In Praise of Patrick  by Kenton Kilgore
My pal Patrick Eibel (at right) turned 40 this last April, and seeing as how he has achieved this milestone birthday, I thought I’d tell you some more about him and post a public “thank you” for all the things he’s done for me and this site over the years.

Patrick the Player
Pat is not one to blow his own horn when it comes to 40K. You will never catch him bragging about how well he plays or paints. But let me assure you that he does both well. As I’ve said before, Pat does an excellent job of improvising battle plans: in fact, I would say that he does better when he “wings it” than when he thinks things out ahead of time. This makes it maddeningly difficult to plan against him: even if you’re familiar with his armies (like I am), he’ll still do something that will have you flailing around like he’s just dumped a large, wet, angry octopus in your lap. 

As for his painting: no, he’s no Golden Demon winner. But he has a very natural style that I have tried to emulate over the years. His figures always look gritty and realistic, never “cartoony,” as mine frequently do. See for yourself:

When Pat does talk about himself as a 40K player, he usually tells people that he is a bad sport and that he needs to improve his demeanor when losing. To a limited extent, he’s right about that—he can get surly when the game is going against him—but he is really no worse than most other people I’ve gamed against. It’s hard to be Mr. Cheerful when your clever plan falls apart in the face of bad dice rolls. He’s certainly a much better loser than I am. 

Patrick the “Assistant Jungle Guide”
Pat does more for this site than most visitors realize. Hunt around in the Events and Batreps section and you’ll see he’s in most of the battle reports, usually giving me and my armies another whipping. He’s also contributed to the Themed Armies section. 

He edits almost all of my rants and fiction pieces, cutting through endless lines of my verbal diarrhea so that I can get the point or the story across to readers. He constructs simple, yet engaging campaigns: Tooth and Claw and From the Jungle to the Gate in the past, and Goth Girls Gone Wild! coming this summer. Pat’s campaigns are a highlight of the Jungle. 

He juggles a number of series where he tries to help visitors get the most out of the hobby. Jungle Juice builds out themed army ideas; Year uv da Ork answers inquiries from greenskin players. Legionis Tacticum discusses tactics for various armies. 

Pat’s masterpiece is A Thousand Points of Light, where he offers starting army lists—complete with point values and prices in American dollars and British pounds—for new players or veteran players looking to change armies. You’ve seen this done on other sites, even in certain publications, but Pat did it first and still does it: with new codices coming out, he’s updating his old articles so that players have the latest information. 

Patrick the Person
Let me tell you a little about Patrick Eibel as a person. Pat and I first met in 1983, back in high school. Somehow or another, he wound up coming to my weekly D&D games, where I quickly learned that he was intelligent, friendly, and had an excellent sense of humor. 

Pat and I have been friends ever since. In college, we briefly roomed together, worked at the campus warehouse together, even did a radio show. He was a groomsman at my wedding and I was honored to be the best man at his. 

Patrick is fun-loving, laid-back, witty, and engaging. He is great at parties and has an encyclopedic knowledge of popular music, TV, and film. It’s not Pat’s style to be a “leader”—he lets other people do the talking and attract the attention to themselves while he backs them up with advice, suggestions, and support. He is loyal to his friends and has no enemies that I know of. 

He doesn’t lie. He doesn’t hold grudges. He is not mean to people. He’s not detail-oriented, so sometimes he makes mistakes or forgets to do stuff. When he does, he always apologizes. When he gets angry (which doesn’t happen easily), he gets over it quickly. 

Pat is uncomplicated and obviously loves life. Sometimes, when he’s having fun, he gets loud and very animated. He’s fond of beer, food, college basketball (“Go Terps!”) and professional football (the Washington Redskins is his favorite team). He likes to travel. He doesn’t have any pets. He’s been married over 10 years and I don’t know if he’ll ever have kids. Seeing as how it’s none of my business, I don’t ask. 

Let me conclude by publicly thanking Pat for:

• All the good times we’ve had together in high school, in college, and in all the years since;
• The great D&D sessions, including the awesome characters you created and the adventures you helped make;
• The 40K battles and everything you do for this site;
• Reading and editing my writing and helping me get better;
• Listening and offering your support and advice whenever I was down or confused; and,
• For taking me in and for putting up with me—you know when I’m talking about. 

Posted: May 2006

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