When I'm into it, I'll be all over it, using up large amounts of my money (disposable or otherwise) buying little plastic men so I can pretend to command them to kill other plastic men which I pretend are dying. When I'm not into it, I will miss months of development in what have become rapidly changing product lines. It's for this reason that I signed up for the Games Workshop mailing list, so I could actually have some idea as to what the hell is going on while my obsession gland is diverting me towards something else (usually just as useless and just as demanding on my finances, like LARPing).
Like many companies that specialise in hobby games, GW is in the habit of revamping sections of its product lines with new rules and models, as a means of increasing sales. That makes sense, and I'm all for it. Consumers like shiny new things, so you give it to them. However, the trend for these updates seems to be "mostly the same, a few redesigns on some familiar models and a REALLY BIG NEW THING!!!"
Case in point: a new rulebook for the Tomb Kings (basically an army of mummies and Egyptian mythology-inspired monsters) army is out on pre-order. With it come some new Tomb Guard models, and something that looks like a guy riding a snake. These look pretty standard. Then there's this:
WTF is that?! I know what it is, because I looked it up. It's a Necrosphinx. This is the big, bad thing that's going to be sitting across the table from any fool who challenges a Tomb Kings player from now on. It's been happening with nearly all updates in the last 3 months. The Orcs got a Giant Spider, the Skaven (ratmen) got all this nonsense, and even the Grey Knights, a futuristic army of crusading soldiers not know for their monsters, get this Dreadknight. I mean, look at it. It's a giant robot with a friggin' hammer!
And yet, I do think that this is the best part of the wargaming hobby. In every army in every fantasy or sci-fi war, there's always the really big stuff that stands way above the rank and file. Remember that massive battering ram from Return of the King? The AT-ATs from Star Wars? These things are iconic; we not only notice them, we remember of them with that "woah, did you see that?" awe that befits these styles of media. Sure, these products are really suppose to be that got-to-have-them centrepieces of every army of that type (if you don't have one then it's not a real army), but that doesn't matter to me.
Big fantasy battles are really just backgrounds to those few titans in their own epic struggles, so I welcome the big bads onto the table top. Besides, they've been part of the hobby for longer than I know, it's only now they look so damn crazy.
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