Back for the Wolftime - A return to regular gaming after a couple of years off.

It has been a long time since I have produced a blog post and I thought I would explain why and where I’m at with the hobby at the minute.

I stopped playing just after sixth edition came out (I think I managed a couple of games at most) there was a combination of reasons for this.

Firstly and I promise this will be the only time I mention it, I like a lot of us do not like GW as a company. I feel like they have seriously forgotten their roots as a small cottage industry for the players to a big money company. When I started playing First Company Veterans was one of the biggest clubs in the country with 70 or 80 players attending our own gaming night at Warhammer World on a Thursday night. Within a few years the numbers of people were down to a hand full of 40k and Fantasy players and a core of about 10 to 15 Bloodbowl players. That I purely lay at the door of GW and the staff at Warhammer World, they decided that they wanted to go in a different direction and it destroyed the club other than a few core players. More fool them they went for a full hall on a Thursday night with the majority of the members eating and drinking to not being open at all on a Thursday night.

One of the other reasons I stopped playing was the tournament scene that at the time I was a part of, I wasn't improving and I was becoming frustrated. On a good weekend I’d find myself in the top half on a bad weekend I’d be scrapping it out on the bottom tables. This in turn was part of the issue with First Company Veterans, a lot of the core players were really into Bloodbowl a game which I never picked up at the right time so I wasn’t playing enough different players to really make me better the other problem was how I play the game, I was never decisive enough I had many many games where if I had risked a little more I would have turned draws into wins.

The final reason I think I stopped playing was sixth edition and my own Army list. I’ve always been a Space Wolves player, during my time I have toyed with the idea of other armies. I've built a small Grey Knights force and started both Necron’s and Word Bearers but I have never come close to finishing them. When Sixth came along I couldn't find the motivation to change my list so thoroughly and now I really reflect on it it’s because I wasn't enjoying the game. I saw sixth edition as too random and because of that I thought it would mean that I wasn't as competitive a player. The problem was I’d lost why I was playing the game. When I first started building lists, I picked the units I liked to play with and that were very fluffy. I played with 14 Blood claws in a Land Raider led by Ragnar and a Wolf Priest. I then played with a massive death star of Thunderwolf cavalry. Over the time I dropped these things from my list for the same cookie cutter lists that everyone was playing, lots of Long Fangs (which were enjoyable) and lots of Grey Hunters but I wasn't actually getting the results during tournament play so what was the point.

So what has changed two years later. Well I have returned to what originally inspired me to start an Army almost 6 years ago. I have been lax with my Black Library reading. Mainly down to having a Kindle now the quality and availability of good Science fiction has improved incredibly but last week with nothing to read I picked up Horus Rising and was straight away reminded why the 40K mythology was brilliant. 'I was there when Horus slew the Emperor' is a fantastic opening to a novel and such a massive series. I felt reading that I was ready to pick up the dice and tape measure again and lead my troops into battle but something had to change with my style otherwise I would just end up to in the same position again so I thought about the people who I think have the most fun in playing which are Claws and Fists most regular (and lads I use that word very loosely) posters Andy and Graham. What is different about what they do to what I was doing is they constantly doing something different. They don't have a list they try new things, they use different units and if it works great and if it doesn't its just put down to experience.

So Saturday led me into Derby GW for the first time in a while. I managed to avoid being ganged up on with a conversation about what I'm playing at the minute and made it out with a new rule book, codex and a box of Space Wolves. Sunday has seen me mark two sets of books (just in case OFSTED are stalking me over the internet) and go through all the things I had packed away a couple of years ago. I managed to find everything except for my hobby drill which was good what did make me shudder and also sweat a bit with the wife looking over me is the number of unfinished models I have in there.

When I made my first entry on here (which at the time was the record read post, something I notice I still hold boys) I started it with a resolution that I would play a minimum of a game a week for the following year. In the whole I did that, some weeks I was playing 2 or 3 regular games and on tournament weekends I could well be playing 8-10 games over the course of seven days. That won't happen now, I have too many responsibilities, we are all that bit older wiser and more encumbered with debt. I'm also busy dispensing the Emperor's will in the form of BB's airsofting at least once a week. So my resolutions or perhaps it should be Oath of the moment because it needs that strength to make it stick

Return to gaming at least once a month and chart my progress on here

• Not play the same army list for more than a month at a time and if it returns to my life attend every tournament with a different list.
• Only buy more models when I have finished the last lot.
• Get back to regular blogging.

So that is my tale readers, please check the blog regularly because I'm going to get back to posting my progress and after being out for two editions (what is happening to the speed GW are pumping things out) I will need all the advice I can get.