What inspires you to 'hobby'?

[Amarok]

Greetings to all!

So, sadly my army has been put on hold for a few months, due to the fact that I will soon be spending a few months backpacking around Europe, then moving to the other side of the world that eight years ago was known as 'home' (I am long overdue!). I have been packing up all the crap I have managed to accumulate in the last three years of being in the UK, and found that I have collected quite a few BL books (much to the missus' frustration), mostly fantasy but some 40k too.

Reflecting upon this, I think it is fair to say it is BL books that have kept me in touch with the hobby since my first (brief) foray into it fourteen years ago. So despite my absence from the hobby side of the Warhammer world for over a decade, BL have kept me in touch with the lore and legends of Warhammer. But beyond this, it is my love of the fantasy genre on a wider scale that got me into WHFB in the first place, and keeps me coming back for more.

I wanted to put this out there to the forum and ask everyone what gets their creative juices flowing. What is it, in the wider fantasy genre, that gets you sculpting, painting and playing with your toy soldiers, or in our case, evil maniacal elves who want to take over the world (as is their birthright!). It may be something that introduced you to fantasy originally, or something you saw last week that has inspired you to start a new army.

Ulterior motive - I am always looking for something new to read/watch/listen to!

A couple of things that have inspired me over the years -

The works of Margaret Wise & Tracy Hickman. I love most of their work. Whilst best known for Dragonlance (and lets face it, Dalamar Argent has got to be the greatest dark elf ever!), I also love the Death Gate Cycle, and the Rose of the Prophet trilogy. In fact, the first book I ever consciously remember wanting on sight was Fire Sea. So I guess that's where my love of dragons started! And who doesn't love Dragons?

The Empire Trilogy by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts. I was introduced to this having never heard of the authors or Magician. Awesome read. I am still dabbling with thoughts of an orange and black colour scheme for my Druchii (as an ode to the Minwanabi), and the hands of my two assassins will be dyed red (both in honour of Khaine and a nod to the Hamoi Tong).

I got into the band Leaves Eyes quite a bit last year, and whenever I see this cover art it makes me want to start a Norse themed Chaos army (not till I get my Druchii finished though).

So anyway, that's enough ramble from me. Some things are mainstays of the genre (with good reason i.e Tolkien), but others, allthough it may seem obvious to you, others may never have heard of!

Thanks for taking the time to read, and thank you all for any contributions you feel like making.

TL;DR? What in the fantasy genre inspires you to 'hobby'?

Cheers

Amarok

[Yeasir]

Good question! Fantasy and dragons have always intriqued me and have even inspired one of my tattoos. I think it is the overall idea of exploring "the supernatural" that gets me.

I have never been a huge fan of reading (usually going through a book or two a year, mostly non-fiction); but since discovering Black Library only early this year, I have since read 13 books!! If you haven't read the Malus Darblade series, you have to! In general, I am liking Mike Lee as an author. He wrote the Malus series but also the Nagash series I am currently finishing.

Good luck on your backpacking journey. Be sure to take a few good BL books!

[Amarok]

Cheers Yeasir. Thanks for the 'good luck'!

When I said I had a 'few' BL books, I should have said 'lots'!

Yeah loved the Darkblade series, and all of the Time of Legends. Really enjoyed the Grey Knights omnibus and the Word Bearers omnibus also. Perked my interest in 40k where before there was none!

I have 'Thunder & Steel' by Dan Abnett that I havn't read yet that I might take with me, as a collection of short stories would be handy. Trouble is, I also have World Without End that I am waiting to read (sequel to Pillars of the Earth, not WHFB related), and I don't think I will be able to squeeze them both in my pack as they are both quite large!

[Sim2k]

Well for me, I'd say it was computer games that initially got me into fantasy.

I would play games on my Sega Saturn like Shining the Holy Ark, Shining Force 3 and Dragon Force, which unbeknownst to my young self were all influenced by Dungeons and Dragons and Tolkein etc, so when I saw that crazy artwork on the front cover of those crazy White Dwarf magazines on the shelf of my local newsagent I guess it was only natural that I should be intrigued.

