Physical media is getting more and more rare in today’s digital world where so much is readily consumable. Video gaming, reading books and comics, watching movies and shows all these things I voracioulsy consumed and still do. There was a point in my life,however, when I asked myself, “What am I creating?” I found minatures as my creative outlet. Plastic, Metal, and Resin became my canvass where I cold bring unasmebled model kits to life. My artist’s tools an X-acto knife, glue, small brushes and some paint. I created epic heros, squads of elite soldiers, terrifying monsters and machines of war, and in time entire Armies. With my time invested I saw the tangible results of my labor on a shelf, something I could showcase. I could take my Army down to the local game store and connect with other enthusiasts, roll some dice and have a great time.

“Table Top Wargaming is my bread and butter“

I am a collector of many things and here they are in no real particular order

• Tabletop Wargames
  • Warhammer 40,000
  • Infinity
  • Carnevale
  • Warmachine
  • Warcaster
  • Kingdom Death Monster
  • World War III: Team Yankee
  • Warmaster
  • Star Wars Shatterpoint
  • Warcrow
  • Warhammer Age of Sigmar
• Board Games (list coming soon)
• Tabletop Role Playing Games
  • Vampire the Masquerade
  • Iron Kingdoms
  • The Goon
  • Keyforge
  • Infinity
• Comics/Manga (list coming soon)
• Video Games (list coming soon)
• Books (list coming soon)
• Trading Card Games
  • Final Fantasy
  • Star Wars Unlimited
  • Digimon

How it Started

In the year of our lord 2003 I was at a friend’s house where he and his dad had some cool models he called Orks. They were a mix of metal and plastic and totally badass. In the family room they had built gameing table flocked in green grass. There were hills and ruins, and gothic buildings scattered about, the scene of a an epic sci fi battle. The models could be moved aroud the table using careful measument and there were rules and dice. That’s neat I thought, however, I could never afford to start a collection of my own at the time. I would come back six years later with a little more disposable income to jump into the hobby.

It was 2009 and I happend upon a Games Workshop store. I picked up a Tau Codex and my mind was blown. I also saw those same Orks but they were way more savage in the new edition. The flashbacks of my youth cam flooding in in a rush of nostalgia and longing. I busted out the wallent I bought an army box of Tau, a Codex, a 5th Edition Rule book, some hobby supplies and started my first Army.

As the fates would have it I was given the oppourtunity to travel to Spain for a year to teach English. So I packed my life up into two suitcases. I couldn’t fit army. It was hard to leave them behind but after our sweet goodbyes my Hunter Cadre was put into a storage unit. Later that storage unit would get auctioned off due to non payment. That’s right I lost about 1500pts of Tau to Storage Wars.

Taking the Hobby to new lands

My new life began in Talavera de la Reina, Spain where I found a great LGS Invasion Talavera and started collecting again. I bought a Tau army box, a codex and rulebook, this time in Spainish. It was a chanllage to read and understand the rules in another language. This, however, was push that I needed to take my Spanish to the next level. Besides all my opponents spoke Spanish. Even today there are names for models that just sound better in Spanish to me, for example the Ork Weird Boy is El Eztrambótiko.

I remember Carlos from the shop tried to get me into a game called Infinity. A different minature game…? Heresy! It would be at least two years later until I became the heritic.

Tau were in a rough spot in 5th edition. I lost a lot of games and wasn’t having a good time. So I decided to branch with The Assault on Black Reach Box featuring Space Marines and Orks. I spent coultless nights putting together Ork and Space Marine models. Cleaning mold lines off the upcoming squad in between coat of Chaos Black spray. Why would you ever need a new game when there were so many different armies out there? Games Workshop could do no wrong. I bought kits to bloster my forces each side growing in power. My curio cabinet was full on minis and I’m hooked.

Wait…Another new edition?

Well this is getting painful I just bought this new rule book and now we’re getting a new edition with new rules. Oh and the new codexs too. Ouch! Well I need it so lets just keep going. 6th Edition Warhamme was fun times. We could combine armies and create alliances. My favorite memory was when I ran a desperate alliance of Space Marine and Orks fighting Mario’s Imperial Guard Army. “That will never work” he said confidently.

Mario was the classic neck bearded rules lawyering meta player 1 ranked in our league of 12. He was running the Imperial Guard meta list at the time with all the flyers, Manticors and oh God so many tanks. Well he rage quit the game when I started beating him. I’d lost to this guy so many times and as soon I have my moment he conceded. It was glorious.

Life after Warhammer 40,000

The glory faded as 6th editon rules struggled to engage the palyer base. It was at this time that GW started to hemorage players in great amounts to other systems like Warmachine and Infinity. I started to see through my blindfold and began to wonder what life would be like if I played a different game. My time in Spain had come to a close and it was time for me to return home. As soon as I jumped off the plane I jumped off the GW bandwagon and found the local Press Ganger and my hometown LGS Docking Bay 93.

The Machines of War

I found and amazing group of guys playing something called Warmachine. It still had war in the title so lets try it out. I had a blast. What a great group of players and what a fun game. I fell in love with the hulking Khador Warjacks and jumped into Warmachine with both feet. Taft, the local Press Ganger, a type of coporate sponsored event organizer, was super helpful as well as consitant. I looked forward to Thursday Warmachine nights. This was the hight of 2nd edition Warmachine/Hordes and the palyer base was strong. We had about 15 players that would show up on the regular. Tournaments of 50+. The Warmachine players came out of the woodwork.

The white pewter metal models were amazing; heavy, crisp, clean with very few moldlines. The heroic scale applead to me as much more artistic and the models had a greater presence on the tabletop compared to what I had with GW models. The rules were simple yet the complextity of interactions was stunning. Everything seemed OP. The were so many great combos it made list build very exciting. They even had cards for each model. This was amazing, you didn’t need to refer to a book or codex during a game it was all right there. Some of my fondest memories were being part of this group circa 2016. A highlight being the Iron Kingdoms RPG group.

Life was good but I missed my life in Spain and my new Spainish girlfriend.

Back to Spain