A bridge too far?

The toll bridge recently featured on Terrain for Hippos.

I feel I am an endangered species at the moment. All around me, people have fallen in love with games like Warmachine, Infinity and Confrontation. Skirmish games seem to be the new black, but as I have stated before, they don't really do anything for me. I prefer the look and feel of a battle - the larger the better. As such, Warhammer is more suited to my tastes and I have stubbornly clung to it, even as those around me have found new favourite systems.

There is nothing wrong with there being variety in the games people play. At the club on the weekend I think there were a bit over 20 players, and between them they were playing 6 different systems - Warhammer, 40K, Warmachine, Infinity, Confrontation and Blood Bowl. Dystopian Wars has been making waves as well (hur hur - sorry, I'll get my coat). Variety like that is healthy in a club, and it's probably a far superior situation to where the club would have found itself a few years ago, where only 1 or perhaps 2 systems would be played at any one time.

However, for all that it's good that people are finding new games that they love to play and that there are ever more options for people to choose from, it does present some problems. The arrival of 8th edition Warhammer helped spur this surge in interest in other games, as not everyone found the new version of the game to their tastes. This coincided with the change of rules requiring a shift in the make-up in people's armies - units were getting larger and previously unused units were worth considering. Like it or not, for most people this meant painting (and sometimes acquiring) more models. In other words, more commitment.

Whilst I am sure GW will gleefully tell shareholders the benefits of their games requiring an enormous commitment in terms of money and effort (the swirling vortex that so many of us seem to get sucked into), there are obvious downsides for those of us not profiting from the process. Few people would get into the hobby without being aware of the costs involved, but a change in edition causing a seismic shift in what you require from your collection might be a bridge too far for some people. A workable army becomes less than useful without further investment of time and money, and without a real desire to make it happen, I have seen a number of people stall. I suspect there are at least 20 painted armies at the club that have not seen the field in 8th edition. Some of them are mine - and I am still playing the game as my primary hobby. In my case the problem lies with the fact that I have more armies than I can focus on at once, and so some thrive whilst others are neglected. I can still play the game, but not all of my armies are ready to go. For others the problem is more of a show-stopper. If their attentions are largely focused on a different game such as Warmachine, they may have several Warhammer armies sitting on a shelf, with all of them being unsuited to 8th edition. They are left with nothing they would like to play with.

Bluntly put, Warhammer does not lend itself to being someone's secondary game. The game requires far more models (and therefore painting time) than any of the alternatives, and GW do their best to ensure that changes simply exacerbate the problem. It's not surprising - you don't make money by ensuring players only want to use what they already have. A game that is someone's second or third choice can't demand that sort of focus - it simply loses out. Warhammer is not quite an all-or-nothing prospect, but it does need to maintain a position of priority in players' thoughts or it risks being shelved indefinitely (and often it then gets sold off, because Warhammer armies take up a lot of space and are a large investment to have just sitting around gathering dust).

The exception to the scenario above is where the player already has everything he needs, ready to go. If you don't need to paint something in order for the army to be battle-ready, it can sit unused for a while and then be pulled out to play with minimal fuss. The work has already been done. Unfortunately, each time the edition changes or an army book gets re-released, fewer and fewer players remain in this situation. Doubtless this is what GW want, however every time players are asked to update their armies, some of them balk. As their primary focus shifts to other systems, the likelihood that they will never get around to making the required updates increases.

GW may be OK with demanding that players focus on Warhammer as their primary hobby, however it risks alienating a lot of people who would prefer to branch out, and hold on to the game as one of a number of options. Whenever a new army book is released and players decide not to make the required purchases to embrace it, they risk being lost entirely. That means fewer potential opponents for the rest of us, and a blow to the hobby as a whole.