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Poll
How did you get introduced to GW games or wargaming in general?
HeroQuest
Space Crusade
MB Battle Masters
De Agostini Lord of the Rings Magazines
Blood Bowl or other Specialist Game
Introduced by older family member or friend
Demo Game in a store
After playing a video game based on GW game or wargaming
Through RPG/D&D or similar
Other - post below

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Made in gb
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Yvan eht nioj






In my Austin Ambassador Y Reg

Interestingly enough, I was replying to a post in the Specialist Games forum, decrying the loss of the GW gateway games that MB produced and it got me thinking if we could collect some stats from Dakka users on how they got introduced to GW games. It strikes me, at least anecdotally speaking, that an entire generation of gamers cut their teeth on the MB games and subsequently got into GW games that way. It seems strange that GW would not be keen to pursue that avenue of entry especially at a time when recruiting and retaining new blood is critical for them.

So here is a poll - please indicate how you got introduced to GW games and post your experiences below. What would be really nice would be if we could have a dual-poll that also logs age range so that we could correlate age with how people got into GW games to prove/disprove that the MB games had such an effect in the early 90's but for the time being we can stick to the single poll options!

I may have missed some obvious choices, if so, point them out and I can add them to the poll.

I appreciate that for some people, there may be a combination of factors - for myself, I was introduced via HeroQuest and a friend who played Epic but it was HeroQuest that I would place the weight on as being my 'first' real exposure to GW/wargaming in general - so please consider and vote for what you would choose as being the most important factor.

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Is 'Eavy Metal Calling?





UK

I got into LotR with the magazine that came out, where you got a set of minis (1 sprue or one metal one for £3.99. Yes, GW now charges £15 minimum for the same!) in each issue, along with a scenario, complete rules over time, painting and modeling guides and other cool stuff like terrain kits. By the end, I had every issue and a small force for almost every faction, 80+ scenarios, rules for almost everything I could want to field and lots of other but and bobs. For your other question, I think I was about 7 when I started correcting it in 2003-ish.

I was introduced to 40k some years later in early 5th by a friend who knew I played LotR. I think it's save to say, though, without the gateway of the LotR magazine, I'd have likely remained blissfully ignorant of wargaming as a while for quite some time.

 
   
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Wraith






I was super into the MechWarrior 2 games when I was in... I don't remember, probably early middle school (6th and 7th grade). For my... Must've been 12th? Maybe 13th birthday, I got two awesome gifts: Goldeneye for the NIntendo 64 and the Battletech boxed game, and that was it; Battletech was my intro to tabletop wargaming, technically, though due to its apparently complexity, my friends quickly converted me to 40K.
   
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Major





The Heroquest advert on the TV was the first I'd heard of it and I begged for it for Xmas. My parents bought me Dungeonquest instead (now available again thanks to Fantasy Flight). I was a tad disappointed at first but It actually a very good game and could be played Solo as well.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/08/22 09:53:56


"And if we've learnt anything over the past 1000 mile retreat it's that Russian agriculture is in dire need of mechanisation!" 
   
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Norn Queen






Heroquest was the first board game I remember playing. It wasn't until years after I got into 40k that I learned it was a GW game.

The game that actually got me into wargaming was Titan Legions.
   
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Ultramarine Librarian with Freaky Familiar





LOTR SBG in 2003, at the age of 12. A friend introduced me. Though I read White Dwarf, not BGIME. By the time I heard of De Agostini' s magazine it was discontinued. I'm making up for that now though via EBay.

I started 40K when 5th Ed came in 2008 as a second Wargame, but have since decided I hate the game and haven't played in 3 years (still paint and convert though). I've getting into LOTR, next month I'm going to my 2nd tournament this year.

LOTR is really what introduced me to wargaming. If not foe he sbg, I would not have heard of white dwarf. If not for white dwarf I would have heard of and picked up 40K. People don't give the game enough credit for bringing people into the hobby, especially LOTR fans. There's way too much ignorant bashing.

This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2014/08/22 10:26:30


 
   
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 Paradigm wrote:
I got into LotR with the magazine that came out, where you got a set of minis (1 sprue or one metal one for £3.99. Yes, GW now charges £15 minimum for the same!) in each issue, along with a scenario, complete rules over time, painting and modeling guides and other cool stuff like terrain kits. By the end, I had every issue and a small force for almost every faction, 80+ scenarios, rules for almost everything I could want to field and lots of other but and bobs. For your other question, I think I was about 7 when I started correcting it in 2003-ish.


That Magazine was brilliant value, I really regret not subscribing to it at the time.

