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How Did You Get Started In Tabletop Gaming?
May 23, 2014 by brennon
One of the biggest conversation starters with other tabletop gamers is 'How did you get started?' and it's certainly one that's come up a lot of late. So, I was thinking about this today and decided I'd put forward how I got involved with wargaming, role-playing and more and then hopefully you'll share your stories of what and indeed who got you into gaming.
For me the beginning of this journey started in Secondary School where I was stood in a lunch line talking to my friend about Warhammer 40, 000. I think the entire of the lunch hour was spent talking about each of the different races you could play as and in particular the Eldar. I know now being the resident Dwarf this sounds like quite a change but I was obsessed with these Space Elves. I was totally enamored with the thought of playing as the desperate Iyanden or the eerie Ulthwe.
So, that weekend after school was done I headed up to Games Workshop with my parents and got myself a set of Eldar Guardians (they haven't changed in all these years and the box I had was even older than the one above) and one of those starter sets they used to do with the tiiiiiiny pots of paint in them. Needless to say these miniatures were terrible caked on monstrosities but they were my first shot at the hobby. From there I bought myself a Farseer and played little games against my friends. I think in my first game of Warhammer 40,000 my Farseer managed to blow up a Dreadnought with his Singing Spear and I was very happy with the outcome.
The Eldar army slowly grew and I ended up with more badly painted Guardians, Farseers, Swooping Hawks and at one point I had a Falcon Grav Tank which I managed to mess up when I glued the plastic cockpit on and clouded it up. Still my bright red army was fun and it became my first step on the path to tabletop gaming taking over my life. All thanks to a talk in the lunchroom at school.
Next up I branched out into Warhammer Fantasy. This was a period where Games Workshop still did sales and so my first leap into this world of grim dark sword and sorcery was a £10 box of Skaven Clan rats! Yes! Much like with my Eldar these were terribly painted but I'd also learned the power of 'Flesh Wash' at this point - just not worked out you had to water it down. I had some very, very tanned Skaven at this point. I still actually use that same pot to this day.
From there the Warhammer Fantasy expansion continued but instead of Skaven I had opted to head down a more human route. So, on one of my birthdays I got the Empire Army Box and a metal hero on a massive Griffon. This was the coolest thing I'd ever had and I ended up with a reasonable 1000 point army I think. At the moment this army is lying pretty battered and broken somewhere in my cellar but it was brilliant. I played proper battles against proper opponents and even though I always, always lost to my friends Vampire Count army I managed to beat Dogs of War, Dark Elves, Dwarfs, Skaven and even High Elves with these guys!
At that point I think I'd found my niche. I loved Warhammer Fantasy from that point on and to this day I think it's remained my favourite of the Games Workshop games away from Mordheim. Needless to say this love for Warhammer Fantasy also took me down a different route.
The love for Warhammer at school meant that we set up a Warhammer Club (we even got cool membership cards!) with one of the coolest teachers I knew as a kid. Every Thursday evening after school we took over the Graphics Tech room and turned their massive tables into gaming rooms. At one point we even controlled the Art rooms and were able to paint and game in there to our hearts content for two or three hours. This also became the point at which we were starting to find other games like the old Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay game. This was epic. I get to play IN the world I love wargaming in? Count me in!
And so we begun a selection of random campaigns that never went anywhere but allowed us to have a whole lot of fun. I will remember till the day I die the time where an explosion went off in a tavern and an ugly goblin baby shot out of a room window and knocked one of us out. This eventually turned into a massive expansive part of our geeking lives and my first ever real character, Ronan Bane, is still one of my favourites. He was sadly cruelly killed by snakes but he was brilliant!
Role-playing then continued as one of our main pastimes away from wargaming. A friend of ours picked up the Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition rules and we played some awesome campaigns of that over the years before turning to 3.5 and onwards. It was great playing it over a lunchtime with these funny looking dice and dunking a mayor into the well because he refused to pay us for our adventuring. We were decidedly chaotic neutral back then.
Board gaming also became a neat way of playing games when we couldn't get to wargaming and I imagine RISK was, like us, one of the ways you got into it as a major exercise in patience! I think we played this for hours at one point at the top of my friends stairs just getting in the way for no other reason than there was a Warhammer 40,000 game going on on his floor.
From there we almost let it lie for a few years until we picked up Munchkin to fill in time during Dungeons & Dragons downtime and then, weirdly, the Sin City board game after we'd watched the movies much later on. That was quite the intense game back then with a lot of bluffing and 'worker placement' if you can believe it. Sort of a eurogame really! It's only been in recent years that we've really dug into board gaming and it's easy to see why. With wargames being a lot more expensive and time intensive board games provide you with a quick and easy way to get gaming straight out of the box.
I think that pretty much sums up my headstart in tabletop gaming across a range of genres and now I pass the floor over to you guys. How did you get started in tabletop gaming. I imagine most of you will have come through Dungeons & Dragons or Warhammer in its many guises but let's see what it's like past and present!
Comment below folks!
"I'd also learned the power of 'Flesh Wash' at this point - just not worked out you had to water it down..."
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Started with Chaos Daemons in Fantasy in like 2004, got absolutely freaking annihilated by my High Elf friend every game and it was ZERO fun to play. Then went on to Chaos Space Marines in 40k soon after which were a lot of fun. Took a huge break and now I play Salamanders 🙂
I started with Space Hulk and Blood Bowl that a friends older brothers had when I was in high school. Then moved to Necromunda and 40k but left the hobby for many years until Dust and Dread Ball in the last few years but have got really in to board games over the last 3/4 years.
