The Return to Innocence: 40k

It all started 21 years ago. After school one day I had the crap beaten out of me. Two surgeries later, I had months of time to spend alone. I got into role-playing games and eventually into this weird new RPG-Wargame amalgam: Warhammer 40,000.

Flash forward to late 2008. I'm working at a Unitarian church in Factoria. At lunch, I usually shoot down the hill to get a hot sandwich at QFC. One day I park in the lot right in front of Games Workshop.

I promise myself that I'll never go in there. Every time I've gotten interested in GW Games -- particularly as an adult -- I've spent a good deal of money on miniatures that I barely even get to play with.

But despite my dogmatic ego-based oath to never enter the store, I stop by "just to see what the newest Space Marines minis are like these days." The love for everything Warhammer never truly drained out of me.

Within a few short months I had made the switch whole hog from 40k to Fantasy -- preferring the more mature crowd of gamers at the bunker.

It may be time for a switch back, however. I gladly submit that Fantasy is a better rules system. But my Tuesdays (Fantasy night at the Bunker), Thursdays (ASB night at the Bunker) and Saturdays are booked. I go to school from 8 a.m. til 7 p.m. and usually put in a good 1-2 hours of landscaping after that.

So as I frantically search for a suitable Fantasy army to play opponents who will either bug the hell out of me or whom I will never see, I remember that I have at least $500 of plastic 40k Orks piled up in drawers around my room. And I remember that Orks in 40k are among the most competitive armies. And I remember that Wednesday is 40k night at the Bunker. And I think
"Without even spending a dollar, I could try 40k out again. If it sucks, it sucks. But if it's decent, then I have a way to keep gaming while I'm going to school."

So that's that. If the 40k crowd turns out to be crappy (and it's likely it will be -- it's crawling with power-loving teenage boys), and I can't find time to play with my ASB homies (working 40+ hours and schooling 33+ hours, mixed with single-dadding, doesn't leave time for much) then mayhaps I'll find a new hobby. Flames of War? Field of Glory?

Meanwhile, I'll dust off the Space Orks (as we old guys call them) and land them atop a plastic planetscape at El Bunker. And mayhaps I'll keep saving for the Fantasy army I really want...