Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

As I am mere months away from my tenth anniversary of Warhammer, and that means I have been playing for just over half of my life, I felt it was time for a little reminisce.
So, how long have you played/collected for? And how did it all begin...?

*fades to black*
It all started for me, when my friend invited me to a Summer activity at my local library, aged 9. I was into Lord of the Rings, and these models he was always talking about sounded pretty cool. I went along and BANG! I was hooked. I was given a swordsman of Minas Tirith to paint, and did so with glee. At the end, after being taught the basics of battling, I asked if there were any spare miniatures left over. Unfortunately, there was only one orc with a broken spear left. The GW employee told me that if I went to the store in Liverpool, they would fix that into a nice flame for me. And they did. A clever trick to get me into the shop or not, I came out with a unique model I still have to this day.

From then on, I collected 'cool' things, a box of orcs and a box of men, a box of Guards of Khazad Dum, Treebeard. There was no order to my purchases. On turning eleven and going to secondary school, I found two other Lord of the Rings players, who were just about to make the transition to 40k. I made that transition with them, and bought myself some Tau. All of our tactics, painting skills and grasps of the rules were very poor, but we enjoyed ourselves.

I moved from Tau to Space Marines, had a quick dabble in High Elves (buying 3000 points and not painting a thing) before deciding it wasn't for me, and then took a break. This was mainly due to the stress of exams and wanting to save some money, but after 18 months I was back, with more passion than ever before. I went off to university with a small force in tow, painting when I could and playing when there was time. That brings me to now, ending my first year at university and tenth as a wargamer. And I'm proud. I've enjoyed every minute, and it's been great.

I'd love to hear anyone else's stories, so please contribute, even just a sentence.
Thanks for reading.

For me it was my cousins, I remember been rather young and visiting around their house and saw the 1993 catalog, I mean this thing had everything in it from GorkaMorka to warhammer fantasy.

Basically from them on I always wanted to collect and play it took a few years to convince my parents to let me do so when i was younger but then it's something I still do to this day

A lad in my form in year 7 had the Rogue Trader book. I borrowed it off him, absolutely drank it up and the next week went and bought my first White Dwarf. I think it was #171 – Warp Spiders had just been released, and the battle report was Eldar vs Orks. It was written like a short story. Brilliant.

The week after I had my first painted mini, a Fire Dragon Exarch with Fire Pike, and I even blended the paint from red boots to yellow shoulders with a gold helm and weapon!

I was six years old in 1978 when my brothers started playing AD&D; I remember when they brought home the original Player's Handbook. Two years later, we were visiting Washington DC, and my brother found a copy of Chainmail at a book store. Chainmail was, as far as I am aware, the first fantasy based tabletop, miniature based wargame published in the USA. I played it occassionally in the early to middle 1980's. My first experience with GW was playing 3rd edition WHFB around 1988, which was about the time that I picked up Rogue Trade, but WHFB was played far more often back then.

Growing up in the height of the Pokemon Craze, I started to get into Magic with a friend. A game store moved into town and we went there. We only played cards, but the store had a wall of 40k and Fantasy and the older kids were always playing it. I thought about saving up and such because it looked really cool.

A couple years later the store had closed, but I finally at money so I was at the Mall of America and saw that a store had the Starter so a Friend and I bought and split it.

Then stuff sat around for years (I was probably in 7th or 8th grade at this point). During my first year at college, I was at lunch and noticed a game store across the street. I had some extra time before having to go back to work so I walked in, and he had Warhammer on the wall. That is what got me back into it. Now I have thousands of dollars in models that sit in boxes and collect dust!

The guy who owned the original game store played at the new store, and got me into WHFB. He has stopped showing up because he got another woman in his life.

Mom would shop at the Sears Outlet and I was usually able to convince her to let me go look at the Games Paridise (a now defunct gaming chain) store in the same mall. The 40k, battletech and Warzone minis were too cool to believe.