So as with many things in my life, I guess computer games are to blame.

Good luck on your journey from me too. Be careful with Thunder and Steel, as it was the book that revealed to me that Dan Abnett was not always a godly author as he is in his Gaunt's Ghosts books and such. The Gilead stories I found very amateurishly written, and the character of Gilead himself I declare to be a total dick. However! If you agree with me, stick with it, because the more empire themed stories later on are much, much better!

[Amarok]

Cheers for the 'good luck' Sim2k. Thank you also for mentioning a medium I had neglected to mention, computer games!

I am not familiar with the games you have mentioned (i only ever had a Sega master system 2 ), but I certainly remember games such as the Kings Quest and Hero Quest series with misty eyed nostalgia. On a more recent note, I was thinking just the other day that a realm of battle board modelled on Diablo 3's 'desolate sands' area in act two would be pretty sweet. Fill in those silly skull pits with oily tar pits and you're away.

Thanks for the heads up about 'Thunder & Steel'. I never really expect too much from Warhammer novels, so am never disappointed and often happily surprised. The mention of Gilead is just the sort of flimsy connection I need to mention another fictional universe I find fascinating-

Stephen Kings the Dark Tower series. I love it. I also love how the universe and characters infiltrate all his other work, right from the beginning of his career. For a more fantasy slant (and for those who maybe don't know his stuff or dislike the more 'horror' work he is better known for) I can highly recommend 'the Eyes of the Dragon'. A nice easy read, with many fairytale-like elements, it also features one of my favourite villains, Flagg (who also crops up in many different stories by many different names).

Hmm, micro art studios do bases that have just that 'desolate cracked earth desert' look of the 'desolate sands'. I'll add that to the list of armies I want to build!

[van Awful]

Crap i had like the biggest post i ever typed one this forum and now its al gone.

Sorry Amarok here comes the shorter version.

Seeing my half painted druchii force in my showcase, and the semi assembled stuff in boxes, is what really inspires me. Old ideas float through my mind and i'd might even sit down to get a few hours of painting done, Although this hardly happens. (still got a little room dedicated to WH and alway will).

Hanging at my mates house, Who is also my main opponent, always gets my in the mood for a game. Probabaly because his living room is cramped with Warhammer. The problem is it normaly takes up most of our sunday. We like to take our time, a scotch, a smoke, some friendly banter and before you know it 5 hours have past... So we have to plan our games well ahead, as sundays come by only once a week. and quite a few are spend hung over nowadays. Parties take a bigger toll as you get older;)

So to be honest the thing that inspires me to hobby is... wel the hobby

My Fantasy enthusiasm started like 16 years ago when i first read LOTR, 2 years later i got introduced to WHFB.
After that i read anything (fantasy related) i could get my hands on. R. Feist( so much better then Tolkien IMHO), T Goodkind. D Eddings, B Weeks, T Pratchett( Briliant man), R Hobb, G RR Martins to name a few, one of my new favorites is J Abercrombie though.
Of course the Darkblade novels have a special place in my bookcase. every once in a while i'll borrow a BL book from a mate. Fun to read, but i'm not a big fan.

HAve fun in Europe! what's the plan?

[Amarok]

Cheers for taking the time to comment van Awful (twice!).

Having a good mate or group who are interested in the hobby too would indeed be a good incentive to play, and provide a great springboard for ideas etc. Alas my nomadic lifestyle has prevented this :cry:. And every time I enter a GW store I want to run a mile (then collapse in the shower, rocking in the fetal position, scrubbing my skin with steel wool)! Looking forward to joining a good gaming group when (if) I finally settle down, grow up and get a real job .

And true that, the parties sure do take a bigger toll. Ten years ago I wouldn't have believed someone if they had told me that hangovers would one day last several DAYS!

Some good looking authors you have got there. I never got into Eddings, perhaps because I didn't know where to start. Will have to take another look at that. Pratchett is indeed brilliant. Feist is great (I have already mentioned my love of the Empire series), but better than Tolkien ? Controversial! . Not too familiar with the others, so will surely check those out. Thanks for the tips!

