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A fully painted Squad of The Rouge Trader Space Marine Models back in 1989

Other.

Played Laserburn and combat 3000 with mates.
Saw the RTB001 box set - bought it.
Saw the Rogue trader rulebook - bought it.

Started playing.


All long before there was a trace of a GW presence in this country.

Second tour to Iraq, a buddy of mine let me borrow the Soul Drinker's Omnibus novel, then the UM novels and by that point, I had bought my own copy of the SW's omnibus novels, then the 4th ed. rule book/5th ed. rule book, etc.

One of my first memories ever is reading through Advanced D&D with my older brother. Loved D&D and in my early teen years I got into Battletech and 40k at the same time. A friend of my older brother sold him his copy of Rogue Trader and some minis. (B-tech and 40k) I was hooked. I read through RT a million times and played battles with ever increasing forces. Eventually B-tech faded away but 40k stayed with me. Even when I took breaks from the game (college, Iraq, Iraq again) I still kept up with what was going on.
Which is why I find the current state of affairs somewhat painful.

Started gaming with the Star Wars RPG in '87. From there I moved onto Shadowrun, Warhammer Fantsy Role-Play and then board games starting with Space Hulk. I used to buy my RPG books from GW and still have some with GW price stickers on.

40K came a lot more recently, about 5 years ago. I started playing because it looked fun and friends were playing it. I'd just stopped collecting CMGs like Star Wars and D&D minis and 40K was perfect for me... and cheaper than the previous mini games!

Walked into an LGS called Mind Games and walked past a shelf full of 40k boxes with amazing 3rd Edition artwork. Started with the 5 man paint set... painted them as Ultramarines..

Interesting stuff so far - I think we can identify at least 3 or possibly 4 distinct 'waves' of entry into GW games:

1) Wave 1 - what I would term the original 'old school' so gamers who were inducted via family, friends or a LGS or GW store such as they were into GW gaming around the early days of WHFB and Rogue Trader, in large part due to the simple fact there really weren't any gateway games or boxed sets around then - this was before GW even did boxed sets of any degree.

2) Wave 2 - the golden generation (!) who arrived at GW through a variety of entry games so Space Crusade, HeroQuest, Battle Masters at a time when GW games were appearing outside of GW stores in more mainstream retailers. This seems to be a more UK/European scenario than anything else - obviously the entry games were available in US/Aus but I'm not so sure they had the impact they did in the UK/EU. I think if you talk to any gamer who is about 30+ give or take a few years and who got into GW games in their early teens, they stand a good chance of having been introduced via one or more of these gateway games.

3) Wave 3 - the new kids on the block, those who picked up gaming and GW as a result of seeing the LOTR movies and as a result of buying the De Agostini magazines that had the free miniatures on them. There is a case for conflating this wave with the next wave too but I prefer to keep them separate:

4) Wave 4 - the digital generation who arrived at GW through exposure to GW material in various video games, Dawn of War, Space Marine etc etc.

Obviously, there are exceptions to the rule and the 'traditional' method of big brother/GW store is still applicable as ever but it is interesting to note just what an effect having a readily available game, outside of GW stores and outside of GW's sphere of control (ie pricing) had on introducing gamers and introducing gamers who a large portion of have remained gamers for a very long time.

I'm sure you can draw other conclusions from the poll but some clearly it is a bit of a self-selecting sample so it is really only for fun rather than actual academic purposes!

Got a copy of 2nd edition in either toys are us or Argos not really knowing what it was but thinking it looked cool.

To GW - seeing their product on shelves and being curious about it when I was buying Warmachine or Star Wars Miniatures (WOTC)
To Wargaming in general - Star Wars Miniatures (WOTC)

Other. I got into the hobby thanks to the card driven historical non-miniature wargames by GMT games. I immediately fell in love with the fantastic interactivity and storytelling that wargames can provide. Getting into 40K was just a matter of time, because its looked suspiciously like the venerable hex-and-counter classic Squad Leader. Also the local community was very robust and friendly. I quit 40K in the early days of 7th edition, but the bug remained and now 95% of my gaming time is devoted to wargaming in its myriad forms. I am really addicted to their confrontational and interactive nature and more recently ,to the hobby aspect. Who knew that painting and modelling could be so much fun?

