Introductions are in order!

Greetings,

I am Mathial, and this is perhaps the first forum that I've decided to join 40k related but that should be expected being that I haven't been in the "I own an army" scene for very long.

I am still fairly new to the game when it comes to playing it, but I've been a fan of the game for about 11 years now... I just didn't make enough to really get into it. I started my attempts at playing the game towards the end of the BBB era [The current Chaos Space marines codex JUST had come out... 4 days after i bought the one before it], picking up codexes for various races for me and my brother and we proxied the hell out of everything [the poor man's solution to deciding if something would feel right for us or not] and not even a realistic sense of proxying. I just cut out white circles the size of the bases [I had bought the battle for Macrag[sp?] box set but lost all of my models in a move but still had some bases to use for reference] and would write the names of the units on them and what they had on them. I also got to experience only one particular battlefield for the longest: Plains with no cover except for the occasional hill [used a bedsheet for the battlefield and would put books under them to make hills].

I had really liked the lore of the Dark Eldar back then, but a few things stopped me from playing them at the time. 1.) They said they were really tough, and I was afraid to give them a shot being a novice and all, and 2.) The models weren't really the most aesthetically pleasing [though I did like the Archon model with the flesh mask]. I had told myself that, should the Dark Eldar ever get an updated codex and some new models, thats when i'll start buying models.

Years passed and the day came that they did get an update, and I proceeded to shovel out the pocket and bought waaaayyyy too many models at once. I have a decent collection now, but I'm in the process of starting to pain my army, but its very daunting because of how many I have to do [I have only one squad near finished, its kinda depressing]. I also had started the game with a group of co-workers and my roommate. My best friend plays Eldar/Chaos[both flavors], one plays nids, and roommate plays Grey Knights. Overall I get to play the Grey Knights more often, which is somewhat reflected in my particular taste in units [I am Kabal through and through currently, he cries soooooo much about darklight weaponry].

I worry a lot about my still lack of any real experience as annihilating my poor nid friend [i think he downed a raider, everything of his was just brutally slaughtered] and now my Grey Knight roomate [even though he religiously studies the net for strategies to fight any of us and will refuse to play any of us untill he's done so thoroughly enough].

I have been to some of the other forums and I lurk a ton and I have finally decided to stick onto a site, and why not dedicated to the race I enjoy most? [I've played some of the other races and I'm kind of addicted to the speed at which my units can move with dark eldar and how efficient they can be at cleaning up targets]. I found this one searching for any information on the new forgeworld model [since they didn't have the experimental rules on the model since its in the new Imperial Armor book].

I really enjoy making the models [I have converted quite a few, and I've made my trueborn out of bitz entirely (Ala the crew members from vehicles I didn't feel like putting on the ships)] and I have a weird fondness for making terrain too.

Anyways this is my long winded introduction.

Welcome!
Learning to play DE is tricky. I think that by reading this forum and others you can learn from mistakes made by all of us in the past to ease the learning curve. It is a finesse army and takes time to develop a playing style that works for you. That being said, it is really rewarding when you get it down and looks AWESOME on the table. Check out the project logs here for stealing painting/conversion ideas. There are some amazing armies that should provide you with inspiration and suggestions. Again, learn from others' mistakes and successes.

Which island are you on? I've always wondered what the gaming scene was like in Hawaii, but wife never lets me check it out when we're there on vacation

Good to have you here Mathial, I hope that you enjoy The Dark City.

Don't worry about the experience-thing, only time and games will help with that. And even then, if your dice don't like you, well .......

Make sure you post lots of pics of your work. We are greedy and need satiating on a regular basis!

Evil Space Elves wrote:

Which island are you on? I've always wondered what the gaming scene was like in Hawaii, but wife never lets me check it out when we're there on vacation

I am on Oahu. The gaming scene for the most part revolves around one store here called Other Realms, at least this is where the Tourny scene would be. I've been rather shy about going there myself, and I live on the other side of the island [where I absolutely hate to drive down to where the shop is located... decisions decisions...] Also the fact I dont have enough cases to transport my army around properly and I'd rather them not explode. Otherwise theres actually a large number of people where I work who play [I am military of the higher than 80 ASVAB type, so I'm surrounded by nerds for the most part all day. Its ok, I can call them nerds because I'm a turbo nerd, so I trump them.]. For the most part I tend to play friendlier games with my friends but I know if I want to get good i'll have to suck it up and play against the more hardcore gaming groups.

Thank you all for the warm welcome and I will try to get pictures up when I can. My little conversions are nothing to the extent of Gobsmakked's stuff [holy crap that mess is awesome]. I just have this chain theme going for my archon and trueborn that came out pretty well. I had to giggle a bit though because I do have something that looked very similair to his Baroness's board. I made it out of spare pieces from sails and reaver bitz, and its been lovingly referred to as my bug. I had contemplated making it a skyboard myself, but I have kinda firmly decided I wanted it to be an elaborate chair for Vect when I break down in my sanity and try to make a crazy Dais of Destruction conversion [doubt i'd ever use it for games because of the cost but I want to have it though]

Anyways time to browse more of the forums to help me stay inspired with my army. I want to do so much with mine but my overindulgence in buying the models has me still daunted with when to paint....

Never been to Oahu, just Maui and the big island. I have a friend that lives 30 minutes north of Kona(that totally does not game at all) and have never seen a gaming store while there. Looking forward to your stuff. I always need fresh ideas to steal!

And yes, I think you are required to be a gamer if you score higher than 80 on the ASVAB.