Chug Chug Chugging Along

Lots has gone on in the relatively short time since my last post. Some of it good/great and the rest being terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad. The latter may require some explanation, but I cannot bring myself to do it at this time.

However, the good/great is that I am going through the required background check for the job I accepted. Once I pass this check, I should be getting word which dwelling I will call home for the next number of years. I do need to take a class on Native American history and culture, in the state where I will be moving to, but I may just read a few books on the subject and take the test, if allowed.

Otherwise, I will need to take yet another college class, in the midst of the M.A. program that I am already involved in.

On the gaming side of things, here's a big hint

Need a bigger hint?

Yes. Yes, sadly yes, but happily yes, in oh so many ways. I'd pretty much sworn off  Games Workshop products and games since the great Inquisitorial purging of my friends and former co-workers at the US Headquarters in Glen Burnie. It was (and I still believe it to be) a crappy thing to do. However, in the past few years, the company has turned a new leaf, or rediscovered what they were when I first fell in love with the worlds of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 and all of the little and not-so-little side games they released in the later 80s and early to mid 90s.

So, in the years since 2004, I've missed out on Dreadfleet and the 4th edition of Space Hulk, as well as the fall of the Old World and the rise of the Age of Sigmar. Now, though, I have gone back to my passion of my late teens and early twenties to early thirties, starting an army of the Daemonic forces of Khorne. Way way way back, I had a Chaos Warrior army of Khorne, never fielding any units of deamons. I'm making the change. Actually, I have always liked the concept of Chaos Undivided, with forces of all of the Chaos gods being mixed within a single army. The current models are, for the most part, spectacularly good, now that the resin (bleep) stuff is gone or mostly gone.

Unfortunately, Games Workshop's in-house and online ordering system is... not what it should be. Gone are the days of "Games Workshop Mail Order!" and now it is "customer service hours are 9am to 5pm Central Standard Time." Man, I yearn for the days when I could talk to a fellow gamer, who only just happened to be a GW mail order trolls, about building my army and what kinds of units are best suited to my play style.  My last few conversations with "customer service" were more about waiting on hold and being hurried off the phone. I was on hold for 25 minutes, on one call, last week. As I started out my short (just under 5 years) career at Games Workshop, working for Bob Bassin in Mail Order, my memories of what an excellent service it was are not even partially met by my current experiences. I do not blame the trolls, but rather the US management.

Additionally, a number of items are out of stock, even ones currently, as in a few hours ago, were featured on their main page. I ordered an time two weeks ago, which I was told will not be in stock until July, at the earliest! WTF! Why is it on the main GW page? I cancelled that order as will likely have an entirely different home address by the time the item arrives at the GW warehouse. I'll just buy it then. I bet they have it in the UK warehouse.

Of course, Age of Sigmar is not my only weakness. As I mentioned, or I think I did, I am again back to playing Necromunda, where I have faired well, with a single loss (friggin dice failed me at a crucial point).

The above picture is my desk, at work, while I am on a break. I was in the process of base coating my Orlocks, who I failed to photograph. But...I can tease you with this shot of their bases.

I've spent way way way too much on GW products in the last month. Yet, retail therapy is a very real and, I might say, "necessary" way to cope with the terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad news that we received in the past two weeks.

A few of us have been getting together, at Hobbytown USA, with the intent to bring new players into the game. Below is a photo from two weeks ago, where we were using Brent's copy of the game, and showing it off in small, demo scenarios.

 We were going to play again, tomorrow evening, but the game night has been cancelled for this week. Hopefully, we will be back at it again next Friday.