Category: Wargames

  • The NO Warhammer challenge recap for 2024

    The NO Warhammer challenge recap for 2024

    Last year I set a challenge for myself to not buy any Warhammer miniatures. It was my personal Warhammer challenge for 2024. It’s now the end of the year and I decided to review the past 12 months. I wanted to see how the challenge helped me against my pile of miniatures.

    Overall, the NO Warhammer challenge didn’t go badly. The whole idea of the challenge is to divide your miniatures collection into discrete sets determined by specific criteria, i.e. all the miniatures for one faction. You cannot buy any miniatures that meet those criteria. First, you must paint all your existing collection of that set.

    This worked pretty well for me because it allowed me to buy some bits without going crazy. It also forced me to finish what I had before buying new stuff. Sometimes it just prevented me from buying anything altogether. So let’s see what happened in 2024.

    Gitz Gitz Gitz

    I planned to focus on a primary set this year. My goal was to finish my Gloomspite Gitz for Age of Sigmar. This project involved finishing an impressive army. It’s an army which counts over 50 models and a massive piece of terrain. And that’s just the 2000 points I had in mind – there is more that’s still grey! Given my painting speed I’m super pleased to finally have an army fully painted. This is, hands down, the biggest achievement of my hobby life because :

    • I never ever had an army in the first place
    • Never ever had a fully painted one at that.

    Now, the viability of the army it’s a whole different kettle of fish. I took so long to paint that the 4th edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar came out. This rendered the squigs completely useless.

    Moonstone

    The Moonstone boxsets for the Mushrooms and Mayhem and Ribald

    Moonstone was another game which was its own set. If you haven’t already, please check out the game as it’s incredibly fun! I painted some characters of the Goblins (obviously) faction. They are super fun. I didn’t manage to completely finish the collection before buying some more. Due to time commitments and a game that was scheduled, I had to buy a couple more minis for it. However, the last miniature before the purchase was about 70% complete so I’ll give myself a pass.

    Warhammer Underworlds

    The Brethren of the Bolt sprue that comes with the Warhammer Underworlds Wintermaw boxset

    At the beginning of the year I set myself to paint my Wurmspat Nurgle Underworlds warband. Suffice to say that I haven’t got around to it. Game Workshop released so many Underworlds boxes that I pretty much checked out and lost interest. Until the new edition was announced.

    I really like the Brethren of the Bolt warband. However, I knew I couldn’t buy it. Not all my Underworlds stuff was painted. And so I came up with a grand plan: sell what I have, then get what I want.

    And so I managed to stay within the boundaries of my Warhammer challenge. My set was complete so I was allowed to buy new stuff!

    Some Sylvaneth

    The Arch Revenant box for the Sylvaneth army in Warhammer Age of Sigmar

    I went to my first ever Warhammer tournament at Warhammer World this year. I had a blast. It was an incredible experiece (thanks Tim for inviting me!).

    I played against Jimbo’s amazing Sylvaneth army. For those who do not know, Jimbo is one of Age of Sigmar’s designers. His army was gloriously painted. This, combined with the hype of being at the event, made me buy some Sylvaneth to take home. I purchased one Arch Revenant to try some paint schemes.

    Concluding the NO Warhammer challenge

    In the end I didn’t quite stuck to the rules. I broke the challenge with both Moonstone and Age of Sigmar. Thankfully I didn’t break it by much, and that was the whole point of the challenge.

    I’m looking forward to repeating it for 2025. Keep an eye out for the next post, where I’ll formalize the rules so that you can take part yourself!

  • The Warhammer release cycle burnout – Why it is unsustainable

    Warhammer World Exhibition, too much Warhammer?

    It’s been a busy year for Games Workshop. They have released a lot of products for Warhammer. Some might say that Games Workshop is releasing too much stuff.

    Is it me or does it feel like Warhammer miniatures are released at a neck breaking pace all the time? Beware, this one is a ranty one.

    Warhammer weekly releases

    First off we need to talk about the weekly Warhammer releases. There is a lot that comes out every single week and you get pre-orders every single Saturday. My question would be “Who has the time and money to buy and paint all this stuff?”

    I’m not going to lie, I’ve pre-ordered some stuff myself in the past. But the reality is that the miniatures that I buy are few and far in between. The main reason is that I don’t really have the time to build and paint Warhammer during the week. With a full-time job and a baby, my hobby time is essentially non-existent at the moment. It’s hard to reconcile weekly releases with my life schedule and commitments.

    On the plus side, the Warhammer releases are generally varied and span different games. One week releases for Warhammer 40,000, then another week for Age of Sigmar, then Blood Bowl, Necromunda etc etc. So the reality is that you’re probably not going to buy much plastic every single week.

    The Warhammer 3-year cycle

    Games Workshop essentially releases a new edition of their main games every 3 years. This means that every 3 years the game’s rules get rewritten. Your faction rules will change, the balance within your faction will change and the game style may be affected too. This will force you most likely to at least buy more books and data cards. And then buy more miniatures since the meta will change of course.

    Obviously this is by design. Warhammer is a lucrative IP and Games Workshop knows it. It needs to sell in order to bring profits to the shareholders. It’s their business practise and if they want to run it that way that’s fine. This said, the way they update their games is not very consumer friendly because every time new rules are released you have to buy more rulebooks.

