Friday, June 26, 2009

In the beginning

Hello there anonymous internets. After some poking and prodding, I've decided to start a 40k blog. Here are my objectives:
1. Stick to 40K. This blog is here to explore the hobby of Games Workshop's Warhammer 40K. I have a normal blog for life, videogames, and other such distractions.
2. Content worth reading. I'll be covering gameplay, tactics, strategy, psychology, statistics, math-hammer, modeling, sculpting, painting, tools, general tips, battle reports, and links to useful places I've found. Some of it will be repeats of things I've posted elsewhere, some of it will be credited re-posting of the work of others, and some of it will be new content just for here. I aim to keep a high standard and avoid just posting fluff or filler content
3. Post regularly. I will be posting at least once per week for the next year. I know I have enough good content to make that a plausible goal.
4. No ads for money. I'm doing this for the benefit of my gaming and that of others. I doubt I'll get traffic sufficient to make anything worth a damn anyways.
5. PG13. I'm an adult and this has mature to adult concepts. I'm not going to be publishing hardcore porn, but I'm not going to sanitize everything.

The Focus:
My tactical specialty is Eldar. I play them to compete.
My first love was Space Wolves. I play them for their Fluff and look.
My favorite conversions are Chaos Space Marines and Daemons. I play them to show off my sculpting skills.
My amusement factor loves Orks. I play them to see how many of my own guys I can kill off before my opponent does.
In addition these current armies, I've also owned and played Dark Eldar, IG, Tau, Salamanders, Vanilla Marines, Witchhunters, Daemonhunters, Squats and Tyranids. So while my focus may be on my primary armies, any topic is fair game.

About me:
My name is Bill. I'm from Tucson, AZ, USA and my FLGS is Hat's Games. That and this blog's focus is probably enough for you crazy stalker types to hunt me down. Have fun with that.
I've just turned 33 and picked up the 40k habit in the early 90's. I don't know what's more painful: that some of the figs I own are of legal age to drink or that I've been playing longer than some of my opponents have been alive.
I've always been a bit of a geek. I first read 'The Hobbit' in kindergarten. I was given my first PC at age 8, an IBM PC JR... because I had been spending too much time monopolizing my Mom's work computer. Then in middle school I was introduced to the world of RPGs. I had a regular lunch group at my high school for playing Battletech and after-hours we'd wander off into D&D, MERP, Robotech and other RPGs. I was also the teacher's aide for the computer teacher and took several classes via the internet... in the days of dial-up modems. Also played an early MMO called Avatar and hung around on BBSs. Pretty cliche Nerd'R'Us there. On the other side I was also a starting lineman in football, ran cross-country, threw shotput and discus, dabbled in several martial arts and did weight training with a Navy SEAL candidate.
Now the summer of my junior year saw me with some extra chores money. I did what any healthy teen would do: spent it on hookers and blow. No, wait, that was college. I took my cash to my then friendly local gaming store, Things for Thinkers (RIP).
That day I wandered in with NO real clue about 40K or Games Workshop. I'd originally gone in to pick up a few RPG books but they weren't in stock. Some of my gaming group was along for the ride and browsing, but I'd already been in and browsed earlier in the week. Bored, I wandered over to the miniatures aisle, probably to look at the Battletech stuff again or something. That was when some cover art caught my eye and I picked up this book called Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader. It looked enough like an RPG to intrigue me. Just to illustrate how clueless I was: I also bought the Titan Legions box set thinking it was an expansion compatible with the regular game.
The game caught my imagination and I picked up several more models of the "right" scale to play 40K. However, the rest of my group never got into it and I think I played maybe a dozen games over the next couple years. Ironically, most of them got into 40k after high school, but by that point I'd moved to Flagstaff for college. That's where I met Artimese, the Flagstaff 40K group, and 2nd edition. I was introduced to open gaming, league play, regular gaming nights and monthly tournaments... I was hooked.
Over the years since I have moved across country to spend most of a year as a shipping coordinator for GW, moved back across country because I didn't like DC and my roomies, ran a monthly 40k tournament for several years and have generally been a total GW fanboy.
Along with tons of figures and books, I've also picked up a VERY understanding wife that occasionally busts out her Dark Eldar on me and beautiful daughter who will have an army of her own as soon as she's old enough.
Almost all of my gaming over the last 15+ years has been competitive play or practice for competitive play. I've played in several GTs, a number of RTTs, and countless local tourneys. I must be doing something right as I've taken top laurels enough to lose count, including Overall at one GT. Hopefully I will be able to share some of this experience with you.

So that's my goals, my focus, and who I am. Good enough for an introduction I think!
Next week: "Workspace tips."

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