Hello Woehammer readers (Woe-bros?), I’m Xander and I’m excited to be here!

I’m a competitive Age of Sigmar player, a narrative Warcry player and an average-at-best painter. My forces include Idoneth Deepkin, Gloomspite Gitz, Stormcast Eternals and Slaves to Darkness, with many other unfinished armies lurking on plastic sprues in my Hobby Closet of Shame. (On a related note, I’ve asked my day job if they can just send my pay check directly to Games Workshop every two weeks, as it would save everyone a lot of time.)

My goal here on Woehammer is to help new and aspiring players get into the game, and maybe give experienced players a few new ideas as well. The Warhammer hobby is deeply rewarding, but it’s also vast and difficult to wrap your head around. I want to help you cut through the confusion, get your pretty models on the table and start rolling some dice.

Like many Warhammer geeks, I became hooked on the hobby at a young age. I have fond memories of my brothers and I painting Warhammer Fantasy Lizardmen and Dark Elves in our parents’ garage, sweating in the summer heat as we hunched over lead-based pewter models that were, in all likelihood, slowly poisoning us.

When Age of Sigmar launched, I didn’t immediately jump on board. But I was intrigued. Blowing up the Old World? Golden-armored Stormcast fighting semi-naked dwarves inside volcanoes? Clearly something awesome was happening. But it wasn’t until the Idoneth Deepkin that I, ahem, took the plunge.

Once I saw those beautiful sea-aelves, I was hooked (sorry, I swear that’s the last fish pun). Since then it’s been a wild ride through Age of Sigmar, Warcry and even the Soulbound roleplaying game. With the launch of AoS third edition, I made a commitment to really learn the game and get into the competitive scene.

My first one-day event was last month. My first grand tournament is this weekend. And I’m taking Idoneth Deepkin.

I can’t wait to tell you all about it. In the meantime, check out this gallery of my Warhammer escapades.