As both a computer programmer and video gamer I spend quite a lot of time in front of computers, probably too much.  My interest in actually playing computer games seems to have waned somewhat and I find myself these days spending more time listening to podcasts about gaming than I do actually playing games.  I need a hobby that doesn’t involve staring at pixels for a change.

Back in my the 80’s and 90’s I used to play quite a few wargames and role playing playing games.   The 80’s were all about role playing games like AD&D, RuneQuest, Shadowrun and so on and some table top games like Battletech, Car Wars (the first really complicated computer program I wrote for myself was a Car Wars car designer) and Ogre.  From memory I was into everything Games Workshop, Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Warhammer 40K and Warhammer 40K Epic and used to play at the  Southern Battle Gamers Club in Sylvania.

For the most part I want to get back to painting some miniatures.  I do hope to use them on the tabletop as I enjoy the gaming side of things as well, but I did love painting miniatures. After looking at the GW stuff, I wasn’t really sure I wanted to get back into either 40K or WFB.  While the miniatures do look good, the world didn’t interest me that much.  Plus I didn’t want to spend too much to start off, did want a functional army and nothing GW had really caught my eye.

Which is how I ended up buying a Warmachine 2 Player Battle Box.  The Warmachine universe is something new to me and being somewhat steampunk is an interesting mix of fantasy and sci-fi like elements.  The basic story is familiar “world in conflict”, different factions, characters etc.  The rules seem relatively simple, but have a lot of strategy around them and games seem to be quicker than the WFB and 40K games I remember (I’ve watched a few battle reports on YouTube).  However most importantly, the models look fun to paint.

For $100 the 2 player battle box has plenty of stuff to paint and importantly you can play a basic game with the pieces you get in the box, so there’s a possibility of perhaps getting a friend or two to try it out.  GoodGames near Town Hall has a Wednesday night league, so I’m going to go along to that and have a look see.  I also see that MOAB and the Southern Battle Gamers Club is still going strong after all this time, so I might head to MOAB in October.

So here begins my return to wargaming and painting miniatures after 20 years.   I’m going to document my progress with both the painting and the game playing here on this blog.  It should be interesting to see if the old skills return.