A guy I went to school with, Chris Bingham aka Bing, showed me a bunch of miniatures he had and told me about Warhammer and that got me hooked.
I was shown a metal preslotta based skeleton way back in the early 1980s in school. I popped into the model shop in bangor that weekend and came out with loads of blisters ( skeletons, knights of chaos and some sci fi traveller ) all at 40p per blister
Started making Airfix model plane and tank kits in the 60’s (does that mean I’m too old to be visiting this site?) and then found a Donald Featherstone book in the local library that let me play games with them on the living room floor.
Hi ferb. Pretty much the same for me (and similar time as well! We “oldies” should stick together!). First attempt at a proper war-game was Airfix ACW. Loads of badly / partially painted troops wedged together so tight I doubt they could have moved in real life.
My interest in fantasy novels (LotR etc.) led me to D&D, and from there to other fantasy games. I also tried to write my own rules, and still adapt commercial rules.
My main interest became the Napoleonic period, first army was Hinchcliffe Bavarians (probably in mid 1970s). I dropped out of the hobby for many years, but came back to it in the last 5 years or so. Now play solo with far too many armies to paint, never mind to play with!
“May your dice always roll a six”
My group of mates at school were into D&D in a big way (we still play occassionaly) and this inevitably lead to us out into lots of other games, notably Warhammer Fantasy Battles. We had a brief daliance with WH40k and Epic before I moved onto historical wargaming.
I can pinpoint to either June or July of 1984. I was in class at school and book club catalogue was handed out. I took it home and persuaded my mother to buy me one of the books. It had a lizardmen holding a panther on a lead on the front cover which was just about the coolest thing I’d ever seen. It turned out to be a gamebook, which was new one on me. It was Fighting Fantasy #7 “Island of the Lizard King” by Ian Livingstone, and from that point on I was hooked. I read every gamebook I could get my hands on from the local library. From there I discovered that there were such a thing as roleplaying games. I used the inter-library loan system to get the 1st ed AD&D PHB and DMG, which I kept for quite a bit longer than I should have. By 1986 I was roleplaying regularly and had discovered the local GW store. This was still when you could get all sorts of different games from a GW store, it was a veritable goldmine of minis, boardgames, and rpgs. We played 2nd ed WFB, then 3rd ed and Rogue Trader when they came out the following year. GW minis were expensive for schoolkids even back then so we mainly roleplayed, but by the 1990s and the advent of disposable income it was boardgaming and mini-gaming ahoy!
I started wargaming as a way to explore the “how and why & what ifs” of historical battles. It was almost entirely ACW for decades. Lately I have spread out to other eras. I have come to love most though the painting, terrain, and most of all, the company of other wargamers!
I had played Necromunda and Warhammer Fantasy before, but I was mostly into computer games for a long time. Then I built a board game collection over ten years which got big enough for me to stop. Then I found the Judge Dredd miniatures Kickstarter, lived it / loved it, followed by the Empire of the Dead Kickstarter. Geek and Sundry pointed me at BoW; now I’m into Bolt Action.
Started with Avalon Hill hex-and-counter games in 1983 like Rise and Decline of the Third Reich, PanzerBlitz, Panzer Leader, Midway, and Flat Top. Some friends of ours played D&D with miniatures, and since I’d done some character portraits for them they asked me to paint some miniatures. I was pretty good at it and was soon well-funded with lunch money. I thought my tour in the military would be a break from gaming, but this turned out to be the exact opposite, these guys were some epic gamers with at least three or four games going on any given night around the barracks. Fast-forward twenty more years and I finally started buying Wizards of the Coast 15mm Axis and Allies pre-paints just to put on shelves around my office (the start kit was like $12 for six minis). Before you knew it I had a few sets and someone asked, hey … isn’t there an actual game that goes with this?
In 1978 went to a club in my local village hall first army was a 15mm Samurai then got into board gaming with SPI and Avalon hill and then fantasy via D&D to Warhammer 1st addition now I play all sorts and all scales
Dane
Started with AD&D in the 70s, got into Risk, then AH Rise and Decline of the 3rd Reich, Advanced Squad Leader.
Started with Airfix kits and the like back in 89 or 90 I’d say (I always remember getting in a *lot* of trouble for spilling a pot of yellow enamel paint on our blue hallway carpet -I was bringing my brothers pot back to him after painting part of a Sea King I think and not paying attention!).
That led to finding White Dwarf and GW in the early 90’s -had a fairly large, rubbishy painted Empire army and some Eldar Harlequins (also had a mixed bag of Epic Space Marine bits and bobs). I remember being really excited and happy when the plastic Empire regiments boxed set came out! Also was a big Blood Bowl and Warhammer Quest fan, before losing patience and running out of time for a few years. Just got back into stuff the last year or so, and mostly thanks to Mantic (Dreadball and KOW at the moment, though Deadzone is mighty tempting!). Also itching to start a Bolt Action army too…
I remember playing Dungeons and Dragons Basic back in 1986 when I was four years old, and that game got me started on all sorts of things. From getting into Chainmail (The game that started Dungeons and Dragons), to getting me into reading which shortly got me started on reading comics like the old Warlord comics from DC Comics and the old He-Man and Conan comics from Marvel. Those comics got me into others like Spider-Man who to this day is one of my all time favorite heroes since he has almost always been one of the most “human” out of any superhero, to Guy Gardner from DC who to this day reminds me to not piss off Batman if you have a glass jaw.
