The Inaugural Post (Yes, once I get started, I have a tendency to ramble) ...

So I've spent an age trying to decide where to begin. What profound piece of nonsense I should make my official, inaugural statement to this, inevitably random journey, upon which I'm about to embark.

First off, I hate the term 'blog' ... or 'weblog', to give it the correct name. I also don't especially want to use the term 'journal' so, for now, I'm going to describe it as a series of mindless witterings of a crazy 40-something who likes playing with toy soldiers ... and other stuff.

So, as you can guess, my name is Graeme, and I'm most definitely on the wrong side of 40 (ok, so I'm most definitely on the wrong side of 45). I currently live in West London, in the UK, but originally hail from the North East, making the page's title a double pun (Geordies, at least, should get it).

You would also be correct in assuming that I like wargames, and toy soldiers. This is something that really started for me in the early 1970s, as a child, after a birthday day out to the seaside, where I got a box of Airfix British Commandos as a present (it was from Woolworth's in Redcar, if anyone's that interested). Certainly, we'd had toy soldiers before that (I have a brother who's a couple of years younger than myself), but these was really the first with any cohesiveness. Things took off from there, with more boxes of soldiers and so on. We had a wooden fort, which was built for us by one of my father's work colleagues which, I guess you could say was my first piece of professionally produced custom terrain. It should still be kicking around in my parents' loft, somewhere.

Anyway, this really was my first foray into wargaming. OK, so we had no ruleset, used no dice, and casualties were decided upon by (dis)agreement, but it was two opposing forces fighting it out to the death. We loved it.

This interest in playing with toy soldiers never really went away, but spent the usual number of years on the shelf, while things like growing up, and the insistence that toy soldiers are only for children, got in the inevitable way.

Jumping forward into the mid 1980s, off to college to discover beer and Dungeons & Dragons (of the 1st Edition 'Advanced' flavour). One of my housemates had been into the roleplaying scene for a number of years, and introduced the rest of the house to AD&D ... I was immediately hooked and, combined with my new-found liking for the ale, college inevitably suffered. Having ADD/ADHD has never helped matters but, back then, the concept didn't exist. During this time, I also picked up a copy of the 1st Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles game, by Games Workshop, along with the Forces of Fantasy (?) box. Sadly, nobody was playing it at the time.

Back home, and another hiatus as there didn't appear to be anything resembling a gaming scene in my area.

Eventually, in late 1987, the search for gainful employment took me down to Woking in Surrey. I picked up a copy of the 1st Edition Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader rules, again by Games Workshop, and set about building some armies (Crimson Fist Space Marines (who, originally, were cited as being 1st-Founding, with the Imperial Fists being the Successor Chapter), the original Eldar Harlequins, and the much lamented Squats). Funnily, this was really the only time that I've really had any interest in modelling and painting, with the exception of the ubiquitous Airfix kits in the 70s - it's around this time that I did most of my actual painting!

Again, none of my social circle played games, so it was pretty much collecting the minis, and digesting as much of the fluff as I could. However, even this was shelved again, with the exception of reading the pre-Black Library novels from GW (Anyone remember the Dark Future game? It's a pity that the associated set of books were never finished - there's a story out there requiring a conclusion!). I did try getting some of my colleagues involved in playing Shadowrun, which had just come out on the back of the Cyberpunk literary revolution, but couldn't really get enough people interested enough.

A change of job, and subsequent relocation to West London enabled me to start up playing D&D again, with a whole new social circle. Picked up the 2nd Edition WH40K, and 5th Edition WHFB, but never really went anywhere with them.

Whilst on holiday, I happened to walk past the Games Workshop store in Bournemouth, and spotted the John Blanche poster for the newly released Sisters of Battle ... WOW! (#1) ... checked out what it was all about, and was introduced to Jes Goodwin's Sisters minis ... WOW! (#2) ... Completely blown away twice within less than two minutes ... The rest, as they say ...

And that brings us to where I am today. Sure, there's been the odd hiatus here and there, where frustration has waxed, and interest has waned, but I'm completely obsessed with the whole gaming malarkey. Sadly, I have a great dislike for modelling and painting, have the attention span of a goldfish, and the inability to stay interested in any one thing for any longer than it takes for the neurons to make the required connections to switch interest to a new army, game system, or whatever ... Seriously, I make butterflies appear focussed. As a result, I've not managed to play a game for quite a long time now, as I slowly try to get a playable army together.

Wish me luck.