Why I Don’t Play Fantasy

Games Workshop has just announced that the Island of Blood starter set for Warhammer Fantasy Battles is available for pre-order, and I know at least a couple of my friends (namely, WDR and Hooligan from the Undergopher podcast) are planning on picking up a couple. WDR has been on a big Fantasy kick lately, and has been talking up the game to anyone in our group who will listen. It's understandable; Fantasy was his first Warhammer gaming love, and from everything I've heard the newest edition is very good. He's even managed to get me to contemplate getting into the game, to the point where I've been on GW's website pricing out various options.

However, I just don't see myself taking it any further and actually putting anything in a shopping cart. I enjoy wargaming, and I've been pretty happy with Warhammer 40K, but crossing over into Fantasy-land just doesn't click for me. Why is that? What makes me so adverse to getting into square-basing?  Let me break it down a bit.

• I'm cheap. WFB is not an inexpensive game, especially compared to 40K. There's the fact that the standard army is 2000 points, as compared to 1500 for 40K, and from what WDR has told me, even that's starting to give way to 2500-point armies. That's not a small investment, and when you consider that units in WFB generally cost less points-wise than they do in 40K, you're having to buy even more minis to fill out that point budget. Even the newer, mostly-plastic armies start to get expensive. Take Skaven, for example. Two Island of Blood sets and a Skaven Battalion box gets you a good number of minis - 120 Clanrats, 20 Plague Monks, 6 Rat Ogres, 2 Warlords, 2 Warlock Engineers, 2 Plague Wind Mortars, 2 Warpfire Throwers, 2 Master Moulders, and 3 Packmasters. It looks like it'd be a decent-sized force if it were a 40K army, but in Fantasy, that doesn't even crack 1500 points. And that's roughly $220 of plastic (assuming you split the starter sets with someone). it's enough to get you started, but it's not a complete army by any means. Granted, it's still a good deal, but that's thanks to the starter set; most armies won't be that good a deal.

  To compare, I started my Tau army with a Battle Force and a Megaforce. That was also around $220, but that got me 32 Fire Warriors, 12 Kroot, 3 Crisis Suits, 6 Stealth Suits, 3 Piranhas, 2 Devilfish, a Hammerhead, and assorted Gun and Marker Drones. It's not quite 1500 points, but add a Commander Crisis Suit, and you're within spitting distance, and it's a relatively complete army. You have at least one unit in each FOC group, and you can get a feel for most different Tau units.

• I like smaller armies. Going along with being cheap, I don't like armies with tons of miniatures. There's a reason why I don't play Imperial Guard, or Tyranids, or Orks. The "massive horde of troops" army style just doesn't appeal to me, either in a tactical sense or in a hobbying sense. I'm a slow painter, and the idea of having to paint all the figures required in a Fantasy army does not sound fun. At any rate, I wouldn't finish it anytime soon, especially with two other 40K armies in the queue already.
• I prefer 40K's fluff. I'm a sci-fi nerd first and foremost. That doesn't mean that I don't like fantasy - my D&D shelf at home is a testament to the contrary - but the fluff for Warhammer Fantasy has never really caught my fancy. I don't know what specifically about Fantasy's dark grim-and-grittiness doesn't work for me, but it's just never held much interest. None of the factions really appeal to me either (other than Skaven, for their 'mad science' vibe, and maybe Warriors of Chaos or Dark Elves, but even that's iffy). On the other hand, 40K's sci-fi fluff grabs my attention, and as odd as the fluff can occasionally be, I can discuss it for hours with friends, and I enjoy delving into it. One of these days, I need to pick up a Black Library novel, but I have enough books in my reading queue as it is...
• I prefer 40K's skirmish feel. Another thing about Fantasy that doesn't appeal is wheeling large blocks of troops around. Whenever I look at a picture of a Fantasy battle, there's something about it that feels very static, and I think it's because all the minis are locked into these nice, neat rectangles. I understand that it fits the pseudo-historical style of combat that it's supposed to emulate, but it's something that just holds no interest for me. Instead, I prefer the looser feel of 40K's units and movement. Granted, Fantasy's movement trays make it much easier to move large units (anyone who's played against a mob of 30 Ork Boyz will appreciate that), but I like the freedom of 40K's fluid troop formations.
• I'm running out of space! Let's say that I had the money for a full-sized Fantasy army, and that I overlooked my other issues with Fantasy. I'd still have one more major issue - I have nowhere to put a Fantasy army. As it is now, I'm already storing the largest part of my Tau army at a friend's house. Partially, this is due to convenience - that's where we play - but it's also due to the fact that we're trying to declutter our small house right now. Until we get a bigger place, or I get rid of enough other things to have a lot more space (and we already have a good chunk of our belongings in storage), I've got nowhere to put a third army, especially one the size of a WFB army.

Now, none of these issues are saying that WFB is a bad game, or that I'm refusing to play it because of its lack of quality. In fact, if a friend invited me to play, and provided an army for me to use, I'd give it a go. These are just my personal reasons for not diving into it myself. Of course, I'll be interesting in hearing WDR's response to this...

EDIT: It's been pointed out to me that my math was wrong on the point values on two Island of Blood boxes. In fact, you can get to over 1200 points between the two of them, and adding a Battalion box gets the total up to just shy of 1800 points. Okay, that's a much better deal for $220. Add in something from the Rare Units list, and you could easily hit 2000 points for less than $300. That's not bad at all, so the "I'm cheap" point above is questionable. Of course, I am still cheap, and can't really afford to drop $300 on a new army, but the game itself isn't to blame... as much. If I wanted to play something other than Skaven or High Elves, I'm back to square one.