The Play's The Thing

This past week a friend emailed me to make me aware that my recent decision to play Wood Elves in Warhammer 8th Edition (aka Rockethammer, according to the guys at World's End Radio) might end up being frustrating for me as they're a difficult army to play under the new rules.

Now, I certainly appreciate his comments and insight and did take them under consideration. But, ultimately, I decided to stick with my Wood Elves.

I read up on all the various armies available in the Warhammer World. The reason I chose Wood Elves as my Warhammer army has little to nothing to do how competitive a force they are, but it was all about the fluff and look of the army for me.

Living out in the country as I do, I am surrounded by woods. We have a small farm. Not much. Some egg laying chickens. Some meat chickens. A couple of pigs. But, it's enough that I feel more in touch with the land than I do anymore with the grocery store. Story-wise this puts the Wood Elves right up my alley. I look out the window as I type this and see a wonderfully old, tall two acre patch of woods between our land and the neighbors. Across the street from us is countless acres more. I can imagine the Wood Elves right at home out there.

My friend's comments made me aware that, over the years, I've developed a style of game play that I was scarcely aware of. In miniatures games where you must comprise your forces, I tend to play thematically rather than strategically.

In Heroclix, I play characters that work together more from their comic book history as opposed to figures whose abilities compose a deadly combination.

In AT-43 I play the Karmans because I really dig their look (I mean, c'mon, great white gorillas in power armor? Awesome!).

In Monsterpocalype my factions of choice are Terrasaurs and Empire of the Apes. What can I say? I grew up on a steady diet of Godzilla and King Kong.

Do I have a winning track record? Nope. Not at all! Do I still manage to have fun playing? Absolutely. And that, for me, is the most important thing. I'm not a tournament player. I play for the fun of it. And, every once in awhile I manage to pull out a win.

And that's just fine with me.