Rob's Wargaming background.

I've hinted at my love for tabletop games, but have yet to really write anything about them. I figure it is about time I get started.

My wargaming experience started in the early 80's at Larsen's hobby store in Waterville, Maine. I was a young kid and Mom brought me into the store to get some minis to use while playing D&D. There was a group of guys playing some kind of game on a huge table covered with minis. Believe it was house rule system called Hack and Slash, about as simple a game as there was. Rather than leaving the store with just a couple of minis, I left with about 20 dwarves and a war elephant.

My wargaming is probably 25% Historical, 25% Fantasy and 50% Sci-Fi. My first “wargame” that I bought was 6th Fleet in the late 80’s, think I bought it shortly after I saw Top Gun. It was a "Modern" navy game set in the Mediterranean about 1985 and played using counters. I went through the AD&D phase but got off before 2nd edition, the “Magic” phase, the Board game phase, The anything but Magic Card game phase, etc…

The conventions up at Hinkley were the first that I remember going to. There I met the group a guys, and a couple of life long friends Joel and Josh. I also have been to a few conventions at USM and UMF, playing Wes Decamos’ WWII naval ship game whenever possible. Really fun game using Model WWII ships on a gym floor, and you have to guess ranges to shoot the other ships. I’ve made the trip to Historicon in Pennsylvania a couple of times, with Joel and Josh, and had a really great time.
Currently, I’m a game rep for Catalyst Game Labs. What does that mean? I run official Battletech Events for them. Probably the work I was most proud of was the once a month Carver V Battletech Campaign I had going down at the Greenhouse. But that is a story for another day.

Real life has curtailed my gaming as of late and I am lucky to get one game in every couple of months. So most of my time is spent surfing forums of various games, watching for after action reports. I am working on another Battletech Campaign, Painting my Warhammer 40K Eldar and looking at those old Warhammer Quest boxes that are collecting dust in the bullpen.