Remember me
Goatboy here and Warhammer 40K is a new players game now. The player that gets to practice constantly wins… but there’s hope for us old-timers!
11th Edition is complex. The player that gets to practice for all kinds of lists, rushes to get their army battle ready, and knows all the latest tricks – wins It is also the player that doesn’t have a ton of other things getting in the way most of their time. So what happens when you stop being good – probably because of real life? What do you do now as someone that might have all the time to practice and wreck those table top nerds with your armies of doom back in the day? What is the next level for an old Warhammer 40K player in 11th Edition?
You can always get good again. You find the right type of army and hit the perfect wave of good rules/models you have and ride that wave to victory. You could find ways to practice more, watch a ton of videos, and just prepare yourself that your time should be spent on dancing with the devil in the pale moonlight in a pile of d6’s. But let me tell you as someone that used to be a lot better that maybe its time to not be as good and just find other avenues for enjoyment within this hobby.
I saw that as someone that is pretty immersed in it enough to write about 40K all week for decades, paint models for people, and find time to get an event in every now and again. You would think I might have time to get good but I just don’t. I look to find other ways to scratch that competitive itch and get my high from rolling dice.
I set goals for myself that are mostly reachable by someone that knows how to win a game. This means looking at things like just winning more than losing or taking a list that is extremely hard so any win is a good one. I always set my goal to play an army I like, models I enjoy, and hopefully win more than lose. If I leave an even 4-1 or 4-2 that is a win in my mind.
This isn’t a game where winning the event gets you a ton of things. I know a lot of events give out cool prizes but I always love getting the best of faction award for the army I bring. Being the best at what might not be the best army is a great feeling. You didn’t have to compromise with building the best meta list and instead most likely ran with what makes you feel good.
Beyond all of the actual winning and losing, the bigger aspects of this game is just seeing people at the event. I get hit up by friends I might see once a year before heading off to one of the majors and I love catching up, asking questions about life, and just getting to know an old friend again. There are so many times the games becomes secondary if I run into a buddy on the table top and we are just throwing haymakers and then drinking a beer or complaining about the lack of new models for our favorite faction.
I know my next phase in this game is really amplifying the hobby side of things for myself. This means looking at a decent display board with my best models on top of it. I keep trying to figure out some method to build something that looks good and can be transported a bit easier. I also look around for inspiration for other players armies and seeing if something catches my eye. It is the next stage of hobby growth for us old players that might have been good back in the day but trying to remember all the armies and their rules is a daunting task. There isn’t that much room in our head with kid stuff and family stuff that needs to be at the top while whoever is the best HQ choice can live down in the bottom with all the random sport stats and comic book nonsense that lives in my head.
You need to make a decision about where are you at right now in the game? Are you wanting to crush newbs and wreck fools on the table top? Are you hoping you get to the finals and wreck face on a stream somewhere? Are you wanting people to steal your list for their own meta swap in their local event?
Or like me, are you a little long in tooth, and just want to have some fun, throw some dice with friends, and win a few games?
Thomas Reidy, aka Goatboy, the ever-evil member of BoLS. I do arts, play 40k, and even paint a lot of stuff. I have been playing Warhammer 40K since the 1990s, and have won multiple national events including Adepticon and GW GTs. I've been writing for BoLS for 15 years. Look at my Instagram to see what I am working on - or working on for someone. I am always doing something hobby related.
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