GAMES DAY!!

It's been 19 years since I first heard about Games Day, and today was finally the day I got to go. 19 years is a long time to build something up in the mind, and I was a bit let down - not to say that it wasn't awesome; it just wasn't as I'd pictured all those years.

High points - the terrain, the terrain, the terrain. Every bit as amazing as every White Dwarf and blog or forum post I've ever seen. Next year I *will* bring a painted army to play on one of those exquisite tables. The (build/paint) and take activities were very cool - nothing like being handed a half-dozen sprues of stuff and a pair of clippers, a base, and some glue and being told: "you keep what you build". Hobby nirvana. Bummed that I didn't get to the Golden Demon displays until most had been taken down - but the few I saw were jawdropping awesome. Talked with the winner of the sword; apparently his FOURTH. Yeesh. I have aspirations, but that's pretty rough competition.

The low points - I was pretty disappointed with the store; I really expected they would have stocks of the things you can only get through online/mail order. Only a very few - so basically, you really do have to get stuff through direct order. The Forge World line was every bit as bad as I've heard, with most people standing in line for over an hour.

Not that the store was all bad - I finally succumbed to the whisperings of the hive mind, which have been gnawing at my brain stem since seeing the new Trygon/Mawloc model. Very stoked about all my new gribbly little 'nids, and feasting on Space Marine biomatter... I have some big plans for painting these suckers up quick, and pillaging both my Space Hulk games for ~60 stealers sounds like a good way to start! Battleforce, Hive Tyrant, Raveners, Trygon, extra box of Termies (for Tervigon goodness later on). Need to read up on the 'nid lists to see what else I need. Guessing zoanthropes and hive guard, maybe a FW Malanthrope to serve as my Tervigon...

The other good part was seeing some of the crew from the NOVA Open, and some of the personalities who were there as well (Jawa, Scooter, a few others).

Can't wait for next year - I definitely intend to play in some of the "big games" as well. Had I known they give prizes and whatnot during those games they would've been a definite on the list, rather than a, "hm, neat but check out all those sprues!" decision.

For today - color me one happy mid-lifer. One box in the long list of things I have wanted to do for a long time has a shiny new checkmark.