Tom McClure - Da' Guest!

[Tom McClure]

Hello warhammer friends! I'm Tom McClure from Washington, Illinois.

Listen to episode 1 for a little info on me. I'll post more this weekend.

I post the work I get done on my warhammer armies at tommcclure.blogspot.com.

[Tom McClure]

Alright, let's see... I am 36, a mechanical engineer, have 4 boys (8,6,3,and 9 mos.), am happily married, and I think about warhammer every other minute.

About the time we were going to have our first son, my wife let me know I need to choose between online games and warhammer. She had no idea how letting me focus all my energy on warhammer would result, and she regrets giving me a choice that day! I chose warhammer because it fulfilled all my hobby needs. I have always been a collector, and I have now collected over 42 warhammer armies. I don't have Brettonians, Tomb Kings, or High Elves. Dwarfs are my favorite. Also, I enjoy the painting and modelling aspect of the hobby. I find that I do not think about worldly concerns and stresses when I am painting the pupils of my longbeard rangers, and that is a great escape. I absolutely love road trips with friends to tournaments. Been on the tourney scene since 2003, and I still try to hit at least three a year. I love building endless amounts of army lists. These are usually an excuse to collect more miniatures for that day in the distant future when I (or hopefully one of my sons) gets to finally work on that army. Plus, I love the one on one strategy game where every battle is a story in itself. It is amazing to me how we tend to be able to remember those key moments in games and all the surrounding events and what could or should have happened, even years later.

I started playing and collecting back in 3rd edition. I still have a big affinity for figs of that era. I took a break during 4th and 5th edition, and rejoined with 6th edition in 2002. I played Khorne Daemons back before Storms of Chaos, and I even won the 2004 Adepticon tournament in Chicago with them. Next I built a savage orc army because I was inspired by a particular unit one guy brought to a Wisconsin tournament that had orange warpaint. I brought them back out this year and won the Midwest Rampage tournament in Illinois. Third, I painted up a Dwarf ranger expedition force. I went big on theme, got kicked around a lot, but got 2nd place sports at the Hillbilly in Arkansas in 2005. I brought them back out this year, runed up, to the Core Competency tournament at the Chicago Battle Bunker and got 1st place sports and 2nd overall. After dwarfs, I fielded dark elves and then empire. However, they had been painted by other people. I found it very hard to be successful with T3, but got best general with the Empire at a small tourney in Springfield, Illinois.

Warhammer is my hobby for life. I have made absolutely terrific friends through the hobby, and it heals my brain to escape to the warhammer world. So I do as often as possible!

[Chris M.]

Ok man... we need to get together and have a beer or two over a game! PM me and let me know if you have a sunday free. I'll give you directions to my living room and to the beer fridge in the garage!