The Road to London GT

Welcome Brothers and Sisters, I’m James, an average closet Warhammer Nerd who has been drawn back into the Warhammer Universe by a Slaaneshi Fiend (friend) I thought I had left the Grim Dark Future behind me in the late 90’s….but it looks like I am back. Join me on my journey back to social and tournament 40K gaming.

So it has more than dawned on me that the only 40K experience I have isn’t even 40K experience as such, it’s a few games of Necromunda back in 1995!! But it’s still months away, nothing to worry about.

The games I played were warhammer fantasy (old world). Aaah I remember the green foam terrain and the little tree’s which looked liked spray painted toilet brush heads, maybe a hill, maybe a small hut. Classic pitched battles no deviation, just line up your army like it was the battle of Waterloo and charge head long into the enemy.

Terrain

If you got anywhere near to terrain like this back in the day you were one of the lucky ones.

Simple times, but now I’m looking at this 40K terrain, not only does it look great….but there is a tonne of it! The table top is really dense and deployment and how your force is going to move through that terrain is crucial.

As well as the terrain looking great, peoples armies also look awesome. Obviously there are different levels of awesome but everyone makes a real effort and I think this goes a long way to making the game more immersive and fun. I know that my painting skills are quite literally on par with a drunk badgers. I briefly thought I could go down the lines of an old pal of mine who had everything painted up in psychedelic trippy colours, I can picture a purple horse with yellow stripes, Jimmy Hendrix would have loved that damn horse.

Luckily for me my friend and painting benefactor Steve @Blastedminiatures is going to help on that front and it means a great deal to me. The people I play whether at a local club or London GT, I want them to enjoy playing against me and although not a problem, I think having a nicely painted army to play against enhances the experience and enjoyment of the game. Let’s hope the days of blue tac chaos spawn are behind me, or HeroQuest Wizards, or battle masters cavalry lol

Unpainted

I really cant be that guy anymore… paint needs to meet plastic. (even if I’m not the one holding a brush!)

The tournament scene seems to be influenced some what by Meta chasing but I’m glad to see that it looks like some people are their chosen faction through and through. I really do not want to fall into the trap of chasing Meta. It seems to me to be the perfect way of ruining a fun hobby and turning it into a bit of a stress!! Surely you can win plenty of games and not have to jump factions, I used to be the DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA guy but not anymore. Look at Skari ( Mr Ridvan Martinez) he plays Drukhari, dark eldar and they are generally recognised as one of the weakest factions in the Meta and yet he is winning all of the time. Yes ok, he has 30 years of 40K experience and is a professional in the world of 40K but I think we can all take something from this.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to win games and I will try (Oh by the Emperor of Mankind I will try) but the appeal now is more to do with hanging out with some Bro’s (I am aware female 40K players exist, so do unicorns) and briefly leaving the real world behind. Imagining ourselves as masters of warfare and battle, fighting to the death to uphold the honour of our faction, to honour the gods, serve the greater good….or maybe to devour the enemies biomass!!!

I love the dedicated nutters who live for their faction, its cool thinking I could cut open Nurgle Nick and he’d bleed green slime and his pungent body odour and death breath is all part of his dedication to Papa Nurgle. We salute you!!

There’s something extra cool I think about the hobbyist’s who nail their colours to the mast and stick to a single faction. I remember my old crew, Bretonian Andy, High Elf Dave, Undead Stu, each of them dedicated to the hobby and having a fantastic army they were proud of. Ahhh how they all must have despised playing Chaos James and his unpainted proxy Hero Hammer army from hell lol

Well this is the new James, the army will be painted, the army will be balanced and quirky and I will be a fun opponent, even if I am going to try and beat you!!

This is why I don’'t paint myself…

Beast man, painted by me, circa 1994. Be grateful this had any paint on it at all. Most didn’t. Oh, my phone’s ringing… probably an ‘'Eavy metal recruiter…