The Merits of Goofball Gaming

As you've probably noticed, I'm not a hardcore tournament player. Nor am I a brilliant painter. One thing I am, though, is a person that likes to play Warhammer - the non-ball crushing kind.

Strangleweb posted an article asking us why we play. Responses came from über competitive players that have fun by winning, and those [like me] that play to have fun despite the outcome and aren't into the whole tourney scene.

Not all of us have the desire or capabilities to be a champion of the IGT circuit - there is nothing wrong with that. Some of us just enjoy playing at local stores, or on our dining room tables with friends and some beer. We play with minis that aren't painted, let alone primed and properly based - I'm playing with movement trays with dice on them right now because the models are being worked on. We put together annoying 90% on foot ork armies that take ages to get through a turn, and play the worst armies in the game just to see how badly we can get crushed.

Mathhammer... Oh, How I Hate Thee.

Why would someone with dyscalculia start playing a game nicknamed "mathhammer"?

For those unfamiliar: dyscalculia is a set of math related disabilities. Think of it as dyslexia - instead of the "there is no doG" joke, my joke would be "2 and 2 make fish." I get the concepts, but numbers don't translate properly. This, as you can imagine, makes Warhammer a bit more difficult for me than most.

My army is sparklier than yours. Or something.

After raising the hackles of a few on my last post, I thought it best to write a more neutral one about my army and its 'My Little Pony' sparkly-ness.

I play Daemons of Chaos in WFB - the force is mainly Khorne with some Tzeentch thrown in for flavor. I chose the army for its aesthetics, not due to it [probably] being the most broken, powerful army in WFB right now - I argue that for its game system Wings of Sanguinius is worse and more cheesy than anything available for my army.

Death of a Unicorn

My army may be the sparkliest thing to hit a gaming table, but I am not a unicorn. I’m not a gamer girl. I’m just a gamer. Just like you.

I’ve participated in a number of discussions about women who play Warhammer. There are usually mentions of how rare we are. Assumptions are made about what armies we play and why. Stories about being ostracized are told by women, as well as rants by men about why women don’t belong in the hobby. The feeling I get is that women are not seen as equals by some of our counterparts for reasons ranging from simple uncomfort to full blown misogyny.

Stop. Seriously… just stop. Sexism has no place in gaming. Nor does this ridiculous habit of placing women on a pedestal because you’re not used to seeing us around. We are not special. We are gamers.