As for the Europe plan, still working on it! Our Interrail passes arrived yesterday, which has somehow made it all real. In two weeks I will be unemployed! Starting with a few days at Oktoberfest, then Switzerland, France (Bordeaux baby!), Italy, Vienna, Prague, Amsterdam, Belgium.... in a nutshell . Still alot to sort out!

And sadly I have still been distracting myself with hobby related purchasing and planning (don't tell the missus!). Will have everything in place so I can launch back into it when I get back in November. Finally get a plog together!

Cheers for the input mate, looking forward to discovering those authors!

[Gnosis]

I dabbled in fantasy literature a bit when I was a youngster, but these days it's all historic books, both from contemporary authors and writers in recent memory. Back when I read some fantasy books, I started out with Tolkien, then Feist, some Robert Jordan (worst waste of thousands of pages ever) and finally Gemmell. I started studying history soon afterwards, and never looked back (although I must say I purchased all the Song of Ice and Fire books a few days ago).

But I think Tolkien is the only author whose works ever inspired the armies I collected, specifically the Elven armies I was fond of back in those days. These days, my Empire/VC hybrid has medieval Hungarian colours and heraldry, my Beasts have a rather standard Khornate theme, and my O&G have an again rather fluffy mushroom theme. So I'm afraid to say I haven't been that creative lately, if only because of the fact that the only fantasy literature I've been reading is that which is to be found in rulebooks and armybooks.

Recently, I've taken a dive into historical wargaming, with some Napoleonic French forces from Perry Miniatures. I'm quite liking the change in pace and it allows me to bring my enthousiasm and knowledge about the period to the table. I'm basing the particular division I'm collecting on that of my ancestor Marshall Michel Ney, who held command at Quatre-Bras, which is only a short drive from where I live.

[Omnichron]

I got introduced to the fantasy genre when my brother and sister gave me "The Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings" when I was about 12 years old. I quickly got drawn into fantasy by then, and read other books not worth mentioning.

Later I met new people and got new friends who played roleplaying games (D&D, Vampire the masqurade, Star Wars, MERP, and so on), and before I knew it, I was hooked on fantasy games. The miniature gaming came around when I was 15 years old and we had decided to try Necromunda, and from there we got into Warhammer 40k.

I think it was a year or two after we had played a bit of 40k that we decided to grab an army each of fantsy and I got my first army: Dark Elves.

Back then, the armybook kinda sucked to the new releases, and I had a hard time winning. It wasn't exactly a good starter army, but I enjoyed the games, and learned quickly.

Since then, I've been a bit on and off with the gaming, also dabbled with the new Dark Eldar release after waiting for 12 years for that update. Now I am fully into WHFB again and joined a local gaming club as well as the major tournaments around these parts.

What keeps me the most to WHFB, is mostly the gaming aspect. I've always been a gamer and enjoying competition as such (Although, it's not THAT important to win for me, it's more about the social aspect even though winning is fun). I also like some of the lore, except that I've found some of the books I've read to lack the quality I'd like. When you read other fantasy litterature, you might feel that books like "Malekith" is outright poor writing and not very engaging.

The assembly of armies is kinad boring to me. It's not that I hate it or don't want to do it, but I rather want to play. It takes time for me to get things done, even though I can paint 20 miniatures on an evening due to my speed paint technique... I just feel like doing one such evening once in a while.

Now I look forward to tournaments the most. It's fun with good competition and great opponents.

[Daeron]

What got me into fantasy is quite the cliche "Lord of the Rings did it".

Getting into Warhammer was another matter however. Some random day at the uni, a guy brought his warhammer book to the student club. We marvelled at the pictures and went "whow... nerdy.. but it looks totally awesome!".
A fairly large group decided to start playing the game, me included. That's how it started.

But then.. life.. and world of warcraft got in the way. Now after half a decade... I return to the game.
Why? A multitude of reasons. My interest in World of Warcraft was dwindling (in spite of the excellent RP I had there). When I moved to a house, I started working more with my hands again (which wasn't required in my appartment) and I realized how much I missed doing things with my hands. My kid, work and house leave me with too little time to dedicate to a computer game and play it at a level I can enjoy... (tired of competing with kids who play the game 24-7, compared to my 2hours a day). TV is still boring as hell... so ultimately I came back to a hobby that never lost its lure on me.

