The Abyss Beckons... Let the Hooting Begin

Welcome to our new blog 'Hooting into the Abyss'.  We are a loose collective of gamers from across the tabletop universe and beyond, interested in a wide variety of games and hopefully with something of interest for everyone.

We do not have an overarching philosophy, or any grand ideals, but we generally eschew the power gaming approach (with some exceptions) and are interested more in enjoying a fun hobby with mates. As much beer and pretzels (or a suitable British alternative- beer and scratchings?) as anything else.

In terms of games, you cannot go far without the shadow of the Evil Empire (TM) falling over you. As we are of a similar generation we all largely grew up with Games Workshop and their systems as our tabletop introduction. These are games many of us still play and enjoy, pumping money into that cash cow with willful abandon. This blog will not focus solely on GW systems and products though (although these will feature) but will run the gamut of anything that catches our collective eye.

One last thing. This is the internet. Although we are hoping to have reasoned debate this is mostly a place of fun and, above all, personal opinion. We are talking about games after all and games are meant to be fun. If you find yourself getting worked up by something you read just think of the image that underpins this whole enterprise. It is what we all are, nothing more or less:

Human apes, hooting into the abyss. 

The Human Apes are:

James "EnglishRed" Beattie

Painter and collector, erratic player, or more accurately- Awful dice cursed boob. Wins all the games

Ray "R042" Webster

Author, dedicated war, board and role playing gamer, inhumanly fast model painter.

Ben "Simian" Archer
Painter, collector, enthusiast. Rejoined the hobby after 18 year out and shows no signs of quitting. Gradually branching out into non-GW gaming.

Christopher "Cobra" O'Brien
Cobra is in his mid thirties, has a relatively boring job and spends lots of time in his head with his imagination.  He is an avid Wargamer and RPGer for over twenty years, having been pulled in by Heroquest and Fighting Fantasy novels/D&D Basic Compendium.  He has a habit of needing everything to fit a theme or be there for good reasons.

Irregular Joe Waits
Perky goth. Depressive raver. Cognitively dissonant oxymoron. He's more machine than man now.

Anthony "Pic" Piccaro
"I know nothing about games, but can have an ill informed opinion about anything." Recently back into the world of 40k after a long break since 2ed, to find his beloved Eldar in the midst of a long-awaited update.

Aidan "CunningStunt" Kirk
PC Gamer, boardgame enthusiast, Malifaux Henchman, inconsistent pedant.

Blair "Majin" Nolan
The Scotsman, loves Irn Bru, Space Marines, the 40k universe and long walks to the chip shop. Not necessarily in that order.

Nick "thebuat" Rowe

Attention span of a sparrow, collects RPG's, board games and wargame rules despite having nobody to play with. King In The North.

Barry "McBegbie" Deans.
The n00b.  Currently in the throes of a very geek orientated mid life crisis (much to the shame of the wife). The older he gets the more convincing his Roy Kinnear impression is.

Charlie "El Queso Diablo" Etheridge-Nunn.
Writer, reviewer, roleplayer and non-painter of miniatures. Avatar of Chaos.

Rob "RobL" Lindsay

After a lengthy haitus he returned to the sordid world of miniature wargaming around 2008. Like many others he started with Warhammer 40000 and in recent years moved on to Warmachine, Flames of War and Malifaux. He'll be contributing articles on painting, modelling and various articles on the above games.