Not the post I planned

So, this post was supposed to be about my adventures at Neverbourne 2, the Malifaux Tournament at Beachhead in Bournemouth.  Long story short, I had an amazing time, met some very nice blokes, and came out with a 1-2-0 record, winning nothing.  I was going to talk about that.

Then I woke up this morning, and some fucking whoreson had broken into my car overnight, and stolen the bag that had all of my stuff from the tournament in it.  All of the models for my dreamer crew, all of the cards for them, plus the cards for Collodi and his crew, that being the next crew that I was working on.  3 fate decks.  All of my home made counters and scheme markers (By home made, I mean custom designed, printed out, and then fixed to mdf discs).  That they have stolen my Tablet is almost incidental to that.

So, I have decided that I am going to do something else.  I am going to write the scumbag a letter.  I am posting it here, not because I have any thought that the scumbag who stole my stuff is one of my readers, but because I think that it says something about what our model collections mean to us.

Dear Thief,

When you idly smashed the windows of my car (and I hope that hurts, by the way, and by hurts, I mean has somehow cut you so much you bleed to death or at least have permanent disfigurement), you probably had no idea what you were taking.  In fact, you almost certainly still don't.  You were probably just taking a punt that the contents of the bad that I carelessly dared to leave locked inside, outside my house, were going to make you a few pennies.  Well, the tablet is old, and not worth very much.  The models, worth less to you.  Yet to me, they represented something.  They were valuable.  And you have sought to take that from me.
Those models represented some of the first purchases I made when I had freed myself from a bad situation.  I was able to buy them guilt free.  They were amongst the first models I painted when I got back into Wargaming in a real manner.  They represent a lot of years of collecting, and painting, and work and dedication.  You don't know that.  You just saw them as "there", and you took them.
They represent a decision that I made earlier in the year, to put some much needed effort into playing Malifaux, rather than just hoarding the models.  I've played for years, but these were the first crew where I sat down with the intention of actually getting to play them well.  I concentrated on playing nothing but them.  I concentrated on learning how to win with them.  I devoted time and energy into these models, and, when it came to the Tournament yesterday, I didn't win, or even do well, but that was the culmination of the efforts that I had put in.  I repainted stuff that needed it.  I painted a few extra models.  I tidied up paint jobs.  I worked on them.
There were also the cards for my Collodi crew in there.  He was next, given that he shared a lot of the Dreamer's hiring pool.  He was going to be the next master I learned, and for the last 2 weeks I have been painting models and planning for working on him next.  I don't know what tournament it would have been yet, but he was going to be the master I took, along with the Dreamer.  Now all of his cards, and a lot of his models are gone.  Stolen because you don't understand the seperation of Yours and Not Yours.
It may seem silly, but I was ready to just give the whole lot up.  Sell all of the models, burn the books, get out of the game completely this morning.  Hell, I'd have probably put all the other models and systems in the same boat.  Get shot of the whole lot.  I was that demoralised.  Yet, there has been some light, and some help.
Firstly, there are people.  People empathising with the loss.  People who I know and people I don't, who play this game and who understand the loss that this actually is.  The people who have wished well, and the people who have offered more practical assistance.  The people who have read this far into this post.   Every single one of you is a fucking hero, and a reason why I am going to keep going.
Then, there is my Wife.  She is always wonderful, but today she has gone above and beyond.   She wouldn't let me get rid of the models, she has insisted that I will be replacing them, and she has even offered to go walking round the streets in case they have been dumped locally.  This woman, who doesn't play, and never has, has totally grasped the emotional enormity of this, while going through her own stuff.  I love her, and I always will.  Basically, everyone else has gotten stuffed, because I really do have the best wife ever.

So, I have decided.  For the moment, Neverborn as a faction are on hold.  There is no point in even trying when so many of the core models that I would want to use are missing.  So, in a bid to diversify my local meta a little, I shall now be scouring the big pile of Malifaux models for Ms Criid and friends.  I may have to miss my #Playitpainted target for a few weeks, but I will get there, and Criid will replace Collodi as my next master.

So, in summary, you have stolen my models, and you have stolen, briefly, my plans for the game.  But, you are not stealing my hobby from me.  So, you lose.  And I hope that Lord Chompy Bits somehow magically becomes real and you find out about 6" Teeth and 10" claws.

So, if you have gotten this far, anyone know how to use Sonnia?