After a recent talk with Dawson, my mind was sent wondering about what exactly draws us to a new army. After DJ got a chance to read the Space Wolf Codex, he tells me that he believes that he has “found what he was looking for” and feels that he no longer wants Orks. Space Wolves will most likely be his new army and that will fulfill his current unease about any of his given armies. So, what is it that draws us towards an new army?
The first I will talk about is what Dawson has been going through, that desire for something that your army just doesn’t seem to be able to handle. For Dawson’s example, he wants a heavy hitting, preferably close combat orientated army. With this he has always been drawn to the more elite forces. His Deathwing fit one of these, but in his oppinion wasn’t overly good at the Assault criteria. Yes, these forces would dominate many in assault, but there were plenty of other units that were cheaper that could do similar levels of damage and thus be able to take out his small elite army. When he realized that his army couldn’t quite fulfill his desires, he started looking for something else. He bought Necrons, perhaps this shooty army would fulfill this. When finding this army, Dawson feels liek he found his match (we will see once he has played a few rounds with them).
Similar is that opposite effect. I started out with Imperial Guard, a highly shooty army. After playing with them for a while, I decided I wanted to go for something totally different. I wanted and assaulty army. This brought me to my Chaos Army. My Yin and Yang if you will. I have two armies that cover complete opposite ends of the spectrum and this, along with lack of funds, has kept me satisfied with the forces that I currently command. I think many gamers fall into this area.
Finally, I will attribute this to that shiny, magpie mentality. Many people rush out to grab the new and “most powerful” army. They see all the shiny models and the new abilities offered and “have to have it”. Obviously everyone is drawn on some level to the new army that is out. Most of us would admit some interest in the Ork Codex when it came out and, I must say, the Space Wolves look good (thought rather similar to Chaos and will not be able to snare me, at least not yet).
So, this isn’t really a problem. Well, not for GW and all in all, not for the hobby. The more models that are sold, the better off the company is doing and thus, the more they will be able to spend on the game in general. For us gamers, I would say it is dangerous if you allow yourself to crave every army. I hear stories of people who play five or more armies. If they are able to balance this, more power to them. In my opinion, if you spread yourself out too thin with armies, you will be unable to master any one force. If your simply collecting 40k models for the sake of having them and play only for fun with friends, there is obviously nothing wrong with this. If you are trying to be a competitive gamer, I can see a potential problem. It is my belief that one must play many, many games before become proficient with an army, let alone master it. If you have too many armies, you are neglecting the practice and the games that you need to do in order to truly know your army. As Silas Said in our Broadcast X, he has been playing his Dark Eldar for 5+ months and still feels that he is far from mastering it and he plays multiple games a week.
I urge players out there to try and stick with an army or two. I can understand not wanting to stick with only one as sometimes this can cause one to succumb to boredom of the repetition, but don’t let yourself get carried away. When you get a new army, spend several months of playing that army exclusively. Allow yourself to truly know your army in and out. Choose a build and play that build with very little changes to that build for months until you have determined the strengths, weakness, and ticks that your build and army as a whole can perform. Allow yourself to become an expert, at least in the build of your army you are fielding.