"And if we've learnt anything over the past 1000 mile retreat it's that Russian agriculture is in dire need of mechanisation!" 
   
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Owns Whole Set of Skullz Techpriests






Versteckt in den Schatten deines Geistes.

Introduced by friends. One friend who had a few left-overs from his Dad's old stuff (his dad was English), and another friend who had a lot of Space Marine (as in original Epic) Eldar stuff.

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Blood Angel Terminator with Lightning Claws





North West Arkansas

Other: Saw a kid in middle school with the Rogue Trader book, I borrowed it for three weeks, then got my own.

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Made in gb
Dakka Veteran



South East London

I had to tick "Other" as my introduction was a bit of an odd one as am quite an old git....

My introduction to GW and therefore gaming in general was in 1986 in the window of, bizarrely enough, Boots the Chemist....

They had started selling Citadel miniatures on a spinner rack at the back of the store and to promote this had the John Blanche diorama of loads of skeletons crawling over a moat and drawbridge of a castle, which can still be seen at Warhammer World.

I went in and bought a "Space Skeleton" and a "Space marine" which were single figure metal blisters and were 50p each.

Took them home and painted them up (I was quite into my Aifix at the time so painted them in Humbrol enamels) and then went back the following week and bought some Slann.

I then discovered that a local bookshop was also selling Citadel minis and paints in their Sci Fi section as well as the Citadel Journal, which back then was a quarterly bumper White Dwarf / Catalogue.

Then in 1988 I went to Games Day which was at the Royal Horticultural Halls in London with £50 in my pocket (this was a lot of money then) and picked up my copy of Rogue Trader, a box of RTB01 Marines and a box of metal Space Orks, and guess I never looked back.

A group of us played 40K religiously for months after that but interestingly it was the first edition of Space Hulk that got our gaming group fired up for gaming. At that point we were 16 years old but were spending most of our time in the pub and it was a game we could play there and was very popular.

Then the local GW store finally opened in 1989, I left school to work there and it all went a bit crazy from that point onwards....

So although I agree that the entry level gateway games no doubt had a big influence on many for me it was a shop window display in the most unlikely of places....


"Dig in and wait for Winter" 
   
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Worthiest of Warlock Engineers






preston

WHFB has been in my families blood since GW first started producing it. My father used to play DnD, gor into WHFB and then got my older brother into WHFB. I followed on, playing against my brother when I was little and then advancing to build my own armies later on when I was older.

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Wraith






Salem, MA

Through Penny Arcade/writing my own board game, actually.

I wrote a board game for my college roommates (mix of RPG/Video game respawn elements and 'levels) and had to find miniatures for it. I ended up ordering some online through an ebay store, but remembered that the Penny Arcade guys always had cool models in the background of their fourth panel videos.

I went back through the comics to look up what they were playing. It was a game called Warmachine.

No wargames these days, more DM/Painting.

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Terrifying Treeman






The Fallen Realm of Umbar

I started through a friend, at school we basically had an end of year activity time where we got ourselves into groups and did something we all had in common and this served as a way to build group communication and participation skills in a very non-formal and relaxed manner.

It was my friend and a teacher that was also into 40k at the time, that was able to convince the school to allow us to get into 40k as a group.

I think from there I was the only one who did it for any serious length of time, but man was I hooked.

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Australia

LotR magazine, which I only knew about because I saw an add for it on TV.

It has always amazed me GW haven't tried that again, it was a brilliant magazine available in placed that people who don't already know about the hobby could be exposed to it, which is something they are really lacking right now.

 Fafnir wrote:
Oh, I certainly vote with my dollar, but the problem is that that is not enough. The problem with the 'vote with your dollar' response is that it doesn't take into account why we're not buying the product. I want to enjoy 40k enough to buy back in. It was my introduction to traditional games, and there was a time when I enjoyed it very much. I want to buy 40k, but Gamesworkshop is doing their very best to push me away, and simply not buying their product won't tell them that.
 
   
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Terrifying Treeman






The Fallen Realm of Umbar

 jonolikespie wrote:
LotR magazine, which I only knew about because I saw an add for it on TV.

It has always amazed me GW haven't tried that again, it was a brilliant magazine available in placed that people who don't already know about the hobby could be exposed to it, which is something they are really lacking right now.

I agree 100%, the funny thing in my case, is I saw that same add on tv for the LotR magazine and asked my mum if I could get it. She said no because I probably wouldn't enjoy it.

What a turn of events it has been since then

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Ultramarine Librarian with Freaky Familiar





 jonolikespie wrote:
LotR magazine, which I only knew about because I saw an add for it on TV.

