A tribute to Nick Garden, my friend.

Nick picks up one of many tournament awards

It is with profound sadness that I write this post.

Nick Garden, a friend and former work colleague of mine passed away over the weekend. It was not expected and has come as a terrible shock to the Wellington gaming community and Nick's friends and colleagues. 

Nick was a unique presence, when you first met him he seemed like a bit of a grumpy sod. But you quickly realized that was just his way, softly spoken and a little bit curmudgeonly. But the grumpy exterior hid a guy who was thoughtful, patient, fair and with a wry sense of humour. 

Nick's top hat wearing swamp troll was a local icon. 

He was the kind of guy who would play hard but play fair, if you were learning a game, he would show extreme amounts of patience to walk you through it, and he would always offer sound advice and feedback afterwards. 

If you ever wanted to talk about any aspect of the hobby, Nick had ideas on everything. And he played everything, Nick had armies for dozens of games. 

For some of Nicks models, check out here

He was also a fair umpire and volunteered time to help with events and add to the community. A man who was greatly respected by his peers, for his passion for the hobby and his good nature. 

More important to me was the time we spent outside gaming. I worked with Nick for 18 months, on a programme of work that was at time frustrating and frantic, and the other times dull as dishwater. 

Without Nick and the rest of the "Ministry of Wargaming" crew to talk to at lunch, or chat with over internal messenger I would have been completely miserable there. Knowing that I had a lunch break to sit around with fellow geeks and relax for an hour kept me going, and I don't really know if that crew realized just how important those lunches were to me. 

Earlier this year, Nick devoted a lot of time to the ANZAC miniatures memorial, you can see the full work here. While this is a memorial to our fallen soliders on the cliffs of Gallipoli, from now on i'll have a hard time thinking about it without also thinking about Nick. 

A few words can never tell you the full story of a man, his life and the impact they have had on their friends. Nick was a great guy, and we will miss him, I guess that's all I really needed to say.

Gallipoli Memorial

Nick working on the diorama with Simon (Standing, top left of interior cutout) 

The last time I played Nick at Warmachine

Using cannons, why? because they were cool. 

Nick and I played about a dozen games of warmachine, this was the only time I ever won. 

US Civil War

Flames of War

Infinity