A day in the life of the modern gamer

With the 8th edition of Warhammer 40,000 on the horizon and people turning into beings comprised purely of salt at the rumours, I can't help but look about now and wonder...  
Is the salt just those of a dying breed?  

You see, I love war games - I've been into them for almost 20 years. I was first inspired to get into gaming when I walked into a Games Worksahop store and saw someone painting a unit of Dwarves. I remember the vibrant orange in their hair. It's stuck with me. 
Back then, war games were something you decided to spend a day or evening doing - you set aside a large amount of time to play the game - Fantasy has one thing that Age of Sigmar doesn't and that is that it is highly tactical - ranked, regimental movements meant having to think a turn or two ahead, as to what your opponent would do, and what you wanted to do in retaliation, setting up ambushes and counterpoints to what you expected someone to do. Weapons had guessable ranges.  
As a result, the game required a length of time to think about and learn to play, it required skills and abilities that demanded you learn as you go.  
People spent hours painting their armies, converting models made of hard metal to make their characters unique. The hobby was their 'lifestyle', to some extent - You were a war gamer, you spent a lot of time in that game.  
 Age of Sigmar replaced it with a game that has less rules, moves faster and uses less models. It requires less thought and less practice to be 'good' at it.  
It's pick-up-and-play.  

Recently, a new war game store opened in my town. This is huge, as our town is small and there hasn't been a store with gaming space included inside for ages. 
And it's a lovely store - the guy who owns it is friendly and engaging. 
But... I looked around, while thinking of the above, and I realised something.  
The majority of the store is pre-assembled, pre-painted games - D&D miniatures, X-wing, Star Trek Attack Wing.
It has a Blood Bowl league, but other than that, the majority of its inventory is all pre-made, pre-painted things.  
And you know... When Fantasy died, and people were looking for new games, there was a large increase in people playing X-wing in my town.  
It's one of the largest games played, in fact.  

And it made me realise... There's a new breed of gamer. And they're dominant now.  
Myself and a bunch of other older folks, we like putting time and love into whole armies of miniatures - painting, converting, customising, writing our own backstory... wether we do an accurate force, a parody, something original... wether we paint it bright,l or grim dark, weathering, battle damage... we put time and love and HOURS of time into the army, away from the table.
We spent hours looking through books, playing games, finding what works for us, honing our understanding of rules interactions to make something that feels comfortable that is also fun for the opponent to play against.  
But... that's not what's typical now.  

Why is X-wing popular? Why do people buy these D&D miniatures?  
It's quick and easy. With X-wing, you can learn the basics in about 5 minutes. You can be good at the game after a few games. You don't need to assemble or paint anything. You could go to this store, decide you want a new toy to play with, buy it, open it and use it immediately. 
It's got a lot less of a time investment. You only need to learn the rules and GO.  
It takes a lot less time to play. You can casually play it over a pint, be done by the time your drink is finished, and be on to the next thing you have to do in your life.  

And I think this is what's causing the salt. 
Age of Sigmar was designed to simplify the game. I and many other people disliked it and went elsewhere, for the most part shutting up about it because no one gave a shit about how we felt alienated.  
The same is going to happen on this next 40k release. 
Reason being war gamers now don't really want to invest as much time in the game as they once did.  
Most people just want a game they can play for an hour or two every week or so.
They don't want a lifetime of hobby that can be disrupted and discarded by an update.  
They don't want something they have to invest time in to master. 

The arguments and hatred are nothing more than the death-rattle of us old breed gamers trying to reject the change, keep things how it was for us... when that may not fit into modern lives anymore. 

It will change. Some of us will stop playing that game, find alternatives, make our own editions, or go back to the last one our friends mostly agree sort of worked... But eventually, we'll shut up again. 
And progress continues forward - with pre-made, pre-painted miniatures and games with short play times and shallow learning curves dominating the field.

[REVIEW] Miniaturemen: New manufacturer, full of charm and originality.

On Sunday the 10th of July, I attended the Barrage Wargames show in Stafford. I'm currently within the Staffordshire area, so it's a perfect annual convention to get to on my doorstep. 
While there, I came across a manufacturer I'd never heard before called Miniaturemen.  
They're an English company, small start-up sort, that offer models and components that might be compatible with other miniatures ranges...  This includes cool things like cacti and flaming barrels, things that make for great modern or post-invention of musket terrain accents.