And this time... I plan to finish my army... build my terrain... and program some of the tools I have had in mind for all these years but never got to make!

[Alcidas]

The old red box...

[L1qw1d]

I'm with Al. My uncle would never let at his older stuff lol

I actually played quite a while ago (like... 3rd edition, where men were men, and zoats roamed free) but since I was a kid, I could never afford it.

I kept gaming in everything ELSE. Anything with a book lol.

I got back into WH because there's a few buddies I have that play locally (If I may humbly call Azure a buddy). I now am much older, and have the Depression, but they manage to put up with me as I am lol

[Leduwob]

My knowledge of Fantasy was very modest in the moment I started collecting my first (and only) DE army. In those days I only had LOTR movies in my possession and that was it. Of course the best race for me were the Elves.

About 5 years ago, my college colleagues and very good friends introduced the Warhammer World to me. One was collecting Bretonnia and the other one the Dwarfs. I started with DE with some doubts, but when I had read DE army book I was completely hooked.
Since then I have read LOTR and some others fantasy books. I have also found many books about Dark Elves, but I didnt even try to read them because of the language barrier(I live in Serbia). I mean my English is not so bad, but I feel that I cant understood the DE world, that those small fine details cant be appreciated unless English is your native language.

So Im still waiting for someone in my country to translate them...

[Underway]

I read quite a bit as a child and my father ensured that I read what he called the "classics" Moby Dick, Swiss Family Robinson, Peter Pan, Robinson Crusoe, The Deer Slayer, etc... I then got into Dungeons and Dragons when I was 11. Bought Lord of the Rings in grade 9 which oddly enough my father hadn't read. However my first foray into wargaming was Epic Space Marine as an Eldar player.

Our house regularly watch Star Treck, Star Wars and there was always a massive collection of science fiction to read.

My first warhammer game was the elves and gobbos set, the first complete rulebook and boxed game set that was ever released. It was amazing and I quickly became a fan of the dark elves due to the cold one knights quite frankly.

Now I'm inspired by excellent painting and modeling which drives me to create fluff and change how I model in a vicious feedback loop.

[Amarok]

Lo! The Wanderer doth return!

Thanks to all for your input. Some great insight here.

I think it is the many and varied facets of this hobby which makes it so rich, and keeps people coming back for more.

As I said in an earlier post, I have no gaming group, no RL contact with anyone in the hobby. I havn't even had more than a cursory glance at the 8th rulebook, yet I avidly read discussions on tactics, rules, tournament comp etc, despite the fact that I havn't played a game since I left the hobby all those years ago.

For the time being, it is the crafting (as Daeron said, working with your hands) that I am loving (good thing too as converting sixty warriors is a labour of love).

For my own part, I got into Warhammer through another nerdy pursuit - MtG. Back in the day I was an avid and competitive tournament player (even qualified for the nationals on several occasions), and the shop we used to play in had a rack of esoteric 'Warhammer Army' books in the back . I spent plenty of time leafing through the Undead book, not having any idea what wargaming even was, just loving the artwork and photos (and being a keen fan of Vampires what wasn't to love?). Some time later met some older kids that were part of our MtG group, but that also Warhammered, and started collecting Undead (4th Edition). In fact I still have a massive unpainted army of Undead in a closet back home in NZ, gathering dust (groan! )

So now I am constantly riffling through the interwebs, looking at artwork and photos of the amazing things people are doing with these 'little men' (as the missus insists on calling them), and drawing inspiration from that. Also back to the reading (lots of good tips here, and I recently heard of a series called Malazan Book of the Fallen if anyone would care to coment on that). I have an army on the go (the results of which I hope to share with you all at some point along the beam), and would love to get back into gaming and tournaments (that competitive streak is calling). I have found myself for the foreseeable future in the historic home of GW, so no better time for it I guess hey?

If I can only somehow prevent real life from getting in the way...

Thanks again for everyone's input. Keen to hear more 'Tales from the Road'...