Chris Bowler

by Chris Bowler

(Stockport, UK)

Chris Bowler

I’m a gamer… I’m not ashamed of that. I’ve played games all my life. My earliest gaming memories are of games like Ghost Castle, Mouse Trap and Screwball Scramble. In my early teens I remember big box games based on Tv Shows, like The Crystal Maze and Gladiators.

By the time I was sweet sixteen I was heavily into wargaming and roleplaying. Obviously I played Warhammer, from 5th edition through to 7th, I also concocted my own version of Mordheim from what I read in White Dwarf (interestingly my game was eerily similar to what is now Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd Edition).

Talking of Roleplay, during the early years I played a hybrid 1st/2nd edition AD&D game, which lasted for over 5 years, although the players came and went. I finally retired my rather vast collection of 2nd ed books in favour of the simpler d20 system, right after 4th edition was released!

As I hit university and the roleplaying group was split across the country I took to playing cards, Wizards of the Coast’s Star Wars Trading Cards to be precise. The game was an absolute blast and actually was the long and slippery road that led me into eurogaming, believe it or not!

I discovered Settlers of Catan after visiting a friend in Oxford. The two of us loved the game so much that we each bought a copy. Now of course, I own all the expansions too. Settlers led to Board Game Geek and that of course led to many, many, many other games.

My collection, not including out of print games, roleplaying or collectable games is now in excess of 50 games and growing. I am an eclectic gamer and I’ll play almost anything. I have dozens of Eurogames and a host of Ameritrash games. I have dungeon crawls and farming games. Co-ops and all-for-one Munchkin like games.

My current favourite game is Warhammer: Invasion, a war game in card format that includes a massive amount of strategy as well as hand and resource management.

But Games are not the be all and end all of life. After all, I’m a 20 something gamer living and working in the heart of Manchester, one of the most up and coming cities
in the UK. As well as writing several blogs, working on commission as a miniature painter, and freelance as a Theatre Technician, I am a writer, working on a series of fantasy novels I hope to one day retire on.

So that’s about it, I look forward to many more years of gaming and, of course, pontificating on them!