Their biggest model line is their range of Orc Cowboys. They caught my interest, and I bought a model called 'Mounted Cowboy Orc 5 Hoodoo Green' for £8. 

 The mounted cowboys come in a cardboard box such as this, with their content listed on the front. Inside, you'll find a plastic bag that was wrapped in bubble wrap which contains the metal components of the rider, as well as a resin Bison which is also wrapped in another piece of bubble wrap. They should survive being mailed pretty well with this packaging. 

So, onto the model. This one at least was three components in total - some of the others may be two or more pieces. 
The Bison (or Buffalo, if you prefer) is a single piece including the base, which is detailed, and the legs of the rider. This one also has a water canteen tied up on the rear of the left side of the 'saddle' as a detail.
The quality of the resin is nice. It's sturdy, without feeling brittle. It is neither powdery, nor greasy to the touch and did not need scrubbing or washing before painting. 

The highlight of this model in particular is a teeny tiny scorpion to the rear of the base, which is a nice bit of character. 

The casting on this piece was almost flawless - there was a noticeable casting mark on the belt of the torso waist,which is not visible when the model is assembled.

  
There is also what looks like a small mold slip on the detail of the base - but worry not! This mold slip is easily fixed, as I'll show later. 

 The rider in this case at least is made of metal, instead of the resin of the bison.

For some people, I know that metal is a deal-breaker, but I actually really like the weight metal adds to a model. It makes it feel more significant. 

This model is made up of two components: The right arm, holding the shotgun with the left hand attached, and the torso, with the left arm without its hand and the head as a single piece. 

Upon test-fitting, We have a very nice, snug joint between the right arm and the torso.

The joint between the left hand and arm is a little looser, however, if you're a dab hand with green stuff, or you paint a little thicker than most, then it won't be an issue. It doesn't look too bad as it is, if you're not up to the challenge...  

The torso join has a bit of give to it, which will allow  you to slightly pivot the model for subtle pose difference, but it's not so much of a gap that you'll have issues with it fitting. In fact, the worst of the gap can be placed on this front side where the gun arm will hide it.

From the rear, there's actually no visible gap - so bonus points to this manufacturer, even with two different casting materials, everything fits together well! 

So, onto that base with the mold slip... Yes, if a model is 'defective' in any way, you're entitled to take it back to the manufacturer and get a replacement - I've done this myself on occasion if a model was too bad to work with.
But, this is a small company, and I like fixing things up if it's possible so as to not harm their profit margins, and this tiny slip wasn't really too big an issue - especially because the base is sand textured, so... Step 1, get yourself some sand and use PVA to plop it on the base along the mold slip. 

Step 2, flatten that sand down onto the base so that it isn't sticking up too much, the mold slip isn't visible and then leave that sucker to dry, then brush it lightly to remove the loose sand. You'll then have this.

That's... it. Job's a good'un. You fixed a mold slip issue, the company isn't harmed and you don't have to wait for a replacement model. Everybody wins. 

So, I painted the whole thing and then assembled it, so that I could get into all the areas of detail. Here's what a completed model could look like. 

So, after having painted him, what do I think?  
 He's nice. 
It's got a nice weight to it without being too heavy, the detail is really well preserved, the molding issues are incredibly minor and easy to sort out if you even wanted to in the first place... And it has a nice character; Unlike Kromlech's Orcs with masses of teeth, these Orcs are more humble - they have teeth that protrude from their mouths without there being too many, they have fairly sunken eyes and a pronounced bottom lip that really gives the models a look of their own. 

I really like the style. 
I don't know of other manufacturers that really make cowboy Orc components. 
The clothing of the models and the look of the weapons look time-period correct and the choice of a bison as a mount is an interesting one - it is eye-catching and impressive due to size, but at the same time it's imaginative and raises questions as to how and why they ride them. 
It's not just a horse because cowboys, it's not a boar or wolf as is typically stereotyped... No, they went with something suitable to the setting that still hasn't really been done before, causing for something that definitely stands out amongst the competition.

I'd really love to not only  see the range expand, but for it to become its own miniatures game at some point - They have potential, with their Brothers Grimm Goblins to make their own whole setting - perhaps Natives could be a whole other race.  

This company is my pick of the show and the one to watch going forward in the future, so give them a visit and show them some support. They have a website and an eBay front, with this line of models being available from both. 

Steps backwards in model options

Today, I was assembling and painting the new plastic Ork Painboy model and a thought occurred to me that I felt deserved a Tablestrop ramble.  

