If you’ve been around our corner of the internet for any amount of time you may have seen my name attached to articles for Titanicus, Age of Sigmar, Conquest, Burrows and Badgers, Old World, Historicals, and a few other smaller systems. Today’s piece is about all of these games, and more, and just generally how my approach to wargaming has changed over the years.
My background in gaming is pretty common. I started when I was about 12 years old, first playing with some minis a friend had for the Lord of the Rings game from Games Workshop (now Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game) and then getting the Battle for Macragge set. I painted Ultramarines and traded Tyranids for more marines; the Space Marines looked cool in the art of the mini rulebook, the 4th edition codex, and on the boxes in the Games Workshop. I didn’t care that mine didn’t look as good they were mine and I loved them. When Battle for Skull Pass came out a little while after my love for dwarfs started and has not stopped! My family weren’t rich by any means so I got new sets for my birthday, at Christmas, and when I saved up money from mowing my neighbours lawns. The point though is that I just thoroughly enjoyed the hobby in my youth before the shop closed down in my mid-teens and I dropped out of it until moving to the UK. I did, however, love to win games even if it wasn’t a common occurrence. I liked units because I lost games to them or they did well for me, even with a poor understanding of rules at the time.
I moved to the UK for Uni, got back into Warhammer, started working in the local Warhammer store part time in 2015 while studying (yes right as AoS started, that was a “fun” time to be a GW employee!), and then in 2020 got involved with Goonhammer and it’s been fantastic. I work full-time and this is very much a second job but I love it.
In very simple terms I am a competitively-minded individual. That’s just how my brain is wired and I’m not sure that can really stop. I like to win games. Who doesn’t? Is that the only reason I play games however? Absolutely not and that part has become more true over the last couple years as I’ve dipped into multiple other game systems.
Stop Competing
This is the phrase that’s been rattling around in my head for the last few weeks while I’ve been mulling this article over. Here on Goonhammer we have “Start Competing” articles for a few game systems so it just seemed to fit. I’ve attended dozens of events over the years, typically competitively focused, and one of the things that I’ve heard from “top players” when I stray onto top tables more than a few times is about how they only play Age of Sigmar, or 40k, or whatever else solely because they can’t invest any time into anything else.
Wargaming is an investment in more ways than just monetary but I don’t have to tell you, a probable wargamer, that. We pour hours of time into all aspects of the hobby, or the aspects that you engage in at least, between building, painting, reading (that includes rules!), list-building, and playing. I used to do a lot of building, not much painting (just what I had to for an event) but a LOT of list building with the idea of playing a lot.
That shifted over the pandemic especially when what I was able to do at home, on my own, on discord hobby calls was really just build and paint. Which is when I figured out I was able to paint up minis to a quality that I was happy with very quickly; like when I built and painted this Gryphonicus Legio for Titanicus in about 10 days consecutively. With that stemmed a change in what minis I bought and painted not because they were just good but because I wanted to own them, paint them, and put them on the table. These days each of those points is important to me, not just a unit’s stats. I will still do what I can within those units that I like to build a list that is good and often turns out to be “good enough” instead of fully optimised. That’s ok. I still like to theorise on what’s currently very-good in a game’s meta, especially with the armies I collect in Age of Sigmar, but I don’t and won’t own all of those units. Instead I’ll go along to events with what I do own, have painted, and maybe paint up one specific model or unit sometimes to make it a little better but I’m not expecting to walk away from these with perfect win records or trophies.
Expectations
One of the hardest things in life can often be setting expectations for ourselves. When they’re set for us by others it’s easy to blame a mismanagement of expectation and experience but when we’re setting those expectations ourselves, even if we aren’t really aware of them, it can cause a lot of internal conflict and a search for an external source to blame. There’s a cross section here of the amount of time and effort you are willing to put into this hobby and how good of hobbyist and/or player you can come out on the other side; goalposts will vary based on individual. If you want to be top tables at tournaments that means investing your time into that singular game system as well as keeping up with ever shifting metas in that game. Building and painting new models, units, or even full armies within the time span that some metas can change is more than enough to keep you busy. That time scale will of course change from game to game as well!
