Once More Into The Underhive

So, here's the deal.

As a teenager, I got very into the Games Workshop hobby, where people move small plastic and metal models around on a tabletop and enact battles with them, using dice and a bewildering variety of statistics to determine the outcomes. I'm not sure if this was because I was already a geek, or whether this was partially responsible for turning me into a geek. Since I'd read Lord of the Rings by the time I was nine, I suspect it was the former.

When I came to University in Nottingham, where Games Workshop is based, I stopped playing. I couldn't find anybody to play against. Weird, huh? Well, not really. The games nights that the local stores ran were on Tuesdays, and every Tuesday WITHOUT FAIL I went out to Rock City with my friends. I was not enough of a geek to sacrifice Crash in The Rig and The Basement for the hobby, so when my attempt to gain employment at a store failed, I effectively abandoned the hobby as none of my Nottingham acquaintances played.

Fast forward from 2001 to 2011. I haven't played anything Games Workshop-related for ten years. I'm twenty-nine, married, own my own home, I work in a homeless hostel, I'm in two bands and I've written three novels. My time is very nicely filled... and then I find out that Magic Tom, bassist in one of my bands and someone whom I am glad to say I've got to know much better over the last eight months or so,  has joined a Necromunda campaign.

Necromunda was always my favourite game. Based around the Warhammer 40,000 rule system of combat in the far future, it is a small scale game of gang warfare based in the 'Underhive', a derelict and lawless place in the massive lower levels of an enormous self-contained city. It's personalised, and if you fight in a campaign then your gang gets better (or more injured) as you go on, allowing them to really develop a character of their own. The number of models you need is small and the games can be done relatively quickly. This was the hook that dragged me back in. I doubt I'll ever commit to the painting and financial commitment of one of the big games again, but give me a chance to break out my old models and give them some new names...

First, I needed to choose a House. I chose Delaques - pasty-skinned, hate bright light and wear trenchcoats. Basically, they're House Goth (except that they're bald instead of having long, flowing hair). Since all my gang members needed a name I named them after action movie stars and hey presto! The Last Action Heroes were born. Led up by Harrison (Ford) and with Arnie packing the heavy weaponry, the rest of the gang consisted of Bruce (Willis), Jackie (Chan), Jean-Claude (Van Damme), Sly (Stallone), Dwayne ("The Rock" Johnson) and Vin (Diesel) as gangers, and two juves, Shia (LeBouf) and Jet (Li).

It's Tuesday evening. Magic Tom has invited me to Bugman's Bar, the Games Workshop bar-cum-gaming room where the campaign is running. It's been running for a while already, so there are some big gangs about: if I fight one of them I'll likely get badly shot up, but on the upside I'll get massive experience bonuses meaning that my gang members get better much quicker than usual. However, Tom has said that my first fight can be against him, an Escher (all-female House) gang with only two fights under their belt. Although they'll be better than mine, they won't be *much* better. Now, to find out if my ability to roll dice and use tactics has faded over the last ten years...