2013: The Year I Cure Alt-itis

Alt-itis

Commonly witnesses in the online gaming community, symptoms of alt-itis usually include the creation of multiple "alternate" characters in an online game.  Alt-itis (sometimes referred to by sufferers as "altoholism") occurs more frequently in games that provide large numbers of customization options, tempting a player to create a new character to see what odd combinations of skills, abilities and appearances he or she can discover.

I've known for a while that I suffer from alt-itis.  In every online game I've ever played, I usually don't hit the level cap because I'm too busy trying out other classes or races.  When it comes to miniatures game, the same thing happens.  Back when I played 40k, I had every single army, and almost every unit/character/vehicle/whatever for them too.  I started to break myself of the habit of "gotta have them all" when I sold off my 10,000 point Eldar army to pay for GenCon one year.

But that was just one army, and I still couldn't make myself play the same faction more than a few times in a row.  Even in leagues and campaigns, I would find some way to switch up my army or I would stop playing. It wasn't necessarily boredom on my part, it was just the need to try new things.

Recently, I've gotten back into Warmachine and Hordes (as you can probably tell based on the focus of most of my articles on COGS).  I'm falling into the exact same trap.  I own just about every army for Warmachine/Hordes and constantly want to switch what I'm playing.  I bounce from faction-specific forum to faction-specific forum, always finding some new "trick" that I want to try out, making me switch up my force.

In addition, I really have a hang up about playing what other people are playing.  I love variety and don't want to be part of a (imaginary) problem of having too many people playing the same thing.  I dislike playing the same faction as someone else and I will shelf an entire army just because one other guy at the store is playing them.

That's not cool.  It has to stop.

So what is the cure?  Nothing more than a combination of willpower and peer pressure.  It's one thing to make a promise to yourself that doesn't really matter and then break it.  It's another to come out publicly, make a promise, and then break it.  You lose clout.  You lose street-cred.  Your word becomes meaningless (at least when it comes to totally unimportant things like army selection and casual gaming).

My cure is this blog post.

"But wait", you might say if you hadn't lost interest already.  "So what's your selection?  We can't call you a quitter if you don't state what army you're going to play."

Very observant on your part, person-who-read-this-far.  I've got to make a decision and put it in writing.  The options?  All of the factions for Warmachine and Hordes with the exception of the dainty elves of the Retribution (an army I traded away on Bartertown for stuff I'm sure I never used).

Let's do a quick run-down:

Cygnar - Good faction and the one I'm playing in the current escalation league.  I could actually make a great start in curing Alt-itis by continuing to play them.  However, I don't own a lot for them.  It would probably involve me investing more money into the game and financially it's not a smart decision.

Protectorate - I've got almost everything for Protectorate but there's a problem: another player has announced he's playing Protectorate in the upcoming Umbra league.  My anxiety about duplicating factions sets in.

Khador - I really want to like Khador but I can't.  I just find them to be somewhat boring and I don't know why.  I think it's because I want them to be an awesome 'jack faction but they're not.  They rely more on awesome infantry such as the Winter Guard Death Star or Kayazy Assassins.  And the infantry I want to use (the various Man 'o War suits) aren't good.

Cryx - Cryx is a good option here.  I have a lot of their stuff including the Battle Engine (painted) and the Kraken.  They have a lot of unique play styles and some fantastic casters.  Relatively easy to paint, too.

Retribution - Don't have any.  They would be an option if I traded someone on Bartertown, but I haven't tried to work a deal on that website in a while now.

Mercenaries - I only have the pirates and I can't find a good 50-point list I'd like with what I have.  I don't want to buy another Colossal so I think they're out.

Trollbloods - There's just too many other trollblood players right now.  In our current league, we had like 4 troll players in a 9-person league.  Even though one of them dropped out, we still have 3 out of 8 and that's just too much.  If I couldn't handle one other guy maybe playing Protectorate next league, how could I ever choose these guys?

Circle Orboros - This is a solid option because I have almost everything and I have a paint scheme that I like for them.  I even have a bunch of custom bases that I can use (they were originally for my Wood Elf army for Warhammer Fantasy).  They have some good casters but there's a lot of stuff I don't necessarily like the look of (I'm looking at you Scarsfell Griffon and anything with Tharn in the title).

Skorne - Skorne is probably one of my top options here.  No one else plays them (although one other person at the store does have them) and they fit my style of play.  They are getting the best Gargantuan when the Mammoth comes out and they have so much variety depending on which caster you play.  They can do bricks, focus on heavy warbeasts, troop swarm, or anything in between.  The biggest downside: I can't find a paint scheme I like for them.

Legion - I love Legion but I'm going to pass on them.  At least two other people at our local store have and play them and one of those two guys is someone I play almost every other week.  There's so much to like about Legion and how they play but others have basically called "dibs" on them.

Minions - I recently traded for or purchased almost everything I'd need to play Minions.  I have more of the gators than I do the pigs, but I have enough for both.  The advantage here is that I could pick "one" faction and still be playing two.  With recent releases like Rask, the Witch Doctor, and the Road Hog, there's a surprisingly strong faction here despite the lack of models that the other factions have.

So what's my final selection...

It really comes down to Skorne, Cryx, and Circle.  Skorne has the play style I like but I don't like painting them.  Cryx is Warmachine (which means I don't have to listen to "Hordes is more powerful" arguments) and has a ton of variety.  Circle is like Cryx but I have an awesome paint scheme for Circle I've been using.

The winner (and I will stick with this for all of 2013 once our current escalation league ends):