Warhammerversary

Merry Christmas and happy holidays everyone!

Here on the coast of the Pacific Northwest, we don't often get snow on this day, which makes the stereotypical white Christmas a quirky thing you see in movies or TV. But this year the snow's falling, which lends an amount of joy into a rather mixed-bag of a year. COVID's still a thing—here in British Columbia, Canada, more than ever—but so far this Christmas is exactly what I needed to give my mind a rest from that; at least for a day.

Today I mostly wanted to talk about the fact that I've been playing Warhammer for twenty-five years, but first I'm going to show off a bit of my yuletide gift-haul:

Those are some much-beloved Turbo Dork paints; metallics and Turboshift. I love these paints, and while I don't know exactly what I'm going to use these on just yet, I know it'll be exciting. "Black ice," and "spicy meatball" are the two I'm most excited about.

Also, those of a certain vintage will remember Crystal Caste dice. I always saw these advertised in Dragon magazine, or Scyre, but never owned any. Crystal Caste is still around (obviously), but I haven't heard much from them, nor seen them in many shops around here. Keep your dials tuned to the Adventure.exe podcast if you want to hear these things clatter around.

Speaking of "a certain vintage," today marks the twenty-fifth year since I received the Warhammer Fantasy Battle fourth edition starter set, and began my journey in miniatures gaming. Christmas 1996 was when I first popped the high elves and goblins off of their sprues and began the arduous task of painting each of the 104 models with "smelly primer" using a "standard brush." To make a long story short, this changed my life. Not only have I been a gamer ever since (the only label I feel the slightest bit comfortable putting on myself), but I've also been a diehard elf fan. Which is why I treated myself to this (the rulebook I already owned. I just thought it would make a nice comparison):

I'll have more to say on this topic next week on my year-end and year-beginning post, but let's just say that this "Vanari Shining Host" will factor in to 2022's plans, and will be a triumphant return to my Warhammer roots: commanding legions of tiny, pointy, high elves.

However you mark this day, or whatever you received, I hope it is a bit of respite from the way things have been going. I know for myself, being a retail worker, this time of year is more stressful than not, but if I can find a bit of peace, I hope you can too.

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