It’s been a while since I’ve written here. I really do have things to post, I swear, like photos of my finished commander and WIP pictures of my Pathfinders. To kill the time, though, how about a little trip down memory lane?

My first exposure to Warhammer 40K was in college, about 13 years ago, when I was a member of the campus gaming club. Mostly, the focus was on roleplaying, but there was also a contingent of wargamers in the group. The club actually managed to get a small gaming convention together on campus (MuleCon 1, woo!), and the 40K players put on some demo games. I had a chance to play an Eldar army against Orks, and I was instantly hooked. I’m not sure if it was the gameplay or the hobby aspect that got me more, but there was just some magic combination there that really appealed to me. It wasn’t long before we were making road trips to the nearest decent gaming store, and I quickly accumulated a small Space Marine force. Nothing fancy – two tactical squads, a chaplain, a banner carrier, a techmarine, and a dreadnought – but I was proud of my little chapter. They were the “Rising Suns”, with white armor and a Japanese Imperial sun on each shoulder (yes, I was a Japanophile back then, too).

Unfortunately, money grew scarce in college, and my hobby had to take an indefinite hiatus. I ended up leaving college, taking my figs with me, and holding onto them just in case. 10 years passed, and hobbies came and went. I transitioned from miniatures into CCGs (an even bigger money sink), and from CCGs to MMOs, with occasional forays back into CCG land. During one such jaunt, I traded off all the 40K figs I’d accumulated (including some Orks and a couple of Eldar bits) for a large box of Magic, figuring that my time was done. My interest in Magic for the nth time died out shortly, and the cards went away. I didn’t really look back for 40K, though. Editions changed, and I still had a mental image of the game being out of my financial range. The mini bug hadn’t left, though; I dabbled in painting miniatures for friends’ D&D games, and was happy with the quality of my work. When the MMO bug hit, though, even that went by the wayside.

Fast-forward to late 2006. My wife was several months pregnant with our daughter, and after 3 years I was severely burned out on World of Warcraft. Meanwhile, my friend (and at the time, co-worker) Nick had been showing some interest in 40K. I’m not sure what kicked it off, but he was intensely interested in getting into the hobby. It’s not a single-player game, though, so he started trying to sell me on the game. Things had changed a lot since I’d played back in the halcyon days of 2nd Edition, and there were a number of new armies available. I took an immediate liking to the Tau (Japanophile, remember?), but two things kept me from getting involved. First, WoW was eating up a lot of my time, and second, I didn’t think my wife would go in for me spending money on little plastic soldiers. The first issue resolved itself easily enough, as I finally dropped WoW in November of ’06, both to ease my burnout and to have more time available for my wife and our child. Surprisingly, that solved the second issue, as she was completely on board with me taking up 40K as a hobby. She prefered it to me burying my head in a computer screen for several hours a night, and it would be a great creative outlet.

Needless to say, I jumped at the opportunity to get back into the game, buying the rulebook, the Tau codex, and a battleforce. I started assembling, priming, and doing some basic painting when I had the spare time. Then, our daughter was born and I had to set things aside for a little while, as she kept both of us rather busy. Meanwhile, my friend Tim also started showing some interest in the game, so a number of us chipped in and bought him the Dark Angels army box and codex when it was released. My short hiatus ended, and I started working on my army once again, adding a megaforce to the mix. However, I had no one to play with. Nick was slow in getting his army together (and to date, has not done anything beyond assembling his army), and Tim was in the midst of buying a house and had little time to get things put together. I managed to get a few games together at a somewhat-local store, but the 45-minute drive made it a bit inconvenient. I didn’t have much hope for getting in any more games any time soon.

Then, this past winter, my friend Dennis got bitten by the bug. He’d been one of the people that started getting involved back in my college days, but like me had abandoned the game for other pursuits. He discovered that he had co-workers that played, knew that I (and ostensibly Tim and Nick) played, and wanted to play Eldar again. He was a bit tight on funds, though (he too had just purchased a house), so our circle of friends once again chipped in and we bought him a Windrider Host to fulfill his dream of a jetbike army. One bite, and he was hooked; he’s been building his army rapidly, and even played in his first tournament not too long ago. After that, our friend Richard caved and went with the Orks, taking advantage of the awesome bargain that is Assault on Black Reach two or three times over. However, this left us with a minor issue – we had space marines left over, and no marine players (apart from Tim, who did take half of one box and is now playing).

Enter Dan. Dan was curious about playing, but didn’t have the income to get into the game. Not a problem, I decided, and I talked to the rest of the group. We agreed that we would get Dan his army, with no cost to him. So far, so good. Dennis bought a spare Space Marine codex, gave him one half of a Black Reach box, and even bought him a box of Assault Marines (Dan wants an assault-style army). He’s gotten in his first game, and I think he’s hooked as well. We’ve been talking color schemes, army lists, and painting techniques, and I look forward to getting him going in earnest. Maybe we can buy him the Strike Force for his birthday.

So, we’ve got a Tau player (me), an Eldar player (Dennis), an Ork player (Richard), a Dark Angels player (Tim), and a Space Marine player (Dan). Hopefully, we’ll get a Chaos player soon (Nick, who swears he’s almost there), and a Tyranid player (Richard again, who loves horde armies, it seems). Not too bad for 6 months work.