Is this heaven? It's Iowa.

I'm back in the greatest state in the Union!  I could go on and on about the great things about coming home to Iowa after three years working for Games Workshop; family, friends, Iowa State sports, stress free job...but this is a blog about wargaming, so I'll look at it from the hobby perspective. 

Iowa is where hobby store's go to die.  In my lifetime, I have seen a dozen or more hobby stores come and go here in Iowa.  This is a harsh contrast to what I experienced out in Rockford.  I had about 20 stores within a couple hours that regularly held gaming events.  The problem then was that I was always at work at my shop and could rarely get away.  Now I've got nights and weekends off but have limited options for finding a decent game. 

There are two stores within driving distance of my current location, both called Mayhem Collectibles.  The stores are pretty awesome but the Warhammer/40k scene leaves something to be desired.  I've heard that the competitive players are all lusting over Warmachine/Hordes.  Its bad enough that you'll even see some Retribution of Scyrah models listed over in my painting reel as I momentarily lost my senses and bought/played Warmachine.  It was a dark few weeks, I assure you. 

Luckily, I have since regained my sanity and begun working on my Space Wolves again.  I really need to thank my brother for inspiring me with his Tyranids.  He was all about getting back into 40k now that I live in the area and his excitement was contagious.  I really need to get involved with the locals because my own gaming setup here is a significant step back from what I had back in Rockford.  I went from having a fully stocked man cave to having to shove what doesn't fit on my desk and bookshelf into storage (gasp!). 

I'll admit that my motivation is flagging.  Fortunately, I have a potential tournament coming up November 4th-6th in Rockford.  It's called the Gentlemen's Grand Tournament at Rock-Con.  It's a two-day 1850pt tournament.  I considered taking my Imperial Fists in a new Shrike-themed format, but I think that I would have to compromise too much competitively, monetarily and painting-ily.  So I'm going to modify my puppies from the 2000pt army that I took to the Gateway GT last June.  I'll post the list tomorrow maybe.  Time for bed, got to get up early for work (another side effect of Iowa).

-Noah