Death of the 40K bloggosphere

 

Ah, that would have been an ok picture without the washing line in it.  Oh well. 

This blog started over a decade ago.  I was embarking on my 40K project - Devos IV to provide a backdrop for my games which had a touch of realism to it, even if it was a Forge World realism, rather than a real realism. 

My internet searches showed me blogs by other hobbyists.  Encouraged by feedback from Karitas and Admiral Drax, upon whose blogs I commented, I began the creation of the armies and scenary for Devos IV and the story of the rebellion or insurrection, depending on your point of view. 

The next few years put me touch with hobbyists from elsewhere in the world, notably the USA and Austrailia.  I've been helped and encouraged by others and hopefully have managed a bit of helping and encouraging myself along the way.  I won a Liebster once for Devos IV, so that's a highlight.  

I suppose the height of 40K blogging was the From The Warp blogging circle.   But the guy running that burned out or found something else which sucked up more of his time.  Gradually other bloggers stopped blogging, overtaken by Real Life or other games systems which were not as cartoonish and awkward as later editions of 40K seemed to be.  Like most the FW books, Devos IV is rooted in 5ed.   

I think a lot of people transistioned to Instagram and so on.  

It's been over a year since I posted on here.  I'm still modelling and painting and obviously had an idea of where the Devos IV was going.  If you've been a long time follower, hopefully the sense of  'impending acheivement of imperial war aims' will have come through the writing.  Not as expensive in blood and treasure as Vraks, but nowhere near as long, either. 

Why am I writing this ?  If there's anyone out there who was interested in this blog, perhaps you might be interested to know that the hordes of little men grow every bigger and that the cadres of giant killer robots are still getting inadequate but homogenous paint jobs.  Or they will, once I get around to it. 

I may end up posting again.  And do hope that anyone who ever read this found it interesting or amusing or it gave some small spark of pleasure or inspiration.  

And of course, an annual post keeps it where I can find it, in case I win the lottery and can afford to turn it into a book.   

 

 

Colours 2023 - Newbury Race Course Sat 09 Sep 23

Well for a start finding the right car park at Newbury Race Course is not easy.  And visiting the alternatives means fighting your way back onto the main trunk route through the town each time.  But I suspect most people research the location a little more rigourously rather than follow the 'race course' signs.  Like that'd work ! 

The following is full of wild generalisations in order to make an arguement, it's not intended to be a dig at a certain demographic (within which I'd probably be counted) or even a certain games system: it's just my perception.

Anyway, I went to meet Admiral Drax, who is now to found contributing to Wargames, Strategy and Soldiers.  So he goes to a lot of these as part of his contribution.  Newbury is an hour south for me and quite a trek north for him, so the chance to meet at Colours 23 seemed to serendipitous to pass up.

But you're here for the show, so a few words about that.  I managed some snaps, the first groups were two very impressive Vietnam tables, one out in the boonies centered on the downed Huey and one set in Siagon itself.  The detailing on the Siagon table in particular were worthy of a diorama, let alone being used as wargaming scenary.  

The ground floor was packed with stands for vendors, but I have perviously learned by lesson when it comes to these shows, invariably something bought here is never used or ends up being passed on, so the only thing I did buy was a book.  For research.  

I have noticed that prices for things have generally increased.  Which makes things pricey for me and I'm not badly off.  If I was me of even ten years ago then a single purchase or two might be ok, but I couldn't afford a new game system/army/whatever.  This is relevant for my later diatribe.

The clientele was overwhelmingly white, male and at least middle aged.  Which is perhaps not a surprise, as we noted at the time, these are the people with the cash resources to fund a pricey hobby like this in the first place, the time resource to actually build and paint their armies and tables and the space resource to store all of the this stuff and also get it all out and play with it.

