Noto's start to war gamming

It was an accident when I first started to play Warhammer 40k
I guess it was a bit of peer pressure as well
A group of friends and I started playing Dungeons and Dragons
We were all videogame nerds and wanted to expand on that
So we started to play Dark Heresy
It was fun for a time
We learned about this game store and decided to drop in and see what books they had
An entire wall devoted to Warhammer
We looked around
But deemed it was too nerdy
Even for us
A couple weeks go by
My buddy Dylan brings over a bag
Inside was a squad of Khorne Berzerkers
We called him a nerd
By he said he was just going to build them as models
Not actually play with them
So we helped him put them together
We were novices
I remember building one with two chain axes
Just because he looked like a bad ass
I was hooked
I liked building models
So here was an opportunity to build
To appose his forces of chaos I wanted to build Space Marines (Because there's nothing more bad ass as a guy in power armour)
I wanted a good sized force but didn't want to spend too much
Then I saw the answer...
Assault on Black Reach
It was perfect
And I had a friend that wanted to play Orks
So we split it
With this set you couldn't really go wrong
Put on the bolter and attach the backpack
Noone with two chain swords
And with the AoBR set came a rule book
So we said "What the hell, we'll try a game, see what happens"
We read the rule book for a while
Stole all the dice from the random boardgames that we found laying about
And sat down at a pool table in the basement and started to play
We were noobs
I put my terminators in cover and gave them three saves at once (armour, invul, and cover) doing all the saves at one time
My Dreadnought was indestructible seems how we didn't know how to to do vehicle damage
We ended the game in a draw
But we had fun
I wanted more
So I went to the store to by another set
I chose a command squad to supplement my captain
I made a big mistake making them
I mixed around the parts
So now my apothecary is split among three people and my champion as well
I even put the plasma gun on upside-down
I've evolved since then
Now I know what goes where, what the rules mean and how to apply them
I'm still learning
All the guys at the War College have been really helpful in making me grow
One day I hope to enter in a tournament and see how the pros play
I can always hope and wish
My tactics haven't really changed
I drop in a dreadnought first turn
I run a whirlwind
I put in a scout sniper squad with Telion and infiltrate them in to cover
I've used this over and over
To date I've only lost against CSM and Nids
I'm learning from my mistakes

Armies

So far I play Ultramarines and Eldar
Nothing really special
In an Apocalypse game (for my Smurfs) I can run around 7000 points
Using all of my captains as chapter masters and all the special Ultramarine characters
For my Eldar I'm lucky if I can manage 2000
Proxying guardians as pathfinders (among a few other things)

The Club

I'm a member of the oh so awesome War College
The benefits are endless
10% off any purchase at the store
And use of the club terrain
It's quite awesome