If it wasn’t for Dungeons and Dragons and miniature gaming in general I wouldn’t be heading to University to take courses to one day teach English Literature classes as well as teach classes on comics as well.
Not really a “gaming story,” @brennon , but I know what you mean about clouding up the cockpit on your Falcon Grav Tank. 🙂 My first attempt at an F-14 Tomcat (I think I was 14) was marred by a big ole’ superglue thumbprint right on the canopy.
“And why did the pilot crash?” – “Well clearly he couldn’t see out of the cockpit window…”
And when he tried to eject . . . he couldn’t because the canopy was glued shut! 😀
Well I was crossing the road hoping to avoid a localised dinosaur stampede and just managed to dodge into the local library
Well maybe not but it does seem a long time ago now
My brother bought Battles with model soldiers by Donald Featherstone and with my pocket money I used to go to the local newsagent and buy a box of airfix soldiers every week and using the Featherstone rules. Fast forward a few years and got into D&D and Runequest in the late 70’s early 80’s. Met some guys at a local shop ( Modellers Nook Belfast) and went to a local club that had just started called Dragonslayers in Queens University Belfast who played a lot of wargames as well and it snowballed from there
Funny opening. 🙂
My dad got me into building Airfix kits at a young age. I enjoyed the building and painting aspect very much but was never massively interested in the ‘history’ or theatres of combat the planes featured in. Plus, I would often shelve the model for ‘display’ once done or hang it with string from my bedroom ceiling. One time, my dad got me a couple of ‘infantry’ kits to try for a change and I remember enjoying making them the most and then playing with them for ages in the garden. They seemed more real than ‘green’ toy soldiers (probably because I painted them!) and I had so much fun creating scenarios and even giving them names!
At the same time, I was discovering movies and instantly fell in love with Sci-fi, Fantasy and monster movies. I loved stuff like Godzilla, Star Wars, Flash Gordon, Beastmaster, Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone, Krull, Hawk the Slayer, Conan etc. I also started reading the FIGHTING FANTASY adventure books and I recall getting the 1st edition of a magazine or something called ‘PROMETHEUS’ (if memory serves me) which was an attempt to recreate them books in a weekly magazine format. I remember seeing adverts for fantasy miniatures in them and being ABSOLUTELY blown away that you could get these amazing creatures I loved watching in movies but in toy solider form!
I had planned to send off for a catalogue from one of the adverts in the magazine but not longer after I went into Warrington town centre with my mum. There was an independent book store, like a WH Smith but smaller, that I had never been in but wanted to check out. I went in and at the back they had a whole section devoted to miniature gaming! I think I must have been in there for about an half an hour before my mum came and got me and I begged her for an advance on my pocket money to buy a box of these amazing figures.
My first purchase was the RBTO2 ‘Space Ork Raiders’ box set. Two weeks later I bought the first ‘Rogue Trader’ edition of Warhammer 40k and a box of skeletons! (I had recently watched Jason and the Argonauts). I’ve never looked back.
Long days sat at my friends house playing Risk with his dad and a few mates. We mainly played football, a LOT, back in the good old days, so this kinda thing was really new. I grew up in foster homes and a childrens home, so mixing with lots of other kids was kinda awesome for playing games with, especially the chess and pool competitions the staff put on for us, GREAT times. 🙂 my first installment of wargaming was whilst in trade training within the Army where I bought my first issue of WD, which was the one which contained Full Tilt. I still have it today, but sadly packed away in a box with about another 200 or so, haha. Sadly havent purchased it for years now as my 4year subscription ran out and I decided not to renew as it felt like flicking through an Argos catalogue and I was finding less and less interested me over time. I am thinking about getting No Quarter magazine though after I have finished saving for my bike, almost there! And completed my Journeymans league. I think the biggest highlight of my hobby is when Beasts of War did their Infinity week, damn my bank took a severe hit! I used to argue the fact that Kick Starter was a waste of money and not to be trusted. That was until I saw Wild West Exodus and the Warrior Nation hired hands, I was totally smitten with this game, and continue to be just as excited. The phrase fan boy is not even close to how I feel about WWX, I have a very intense NEED for shiney things, which has led to a huge collection, mainly GW, PP, WWX and Infinity, although I am slowly getting rid of my GW stuff as I am far to busy and not really inclined to pick it back up again, sadly over £2000 of stock still in boxes with the wrapper still on… 🙁
Needs a bit of updating, but my gaming history is here http://darkerdaysradio.blogspot.de/p/so-back-around-1994-friend-at-high.html
The short version.
So back around 1994 a friend at high school introduced me to Warhammer 40000 2nd Edition. I was hooked. However my parents were not so keen. GW was expensive even 15 years ago. So I had to make do with just using what my mate had.
So when another friend picked up Epic Space Marine, and then Epic Titan Legions, and well I just bought the Eldar forces off him and I had the start of my own army. This over time allowed for my parents to change their view of the games as they realized the social and educational value of them (we as a group of young boys started to become better artists, writers, readers and I was already a mythology and science geek). So finally I started to get the odd bits for my Eldar bought for me.
Then another game was bought by the 40k player, Necromunda, and I guess that is where my interest in roleplay games begins. Again we just played with what he got in the box but then I finally got a small gang of minatures, the Spyrer hunters. Let us just say and entire summer’s worth of gaming was sucked up by this game, and then some. About a half dozen of us each weekend would play about 4 hours of games. Gangs won booty and lost members and suffered terrible injuries as the campaign progressed, and even stories built up as we began to introduce plots to the games.
