The Rage Quit Amnesty

[Jamopower]

I didn't rage too much, but my interest in classical Warhammer fell down after the release of daemons, dark elves and vampires for 7th edition. I played few games every now and then , but with 8th edition the remaining interest waned. I played less than 10 games of 8th. Initially I wasn't too impressed with AoS either, especially as it felt like 40k, for which I lost love bit later. However after closer inspection I started to like the nuances of the game and the first test game really sold it for me. It was also a perfect reason to dust out my old 40k daemon army and my lizardmen. I managed to get some really nice old metal additions for both, so I have a big heat to get gaming more to have a motivation to get the models painted.

However in Finland the game is pretty much dead, even though the books and minis clearly sell in the stores, it's bit of hard to get a match agreed. I'm now trying to push the game bit more in to the headlight and I'm arranging an event at our club to gain interest. Also an old friend of mine who is a long time WH player and with whom we played the first test game just bought some Stormcast, so I think the situation will improve quickly.

Edited August 10, 2016 by Jamopower

[Karchev23]

Sold my beloved 4500 pt Army of Vamps in favor of 40k..... forgive my cowardess

[Shadowspite]

I didn't rage-quit as such, but I did abandon the whole minature wargaming hobby for a decade. It was burn-out, not rage, although there were things about GW and their games that annoyed me.

Part of it was working in a GW store. The need to be positive and enthusiastic at all times, even about things I thought were bad for the game/hobby, was difficult for me. I'm enthusiastic and positive by nature, but I'm also inclined towards honesty. I never liked the Ogre Kingdoms and felt they'd been very clumsily shoehorned into the fluff (this was back in 6th edition when they were first introduced), but you weren't allowed to venture that opinion if you worked for GW Retail. If a new player wanted to collect OK, I had to be able to encourage and advise him.

Likewise, even though I had no real interest in LotR, it was the big new game and I was required to learn it, play it and collect at least one army for it. I tried. Honestly, I tried to get into it. The rules were actually really good (maybe even the best ruleset GW have ever come up with), but I just couldn't get excited about playing a game set in that world. I enjoyed the books and the films, but they never grabbed my imagination the way the WH world or the 40K universe did. Tolkien wrote LotR in the early 20th century and it shows. Everything is black-and-white, good-vs-evil. There are, like, three female characters of any note. And the whole thing was tied up with so much Catholic allegory (for all that Tolkein claimed to despise allegory), that it just felt terribly stodgy and old-fashioned to me. Worst of all, there was little room for doing anything really original. The entire history of the setting had already been laid down seventy years earlier, after all.

Even the Warhammer world was starting to feel cramped, its factions so well-established by then that they felt trite. Like doing anything original would inevitably feel like it didn't really fit (like the Ogre Kingdoms). An all-female Empire army? Doesn't fit. Empire is basically the Holy Roman Empire during the 30 Years' War, with all that implies for gender roles. A Dark Elf army led by a male sorcerer and who aren't a bunch of evil sadists? Doesn't fit. There's no way such an army could exist under Elf-Stalin Malekith's dominion. 'Wood' Elves who live in a desert? Doesn't fit. The deserts are full of undead, and it's well-established that all Wood Elves live either in Athel Loren or in that one forest in the Empire whose name I can never remember.

Nobody could stop you from doing those things, of course. But it never felt right. It seemed like a binary choice always had to be made between originality and staying faithful to the setting.

The final straw was when I decided to start a Wood Elf army for WHFB (I already had sizeable Dark Elf and Chaos armies) and worked out just how much money and time was going to be consumed in getting it to the stage where I could actually play some games with it. I've never exactly been a fast painter (although I like to think I'm at least pretty good at it). It was just going to consume entirely too much of my time.

(And this was still 6th edition, when 20 models was a decent unit. 8th edition with its absurdly massive regiments would have caused me to genuinely rage-quit if I'd still been around then.)

So I quit. I'd already found another (much better paying) job as a basic skills tutor, so it seemed like a good time to say goodbye to both GW as an employer and the GW hobby.

