Why I, as a 40k player, am jealous of WHFB right now

Setting aside the new awesome (and crazy expensive models), I am wicked jealous of Warhammer Fantasy Battles right now. 40k gets new models all the time, so what is there to be jealous about...

New Story.

For those of you who don't follow WHFB, there is a new release concerning Nagash and detailing THE END TIMES. I guess this is the first real step forwards since the Storm of Chaos campaign, which really wasn't much of a step forward and pretty much ended with the status quo. I am not the biggest into the lore of Fantasy, but I know a lot of the highlights and why the warhammer world is the way it is. I have been reading alot of spoiler threads on the new Nagash release AND WOW!!!! There is so much new content. Sure there are some new rules and scenarios, but it is really the new fluff progressing the story that seem to be making everyone excited, including me.

Now I know 40k gets a lot of new content all the time, Sanctus Reach being the most recent example. Forge world also keeps adding content in the form of their IA books with things like the Siege of Vraks and Fall of Orpheus. But these are really just adding flesh to the current lore of 40k, and not advancing it in any way.

What is happening A LOT in 40k is the history is being fleshed out. Whether this be through the Space Marine Battle novels or Horus Heresy, it all has the same effect, it illuminates what HAPPENED and not WHAT IS HAPPENING. When it comes down to it, I know what happens at the end of the Horus Heresy. Horus looses, the Emperor is practically dead and the galaxy sucks for the next 10,000 years. Same with the Macharian Crusade. Lord Solar dies and the worlds he conquered fall into civil war and strife Alexander the Great style. Armageddon the Orks are pushed back. Etc. Etc. Even if they do an Age of Apostasy series (which I would love) I know what happens. Vandire dies and the Brides of the Emperor become the Sisters of Battle. (As well a Duology or Trilogy on The Beheading would be cool).

But my point is none of this is NEW. It is all historical. No matter what develops in the past, 40k is still on the edge of the Abyss. Abaddon is sallying forth from the eye, Necrons, Orks and Tyranids are rampaging across the galaxy, The Tau are about to start a 4th sphere of expansion,  etc. etc. It has been like that since 5th edition now. And really since 4th. The last time anything interesting happened was the 13th Black Crusade AND ALL OF THAT HAS BEEN RETCONED OUT OF EXISTENCE.

The only argument I have heard for why the fluff is perpetually stuck on 999.999 M41 is because it would no longer be 40k if they advanced past it. To me this is bull crap. So many of the books and fluff and famous characters exist back in M36-M39, all of which are NOT the year 40000. And even if it went in the year 41000, everyone would understand it is still 40k. The technology of the universe hasn't changed for 10000 years, we aren't expecting it to change any time in the future.

IDEALLY Here is what happens
The final codices are pumped out under 7th ed, establishing a level playing field.
Either 8th Edition or Apocalypse 3rd Ed are released as a capstone, and these progress and detail the events of the 13th Black Crusade and start the Galaxy off on a new chapter of woe and misery. Characters die, factions wax and wane, and True Lords of War (IE Primarch Daemon Princes) reappear in the galaxy at large.
Maybe Ahriman finds the Black Library.
Maybe Guilliman awakes
Maybe Erebus ushers in a new Ruin Storm
Maybe Eldrad stays dead
Maybe a lost loyalist returns (Russ, the Lion, Khan)
Maybe the Void Dragon rises
Maybe the Outsider returns
Maybe Cypher slays the Emperor with the Lion Sword and he is reborn as the Starchild!!!!

ANYTHING, I just want to know WHAT IS NEXT!

Maintaining Motivation

If you read blogs on the hobby of war gaming you are probably keenly interested in some aspect of it. Whether it is painting, playing, background fluff, conversions, etc. etc. there is something that grabs you most of all. The issue is for a lot of people maintaining motivation to do it all. It is definitely a point of contention for me, and I have blogging to add onto it (which I have been slack of of late).

 

For me I love building and converting, I love the fluff, and I really like to game. But to truly reap the rewards of all that, I have to get my army painted. This is where I fall. I enjoy it, and I am a perfectionist when I do it, but it takes me forever and it can get old fast, so I just walk away, and this compromises my hobby efforts as a whole.

How, when this is my list of projects, do I keep going???

Painting my Blood Angels Army (~2 companies worth)

Airbrushing Vehicles

Finish my Thunderbolt

Paint my Imperial Knight

Paint Napoleonic French Line Infantry 

Building a Hobby Table

Building/Painting Terrain

Paint my Blood Bowl Team

Paint my Necromunda Gang

Blogging

Developing BFG-R vessels

40+ Imperial Navy Vessels

30+ Chaos Vessels

Convert DE/Tyranid Vessels

Convert a Necromunda Gang

This is on top of being in the Navy, being a Husband and a Father and trying to get time with my family, maintaining my house, my car, my finances etc. etc.

Well of late I have tried to do several things

1- More attainable goals. 1-2 Marines a week is more doable for me than a squad. And then when I can't get it done, I just leave it for the next week. It is still a goal to be achieved, whether I did it or not. 

2- To do list- I put my little attainable goals on a to do list. This I make ambitious. I know it is counter intuitive to what I just said, but the little goals are something I can knock out in an afternoon, but the to do list is full of these for the week, so I try and have as many little things that I can accomplish as often as possible and overall I get more done this way. I know I am not likely to get everything done, but if I get half of it done as a direct result of the list, then I have at least made progress.

3- When you are bored with what you were doing, do something else. So instead of just brutally crushing through assault marine after assault marine, because it is overall more beneficial to accomplishing my list of projects and getting an army on the table, I have recently just been picking up random models I want to paint and painting them. It actually keeps me more excited and more focused for longer periods of time. They may not play into the immediate picture of finishing that assault squad, it plays into the grander picture of finishing my blood angels.

4- Rewards- Hey if I finish these 2 tactical marines, I will paint that techmarine. If there is something I am eager to work on, I can dangle that in front of my face like a carrot. Now the danger here is to let this interfere with number 3. If the criteria for your reward is just to unsavory to make it worth it, just default to number 3.

5- Deceive yourself- What? Well you see how many projects I have. I used to have all those marines on my desk waiting to be painted. It was so depressing to me. So what did I do? I put them all away. Now I only have like 15 marines out, and it doesn't keep me away from my hobby desk. I can pick one up and work on it and tell myself "I accomplished something" without being reminded that there is a mountain of work still to be done.

I hope these tricks can help you on finishing your projects as well. How do you maintain motivation yourself?