Masked Thespian
08-01-2009, 03:24 PM
So, my name is Liam, also known as Masked Thespian on the internet forums I frequent and I also answer to MT (or Empty if I'm feeling in a quirky mood :D). As you can see, I'm prone to making terrible puns, something my girlfriend is wont to PUNish me for (see, I'm at it again).
I'm 26 years old, English (though half Malay-Chinese by birth), and have just graduated from the University of Leicester with a degree in Mathematics . Aside from wargaming, in my spare time I enjoy roleplaying games, animé and manga, skiing, shooting zombies on my Wii, and randomly surfing the internet.
I got interested in Games Workshop around 14 years ago, when I was 12. My secondary school took us all on a trip to the BBC's Big Bash at the NIA in Birmingham. Games Workshop were running some introductory games and I was hooked immediately. So much so that I got my parents to take me back there 2 days later on the weekend so I could find out more. A few months later, I went to the reopening sale of GW Nottingham (the one in the town centre, not Lenton (or rather, Eastwood, where the old studio used to be), as advertised in White Dwarfs 178 and 179 and picked up Warhammer Fantasy Battle 4th Edition, and the start of my Orc and Goblin and High Elf armies.
My initial foray into Warhammer was not what one would call normal; without a local Games Workshop or gaming club, and no friends who played, I was forced to play my early games alone, pitting myself versus myself. It was amusing, in a way, but I hadn't learnt how to play the game properly. I blatantly favoured my High Elves over my Orcs, and rather than playing by the rules, I just made my own things up. Things like "Oh, my High Elves hit the Orcs on a 2+ and get to re-roll misses". After a while, I grew bored of this, and actually took my time to read the rulebook, cover to cover. And so started my descent into being a rules lawyer... :rolleyes:
It turned out that I had a natural knack for remembering rules, unit characteristics and other such things. Shame that it never transferred over to my schoolwork, but nobody's perfect after all. This was demonstrated when, at my local Games Workshop's games night (GW having opened a store by this point), I managed to quote an item off of the Necromunda rare trade table without looking at it.
Sadly, my initial purchase of two armies, to allow me to actually play games, led me to purchase a third; Undead (many years before they were split into Vampire Counts and Tomb Kings). This repeated itself many times over the following years, until I own the amount of armies I do now.
Having a local Games Workshop store 10 miles away can be a bit of a problem when you turn up to the wrong game, which is how I got myself into Warhammer 40,000. That's where I discovered the Eldar, and got myself interested in a 4th army (let alone another game system).
My memory for rules and stats has helped me over the years, not least for winning competitions. My local GW used to have a small quiz on Games Nights and I often won, winning things like the old Wild Riders of Saim Hann box (5 Eldar Jetbikes in a single boxed set) and a GorkaMorka Rokkit Buggy. This trend continued with me winning an entire Chaos Dwarf army at Games Day 1996 and even around £650 worth of stuff by winning the Games Day 2005 Treasure Hunt (of which I still have £30 of credit with GW Mail Order I keep meaning to spend).
As is often the folly of youth, I was one who equated winning with having a good time, and so I somewhat devolved into a power gamer. Bizarrely enough, an experience in another type of game, the Star Trek CCG Online game, showed my the error of my ways, and I tend to not create armies in such a manner any more.
These days, I often have more miniatures than I know what to do with, and they are stored in half of a 20'x10' shed purchased for the express purpose of having my miniatures in there (and letting my Dad continue his own hobby of building PCs). I probably have more miniatures unassembled than assembled, including a resin Thunderhawk Gunship (certificated number 6, as purchased on day of release at Games Day UK 2001), though I am planning on assembling that shortly. I have, sadly, come to the conclusion recently that despite the fact I own models from loads of different armies, few of them consist of anything coming close to what I'd consider competitive.
I temper my urges as a rules lawyer with my need to be fair and a desire for a good story, to make me a gamer who doesn't really fit into any of the standard stereotypes. I do tend to be tactically minded, especially when playing certain games (especially Dungeons and Dragons 3.X) but that doesn't mean I don't know how to play games in other ways.
I've probably taken up far more of your time than you imagined, so I'll wind this up shortly.
I've been following BoLS for at least a year now, since one of my local gaming club's members mentioned the Age of Heresy minidex. I've barely contributed, not considering myself to have too much to say, but with these forums (fora?) that may well change.