AoS is a godsend for me. I can finally start picking up some Wood Elves Wanderers. But I can add them one unit at a time to my Dark Elf army to try them out. I don't have to buy, assemble and paint 100 or so new minis before I can use any of them. Plus, with the destruction of the Old World and the birth of multiple new 'realms', I can theme them however I like. I'm not tied to painting them up as the stereotyped green-clad Wood Elves of Athel Loren. If I want them to be black-skinned like the Tiste Andii from Steven Erikson's Malazan setting, I can do that. If I want them to live in an arid desert wasteland like Dune's Fremen, I can do that too.

And if I find they're too fragile for my less-than-subtle playing style, I can add a squad of Stormcast or whatever. I'm not stuck trying to make Wood Elf units do something they weren't designed for just because that's the army I've committed to collecting.

[Irisado]

I did not rage quit over Age of Sigmar, in fact it's Age of Sigmar that has brought me back to the Fantasy genre.

I ceased playing Warhammer Fantasy Battle somewhere around the end of sixth or the beginning of seventh, because the game had become so bloated with special rules and combat had just become whoever fields the largest infantry blocks wins.   It all became very tiresome and I had neither the money nor the inclination to keep adding more and more models to my army.  It could be said that this was akin to rage quitting, albeit with an attitude or resignation rather than anger.

Thankfully, for Age of Sigmar I don't have to, so it has lured me back in, and even though I've only played one game, I enjoyed it immensely.

Edited September 6, 2016 by Irisado

[Rebaillion]

I stopped playing years ago for many reasons. I did not rage quit, I just fell out of the hobby.  Stopped having the money to buy miniatures, had other things occupying my time etc.  However, I only got rid of 90% of my miniatures a few years ago, just before Age of Sigmar rolled onto the scene. I had to make room in the cupboards for one reason or another and keeping something I wasn't using seemed dumb at the time. I still have most of my Easterlings, and my (1 unit of) ogres (see below).

Then Silver Tower rolled in and I am very interested in Age of Sigmar now.

[Kirith]

Just exploring AoS after 5 years in the wilderness, during which I sold my entire collection. Picked up the Storm of Sigmar box and attempting to learn to paint again. Once painted I'll see what the Cornish scene is like...

[Sadysaneto]

I just wanted to thank, whoever you are, that sold your night goblins and black orks, buckets for a  penny on ebay during the great rage quit.

You made my armies possible.

 

Thank you.

Edited September 26, 2016 by Sadysaneto

[Elwood]

I did stop playing fantasy after the switch (bows head in shame) but for me, it was more of a community issue people around me stopped playing so i went to the local game store and playing with randoms became very frustrating. but now me and a buddy are trying to grow the Aos scene here and so far I'm having a lot of fun.

[Khorghos kul]

All I did was read warhammer novels. I played the video games like warhammer online and thought it was the best lore of any type of world out there. 

Then age of sigmar came out and I purchased all the books alot of the models. I put them together and a tally painted them! A first. Me and my wife love AOS. Gore chosen boardgame is a blast

[Natrapx]

Rage Quitter here! Didn't have a game in over a year when 8th died. In part because half the club sold their armies! (Which I could never bring myself to do). Talked to some people about AoS though recently, and with the recent generals handbook and vastly improved attitude coming out of GW, it's time for a new round base army

Was trying to decide between Slaves to Darkness and Orruks, but I just love the Orruk models/attitude too much to say no to them, so expect to see a hobby blog some point soon, and i'll see you on the battlefield.

[Tasman]

I didn't quit. There were many at our local GW that made all the usual noises: "It's just Herohammer. It's not balanced. There's NO POINTS (gasp)".

Now most of them are coming back around because the point system has them convinced that the game is 'fair and balanced'.

I'll play points, as most in our community embrace this style of play. However I've really come to enjoy narrative play more. And the funny thing is, Now that they've opened their minds to AoS, most are becoming interested in campaigns ala  Path to Glory.

Tzeenctch had his way with them.

