I believe that it is an established fact that I am a nerd so it would come as no surprise to any of you that I used to enjoy the hobby of minature wargaming. For those that aren't aware, by Wikipedia definition "miniature wargaming is a recreational hobby where players simulate a battle, which is played out using small figurines to represent the land, sea and/or air units involved. Many miniatures games are played on a floor or tabletop, with terrain represented by miniature scenery (hills, forests, roads, fences, etc.). Movement of the miniatures is regulated using a tape measure. However, like boardgames, miniature games can also be played using gridded terrain (demarcated into squares or hexagons) or even gameboards".

Two of my best mates were state champions at Warhammer 40K, we also enjoyed Necromunda but I personally loved Warhammer Fantasy.. pity I was not close to as good as my two mates.

One classic story was we all came around to Brecon's place as he had a permanent wargame table set up in his basement so we decided that we were going to have a monster weekend battle of the brothers - John as the Dark Angles and Evin as the Ultramarines versus Rowan as the Blood Angles and Brecon as the Space Wolves with my pitfully small Tyranid Horde just creating havok for fun. Wargaming is all about knowing the rules and John and Brecon were both "rules lawyers", arguing every bloody pre-game set up condition there was to argue about, meaning that the game to a full EIGHT HOURS TO SET UP!!! Admittedly it was very amusing to watch. The Dark Angels army of John's had the particular Psycher/Officer who was extremely powerful who was literally half the army for John - each unit/squad costs points for example a character can cost 200 points and the army limit could be 3000 - John's uber-psycher cost half his army points he was that mean. Brecon had a big tank that was able to have one shot pre game (which took 30 minutes to argue about) so Brec, hoping to go against the 1 in 216 chance of killing John's chances from the get go, aimed straight at the key to the Dark Angles army.

It came off - the psycher and John's chances were dead.

Brecon and Rowan laughed in hysterics while I cringed as John was just about ready to explode and sure enough John blew up, kicked the table ruining eight hours of set up, stormed out of the basement, put a hole in the door and went home. Just awesome.

Sorry for that tangent - As nearly everyone has done today, I am visiting my mother for Mother's Day at my parents place in the Blue Mountains and like nearly all parents, they have a treasure trove of mine and my sister's old toys. Since I have been on the old school gaming hunt for the last few years I decided to ask Dad where my old original Game Boy would be to which the reply was "in the shed". Right down the back of my parents yard is the shed where boxes upon boxes of "treasures" are stored. Just to put it in prespective my dad is one of those people who collects cars and trains and leaves them in mint condition and in the original packaging so you can only imagine how much stuff is packed into this relatively mundane garden shed.

I thought I was in luck when I saw in the very first crate my old Game Boy carry case but to my disappointment I only found Mortal Kombat, NBA All Star Challenge, Skate or Die: Bad 'n Rad and TMNT. I did however find piles of my old Lego including the Legoland Set 6990 - The Space Monorail which was if I recall the ultimate Lego box set in 1987...

... Micro Machines, Matchbox cars and some of my old Games Workshop minatures including these two...

A Dwarf Flame Cannon and a Slayer, painted by the Rowan mentioned above who now makes models for the movie industry and I believe is either in or is going to be working for Peter Jackson's Weta Studio. I hope none of you thought I painted them as I paint like a 3 year old!!

Dad is going to have a hunt for the Game Boy next time he gets a chance to spend a day clearing out the shed so once the missing Game Boy is found it will get its own uber-post.

For those who want more LAN's, have your fingers crossed big time for me this week!!