The Beginning - Act 2

In which the antagonist is unmasked

Some time last year I started following the blog and twitter updates of @trialsofacasualwargamer*. As young ‘uns Mr Trials and I were regular gaming foes and he’s been gaming again for the past few years – despite a young family and an already-busy social life. If he can do it why not me? I’m sure he can’t be that much better organised…

I’ve watched from the shadows as Mr Trials has experimented with a wide spectrum of games – Across the Dead Earth, Konflikt47, Bolt Action, Gaslands and more – but it was the recent staging of a Blood Bowl league which finally piqued my interest and tipped me over into action. Quick and simple (the game, not Mr Trials) Blood Bowl looks like a workable fit with my available free-time. The game has a limited number of models, a small playing area, minimal dice and a relatively straightforward rule set. Perfect.

The real enemy though isn’t the game, or the opposing player – it’s the paint. Everyone knows that a properly painted miniature will wipe the floor with its bare-plastic progenitor. If I’m to be a force to be reckoned then I must do battle once again with the primers, base layers, washes and highlights that haunted my youthful dreams. I once had a decent handle on wielding a paint brush, but time has not been forgiving to eyesight or steadiness of hand. Do I still have what it takes?

* Full disclosure – we’re related. Not that either of us have anything to sell. Unless I can interest you in this box of 20-year-old paints I found in my attic?