Here's a very recent photo of myself, taken on the day of my Graduation:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a182/Masked_Thespian/Graduation/PICT0429-2.jpg
My avatar comes from a photo I took of myself at last year's Games Day (UK) where my gaming club ran a table (number 19) with a 4-way Goblin battle.
As a final aside, here's a comprehensive list of the games I play and the armies/teams/fleets etc. that I own for them.
Warhammer Fantasy Battle
High Elves, Wood Elves, Chaos Daemons (all four gods), Chaos Mortals (Slaanesh), Chaos Beasts (Slaanesh), Vampire Counts (Von Carstein), Orcs and Goblins, Dogs of War, Chaos Dwarfs. I also have a Gnoblar army from the White Dwarf list.
Warhammer 40,000
Dark Angels, Raven Guard SM, Relictors SM, Daemonhunters (Puritan), Daemonhunters (Radical), Praetorian Imperial Guard, Cityfighting Imperial Guard (Valhallan models), Ulthwé Eldar, Black Legion CSM, Death Guard CSM, World Eaters CSM, Chaos Daemons, Witch Hunters, Sisters of Battle, Adeptus Arbites (using Codex: Witch Hunters and/or the BoLs Minidex), Wych Cult Dark Eldar, Tau Empire, Farsight Enclave, undecided Guard (will be Afriel Strain, Deathworld Veterans, Penal Legion, Genestealer Cult, or Gue'Vesa, based on Catachan and/or Cadian plastics).
Necromunda
Cawdor, Escher, Goliath, Orlock, Van Saar, Spyrers, Ratskin Renegades, Redemptionists, Enforcers (though I'm considering stripping these and incorporating them into my Arbites 40k army).
GorkaMorka
Gorkas, Morkas.
Blood Bowl
Humans, High Elves, Wood Elves, Chaos, Norse, Dwarfs, Chaos Dwarfs, Orcs
Battlefield Gothic
Imperials, Chaos, Eldar, Orks, Space Marines (Dark Angels)
Warmaster
High Elves
Mordheim
Witch Hunters, Human Mercenaries, Skaven
Inquisitor
I have loads for this, but it's not really classifiable by armies.
Lord of the Rings
Gondor, Rohan, Mordor, Isengard
Epic Armageddon
Space Marines, Orks
Aeronautica Imperialis
Imperials, Chaos
I also own copies of Warhammer Quest (with several character packs) and Space Hulk second edition.
I'm 26 years old, English (though half Malay-Chinese by birth), and have just graduated from the University of Leicester with a degree in Mathematics . Aside from wargaming, in my spare time I enjoy roleplaying games, animé and manga, skiing, shooting zombies on my Wii, and randomly surfing the internet.
I got interested in Games Workshop around 14 years ago, when I was 12. My secondary school took us all on a trip to the BBC's Big Bash at the NIA in Birmingham. Games Workshop were running some introductory games and I was hooked immediately. So much so that I got my parents to take me back there 2 days later on the weekend so I could find out more. A few months later, I went to the reopening sale of GW Nottingham (the one in the town centre, not Lenton (or rather, Eastwood, where the old studio used to be), as advertised in White Dwarfs 178 and 179 and picked up Warhammer Fantasy Battle 4th Edition, and the start of my Orc and Goblin and High Elf armies.
My initial foray into Warhammer was not what one would call normal; without a local Games Workshop or gaming club, and no friends who played, I was forced to play my early games alone, pitting myself versus myself. It was amusing, in a way, but I hadn't learnt how to play the game properly. I blatantly favoured my High Elves over my Orcs, and rather than playing by the rules, I just made my own things up. Things like "Oh, my High Elves hit the Orcs on a 2+ and get to re-roll misses". After a while, I grew bored of this, and actually took my time to read the rulebook, cover to cover. And so started my descent into being a rules lawyer... :rolleyes:
It turned out that I had a natural knack for remembering rules, unit characteristics and other such things. Shame that it never transferred over to my schoolwork, but nobody's perfect after all. This was demonstrated when, at my local Games Workshop's games night (GW having opened a store by this point), I managed to quote an item off of the Necromunda rare trade table without looking at it.
Sadly, my initial purchase of two armies, to allow me to actually play games, led me to purchase a third; Undead (many years before they were split into Vampire Counts and Tomb Kings). This repeated itself many times over the following years, until I own the amount of armies I do now.