Balance is Vital
Just because you aren’t competing at a high level does not mean that game balance isn’t important, either. This is slightly off-topic but it goes hand-in-hand with mid-table and more casual gaming. The more balanced a game is the better it is for all players involved. The more balanced a game is the better it is for casual players especially. You can build the army/warband/faction you like for whatever reason you do and not have to worry about being called unpleasant names because it happens to be very powerful. Games often have unwritten rules of sportsmanship within their greater communities that you simply don’t take X unit or playing Y army is only because you “like to win games” said with disdain as if it’s a bad thing. It is not a bad thing. These are also very often tied to what is also the coolest units in that game like dreadnoughts, dragons, or something else big and cool. Depending when you’re reading that those references might even be a bit dated…but I’m sure this still exists and while you were reading this section you had a few things come to mind!
Balance also does not directly equate to boring games, either. There’s plenty of flavour to be had in many of the more-balanced games that I enjoy playing! There’s also flavour in a lot of the much-less balanced games I’ve picked up, too. Those lesser balanced games definitely need more of that pre-game chat and local-balance which is usually ok when you’re just playing with the same small group but can then become a big issue when attending larger events or having a pick up game with someone outside that normal group.
A Project, Finished
Up to this point I’ve very obviously been talking about the gaming aspect of wargaming, but there’s a few steps that have to come first, usually. Building and then, usually, painting.
This isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and before 2020 it wasn’t really something I enjoyed or looked forward to doing either! Part of my previous mentality was that I had to paint my models to a certain level to be acceptable and that it would take far too much effort. So, I just did none instead most of the time or painted a few models here or there often rushing full armies with specific army lists just to attend a tournament and then not being happy at all with the paint job after the fact and shifting the army on to someone else. A vicious cycle. Contrast style paints have definitely helped a lot too. Even if I’m not using many (or any) on a project just having them to hand for simple quick things has been a real help to getting paint onto models.
Figuring out my own paint style has maybe been by far the most important step in enjoying painting. Guides, videos, tips, etc are all great to help you learn some basics and even more advanced techniques if that’s what you want to do but if you’re just wanting to mash paint onto models then you just have to do it. You’re going to make mistakes, you’re going to be unhappy with some results, but just doing it is the right step. There is very little right or wrong when it comes to the paints, brushes, or tools that you’re using as well. Nicer, more expensive, brushes are great and you can definitely feel the difference once you know what you’re doing but they are not going to make you a better painter overnight either. My painting is done almost entirely straight out of the pot (yes, pots, not dropper bottles for the most part) with cheap “workhorse” brushes; I have started using Artis Opus ones more recently, they were a gift. However my biggest tip here is that using tiny brushes for smaller details is not the way, you need large bodied brushes like size 1 and size 2 with a nice point, so that the bristles can hold moisture to stop the paint from drying too quickly. I don’t really ever use a palette either but thin the paints just with that moisture that’s soaked up in the bristles after washing my brush which thins out the paint as I go. That’s definitely something I just taught myself as I got on with painting and is difficult for me to define, like much of painting it’s a feeling!
Knowing when a project is “done” can be hard to define, too. Setting your own expectations here is just as important as with gaming. Getting to the end, looking down, and being able to say “that’ll do” is a pretty great feeling. Personally I’d rather get a whole finished project onto the table, every model painted to a similar standard, than spend that same amount of time working on a single entry for a painting competition. That’s just me. What “good enough” is for you will likely be entirely different and you don’t have to answer to anyone of what that is, either. Be prideful in what you’ve created, too, and don’t compare the effort you’ve put into your miniatures with the work of others; it’s too easy to look at Instagram and see professionally painted minis and compare yours to theirs. If you want to improve your skills then just keep practicing and if you don’t, like me, then be content with what you’re creating and carry on.
Mediocrity, Embraced
This is a hobby! It’s not work and shouldn’t feel like it. Unless for you, like me, it is in some way work then maybe it’s allowed to feel like that just a little bit. Try to enjoy it.
In short: set your expectations realistically and don’t compare what you’re doing with others. We’re all in this because we love it for one reason or another.
It’s okay to just be okay.
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