So why 'Brithammer'?

     Is this some reference to a neo Nazi league devoted to every ones favorite non powered tool, well no. It's more a reference to what Warhammer/40k have evolved into over it's existence, with the introduction of tournaments which leads to competitive play, lets face it, were not the most competitive nation in the world, we fleet between any events a Brit might win faster then it takes to boil a kettle, and in our infinite wisdom we came up with the term hobby, something we can enjoy that doesn't require us to win. Now don't get me wrong being competitive isn't a bad thing, I'm sure we've all had a blast at a magic tournament, or attempted to grind our way to high warlord, but in these cases the formats have very definite rules, they are structured in such a way that you are supposed to to get as much as you can out of them through theory crafting, meta gaming etc. But Warhammer/40k is a more gentle beast, it relies on social interaction, lets face it most of the people you will be facing in a game will be your friends. Game I think is the key word here, it is a game of course in all it's forms, but more then this it's a hobby, crushing the heads of your opponents is only a small part of the whole experience,
painting/converting/themes/background stories/memorable moments and so on, all these things make up to the hobby but they don't come in boxes, you can't find them cheap on eBay they come from interacting with other people, sharing war stories over a tea and a bourbon, how often do you have a chat after with someone you have lolfacerolled in warsong gulch, or killed with a raging goblin/hatred combo on turn two? Sure you win the game but was it a challenge? Did you enjoy it? Did your opponent enjoy it for that matter?

          If we crush all those who oppose us, were soon going to run out of people to play, nobody likes to lose all the time, I'm not saying you should throw a game or two just to keep your opponents interests alive, but perhaps destroying them with the uber list from hell every game isn't the best way either, variety is key in a game like warhammer/40k you have a whole universe of ideas to play with, plus anything you can think up on top of that, as someone said recently and I quote 'It's not chess, it's Warhammer'.

- Ollie