Then I saw them at Hobbytown USA and they had the big rack of minibrochures for every army.

Then a Friend lent me the RT yellow Compilation. Once I picked up the 2nd edition 40k box set I was hooked.

I also bought battletech either shortly before or shortly after, but it was 2nd ed 40k that really sucked me into the hobby.

A couple of kids in my Fencing club bought the 1998 Citadel Catalogue with them one week and I looked through the whole thing. I loved the look of all the models and art, but felt it unfair that Space Marines had so many more vehicles and kits than the other races (nothing's changed there!). I went in on the 3rd Ed 40K starter set with a friend, I took SM, he took DE, I absolutely loved everything about it. He gave up after a few months but I carried on. I mostly painted back then, having very few opponents to play and no way to get to a local club. I had a few years off during university (lack of funds and time), which a lot of people seem to do, then picked it back up during my MSc course a few years later. Now this marks my 14 years of the hobby, and I feel like I'm just awakening from another minor slump in interest, partly due to me going to the FW Open Day next weekend! I still mostly paint and collect now, and have had great fun buying up all the things on eBay I could never afford when I first started back in the day. Happy days.

Fun topic!

I got into wargames from having played with toy soldiers and Action Man (GI Joe) as a boy.

In 1973, at the age of 11, I was influenced by media coverage of the Yom Kippur War, and I started to want something more structured. My father was working at the time for a company that made guided missiles, and he often brought home professional military magazines. I also started to read Military Modelling, which occasionally ran features on wargames and proto-RPGs. These magazines had adverts for board wargames.

I got my father to buy me some SPI wargames, and I bought some figures from the Minifigs shop in London. So I played board wargames, sometimes with 3D figures instead of counters, but I couldn’t get people interested.

When I went to “big school”, I met other people who played board wargames, especially Avalon Hill. I also started to get interested in RPGs, though this was something I didn’t take up strongly until I went to university in 1980. At university I met “proper” tabletop wargamers with real armies, and was introduced to WRG Ancients 5th edition and Renaissance rules.

And things went on from there.

Always wanted to get into minatures, but didn't know there were wargames until about 2009. My wife didn't 'get it' but indulged me, and I got the 2005 Tyranid army box off my brother in law (for $100!)

The swarm has expanded to about 8000 points, and I also picked up 1k of Wolves and 2k of Eldar... The Eldar were the army that fluff wise really drew me in to the game, but I just never found them to be the play style that suited me.

And now I get to say that 'I'm an artist'. I need to go buy a beret, I think.

One day I saw one of the fortnightly LotR magazines that GW used to sell (think it was issue 7) I brought it into school and this started a big LotR mini craze in my school, me and a friend used to sell the minis to people for a pound a mini. Then one day I found a copy of WD and found out all about 40K and fantasy and that Christmas I got a SM army set, which started me into 40k.
Got out of it for a few years but got back into it when I was about 13 and started collecting marines properly, I used to just go into the hobby near my grandparents and buy random minis and declare them Space marines. (my favourite minis are still my lasgun wielding SM).

My brother got a copy of Space Crusade for his birthday. My brother and parents would play on a friday night. My bro, Mum and I would have our space marine squads and my Dad would be in control of the genestealers and chaos marines. I he would do his own sound effects and everything lol.

Shortly after this my brother and his friend went halfs on 2nd edition 40k and I got Space Marine for my birthday. From then I was hooked.

Picked up a copy of White dwatf in Martins newsagents, many years back! Had ork freebooters on the cover and golden demon figures inside. I remember wanting to grab some of the figures to try myself and managed to pick up some spacemarines in my local toymaster store ( these were the old beaky plastics) I painted them really badly with humbrol oil paints. My next purchase (well my parents) was advanced heroquest, followed by advanced space crusade a while later. I fondly remember the old 3 for 2 blister sales at gw chester and picking up an old old spacemarine dreadnought contemptor. Many years later I worked for gw at lenton with fond memories, however even thenthe company was changing too much for my liking. Its taken several years for me to get back into the hobby again supporting and playing many other ccompanies games.

