2023 - I'm not doing that again

 That... did not go as planned. 

It has been a long time since we talked, you and I. I'm knackered. 2023 has been... exhausting. Honestly, the most exhausting year since 2011, when I had freshly started my new profession and wanted to make an impression. I won't say 2023 was bad, but just... so incredibly draining. 

So. November 2022, my mother died. My father died back in 2021, so I'd already done all of the death admin once, but this time there was an entire estate to deal with. I've learned more about probate and property law in the last twelve months than I ever wanted to. And frankly, British probate law is absolutely bananas. It's so archaic and muddled, it's a wonder anyone ever gets away with dying. I lost a lot of sleep worrying about it, and I've been too drained to do anything more creative than paint the occasional model. 

But it's all solved now, and hopefully things are actually looking up. I'm an only child, so my parents' whole estate was left to me. They weren't rich, but they did have money in savings and a fully paid off house. I was able to sell their house - and closing up the house you grew up in for the very last time is a weeeeird feeling - and buy one of my own. I completed and got the keys for my new house on 15th December. I've moved some stuff in, though the big removals van is booked for 12th January. I've got the house I'm in until 15th February. My new house is a robust 3 bedroom affair with a loft conversion which will absolutely be a gaming room. Look, I'm not pretending I'm anything other than very lucky; I'm a single 40 year old man who will not be troubled by rent or mortgage concerns after February, who has a decent job and a reasonable amount of savings now. I got very lucky, and most of it wasn't through any cleverness or hard work on my part. There are a lot of smarter and harder working people than me facing real trouble in this country. So I'm not complaining - but that doesn't change the fact that getting to this point has been an absolutely exhausting road. That's where I disappeared to. 

But, 2024 should be nicer! Mainly due to everything I just described, but there are other things to look forward to. Round about May, this country should take the first step back towards recovery (don't quote me on that, autumn could be a possibility but I would guess May). And in the shorter term... we've got The Old World coming in 3 weeks!! All that I've ever done with Warhammer: Age of Rebuilding was to prove that Warhammer Fantasy cannot be killed. It is much too beloved. In the end, even GW saw that they were throwing away a cherished thing. I'll still pick AoR back up again when I've finished my move, but it's enough to know that The Old World just wouldn't die. Suck on that, Archaon. 

Anyway, I told myself I'd do a post before the end of the year, which is in 16 minutes. I wish you a Happy New Year and I'll see you on the other side!

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!