Now the loooong process of rebasing 30k +points worth of models....

Edited October 24, 2016 by Tasman

[CoffeeGrunt]

Sounds like our local store. We never really had any fantasy play happening, but people were very averse to AoS due to the lack of points, and even those advocating it eventually gave up as they had real trouble keeping it balanced. (Other problem is that if one player smashed another, the smash-ee would just say the two forces aren't balanced and drown their opponent's victory in salt.)

Since the General's Handbook dropped AoS has exploded locally, though. That's when I picked it up, and I'm really enjoying it.

[Kindling]

Never played WHFB (Bloodbowl was the closest I ever got), but rage quit 40k about 15 years ago when they released 3rd, 4th or 5th edition rules (memory is shot)... Noticed AoS at the local GW shop, had a chat to the young chap running the shop about the reboot... Decided the "buy in" price to start was reasonable so started playing. 

Glad to be back into the hobby after so many years. 

[KALITAS]

Not really a rage quit. I started collecting WHFB around late 5th edition and playing when 6th come out. The I quit when 7th was released due to lack of interest and personal differences with other club members and the club's own direction.

I knew about WHFB whereabouts from time to time, when I visited stores or talked to friends. This way I knew about 8th ed, the End Times, etc. I remember reading a Sylvan Elves Army book with a really poor Spanish translation and my friend telling me there were units on it that didn't even exist physically... It seemed to me GW had messed up big time. Finally, an other old friend/club member told me WHFB was no more. It made sense.

A few weeks ago I somehow remembered how much I enjoyed painting miniatures and after searching a bit I found about AoS. It seems GW is doing things right now judging by their videos, social media, etc. A new, fresh start.

So here I am, 17 years later and about to paint my first Stormcast Liberator.

PS: Due to a number of reasons I do not really plan to play again. Just collect and paint.

Edited November 6, 2016 by KALITAS

[Azazel]

I didn't so much rage quit, as lost interest in Warhammer Fantasy. Oh, this was back in 5th edition. I played 3rd edition WHFB "Oldhammer" alongside Rogue Trader. I played a little of 4th Edition, but then 5th Edition WHFB had way too much of an emphasis on heroes and wizards. I didn't enjoy Herohammer, so I simply stopped playing. A few years ago, I picked up Kings of War, which I enjoy very much. I also really like the basing style of KoW, without casualty removal because the unit footprint is what matters. This led me to a revival of painting my Fantasy models in 2013 for KoW, though now on the Round bases that I'd always preferred aesthetically. Just blu-tac them down to the unit trays, you see. 

When GW axed WHFB it was a sad moment in many ways, and my feelings on AoS were divided - I had no love for the setting, but liked (and bought) many of the models. I was willing to give the game a play, but didn't see much scope outside of scenario play, since I play friendly games for the most part, but couldn't see a way to have a fair fight between a bunch of elves and a bunch of goblins. Use a wound count? Hell no!

With the General's Handbook release, it has opened up the game to both narrative and balanced, pitched battle play (it ain't especially "competitive" for me). I have so say though - I've still got no love for most of the new background. My Orcs are still called Orcs, and my Elves are still Elves. Others I can fit into my own head-canon as subfactions, such as the Everqueen's stuff or Flesh-Eater Court. Not that it matters to anyone but myself, of course...

[Kaleb Daark]

I'd very much given up after 8th.  I'd felt that in removing army books and points there was no structure to creating my narrative and the story for my army,

having played the AoS box game, I didn't really get into it, and it was only after I got broody one day when i opened my army case to give them an airing that I really decided to give it another go - this time playing with my own army (chaos dwarfs). 

 

The moment of epiphany came when I finally accepted that I had to totally think differently about how to play this game, how to make things work, since there were no ranks n' flanks anymore, and of course this also debunked the often mentioned criticism about it being a game where there's no tactics and  everything is just a scrum in the middle.

This is to fluidity what 3rd ed battle was to rules.  so we'll see where it goes.

