I suppose it was bound to happen.
I mean I haven't played the game in over a year now.
That's my army there in my cabinet... still in the shrink wrapped boxes. The only reason one of them is opened is because I wanted to know what was on one of the vehicle sprues.
It's been a gradual change though. It started with selling my army last year. I had every intention of redoing it with new models and I had huge plans for the new force. I spent lots of time trying to perfect my color scheme and getting all the smaller details figured out. I ordered specific bits and even picked up special resin bases.
Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months and next thing you know, a year has gone by. Now don't get me wrong, I've done lots of modeling and painting... just no gaming. I look at a model now and wonder how I will build/paint it so it looks cool. I make no effort to think of it's in game legality or how effective it is or isn't on the tabletop. The thought doesn't even cross my mind anymore.
I used to build and paint and try to keep it "legal" in terms of game play. You know, only giving models the things they might be equipped with in the game in case I wanted to use them. Now, I do what I want and what I think looks cool.
That's the only criteria I use these days.
It's not bad either. Finally letting go of the gaming aspect has opened up the ability to get into the background and all the cool stuff that seems to be lost in the translation from fluff to rules. Drop the rules and the fluff is so much more.
Who knows though, maybe next year I'll get my army together and try playing again.
I can tell you my focus will be making my army look cool, it may not be legal by any stretch of the imagination, but it will look the part if nothing else.
