General Ramblings: Uh-oh, SinSynn Got Me Thinking...

I'm a member of a blogroll called Krootbery Paincakes, over at House of Paincakes (yes, that's a link to the right... you know you want to...), where SinSynn - in his normal disjointed manner - posted this a little while ago. Yes, you go look it through. I'll wait.

Now, everyone who's even an infrequent visitor to this little corner of the Internet marked 'Incarias' will know, I don't like 'Competitive' in my wargames. I think I might have mentioned it...

What SinSynn's article got me thinking about, is how this fact does not, in any way, make me any the less keen on winning.

Okay, maybe a little... No prize support in casual play, and all...

But, and this is the core of the matter, I still tweak my lists. I still try to squeeze some semblance of competence out of my little toy soldiers (with limited amounts of success, it might be argued). Does this mean I own a Space Wolf, Blood Angels or Imperial Guard army? Nope. The last one is not for lack of trying, though, I just can't seem to find it in me to like painting tanks. (Which, now that I think about it, might be  arather considerable handicap when playing 5th edition 40k...) The other two, I've seriously considered Counts-As-ing my Space Marines for...

Why?

'Cause winning is fun. I'm generally fine with losing, but doing it too often is rather disheartening.

Not necessarily a trophy you want...

  So, my 40k armies are kinda... I think the technical term is 'blegh'.

Enter WarmaHordes. My first army (Trollbloods, if you've missed that fact) has grown, organically, and is quite unfocussed and occasionally really badly composed. It suffers a lack of infantry (and Mulg) that is the very direct result of me liking big trolls over small ones.

My Cryx, though...

Okay, so they're not the best Cryx build you can make (probably rather far from), but apart from the Warcaster (the Witch Coven) which I chose 'cause it was weird, and appealed to me (and has a starting FOCUS of nine...) this army has been built with a purpose. That purpose is to kick ass.

There's a saying involving lower extremities contacting posteriors, and bubble gum shortages...

Every piece in that army has a reason for being there. I'd made most of my purchases, and the rest of my plans, basically before starting to play. So, yes, those plans were influenced partly by what models I liked, but unlike any other army I've ever built, I made the plans first, and then got the models.

And so far, I've won all five of the games I've played with the army. Compared to just over fifty percent with the Trolls...

But none of this has any bearing on my feeling for what I've called 'true competition'.

See, trying to win is not being competitive. Not necessarily. It's just playing the game.

Remember, the objective of the game is to win, but the point of the game is to have fun.

I'm just gonna come right out and say it: I like Mr. Johnson. M'kay?

So, like SinSynn (and maybe unlike him, it's often hard to tell) I've come to the conclusion that the tweaking and cleaning up of lists is actually part of the game. It is not a necessary part - heck, it's not even necessarily a desireable part in all circumstances - and I will keep playing with Carnifexes and Vindicators, Dire Troll Maulers and Kriel Warriors; not because they rock on the tabletop, but because I like them.

But just every so often, I'll try to build an army to win.

And that's it for me. I think SinSynn's hamster might have got to me...