This unit, in both game rules and physical model, is a Nob. It has the same S, T, et cetera in game and is as bulky and imposing as one in the flesh. 
However, I noticed... He's fixed-pose. He has one possible way he can be built, there's no options for poseability - his head, his arms, his one leg... it's all in the same position, no matter what. If I want more than one in my army, it's going to be a large amount of work to convert it to look different, or will require scratch-building one entirely.  

Then I realised something. It never used to be like this.  

When I started in 1998, this was the standard of model around:  

This is the classic Space Marine Captain of the era. If you had a Space Marine army, it probably had this guy in it, at least for the next few years. He was three parts - body, including head, legs, power sword arm all as one piece, his back pack, and the storm bolter hand.
Most people, if they didn't want the storm bolter, would swap that out. It wasn't a hard thing to convert.
If you wanted him to have a different backpack, that was also just a simple swap.
But if you wanted a power fist or a lightning claw, you were shit out of luck unless you had yourself a saw, because this sucker was metal.

As such, people tended not to use any other load-out... You'd give the other weapons to other members of his unit instead. 

He was replaced in the 2000's with this guy. 

This is a multi-part plastic kit. This, at the time, was a standard they were starting to move towards: The kit contained multiple options - it had a power fist, lightning claw, power sword and chainsword, as well as storm bolter, plasma pistol and bolt pistol. It may have had other options, I don't quite remember.
He only came with one head, torso, backpack and legs set, however he was compatible with the rest of the range.
This was also true of the Orks - The 40k and Fantasy Ork Boy kits are actually entirely swappable, and were made that way intentionally in the hopes people would buy more things to customise their armies.
And it worked.
People would often buy this captains set, a command squad set and a tactical squad set and use it to make sergeants for their army, or to make veteran squads.
Because this guy was interchangeable and 100% compatible with every other basic kit coming out, any of his parts could be used on any other kit, and vice versa.
Want that helmet on your Devastator Sergeant? Sure thing, pal!
Putting that cape on your Champion? Not an issue.

This fucker got replaced with this guy.

This was a very recent change.
This guy comes with... TWO head options. Ooh, the fucking options.
Now, take a good look at him. For one minute, just look.
Do you see an issue?
Yeah, that combi-weapon. It's part of the model. Detailed in.
If you want this cape, legs and torso to be used on a guy, you better want a bolter-gravgun combi on him, because if not, you're going to need to do some major re-posing and sculpting to make it work without it.
Sure, that power sword arm is easy to remove - it's built into the shoulder pad, though, so if you want to use the pad, you need to either cut off the arm at the mid-point and keep the angle, or you'll need to use a dremel tool to empty out the shoulder socket to re-use it on a normal model.
Also the legs and cape are one piece.

Does... anyone else...see a massive step backwards here?
We went from a fixed-pose dude that's a pain in the arse to convert, to a multi-part kit that's fully compatible with multiple other kits in the range, back to a fixed-pose dude that's a pain in the arse to convert.

And it's not just the Space Marine range, either. The Ork Warboss recently went onto 'last chance to buy'. We've gone from a guy with poseable weapon arms and a head you could tilt, to.... Grukk Facerippa. A character model in a single pose. Same deal with the previously mentioned Painboy.
The Harlequin characters, the assassins... Most of their new kits, particularly characters, are now being shifted over to singular pose fixed-pose-no-option models.
There are some that are still swappable - The pose of the Flash Gitz is different, but they're still the same scale as Ork Nobz, so you can mix those parts of those kits if you want to.
The loota/ burna kit CAN still be used to take advantage of extra boyz bodies by buying a generic set and using some of those to fill the options out.
However, new kits... seem to be getting less of this.

For example, here's a very recent release - The Space Wolf Wulfen.
This image is from Games Workshop's website and is of their two-boxes-of-the-same deals, for a Murderpack.

Now, I know the image is tiny, but just look for a second. The guy on the far left is... identical in both. The guy next to him is in the exact same pose, just with a hammer or axe, the third guy is identical, the posing of the fourth ones in both rows is... sadly, the closest thing to being in two different poses there is, and the fifth one is the axe-and-hammer swap again.
Their poses are however the exact same thing. You can't even argue that they aren't.

So, when did we go from entirely compatible, quick-swappable kits that could let people easily customise an army, to this...? It's like we're back in second edition.