[ANevskyUSA]

I picked up the WHFB starter box that was Lizardmen and Brettonians, but I didn't really ragequit - I just didn't play too much and didn't re-up when a new edition came out.  I kept playing WH40k from 2nd edition to about 4th edition until life got in the way.  Switched to Warmahordes when I got back into mini wargamming a few years ago, but have moved back into GW games after the scale of Warmahordes grew too big (40k is big too, but is faster to play with less brainpower at large size).  Got into AoS via the Gorechosen boxed game.

[punkisdead]

I never played WHFB, I was always interested, but a the time found it very complicated and almost nobody in my area played it. There was however a large 40K group that regularly played and I got into that when 5th Edition came out. Played that for a while and rage quit that because there was too much cheese and power creep going on locally and it was not fun getting tabled in turn 1 or 2 because I refused to play that game and instead always collected and played armies that appealed to me rather than what was competitive. 

Played Warmahordes for a while after that, MK2 had just been released and that was good. Then life got busy and had to abandon the hobby for a few years.

AoS actually brought me back into the hobby. The simple rules and really awesome looking models are what sold me. Who knew that one day I'd be looking at 40K as being the more complicated ruleset.

[ArcheiosAggelos]

I was never so foolish as to swear never to play AoS, but I definitely turned my nose up at it. There are still some things that are troubling to me, but more and more of the background seems pretty neat, and a lot of the models are great. The real turning point was visiting the GW store with a buddy of mine who had flirted with the hobby several times before. He went all in on AoS minis, nabbing a get started box and several things to add to it; I, being a good and caring friend, had to get some Sylvaneth so that he had someone to play with...

Now I am posting here and working on an AoS28 warband.

[MacDuff]

Good choice. I'm really loving my Sylvaneth army. I've even used extra Treelord faces on my Wildwood trees.

Edited March 2, 2017 by MacDuff

[Haanz]

I didn't rage quit, I just quit. It was a great hobby during my mid teens, but the increasingly high prices and the fact I was getting too old to play in the store on weekends, but not old enough to be able to really sort out any sort of external club - and my schedule didn't permit for playing on the "veterans night" Tuesday basically meant that I lost the ability to play. Being more into the social and gaming side of the hobby at this point, I just sort of fell out of the hobby. Seems in my time away I missed a lot of the worst of GW - finecast, the shakey launch of AoS and so on.

I probably would've rage quit though. I definitely made fun of it, when I heard about them moving to skirmish system without points. I always preferred the grimdark sci-fi aesthetic of 40k back in the day, but I played Fantasy for the deeper, more complex rules system with tactical movement, better psychology and magic. When I came back to the hobby, I was reaaaally not sure to go AoS over 40K given everything I'd heard, but the minis were just way too cool and in the end I'm really glad I did. I've loved everything I've played in Age of Sigmar right now, I'm really loving what they've done with the fluff so far, I'm loving the alleviation of a lot of the restrictions that stifled creativity in WHFB by the end. Moreover, I returned primarily as a hobbyist, painter, modeller, etc. I'm not going to win any prizes for my paint jobs, but I love the freedom that AoS affords me to mix and match within my grand alliance. For a collector and painter, it's just no contest over the way things used to be.

In fact, as a side project to my two, new, main armies, I've started the arduous process of rebasing my 2000pts+ of WHFB Dwarfs onto rounds - where previously I'd rescued them from my mothers attic and kept them untouched in their case just in case I'd ever want to go back to 6th Ed Fantasy, Kings of War or 9th Age. No more - I'm all in on Age of Sigmar now. SIGMAR, BE PRAISED! BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!

 

On 20/08/2016 at 7:02 PM, Shadowspite said:

I never liked the Ogre Kingdoms and felt they'd been very clumsily shoehorned into the fluff (this was back in 6th edition when they were first introduced), but you weren't allowed to venture that opinion if you worked for GW Retail.

