My rant of the day....

Hello fellow Archons. So while I'm new to Dark Eldar, I've been playing 40K for a long, long time. I had a love/hate relationship with CSM for the longest time. Meaning I loved them at first, and grew to hate playing them as new editions of 40K came out.
I should start with why I'm writing this in the first place. Well as I browse through topics here, learning about different player's takes on the numerous ways DE can be imployed, I came across a certain Old Archon that likes to tell stories about the good old days. Which got me thinking about the good old days and wanting to weep. I too remember the fun of the Armory. Where you could kit your HQs out in fantastic wargear. A time when GW was ran by gamers who loved the game. So much so, that they at least attempted to balance Codex's against one another. The game was fun and enjoyable for me.
Then the hobby grew. And grew. And grew. Suddenly it wasn't a bunch of steady players, slowly growing their armies a model at a time. Instead I saw younger and younger kids. Eating up the mega-cool boxed set of wonder! With a free codex inside and maybe even a useful unit or two! Then the sales and buisness types slowly took over. I knew things were going downhill when IG Armies started being able to take 3 tanks in one Force Org slot. Hmmm, I wonder who made that decision. Especially when it came right after a price increase.
All this has caused me some sadness. I play this game for fun. I work on my painting skills, because I find it helps calm me (as weird as that sounds). And I enjoy collecting cool models, it does my nerdy side good! This is my only real vice, so I'll continue to play. But not in tourny's, just friendly games. I'll continue to buy and paint minatures, but more and more I find myself trolling non-GW websites for bargins. But part of me longs for days long past. When things were simpler. And you didn't have to field a Titan. Unless your club was playing a 10,000 point a side mega scrum.
So where does this all leave me? Good question. I'm now looking more and more into smaller games. Kill Team with some Necromunda thrown in is fun. Or maybe I might play some of the older editions with my good friends. I can tell you that whatever I decide, I'll be going with DE. We maybe glass cannons in cardboard box kites, with wet tissue paper armor, but we're fun. Nothing I enjoy more than the look on my friends face when I zoom diagonally across the entire board, and unload some killer unit that charges into his gunline. Ahhhh, that look alone is why I still play.
Remember this is supposed to be fun. If it's not to you, then why play? Besides to take screaming souls back to our dark lairs that is.

May your beer always be frosty, your dice show up as sixes (unless you're taking a Leadership test), and your raids successful.

I don't find your remark about painting being relaxing strange at all. Modelling and painting are essentially what remains of my interest in the GW "hobby" (Maybe they will try to trademark hobby some day soon    )

I avoid "competitive" games and pick up games; I don't see much of a difference between the two. Recently I returned to my Dark Eldar models as my painting is approaching a level I hope to be able to do these fine models some justice. The problem is I didn't really have much of a purpose for the finished models. Fortunately I have a couple friends who are willing to put up with my story/narrative driven peculiarities and are willing to have a go at a different style of play.

I've been looking into smaller skirmish games as well. There are some great kill team/ death squad/ kill zone fan made rules out there that have benefited from some dedication and old school hobby love that are really cool. Small games give you more time to really go to town on a small crew of models and allow the characters to come to life. The goal is to begin play with story arcs that involve smaller forces that grow into the larger battles as the army painting progresses. For posterity sake and further enjoyment I'd like to put together a history with maps and illustrations/photos like the sabbat crusade book from a few years back.

I like this. I unfortunately didn't play when the game was awesome (I'm only 14) Although I dislike the pricing and the stupid things you can bring.

*Cough* Codex - Knight Titan *Cough*

I'm sitting here saving money up for my SoB army I plan to start with the Raging Heroes "Strongest Girls in the Galaxy" or whatever they're called.

I also dislike some units in the new codexes because of their absurd sizes, (Wraithknight, Riptide, new Tyranid flyer, new Wolf flyer. 20 Imperial Guard tanks in a game.)

Granted I do enjoy larger games (1500-2000 pts) I prefer them being fluff based and not, "Let me just spam whatever is the best unit in my codex right now"