This is my joy. This is my curse. This is my splendid obsession.
I’ve been a miniature collector and war-gamer for well over 20 years. Much longer into my adulthood than those around me think normal or healthy. I claim only in my defense an endearing eccentricity, a steadfast refusal to grow up, and touch of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
In our modern age, where the quirks and eccentricities that were formerly the preserve of darkened basements or specialist clubs are now on display for the entire world (is this not what the Internet was invented for?) I figured it was high time for me to put my own wares out there. This blog will be a catalog of my current projects, news about undead miniatures and, eventually, a discussion about every figure in my awesome Skeleton Legion. This will take some time. I have literally thousands of unique figures. Additionally, I am currently overseas living in Iraq where I have spent the past seven years. Most of the Legion is locked up in storage so I can only display the figures I have had shipped over here.
Every story needs a beginning and now is as good a time as any. Throughout high school and into college, my friends and I played D&D in lieu of dating. I role-played “socially”, meaning I did it mainly as an excuse to hang out my friends and I was never really that much into it. (I did however, enjoy our GURPS Cyberpunk and GDW Space:1889 campaigns.) I was never that guy who bought all the rule books and supplements and stuff – because I just wasn’t that interested. I did have a decent number of miniatures of various types though, more because I thought they were cool than for any other reason.
We sort of fell out of role playing in college, and one day, in 1990 I think, I was hanging out in Mike and Clay’s apartment, which they shared. (I have never forgiven them for not allowing me to cut a hole through the wall from my apartment, which was on the opposite side, into their hall closet. How sit-comy would that be to be hanging out and have the annoying neighbor pop out of the closet randomly?) We weren’t really role playing anymore and one of us, I forget who, said something like “We really should do something with all these miniatures we have lying around.”
I had no idea what war-gaming was. To me, miniatures were for D&D. But Mike went into his room and pulled out a beat up boxed set of Warhammer™ 1st edition (that’s right – 1st edition kids) that he had got as a present or something a few years before.
We divided up our miniatures by race; Mike took everyone’s dwarves, Clay took everyone’s orcs, I took everyone’s skeletons. And damn if demonstrating your tactical brilliance by beating the snot out of your friend’s army wasn’t damn fun!
We all chipped in to buy the latest edition of Warhammer™, which was 3rd edition. That was that giant hardback volume for those of you of an age who can remember. It was way more involved and detailed than 2nd edition and we had many afternoons of fun with it. And with repeated playing of 3rd edition, and “arms race” began to develop. Because even back then, Warhammer™ was all about having the right “stuff” rather than tactics. So someone would buy a dragon, and then everyone would have to buy a dragon, because, Mr. President, we cannot allow a dragon gap!
What my compatriots didn’t count on however, was my propensity to become obsessive about certain things. Like America during the 80’s bankrupting a Soviet Union (which actually existed then) through a massive military buildup, I would dominate my adversaries by building the mightiest Legion ever seen! I would pore over the catalogs from Grenadier, Ral Partha and Citadel, looking at the skeleton figures, determined to possess all of them. I did not think “Yeah, if I can get that skeletal cyclops, I can really fuck up Clay’s day!” No, I wanted them all! I needed them all!
Originally, we had a “bring what you have” rule. In other words, we didn’t play with armies balanced by point values. You just brought what you had to the table. Real armies weren’t balanced, so why should ours be? Eventually, Mike and Clay had to abandon that as they couldn’t possibly keep up with my OCD. I still want that massive “bring what you have” battle one day though!
And thus, began a two decade obsession. We’ve moved on to different rule sets as the faults of Warhammer™ became more evident. Currently we play a fantasy version of Piquet (that’s for another post.) I also have a side interest in other genres than fantasy; specifically steampunk/VSF and pulp era. But really, I don’t get to play much of anything these days. I still collect though. If a company comes out with new skeletons (in 25mm) you can be sure I’ll buy them. I also troll ebay constantly, looking for those few old, out of print figures I still need. If there is a figure I need, don’t bother going up against me. Seriously, save your time. These days, living in Iraq and not having much to spend my money on, it is easier. But back in the day when I was in grad school, there were times I would go without food in order to buy miniatures (I had to import all those epic Rackham figs from France – this being before they had an American distributor.) I also paint when I get the chance, and will be detailing projects here. I’ve gotten pretty good over the past 20 years, not that I could do it professionally. But we always had a rule you could only field what was painted, which was incentive to get good and quick (although we sometimes cheated by allowing “primed” figures.)
Everyone’s got their little interests and hobbies. This blog is dedicated to mine, and maybe it’ll be therapeutic. I hope you enjoy it, and contribute to the discussion.
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