And now, for something completely different. As this is my 'personal' space, I'll share a personal thing here and tell you how I feel about the hobby now. Maybe putting it 'on paper' will prove to have some kind of therapeutic potential, who knows.
With the new edition and the new Marines out there, I feel like I'm on the verge of quitting the hobby completely and selling my army. The only things that keeps me from doing so are 'reason' and a certain stubbornness typical of dwarves and Templars. Stubbornness because I don't want GW to 'win'. Reason because selling the models after all these years of hoarding them would be contrary to reason and this is something I cannot stand to do. To assemble my Crusade cost me too much time, money, effort and devotion. Money, I can reclaim a fair bit of it, but the remaining things would be lost forever if I made this drastic decision.
I endured much - like many of us - the removal of C: BT, the ongoing lack of consideration, the unfriendly meta of 6th and 7th edition favouring armies with psychers, I even came to terms with the disappointing rules in the new Codex (when I started in 5th edition, the rules in our Codex were not that good at the time either, but I had some fun and many a victory).
But the exponential presence of the Primaris is something that wears me off. This may probably be traced to three major reasons. Firstly, I do not like the concept of better Marines - I tried over and over again to give it a try, but no. With my tinfoil hat on, I cannot see past the conspiracy: Primaris are there to manipulate me into buying new, fancy-looking stuff. And I don't like feeling manipulated (or even coerced, considerign my addiction to buying toys) into doing things. Secondly, there's the "buying stuff" aspect. How wrong have I been to believe that the presence of Space Marines are a 'constant' - that even though I don't have much time for the hobby, I can assemble a Crusade that I want to have, slowly paint it and have it ready in 2-3 years' time. Considering the gradual increase in prices, I bought new kits from time to time to have them ready for building and painting in the future. As a result, I have around ten near-mint boxes of stuff, with only the plastic removed. The first annoyance was the switch to the larger bases - had I waited, I could have had way more units on the new bases, but well. Now, there are the new units that I probably could have bought instead of the regular Marines. But apparently this is my fault - I shouldn't have hoarded units. Thirdly, I feel 'deceived' because I invested money into units (that I haven't used, or even assembled for that matter) that are now worse than some new units, that probably shouldn't be in the universe at all. Everything with the Primaris key word is just superior to the regular options. Sure, I would like to have troops with better bolters (the AP-1 makes a huge difference), two wounds and attacks (which make 'proper' chainword Initiates obsolete). Or the boosted plasma. Or the insanely cheap Aggressors (or whatever they're called) as opposed to Centurions who easily clock over 300 points instead of around 120 and can only shoot once. Or the uber-dreadnought who eclipses any other mark of dreadnought we have...
But I can't. And the fault is mine, probably. Because I just don't feel like buying more stuff from a 'dishonest' producer who runs business like a TV show, offering cliff-hangers to its customers, instead of a publishing schedule. It probably is exciting to learn a month after buying a book that it's going to be replaced, right?
Still, I know that my disappointments and feelings are somewhat ingenuous - the world of business does not really care for the things I care. But no other decision sits so wrong. And I probably am not a purist/conservative who cannot accept new stuff because I bought all new kits released after 2013, like Talons, Centurions or Ravens, all kits that I did not really like, as well as a Stalker tank and plastic Veterans and Tacticals. I just cannot accept the Primaris. I invested my money in the wrong place, but nevertheless, I would like the investment to work. But it seems it won't/doesn't now, because of how better are the Primaris as compared to regular Marines. Because of this 'failed' investment, I am not willing to make further commitments (or do not have the funds to do so). I also feel 'bad' about missing out opportunities: for new models and, to a way larger degree, for models with better rules. Particularly that I am concerned about the future of my non-Primaris Crusade in in 2-3 years.
So, in my stubbornness, I can only continue to ignore the Primaris. But we all know that this is tough because they are everywhere.
This stream of weakness goes on for too long now, I will stop now. I got most of the major gripes out of my system.
The Crusade goes on.
I need an army list and a proper opportunity to kill some heretic, mutant and xenos.
