The Birth of a New Gamer

It seems entirely fitting, this post I'm working on.  A year ago this month I started this blog.  Something to chronicle my growing fascination with Warhammer 40,000, and to chronicle my growth as both a fan and a participant.  So it seems awful fitting that I can now say I was actively involved in the birth of a new gamer.

Anybody who has read some of my battle reports knows there is a small cadre of guys I play 40k with.  We have e-mails to discuss things, and some of us even chat daily about the game.  We all love the fluff, and the game mechanics, some of us really enjoy the painting, and I really enjoy writing about the game.  We're still fairly new to the game, or at least the 5th edition rules, so we're learning but we're having fun.  There have been 4 of us, Steve, Chris, Jason, and myself.  Chris has played for years, but he's more familiar with older edition rules.  Steve is the one who got me into it introducing me to Dawn of War and just sort of needling me to continue to get into it.  Jason was the most recent convert, and while I had a small part in his coercion, er I mean conversion to 40K, that was mostly a Steve thing.  Now to our small group, we can add James.

James is somebody that Steve and I have known for years, having all worked together at a now defunct high-end retail store (all in the IS department).  Recent events transpired to bring James and I back to work together.  It's been cool, but the best part is I was able to help convince him to pick up Dawn of War II.  Having used Dawn of War II to introduce James to the 40K universe, Steve and I began to really push the tabletop.  And as James had more fun with DoW 2, and heard Steve and I discuss 40K tabletop and 40K fluff, his interest grew.

Oh sure he had doubts and reservations about being able to paint.  But thanks to the internet, we were able to show him that yes there are some serious kick-ass painters out there, but there are guys who just make their minis look decent, and some people who just don't paint at all.  And after feeding him some fanzines, and giving him access to codexes, James eventually picked the Tau as his first army to build.

James has his first batch of figures to paint (box of Fire Warriors), and thanks to his artist fiancee he has a bunch of nice painting supplies.  So he's all ready.  And for once I can talk about 40K and not sound like a goober.  But knowing James.  Soon he'll know more about the game than me, and I'll be back to sounding like a goober.  So I'll enjoy it for now.

And I'll also say welcome to 40K James.  May your Tau warriors find their mark against every race...except the Ork, and may the Greater Good be served by your army, except when Mork 'n Gork decide to take 'em down.

Now for a 6th person so we can get back to an even number...