This in and of itself is not neccessary a problem.  As long as there are more old white men coming into the hobby to replace those who get too old (or just keel over).  But that might be a problem in the future, it is almost certain that those people have been wargaming for decades, so didn't enter the hobby as 'around retirement age'.  ie twenty years ago, the demographic of a historically based wargaming event like this would have included a significant tranche of persons twenty years younger than those present in 2023.  The average age of the historical wargamer would have been lower. Fight me.

40K, as we all know is specifically targeted and marketed at new players, who tend to be in their teens.  People who might ot might not explore wargaming more generally, who might or might not wargame consistently thoughout their lives and who might or not 'leave the hobby' for years or even decades and then return.  And the constantly changing meta encourages behaviour like having the prime army for each edition or update of the rules, rather then what we see in hisotrical wargaming where the same army might be used in multiple rulesets or formats.  So the paradigm within which the games are played is different.  And some people might struggle with that.  If you start a conversation with someone about 40K they will assume that you're both talking about the latest edition.

So then there's the general state of society and the economy (stoopid).  The next potential generations of wargamers for this type of thing are much much less likely to have the resources (money, time and space) as the current players, even when they get to the same point in their lives, perhaps they will be short on one of these at least.  

So given the likely constraints on their future resources, the 40K paradigm of  'sell your army and get another one each time the rules change' makes sense: less space, some ROI.  You only have to look at ebay each time there's a new edition or new flavour of the month codex.

This constant churn is possibly the antithisis of historical wargaming.  Your ECW army might be good for multiple rule sets and be used for more than one depending on what type of game you want to play that day.  And by adding in or leaving out cerrtain units you could use most the ECW army in the Wars of Spanish Succession or even 30 Years War.  A markedly different paradigm and one suited to the more available time and space for it as well as the cash to acquire it in the first place. 

So perhaps in the future there is going to be less appetite for historical wargames, new wargamers are not moving into it: I see the evidence of that everytime I visit one of these.  Salute (not been for years) has a much stronger SciFi and Fantasy vibe and has much broader demographic.  It's still almost all male, still almost all white, but there is a much broader age range.  And there are historical wargames there.  And historical wargamers (still oldies) so it superficially looks like 'wargaming' as a healthy future.

But I would contend that what is seen at events like Salute is not the real picture, that events like Colours show that there is very real chance that historical wargaming in the form it currently has (and it's a great time for the hobby with new manufacturers of just about everything and 3D printing as well) is unlikely to survive another twenty years.  It's just seems not to be getting new players.

Do I think its doomed ?  Amongst all the new stuff there is a lot to appeal to those who are fed up with the revolving door nature of 40K - a host of new games in short play, skirmish format based on commando raids, weird WW2, Dr Who, Blakes 7, Flash Gordon and so on. Currently a lot of these games appeal to certain demographic (Dr Who, Blakes 7, Space 1999 and so on certainly date us all to between Quatermass and the Pit and Star Wars).  But products like the Star Wars games, like the GoT game by CMON and others which may follow on might just be enough to spark some interest in historical gaming and keep it alive. 
 

Normal gaming in 2012

 So this is what happens.  I managed to get the Emperor's Children's Landspeeders to within range of the motley array of Eldar.  I was going to burn holes in the vehicles and torch the footsloggers. Because nothing quite says 'not today thank you' as setting a whole bunch of folks on fire.  

 

I'd evaded the Imperial Guard and a Tau strike force to get the Landspeeders there in one peice.  And had the Eldar, they couldn't get away and had already shot at someone else.  It's my turn to shoot.  You just watch what happens !  Quake in fear Xenos scum ! 

Ah.  Not quite the result I was hoping for.   My Landspeeders, totally wiped out.  With no casualties for the Eldar.  What fearsome foe could cause such damage ?

Gotta love scatter dice.  How else could 40K come up with such comedy gold moments ?  TBH, this is the worst time this ever happened.  But I remember this better than the Khorny Beserkers chopping up the stealth suits (which I know about as I have a photo). 

Actual Macharian Thunderguard on Devos IV Part 2

The Lancers meet the only real point of resistance during the whole engagement, the Ogryn. 