Then about another year later I had a part time job and so I was finally able to save up for something I had been wanting for a while, my own Warhammer 40k army. Tyranids. This army would be a long standing feature of my gaming, and they took some getting used to until I finally figured out how to play using this weird force of monsters.
So what next. Well one random weekend when I was about 14 or so was when I got given, GIVEN!!!, out of the blue a black box with a red dragon on it. Classic Dungeons and Dragons 18th Ed.
This box had a few minis, dice and a basic map for the beginners game. Do you know what I did? I didn’t run that game and just went straight for making up my own campaign. Hell I even look back and realize that even then as a group of players (the GW gaming group) we were roleplaying and not just rolling dice. Fortunately about the same time Arcane magazine came out and I grabbed a few copies and learnt a fucking epic ton about being a Games Master. I still have these copies and really think they are the best examples of independent gaming magazines ever, EVER, created. I wish I had a link to something about these magazines. So off the back of reading these my own skills as a GM grew. That same Xmas saw me get Star Wars Second Edition Revised by WEG and well that was the end of me playing DnD as the game just oozed drama, action and information on how to run Star Wars like a movie and not just a game of dice rolls.
Other games picked up/played over this time were Talisman, Space Hulk, Warhammer (I had a chaos army), Gorkamorka, Warmaster, Mordheim, Epic 40000, Battlefleet Gothic, Bloodbowl, Warhammer Quest. Basically the entire GW catalogue. It was also during this time I played a hell of a lot of Magic the Gathering (Rath cycle onwards) but found it was far to much like a arms race as we spent money on getting more and better cards.
But then, with the internet as a new tool for me to explore gaming, I discovered White Wolf and in 1999 got hold of Vampire: the Masquerade 2nd Edition Revised. Now here was a game that obviously has shaped the person I am today. It was to me the pinnacle of roleplaying and also allowed for me indulge that seed of goth in my heart (I was already listening to rock music/alternative music of some form). My Mum looked at the book when I got it and just went ‘That’s pretty’ and left me to it. So began a new 2 years of gaming that revolved around the use of soundtracks, lots of viewing of Buffy, Angel and The Crow, and really what were the most stupid over the top plots ever. But to hell with it. It was horror, and it was fun. It was then during my last year of 6th form that I also got hold of Mage: the Ascension, and blew my mind. We were in a post Fight Club/Matrix era and Mage was everything that a group of now pre-university alternative types needed. Again epic plots were run and so the first ideas behind my Manchester setting were planted.
University meant a complete lack of players for some time for roleplay and so I returned to wargaming and it was during my first year I met my first girlfriend who also got into the hobby of wargaming. Then come the second year of uni I was now working at the Games Workshop store in Altrincham. Along with other staff members at the Manchester store a roleplay gaming group was formed and an epic Mage game was played, the first game I had ever played in and not run! Finally I got to indulge in my love of the Virtual Adepts. This game ran for a long time, and over the course of my time working for GW I played other games, even Lord of the Rings (though I never bought an army for it), and Inquisitor was quite an interesting game as it had a heavy roleplay element but focused on just the action scenes. It even required a GM. It was also during my last two years working for GW that I discovered the games War Machine and Confrontation. Two games with, I have to say, some of the best minatures on the market at that time.
Then came the big split from my girlfriend. She too was working for GW by now and lets just say life got too complicated. Cutting all ties I found some gaming solace in something I had left on the shelf for a while since I got to uni. Vampire: the Requiem, and started to run a campaign for it which I had been working on for some time. I had also picked up over my time at uni Werewolf: the Forsaken, Mage: the Ascension and Exalted. I ran a little of each, but Vampire was the only chronicle to reach a full gone conclusion, and has been one of the most satisfying games to ever run (the exception being the rerun of the same chronicle currently). I also had the joy of running a bit of Etherscope, and even had one of the makers play in the game and got very good feedback on the game (and this has led to a future chance at getting something published).
During my second year of phd I joined a new roleplay group, a group very anti-New World of Darkness, and was once more able to play again rather than just run games. So I had the joy of playing an amazing Vampire: the Dark Ages game, a Technocracy game for Mage: the Ascension, a bit of Orpheus, a little of Nephilim, a bit of Freak Legion for Werewolf: the Apocalypse, and also I got to run the first sci fi game that the group or myself had run for a while, Fading Suns. This chronicle was once more amazing to run and I was ever improving on running episodic epic chronicles.
Since then, during my first postdoc position I have rerun my Vampire the Requiem game, run some Exalted 2nd ed, played various other rpgs, and since moving more recently, I have run more Requiem, and one shots of other rpgs, and got back into Warmachine, and also I have been collecting stuff for the Rackham game Hybrid.
On top of that all of this has translated into side work, with me as one of the host of Darker Days Radio (we review World of Darkness rpgs), and a freelance writing job with FASA working on Fading Suns.
Amen re: Mage the Ascension. Amen. 🙂
It was very good, still is. I more into NWoD these days, simply because as I have grown up, I feel the themes and mood of Ascension are less relevant to me. Also Mage the Awakening has a far better game system, and the upcoming Fallen World Chronicle book will give the game a great new edition.
This weekend on Darker Days we will be reviewing Demon the Descent, which is such a different game to Demon the Fallen.
Twas the year 19XX, and I was very young and playing with Britains and Airfix toy soldiers. Seat of the pants stuff, no rules but lots of sound effects and cotton wool explosions. I built many plastic models in 1:32, 1:35, 1:72 and 1:600 scales. Then I discovered Dungeons & Dragons and the joy of dice. Followed by the original Warhammer and many other things (including women but not in that order).