So I don't remember how old I was but I really was into MechWarrior 2 when I was a kid. I even read a few of the Battletech novels once I discovered MechWarrior 2's origins. I wound up getting the BattleTech introductory boxed set in... must've been 1998.

Anyway, my friends and I were trying to figure out how to play it, and it involved a lot of note-keeping and fiddly information, and one of them just said "Why don't you play 40K instead?" and that was it. Gotten into and out of several miniatures games over the past 16 years (including BattleTech, eventually ).

I had been playing Magic for an even longer time, though, as well as a sprinkling of DnD. Magic I must've started in third or fourth grade, DnD in sixth. Haven't played Magic in years and years, though.

When I was 10 my brother brought home a copy of White Dwarf. Titan legions had just been released, and I wanted the Imperator. We gave up about 6 months later for some reason or another, and a while after that we grabbed 2nd edition.

I was at school in Kuwait when I was 9. One of my friends was into D&D & soon after my Mum bought me the beginner's & expert set along with 4 boxes of adventures. He also pointed me to Lord of the RIngs & the Hobbit.
I then went to boarding school & a guy had some had some GW Judge Dredd minis. I bought my first White Dwarf soon after. It was number 89. The next was 90 (obviously) which introduced Rogue Trader. That really started me on the journey. The next year I won the chemistry prize (still don't know why) & with the money I bought the Warhammer 3rd Ed book & started collecting orks & goblins. I remember that soon after they bought out the first army book (I think it was called Ravening Hordes). In it they had all the main armies. You talk about GW introducing hoard armies now, but in the book you needed 120 clan rats & 240 skaven slaves for a legal army!
30 years later I'm still collecting.

My story is a bit different.

I was 28 and I was working at a large US Computer Company. I had always been that typical "Jock" but I loved old Sci-Fi novels (especially anything Heinlein). I started carpooling with a coworker and he would always talk about this geeky game that he played and how much fun he had at the shop he went to. This went on for about 6 months and we had become pretty good friends and that point. One afternoon he asked if we could swing by the store so he could pick up a few things real quick. We walked in and blam there were 20 guys standing around the tables, People were having a blast. I looked down and realized that I was actually a nerd and wanted to play with the man dolls on the table....

My wife has hated my now best friend ever since.

I honestly don't remember!

There are two events which probably are responsible for igniting the interest, then a third that cemented it.

I, like many of a certain age, began playing Heroquest while at a friends house for tea, this translated into my receiving Space Crusade at the next gift giving festival (birthday is near Xmas for me, so don't remember which) and then getting paints to decorate them (not well....)

Around the same time (I'm 9 or 10 at this point) I also remember seeing some minis in a large bookshop in a nearby town, I resolved to purchase some on the next visit, and duly returned home after the next trip with a dwarf mounted on pony.

These were both around the same time, and I don't know which to credit, but the third event absolutely cemented wargaming as part of my life.

I'd maintained my interest all through secondary school, but it had been a solitary pursuit, consisting of monthly doses of White Dwarf and the odd model or kit when I had cash, but not really played.

One morning not long after starting my A levels (which required catching an early bus to the next town) I found myself at the bus stop with another, equally confused, chap, as we both stood watching the clock tick past the time the bus was due (it had actually left early, before we'd arrived we'd later learn.) we got chatting and caught the next bus together. Something I said rang a bell with him, and he asked "You're not into Warhammer are you?"

The rest is history. We found and recruited other players, met for games two or three times a week, and shortly after that, an independent game shop opened nearby. I'm happy to say that many of the people I met through that experience are still friends to this day.

