Interview with David Bowman

I got the chance at the Lone Wolf to sit down with David Bowman, the tall man of Texas Warhammer. If you don't know who he is, you need to meet him. I consider him a friend and a huge asset to the Warhammer community. And as far as I know, the only Warhammer player who has been honored with having his head stuck on a flag pole.

So without further ado:

BoneYard: So just to start, how old are you?
David Bowman: Hahaha, early thirthies.

BY: How many armies do you own?
DB: GT ready armies?
BY: Yes.
DB: 4, I have my Bretonians, Skaven, Chaos Dwarfs and Vampire Counts. Actually I have 2 vampire armies so 5 total.

BY: Which army do you prefer to play?
DB: Right now, my Skaven. They are a lot of fun.

BY: What army are you working on for your next project?
DB: Actually, I had an idea for a scratch built army. But while I'm still in school, I'll just work on enhanceing my Skaven and then redo my Bretonians.

BY: How many GT top prizes have you won?
DB: I have won 5 Best Overall, 3 Best General, haha, I'm always winning overall. One Best Sportsman, won at a GW GT that I played 6 total strangers, not one where I played my friends. And one Best Painted in 2004 with my Chaos Dwarfs.

BY: What are you impression of the 7th edition rules?
DB: I like most of them. The only one I don't like is the double 1's, where you don't break on a double 1. I don't understand why a golin unit that loses by 28, is the same as a Dwarf unit that loses by 7.
I do like the pursue into a new unit and get to do 2 combats in 1 turn. Doing the combats in order. That is going to seperate out the tacticians from everyone else.

BY: What does it take to win a Grand Tournament, ecspecially the Lone Wolf?
DB: Painting, well besides the obvious playing. Its better to be balanced and above average in everything, than it is to be excellent in 1 thing.
But the one that is above the rest, other than winning, you have to do that, 2nd is painting. Sportsmanship is nice, you know. But if you go to a GT and know everyone, its different than going to a GT and playing 6 strangers.
In regards to the Lone Wolf, generally what happens is someone will go undefeated, but they won't get all the objectives. And those objectives generally determine who will win overall and best general. That and painting.
The one thing about winning best overall is the stars have to align.
I remember one year at the Hillbilly, I won because Mark Havener, on the table next to me did not rally his Slaan Mage Priest in the bottom of turn 6, 3d6 for Leadership 9. That pushed me over.

BY: When you go to a GT what record do you set as a goal?
DB: I always shoot for at least 4 wins and a draw.

BY: What part of the Warhammer hobby is most important to you?
DB: Playing the game. Interacting with other people and playing warhammer.
How many times have you been to a tournament and someone says, "so how many layers are on your army?" Or "why did you choose to paint in red and green as opposed to red and blue?"
No, they ask why you take this unit as compared to that unit in a tactical sense. That's Warhammer. Everything else is secondary to that.

BY: Do you feel you were always as good a painter as you are now?
DB: Actually I don't think I'm as good a painter as I use to be. In the past I was more for presentation, with a little splash, like the red for my Chaos Dwarfs. Using ideas and communication as a theme to overcome not excellent painting.

BY: What painting technique do you like the best?
DB: Going forward, I'm going to do it the old fashion way. Which is base color, highlight and shade. The hard way, one model at a time.

BY: Finally, what was you favorite Warhammer battle of all time that you can remember?
DB: One of the most tactically challenging games was against Alcantera and his Skaven in one GT. Seems playing with or against Skaven is always so much more challenging because there are so many units and so much going on.
In one Rogue Trader game verse Tom Mancino and his Skaven. I was playing my Vampire Counts. There was so much going on the table, but I saw an opening right up the center. Everything was setup, but there was this little hole, and I saw it, and I went for it. I broke his general, but then let up. He rallied and killed my vampire with his weeping blade.
Moral, never let your opponents back in the game. Go for the kill.

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I hope you guys enjoyed it, David was very gracious to do the interview, so thanks David. I tried not to make you sound like an idiot.

If you guys enjoyed this, let me know and I can try and do some more soon.