The DKK Ulhans attack the Ogryn from the other flank.  The paucity of witches on the platform above is not due to the valour of the Iggies but by their fellows being consumed by their own blasphemous majik.  (gotta love scatter dice, they took a chunk out of one DKK troop and then dealt themselves 55% casualties the next turn - "play stoopid games, win stoopid prizes"...)

Storm Troopers from the 16th Elysian DTR tactically insert into the 'Hot LZ' (although all of the fire is being directed at the cavalry already on engaged).  Coincidentally, there is flash of warpy brimstone as a rage of Word Eater Terminators also arrive to contest the Thunderhawk, fortunately on the other side of it.

When the World Eaters arrive so does a valiant member of the Holy Ordos Hereticus, to lead and support the nearby Cadian FS Plt.  Who promptly open fire on him, not knowing who he is.  Fortunately no damage was done.

World Eater Terminators  They got a bit closer to the objective, but then I suppose they're less risk averse then carapace armoured normal men on grav chutes, as demonstrated by their method of arrival.  "A Rage" is the best collective noun I could come up with. 

The Inquisitor prepares to face the foe, who fortunately have their reaper cannon armed man at the other end of their unit.  Nice to see the Cadians sticking to their tactical doctrine and keeping adequate distance between them and the enemy.

The mounted grenadiers (Dragoons ?) doing their famous widths of the pool.

See the sweat, the frothing at the bits, smell those horses.  (They're Chaos Marauder horses because they are butcher and altogether more, um, manly than the usual 'empire' horses.  A lot of the Macharian Thunderguard are on these, all with the the chaos iconography carefully scrapped off.  Those reins are retrofitted so that they go to the riders hands, the lances on the lancers are amazing as well)

And here we see the endgame, the DKK commissar challenges the PDF commander and defeats him, gaining a prisoner for the =I= to question later.  Once all of the PDF were finally vanquished, the World Eaters reflected on their position and sough alternative employment elsewhere, leaving the securing of the Thunderhawk crash site as a famous Imperial Victory. 

Rigged for demolition, the Thunderhawk was denied (to the enemy) a few hours later.

This Battle was brought to you by WH 5th Edition and sponsored by Col Ackland, and Australian temporarily resident in Sweden. 

Actual Macharian Thunderguard on Devos IV Part 1

A Thunderhawk has crashed.  The causes have not been transmitted to the local IG - enemy fire, mechanical failure, pilot error, who knows ? Also whose Thunderhawk is it ?  Black Templars ? or following the rumours it might be Vilya Fenryka or even Relicators.  Perhaps even an Inquisition one. 

It has, however, come down smack bang in front of separatist defences on the northern edge of Xyphonica.  Falling between the 72AG and 3422AG the Thunderguard are detailed to secure the crash site and assist engineers re-tasked from 569 Div (Armd Engrs attached to the Hrossey Yeomanry) to deny the wreckage to the enemy.

Separatist defences are formidable;  dug in regular troops with plenty of mortar, HMG, Auto cannon and Quad Gun support.   

DKK Uhlans form part of the Cavalry force.

Along with Lancers from the Thunderguard.

And a detachment of Penal soldiers from the Cadian 24th.

The cavalry advance across the table.  Their speed largely takes the defenders by surprise. (those grenadiers you can see with the guidon [pendant] were doing widths of the table like it was a swimming pool).

Col Ackland signals the charge, his first order of the day.

The DKK Uhlans are overcome with enthusiasm.

The defender's view.  By now, it's already looking to me like the first order will carry the day (see what I did there ?) not a good day for freedom.

Soldiers from 1/99 Devos IV PDF "the Bloodcoats".

Prepared positions.  Heavy Stubber teams open up on the armoured cavalry and their augmented mounts.  Massive mortar and Thud Gun barrages ensue.  Fast, tough and a little bit more special than the Separatist high command had anticipated, the Thunderguard's casualties are unexpectedly light.