1985, at 11 years old, i was in the Historical Models store in Torrance, California, looking for a new model plane or helicopter to build, paint, and blow with Mexican fireworks...
i saw a blister pack of original Citadel Chaos Dwarves, and was hooked...
then came the Rogue Trader set of Space Marines, and i was in for life...

i've never been much of a gamer, but have always loved the painting...
now, a day away from turning 40, i'm still painting Space Marines, and getting paid to do it!!!
tonight it's a Deathwatch Kill Team commission for the the RPG...

cheers
jah

Little ol' me back in 2001, when I was eight, would always go into my local game store Dream Wizards to buy Godzilla toys. Every time, I would see gamers playing these cool games with little toy soldiers and fell in love. My dad bought me a box of the old Space Marines and helped me paint them. Since then, I've been into the hobby on and off; mostly on.

In1989 i bought the CD from Boltthrower realm of chaos and the artwork got me intrigued, so after finding more on that artwork i got sucked into the world of 40k

Was walking around a big mall near me when I was just a little kid. Saw the big Games Workshop store sign, assumed it had video games inside and wandered in. I always preferred small toys as a kid, like Mighty Max models and micro machines stuff - so seeing these ultra-detailed very awesome looking models on the tabletop, giant creatures and machines and wizards and robots, my mind had no chance resisting it. The hobbying and terrain/war table aspect was also overwhelmingly cool.

The lore quickly became the most entertaining part of the hobby for me. I read the rulebooks and codices for hours constantly, the novels, etc.

Hmm I was playing battle tech first I want to say early 90's didn't even know warhammer was even around, so then I got in to battle storm game was ok but little minis and metal wait back then they were all metal for the most part This didn't last long cause I asked my self why play with these little metal models when I can play with these bigger metal models so I got into War hammer fantasy I'd say late 1996 and then bought my room mate the dark elf army so I could have some one to play with. This lasted around two years tops then on to 40k and never looked back wife tried to block this well that didn't happen. so been collecting 40k for 18 years now and have more than I ever want to figure invested in it.

Used to Play MTG and other card games. My local store started to sell Games workshop products. Being into modeling because of my dad (He does HO scale model trains) I really liked the look of them and bought my first starter set. Space Marines with those funny little paint pots. Ive never looked back since, that was about 8 years ago haha and here we are today!!

My dad was a modeller and buying citadel and others before I was born. I got into modelling through him and the first figures I had were the beaky Marine plastics. The first Warhammer universe game we had was Space Hulk but we already played things like the Judge Dredd board game. I think people who got into 40k from 3rd edition really missed out.

I showed up to a store for a Highlander CCG tournament that ended much quicker than anticipated. There was a 40k tourney going on in the other room. One of the players (who was a smoking buddy of mine) had an epileptic seizure. Long story short, he got permission to allow another player to finish out his game, and asked me to fill in for him. (I won, incidentally.) I played with his armies off and on for a few years, until a taxi driver I was talking to while I was working night shift at a gas station mentioned that he was looking for a games store to sell of some old gaming stuff. Being a gaming buff, I asked what he had, and when he mentioned a Space Marine army, I offered to buy it off of him in order to get into the hobby with an army of my own.

A friend of mine turned up to school (6th grade so 2008) with a tyranid codex.
I asked what is a "tyran-ied?"
Fast forward four years and I have spent 600+ dollars on the hobby.

I was given £10 back in 1985, and I got the DnD red box with it. A mate of my Mum's talked about her son playing DnD, and I was 'suggested' to get it. I got a box if Citadel adventurers and others.
I got magazines to use with that, being Dragon and White Dwarf.
Along comes 1987, and White Dwarf starts showing articles for the up-coming WH 40k.

I was tricked. Now I can't get out. Noooooo!

A little game called...

Ditto to above. Then space crusade, followed by a mixed box of fantasy figures. Then came the orc and goblin army, the space marine army, the Titan legion etc. an 18 year break, and now 2 years into my rejuvenated passion, I'm building... An orc and goblin army and a space marine army...