There have been a good number of games that just never lived up to my expectations for a whole host of reasons. Poorly written rules, bugs, excessive DLC, sleep-inducing gameplay, etc... However, every now and then, I will go back and give a game a second or third chance just to make sure my dislike was not due to my just not being receptive to the game at the time I originally played it.
Anyway, I recently pulled out a starter box of Warhammer 40K miniatures that had been purchased as a gift over a year ago. It just sat in the pile. My disinterest in the game was do to several factors. Buckets of dice. "+" this and "+" that dialogue I heard on battle reports. The cost of the miniatures. Little familarity with the lore. The point being I just had no real interest in game.
However, the boys saw the box art and thought it looked "epic," so I opened the box and built the miniatures. I figured this would not hold their interest. I was wrong so very, very wrong. The starter box has a nice series of small scenarios to teach the game basics. So after playing though these, they understood the basic rules. Oh we still make stuff up as we go along and stray at times far from the rules. It's all good. They enjoy rolling lots of dice multiple times to determine if they do damage or not. The models "engage the imgination." Seriously, that was the comment. His imagination was engaged. Anyway, it's a lot of fun.
And I have to admit that I abosulutely love working with the games workshop plastic.They really do produce the best plastic sculpts. Clean, clear details and the chuncky size is actually a joy to paint. I am not good at the stylized paint scheme but it's getting better. Now the price is still not good. I am not sure how far down the rabbit hole I will go but we have a couple of small patrol sized armies and I did get a vehicle for each. I mean every space marine force needs a tank and necrons need a large undead robot creature to make the battles more epic.
So yes. My opinion of Warhammer 40K has changed. I like it. It is a fun game that can scale to as much or little complexity of rules as we want to play at the table. And yes, I admit it. I actually like looking at a squad of blue space marines storming the enemy on the table.
Anyone else have a similar experience?