Are you a player, hobbyist, or collector?

[CommissarRotke]

hello! my biggest question to you: do you engage with the novels, games, and campaign books as well? I consider myself a "hobbyist" because I build&paint models but I also engage with the lore and would be down to play any of AOS's systems. I guess I'm interested in where you drawn the line for "collector" vs "player" or hobbyist.

[Doko]

its hard drawn the line.

myself:

-i like have the 100% of units in the army,so i am collector

-i like spend many hours removing every gap lane,seam lane etc of my miniatures and i build them as i did with my tamiya kits,so i am hobbist also

-i like spend many hours doing numbers,theorycrafting,mathammer,tactics,list etc,but really i only have played around 50 games and 2 tournament in 8 years,so i could be called player or competitive player?

 

but i think i could call me myself collector,because i take more excitement and fun each time that i buy one unit that i dont have(pokemon symdrome of get them all),thanks to this i have a HUGE pile of shame waiting me

[Ejecutor]

23 minutes ago, CommissarRotke said:

hello! my biggest question to you: do you engage with the novels, games, and campaign books as well? I consider myself a "hobbyist" because I build&paint models but I also engage with the lore and would be down to play any of AOS's systems. I guess I'm interested in where you drawn the line for "collector" vs "player" or hobbyist.

Maybe would be interesting adding a "none" option on the second one? Or even some table top simulator ones. Some user can only play that way as they dont have ppl around to play with.

Edited October 23, 2023 by Ejecutor

[CommissarRotke]

28 minutes ago, Doko said:

but i think i could call me myself collector,because i take more excitement and fun each time that i buy one unit that i dont have(pokemon symdrome of get them all),thanks to this i have a HUGE pile of shame waiting me

exactly what I'm curious about, thanks Doko

18 minutes ago, Ejecutor said:

Maybe would be interesting adding a "none" option on the second one? Or even some table top simulator ones. Some user can only play that way as they dont have ppl around to play with.

i realized this was a bit too hasty of a poll on my lunch break, not sure if I can edit it now it is probably more accurate of a question to ask "how many systems do you play or collect?"

[pnkdth]

Hobbyist foremost. Enjoy getting into the lore since I find it enriches the hobbyist aspect. To me, it isn't just the minis themselves but placing them within a setting is what gives them purpose. I write short stories and flavour text to create a slice of the world for myself. Not really with the aim to show to the world but just as little something-something extra.

My gaming time revolve around skirmish and boardgames. I have sold off quite a lot my stuff to "de-clutter" my hobby since it was going all over the place. I do not know if I'll get back into AoS or 40k and in the end it doesn't matter. Starting anew feels pretty hecking good. Sometimes you gotta take a step back and, thankfully, I've become better and better at recognising a burnout before it hits.

Have a good feeling about next year or maybe that's just my delusions talking. 😇

[Ejecutor]

32 minutes ago, CommissarRotke said:

exactly what I'm curious about, thanks Doko

i realized this was a bit too hasty of a poll on my lunch break, not sure if I can edit it now it is probably more accurate of a question to ask "how many systems do you play or collect?"

I've voted AoS as at some point I would like to give it a go, but eaisly not in the next 3-4 years at least.

I am a collector over everything. I've started with Stormcast during the Mortal Reams issues, but once I realised how massive the range could be with the 3rd ed release (and after buying every single collector/ exclusive model) I stopped and waited for TOW, but CoS is awesome so I moved from SCE into CoS.

I am the kind of user that like to have it ALL. As I said I joined during mid 2ed and still I own every single book appart from the Real Gate Wars books, which are almost imposible to locate in Spanish.

In terms of minis I want to get every single model released during AoS. As an example I bought a second hand Silver Tower box just to get the Excelsior Warpriest. Luckyly after selling everything else I am on a positive balance of 70 €, but I could go crazy with stuff like that. I just need to buy what has been released in preordes this week (already ordered Tahlia, waiting for the rest for discounted boxes) and I collect as many units as building options you can have (20 steelhelms, 20 fusiliers, 2 cannons, 2 ogors warkhulk, 10 cavaliers...).