Don't get me wrong. The kits are far, far more detailed now than they ever were back then. Tons of charm and character, great detail... GW are still one of the front runners in that respect. 

Well... I have to answer this in a kind of flat way.
It's cheaper.
It is way cheaper to design a single kit without having to worry about how it fits in with everything else you've ever gotten made.
You can also make things more dynamic and throw on more details if you don't have to worry about how it's going to fit together, so there ARE legitimate reasons to not do what they used to... But there is one more reason. 

Their competitors don't do it.
90% of their competition make fixed-pose or weapon-swap or limited pose models. No one does what Games Workshop used to do with their level of customising on their kits.
If they don't have to, why should GW have to, either? 

Well, how about because they're meant to be front runners? Their detail and character is still top of the tree, that almost doesn't need to be said... But people love being able to customise their armies quickly and easily.
GW is starting to no longer offer that.
In an ever-competitive market where the small guy can steal sales, you want as many things in your favour as possible.

I do hope GW keeps this only to character models and tries to keep the multi-part interchangeable stuff for the masses of kits.

What You See Is What You Guess?

So, recently Games Workshop announced their new range of 'Build & Paint' model sets.   
This is a range of kits, including glue, a paintbrush and some paints, and appear to be molded in colour instead of the usual grey, designed to encourage people to build and paint models - the goal is that they could be sold in stores among the model airplanes and sports cars, and of course are offered at a price point that younger audiences can afford.  

Bare in mind that this is 'series 1' of their 'Build & Paint' sets, so they probably at least intend to do more... 
This is a good idea, in theory - cheap models, pre-coloured in a primary colour to encourage people to paint things, and it'll stop us seeing a sea of grey on the battlefield, even if they aren't painted.  

However... I have to admit that it's not the smartest move they've made. 
For one, people have been joking for years that Games Workshop will eventually get bought by Hasbro and the figueres would come in pre-coloured plastic, so it's sort of hillarious that they're thinking of doing this themselves without being bought out by a toy company.  
Remember, they're a model company that sells models and no games.  


So, here's the first image - from their flyer, showing what the series 1 range includes.

While I don't have the other image available, I'll just point one thing out: The Space Marine Bike one also comes with a 'Captain'. This is actually the old plastic Terminator Sergeant that was around when I first started... Nice to see he got himself a promotion after all these long years of service.
I also find it hillarious, given that Terminators have had a size increase since then that a unit of Terminators can now be lead by a Captain who is way smaller than them.
I guess it's some sort of new 'Primaris Reductus' type Terminator armour that is ultra-compact or something.

Now, bare in mind that these boxes are mock-ups and not the final design type, but I have an issue with the bottom Ork one.

ORK 'ARD BOYZ MOB. This box contains an Ork Boss in Mega Armor, 7 Orks and a Deffcopta

Ready for the issue with this? Okay, second image go!

This image shows the content of the box. Okay, These are Black Reach kits - Deffkopta is nice to have out again, as there's no way to have plastic ones without it.
That's also 5 Black Reach Ork Nobz and 2 Ork Boyz with Big Shootas.
And the Ork Warboss from Black Reach. Who is clearly not wearing Mega Armor.
It's not even similar. That's 'eavy armor at best (it has some plates on the body and one leg and has two shoulder pieces, that's good enough if you read the codex description) and it's never going to be Mega Armor.
What's sad is that there has never been a mega armor Ork Warboss with the exception of Ghazghkull Thraka, and this would be a good opportunity to do it.

So, first off, the box lists the wrong contents. It's just not a mega-boss.
Second off, let's ignore the boss and the Deffkopta for a second.
We have a box of 'ardboyz... containing 7 Nobz, and 2 Boyz with Big Shootas.
Let's assume for just a second we're fielding Nobz as 'Ardboyz because the armour is right and we're ignoring the scale difference between the Nobz and the Boyz.
That's an illegal unit.
'ardboyz units must be at least 10 boyz large and can only include 1 Big Shoota per 10 boyz.
So in effect, they've given you a not mega-armoured Warboss, which is... alright, but change the name, a unit of 5 nobz, which is cool, a deffkopta, which is fine, and 2 useless big shoota boyz.
Great value for money, there, guys.
The other option is that that box contains a mega-armoured Warboss and by default 5 Meganobz with illegal equipment.
The third option is that WYSIWYG doesn't apply anymore and should be scribbled out in bright red crayon in your rulebook.
So take your pick, I guess.