My first experience with it was Hero Quest back in the day, also D&D1E, but taking it on full time as a hobby in the last few years was at the recommendation of a mate when I needed a timesink away from the computer. Also if it wasn't for Dawn of War I would have gotten into Kings of War and Warpath due to price instead of 40k, but DoW sunk the hooks in already.

So three important things that GW is pissing on - specialist games, veterans and (good) licensed games were what got me into spending money on their main product. What kept me spending was probably black library, Dawn of War 2 and Space Marine.

My father and/or older brother are the culprits. 10 years ago or more my dad started playing WHFB and I joined in the fun with the rest of the family. Recently my brother took up WH40K and I started collecting again with him last year.

Back in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s my gaming group was mostly composed of wargamers, who did a bit of roleplaying as well. Car Wars, Battletech, OGRE, SFB, but also D&D, Shadowrun, and a number of other games. Miniatures were introduced first in D&D, with the old grenedier boxes, but also some citadel ones. I forget the exact timing, but one guy started a RT campaign, running it as a RPG. I don’t know how he found it, but I suspect it was seeing the minis on the spinner rack or the book on the shelf.

I am pretty sure I got Space Crusade first after seeing it advertised somewhere. I didn't really have anyone to play with so some miniatures got painted and that was it. Then in I think year 8 or 9 a club started at my school and I bought some Space Orks off of a friends older brother and went from there.

I played D&D while I was in high school, and around the time 3rd edition came out, I saw the ads for the rerelease of Chainmail on their website, and thought it looked kinda cool. I wasn't entirely clear about what it was when I bought it (I thought it was just minis for playing D&D with). Played a few games with a friend of mine, then put it away for a looooooonnnnng time. Fast forward 11ish years, and I saw the box while I was moving out from my parents place (again). Thought to myself "that game was kinda fun", started looking online to see if it was still a thing, and found 40k instead. Loving every minute since.

I got into Battletech when my family was stationed in England in the early 80's. When we moved back to the states and off base I got into Necromunda, which led to 40K 3rd edition. I picked up Mordheim as well. It went from there, to fantasy and now DZC!

Heroquest for me, although I went from there to 40K by accident... I bought Baharroth and Maugan Ra from a local giftstore that also sold GW and Ral Partha miniatures without actually realising there was a game that went with them... Then later was looking in a newsagent for a magazine about sci/fi or fantasy modelling, and came across White Dwarf.

Other - a friend brought over Rogue Trader/40K 1E and we played the Battle at the Farm in the back of the book with the paper chits. We had the plastic space marines, but it wasn't until about a week later that we got them assembled (using a hot glue gun, of all things).

I still have those minis - my friend gave them to me when he switched to playing squats...

A demo game against my father during a national holiday, in a LGS. I was 5

I absolutely loved it, but was a 'tad' too young to start it. Needless to say, when 7 years later (the LGS had been closed for a while then), a hobby store began storing some Warhammer, I started with LotR

Around christmas 1998 Warhammer, Warhammer 40k especially, was really popular due to the release of 3rd edition and the starter set.

Here in Ireland it was on The late late toy show, a special of the long running chat show.

It was such a powerful trend my primary school even allowed us a "warhammer club" after hours on thursday's for kids to play against each other.

The following year it was pokémon card swaps at lunch.

My recent return is partially spurred on by picking up Dawn of War again and falling back in love with the lore of the universe.

The first game of this type that I remember was Crossbows and Catapults, I think I was about 8 and I went to a mates place and thought it was fething wonderful.

I got it for my next birthday, and I think Heroquest came a few years later.

I also remember buying some Top Trumps with minis on, I think they were from GW but feth knows.. I was just a lad at the time and I don't even remember where I got them.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Google showed me the way.. I found the fethers!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P4sjmajNCo

My favorite piece is the Warmaster art they used for the 5th (Or was it 6th?) Edition starter set with the Empire and the Orcs. That and along with it, the amazing map of the Old World that came with it then, that map really fired my imagination.