Resistance is Futile
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 not long after I had decided I wouldn’t go down the road of getting back into Warhammer, I made the mistake….or had the luck of buying space marine 2… Holy smokes!! What a combination. It felt like you were a superhuman killing machine but also part of some awesome 1980’s action movie like predator. Punching the air, hell yeah’s!! It’s a bit of a spoiler but at the Calgar scene, AC/DC’s Thunderstruck started pumping in my head, there was no way I wasn’t going to start playing 40K!! I was going all in!!
AC/DC Thunderstruck started pumping in my head. There was no way I wasn’t going to start playing 40K
I began to sink deeper into the hobby, I started to gorge myself on lore and info, watching videos by Majorkill (haha that guy cracks me up) and the remembrancer. As I had been joking with Steve that he was a Slaaneshi influence luring me back into warhammer I thought it would be fun to run them as a faction. They had the big release of the new codex and miniatures coming up and it all seemed kind of fated. I started tentatively looking at potential army compositions and getting little ideas from online content.
I went to a local games expo in Bournemouth call Beachhead, as I wanted to watch some 40K games live, see the armies and see the people! I didn’t want to be playing against children if I started this again. I couldn’t have been more wrong, I was met with hundreds of nerds mostly in their 30’s and 40’s. A classic Warhammer ratio of 100 men to each lady lol and a lot of cans of monster!! Times had changed, would I still have an edge if I was not consuming copious amounts of monster energy drinks, the gaming hall was filled with the heady smell of hotdogs and tacos from a vendor just outside the hall and energy drinks. More importantly, the energy of the people was good, friendly welcoming happy nerds, I thought to myself, I think I can fit in with this crowd :-)
“"Friendly, welcoming, happy nerds. I can fit in with this crowd”
Seeing the games up close only drew me in further, some peoples armies were works of art and the miniatures looked amazing. I knew I wanted to get involved. I’t did make me think back to my unpainted, proxied armies of the past. And I realised that I couldnt get away with that in the future. Then I also found live stream 40K games!! It might not be for everyone but I find these incredibly addictive and relaxing, Joe at Wargames Live has a fantastic set up and the combined with his wit and commentary I was learning more and more about each army faction and I couldn’t get enough of it. I watched the recorded streams from the Las Vegas Open, all 30hrs!!!!!
I told Steve I was in, I was going to wait for the Emperors children codex and details to be released before making my final decision, as to be honest all of the armies seem like they could be fun to play. Maybe I just needed a sign from the Gods!