Meet the Authors of Objective Secured!
Massaen – the warrior poet with pointy ears
I have been gaming along time – sometimes more than I think is healthy! As long as I can remember I have enjoyed games of all kinds and when I got to combine my love of painting and craft with toy soldiers I was hooked!
My oldest friend – Tim – introduced me to Warhammer Fantasy Battles (4th edition I think) back in the late 80’s or maybe early 90’s and alongside Hero Quest (by Milton Bradley) I had a ball in the high fantasy setting. The following year a new board game came out – Space Crusade (again by MB) and I was hooked! I played that game to death over a summer holiday and then when I got back to the real world, Tim brought me a new game to play – Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader.
My first foray into the world of 40k saw me start with the RTB01 box set and the then black Dark Angels Space Marines. I had a great time with them and I would revisit my love of the first legion later on (around 2003 in dark green!) but Tim had showed me a box set of models I had to have – Harlequins
My love affair with all things pointy ears grew steadily over the years – with Jes Goodwins Aspect warriors a stand out and when Warhammer 40,000 second edition dropped and Eldar were the second army to get a codex, I could not help but delve deeper into the world of the Eldar.
I played Eldar all through 2nd edition (and still have most of that army as well!) and had a break for around a year just prior to 3rd ed’s release. When I returned I found a new race of space pirates called Dark Eldar and while I collected a few, the models did not inspire me like the older ones had. The new eldar range saw me make a whole new eldar army with new aspects though if I am honest, I prefer the originals far more than the 3rd ed ones.
Its around this time – 2002 – that I got to go to my first tournament – Outpost 6030’s Skulls 40k.
I took my Biel-Tan Eldar and after 7 tough games – emerged the winner. I also had a taste for events and I liked it! I won that event in 2003 with my Dark Angels and again in 2004 with my 3rd ed Grey Knights (I even got an article written about my list on Bolter and Chain Sword – Way of the Water Warrior ). We also had the first GW run GT events during this time where I placed 2nd in 03 with my Biel-Tan and won it in 04 with my Grey Knights.
Over the years I have won my fair share of events – Skulls being one I have won many times since. I play a bunch of different armies but I always come back to pointy ears. There is something about them that really appeals to me – it could be the aesthetic, it could be the play style, it could just be they are cool. I was fortunate enough to play for the Australian Team at our first ever ETC in 2012 playing Dark Eldar – an army that has really struck a cord with me since the rerelease of the list in 5th edition. I have also captained the Western Australian Team for the ATC in 2014 and 2015 and have been asked to do it again for 2016!
A few years before Forge World released its Horus Heresy range of models, we got the first novels from Black Library. My Rogue Trader days came flooding back and I had to model and army. You can see the results of nearly 2 years work HERE and then the new models started to drop and my love affair with Conversion Beamers, Graviton Guns and more meant I delved into the Horus Heresy setting head first.
These days, I am focusing on a few armies for the Horus Heresy setting as well as Harlequins again for 40k. I still have plenty of Eldar and Dark Eldar to paint as well! I am running events I would love to play in as well which I think is half the battle for organisers.
I have been part of the crazy train that is Warhammer 40,000 for more than 2 decades now and I can’t see me jumping ship any time soon!
Danger Rod – the machine that paints
I was first introduced to Warhammer Fantasy 4th Edition back when I was living in the UK way back in the early 90’s. My older brother and I got the box set for Christmas and that was it, I was sold! I don’t think we ever played the game properly but the 12 year old me devoured the artwork and the background! Before long we were building a formidable Empire army filled with (the original) Steam Tank a War Wagon and countless Empire Knights! Along with Warhammer Fantasy we were soon getting into Epic, Bloodbowl, Hero Quest and to a limited degree Warhammer 40k 2nd Edition, although I never truly collected a 40k army back then. Unfortunately school, life and girls got in the way of collecting, but I still grabbed White Dwarf intermittently as I loved the artwork and articles. At home and school I got really heavily into drawing and painting and would always be working on some art project in some way…
Fast forward to 1999 and living in Perth, Australia. It was walking through Perth one day after getting off the train in the city that I stumbled across a sign for Games Workshop Perth (The old Raine Square location) that my interest was piqued once again. And it was in the early 00’s that I grabbed some Imperial Guard Leman Russ Battle Tanks and Colonel Schaefer’s last chancers and along with some of the fantastic Inquisitor models to start a new collection, but again, life got in the way and they were packed away….
2009, and with the birth of my daughter, it was while at a friend’s BBQ that the conversation turned to 40k, and that was it! The old models got pulled out of storage and my new Imperial Guard army was built using the wonderful 5th Edition Imperial Guard Codex. And pretty soon I had a sizeable force built and ready to take on the warpath!
While gaming with some friends who were already playing tournaments and after talking with Stuart (Ex-GW Perth manager) in store one day I entered the Scorched Earth tournament down in Mandurah, Western Australia in late 2012. 2000pts Six games over two days and I finished with three wins and three losses (9th out of 20) and had some of the most memorable games of 40k I’ve ever had. Even managed to take out 3rd best painted army too! Most memorable highlight would have to be overwatching a Wolf Lord mounted on a Thunderwolf and taking off his remaining two wounds….with lasguns!
2013 Saw my Imperial Guard army grow and take on plenty of new units and morphed into a solid defensive gun line list! I entered just about every tournament I could get to that year and managed to get to the Western Australian end of year invitational event – Ultimate’s! It was at one event that year that I first met and played Massaen…he promptly tabled me with his Eldar Ulthwe list that he’d written the night before using the brand new 6th Edition Eldar Codex!
Since then I’ve managed to represent Western Australia at two Australian Team Challenges (2014 & 2015) and two Ultimate’s Events (taking out last year’s best painted award for 40k). I collect and play a number of armies, some hardcore tournament lists others are totally narrative driven. I also love to buy and paint random models from time to time as a break from the backlog of projects.
My Imperial Guard army is my main army. I probably have around 7000pts built and painted and around 2000pts un-built. I love the aesthetics and the history of the faction, the tanks and the troops and their endless grinding wars. I’d like to play a more mechanized army, but the Codex and 7th Edition really don’t work well….yet! The army is quite well known around the Perth tournament scene, the desert colour scheme and the Forge World – Hostile Environment Conversion Sets on the troops set them apart. I’m really looking forward to getting back to the army when their 7th Edition Codex drops.