Warhammer Questionnaire - Dwarfs & Empire Feedback

Warhammer Questionnaire
Another day, and another bit of time to pull some statistics together, next two armies are Empire and Dwarfs.

Okay so the Empire are an interesting force, overall they are considered to be 6th most powerful which leaves them pretty high up however they're considered the most important army too the game. This is probably due to the fact that everything revolves around them making them the central premise for Warhammer Fantasy Battles. The next interesting point is that they're the second most likely to see on the gaming table, and the majority of people have collected an Empire army at some point in their lives. So in theory, there are more Empire armies out there than anything else, and they're one of the most common to find on the table. They're importance to the game is also evident as only 4% of people thought that they should be removed and the majority of them simply wanted them to be rolled into a generic 'Human' army. Overall it seems Empire are simply the most popular force which came as a real shock to me personally.

Dwarfs are in a bit of flux at the moment, they're new book has just been released and I'm sure a lot of people will be picking them up from scratch. These findings will not show any evidence of this, but there release will show a few new things.
Firstly they're considered the 10th strongest in power (again this is all unreflective now) and the 5th most essential to Warhammer, as they're one of the quintessential good guys. Despite their lack of updates they're the 5th most likely to be found on the table and I believe that a lot of people will pick up their old collections or start a new army to start playing with them. They're dead middle though in regards to people who've never collected them which means there's a good chunk of the fan base that have never collected a force, and this is where I think GW have missed a trick as a larger update would have brought more potential players into the fray - but oh well. Perhaps GW didn't want to update these guys as broadly because they believe that the Dwarf market is quite saturated considering that they're 5th in the overall scheme of things. Lastly the Dwarfs only had 2% of people on the back wanting to get rid of them, so like the Empire they're a loved army and not a lot of people want them gone. 

Have Fun

 It's A Hobby Not Punishment

So we've probably all fallen foul to this at some point, and it's the terrible art of falling out of fun with the hobby....

Now I want to give you my own personal story, I started playing in 2008, I'd played 40k a few years previous too this but gave up on the hobby for different reasons. After a bit of a break I decided that I wanted to get back involved and after listening to some podcasts from that period I realised that the bug had come back and before I knew it I was looking for a new army. After a bit of deliberation I finally agreed on picking up the Dwarfs, and boy was it good getting involved in the hobby again after a long break, I'd seriously missed the painting side the most and before long I had a few events under my belt with the Dwarfs and had started a Dark Elf army.

Before long two armies had formed, and it wasn't long until a third had formed in the way of the Empire. Now it seemed like I was venting my hobby rage and steaming through armies, so being ruthless I recognised it was time to cull what I wasn't using, and with real life getting in the way the Empire and Dark Elves were actually sold.

I've sold a lot of armies in my time, however selling the Dark Elves is one of my biggest regrets. If you can find another way of getting some cash, then do it as you'll only regret it massively later on.

After a bit of a break I moved onto the Skaven and turned that into a huge force that I truly enjoyed using, but by this time I'd sold the Dwarfs and wanted to look at collecting the Beastmen. And in the mayhem that ensued with real life, the Skaven were also sold off leaving me with the Beastmen - and at the time I thought this may be the end as I wasn't entirely sold on the horny boys.

And then it hit me.

So after that adventure I found my 'Fun'. Sounds a bit mad really but I can honestly say I had an okay time with the other armies, but what I managed to involve the Beastmen left me thinking all of my previous experiences with Warhammer were extremely dull. The mixture of 8th Edition setting in and getting involved in campaign gaming and playing with some top notch blokes made me realise what I had been doing before was not how Warhammer should be played. Thankfully I've still got the Beastmen, and I have to say that I absolutely love using them, regardless of how pants they may seem they're absolutely right for me to play. Effectively I've found my fun, and I think finding that army is the key to having a good time with Warhammer - and unfortunately it's such an expensive hobby you really can't afford to try different things out.

But anyway, that was a bit of a ramble, but the message behind the story is to have fun and don't be stressed about games. If you are then you're taking it too seriously, just find an army you enjoy as well as an army your opponent can enjoy and have a blast.

Mark