Ben is one of the founding members of the Woehammer crew and also plays the character Grymar on the Curse of Strahd D&D playthrough.

I talked to him about how he got into the hobby and why he loves the Raptors so much.

Ok first question, when did you first get into wargaming?

I first got into wargaming when I was 12/13, so around 1998. It was after visiting the GW store on Oxford Street (London) for a friends birthday.

Did you get your parents to buy your first army while you were there then?

No, my first model was a Leman Russ tank for my birthday that year. After that it was Imperial Guard all the way.

Leman Russ tank! That’s an awesome first model! Do you still have the Guard army?

Unfortunately my older brother like Abaddon decided that Cadia must fall. He burnt all my minis and gaming board.

Wow! You never went back to them after that. Is that when you moved on to Marines? Also I hope your brother made up for that!

I had started to move away from warhammer at that point and wouldn’t return until 2019. He has since made up for destroying my minis by buying me copious amounts of paint so I’d call it even.

Good man! We all have that gap away from the hobby at some point. What brought you back?

My wife started to sell GW products in her shop around 2018. I was helping her with learning about the 40K side of things. After really getting into all the new lore I had missed I decided to start painting up a Deathwatch army so I could play again.

And what made you interested in the raptors?

My Deathwatch army was made entirely of non primaris units. I wanted to keep the feel of the Deathwatch being an elite veteran chapter. While I was building and painting my Deathwatch army I would watch lore videos. That’s where I came across the Raptors, or as they’re also known, the Reasonable Marines.

I began to read more into the Raptors. They’re a successor chapter of the Raven Guard. The Raptors are know for being stealthy, using geurilla warfare and hit and run tactics. They are also prized marksmen. I felt this fit well into Phobos primaris units like infiltrators and Eliminators.

What was the last game you played and against who?

The last game I played was a path to glory game of AoS against fellow Woehammerer Declan Waters. You can read his excellent write up on here.

What’s your most memorable gaming moment?

Haha, that has to be when my Chaos Lord on Karkadrak was down to his last wound and ended up killing my opponents Lord Kroak in one turn.

Was this against Orange Ben?

Yes it was. I should probably stop bringing it up…

No! You need to make the most of these memories.

Makes up for the battering I took from Declan.

The baby faced assassin!

Will be interesting to see what happens if him and orange Ben have a game.

What do you find the hobby gives you?

It’s surprised me how much I get out of the hobby. I really enjoy building and kit bashing models. I’ve found the painting to be massively therapeutic and has kept me reasonably sane through long stints of lockdown. It’s also an amazingly social hobby too. Not just the gaming element, but also chats over zoom while hobbying and meeting up for days out.

So apart from 40k what other games do you play?

During the first lockdown I started to build and paint a Slaves to Darkness army for AoS. Coming out of lockdown AoS has been the predominant game I’ve been playing.
Ive also got into playing Dungeons and Dragons recently.

And hopefully we’ll be adventuring together again in the future! Ok time for a bit of a quiz. Name five GW games that aren’t AoS or 40k.

Necromunda, killteam, warcry, blood bowl, and trolling customers.

Magnus did nothing wrong. Yes or no?

It’s all his fault…

If you were to fall to chaos which power would you devote yourself to?

Blood for the blood god!!! Khorne all the way.

And the last one…. Ultramarines are…..?

Blue

Thanks to Ben for agreeing to be my first ‘subject’ in this series.

You can find Ben on Instagram here. Next week I’ll be talking to our very own Chaos Dave…