Lack of Warmachine/Hordes in the area...back to 40k? Eep

So it seems that there is a distinct lack of Warmachine/Hordes games being played in the greater Phoenix area...most players seem to play 40k/Fantasy. That makes me a little sad. I haven't investigated too many game stores around here yet, but the two I did go to seemed to be very focused on GW games. The selection of Privateer Press products seemed rather scant at both stores. Only one of the stores I went to carried any P3 paints as well. There is one store a bit further that I'm hoping runs regular games, but it is about a 30min. drive.

In other news, my old college roommate is out in the Phoenix area for the next couple months, so I may play some 40k games with him in the near future, depending on how school/work goes. Good thing I didn't actually sell my old Tau army, though it's in pretty bad shape: lots of busted models, several unprimered (stripped the paint off after I bought them off ebay/craigslist), and some still unassembled vehicles.

The good news is, I probably could field a fairly sizable force, maybe 1500-1750 pts. I'll probably want to start playing some smaller games first though since I have been out of the game for almost 2-3 years now I think. I do hear some decent things about the new 5th edition rules though, and hopefully the games will be a little more interesting than they were before.

I watched my friend play a game last weekend, and it does seem much more objective based which is nice, along with a bigger focus on using troops and cover. They've also taken several queues from the Privateer games it seems such as deployment, who goes first, and some of the missions. The downside was that it's still a game about rolling bucketloads of dice, and also that movement and placement really doesn't require much thought or planning. In fact most of the game is still very straight forward, mostly about who can unload more fire into the other guy's targeted unit.

Sidebar: I suppose it's why I liked the Warhammer Fantasy system more than 40k...movement and positioning mattered. Unfortunately, they ripped out all the fun aspects of my beloved Orc and Goblin army, and it just feels very vanilla now.

That's where I feel the Privateer Press games really have an edge over the GW games still. The amount of brainpower that I burn in one turn of WM/Hordes probably equals the amount I'd use in an entire game of 40k. I really loved those games I was able to play against Brokenzealot because they really made me think hard every single turn. Sometimes I could swear steam must have been coming out of my ears. Movement, positioning, unit synergies, and planning ahead are super important. Furthermore, there are tons of fun aspects about the game such as throwing, slamming, feats, special abilities, etc. etc. There is a ton of "fun" variety...the kind that I used to have in my Orc and Gobbo army.

Anyway, I still plan on continuing to model/paint my Hordes army. I love my Trolls to much to stop, even if I can't find many games in the area, though I'm still hopeful I'll find some folks somewhere that play.