Dwarves and fell in love with the game.  This was the time before I was in high school so my weekends were not busy working or going to football games.  I did not really play much during high school with the exception of a few games here and there.  There was no way that I could play early in college and basically missed the fifth edition.  When I had a place to set up a painting table I started back in the the sixth, not because I had the space, but rather I got interested once again to the hobby after reading through how the sixth edition worked, and some of the models drew me in once again.  I have been playing ever since.... until last year. 

I read the rumors on warseer when they came out, and I was not that enthused at all as to what I was reading.  As usual the rumors turned out to be true when I got the starter boxset.  I read through the book and played a few friendly games and was not impressed with what I experienced.  I just flat out did not like playing the game that I used to.  The core rules is what really repelled me when I went through them.  It seemed like half of the new rules came from the fifth edition of 40K and the other half were fixes for the screwups that we experienced in the 7th edition.  It is like the saying of what came first, the chicken or the egg, when they were developing the game for the 8th edition.  What came first the terrible army books of the 7th so that the 8th edition is the fix, or did they have the 8th edition in mind when they made the army books for the 7th.  I honestly think that since the 7th edition books went off of the rails with VC and HE, which I believe that they were books 3 and 4, I tend to think that the 8th is to make up for the mistakes of the 7th armybooks. 

Now I flat out cant stand the army books that came out at all during the tenure of the 7th edition.  I believe that I have since sold all but one army book and I dont know why I am keeping the damn thing.  However, I have no problems with the core rules of the 7th edition.  I have personally really did like using 7th edition core rules with 6th edition rulebooks.  I actually have played with a  friend that liked the old army book after his army book "expired" just for fun and we were perfectly happy.  The 8th edition changed everything for me.  Now I cannot tolerate the game at all. 

What dont I like?

Now here is the meat of the problem.  What is it that I dont like about the 8th edition.  How can I count the ways?  Let take this one phase at a time in no specific order.

1: Magic:  I am not a fan of how magic and magic items are put together.  Having generic magic items with a few army oriented items really seems to me lazy and a copout.  I dont like how they have one extra spell that you dont have to roll for.  Not that I dont like that at all, but it makes armies like Elves not as special.  While I did not experience in my few games the uber spells that everyone bemones about, I certainly dont approve of them.  I know that critics will say that it almost never happens, but that is like telling an anti-war protestor "dont worry about nuclear weapons they are almost never used."

2: Close Combat:  I have problem with the fact that most of a unit has the ability to fight in close combat.  Apparently I can have my High Elf spearelves fight with 40 models now.  I know that this is a fantasy game, and we are talking about High Elves, but what exactly makes them able to defy physics.  I dont like how ward saves are given to troops with hand weapon and shields.  Ward saves are supposed to be more or less magical how is it that common troops get it juse because of a weapon choice.(note: I dont like how Brettonians use them)  An extra attack on the charge makes no real sense to me at all, one of the 40K rules that dont translate well.  It seems to me that most of the new rules in close combat that are new were to compensate for very hard elite units of the 7th edition.  This phase is what really sent me over the edge. 

3: Shooting:  I really dont like how warmachines work now it is too much like how 40K is used.  Guessing for the warmachines is a skill that everyone who barely passed geometry can do.  Those who have not done that yet really should not be playing wargames in my opinion, even if they graduate from high school.

4: Movement:  Really this phase is not as bad as others but there are a few problems.  I dont like how you are not allowed to turn anymore. (WAB did that as well, Damn them)  While I like the concept randomness during the charge the way that it works is too varied for my taiste. 

So Now What?

What to do now with all of my books and armies?  Well I am now basically becoming a collector of GW's miniatures, and mainly the older metal models since they are better models in my opinion.  I have recently sold off almost all of my models from the boxset with a few exceptions.  They just flat out do not work with what I have with in inventory with my High Elves.  A lot of my "Future Projects" are on hold if not on the selling block.  Warhammer Ancient Battle is really my game of choice right now.  I am looking at Kings of War from Mantic but we shall see what happens. 

It seems that I am not alone in my sojourn from Warhammer in my area.  I know a few veteran wargammers who are not really playing anymore both personally and online.  I have offered to play them using 6th edition rules to the ones that I personally know, but I have yet to set up a time to play.  Most of them are moving towards Warhammer Ancient Battle if they already are not already playing. 

I have also kicked around the idea about starting a forum for us players who want to play older editions.  I have not seen any forums that have done this so I guess that this will be the first.  I cant see any other way to, dare I say it, "organize" those who want to play the previous editions.  I am not looking to put together a tournament circut, just a way to find opponants. 

Like all change you have no idea where you will land in the end or what it will look like, but the only way to make the change happen is to start trying.