First step of the way...

New beginnings

Some time ago, probably 1998(ish), I tried out Warhammer 40k.  I was 12 years old and;

1. didn’t have a great deal of disposable income, or
2. the patience and mindset needed to understand a complex set of rules.

I enjoyed the craftsmanship aspect for a while, but ultimately my toolbox of, in hindsight, amateurishly painted models sat gathering dust in my mum’s attic.  The Nintendo 64 won the battle for my free time.

Fast forward 20 years and a couple of friends and I are ready to give it another shot.  My two previous blockers have since been removed;

1. I am now a grown man with a full-time job and disposable income, and
2. I might still not have the patience but having some friends along for the ride means we can muddle through and learn the game together.

I thought it would be fun to chart our progress in a blog and see how we get on delving into the world of Warhammer 40k, complete with the pitfalls and learning curves along the way. 

So here goes…

Week 1

Having played some Vermintide 2 on the Xbox a friend mentioned to me that he felt like getting in to Warhammer again, as he had played when he was younger.  I professed to dabbling (artistic embellishment) with 40k myself and said I wouldn’t mind giving it a second go.

I had forgotten everything I knew, what little that was, so it was like a complete fresh start.  We decided the best approach would be to go in to our local Games Workshop and see what was available, so that’s exactly what we did.

I will confess that my choice was based 99% on aesthetics.  We had a perusal of the starter collections on offer to see which direction we wanted to go in.

My choice? Necrons.  I mean… look at them!

(image from https://spikeybits.com)

They look cool AF, robotic terminators with an effervescent green glow coming from their core (well in the majority of available literature, your paint scheme is your own after all!).  

I picked up a Necron starter set (there are two available, I chose the one with the Command barge option) and the Necron Codex.  Followed closely by a trip to a local hobby store to pick up some tools for crafting my models later on.

My friend went for the Dark Eldar Craftworld set himself.

With a close to kid at Christmas kind of excitement I rushed home and had to make the decision on what I wanted to build first.  The Necron starter set I chose comes complete with;

• Necron Overlord
• Necron Warriors
• Canoptek Scarabs
• Necron Immortals/Deathmarks
• Command/Annihilation Barge

I decided to go with the Overlord first as the current figurehead of my small force and started to go through the process of building that I remembered from my youth.  Using a crafting knife to remove the pieces from the insets and filing down any residual pieces of plastic.

Here’s where I learnt my first lesson.  Using the glue I had picked up, inexpensively, from the local hobby store proved akin to Spider-man learning to effectively use his webbing, it was stringy and pretty much went everywhere. It was a bit slow to take hold as well and you'd need to hold things there for longer than is ideal. None the less, I managed to put the Overlord together and was pretty happy with him.

Fortunately, or unfortunately depending how you look at it, my walk home from the train station after commuting back from work takes me through the local shopping centre. I decided to stop in to Games Workshop and pick up some 'official' glue. Now I don't intend to push the official Citadel products here at all, and I'm all for purchasing cheaper products, but in this case it was the best option. The bottle has a near needle point application tube which was perfect for control and overcoming the aforementioned Spider-man related difficulties of building my Overlord the night before.

I decided to tackle my Scarabs and Warriors next. Nice and simple. Or so I thought! The scarabs were definitely straightforward. Attach Scarab to stalk, stalk to base. Simples. The Warriors however, were much trickier than I remembered any models being from when I was a 12 year old.

The most challenging part, that I don't yet have a solution to, is that their guns, arms and bodies are three independent pieces. I had to contort my hands into claw like appendages to hold the gun arm into it's socket at the same time as holding the other arm into it's socket and attached to the gun so all would set in the correct place. I don't yet have the repetitive experience to know where I need to set the gun arm so that the second arm will slot in the socket and be in position to attach to the gun.

A couple of days after picking up my starter set I messaged another friend of mine, tongue in cheek, to say that me and my other friend had picked up starter sets and he should get involved. I was somewhat surprised when I got an enthusiastic response that it was actually something he wanted to give a go himself. Excellent!

We arranged to meet up at the weekend and head over to Games Workshop so he could have a perusal himself at what was on offer. We then did a compare and contrast at a local independent store and he picked up an Ultramarine starter set. I took the opportunity of getting a metallic base spray (Leadbelcher) and a primer pray from the local hobby store where my friend did a tools run.

Throughout the week I started familiarising myself with the game a little more. I think it's safe to say the biggest help I have, and something I didn't have 20 years ago, is YouTube and a smart phone. Introductory videos aplenty ranging from the game, talking about different armies, battle strategies and even painting tutorials. I can watch at home or on the commute and already my knowledge of the game is building.

I rounded the week off by completing my starter set army, which felt like a mini accomplishment in itself. In parallel I started to read my Necron codex and started to learn the lore of this set of terminator looking guys I'd gone with.

Turns out they're over 60,000,000 years old, have fought ancient foes, made a race changing bargain/sacrifice and then put themselves into a self imposed hibernation for those 60,000,000 years.

They're awakening now, those that haven't been destroyed in their slumber within their Tomb Worlds, and they're coming...

Next Post for Week 2 will look at a start to painting, a lesson in movement and shooting and the need to overcome a compulsion to grow the army!