Bad news and an important message

Right. My mother passed away on Sunday. We knew her cancer was terminal but expected a bit longer. I am up to my neck in admin, arranging a funeral and wotnot else. Honestly, I really hope this won't disrupt my writing as long as my father's passing did, but bear with me. 

Now, I'm sorry to go on a bit of a rant when relating this sad news, but it's so important. As is always the case, the NHS doctors and nurses were incredible. If you ever find yourself angry at NHS waiting times, stop for a moment. and remember how fast everything was back in 2010. Then ask yourself what changed. Then ask who it was that kept claiming they were increasing NHS funding whilst then forcing the NHS to allocate most of those funds to private providers (whilst clapping, no doubt). Always remember how hard the NHS staff work, how much of a difference they make... and remember who is really to blame. 

The NHS is what Britain can be at its best. The people to blame for the NHS crisis are Britain at its worst. I know it's difficult, but always remember that. The NHS is the greatest achievement in this country's long and often bloody history. We need to protect it. 

Donate to the NHS. 

A great and terrible bloodline

The Von Carsteins are a strange dynasty: noble, conniving, blighted by grim sobriety and unhinged lunacy. And even among the undead, they sleep uneasily in their graves... 

Find out what the legendary vampire line are up to. 

Squat on Earth is this?

 Well, the Tyranids did a piss poor job of that. When your whole gimmick is eating things, accidentally failing to eat an entire civilization that everyone thought you had is embarrassing. But I digress. 

Something else which is good at chewing through civilizations is Covid-19. I haven't been able to leave my house in days and it has made me a bit crazy. But after the first couple of days, I was well enough to do some hobby stuff as long as it didn't involve standing for long. So I decided to paint up some of my new Leagues of Votann. I never thought you could sell me on the idea of Squats coming back, but I think they did a good job overall. The lore could do with more flesh and fewer superlatives, but it's their first outing so I'll let that go. 

Now, the various official colour schemes are fiiiine, but they don't quite appeal to me. The reasoning behind them is solid - the Votann are a bit more rational and slightly less mad than other 40k factions. The workmanlike, blocky colour schemes work to reflect a practical and no-nonsense people. But I decided to go with a silver and gold scheme.

The models are, for the most part, user-friendly. They fit together reasonably easily and are pretty civilised for a painter. The one exception is the Hernkyn Pioneers, which seem to have been designed to be as frustrating as possible. But the rest are enjoyable to work on.

This might seem like an odd view, but I quite like the simplicity of the army - a handful of characters and a total of seven units. I think that building an army of them will be undaunting. 

Now I've heard there's been a bit of a fracas among competitive players, but I don't really follow any of that scene closely. I think that they're a nice addition to 40k in general. 

Paint the heads separately. Thank me later. 

20 years later

 There are some moments in our lives which, in retrospect, were the pivots that everything turned on. There are a few for me, but none which resonate as much as the 1st October 2002. A change came into my life, a change without which none of the rest of it would have happened, not in the way it did at least. It was a moment that had come for untold millions, but that doesn't change how important it was to me. 

I left my family home. 

I was 18 years old, and I moved away to university. I was the first person in my family to ever attend a university, but apart from that, there was nothing remarkable about it. But the moment itself was remarkable. I moved to a hall of residence called Sibly Hall (S to the I to the BLY), a monstrous 10 storey pile which I think was built in the 1960s. It had that curious smell of being washed a bit too often. And if anyone says a bad word about that place, I will fucking fight them. It was our home, and we had some of the best times there. It was where, I suspect, we became who we are. A friend of mine died in a tragic and grossly misreported accident there, but that does not poison it in my memory. Even in that dark time, we looked out for each other. Some of the people from Sibly remain my friends to this day. 

It grows on you. 

Sibly Hall is gone now, pounded down so that faux-affordable housing could be built, but it will always live on in our memories. And it was really the start for me. I used to half-joke that my life really started on 1st October 2002, but it wasn't far off the truth. That was the day I started living, finding out about myself and the world in a meaningful sense. 

I can't begin to summarise the last 20 years. Like everyone else, there were good times and bad times. Towering highs and crashing lows. I know some people who are more successful than me in any material metric, but I'm proud of these two decades. I'm proud of 2am takeaways, and distant lights over the lake, and the smell of airports, and the year I spent living in a 6' x 8' room. As I say, there are some who have technically achieved more than me, a lot more. But I feel like I've fulfilled the only metric that mattered to me. 

I've lived. 

Heffengen

 
The Empire is recovering. But in his private chambers, Karl Franz is worried.

Find out why.

The Green Hell

The Norse and the Lizardmen? What could go wrong?

Read The Green Hell.

Oh yeah, there's a bit of pontificating from me below. 

Right. The last year and a half was... I don't want to say I was unlucky because honestly I'm one of the luckier people about, but a lot of things got in the way. Like, a lot of things. My dad died, my mum got cancer twice then broke her shoulder and got a severe chest infection, I lost of load of Age of Rebuilding templates when a laptop pretty much blew up in my face and then I broke my bloody leg. I'm not complaining, there are plenty of people worse off than me. But it has been a long time - and I kind of had to remember how to do this. This might not be my best, I'm just getting back into it. But I am glad to be back. As long as I draw breath, an ongoing narrative for WFB lives (usual disclaimer about if you don't like it use that energy to write your own version and show me how its done). Anyway I'm done whinging, let's do this!

 

Right. Enough mucking about.

The last year was... complex. Some of you already know that. But a little while ago, someone actually asked me about Age of Rebuilding, which means that at least one person still cares about what I'd done. And coming to think of it, even though the last year was not an amazing time, I missed it. Demonstrating that with just a little imagination the Old World could not only survive but become an evolving story is something I care for dearly. 

Plus, there are a lot of stories left to tell. I haven't forgotten about that newborn democracy in L'Anguille, or the Sultan of Araby cryptically moving his armies around. I haven't dismissed Katl Franz and his reforms, or Settra trying to build a new kingdom in the snow. And most of all, I haven't forgotten about the threat of the Outlanders, lurking at the top of the world, unseen but deadly. 

Point is, sometimes I need to be reminded to do the things I love. So I'm going to dust off my quill, open my Incunabulum and start off again. 

Plus, I can't get the idea of Vikings in a jungle out of my brain. 

I like Orks!

 Orks are cool. I tried to start an Ork army about eight times over the years, but I could never get on with the models for the Boyz. But the new models have changed that. So here are some Orks!