The Pursuit of Happiness

This is a bit of a personal post about the pursuit of happiness in life and the hobby.

Normally I keep this kind of stuff to myself, but I have quite a bit to get off my chest as well as announcing the proper return of the Warhammer Tau blog. So please bear with me, because this will end on a very positive note.

Speaking of positivity, the United States Declaration of Independence has a wonderful phrase in it, "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness", and I really wish we had something similar here in the UK. But the point is that I don't feel I've had any of these for the past year.

Work
Work has been the main culprit. The job I loved ended suddenly and I took what I could for the next 6 months, which involved a lot of travel up North and staying on a little farm in the middle of the Cheshire countryside all week. So I didn't really get to see anyone or do anything during all that time.

Saturday was my only real day off because I was travelling from midday every Sunday, so I didn't get a whole lot of hobby time. I spent it doing my best to see friends and family instead. On the bright side, I enjoyed the job until my 6 months temporary contract ended.

Then, I landed what could have been my dream job, working for a big agency in Central London. However, what could have been an opportunity of a lifetime has turned into an absolute nightmare of 15 hour days and constructive grounds for dismissal. I tried to stick it out, hoping things would get better, but they only got worse. So much worse in fact that I was signed off by the doc for 2 weeks with work related stress (I thought it was a stomach bug!) and my family persuaded me to hand in my notice.

To top it all off, I have to give a 2 months notice period. But fortunately this has been effectively shortened by my 2 weeks sick and 1 week outstanding holiday. So that leaves me with 5 weeks left to work. But one thing's for sure, if they think I'm doing more than my proper 8 hour day, they can think again.

Competitive Play
While all this has been going on, writing the Space Wolves blog has been hard work this year. Playing in the few tournaments that James and I attended was hard work too. However, we did pick the toughest tournaments and trying to come in the top 5 again was rather ambitious.

I've often talked about James having a far more enjoyable tournament experience than myself because the mid-tables are his domain. Here he encounters all kinds of themed and beautiful armies.

Meanwhile I tend to claw my way to the top tables, then battle for all I'm worth against some of the ugliest armies to blight a gaming board.

It's just not as much fun and after having a wander around the hall at the recent Throne Of Skulls, I can see what kind of tournaments I'd rather be attending.

Ever since the GT we've only played a handful of games. 40K has really been lacking something of late and it's probably due to all the Space Marine armies. Or the simple fact that every half decent Space Wolves army is just Long Fangs backing up metal boxes full of Grey Hunters led by Rune Priests.

That said, we played a fantastic 6,000pts per side Dark Angels VS Space Wolves game with 6 players, which you'll see on the Space Wolves blog very soon!

But I'm definitely done playing the wolves and can't wait to return to the intensely tactical nature of the Tau Empire. The Tau are a truly unique force with a huge range of strategies which allow them to flow around the enemy like water and crash down upon them in a single wave focussed upon where they are weakest. And a brand new Codex in 2012 should make this possible once again.

Where I Am Now
Despite a rather dreadful year, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

I'm currently interviewing for a job only half an hour from home which would be ideal and somehow I've found a wonderful girlfriend who is kind, supportive and doesn't seem to mind my hobby.

And of course, my favourite army in Warhammer 40K is soon to return!

I'm looking forward to getting the next 5 weeks out of the way, seeing friends, enjoying some home cooking, getting back into running and some kind of fitness regime. Plus I might even get around to painting some models, maybe even playing some games.

As for my Warhammer Tau blog, it probably won't be as in depth or as a serious as the Space Wolves blog. Instead I'm happy to mingle with the rest of the casual blogosphere, making the odd painting or conversion guide, tactica or batrep and generally immersing myself in what gives me pleasure in the hobby, but without the need for any kind of regularity or forward planning. This is meant to be fun after all!

Thanks for reading and I appreciate all your support -Adam