What's even sadder about all of this is... There hasn't been an actual box option for 'ardboyz since 3rd edition, in which it included metal components to make it so that the boyz had a metal plate on their chest, two shoulder pads and either a helmet or an iron gob - or both.
This could've been a good time to try and market 'ardboyz.
But no. Let's not do that.

What's really tragic is that at the same show, they revealed models that look ripe for use as 'ardboyz with only minimal converting. Know what they are?

Bloodbowl Orc players.

I'm not even kidding here. THOSE look more like 'ardboyz than this box Games Workshop is bringing out.  

So... In short, neat idea, terrible execution and poor choice of names. 
If they sort those issues out, sure... Maybe it'll work. 
But consider this.  
That Space Marine Bike with Captain are the older 2nd/early 3rd edition plastic molds. 
So the Ork Trukk and Bike are too, most likely.  
So the boss and boyz included in those probably are, too.  
While the Space Marine bike and power armour in general haven't changed too much in the years, Orks have changed. In fact, the old bike predates the style change in which the Orks started to look as they do now. They look more like Grots than Orks, given the scale and lack of detailed muscle.  
So... If you want to paint old models with not much detail on being put out by a model company that supposedly only deals with premium quality kits, sure, save yourself the money.  
If you want to get a five year old into the hobby without sacrificing nice models, sure, get the kit.  
Otherwise... I.. really hope that not all of the future series of kits are going to be old shit laying around the office from 2nd edition.

Specialist Games: Games Workshop's Kobayashi Maru

So... Games Workshop has now confirmed that they have a new department to deal with and re-release their old Specialist Games - it was confirmed on the Warhammer Visions app. 
That's good news. 

Here's where it stops being a good thing though:  They can never live up to expectations here.  
If they re-release the old systems as they were, people will complain that they haven't changed anything, haven't addressed old problems and so on. 
If they do update and change things, people will decide that they prefer the old version, or that the new version doesn't live up to how they remember the older version.  
It happened with both the Blood Bowl and the Epic 40k re-releases their old team tried. 
No matter how good those new models they release are, they won't live up to the rose-tinted glasses. 

And then there's Gorkamorka. With the possible exception of Man o' War, it is the least talked about Specialist Game out there... A kind of red-headed step-child that Games Workshop tried to hide ashamedly 15 years ago. 
I doubt they'll bother with this one. At least not until everything else is done. 
It was a game that relied a lot on originality, custom conversion work, and stuff like that - Games Workshop of yesteryear even suggested harvesting toy cars for the game. 
Games Workshop of today would never go for that.  
They'd either restrict the open feel of it, or find some other way to fuck up the system. 
In a way, it'd be kinder for it to stay forgotten, so those of us that still care can continue to maintain it ourselves. 
Now, don't get me wrong - I'd fucking love up-to-date, new, plastic models for Muties, Rebel Grots and Diggas. 
I'd love it if they did that. 
But I don't think they'd keep what Gorkamorka was in the game... Not that it wouldn't be easy. 
Clamshell packs, clamshell packs everywhere. Armour gubbinz pack, ammo pack, rokkit pack, wheels pack, spiky bits pack, glyph plate pack, and so on. It's near endless. 
Cybork parts packs for injuries. 
There's so much that they alone can do to make this game work...  

But as I say, I doubt they'll even touch this one. Too much Nostalgia for Blood Bowl, Gothic and Epic - there's a limit to what they can produce, after all, and that'll be dealt in priority order for the games that people remember.  

Fuck, even Man o' War, which I think is the most forgotten Specialist Game had a revival of sorts with Dreadfleet recently, what did Gorkamorka get?  
A reference in a previous Necron codex saying that the Ultramarine First Company found Angelis to be populated only by Necrons. And that Calgar wiped the Tin'eads off the face of the planet.   
With that in mind, Man o' War is probably above Gorkamorka in terms of properties to squeeze for a fresh dime.

Games Workshop, you've entered into the Kobayashi Maru now... People are going to complain no matter what you do.  
Don't fuck up Gorkamorka. 
Don't. 
Fuck. 
Up.
Gorkamorka.

