Cogitator online

Welcome! I’m Warp Lord Vaatu and this is my wargaming page.

I started playing Warhammer in early 2018 with the release of Kill Team 2018 (which was just called Kill Team at that time). Now, previously I had played games like Dungeons and Dragons and participated in a few LARPs, but had never tried any wargaming in any capacity, which now I find strange because it lets me do one of my favorite things in games: theory crafting composition lists.

List building has been a great hobby of mine for a long time and I didn’t even really realize it until I started THIS hobby. Figuring out what pieces are needed to solve a puzzle, or to get enough points in a board game, or putting together groups of characters to overcome a boss, is a core aspect of many RPGs and part of what makes me love games like that too. Even multiplayer games like League of Legends and World of Warcraft, which I’ve played in team lead capacities, have a bit of that aspect when forming teams or groups. Understanding WHY you want or need different units and knowing what you need them to do is great fun for me, and as such so is war gaming.

I had heard about Warhammer for many years but never had the time or resources to really get into it. Then with the release of a smaller game that didn’t require breaking the bank to start and a GREAT deal I found on some used minis, I began slowly growing my collections. This was great because it let me dip my toes into all sorts of builds and try the variety of play styles and models from each of the factions included in Warhammer 40k. Eventually I found a few play styles I enjoyed and armies that did that well. I began to dabble in 40k with my armies but still really limited what models I bought to what was usable in Kill Team.

In 2020 Nurgle stopped by and the pandemic nearly killed off my local skirmish games scene (figuratively of course, we’ve all managed to survive this trip so far). During this time it gave me a lot of time to read and paint, and so I read the rules for 9th edition a lot. I built army lists, a lot. I painted miniatures, a little bit. And once the world started opening up again little by little, I started playing what games the people here wanted to play, and the call of Chaos took me. I mean, the call of loyalty to the Imperium. The Alpha Legion is most certainly loyal, right? And Khorne daemons are totally sanctioned? Right?

These days there is a small Sigmar scene, a few people play Blood Bowl, I still get a few Kill Team games in (the new game actually plays really well, even if the list building aspect has been nearly amputated), but I mostly play Warhammer 40k. As I played more and more 40k I discovered that I really enjoyed the game and, as a bonus, wasn’t half bad at it either. It helps that I have a great local community here that I love to just hang out with on league days. I’m there with solid knowledge of the game and various armies (and a strong google-fu), so I'm often asked about rules interactions or thoughts on army lists.

I’ve tried to make myself available during my stores' league days to just sort of be around, soak up as much as I can about how each player's games are going and be a sort of rubber duck for my community to bounce their war gaming ideas off of. Now, however, my lovely cryptek and I are becoming crusading nomads, pillaging the galaxy as we sail from warfront to warfront, leaving my local community behind.

Which is where this page comes into play. Here I can record my games and what thoughts I have on them. It will act as a sort of journal, chronicling the battles I undertake in our crusade against the various generals out there.

I’ll try to focus on doing written battle reports and finding interesting things about the games and my opponents armies, as my army will probably get somewhat stale quickly as we only have so much space in our flagship.

I’ll also be using this as an opportunity to get more into the more competitive side of Warhammer and the tournament scene, which has interested me for some time, though I've not had an opportunity to participate. So maybe I’ll see some of you out and about!