A Tale of Two Games

I started with the Tau a little over two years ago. I have roughly 1000 points of Tau, more if I equip my hunter cadre just right. But in all the time I've had them, I've only played a handful of games, the majority under the (incredibly awesome) 4th Edition Combat Patrol rules. I've constructed plenty, but have only one Piranha, two XV-15s, one Crisis Suit commander, and half a squad of Fire Warriors painted.

I guess my experience is really not that different from most peoples - walk into your local game store, and there's a good chance most of the armies won't be painted (white or black base-coating excluded), and may only be partially constructed. I could just suck it up and play... but the oppressive weight of so many unfinished models gets to you.

I think I lost my momentum early one, when I carefully and meticulously crafted my very first Fire Warrior team. So much effort and detail went into making that squad unique - a different pose here, a pointing hand there. And then I realized the squad made up just a fraction - and a small fraction! - of my total fighting force. There's just so much work to do to have a fully-functioning 1000-point cadre, and each little building block requires a (seemingly) disproportionate modeling effort compared to its point-cost and usefulness on the battlefield.

Last summer, about nine months back, I got introduced to Warmachine. I bought the rulebook and two blisters - the alternate Sorscha and the variant Journeyman Warcaster. I couldn't make up my mind between Khador and Cygnar, nor could I even bring myself to invest in a Warmachine army: I had a massive and unfinished Tau cadre, and the "local" Warmachine hangout was twenty minutes down the highway.

This all changed at the beginning of this year, when I discovered Asgard Games had just opened up. The location was right, and I knew the owners - Will and DJ - from the Rice Village Games Workshop. Warmachine is really popular at Asgard, so I went ahead and took the plunge.