All About Me

Welcome to my Warhammer Blog.

This page is about how i got into the tournament scene and what i’ve done in the last few years.  The main blog will track what i’m doing from now onwards

My name is Ben Curry.  I’m 26 and have been playing warhammer since the early 90′s, so around 15 years.

I live in Derby and i’m lucky enough to be only 25 mins drive away from Warhammer World where i spend way too much time.

I first got into the hobby by wandering into my local GW Derby store and asking what it was all about.  It was all down hill from there! 

I joined the Derby Wargames Society in 1996/7 when i was 14, back when they still met at the Silk Mill in Derby and had 50+ members turning up every week to play various gaming systems.  Over the next 10 years the club moved venue and dwindled to some weeks having less than 10 people turning up. 

In November 2005 i attended my first major tournament.  I saw an event advertised on the internet, it was the WPS WFB GT in Nottingham, and decided to this tournament lark a go.  Not knowing what to expect or any onther entrant i turned up and hoped for the best.  I had a great weekend and also had my first encounter with the Dragon Slayers, playing Micheal Biggs’ Lizardmen on the sunday.  I got an invite to their gaming night to meet the club.  By January 2006 i was a member of the Dragon Slayers and in June of that year i travelled to my first away event, the Portsmouth Pillage.  After that weekend i was well and truly hooked and went on to do 13 Events that year. 

I won my first tournament in march of that year, albeit a small 30 player event in a GW store.  In the summer i attended the GW doubles GT where i teamed up with my club mate Ben Johnson to take home 1st place. and towards the end of the year i managed to get 3rd place at the first ever 7th edition tournament the Mansfield Maul. At the WPS Club Challenge i was part of the Dragon Slayers team which won the overall club shield,  we also took home the WFB, 40k and EPIC shield’s along with a number of individual prizes. 

2007 continued the same as 2006, i attended 15 events taking home 2nd place at the Sheffield Slaughter, 3rd place at the Doubles GT again with Ben Johnson, we used exactly the same army as the year before.  The highlight of the year for me was coming 9th at the Games Workshop Grand Tournament Heats. The Dragon Slayers won the Club Challenge again taking the Overall and WFB shields.

It was at the start of 2007 when i became Chairman of the Derby Wargames Society.  The club was in a bad way, we were at a poor venue and attandance was at an all time low.  With alot of help from Ben we set about turning the club around, starting with moving the location of the club nights.  The first night at the new place was a worry as even less people turned up,  but by the summer attendance was back up and we were even attracting new members.  We even ran our own event in December, the Destruction Derby, which was hailed as a success by all that attended.

2007 was a good year for me,  i had met alot of new people from all around the country in the last 12 months i was an established member of the Dragon Slayers and my local club DWS were on the up.  It was also when i first heard of the ETC – European Team Championships.  England were yet to send a team so i promptly put my name forwards for the 2008 Team.

Onto this year and in January the ETC team was decided and i made it in along with fellow Slayers, Ben Johnson and Adi Macwalter.  I played alot of warhammer this year,  never more so than at  Games Workshop’s 25 years of warhammer celebrations where i was part of a group of 10 that played warhammer for 25 hours solid!  Starting after work at 5pm on friday evening and finishing on saturday at 6pm,  but thats only half the story,  i was up for work at 6am on Friday and didn’t leave Bugmans Bar until 11pm on saturday night,  the joys of a free bar!!! 

In August we went to Modena, Italy to take part in the ETC.  I had a fantastic time.  We arrived on the Thursday morning before the event and spent 2 days meeting up with various warhammer players from around Europe before we finally got stuck into the event.  We quickly found out that we were not at all prepared for the style of play.  We turned up with our normal tournament armies and went into every game trying to get the win.  We had discussed this beforehand and decided that was how we wanted to play and year 1 was a taster to see what to expect in the future.  I was happy with my results, not losing a game but as a team we were poor and came 13/18.  At no point did we let this get us down and we loved every moment of it.  We were rewarded for our enthusiasm and were voted most sporting team joint with Belgium.  We also took home Best Painted Army for Ben Johnsons Orcs and Goblins.

As soon as we came home there was work to be done for the following year,  first job as to elect a new captain.  I was voted to be the Captain for Team England in 2009 and responsable for choosing the team along with a group of selectors.

I followed up the trip to Italy in August with a weekend in Copenhagen, Denmark to attend the Giant Fanatic event where i came 4th.  Playing in Europe is awesome, i will be back again next year.

It was also around this time that i started working on a Ranking System for the UK.  I looked around at the systems already in use and eventually setteled upon using the Australian system.  I got help with this from fellow Dragon Slayer Chris Legg.

By the end of the year i had attended 13 events aswell as working as a Referee at the GW GT Heats.  Derby wargames society were registered with the GCN and the ranking system was in place.   The final 2 day event of the year was the Teeside Tear-up where i won 1st place Overall and Best General capping off a fantastic year with my first 2 day singles event win.  The following weekend was the Destruction Derby 2 which Ben J and myself organised.  With the final results of the year in, i announced the Rankings and the Masters event that we had been planning.  I had a very good year with only 1 tournamnet top 3 but consistent top 5′s seeing me in 3rd place for the year.

Highlights for 2008 are too many to mention!  The year as a whole was so good its hard to pick them out.  6th place at heat 1,  Travelling to Italy and Denmark, 5th at the club challenge are all pretty high but the best has to be getting chosen at the Captain of Team England.

Going into 2009 i have alot to do but i am really looking forwards to it.