# Member of the Month - Aug 2014



## scscofield (May 23, 2011)

Member of the Month - July 2014.







​
For this month the Staff has chosen Mossy Toes. This is part due to his knowledgeable posts, painting, and general expertise in regards to Chaos. He is a positive and productive member of the forums. Congratulations Mossy Toes.

Real name:
Tomas Herbertson

Heresy Online user name:
Mossy Toes

Main Army:
Chaos Space Marines

Location:
US. California, if you want to be precise. NorCal, if you want to be more precise. Bay Area, if you want to get to privacy-invasion levels of precision.

Personal Website:
@mossy_toes on Twitter is the closest thing I have to a "personal website," honestly.

What motivates you when choosing to buy or build an army?
Broad question. Background takes precedence when picking an army, though minis and rules are also pretty high factors in what I actually buy in that army. I don't go through armies as fast as quite a few other players I know, so I want to make sure I can really get to grips with the army over its lifespan and I can keep getting use out of the minis I have--on the gaming table and painting table both.

What motivates you to keep playing or participating in the hobby?
At this point, the two largest driving factors to keep painting my armies are Heresy and a couple Facebook groups I've joined. To keep playing is more the social element of the FLGSes I stop through, plus figuring out cool rules synergies and playing with a broad variety of list ideas, to see how well the different things I try work out--testing theoryhammer versus execution, basically, and seeing how all sorts of different enemy armies and lists run up against mine.

Do you play for fun or victory?
Fun, every time. Victory is a factor in having fun, certainly, but I would much rather have a close loss that came down to the last turn than a roflstomp in which I utterly destroy the enemy player.

What is your all time favourite Game System?
Look at you, asking this question on a 40k forum...

What are your thoughts on the Grand Tournament scene? IS it good for the hobby?
WAAC players can turn some people off the hobby, definitely, but I do think that tournaments make a sort of apex to the "achievement" side of the hobby. Casual players can have their fun in clubs, and WAAC players can push for the most broken combos that they can.

What are your plans for the future?
School. Keep painting minis. Decapitate minions of the Carrion Throne for my master, the Blood God. You know: the usual.

What gaming clubs do you belong to or have you been a member of?
A couple local FLGSes, mostly. One in Ukiah, CA, when I lived there for a few years (I still try to swing through occasionally), then Games of Berkeley in (you guessed it) Berkeley. I've been trying to visit Gamescape North in San Rafael more often, but have only been in there a couple of times.

Online, a hobby "club" I participate in is the _Games and Theory_ group on facebook--wonderful bunch of folks very passionate about the 40k hobby.

Which Race is your toughest opponent to face on the game table? 

Without a doubt, Eldar. My roommate of the past year had them. The fastest _and_ shootiest army in the game, basically, at this point, whose units are far cheaper points-wise than CSM. His units dancing around my CSM for all of 6e were a painful lesson in just how dead melee is, now-adays. Taught me tighter list-building to have anything remotely like a chance, at least!

What do you do when you're not online?
Classes, paint minis, read. Play computer games. Less fiction writing than I'd like to do, ideally.

Favourite sports team?
SF Giants. Just about the only sports team I could care about in the slightest, to be honest--I'm not too big on sportsball, honestly.

What armies do you play?
CSM (10k), Daemons (6k), and Astra Militarum (2.5k).

Which system do you prefer and why?
40k over Fantasy, obviously, though I do have a soft spot for some Skaven...


How long have you been playing GW games?
More than a decade now, if the years of my youth piddling around digging into White Dwarfs and BL novels, but not playing or owning more than a few units, count. About 5 years of really actively buying/painting/playing.

What's your favourite movie, book and song? 
- Movie: Probably _The Usual Suspects_.

- Book: _Crack'd Pot Trail_, by Steve Erikson. Think _The Canterbury Tales_ meets the Donner Party--a group of poets whose supplies have run out in the desert have to sing not to be supper every night, and the one who tells the worst story gets eaten by the rest. Weirder and less accessible than it sounds: if you want to try some Erikson, I advise starting with _Gardens of the Moon_, the first in his Malazan Book of the Fallen series. That in itself is enough of a dumping into the deep end.

(runner-up: _The Left Hand of Darkness_, by Ursula K. Le Guin)

- Song: After some agonizing over the 5-starred songs in my iTunes, I guess it has to be "Whistlin' Past the Graveyard," by Tom Waits. There's something about his casual larger-than-life persona, in that song, that just makes me swagger whenever it starts playing.