Having a local Games Workshop store 10 miles away can be a bit of a problem when you turn up to the wrong game, which is how I got myself into Warhammer 40,000. That's where I discovered the Eldar, and got myself interested in a 4th army (let alone another game system).
My memory for rules and stats has helped me over the years, not least for winning competitions. My local GW used to have a small quiz on Games Nights and I often won, winning things like the old Wild Riders of Saim Hann box (5 Eldar Jetbikes in a single boxed set) and a GorkaMorka Rokkit Buggy. This trend continued with me winning an entire Chaos Dwarf army at Games Day 1996 and even around £650 worth of stuff by winning the Games Day 2005 Treasure Hunt (of which I still have £30 of credit with GW Mail Order I keep meaning to spend).
As is often the folly of youth, I was one who equated winning with having a good time, and so I somewhat devolved into a power gamer. Bizarrely enough, an experience in another type of game, the Star Trek CCG Online game, showed my the error of my ways, and I tend to not create armies in such a manner any more.
These days, I often have more miniatures than I know what to do with, and they are stored in half of a 20'x10' shed purchased for the express purpose of having my miniatures in there (and letting my Dad continue his own hobby of building PCs). I probably have more miniatures unassembled than assembled, including a resin Thunderhawk Gunship (certificated number 6, as purchased on day of release at Games Day UK 2001), though I am planning on assembling that shortly. I have, sadly, come to the conclusion recently that despite the fact I own models from loads of different armies, few of them consist of anything coming close to what I'd consider competitive.
I temper my urges as a rules lawyer with my need to be fair and a desire for a good story, to make me a gamer who doesn't really fit into any of the standard stereotypes. I do tend to be tactically minded, especially when playing certain games (especially Dungeons and Dragons 3.X) but that doesn't mean I don't know how to play games in other ways.
I've probably taken up far more of your time than you imagined, so I'll wind this up shortly.
I've been following BoLS for at least a year now, since one of my local gaming club's members mentioned the Age of Heresy minidex. I've barely contributed, not considering myself to have too much to say, but with these forums (fora?) that may well change.
Here's a very recent photo of myself, taken on the day of my Graduation:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a182/Masked_Thespian/Graduation/PICT0429-2.jpg
My avatar comes from a photo I took of myself at last year's Games Day (UK) where my gaming club ran a table (number 19) with a 4-way Goblin battle.
As a final aside, here's a comprehensive list of the games I play and the armies/teams/fleets etc. that I own for them.
Warhammer Fantasy Battle
High Elves, Wood Elves, Chaos Daemons (all four gods), Chaos Mortals (Slaanesh), Chaos Beasts (Slaanesh), Vampire Counts (Von Carstein), Orcs and Goblins, Dogs of War, Chaos Dwarfs. I also have a Gnoblar army from the White Dwarf list.
Warhammer 40,000
Dark Angels, Raven Guard SM, Relictors SM, Daemonhunters (Puritan), Daemonhunters (Radical), Praetorian Imperial Guard, Cityfighting Imperial Guard (Valhallan models), Ulthwé Eldar, Black Legion CSM, Death Guard CSM, World Eaters CSM, Chaos Daemons, Witch Hunters, Sisters of Battle, Adeptus Arbites (using Codex: Witch Hunters and/or the BoLs Minidex), Wych Cult Dark Eldar, Tau Empire, Farsight Enclave, undecided Guard (will be Afriel Strain, Deathworld Veterans, Penal Legion, Genestealer Cult, or Gue'Vesa, based on Catachan and/or Cadian plastics).
Necromunda
Cawdor, Escher, Goliath, Orlock, Van Saar, Spyrers, Ratskin Renegades, Redemptionists, Enforcers (though I'm considering stripping these and incorporating them into my Arbites 40k army).
GorkaMorka
Gorkas, Morkas.
Blood Bowl
Humans, High Elves, Wood Elves, Chaos, Norse, Dwarfs, Chaos Dwarfs, Orcs
Battlefield Gothic
Imperials, Chaos, Eldar, Orks, Space Marines (Dark Angels)
Warmaster
High Elves
Mordheim
Witch Hunters, Human Mercenaries, Skaven
Inquisitor
I have loads for this, but it's not really classifiable by armies.
Lord of the Rings
Gondor, Rohan, Mordor, Isengard
Epic Armageddon
Space Marines, Orks
Aeronautica Imperialis
Imperials, Chaos
I also own copies of Warhammer Quest (with several character packs) and Space Hulk second edition.