Well screw that

I ordered my Retribution army (from the guys who sponsor Boosted Damage), woo hoo! But I'll get to that after I've had a bit of a rant on my experiences at GW yesterday.

Okay, so I've decided to give up on Warhammer completely. I'm not trying to start 40k VS Warmachine crap like /tg/ always has but in my experience I just can't take the Warhammer community at the GW store and at my LGS no one plays fantasy.

I've tried to write this post twice before and I can't do it without going into some batshit insane rant on how much I hate the Warhammer community, so I'm going to make a list and just move on. The Games Workshop is right next to my LGS, you can see one from the other, but the client base is so freaking different.

Social skills
Mine suck, but they sure as hell don't scream "DON'T TALK TO ME!", almost everyone in GW seemed to have a screw loose or was so obviously a fanboy. Community quality is just bad. I'm going to throw hygiene in here too.. yes, it was THAT bad.

Attitude towards the game
The store had the new Space Wolves codex in and my friend was playing it. Now as he ranted about it all I could think was "This has no freaking balance" and everyone there seemed to find this a positive thing. I can't possibly relate to that and find it freaking stupid. I play Skorne and a benefit from my stuff being killed, but at no point does the game outright design it's self so that you can win by getting your models killed, Space Wolves codex has a model that does exactly that. I'm sorry but that's just bad game design and people eating it up doesn't please me at all. WM/H has some balance issues but at no point do I ever feel something is so good that I can't find a way to handle it, how do I handle giving my opponent free victory points or being killed?

Miniature care
On the same merit, also the way people treated their miniatures needs to be addressed. If my models die I set them aside, base flat on the table, some where safe. I do not in any way shape or form put them all in a pile. If I knock a model over I cringe. The players just had no respect for their figures and that bothers me to no end. I play between £1 to £25 per model for my toy soldiers, if you don't have respect for that kind of investment then I don't want to play with you.

Army use
Over the past week or so I have gorged myself on Warhammer podcasts (and The Batman cartoon series..) to get myself caught up with the meta. What's good, what's bad and what to look out for. So I heard Daemons were broken, Dark Elves were good, as were High elves and Lizardmen. So I went into GW expecting a nice range of armies being played but saw nothing but those I just mentioned and I'm sorry but NO, BAD COMMUNITY. That is so bland and pointless, I just refuse to be part of it when you're all playing Net decked armies. I know GW has bad balance issues (When tournaments start to punish you for taking your best options there are balance issues). but why the hell do I want to take part in a dead metagame? There is no life in an eco system that has 4 creatures stuck in an eternal loop until a 5th creature devours one and resumes the system.

So this is the 3rd time I have tried to get into GW games and been put off, so I'm sorry Wood elves but you're going back in your box under the table and staying there. I've come to see why people say the WM community is so good, even our worst members would be top quality members in any other community.

Now onto a happier note. I ordered the following

Kaelyssa
Eiryss
Aiyanna & Holt
Narn
10 Invictors
Heavy Jack
Griffon

It comes to about 500 points in MKI and I'm quite happy with it as an assassination list. I think it suits my style and also gives me some more Cygnarian models.

I've been thinking of a colour scheme for the army and originally I wanted to go with a silver theme to make them look like giant suits of armour, but now I'm not too sure unless I make everything metalic on them to add more colours. When I look at the Myrmidons I see Neo Zeon and Gundam X style design and it makes me tempted to paint them that way. I've always loved the Bertigo from Gundam X (http://www.mahq.net/mecha/gundam/x/rmsn-008.jpg) and now I'm tempted to do a metalic version of that colour scheme. I think the large plates would suit metals well and using metallics dyed with inks would make for an interesting army. My only full decisions so far as they will be silver and purple/deep pink. I really like the colour scheme, the only problem is it also temples me to do one like Kamen Rider Decade (The pink and white guy here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fz-uBxgPHeA). Maybe I'll do a second heavy like Decade but with metallic colours. I really like the idea of a metallic scheme as it will give a more.. vivid look to the pieces where the colours shift and sparkle a little as you move around the model, implying the energy field a bit more.

I'm currently working on a wreck marker (also known as the Canker worm's base) since I will be looking to represent Retribution at next years UK Nationals and want to have -everything- I need.