I grew up playing with the old Airfix 1/72 plastic soldiers back in the 60’s,but it wasn’t until 1972 that I started wargaming. I too began with Donald Featherstone’s rules,( the green and black covered book),then his 1/300 WW II micro-armour rules,(Tank Battles in Miniature),I think it was called,before moving on to Napoleonics and then Ancients(WRG 5th edition-6th edition). I then transferred to Naval WW II,using the General Quarters ruleset,before moving onto 1st edition Warhammer 40K.
1991 with Heroquest, then Advanced Heroquest into Warhammer, Spacehulk and Bloodbowl. Always more of a painter/modeler apart from bloodbowl… left the hobby for years… got a job in a GW store and picked it up again for a bit… left it again… and now epic games of modular heroquest, back on Bloodbowl, loving Deadzone, quick games of Talisman and many many other assorted games.
I started with AD&D in the mid 70’s, plus RISK, KingMaker, Chainmail & Civil War Miniatures. Hooked since…met my wife over a comic book (the Warlord) by Grell became her DM and later when stationed in Hawaii she ended up Managing the Legionnaire (THE Gaming Store there). Guess I made my saving role with her.
Heroquest for me, that led into fantasy and 40K AND dungeons and dragons, I admit I got bored of Warhammer Fantasy quite quickly, but I’ve had a Blood Angels army for 40K since 2nd edition, and various Imperial Guard and such were picked up along the way, I still have my Praetorians, why they stopped doing those I’ll never know, most characterful Imperial troops they made. My friends found Necromunda the best game to play, and whilst we all collected 40 K armies throughout, often we would go months just playing necromunda and never setting up 40K, we found the skirmish game more fun to play and importantly less of a time eater. The campaign rules were a bit broken but they are easily fixed with some common sense. Had a brief go with epic scale simply because I loved the Imperator Titan and had to have one.We also dabbled in Confrontation but that was purely the models, the game itself was never that good.
40K, Necromunda and Mordheim were our games for years.
It’s only recently we’ve moved on to Infinity and a little Malifaux, Warmachine has taken over from 40K for bigger games in my group but I just can’t get to grips with the aesthetic of the models so whilst I acknowledge as a rules system it is very good indeed, it’s just not a game for me.
Back in about ~1993-1994 I had a mate at primary school called Andrew Mckie and he showed me a few models he had and some White Dwarf magazines.
I remember being particularly obsessed with the look of Blood Angels and literally would spend hours just looking at the pictures in WD.
My first models were the old GW plastic skeletons and plastic orcs, I can still remember the smell of the glue as I put them together. Happy times.
All the GW pics on this article I still think of as being ‘new’ models lol
My first warhammer figures were the original multipart chaos warrior regiment.
First 40k figures, the old Genestealer and termagants. Though 3rd ed did make collecting tyranids far easier. My army for a while was a mix of old and new.
And of course my first Epic army, Eldar, had the old school triangular falcon grav tanks.
I first got interested when I used to stay round a primary school friend’s house and he had a small gaming table in his room with dragons on! But it wasn’t until my school started a modelling club that I actually got into it properly. I think our teacher was imagining things like airfix but most people were painting Warhammer or 40K. So I badgered my mum to take me to Games Workshop and she bought me the pack that had 5 space marines, ultramarines paints and some transfers 🙂 I never played properly I just enjoyed building them and making a mess with paints 😛 Did the usual of taking a break and then came back to it at uni when I discovered some friends played!
Heroquest and slightly later Space Crusade. I was a truly exciting time with lots of other young teenagers into it, and it was affordable!
I bought a White Dwarf magazine at Walt’s Hobby Shop (RIP) back in 1990, and I was hooked. I picked up a few lead blister packs of Space Marines and started painting. Later on a buddy of mine saw that I had started collecting GW miniature, and he gave me a free copy of Rogue Trader and a box of plastic Space Marines, the rest is history.
Was browsing around a model shop feeding my Airfix addiction when I found a small blue box called Imperial Space Marines (aka RTB01), that got me started on the modelling side, and at the same time I was playing the original X-Com on the PC, wasn’t long after that that 40k 2nd Ed appeared so picked that up and it has just snowballed uncontrollably from there!
Back in the mid to late 80’s BattleTech was my gateway drug. Then I played Epic in ’90 then 40K in ’91, haven’t stopped since.
It was The late 80’s and I was collecting the 1:72 airfix soldiers and painting them (badly), I would have mock battles with myself, it wasn’t until after joining the army in the mid 90’s and moving into a room with a bunch of guys who all played with toy soldiers and dice that I found wargaming.
HeroQuest!
’nuff said 🙂
I remember a model car shop putting a stand of ‘fantasy toy soldiers’ to fill a space and I splashed out 60p for four early GW Nick Lund orcs, which I still have. Over the next few weeks picked up some more and I remember after some serious saving having the major dilemma of buying a LOTR nazgul on winged beast or a chimera. Had to go chimera so I could afford the glue to stick it together. Following summer got my first WD, number 85. Didn’t start playing until I met a guy at my first job and we bought this new game coming out called warhammer Rogue Trader. Played many a battle of the farm and being total newbies we even got the turns wrong as I moved he moved etc. Decades later and still gaming with the same group of great guys only difference, have a club night rather than each other’s living room floors.
I have been mad about toy soldiers since pre school days but it wasn’t until I was about 12 when I came across a small red book called Discovering Wargames by John Tunstill. So with a couple mates with simillar interests it didn’t take long to get a game together as we already had plenty of Airfix plastic soldiers.
