How to Choose a Wargame

I have recently questioned why I like Fantasy Wargaming and exactly what is important to me when choosing a game to play. As such, I have decided to list what I consider to be the various factors involved in choosing a game and how I would prioritize them. Here's the list I came up with and my order.

Factors

1. Setting
2. Miniature Range
3. Rules
4. Community Support
5. Company Support
6. Fluff 

Setting

The basic setting or genre within which the game is set. Overall genres could be, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Stream Punk, Historical etc. These can then be further broken down into subsets, for example Fantasy could include High Fantasy, Low Fantasy, Heroic etc.

This is the most important factor for me. I like Fantasy much more than any other genre and although I've dabbled in games from different genres, such as the Sci-Fi game Dropzone Commander, they never engage or inspire me as much as a fantasy game. Within Fantasy I tend to prioritize Low Fantasy, which I would consider to be the best match for the Old World of WFB (or similar settings, such as Mantica in Kings of War). I love all the classic fantasy races such as Elves, Dwarfs and Orcs and like my fantasy medieval based, with castles, swords and bows.

For me, the Setting is what inspires me the most.

Miniature Range

Why play Wargames? Why go to all of the trouble of building and painting an army and finding people to play against? Why not just play a computer game? - My reason, I love miniatures. I love the look of two nicely painted armies facing off against each other on a table with beautiful terrain.

One of the main reasons I loved WFB was the miniature range. I loved the low fantasy medieval feel, the quality of the sculpts and the fact that a large portion of the miniatures available were in high quality hard plastic (nostalgia only goes so far and I find modern plastic miniatures to be way better than metal miniatures, for both gaming and painting).

Rules

For some players the Rules are the most important thing, maybe even the only factor worth considering. I fall somewhere in the middle. The rules are certainly important, as without good rules a game will not be much fun to play, however, I don't consider them to be the be-all and end-all. It's worth noting that good rules do not have to be complicated (in fact, I often find the opposite to be true).

Community Support

I define community support as being a mixture of global interaction and local player base. A game is far more fun if there's an active online community discussing the game. However, if you want to not only collect and paint, but also play the game, then a local player base is equally important.

Company Support

Is the game still supported with new releases? Does the company interact with the players both online and offline? Are the opinions of the players taken into account with regard to rules and miniatures?

Personally, although I'm happy to play an unsupported game, like a lot of people, I find a game more engaging if it has regular new releases and support. This also helps grow the player base which then impacts the community support as well.

Fluff

Not to be confused with Setting or Genre, the Fluff is the story and background for a game. For example, the setting of Lord of the Rings is Fantasy, whereas the Fluff is the actual story of Hobbits running around looking for a magical ring. I love Fantasy, but find LotR to be relatively boring. Some people love reading fluff and immersing themselves in the story. I couldn't really care and find most Fluff to be poorly written. It's just really not my thing.

On the other hand, I do like fantasy novels, because they are usually written from the perspective of one or two characters and tend to feel more intimate.

Ghorros.