Blog-o-mancy!!!

I'm going to cautiously resurrect this blog and see how I go. Been spending a lot (a LOT) of time blog-surfing and really enjoying the reading time and absorbing player perspectives on various interesting facets of Warhammer and for the sake of my own reflection I think it's time I tried this blog thing again. Like a freshly built Zombie it might very well crumble without achieving bugger all, but in the meantime a couple of people might find it amusing (if not a little apathetic and uneconomical).

So much has happened recently in Warhammer both the game system and army books and for me personally the game has shifted considerably. After various extreme and highly polarised reactions to the release of 8th edition Warhammer the general international community appears to have settled down considerably. I'm heartened by the response of the local community with fairly steady numbers and attendance at tournaments and nothing like the drastic drop-off in numbers experienced during 'The Sundering' in Australia.

The community is now awaiting the release of the third new army book for 8th edition - O&Gs and Tomb Kings having now been released and the current Net-vibe indicating they are 'balanced' (don't get me started on the subjectivity of that word!), reasonably on-par with each other, and there has been some relief that the startling concept of drastically reducing magic items in army books (starting with O&Gs) has at least been followed-through by the TK release (albeit with a vast increase in the actual usefulness of the magic items in the TK book vs the O&G book).

On a personal level I am enjoying 8th edition immensely as a 'Friday night with mates, beer and pretzels' affair while having some difficulty with the game at a tournament level. This is not to say I'm not enjoying tournament games (I most certainly am!) but it still feels to me like a system that is best when played against like-minded peers who are willingly driving what is acceptable on the table as opposed to having restriction and caps forced upon them. Clearly the second option is the sensible and reasonable one as far as a generic tournament format goes, but the best and most exciting games so far for me have been the casual games against mates. Every game has a 'weird and wonderful moment' (and I don't mean 6-dice casting of Dwellers ending the game prematurely) and builds an exciting story and narrative. 7th edition is for me a very distant memory and I feel lucky to not have the weight of knowledge that participation in previous editions of Warhammer would influence and impact my expectations on where the game is at now. Is it less tactical? I'm really not sure - but I'm finding it more enjoyable and FUN.

I'm still toying with Vampire Counts but most recently an all-Goblin army has been consuming my painting time and imagination. This army was the result of two very fortunate conversations with gamers who were looking to off-load their respective Greenskin collections and I essentially ended up with a HUGE Goblin force (3000pts+) for easily less than $150. I'm now neck-deep in a repainting frenzy and, while I'm sure I'll eventually get sick of the colour green, am finding the little blighters an absolute joy to colour in. The battlefield successes and fortunes of the Blue Moon Night Goblins and their dubious allies Spider-riding Forest Goblin allies has to this point been somewhat circumspect but despite the fact that decent wins are a rare occurence they are enormous fun to play with (and lose with!). Hard to see how this has not had an effect on my adjusted attitude to tournament play...

I've probably had 7 games or so with the 8th edition (O&)Gs now and will post up my list for the next tournament on the calendar (NiCon) and some thoughts about how it's been going (and goes at the tournament).