We started with ACW as it was quite well covered with different troop types by Airfix. It all went on from there .
John Tunstill also had a shop which was like mecca to us. It was also very near the Imperial war museum so it was always a great trip.
45 years later I still have the original book and figures, they have been joined by quite a few more along the way though.
Wow, we’re all old lol
I was thinking that too. There is a lot of talk here about gaming where everyone started off around or before 40K 2nd ed.
I need to work out what my parents still have in storage, as I am thinking of digging out my old Epic stuff if it is all there and I have all the rulebooks.
Around the table with dice in our hands were all the same age
Does give the crew some excellent demographics – certainly not the teenage market
I wouldn’t say i was old I am still 21 in my head, 21 and 201 months in reality
Many years ago my wife bought me a game called Battlemasters for christmas.
My cousin donated his copy of hero quest to me when I was about 12 (1992) when he moved out of his parents. A little later I saw my first copy of white dwarf and space hulks expansion set with original terminators and tyranids. To this day I cannot see a terminator model without feeling a little nostalgic. Oddly thought the first models I started collecting are skaven, the first model I ever bought was a vermin lord. Still adore that model.
i found a copy of WD in the school libary no.93 i think it had dragons and wardancers (my first full army was WE) and it went from there. Heroquest and space crusade where my first games, and i have nearly evey issue of WD from119, nice to look back at the good old days
I think I really got into table-top gaming when i got out of the 5th grade (1992). My grandfather bought me the Milton Bradley Axis & Allies game. I absolutely loved it. in middle school, my friends and I left the board set up in a room off of the school library, and we’d play a turn every day during “flex” period. It was going really well until I got sick for a week and they got some random kid to play Japan while I was out. I got back to find my empire had crumbled to dust.
It was in middle school that I first got a look at Warhammer 40,00 as well. I think it was the 8th grade when a friend showed me a catalog, and I instantly fell in love with the models. I got into 2nd edition in high school, followed by Warhammer Fantasy once i got into the background of the new Brettonnian army. After that was my favorite of all of GW’s game systems: Epic. Words cannot describe my love for that game.
Age 7/8 around 1992, well into Fighting Fantasy books that I used to pick up for cheap from boot sales, as well as anything else fantasy looking that I could find there. At one stall I came across a magazine which had all sorts of fantasy and sci-fi stuff. I’m not going to say it was White Dwarf, because I now have no idea, but it had a guide or possibly rules for building a beastman warband which fired up my imagination no end. I think it also had something about some post apocalyptic road warrior thing. I have no idea how old it was at that point or who wrote it, but if it sounds familiar to anyone, let me know!
My first miniature was given to me at age 3 or 4 though, when I was apparently desperate for a dragon for my birthday. Not any one in particular, just a toy dragon. My parents couldn’t find anything anywhere so as a last gasp attempt put out a question on the local radio in Chelmsford (Essex) and the owner of a local game shop responded saying he had some… it turned out to be a multi-part metal kit of a hairy dragon (i think the box had a picture of it being a hairy dragon on a snowy background) which my dad soldered (!) together. Again, if my awfully vague description rings any bells with anyone, let me know! I’d love to have that dragon again.
My first foray was with the TSR marvel super heroes rpg, then into the GW road warrior game Dark future, followed by blood bowl before moving to Rogue Trader and then slowly into a whole range of different GW games. Then it just went from there. First miniature I painted was a goblin bowman from the advanced heroquest paint set – with the old fantasy regiment sprue with one of each of 6 races.
I got started in to wargaming when my dad brought home a pack of 25mm fantasy bowmen. I was hooked I then went on to playing Napoleonics and then went in to Warhammer Fantasy Battle 2nd edition with my brother. I then started to collect everything coming out of GW main games though. Had a long break from Wargaming. Then when my son was 10 2003 I got him in to Warhammer 40,000 and now Im in to DIY wargaming and making 3D models in to printed cut outs for tanks and miniatures.
and now have my own game mechanic I play wargames with my wife. Bought Flames of War with Christmas money and really looking forward to playing that this year. The rules are awesome and the For the win videos are excellent. Dave and Warren do a great job and there advice and videos got me in to Flames of War. I have the FOW box set Open fire and a few other books especially the Vietnam version which is ace. Later next year Im going to make a Sci Fi version of the FOW game mechanics and go from there. Love wargaming and Beasts of war website keep me excited to see whats coming out and what you can do in the hobby.
Also looking forward to the Drop Zone Commander Videos, it might be a 2015 Christmas buy!
I also started a Warhammer Club on a Wednesday night, our teacher was really awesome she’d be marking n occasionally point out some horrendously wrong rule that was over powering, a dwarf on a horse beating combined Orc and Goblin Army. We played Space Crusade and a Star War mini game that I’ve lost to the ages of time. Our teacher was so good she cleared a space on her shelf in the office to store Necromunda scenery. I now do the same at the College I work at my office has a pile of GW, Mantic and MTG goodies and scenery and a 6×4 bit of MDF.
I started with 40k second Ed that a friend of mine brought I loved the orks, especially the act of throwing gretchins at Marines. Went on to Eldar, Dark Angels, Tyranids and Imperial Guard before switching to WFB Ocs & Goblins and Dark Elves.
I’ve moved onto other Wargames, Dreadball, Infinity in Her Majesty’s Name. Haven’t looked back since!! Still love Risk although we always dress the part. You haven’t played Risk untill the bloke next to you is dressed as Biggles!
