Clash of Empires | Napoleonic armies in miniatures

I'm a Québécois (french-canadian), born in 1979, in Montreal, a few days after the Habs 22nd Stanley Cup, a week before Michigan State Basketball National Championship, obvious signs that I would become a die-hard fan of both teams.

I've been living in Montreal ever since, and there is not that much to tell about me. I have a Bachelor's degree from the University of Montreal in Translation, Law Specialization, and I am currently working for a Law Firm as a Trademark specialist. This is a new job for me, as before I worked as a Videogame buyer for Microplay (talk about a change!). What can I say, I like to vary my experiences

I just bought a house with the girlfriend a few months ago.We live there with Duke Leto, a big and lovable beige Tabby who turned seven a few months ago. I love cats in general but Leto is the best cat one can hope for; he's a sweet, quiet and calm cat who never laid a paw on anyone (well, except for the unlucky spiders & flies who dare enter his domain).

As for my other hobbies, well I have a few. First & foremost, I am a HUGE American/Canadian Football fan, especially College Football. I am a rabid fan of the Michigan State Spartans, the University of Montreal Carabins, and the Indianapolis Colts. That I learned from my father. While other childrens were told faerie tales by their parents, I had Football & Hockey stories.

I am also a fan of Hockey, and you have to be in Montreal to understand what happens to this town when the Habs are in the Playoffs; it's unreal. They hit a rough patch in the last decade but are now back in force in the Top 5, their rightful place. Oh, and I *hate* the Toronto Maple Leafs with every fiber of my being.

I collect Comic books for as long as I can remember, and I miss the good ol' 80s Comics, my own Golden Age where my two favourite heroes, Starman & Firestorm, each had their own monthly series. Today, I still collect Batman, Detective Comics, Robin, Supergirl, Teen Titans, JSA and I recently discovered the new run on Wonder Woman, which I highly recommend. As you can see, I'm a fan of the DC universe, I was never into Marvel mythology. To each their own I guess.

To name but a select few of my favourite : Unforgiven, The Good the Bad & the Ugly, Favreau's Swingers, Once Upon a Time in the West, Romero's Dawn & Day of the Dead, When Harry met Sally, Aliens, Silence of the Lambs, Kevin Smith "Jersey Saga" (Clerks I&II, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay & Silent Bob Strikes Back), Any Given Sunday, Batman, Batman Begins, and so, so many more. My guilty pleasures are the 80s Slasher movies, especially the Friday the 13th series, which I must have listened to so many times in my youth...what can I say, there is something about a machette wielding, hockey mask wearing maniac killing teenagers that appeals to me! Oh, also a fanatic of anything Zombie-related.

Battlestar Galactica, the new run, is by far my favourite show. Other favourites include Law & Order, OZ, Heroes, Lost, Scrubs, Family Guy, South Park and the hilarious but cancelled (damn you Fox!!!) Arrested Development. Ah yes, and my guilty pleasure; Desperate Housewives.

I strive to listen to many different genre, but again to name a few : Infected Mushroom, Portishead, Eminem, Cypress Hill, Genius, Mobb Deep, Billy Talent, NoFX, Millen Collin, Propagandi, Tchaikovski, Jacques Brel and Leonard Cohen. My guilty pleasure? Kylie Minogue.

Dune, the complete Saga, first and foremost. Also Stoker's Dracula, H.P. Lovecraft's complete work, Shakespeare's Richard III, Gallo's Napoleon, Herodotus' Histories, Moorcock's Elric saga. And the masterpiece of all masterpieces, the one and only, incomparably perfect Victor Hugo's Les Misérables (in french if you can read it).

Wargames : Grande Armée, Huzzah!, Piquet, In the Name of Glory, Warhammer's 2nd edition, Realm of Chaos Slaves to Darkness/The Lost & the Damned (I haven't played Warhammer/Realm of Chaos for some time, but I had too much fun with these not to include them).

I started reading fantasy novels at a very young age, starting with "Livre dont vous êtes le héros", then Bilbo the Hobbit and LOTR to Michael Moorcock's grim Elric saga.

This lead to playing RPG's with my friends, from the classic Dungeons & Dragons to Runequest, Palladium, Rifts, Warhammer rpg, DC Heroes & so many, many more. Countless friday evenings were spent throwing dice around, arguing over whether that orc could *really* see me, and upgrading our precious alter-egos with new spells, weapons & equipment.

Miniatures were soon to follow; at first, I bought a few Ral Partha D&D line to help us visualize the game. I did not even paint them out of fear of ruining them! And then, I went a little further in the store's dark background (the famous Valet d'Coeur in Montreal), where you could see thousands of miniatures on the wall. An incredibly helpful clerk saw that boy's eyes widens with interest, and showed me that I could actually not only paint these little guys, but also play with them! That night, I went home with a pack of Marauder Chaos Warriors (boy were these guys pretty), 1 brush, 4 paint pots & started painting my very first figure. It was an horrible mess of yellow and red, but I liked the experience very much.

I then dwelved deeper into Game Workshop's world, fascinated by the 2 Realm of Chaos books (still today some of the best books GW ever published) and the whole mythology. My brother was hooked as well, and my Chaos Warriors would soon meet for the first time, but certainly not the last, the proud defenders of Karak-Kadrin; the Dwarfs.

And then, at 15 or so, I began to notice gaming's worst ennemies : girls! The next few year were spent like many teenagers; parties, girls & beers! And so the RPG/wargame scene disappeared in the emptiness of the void that is called High School and Junior College (CEGEP in Québec).

Around 19, the girl craze had subside a bit, I now lived with my girlfriend, and I came back to RPG's and the card game Legend of the Five Rings with a few friends. Fridays were again about dice get thrown around, but this time the coca-cola had been replaced by beer! This lead again to GW, and I decided this time around to actually try and finish an army. It took a while but two or three years later my Chaos Army was complete and again they faced the Dwarf menace of my brother's also newly-painted Dwarf army.

Then, while doing a research project for an history class in University, I stumbled unto Foundry website and a new world opened to me : historical gaming. To see models as beautiful as GW, but for Greeks, Romans, Seven Year War, etc. was a eye opener for me who believed that historical rhymed with 15mm and Minifigs! By that time, I had also lost most interest in fantasy, so the move to change to historical seemed logical.

So, being from GW school, I learned the existence of WAB and was quite happy to use the same rules that I already knew very well. Being more mature, I was finally able to paint with a schedule and so a year later I was contemplating a complete Greek Hoplite Army.

And then, while looking at a possible ennemy for my Greeks, I stumbled unto Matt Pavone's Wargamers Tavern and the rest, as they say, is history. I was so awed by the beauty of a Napoleonic army in 25/28mm, that all the other era lost their appeal. Soon after, I started painting my first Napoleonic unit, and I have not painted another era in the last 3-4 years or so, nor do I intend to do so in the foreseeable future.