    The reality is: how many games of Warhammer do you actually play a year? There’s going to be a very small minority that plays every week, but the vast majority of people are not going to be playing that much. I am lucky if I get to play once a month. It’s simply really hard for casual gamers like myself to keep up.

    Too! much! Warhammer!

    And it’s not just the 3-year cycle. In 2024 alone, we’ve had three major editions launching. Warhammer Age of Sigmar entered its fourth edition  this summer (which is great by the way) followed by a brand new edition of Kill Team shortly after, and now Warhammer Underworlds is getting a revamp.

    My Stormcasts from the previous edition of Warhammer Underworlds

    That’s three new editions for three different games. All released within a few months from each other. Isn’t it a bit much?

    Obviously, with so many games, the overlap is bound to happen, but this is at the detriment of the games they want to hype up. A new edition doesn’t feel special anymore. It’s just a tick box exercise that has to happen because money.

    There is no breathing room between releases, everything is so fast that you do not have time to even open the box to start gluing pieces that the next big box is already out.

    They teased AoS 4th Edition for months on end, and then they moved on from it so quickly it was unreal. A few weeks later they were hyping up Kill Team! So Age of Sigmar wasn’t so special after all?

    Games Workshop wants you to get in on the hype cycle, and I’m not going to get into it now, but the new edition means new shiny toys, new hype, new sales. Simples. Consumers like me need to be mindful of the hype and try not to get caught into it. But this will be a topic I want to focus on in the future and I’ll stop here for now.

    But what do you think of Games Workshop release cycle? Do you think it’s too much or is 3 years a good time frame between? I’ll be interested to know your thoughts. Let me know in the comments!

  • Is Warhammer too hard to get into? Let’s find out

    We all know that Warhammer can be expensive. It takes a lot of time and money to buy, build and paint your armies. In this week’s post, I want to ask the question : is Warhammer too hard for a beginner. Is it too difficult to get into?

    Where do you start with Warhammer?

    Since I have recently become a dad I am questioning if Games Workshop’s practices are friendly for a kid. If I wasn’t in the Warhammer hobby already, could my daughter start playing?

    So let’s start from the beginning. Imagine this.

    You are walking by your local friendly game store and your kid asks you if you can go inside. Eventually the kid expresses interest in Warhammer. So you look at what the store has in stock. You want to understand what a starter product would be. You also want to know if it would be suitable for a kid.

    The Warhammer Starter Set problem

    I dug through Games Workshop’s web store to see what the starter products are. I actually found it pretty confusing myself.

    Apart from the fact that the website is quite difficult to navigate… Why are there three different starter sets for Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Age of Sigmar? Which one should I get?

    For instance, Age of Sigmar has an Introductory Starter Set, a Starter Set and then an Ultimate Starter Set.

    Now you tell me if this makes any sense from a new customers point of view. Which one is the starter set I should be getting?

    The Introductory one should provide a good introduction right? So why would  I get the slightly bigger Starter Set? Is that the normal one? What about the Ultimate Starter Set.. is that for experienced hobbies and I should not buy it? So many questions!

    I am an experienced Warhammer enthusiast. I know that the smallest set does not give a comprehensive introduction to the game. Whoever buys the introductory starter set will probably be disappointed when they get it up and running. But that is not something that a new player would be aware of!

    Spearhead and Combat Patrol

    On the other hand the Warhammer Age Of Sigmar Ultimate Starter Set is really the complete product as it contains two Spearhead forces to play with.

    In my opinion, this provides the best introductory experience by far and the closest replica to the full-blown Warhammer Age of Sigmar. It provides a complete flavour of what Warhammer is about.

    Both Spearhead mode for Age of Sigmar and Combat Patrol mode for Warhammer 40k are great moves from Games Workshop to attract new players. The fact that you only need one box to start is perfect in my opinion. And I hear that Spearhead games are great fun!

    However, the Ultimate Starter Set may look too expensive to buy outright if you have never been introduced to Warhammer before. Having to dish out 130 pounds for a box full of plastic toy soldiers is too much for a parent to buy on a whim, let alone a kid that has no income.

    I think the Warhammer Age Of Sigmar Ultimate Starter Set is a hard sell for a potential new player. Even if it is still cheaper than buying all of the items separately, I wouldn’t want to spend all that money.

    On the other hand, the Introductory Starter Set on the other hand is actually very bad value because it doesn’t provide the full experience like the Ultimate Starter Set does.

    Starting Warhammer too hard! What to do?

    In my opinion Games Workshop should get rid of the three starter sets boxes proposition.

    Instead, they should provide one single box that contains the full experience. And I mean the full experience. It should also contain dice (why on her earth aren’t there dice in the box), rulers, the whole shabang.

    Most of all it should be cheap. Ideally the box would be a loss leader. Good value for money so that it’s an easy sell  and it should provide the whole Warhammer experience. Basically make the Ultimate Starter Set but cheaper so that it becomes an insta-buy for people to buy on a whim.

    But what do you think? Do you like the 3 starter sets that Games Workshop currently offers? Are these Warhammer Starter Set well placed? Or what would you change? Let me know in the comments!