Heroquest, Space Crusade, Space Marine (old epic, started with Eldar then mved onto Space Marines and Orks), 4th Ed Fantasy (High Elves ftw), 2nd ed 40k (Dark Angels, Squats & Orks), Necromunda, Gorkamorka, BloodBowl…. Mostly still the best games ever made.
Still playing a little Necromunda to this day. Looking forward to getting the Gamezone version of Heroquest once that’s done. Should make for some great nostalgia.
Like a lot of others the beginning involved a lot of Airfix figures (and tanks) as they were a lot cheaper than the metal ranges around at the time.
For me though it was Napoleonics with my brother and WW2 with friends. Then I moved into ancients and finally unto medieval as this tied into D&D nicely. Following a hiatus until children and then getting back into wargaming with LotR and 40K with them. Now moved onto FoW. But with BF jacking the prices up here in AUS I might try moving onto SAGA.
I said earlier it was Space Hulk, but thats not quite true come to think of it … i found this mag earlier and that opened a new world for me. It introduced dreadnoughts into 40k and featured some kick ass eavy metal by Tim Prow.
Still have this gem
#.U3-w__nlbko
1998 was when i saw White dwarf Number 101 (I think it was that one) with a rhino on the cover and i fell in love at once. Never knew it was for a game just knew i loved the tak and wanted one. Well back then you goth 3 rhinos in a box really cheap. So i got me a box and since that i have loved miniature gaming and been playing a lot of miature games during the years. Still the love of mine are Space Marines for 40k.
3 rhinos for £9.99 still got some around somewhere, never got the old lad raider or to my regret battlewagon
Back in 1999 i bought a box of 8 plastic wood elves archers (gods are they ugly) after my cousin spoke to me about this awesome game that was warhammer.
These ones :
First 40k : Spaces Wolves. Then Eldars, then standard spaces marines, then chaos space marines, then Tau (i never had a full wh40k army except for my Tau).
I too made in it through air fix model tanks, in the 70’s, so “Ferb”, I hear you.
Many years ago..in the time they called the mid 1980’s there were this book called Warlock of Firetop Mountain… then came Dungeons & Dragons…several other RPG’s..including WFRP… then came the introduction to Miniatures…and the rest they say is History.
aaah Fighting fantasy 🙂
So many of those fighting fantasy books used at my school during lunch times
I started mainstream board games: Risk, Stratego, Axis & Allies, Shogun, Acquire. Than with RPGs. Specifically After The Bomb, a post apocalyptic campaign setting for the Ninja Turtles RPG by Palladium Books. Then onto D&D. I played 40K Rouge Trader in about 1991 and was hooked. My first Army was Ultra Marines. Use to play at the GW store in College Park, Maryland. I worked in a gaming store called Better Gaming in High School during the glory days of GW in the mid nineties with constant big box releases. We played them all Man O War, Blood Bowl, Epic, Necromunda, Space Crusade, Warhammer Quest. We were playing leagues constantly. Those were great care free times!
Theirs nothing main stream about Shogun!!! LOL Most people don’t remember it or even know what it is… They need to bring back the Game Masters collection..
Still have my copy, amazing game … along with axis and allies – new tweaks in revised edition is great. That and history of the world and war of the ring are my big 4 of epic multi-hour board games
Nice!! Not going to lie I’m kinda jealous!!
Yahtzee! That was a family favorite. Seventh grade started with first edition D&D. I Remember driving to a store called Comics and Comix in the late 80s in California and buying my first Battletech source books. Then it was all over. 90s introduced me to 40k and WFB, I think this was third ed. 2000s was Heroclix, Mechwarrior, Mage Knight and my first foray into Warmachine. This decade I’ve added Malifaux. Soon to add Relic Knights and Infinity. Not to forget my love of D&D, there’s been some Shadowrun and Rifts played as well well as every edition of D&D.
I remember my brother getting Battlemasters years ago. We used to play it for hours with the old man on rainy Saturdays. Then one day my mum came back from town with a leaflet of this new shop opened up called “Games workshop”. The attraction was instant! With bus fare and £5 pocket money me and my brother were shipped off to go have a look. I remember getting there and marvelling at all the awesome minatures and dreaming of being able to paint that well. Blood angels were what caught my eye so with my money I grabbed a space marine box set. Think there was 5 guys in there which I loved. That was in 95.
As the years went by we went through pretty much every army. Eventually though I had to grow up and find a job. So at 16 I joined the army where I discovered beer and women. 2 years in Cyprus can make a man weak at the knees. As the years went by and the tours mounted up I found little if no time for my hobby. But in the last 3 years I have found myself being drawn back into this amazing world again. Flames of war was the kick starter for me getting back as I found the historical base very interesting. Also it was something I could relate to. So that’s how I got into gamming and I’ve never looked backed.
A friends big brother had some Prince August minis on his desk along with his Airfix models, I thought they were amazing. Soon after that I picked up a couple of molds and a starter set and began casting some myself. Another friend invited me to a local gaming group where I got to play some GW board games and a brand new game called Rogue Trader. That was 1987, and I’m still playing with tiny soldiers now…
I started by playing historical miniatures games with my dad when I was 8. We played Fire and Fury (A ACW game), and a few other games that I don’t quite remember. When I was 10 I branched off on my own and picked up Battletech and then Warhammer 40K 2 years later. While everyone was playing Poke’mon and Magic the Gathering I was playing miniatures games! I’m 26 now and I will say this is definitely a life long hobby that I hope to get any children I have into!
