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Females and Warhammer; How do they work?
Topic Started: 16th July 2011 - 11:54 PM (2,851 Views)
L1qw1d


This is not a WH specific thing. I play many games, and my wife lovingly joins me for some, but holds almost all others in derision.

It's not a BAD thing. It's technically not even a man/ woman thing. It's a game thing I think.

Trying to explain why we choose to play a game is... convoluted, at best. Many of my characters have a slight 'Dark' flaw story-wise to them, again- hard to explain. Why we compete, why we paint icky looking things, all of it. they look at us like we're crazy. BUT.

I explained it this way: I win. Most times I honestly just DRAW (Druchii are a very pigeonholed race. you either VERY win, VERY lose, or BARELY Draw). Often I lose...very often lately lol, but I'm not going for the WDL report or even prizes. I go to hang out. I go to look at the other painters. I go to joke around with people who actually get (some of) my jokes. It's the same to me as someone that is an avid football watcher, or even someone that's into dog shows- noone knows WHY someone other than they will do it, but you get to play around with things you know and joke around a lot (that is also a quarter of my discussion of many of my moral and ethical choices when I made the Tough Choice).

Hey, it got my wife to buy Lizardmen lol.
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Rusty Tincanne
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...you can still call me Rusty Tincanne if you want, though.

L1qw1d
24th July 2011 - 09:08 PM
...It's the same to me as someone that is an avid football watcher...
Great analogy: Mostly men. A portion of women (higher than gaming for a few reasons). And the rest of us just do not understand the draw. (I like running around participating in pick-up sports, but am not intersted in league play or watching them.)
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mrtn
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Swashbuckler
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23rd July 2011 - 11:03 AM
Hmmm I think it is largely dependent on where you are, your local GW and the people. My local GW is full of pre-pubescent boys and even the store managers are a little freaked out by a girl going in, knowing what she's looking at and demanding more paints a glue.
That's assuming that you play in a store, I never have and I doubt I ever will. What you mentioned is one of the reasons.

:)
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Razuli
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Grey Seer
It depends on the the GW store you go to, I didn't realize how good my local GW store is until I went to a different one near one of my friends' houses. The store managers here aren't nearly so pushy about selling and are, for the most part genuienly interested in the wargaming hobby. Some of the kids that play there are irratatating, but the older teens and adults are pretty good to play with. The other GW was pretty much the opposite in all areas except the kids were still irratating.

Part of the "shock and awe" of women playing warhammer has worn off at my local store becuase the owner's wife often plays instore (she has a nurgle deamon army now that I think about it.)
skavenmatt,Sep 11 2010
10:05 PM
Playing skaven to minimize randomness is like going to prom with your sister, you can do it if you really want, but in the end everyone will still laugh even if you do get lucky.


Clanlord Trask
18th April 2011 - 03:46 AM
I always take at least one Warpfire Thrower. You can't always rely on your opponent to do massive damage to your troops. Sometimes, you just have to do a job yourself.

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Akhenaten
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Big Poppa
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23rd July 2011 - 11:03 AM
I take much more time and joy in painting both my armies, and for now that's okay by me. If my brother ever gets a whole army collected and painted without changing his mind half way through, hopefully we'll get some more games in and I can pick up the rules more.
You cut me deep with that one :P
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Vermilitch Varquol
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My friend's girlfriend doesn't play, doesn't understand the rules, how to play, etc., but likes to paint, sometimes she even convinces my friend to paint tonight rather than do this or that. I know of another woman that comes to the store sometimes with her boyfriend and also likes to paint, even coming to paint his Dark Angels while he is at work. The only woman that I can think of that actually plays is a 40k Sisters of Battle player and all her sisters have fishnets which was very well done.

Seeing a woman or girl in the GW store isn't a shock to the usual suspects that frequent the store, but finding one that is fully immersed in either facet of Warhammer is seemingly extremely rare save for the 2-3 on Carpe Noctem that I can think of.
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koffietje
Warlord
Its the unconventional approach of women towards nasty creatures. They like butterflies, but are horrified with spiders. They adore puking, crying, burping, sh...ing little babies, but are freaked out when they see a rat in the garden...
In my honest opinion, there is little or no room for women in the warhammer world. Even the high elf armies (who should be having some of the hottest chicks around) hardly have any female character or model. (or i havent seen it yet...) .And the darkelf females look as is they are able to rip your head of.

Create an amazone army , with amazone warriors who ride on unicorns and are assisted by butterfly fairies and fluffy bunnies, and you ll see a tonload of women showing up in your shops.