In terms of scenery I am less picky. I don't need all the scenery, but everything that matches my CoS aesthetics. Refer to my building post to see the scenery I own:

I also don't mind scratch bulding and kitbashing. I enjoy it a lot, but with 10 month twins and starting into the hobby in terms of paint and craft, I am pretty low progressing.

So I would be mid btween collector and hobbyist, but picked collector.

[Gitzdee]

I think im all of the above, but my focus has shifted over the years.

I always used to be a competitive player in the sense that i always try to build the best list i possibly can with the models that i own. I also like reading about tactics and combinations etc.

Im a casual player in the sense that i dont go off buying the fotm lists and models. I just want to do well and have fun and roll some dice. U wont ever see me playing some meta list.

Im a hobbyist in the sense that i enjoy reading the lore and try to read up on armies i dont own. Its just fun to talk about this hobby. Tga is always a fun place to browse around and see what others are up to. I like to read up on painting techniques and terrain building and try to be a better painter. In the end enjoying the hobby itself is what i spend most of my time with so i voted this option.

Im a collector in the sense that i try to avoid buying the same unit multiple times and that i always enjoy buying my next shiny toy. Im always thinking about what model i want to buy next. I try to buy less and finish more of my pile of shame, but sometimes its just to hard to resist buying something new.

For the second part of the poll. I started with whfb and played most my games and later AoS. Now that im a dad free time has become a myth. I shifted from playing AoS to playing more Warcry that i really enjoy a lot. But i would like to keep playing both.

 

Edited October 23, 2023 by Gitzdee

[Beliman]

I like to collect armies. And I mean, everything about them: miniatures, RPG books, black library novels, anniversary models, STLs, etc... but I like to play a game from time to time, and fully painted if it's possible. But to be honest, I don't play enough tournaments, even if I really like them.

I'm not sure where I belong. A mix of collector and casual player with a frustrated tournament career?

[JackStreicher]

Mhm. I am all the options except competetive.

 

[EccentricCircle]

I'm a collector and hobbyist. I love collecting miniature ranges and spend lots of time at my painting desk building and crafting my armies. I enjoy the lore, as I am more of an RPG player than a wargamer. I play a little bit of warcry, but have basically stopped playing AoS and 40k. I love ranking up my armies, but actually playing army scale games tends to be quite boring. I play a lot more frostgrave, D&D and anything with a story basically. I like the idea of narrative AoS but find it tricky if the other player doesn't engage with it. I have no interest in competitive play at all.

[SunStorm]

Hobbyist/Collector for me. 

I used to play WHU every Friday lunch break in work, but since Covid and WFH that's been killed off. I also used to play maybe once a month AoS or 30k, but Covid/WFH has also put pay to that as my gaming space has now become my WFH office. 

I enjoy the building, kitbashing, painting side more now. I get a satisfaction from finishing something and adding it to my display cabinet. 

Other than that, reading lore, or scrolling Instagram looking at other people's amazing work. 

 

Edited October 24, 2023 by SunStorm

[Marcvs]

well, as for most people, it all tends to be a bit blurry. I have picked "competitive" basically because the gaming side is my main motivation in AoS and I do play in 4/5 tournaments every year. Still:

- I only play one army (Stormcast) because I like their look and lore. I have created a lore and a colour scheme for my army (the Flamescar Stormkeep of Edassa), plus a full table of terrain to match their "environment" (the Outskirts of Edassa).

- Because I like to be able to swap lists around (outside of the tournaments I play at my club which is much more "casual", so I need to be able to build non-optimised lists) and to quickly adapt to new GHBs/seasons, I have collected a bit more than 20k points of stormcast and have all the units in the book bar 1 (Vigilors, poor fellas) in my collection. Around 16k is painted, although I am repainting a lot of stuff because I found "my" colour scheme only after two/three years.

