Not 1 But 2 Boxes of Awesome
In one of our earlier episodes I talked about how I chose Thousand Sons as my initial army. I don’t regret that decision at all. I love the Thousand Sons and have had a blast building them. Painting them however, has been a different challenge all together. Not an impossible challenge but I would definetely say I picked one of the harder armies to start with given that it’s been 25+ years since I painted a miniature.
That wasn’t the only factor. I have played a few matches with my unpainted Thousand Sons army (oh the horror, I know. My son and I couldn’t wait for our armies to be fully painted before we started playing) and I found it challenging to learn the game and keep track of all the things the Thousand Sons can do. Thats what led me to start thinking about other armies. That is what led me to the WAAAAAAAAGHHH!
For you uneducated peasants, that means I find the Orks! The Orks seemed easier to play, easier to paint and on top of that, they seemed like a hell of a lot of fun. I became obsessed with the Ork lore and just the ridiculousness of the Orks themselves. Not enough to make me want to abandon my Thousand Sons army but definetely enough that I really really wanted the Stompa Boyz Battleforce box when it was offered.
Sadly, on the day of it’s release, I was camping with the Boy Scouts and missed the announcement. Within hours of the Stompa Boyz box being release it was sold out. I was crushed and of course blamed my son who was sitting at home enjoying his Summer break and NOT paying attention to the Warhammer website for me! The nerve! J/K but not really.
By the time I could get to my computer back at camp, it was sold out everwhere. I looked for a few weeks but had no luck. Once it was released and people started getting it the reviews were very positive which to me, meant that it was going to be harder to find on the secondary market. I gave up and moved on. Afterall, I could get most of the models seperately if I wanted so no big deal.
Much to my surprise, just a few short weeks ago, Harrison was browsing Amazon and came across a seller that had 3 Ork Battleforce boxes for sale! He tried to buy one for me and got an error, I went on and get the same error. I kept trying and after 3 or 4 times I got that glorious email confirmation that my order had gone through. I refreshed the page and it was sold out again. I was both very excited and nervous. I kept assuming I was going to get an email telling me that my order was cancelled but just a few short days later, it arrived on my doorstep and I couldn’t be happier with it.
I am half way through building the models and haven’t started painting it yet but that’s okay, it’s mine and it’s glorious. I am going to take my time with it.
And So Enters The Skaventide
The sheer size of the Ork Battleforce box wasn’t the only thing that slowed down my progress on building my new Ork army. We have talked about wanting to get into Age of Sigmar as well and how we were both pretty excited for 4th edition of that game. We also had an episode where we talked about how much Harrison LOVES the skaven. Well, he has been away at the Summer Bridge program at Shippensburg University and decided with school and his time being limited, he was not going to buy the Skaventide box. I could tell he was disappointed but it was a mature decision as he prepared himself for 4 years of having to concentrate on school and not having a lot of disposable income on hand for hobbies like Warhammer.
I had not yet settled on an army for Age of Sigmar although I was really interested in the Kharadron Overlords for a time. The more I heard about the Skaventide box and saw the new Age of Sigmar releases the more I really liked what I was seeing of the Stormcast Eternals. Still, I was on the fence and had plenty of work to do with my Ork Stompa Boyz so I let it go.
Fast forward a few weeks and Harry was just totally kicking ass at school. Not only was he getting straight A’s but he started a study group, he was mentoring and tutoring students, he was creating quizzes and giving them to students that were struggling to help them prepare for the exam, he was doing everything you would hope your son or daught might do and then some. I am very proud and wanted to surprise him with something but what should that be?
Well it didn’t take long before I pulled the trigger on the Skaventide box, waiting for it to arrive and took a picture of it and texted it to Harry at school. He was (and still is) very excited.
That’s how I became a Stormcast Eternals player and that’s also why I won’t have any free time for the next 3 months. Does that bother me? Not in the least!