I go to a shop in Ghent, where the shop keeper is a very friendly , helpfull fellow. (dont tell him i said that). He really gets into the game. Whenever a new customer approaches the shop, he lures them in by making them paint a free Skaven. So one day, we were all sitting around the table , painting, quoting movie one liners and secretely checking out the cute girls that passed the shop, when all of the sudden a 14 year old girl walks in , claiming her interest in the Skaven army. So the shop owner asks her if she wants to paint one?
Sure thing.
So he gives her a brush and starts explaining a bit about Skaven. "they re dirty smelly creatures covered with dust and always eating filthy meat and stuff. What colour would you like your skaven to have?"
Her answer : "Lemon green and sunny yellow."

I think we , men, are trying to rail the women into our concept of the game too much. They have their own concept of what the game should be like and of what the Warhammer world should be like. And if a Skaven one day decides that a sunny yellow pants fits perfectly well with a lemon green skirt...then who are we to frown?

as to the game aspect... its all about tactics and insight. And if you have ever seen a woman using a GPS or driving a car , then you know they miss both... (you are expecting a "just kidding" right now, arent you?)
If my girlfriend plays her elfs she marches her archers right in the middle of combat and leaves her swordmasters standing at bay. If you ask her why she does something like that , she simply answers "they were never expecting that."
Honestly... she should be the one having a Skaven army.
against.................. won ............ lost

Skaven...................1...................0
High Elfs.................1....................1
dark elfs.................0....................0
chaos warriors.......0....................0
demons..................0....................0
dwarves.................2....................1
bretonian................0....................0
empire....................0....................0
lizards.....................0...................0
tomb king................0...................0
vampires.................1...................0
beast men...............1...................0
wood elfs................0....................0
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Rakchew
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My gf (bless her soul) has helped me paint a couple guys. At first, I thought she would be terrible at it so I gave her one of the old school 8-pack Skaven from like 5th edition to paint. It was decent, so i gave her a Gutter Runner and PCB and they turned out awesome. Now I'd let her paint whatever she wants, and learned that even if it turns out terrible I would use it proudly.

My friends wife has helped him paint up his new TK skeletons.

My roomates fiance, instead of going up to her bed and going to sleep decided that it would be best for her to lay on the couch, right outside the room where we are playing. Then complains that we are too loud and played too late....

They, like all people, come in all shapes and sizes.
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Jollyfrog
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Hmm,

I have to say, i was a little nervous about broaching the subject of playing games with little tiny men with my gf. When i did (by making a joke) she totally misunderstood, and couldn't really see why i would see a problem. She was incredibly excited for me to find a hobby where basically we could sit down, idly chat, and paint some little critters, together :). Any apprehension, i guess was entirely my failing to understand her as completely as i should (might have to marry this one :P)

it actually reminded me of a more general response to what i hear far too often; Boardgames! so cod damn lame..., located here: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/07/16/cardboard-children-youre-in-space/

and specifically this bit

Quote:
 
I feel a bit sad that they don’t get it. If I want to play a board game with you, it really just means I want to sit with you a while. That’s not a bad thing, is it?



As to the lack of flowery models being a turn off, maybe that's a GW oversight! and not just at an audience of women.

Does anyone think it would detract from the game to have a few races appealing to people who want to play with less.. er, angry looking people?
as many of you may know GW had a profit warning at Christmas, and the cost of models (though quality improves) is always increasing
so maybe expanding its target demographic is a good idea?


I would be curious to know how many people faced negative reactions at first, but then found completely different reaction when the game was played out?
i.e, how much stigma is attached to a pre perception of the game, instead of an actual understanding?
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Ratty Gnawtail
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Totally not a magpie

Hmm I recall a time a while back when I wandered into a Games Workshop and was surprised to see a fair sized group of girls gathered around a LOTR board. Turns out they were more interested by the factor of there being a miniature version of Orlando Bloom and Viggo Mortensen (no one liked Gimli for some reason...) than actually playing, painting or purchasing the game. Another time there was a goth-like dressed couple (that I can assume were BF and GF) who were buying stuff for a VC army. I also had a friend once (who went through as many armies as girlfriends) who at one time had a GF who was quite enthusiastic about his wargaming.
Edited by Ratty Gnawtail, 17th August 2011 - 12:21 AM.
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ShuNian
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Self-Proclaimed Miss Skavenblight

I actually just had a recent discussion about girls being into Warhammer.
They made a point in saying that maybe Warhammer isn't marketed as much towards girls because they know their fan base are mainly composed of guys- so they direct it more so towards their male players because that's who plays more.
I personally couldn't tell you how GW markets to whom, and why- but I thought it was a good point to share.
"All tunnels lead to Skavenblight..."
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Jigglytail


Well for me im more fantasy and my gf is 40k, but we are helping each other out with each other's armies. But what i find the funniest example of a female hobbiest a friend of mine has a few guys from Northern Ireland wrapped around her finger and she has them now sending down to her a massive box of random armies :lol:
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