A bit of history

 The best place to start this catalogue of misdeeds?

I first got into “the hobby” in the early ‘90s, via Heroquest and Space Crusade. Exactly when this was is a bit hazy, but my entry into the more mainstream GW games was with Warhammer 40,000 2nd edition, in 1994, with the main boxed set arriving as a Christmas present from my parents - I remember staring at the 2 page spread in White Dwarf 180 (my first issue) for ages before that Christmas. 

Back in the ‘90s this was enough to make hours of entertainment for a small child…

While I don’t have my full collection of White Dwarfs anymore, I still have that old issue, much loved, and often flicked back through. Just look at that cover art!

We played 40k initially, branching out into Warhammer Fantasy Battle when 5th Edition came out, and then other things beyond that. I’ve played pretty much every edition of 40k since 2nd, pretty much as each came out, but I have a lot of nostalgia for the RT, 2nd and 3rd editions, which has only been enhanced by the stellar efforts of YouTubers like Minisodes and Miniscape.

Back in the day, my main armies for 2nd edition were pretty much straight from the box - Blood Angels Space Marines and Space Orks, with a few additions here and there: the Blood Angels Devastator squad, a few Ork support weapons and vehicles, fighting games against my brother’s Eldar and Imperial Guard. I’m not actually convinced I had a great grip on the rules back then, but who knows. 

My interest in “what came before” was mainly from the handful of older White Dwarfs I’d managed to get (back when GW stores had a bunch of back issues behind the till that could stretch back ages!) - White Dwarf 141 in particular stands out, with the Alaitoc Craftworld vs The Blood Angels Rogue Trader Battle Report. In secondary school, my form teacher had a copy of Rogue Trader on her shelves (she was an art teacher with quite an eclectic selection of books) - a few of us would take it in turns to borrow that book and leaf through the pages, seeking mysteries of an older time. Getting my hands on a copy off eBay (as a gift from my partner) years later was a delight, and one I need to get round to exploring more fully at some point with a few games.

Quite a few years later on, after various distractions with other projects and so on, I have returned to the games of my youth, digging out and expanding (where affordable) collections, repairing and repainting models, and playing games of 2nd edition 40K, as well as NetEpic Gold. Further systems await (I’ve dug out the old Battlefleet Gothic Fleets, for instance), but for now, we are firmly in 40K territory.