The only thing I would not check is "casual". As I said, I play a lot of "casual" games (basically, all my games outside of tournaments are), meaning non-optimised lists and so on BUT I really dislike AoS in a casual setting: the constant rules checking by my opponents who, legitimately, do not have them all by heart like me, the time taken for taking decisions over things like battle tactics, the amount of games where we only play 2 or 3 rounds because, as one of the many wargaming dads, my time is limited and I also want to spend my free time with my family, always leave me frustrated with the game. So, in the end I prefer to play AoS (as opposed to other systems) in a tournament setting.

Edited October 24, 2023 by Marcvs

[Neil Arthur Hotep]

It's always hard to put a definitive lable on things, but I would describe myself as a casual player. Although I spend a lot more time hobbying than playing, all things considered, I mostly do my hobbying with the aim of later playing fun, cool-looking games with my models. I appreciate all the different pillars of the hobby, though: Lore, painting and modeling and gaming.

I would not call myself a competitive player because I don't build my lists with tournament play in mind (although I do optimize them), and I would not call myself a collector because I don't buy models with the aim of having a collection (although I do have a pretty large collection).

I play AoS and have built warbands for Warcry, but not actively played yet, so I chose these two games. I own a few underworlds warbands, but have not played at all and am not really trying to make it happen. Other than that, my AoS models often also see use in role playing games (Soulbound being the big one).

Edited October 24, 2023 by Neil Arthur Hotep

[silverstu]

I'm a collector- I like to collect armies and AoS I have a small Kharadron Overlords force and a Kurnothi war band. I have never played, used to play WFB and currently got back playing 40k as my girlfriend introduced me to a friend who plays. If our small group was interested I would play but at the moment I enjoy reading the lore and collecting models I like, although my painting is mostly aimed at 40k as thats my gaming fix at the moment. 

[MitGas]

I'm a Tzeentch, not an AoS, 40k or GW, hobbyist, always have been. I enjoy playing, I enjoy reading background material, I enjoy painting (and I put a bit of effort into it) but ultimately I'm pretty relaxed regarding all aspects (correction: Lumineth) of it, probably the reason I never burned out. It's more a nice thing for me but I don't stress myself out about any aspect of it. Least of all gaming. Losing is fine too, it's more a social thing than competitive for me.

I did something I usually never do though for my recent birthday however... I got myself a Lictor, something I wanted for YEARS! And that parasite of Motrex thingy so that my poor little new friend won't feel alone. I love a lot of Warhammer stuff in both major systems but pretty much almost never got something other than Chaos/Tzeentch minis. I doubt I'm gonna make a nid army now (too much work, I'm lazy) but I'll paint those two for fun and I'm glad I finally pulled the trigger. Perhaps this will push me into the realm of collectors but I try to be prudent and not get so much that I'll never get it done. As slow as I am, I shouldn't buy anything for the next 10 years anyways. 

[zilberfrid]

Hobbyist. I played a few GW games, but it's not for me. I like Frostgrave and Stargrave every few months though.

Inam unimpressed by GW's rule writing prowess, think the books are way overpriced and their shelf life is too short.

A answered "all others", because there was no way to say none.

Edited October 24, 2023 by zilberfrid

[Clan's Cynic]

I play most GW games fairly casually, including AoS. I've simply played too many games far more suited to tournament/competitive play to ever bother with Gw's offerings - with the exception of Underworlds and Kill Team.

I do find myself picking up more AoS and adjacent models purely for the sake of hobbying/painting than I do with other games though. Several Underworlds teams and one-off Heroes who I don't plan to see a table can attest to that. 

