There has been an aspect of myself that I have been missing lately – I know with now having a child that some things will naturally fall by the wayside but I read a post recently by Imperial Rebel Ork (whose blog is a great read for wargamer hobbists all round) that made me feel really nostalgic over my own Hobby Journey.

I started off the Wargaming hobby by playing Hordes/Warmachine and buying a small collection of Legion of Everblight; which I painted cutesy-pooh pink and bone. It was pretty much a gathering of flying shark-monsters led by Thargosh. I just remember him being pretty awesome because his feat meant you could bring back your nastiest shark-monster with full health to fight again. But I don’t really recall much of the game itself. That and Hordes/Warmachine has changed a lot since I played as I never changed rules when second edition.

By that time I had moved onto Games workshop models – who I still believe that for customizable armies cannot be beaten in terms of their kits and models. Which may or may not annooy a few of my readers that have moved onto other games.

My first army was one that I never actually clicked with. Eldar. Fo
r some reason I picked them out of the model range. After playing a game with an army that could have taken such a beating, Eldar came as something of a shock! My HQ Autrach chose to o something ‘Death or Glory’ related with a Rhino, failed the roll and got ran over – which was pretty much the end of that army. That and Guardians are the most boring of models ever to have existed both in game-playing and painting aspects.*

So I needed a rethink.

And the Emperors light found me.

Adeptus Sororitas. That didn’t work out so well either. They felt wrong for me. Not sure why. Just never worked out how I wanted it too.

I started an Army of home-brew Space Marines and never looked back. I still have a fairly decent sized army, most of which needs to be painted – bad hobbiest that I am. I grew attached to the army and really enjoy playing with them. I’ve written posts in the past (The early days of the blog mostly) about the games I played and how everything went. I even took upon a challenge over on facebook where I’d post as Uthor Fenix, my HQ Chaplain every four hours (Even through the night) as a part of the Imperial Truth. I don’t know why. Because someone said I should maybe?

I also made a Necromunda gang out of various bits and bobs and modelled them after various action heroes – Rambo, John McClane, Dutch to name a few – which was my first real attempt at converting models to fit around an idea. I made a Hicks and Hudson for the Necromunda gang as well; but they got repurposed when I made an Imperial Guard Veterans Squad for my Imperial Guard/Astra Militarum army. An Army which although only small, I am still imensely proud of.

I’ve banged on about this army a lot, mostly through the form of Nathaniel Greyson, their HQ choice – you can read more than you’ll ever need to know about a model in previous posts here should you wish. But like many IG armies it seems; they were inspired by Aliens. The Veterans squad being the named characters from the movie.

Somewhere along the line I read the first four books in the Horus Heresy series – a great collection of books that were sadly ruined by the term flogging a dead horse – and it was these books that gave me an absolute disgust for Nurgle. I mean being touched by the Emperors light is enough to turn you against chaos, but I hod a special place of hatred in my heart for nurgle. Ugh.

But, then I had my arm twisted to try out Fantasy Battle. Where do you start there? Epic scale battles which had pretty much everything I knew about Wargaming turned on it’s head.  No longer was everything skirmish based. My units had to sit on square bases and in movement trays! So typical me. I picked Lizardmen (Tails and movement trays don’t mix)

Of course, Fantasy Battle has changed since then and is now a skirmish game called Age of Sigmar – a change I am still trying to get my head around and am hoping the Generals Compendium will help me out with.

 

Even writing down these few steps in my Wargaming journey has made me feel a bit more inspired to get back into the orld of it. Even if it is just taking a few photograhs and writing a bit about the model. (Most of my Space Marine sergeants had names at one point) Or just getting down to do some painting again, heck, maybe even trying to organise a game. I doubt it would take much hinting to my partner to start a Necromunda campaign… and some of those old models could really do with a lick of paint!

So, a big thank you to Imperial Rebel Ork for the inspiration for this post and for making me feel a bit of a better hobbiest.

 

*  I have since brought an Eldar army again and enjoyed painting it, but never played with it.