Nerd Night - The Blog

Every Monday night for the last 2 years I've been playing 40K with roughly the same group of guys. People have come and people have gone - but the diehards remain. For the 3rd year in a row I attended Adepticon here in Chicago and for the 3rd year in a row some of our numbers have been there. We all love the GW hobby and we all love going to gatherings and seeing what other people are doing. This year we came to some new realizations...

Flash back to 1994-2001:

In 1994 I was part owner of a gaming store in Buffalo, NY called Adventures Unleashed. We carried D+D stuff and CCG's. MagicTG had just broken out and we paid off our initial investment inside of 3 months of opening (thank you Legends "God Boxes" with 4 rares instead of 3 uncommon cards and a rare!) We had money burning a hole in our pockets to reinvest in the store and we decided to carry Warhammer and Warhammer 40K. Little did I realize my life would change forever.

I went from being completely disinterested in the GW universe, to collecting an Undead army but still wholeheartedly swearing I'd never be interested in the background. Before I knew it I was playing Undead in Warhammer, Angels of Absolution in 40K, and Cawdor in Necromunda, and running detailed campaigns in the store. I was building terrain like a fiend and getting so upset that I couldn't paint like a master that I once threw a model across the store. When I came in the next day it was still where it landed on the floor. I picked it up and looked at it and realized it was actually pretty damn good - aside from the big chip I gave it.

I eventually moved onto working at the newly opened Buffalo, NY GW store in Nov/Dec of 1997 and that's when my friends and I got really hardcore about the hobby - pushing the limits of our abilities. We felt like masters - at the top of the hobby elite in Buffalo. I'd travel to other GW stores and be disappointed at the models in their figure cases and be unimpressed by their scenery. We were hobby snobs to the extreme.

Today I am still a full blown hobby snob - without a doubt. The difference is, the hobby world has stepped up its game and left me behind. Here I was at Adepticon with one of my fellow GW Buffalo staff members and all the guys from my current gaming group here in Chicago and I was blown away by many of the armies, displays, and team commitment. Many people traveled with their gaming groups, sporting their t-shirts or bowling shirts, and they frequently had mind blowing armies with great themes and amazing supplemental works. There was a team that had a full color army list with beautiful photos of every unit in the army. We talked a lot about stepping up our game and feeling inadequate. This blog will be a diary of our hobby exploits as we strive for excellence. Combined with our private msg board we will hopefully push the limits of what we are capable off.

Watch this space!