Twists and turns and good Samaritans

The recent posts down memory lane (c.f. Crazyrat and Jaeroler's blogs) swept me with nostalgia as I recounted my warhammer experience and the many people or good Samaritans who helped shaped the gaming experience for me. I felt that I should share my long long story too.

Warhammer Quest-Paul
First exposure with warhammer was Warhammer quest during P6. I used to go to my friend, Paul’s house to play with him and another friend. He soon lost interest and sold the game to me before we lost touch.

Today, I still play warhammer quest, mostly with my friends and gf’s young cousins (so that I can eventually sneakily entice them to play warhammer-in psychology we term that ‘foot in the door’) I fail most of the time though lol. Halfway through the “wheeling” and marchblocking rules, my friends and cousins would stare at me as if I spoke alien tongue. In fact, one of my friends even fell asleep as I was explaining the movement rules during a stayover. Lol.

Warhammer Fantasy (WHF)-Benjamin, Kenneth, Tusi and gang at Serene Centre
In secondary three though, three years after I bought and stopped playing warhammer quest, my friend, Benjamin heard of my obsession with fantasy genre (forgotten realms and especially Drizzit do Urden, Artemis Entreri, Lord of the Rings, and fantasy related mmorpg) and the Dune chronicles, and showed his collection of ultramarines to me. He proposed to start WHF with me. We went to PI together but never got to starting the game together. Sigh. I even bought the starter box with orcs and empire then and felt rather betrayed and let down.

A few months later, I bought the first edition warhammer starter box of high elves and goblins from a friend’s friend for a really low price-it seems that the elves from forgotten realms and lord of the rings are calling out to me. Again I never got to play with them.

By some odd chance, I heard of serene center and during my first visit, I bought my first Space Wolf fBlood Claw box and the Space Wolf codex. Space Wolf provided fantasy fluff in the futuristic or 40k of the warhammer universe. Sign me up I thought. But once again, I had no one to game with so I kept the models and read the fluff from time to time.

I even started Mageknight with my NS mates because they found warhammer too expensive though they like the idea of tabletop gaming. We soon joined a group who played at Serene Centre. Again Asur’s horns of battle called to me for I always walk over to look at Kenneth and Tsui’s gang playing WHF when taking a break from Mageknight. Deep inside, I somehow knew warhammer is the game for me and Imrik, the Dragonprince’s dragonhorn must have imbued me with insane courage as I passed my morale test to ask Kenneth if I could join them for a game, which they kindly allowed. So began my WHF days as a High Elf general (yes by then I have amassed a decent army for I would buy at wimp from eBay and Maelstorm). They were really a nice bunch of people and games with them were always fun and full of learning pointers. Not to mention the array of truly beautifully-painted miniatures that will melt your eyes and hearts. Always a sight to behold. Always. That, with the wonderful people you meet there, makes me miss Serene Centre and the now defunct Comics Mart. Though I have lost contact with them, I hope they are still gaming regularly.

WH40k- Ralph, Mark, Edward, Alvin, James, Hong, Samuel, YouCai, De Feng, Daniel, Kenny, Striderx and many others (by order of appearance haha)
It appears that beside Asur, Russ has his eyes set on me as I chanced upon Mark (IG and Chaos player) and Ralph (fellow SW)’s WH40k game once day at Serene Centre. The bond between wolf brothers are so strong that I had to chat with him and was soon introduced and invited to Alvin’s (Grimcron) place for a game (I was still a staunch Asur then, insisting that I will only take a look at 40k which I am NOT really like to pick up- how wrong I was lol). It was there I met Edward also and I thoroughly enjoyed the 2v2 WH40k battle as I tried to take in every nuances of the game. I was hooked and there was no turning back.

Eventually I was invited to Kenny’s place where Sam and YC also visited but our paths did not cross, yet. Well, before I stopped attending the gaming club at Kenny’s place, I met Sam and had a really wonderful chat with him (mostly about our day job and the Necron player that we really do not want to play against, though we still both ended up getting picked with and massacred by him lol). Eventually, my paths and that of YC, Sam, De Feng and Daniel intersected when Sam then invited me to play over at YC’s place before he departed for Australia for a well-deserved break. And games at Yc's place has been fun to say the least. The sharing and really bizzare encounters (e.g., rolling 1 for 2+ invuln and instant killing Dante), the beautiful gaming board and terrain are just the tip of the iceburg that contribute to the wonderful gaming experience. What else can make me wake up at 8am on Saturday mornings to travel 1.5hours?

Conclusion
I’ve played at Bishan too by invitation from Grimcron (really touched with the presence of so many gamers- it feels like some guerilla warfare occurring simultaneously at different spots in Singapore and that I am a part of it), and even attend a fellow gamer’s (Grimcron) wedding. Today, I count myself truly blessed to be able to play occasionally in the west at Grimcron’s place and also in the east at YC’s. You know, I suddenly have this idea that we can arrange for a campaign across Singapore where we contribute our battlereports and results, like what GW did. Stuff like this makes excellent fluff and bonds all of us even closer.

Truly, behind every model lies an incredible story. For me, each model tells a different story, usually related to a Samaritan. I hope to be one to my gf’s cousins too. Haha. Well, you know what present a Good Samaritan like me got for my gf’s cousin last year- yup a box of 5 tactical marines. Lol.

Oh, and my answer to the question if I will continue to play WHF, Warhammer Quest or WH40k? I quote WH40k:

"In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war" =)