[EntMan]

On 10/24/2023 at 3:55 PM, MitGas said:

I'm a Tzeentch, not an AoS, 40k or GW, hobbyist, always have been. I enjoy playing, I enjoy reading background material, I enjoy painting (and I put a bit of effort into it) but ultimately I'm pretty relaxed regarding all aspects (correction: Lumineth) of it, probably the reason I never burned out. It's more a nice thing for me but I don't stress myself out about any aspect of it. Least of all gaming. Losing is fine too, it's more a social thing than competitive for me.

I did something I usually never do though for my recent birthday however... I got myself a Lictor, something I wanted for YEARS! And that parasite of Motrex thingy so that my poor little new friend won't feel alone. I love a lot of Warhammer stuff in both major systems but pretty much almost never got something other than Chaos/Tzeentch minis. I doubt I'm gonna make a nid army now (too much work, I'm lazy) but I'll paint those two for fun and I'm glad I finally pulled the trigger. Perhaps this will push me into the realm of collectors but I try to be prudent and not get so much that I'll never get it done. As slow as I am, I shouldn't buy anything for the next 10 years anyways. 

A Lictor would be a great Chaos Spawn proxy for your Tzeentch army(s).

I picked up 3 Von Roy's Leapers in the Leviathan Nids eBay bonanza cos I wanted to paint a Lictor (or baby Lictor) and at least one is gonna be spawn.

[The Borumancer]

Excluding competitive player...

[MitGas]

2 hours ago, EntMan said:

A Lictor would be a great Chaos Spawn proxy for your Tzeentch army(s).

I picked up 3 Von Roy's Leapers in the Leviathan Nids eBay bonanza cos I wanted to paint a Lictor (or baby Lictor) and at least one is gonna be spawn.

Yeah, I had the same idea actually! 😎But who knows, maybe the Killteam rules will actually become good one day (they should just make it Warcry in space), then I might be able to use him as intended or as an environmental hazard or something. Certainly a really cool iteration but extremely uncool to build. Sooo many parts… 🤣 I really hate building minis! 

Well, still trying to finish my scenery (my perfectionism makes me go over some parts waaay too much…really stupid as it‘s terrain, not a unit but I can‘t help it), so it‘ll be a bit before I‘ll get to him anyways. 

[Ejecutor]

It seems I am the only collector 😄

[zilberfrid]

10 hours ago, Ejecutor said:

It seems I am the only collector 😄

That means you have the full set of collectors right there!

[Draznak]

I consider myself mainly a hobbyist, then a light collector and finally an even lighter casual player.

What I love most about GW hobby are minis and lore that goes with them. Play games is very secondary to me, but after more than 20 years in this hobby, most of which was spent painting, I still want to play more regularly, as a casual player. 
It's totally personal, but I hate the competitive aspect and meta which is taking over from everything else (at least on the internet, mainly because of the influence of youtubers and GW's hypocrisy who are quite happy to sell minis for meta even though their games aren't made for it, and they know it very well).

So for gaming, I'm on Warcry and Underworlds because they obviously require fewer miniatures and I think they're excellent (I only play Underworlds in Rival format). I'd like to play AoS and 40k but, as I'm about to become a father in a few days' time, I know that's going to be an unattainable fantasy for years to come 😅.

I'd also like to delve deeper into the lore but BL has stopped translating the AOS novels into French (probably because sales were poor). Which makes me terribly frustrated. I almost blame players for not making the effort to get interested in this universe, which has enormous potential. 40k is already crushing everything, and the nostalgia of Fantasy Battle is suffocating... Let AoS take flight !

[Taerg Ad Ywons]

I'm more a hobbyist/painter these days but I do want to play more AoS. For some reason most of the local communities stick to 40k/OPR's version of 40k, and warcry. AoS feels in a weird spot and I wonder if it's due to the setting or just a lack of people advocating the game locally. I do agree that the disproportionate love 40k gets hurts AoS, doubly so when ToW is on the horizon, but AoS really has come into its own since 2nd edition.

[The Lost Sigmarite]

That's a good question for a thread. Am I a tabletop player, hobbyist, or collector ?