And then there's THIS asshole

Very recently, Forge World came out with the Tau version of a Titan. 
Only it's not a machine, despite the fact that it is literally a giant robot... GW should just do away with vehicle rules at this rate, really. But that's a strop for another day.  
So this massive thing is a 600 point Gargantuan Creature capable of putting out 12 S7 shots per turn AND a 7 inch template. And of course it's Tau, so you can use markerlights to fire those at BS5 instead of it's base BS4 AND you can make it ignore cover on those too.
Now, this is 75 points more expensive than a Gargantuan Squiggoth. And could probably kill one in a single turn. 
For a hundred and something more points, you could have a Warhound class scout Titan. 
Which has less guns. 
And less shots with those guns.
And less effective protection.  
And it can explode when it dies. 
It's absolutely unreasonably priced.  

For perspective, this thing is Toughness 9. That means that if you're an Ork, take Power Klaws, and assault it, you can hurt it on a 4. If you don't kill it or don't get the charge, you need 5's to hurt it. 
5's.
With Power Klaws. 
So there's one Codex that isn't going to be able to take it on right from the get-go.  
Which is also the one Codex I actually use to play games with.  

So, what COULD take it down?  
Poisoned can't touch it and neither can Snipers, as GC's only take wounds from it on a 6.  
Fleshbane works as usual on a GC, but it's rare as hell. What even has access to it? It's typically no more than two units in a Codex, and it's usually either tucked away on a Unique character or a Relic item.   

...An Officio Assassinorum Eversor might be able to take it if he gets close, but getting him that close would be difficult - GCs can move 12 inches and still fire all the things.    

Grav weapons seem quite reliable, until you factor in it's survival chance against that.  
You come down, fire the grav, one third miss. Twos to wound means one sixth of those hits fail to wound. It then ignores one half of those wounds thanks to its Invulnerable and a further third of those that got through are ignored due to its Feel no Pain rule.  
With 10 wounds, that would mean you'd need to shoot it with about 60 grav shots to take it down.
That's 20 Grav Cannons on the move...
Which would be 5 Devastator squads.
Including the Drop Pods they need to make it down, that's 1,225 points minimum...  

It is very difficult with most armies to come up with a cost-effective way of killing it without exceeding its points cost.  
And with the amount of shots it gets per turn, it's not like you can just ignore it and play to win on objectives like you can with most other difficult to beat army types. 

It's this sort of thing that makes me feel like I should just... stop playing 40k. Whoever the hell they're writing this game for, I don't think it's me.

I wish I knew how to quit you.

I want to preface this by saying that I don't actually hate Games Workshop.   
Now that's been said... 
Sometimes, they are beyond infuriating to me.  
I started playing tabletop games because of them - who I am, the fact that I like war games and even the fact I run a club is all in part down to them. 
But over the years, bits and pieces have fallen away.  
I've gone from using only GW products and playing their games, almost exclusively... To only playing one of their games - 40k.  
And I don't use ANY of their products with it, either.   
Literally they only get money from me for the rulebook, my Codex for the only army I do, and my purchasing of new toy soldiers is rare these days, as I play other games that eat into my time and funds, also.  

I sit there some days, looking at their latest price hike, or the jump in price for a re-release kit because it now has more nonsense bits that are going to do nothing but sit in the bits box and make the kit more expensive in the first place, viewing their latest stupidly overpowered unit or combination of units and I kind of... ask myself what I'm still doing here. 
Why am I still part of this game? So much about it is infuriating and unfair, there are so many other cool games that're just as good, and cheaper too.  
 Is it.. that I feel sorry for them? Like that one popular kid you sort of knew in school who got into an accident and had the smarts knocked out of them from it?  
Maybe. But I doubt it.
Is it first love? You know, that one fantastic summer that won't ever be like that again, and they aren't the same now, but you remember and you hope?
Maybe. But I don't think that's it either.

I think what I love is the universe. The races and the character.  
Sure, for the most part it's derivative as fuck, even in a court when they tried to defend themselves they got told that everything is vague, derivative and they can't protect it...  
But they did it in another way. While it's grim-dark, there is amusement to some of it. Part of what I enjoy is the derivatives in a way. 
It's their take on the same old cliches that make them memorable.  

And I can't leave that behind.
Not yet. 
Try as I might, as many amazing games as I discover, I can't find a way to quit and leave this behind. I'm not sure I ever will - even if GW goes out of business, the universe still exists.  
Sure, if they 'Age of Sigmar' 40k, it might put me off, but the old world is still there for me to remember and it'll be that I remember them for, even if they finally drive me off.  

I still wish I knew how to quit you.