When they reach the rebel soldiers, carnage ensues and victory is eventually almost total. Even the penal troops make the mortar positions and add to the melee.

The Thunderguard will go around the edge of the bunker walls, their speed and manoeuvrability allowing them to charge the PDF wherever they are. 

You can't see from here, but there is a FS plt form the Cadian 24th in support, keeping up auto cannon, mortar and missile fire throughout.  Those dug in Quad Launchers are targeted with AT missiles - the air around those positions is thick with flying sandbags as porsche after porsche is fired into them.

Ohh, I like this.

40K rules hilarity

And this

pride-and-prejudice-and-zombies

And this

Why hand to hand combat is terrifying.

Three way in the garden. Sounds like fun eh ?

Now, where was I ?  Ah yes, doubtless you'll have seen Karitas' four way in the garden, to which I added my view here.

So we come now to a three way in the garden.  Admiral Drax's annual foray north to civilised lands where there is bacon and tea at the same time.  Karitas quite wonderfully brought down his 'event shelter', and a good job too as it happens.  I can see this ending up on every gamer's Christmas list - whilst the garage is dry and provides shelter from gusting winds that steal army lists and blow over large unstable models, the 'event shelter' has light.  Not electric light, but as long it's day time, you can see what you are doing.  Which is not always the case in the garage.

Anyway, Unteroffizer Z of the Death Korps of Kreig is leading a small patrol into the ruins of some emperor forsaken town somewhere else; to investigate the presence of Orks, which has been reliably reported by someone who probably shouldn't be trusted.

Admurul Drak and 'is boyz are holed up in the intact Administratum building, waiting for something.

Corsair Prince Karitas is looking down on the whole thing and decides that the orks and DKK offend his sensibilities so much that his going down the planet (he will have to get new shoes afterwards) and going to tidy up.

DKK Hvy Wpns cover the downtown area.

So what we have here is three armies at 525 points (exactly) each.  And no vehicles.

The shootin' starts.  Guardsmen have enormous cover saves, but orky shootin' is rubbish anyway.  But at this stage of the game the orky shootin' is still enormous in volume, so Unteroffizer Z is loosing Hvy Wpn teams at an unsustainable rate, whereas the orks are just soaking up the hits.

Hurrah for the brave Landsers.  Most of what you can see in this picture are bout to be obliterated by the Corsair Prince's Orbital Strike.  Thus begins the slow heamorage of VPs as my little army is chomped through by the baddies (hey, if they're not on my side, they're baddies).

"Orks, orks, orks, orks... Which way to da whaaagh ?"  Boyz jus' chillaxin' (see what I did there ?)

Corsair Prince and ablative blades, calling down the orbital strike on the DKK.

Gee-gees moving up into a different (but ultimately no better) position.

Deep striking corsairs.  They wipe out my remaining infantry squad.

But are then eaten by Death Korps Horses...  true.

Ooooh, jus' out of charge range, lucky for me.

Killer Klowns forgetting that they ignore terrain and thus failing to assault the orks in the building this go.

Furious melee.  Ends with all waffenritters chop suey and only the Nob left.

The ones the Harlequins should have got if we'd have read the codex properly.  Sneaky orks.

Sticky out bottom lip.  How apt, yet gauche at the same time.

Yeah !  Jet packs !

The last Nob.  Except the warboss, who was the only boss left at the end, the gallant Unteroffizer and the Corsair Prince both ending up deaded.

I ended up with just Unteroffizer Z and the standard bearer left.  At this point, in a not particularly DKK fashion, I tried to run away and was gunned down by shootaboyz.  Oh well.  

An excellent game - on an open board, I'd have gunned them all down.  On this board, the orkz reigned supreme due to Admurul Drak deploying more or less in the middle.  There'll be a next time.  Anyway, we cleared this all away and had a swipe at the plastic crack mountain.  But generally agreed that for fun and spectacle, Epic 28 is great, but that smaller battles like this are the way to go for multi-side matches.