Your story is fascinating to me, because your beef started happening roughly about the time that I went on extended hiatus from the hobby myself. I think one of the last things I strongly remember was the introduction of Ogre Kingdoms, which I kinda hated (although in saying that, I really love the Beastclaw Raiders stuff that's out now). I sympathise with you, as a lot of this stuff I remember really vividly as sort of my last memories of playing in GW stores before I quit.

 

On 20/08/2016 at 7:02 PM, Shadowspite said:

Likewise, even though I had no real interest in LotR, it was the big new game and I was required to learn it, play it and collect at least one army for it. I tried.

I also strongly remember the huge GW push for LOTR - the funny thing is that I actually have a pretty big amount of painted minis for LOTR. I had acquired through either my own buys, that LOTR partworks magazine (man that reduced price first issue was an amazing source of cheap Moria Goblins), and buying old models from a friend who built an army but never used it, a pretty collossal Uruk Hai army, and I even went as far to paint a great deal of it (pretty simplistically, but it looked nice en masse).

I think I might've played about 3 games in my life though, and I never collected a 'Good' army, meaning I could never take my LOTR to tournaments, so it was all a little pointless. I've considered a few times breaking out my old LOTR collection, putting together some kind of 'Good' force and picking up the Hobbit rulebook, just as a sort of 'just-in-case' diversification attempt, but man, I just can't bring myself to care either. I too like the movies, but the whole thing stunk too much of "stick to the franchise" and lacked the opportunities to be creative that Warhammer afforded. Also, the 25mm minis were.. eh. Not really to my taste. I could avoid it, for the most part, despite it being shoved down my throat so much - I can't imagine how fatiguing that must've been as a GW staffer.

 

 

[VBS]

What a funny thread! New to the forums, I was sort of rage quitter at some point 

Use to play 5th/6th/7th ed WHFB before stopping because of RL. With the End Times, I started getting interested in the hobby again.

However, the arrival of AoS was horrifying. I just couldn't believe the terrible current setting and dumping all the past (and those "sigmarines"... damn it GW!). So that was a frustrated attempted to start over again. 

But after sometime, I ended up admiting that I just enjoyed painting these little toy soldiers and maybe even playing with them. So that's what I do now. I'm more interested in the painting/modelling side, and more toned-down stuff like AoS28.

[Inquisitor Wall]

I did return all of my wood elves to the display case for several years starting with 8th.  If the general's handbook had come out at release of AoS I probably would have been much more involved from the start. 

[Spinsane]

Hi everyone.

My name is Mat, and I am a Warhammer-holic.

<Chorus>Hi Mat!</Chorus>

---

I wouldn't call myself a Rage-quitter per say. Last WHFB army I had was a Dwarves Duardin infantry army back in 6th ed (ahh, the old White Dwarf remains one of my favorite GW Dwarfs to date). At one point a poor job (and resulting Financial stress) resulted in my selling it all off instead of bothering with it during a move. I've been unsuccesfully trying to drift out of the hobby ever since, constantly falling for the newest shiny instead before once again promising to finally get clean, for real this time...

A few months ago I finally managed to get a good foothold into the hobby again thanks to Guild Ball, since the smaller size of the teams meant I was, for the first time in years, able to get a full team on the grounds and ready to play fairly quickly. Now that my wargaming enthousiasm is back, AoS has finally managed to get my interest back and I've just started thinking about an Ironjawz army; I fell in love with the line when it was first showcased, and I am finally jumping in now. I'll try to get a blog going once I start collecting them, which should begin as soon as I get my tax return in...

 

Edited March 30, 2017 by Spinsane

[MacDuff]

I haven't quit AOS at all, but I did drift away from old world Warhammer. I think both the insanely thick rule book (I forget what edition), and even the massive battle photos were perversely demoralizing. I had a lot of odd Fantasy minis tucked away on shelves from over the years (War Dino! Cool!), but when AOS hit I dug them back out, and I'm slowly rebasing, repairing & priming and finding I have several armies of various sizes. Thanks to the free warscrolls I can now play them all! So I'm slowly painting them up, starting with small warbands of each for test skirmishes, then finishing up an army if I find it fun to play. I guess one man's rage quit is another's bro hug.