Talk: Chris Tomlin from The Black Sun

We’re big fans of The Black Sun, the rowdiest of all the WHFB podcasts, but with sound knowledge, who love the fluff and background of the Warhammer world. After all, we were episode sponsors last year, and polluted the usual nu-metal breaks with some kerb-stomping hardcore. So, it was a no brainer when I was thinking of people to talk to about hobby, as Chris always has a lot to say, and is very passionate about WHFB. So have a read, and also check out Chris on Twitter for more of his musings

2014 seemed to see you focus less on tournaments, and more on fluffier things like gaming, and The Slaughtering Grounds campaign. Are you happy with the progress you made in the year?

Whilst in general I do concur, I did have a pretty good, if not slightly quieter, year on the Tournament Scene. Following on from a solid end to 2013 (Table 1 last game at Downfall) I chose to use my High Elves for most of the year and had some decent results, such as:

• Coming 2nd at Corehammer’s inaugural Tournament, Ill Blood (also scroll down for some video footage of a tattooed dude rolling pink dice, and that’s him talking at the end)
• Helping my team to 1st place at the Giant’s Lair 8 Man Team Event (with an Anointed on Flamespyre Phoenix!)
• Getting up to Table 4 penultimate game at SCGT (before crashing a little!)

I also took my pride and joy, the Dark Elves, to three events, with some good success:

• Waaagh! Paca – 2nd Overall, and Best Painted
• Tribute – Best Painted

Back to your question! I have really enjoyed this year in the hobby. The Slaughtering Grounds has been a complete success in my opinion. To have all 6 original participants all still involved, and fully caught up on army progression, after almost a year is fantastic, and I can’t wait for the big finale, which is almost upon us.

There’s definitely been a divide in our group this year. We have the likes of Dom, Diesel & Ricky still enjoying hardcore tournament play. Then there is myself, Scott & Matt etc who seem to have changed direction, and started to play more for “fun”, even resulting in some silly lists being taken to tournaments. 2015 will definitely be a quieter year for events for me, as I continue upon the foundations of hobby gaming laid down this year.

What are your thoughts on the End Times in WHFB, have you found it to be refreshing, or too much of a game-changer?

I’m completely split on this one. I absolutely love the fluff thus far. It’s been totally refreshing to have some genuine advancement on the story. However, with the rumours we’ve seen coming out this week, it almost puts a different spin on the motivation for this fluff direction, and it appears likely that it’s going to get more and more destructive. I’m not against this per se, just cataclysmic storylines, that serve nothing other than creating a clean slate, are maybe not quite so exciting as where it started off. I dunno. I’ll continue to buy all the hardback books, and be excited for the fluff! As for the rules, I’m not really a fan. I’m not overly big on just bashing stuff, so we’ll leave that there!

With 9th edition on the horizon, do you have any specific Warhammer goals in mind for 2015, like another campaign? Or is it a case of wait and see?

Campaign wise, there will be stuff happening, though I can see the next question and I think this will be more relevant there!! As for Warhammer goals for 2015, let’s see:

• The Slaughtering Grounds to end successfully in March with all 6 participants having completed 3,000 point armies.
• Whilst Tournaments are unlikely to play a major part of 2015, I’d still like to put in a good performance at Waaagh! Paca. I’m taking a plain ol’ High Elf list (no Elven Host nonsense here!) so it’s gonna be interesting to see how that goes vs all the End Times nonsense!
• I’d really like to do a bunch of painting. Without the shackles of tournament painting I’m hoping that I can really crack into some of the many unpainted miniatures I have laying around. Painting for the sake of painting. No gaming motivation.
•  #WednesdayNightWarhammer – ’nuff said!

Are you getting down with any other games? I see you’ve been enthusing about Mierce Minatures and their Darklands game a lot lately

Yeah, I’m actually planning a lot of non WHFB gaming this year. I’ve collected miniatures for plenty over the last year or so, and would really like to get into some of them a bit more:

• Darklands – Mierce Miniatures make super cool minis and I’m totally psyched to try out their pseudo dark historic fantasy style skirmish game. We will be doing a blog around this, once The Slaughtering Grounds is over. I have the fantastic Brythoniaid Kindred to work on.
• Warhammer 40,000 – fans of the podcast may remember the Tale of 40k Gamers we put out a couple of years ago. This is being reignited for Season 2 over on www.thelostlighthouse.com – this time is gonna be much better though, as we are actually gonna play some games (in the form of a campaign). You can’t deny GW put out some sweet miniatures for their favourite game, and by all accounts, the current ruleset is legit. I’ll be going Orks; Da Black Sunz led by Warboss Crunk!
• Malifaux – a game I’ve been interested in for a good few years now. I haven’t properly played 2nd edition, so intend to get into that this year. I’d been speed painting some Neverborn to a tabletop standard over 2014 on the side, so will continue with that.
• There’s a number of other games I’ll give some love, these include Hordes and Dead Mans Hand, as well as Kings of War, Wrath of Kings and of course, Guildball. Those last 3 are all projects I backed on Kickstarter

Any cool films, TV series, music or books that blew your mind in 2014?

I go to the Cinema regularly and watch a lot of Netflix, so would say I’m pretty into my films and TV series. Here’s a sentence I thought I’d never say; 2014 was the year of Matthew McConaughey! I was blown away by the series True Detective, and also thought he was brilliant in Dallas Buyers Club. He also had a cameo in another of my favourite films of the year; The Wolf of Wall Street (or: How I Wish My Life Was). I was also super impressed with Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Nightcrawler was another top flick. Music wise, it was a decent year. My highlights were probably;

• Mongol Horde – s/t
• Of Mice & Men – Restoring Force
• Linkin Park – The Hunting Party
• Beartooth – Disgusting
• Hollywood Undead – Notes from the Underground
• Issues – s/t

And no, I’m not a 15 year old girl!

I’m sure I’ve missed out some absolute crackers (across film, TV and music) and as soon as I press send I’ll be gutted I forgot ‘em! Unfortunately, I just don’t get the time to read nowadays.

Thanks so much taking part, and we always like to put a YouTube music video at the end of each article, so take your pick

No worries, it’s been fun, thanks for having me! I feel like a should pick a Mongol Horde track, as that was my fave album last year. However, I’ve just got into a metal band called Betraying The Martyrs, and they have a super sweet cover of “Let It Go”, so I’ll pick that. Is #disneycore now a thing!? Pretty sure all my music picks here lose me any small amount of cred I may have had with your readers!!