Warhammer 40000 is the world's greatest tabletop miniatures game. It takes place thousands of years in the future. Mankind, under the guidance of a powerful psychic entity, the "Emperor," has colonized the stars. The Emperor's loyal Imperial forces fight a never ending battle on a thousand fronts to defend humanity from enigmatic aliens, foul traitors, and even daemons from a dark dimension known as "the Warp."

My part in the game is as the commander of humanity's finest fighting forces, the "Adeptus Astartes," or Imperial Space Marines. There are roughly a thousand "chapters" of Space Marines spread across the galaxy, ready to strike fear into the hearts of the Emperor's foes. My chapter is the Blood Angels, one of the original twenty legions raised by the Emperor when he lead man's conquest of the galaxy.

(02-AUG-2011)
Saturday was Alex's seventh birthday. Amongst the many presents he received was the squad of Ultramarines I had been painting for him off and on for about two months - an hour or so at a time, secretly, so he wouldn't figure out what I was working on.

They're not perfect - I didn't highlight anything, hadn't put the boltgun metal on all the gun bitz that I wanted to, and deliberately left off all the unit insignia (waterslide transfers get rubbed off pretty fast around here), but Alex likes them and we played a [very small] game of 40K using the Second Edition rules.

Man, I had forgotten how much fun having a psychic phase with Warp cards and psychic powers drawn from a deck could be! Sure, it slowed down a 1500-point game, but when you're only playing with 10-12 models on each side, it can make for an enjoyable little diversion.

(07-JUN-2011)
I think Warhammer 40K has gone through two rules revisions since I last updated this page. Counting Rogue Trader, I now have four thick Games Workshop books that all purport to be the rules for WH40K, and I don't think I've actually played a game since 3rd Edition.

Just thought I'd share this funny picture with you and, since I don't think Alex will read this far down, mention that I intend to paint up the Battle For Macragge tactical squad as Ultramarines for his birthday. If it all works out, I should have new content here and a gift for my little guy in just under two months.