Occupation?
Student--homing in on my senior year of college, now.

Any pictures you'd like to share? (40k, family, work etc)
If I had a better internet connection out here in the boondocks for my summer job, I'd dig up a few. As is, you'd be better served by going to my plog (the first few pages are somewhat... embarrassing to me, by now, but I'mm rather happier with the more recent stuff). I've recently done some refurbishing on my Army Showcase collection, but it's still nowhere as tidy or complete as I'd like it to be.

What is your greatest achievement that you're proud of?
Probably writing a 75k word 40k fanfic novel called Plaything. It starts with Imperial Guard fighting heretics in a ruined city, from the perspective of one Commissar Alexos, and it's about him learning to love again.

...no, really. His ex-fiancee is an uncontrollable Primaris Psyker who needs to be kept shackled all the time, until the two of them are dragged into the warp to hunt a Tzeentchi psyker together, and that's when things start to get really trippy.

How did you come up with your username?
My name, with some transliteration:

Tomas ->Toe Moss ->Mossy Toes

How did you find out about Heresy? What made you stay?
Hmm. I honestly forget how I stumbled across here first--I think it was quite a few years back when the Black Library official forums went down, and I was flailing around for a new fanfic community for a while. I stayed huddled in the "Original Works" forum alone for quite a while, but eventually I managed to start up a plog and get gradually more engaged with the rest of you Heretics...

You can take three things with you to a deserted island, name them?
A powerful radio of some sort, then two good books I hadn't read for while I wait for pickup. Glib, yes, I know, but what sort of deep insights do you expect from this sort of question?

Other Usernames we may know you by?
None. I'm basically Mossy Toes, mossy_toes, Toemossy, etc, around the web.

If you could change something about Heresy what would it be?
I would get more people posting tacticas, honestly. They provide a lot of liveliness and debate here on the forum, and also are excellent sources for new members when people Google for info and H-O comes up often...

Favourite mini of any range ever?(pic if possible.)
Tough one. I think I went for the Tomb Kings Necrosphinx last time I was given the MotM award, because I'd managed to scavenge so many awesome conversions out of that one kit (Heldrake tail, Daemon Prince wings+head, Soul Grinder torso, Forgefiend, Burning Chariot), but today? I really don't know. I'm quite enchanted with the new Space Marine Librarian miniature... that might take the cake. For all that I haven't bought it yet.










I'll be honest, that cherub nearly disqualifies it from the slot.

What was the first ever model you bought or were given?
Um, I think it was a Chaos Lord--an old metal blister pack with his foot on a space marine helmet. After that came an Eldar heavy weapons platform, a couple hundred points of Skaven, some Kroot (right around when Tau were released)... etc. I was unfocused until I found my love for the Dark Gods. 
http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/editpost.php?do=editpost&p=1851489


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## Tha Tall One (Aug 16, 2008)

Congratulations! You most certainly deserve it!


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## Haskanael (Jul 5, 2011)

well deserved Mossy, congrats!


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## Nordicus (May 3, 2013)

Woo another point for Team Chaos!

Truly well-deserved Mossy. Your tacticas are part of what drew me here in the first place and you've always helped anyone that asked for it. 

Here's to you :drinks:


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

Congrats Mossy!


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## Moriouce (Oct 20, 2009)

Congrats times two!


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## Words_of_Truth (Sep 20, 2007)

Congrats!


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## neferhet (Oct 24, 2012)

Mamber of the Year!!! :good:


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## iamtheeviltwin (Nov 12, 2012)

Grats Mossy


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## Loki1416 (Apr 20, 2010)

Congrats Mossy!


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## SonofVulkan (Apr 14, 2010)

Congratz Mossy!


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## Svartmetall (Jun 16, 2008)

Congratulations, Mossy!


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## Nacho libre (Feb 23, 2013)

gratz buddy.


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## SwedeMarine (Jun 3, 2013)

Congrats Mossy


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## Tawa (Jan 10, 2010)

Congrats Mossy! Well deserved matey! :drinks:


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## Mossy Toes (Jun 8, 2009)

Aww, shucks. Thanks, all.


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## Old Man78 (Nov 3, 2011)

Huzzah, first round of celebration on you!


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