The Game Is Dead, Long Live The Players

A pal at the (generally) awesome Red Castle Games got me into Warhammer 40k Conquest and I got hooked pretty quick. Upside: the game is cool! It's got strategy and variety!

Downside: the game is dead. 

This raises complicated feelings for me, because part of the reason I play games is to connect to other people. Dead games have trouble getting new players. But there are a small group of players right now; maybe that's enough. After the last two years of not being able to meet other people to play games with, enough would be a nice start. 

Similarly, the Transformers TCG is a game that I don't get to play anymore, yet I still have all the pieces. The game is fun...but the players have scattered to the wind. I know, I know, there are fan sets being made and that's true for Warhammer, too. There are two differences between these situations though:

First, there are multiple fan sets for Transformers, which means there are some issues with the vision for the game-some groups are more into competitive experiences and orient their designs that way, others veer the other direction and that means that these sets aren't necessarily going to play well together. Sure, you should be able to mash them in the same game, but I've had experiences where people say they don't want to play with this or that set. 

This is where a formal leadership group would be useful. Games like these are so complicated that having a structure to hang everything off of is important and I don't have the brainspace to keep track of what people want to play with.

With only one group making sets for Warhammer: Conquest, there is one vision for the game. Someone might not like it and choose not to play with those cards, but at least there aren't competing values fighting for attention. 

The second part involves actually getting to play the game. The pandemic wrecked the Transformer playerbase, since I didn't have the ability to meet people to play and it wasn't big enough to have the kind of momentum a game like Magic has. While I was able to play some remote games, those were a pain to set up. Don't get me wrong: I enjoyed getting to play but having to get a multiple camera setup and lighting and layout done is a drag. 

With Conquest, there's a small group of people who are into the game already; this will be my third week of gaming (and my third game, the first where I made decks myself) and we can get together. Yes, it is still being done in the shadow of the pandemic, but it can be done.

There's something else going on though, for me. Part of it is born out of the isolation of the pandemic, I suppose but there's an interesting question to be asked; what do you do when you like something nobody else likes? 

This isn't the first time I've thought about this: as a kid I loved dinosaurs. This love was about 10 years before everyone else loved dinosaurs. As an adolescent, I loved heavy metal-not glam metal, which was popular. Yeah, I liked Metallica before it was cool.

Which is a good joke, but also: it was isolating, once upon a time. I remember the days when they weren't the biggest metal band on the planet. 

I liked to read and as a boy, that was a bit different. These days I like Magic-but I liked Magic before it was cool, too! Yet I still struggle to find people to connect with over that.

Now I like these other things that a small group of people like and I'm having to find that group. This is something I'm bad at. What is worse is that it leaves me feeling more isolated, instead of less. 

I don't exactly know what to do about that, beyond giving a go to finding those people. 

Which, I suppose means that I really need to start playing Magic with some more people. 

But one thing at a time. Here's my first Conquest deck!

Broderick Worr  (Decree of Ruin)

Army (31)

1  Penal Legionnaire  (Core Set)
3  Sacaellum Shrine Guard  (Boundless Hate)
2  Tallarn Raiders  (Zogwort's Curse)
2  Void Pirate  (Core Set)
4  Anxious Infantry Platoon  (Decree of Ruin)
1  Elysian Assault Team  (Core Set)
3  Evil Sunz Warbiker  (The Threat Beyond)
3  Goff Brawlers  (Legions of Death)
3  Iron Guard Recruits  (The Scourge)
1  Rokkitboy  (Core Set)
3  Snakebite Thug  (The Threat Beyond)
1  Stalwart Ogryn  (Core Set)
1  Captain Markis  (Core Set)
3  Interrogator Acolyte  (The Howl of Blackmane)

Attachment (3)

1  Commissarial Bolt Pistol  (Decree of Ruin)
2  M35 Galaxy Lasgun  (What Lurks Below)

 Event (13)

2  Bolster the Defense  (The Final Gambit)
2  Summary Execution  (Decree of Ruin)
3  Inspirational Fervor  (Deadly Salvage)
3  Outflank'em  (What Lurks Below)
1  Preemptive Barrage  (Core Set)
1  Snotling Attack  (Core Set)
1  Squig Bombin'  (Core Set)

Support (3)

2  Troop Transport  (Boundless Hate)
1  Forward Barracks  (Decree of Ruin)

This deck is a thematic one: Worr seems like a dick, so the only soldiers who will come to fight for him are the ones that have to, conscripts like Iron Guard Recruits, or the Orks, who don't care who they get to smoosh so long as fighting gets done. 

Captain Markis is there as the one competent leader who people like (there is always one) and the then I took inspiration from some of the decks I found at Traxis Sector.