WARHAMMER 40000!!!!!

     I want to start by saying that I play pool in the TV room on most nights. Ashley and I play best 2-out-of-3 games. She has beaten me pretty much every night. It's rough. I might win one of the games but that's it. After playing so much pool, I'm proud to say that I have gotten much better. My shots are no longer... well less often, based completely on luck, and as a result, my winning nights have increased. By the time I get back from this trip I will gladly challenge all y'all in a game of pool.
     I've walked around town a bit more and am starting to know where everything is. I've looked in a ton of stores and know where to get most of the things I might look for. I've gone to the beach a bunch of times, and know that I like City Beach the most. All I do is body surf, and it is so much fun. I would use a board, but I don't have one. I get sunburned most days so sunscreen and lotion are a must. OOOOHHHHH YA! When I was walking around the mall one day I went down a weird little branch of stores. It was kinda empty, but I found this strange little gaming shop. There was Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000, and Lord of the Rings... I had no idea what any of them were, but figured I'd take a look. The man who owned the store was pretty cool. He started to explain everything to me and show me how the game works. We even played a game against each other. I won. Duh. The three games were all similar in concept, they just had different side stories and themes. The game was a little like risk, but took a lot more imagination. There were different races of people or monsters, and each race had different characters. The different characters had different abilities, strengths, armor, weapons, vehicles, and buildings. Each character was a small model. The gamer could build and customize each piece individually. Even the painting of each one was done by hand. This made the game into an intricate hobby. It also made me think, "Wow, apart from being kinda nerdy, this game and it's players are pretty impressive!"  I couldn't believe the detail in each character. They even had painted and decorated landscapes for them to play on. But I digress. During game play the characters were usually in units and had to move together as one. The player rolls dice to see how far they can move and then uses a measuring tape to go that distance. Once contact has been made with an enemy unit, they can attack. Dice are rolled to see how many hits are made, then again to see how many are landed. The defending player rolls to see how many hits are blocked or avoided. The shop owner was really cool and described what happened with each hit. It was almost as if he what was watching everything happen and then telling it to me. He knew each character and could tell you how they were going to react. When certain units were attacked both players would roll to see if the losing soldiers would flee. Some units had shooting weapons and could attack from distances. There were different cone shaped rulers to see where the shot would go and land. Everything was decided with dice. There was one turn where I rolled 17 dice at once. The game was actually pretty entertaining, and once I understood what was going on, I enjoyed playing. The saving point for me was that each set cost at least $30... Way too much money for a hobby that would take way too much time.