I first started war gaming with poorly moulded plastic WWII British infantry models, My brothers and I were set up our forces. Big bro with the US troops, and little bro with a mixture of German and Japanese. Once set up we’d take tunrs to flick a marble toward alternating opponents to try and keep it fair. Small marbles for hand held guns, bigger marbles for tanks and artillery. It generally led to a massacre all round.
I got into more serious war gaming when I bought a copy of Rogue trader.
In the lake 1970’s I joined our High School’s War Games Club and through that many SPI, GDW and Avalon Hill classics (War in Europe, Crusader, Squad leader, Waterloo, Panzer Blitz etc). Miniature gaming starting with me providing the figures for our DND and Traveller games. At our local game store ran Napoleonic’s nights and before I know it I was hooked and had a Prussian Corp and a large collection of System 7 armies.
After school I stopped playing for many years until I went with a Friend two a 3rd edition Warhammer Fantasy Tournament. I’ve been playing GW games ever since. There are Bretonian, Orc and TAU armies on my shelves along with the begins of Eldar and DOW.
Late 60’s early 70’s, Airfix WW2, Romans and Napoleonic with my older brothers who let me join in (maybe run a unit or artillery) and roll the dice.
FF>> 30-odd years to 7 years ago with my son, going into GW to buy some LOTR models as that’s all we were going to play… yeah right!
Well my Step in to miniature war gaming started with a old board game I forget the name of Dragon some thing!!!
Then I stepped in to Necromunda which I still love to this day but no one plays. Then 40k and warhammer. then I took a very long break last game I played was in 2nd edition then I have come back to 40k
We still play all the specialist games round our way. Keep the dream alive. 🙂
Begging my older brother to let me Jin in HeroQuest AMD later Space Crusade. Then I spotted a magazine called White Dwarf that came with a free space marine. That was it I was hooked for life.
For me it started with walking into the local newsagents and seeing White Dwarf 112. I saw the Terminator Crux on the front cover and had to have it.
Went to GW Manchester the next time I was in town. Spent a quid and bought myself a Balgorg and an original metal Genestealer. ( Still have the Balgorg on my desk. )
My older brother got me and our little brother into it, I started in 2011 near the of 5th ed, walked into a GW and saw the Tau and thought mine and it exploded from there. started fantasy the year after with vampires, last year got into warmachine and the hobbit.
Old time gamer, playing the likes of D&D and Squad Leader since 1979. I’m new(ish) to table top miniatures. I started in a bigger way with AT-43 and I still have my collection that makes it on the table. Like to play the U.N.A., Red Blok and Therians. Didn’t mind the Oni, but had no to time for the Karmans 😛
Moved onto Firestorm Armada and Dust. Other than that I have a large collections of mini’s of various description including GW – 40K and Fantasy that I just enjoy painting and collecting.
Started playing Risk with a couple of mates as we’d all got sick of going out drinking on a weekend (going out that is – not the drinking part!) and after a couple of games the talk turned round to how cool it would be to play a proper wargame, and my mates started reminiscing about warhammer, A game I’d never played before but they had as kids, now 2 years later my front room has been taken over by a big 8×4 board and I’ve got about 3,000 points worth of dark elves.
At age 10-11 I was walking around the mall and saw all the cool models in the GW store window and dragged my mom into the store. Space Marines caught my eye for sure and I loved the black templars which were in the starter sat at this time for 40k (this was around 1997). I got out of the hobby pretty quickly because I had no friends who played. When the Fellowship of the Ring came out in theaters I got into the LOTR GW game and transitioned into WHFB after a couple years when I saw Lizardmen and later Brettonians come out with all new model line ups. I used to think Skaven were the dumbest army and now that is my main force! Funny how interests can change so fast.
I started when introduced to it by my local gamestore owner. I have played AD&D since the original DMG and PHB came out. In ’96 I was playing Battle Systems, the TSR attempt to return AD&D to the wargaming aspect of it’s origins (remember D&D started as Chainmail in the 70s). Anyway, I was buying blisters of 6 elves, dwarves, etc to slowly replace the cardboard counters you got in the Battle Systems box. Mark, the game store owner, suggested that if I liked playing battles I should try Warhammer. So, I watched a few guys play a couple of games in the store and my son thought it would be interesting. So we bought our first starter box which included Lizardmen and Brettonians. The thing that I really was taken buy was the minatures. It was 3rd Edition of WH40K that got us into another genre of table top games. Again, at the local game store, we saw people playing and after liking Warhammer we thought a futuristic version of a game we liked would be great So we started another game. After my boys have gone (both have multiple extensive WH40K armies) I have started to look into other options, recently FOW.
So, basically it was D&D and a game store owner named Mark that got me started on table top games. I can’t say enough about the importance of the local game store owner and the support they give to the hobby. Without them we wouldn’t have the wide range of players and hence the ever growing range of games and models.
Started with hero quest in about 1990. Started warhammer in 1992. 3rd edition wood elves and skaven. A ridiculous amount of scarloc’s wood elf archers. Brilliant. They were really expensive in points, but kicked everyones teeth in.
I seen some miniatures in a book store in 1979 or 1980. I was fascinated with them. In 1983 some friends and I got ahold of a Ral Partha catalogue and thats where it all started. I started collecting an Elf army. I didn’t even know of a rule system yet but that didn’t matter. My friends discovered the first edition of Warhammer Fantasy. I dabbled with that and then discovered 40K. Loved the minis. I’ve been hooked and painting since the early to mid 80s. I feel like we are in a golden age of miniature gaming right now for both players and painters.