Friday 12 December 2014

Up On A Soap Box - Who are you playing games with anyway?

It's funny how some times the trolls on the internet will get all up in arms about something in gaming and it takes awhile to realize that it isn't the first time you're hearing a point being argued by a group of people who get all up in arms about feeling like someone is telling them what to do.

About two weeks ago decent quality preview images of the new Blood Angels tactical squad starting appearing on the net.  People could have talked about the terrific paint jobs, or the evocative imagery, or the fact that it was practically a bitz box you could use to customise dozens of generic marine kits you already had....but no....the main "discussion" was about the new 32mm round bases they were standing on.
Within seconds (literally) forums exploded with "they can't make me re-base all my old figures" and "I can't believe I have to re-base all my old figures", it was an unbelievably negative reaction to a minor product change.
Years ago I had collected Void and Warzone miniatures, and when Void got re-packaged and re-released as Urban War it transitioned from 25mm bases to 30mm Warmachine style bases, same thing for Warzone when it re-emerged this year.  My reaction was to carry on basing my models on 25mm bases to keep a consistent look with my existing painted models.  Other people (I'm sure) chose to go back and re-base their models to match the new look, either decision is fine....but it's YOUR decision.

Around the same time this tempest-in-a-teacup went off I was also spending a lot of my time on line getting ready for my D&D game.  As an aside I decided to re-watch a bunch of episodes of I Hit It With My Axe.  The thing I thought was funny was that in the comments section under one of the videos was a series of questions (polite mind you) about why the figures were based inconsistently to which the GM replied that he honestly didn't care about bases and he just used whatever was at hand.

I've also noticed a trend among "serious" Warmachine players to mark out their facings on their bases, not really an issue but seriously; can you and your opponent not agree which direction a model with eyes is facing?

So my question (it seems like it's always my question on these things) is; who are you playing games with that debates about base size being advantageous or facings being off by a mm or two inform your decision about how you enjoy your toys?

It's YOUR stuff, do what you will with it and your only real goal should be to enjoy what you do with it.  There is no "they" or "them" coming over to your house to police how you build, paint and collect models so do what works for you.  And if your opponents aren't cool with that find new people to play against.

Next year I'll be working on those new Robotech models, I'm sure they'll make an appearance in a Battletech game on their round bases at some point, hopefully that doesn't fry anybody's brain.

-Jay

4 comments:

  1. And by the way. I think the new 32mm bases look awesome, but I'll be sticking with 25mm just to keep a consistent look :)

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  2. Great rant, and people who play for fun as opposed to tourney competitors are likely to see the wisdom in your words. My question would what motivated the change (that I was unaware of until I read this)? I recall the old grognards saying there was a lot of fuss when Ansell and Co. introduced the slottabase in the first place way back when, but the suggested gains of consistent facing and frontage made a lot of sense. Bumping up the base size by a third after so many years is a significant change!

    At any rate, I had to get off the edition-go-round a couple of stops ago, and still have lots of models to paint for 5th edition if need be, so I guess it isn't surprising that I agree with you about why we play!

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    1. I'm not in the know Steve but I would assume the change is motivated by certain more dynamically posed models not fitting properly on 25mm bases and certain top-heavy models (like jump pack troops) tipping over 25mm bases.

      Either way I like the look of the newer bigger bases but I'm big on consistently based models so I'll stay in 25mm land :)

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  3. I think its a ploy to sell 7mm of more basing materials.

    JUST KIDDING! 7mm of more cool shit I can put on my bases. Skulls, tufts, body parts, lava, blood, poop, etc etc!!!

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