It has always amazed me GW haven't tried that again, it was a brilliant magazine available in placed that people who don't already know about the hobby could be exposed to it, which is something they are really lacking right now.


By their CEO's own admission, they don't do market research, so they have no idea why it was successful and popular.

And it wouldn't be possible now anyway. The models have more than tripled in price from what they cost when included with the BGIME magazine, and GW's ethos is unrecognisable from what it was back then.

Any new equivalent magazine for The Hobbit range would either cost in excess of £10, or would come stuffed with ads taking up 50% of the page count and no models included.
   
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Brigadier General






Chicago

I clicked battlemasters. It was a game that really captured my imagination, though at around the same time (possibly before then) I discovered the "Gamers Paradise" stores (now defunct chain from the chicagoland area) and they became a regular stop when out shopping with the family.

From there it was all downhill. Battletech, 2nd edition 40k, Necromunda, etc….

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Decrepit Dakkanaut




UK

Also a fairly old git, so I mainly came in from an interest in SF & Fantasy books,

discovered you could buy lead miniatures that looked cool from a local games shop

These were later used in RPGs and when the McDeath campaign came out for Warhammer I picked it up and went on from there

I clearly remember starting to paint within days of GW releasing the first acrylic paints as while I'd painted airfix kits and similar with enamel paints, using them on such citadel (and similar) figures was beuond me as they were too small and took too long to dry, but with the magic of acrylics I could paint a mini after school and take it in the next day to show off

 
   
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On an Express Elevator to Hell!!

Great idea for a poll Filbert.

For myself it was Space Crusade as a purchase, although think a copy of White Dwarf (126, the 'Eldar issue') in a local newsagent was also involved. And, some painted miniatures in the window of a local independent store.

That was for GW games, got introduced to historicals through a hobby store I worked in (mostly Flames of War), and then other games generally after GW brought in the 'rest of world shipping ban' and I was living in a country with no GWs or way of purchasing outside of mail order.

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Decrepit Dakkanaut






New Orleans, LA

Short Version:

1. I played Star Wars CCG (Decipher) for a long time. 1997-2002
2. Guy in my regular CCG group started a Star Wars RPG. ~ 2000
3. Played that and met some D&D Players. Played in a campaign with them. ~2001
4. They introduced me to Warhammer 40k. ~ 2008.

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Calculating Commissar




Frostgrave

It was hero quest for me, followed by airfix napoleonics, blood bowl and 2nd ed 40k.
   
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Lit By the Flames of Prospero





Rampton, UK

I was recruited how "the hobby" now intends , via me seeing a GW and walking in off the street !!

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/08/22 18:00:49


 
   
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Lone Wolf Sentinel Pilot





Nottinghamshire, UK

I played Heroquest but didn't think much of it beyond it being a board game, then Space Crusade came along and from what bit of fluff came with that I found that the setting was not quite like anything else. I further realised that when I had the 2nd edition WH40K starter box. After that I intermittently kept up with the WH40K fluff for a while, mainly due to friends who played it, but I didn't make any special effort to seek it out and kind of dismissed any interest in the whole thing. It wasn't until someone lent me a copy of The Founding that I got back into it in a big way. This was during 5th Edition.

Nice to see Battle Masters on the poll, I loved that game.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/08/23 16:50:33


Driven away from WH40K by rules bloat and the expense of keeping up, now interested in smaller model count games and anything with nifty mechanics. 
   
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Nurgle Chosen Marine on a Palanquin





For wargaming in general, was walking with my wife downtown (1981, little did she know what was coming...) and saw a large display of painted 1/72 WWII models at the local game store with a sign saying that this group gamed with them. Had long wanted to game with the various WWII Roco minitanks I had collected, so hooked up with them and played Squad Leader and ASL with 1/72 scale vehicle and figures on large renditions of Squad Leader boards.

For GW games, saw a game of 40K being played at a local game con in Feb. 1988. Went "Whoa, cool, Scifi miniatures!" and bought a box of beakies, then the rules, then some Orks.
Then it was Inquisitor magazine (1991) followed by starting Armorcast (1995)...

Its been a wild ride...
   
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MN (Currently in WY)

I saw a multi-page spread for Rogue Trader in Dragon magazine. It had some awesome photos of squats, zoats, Eldar, Space Marines, and Ork Raiders. From there, I contacted GW US and had a catalogue/mail order form sent to me. I then did business through Mail Order for a few years.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/08/22 19:48:32


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Longtime Dakkanaut





Great topic.

A lot of the old games were big at my school. We would always play some kind of top-trumps at break. Monster in my pocket was big, but the Citadel battle cards were especially popular because you could mix the decks together. I think the first game I played with miniatures was Talisman, but I voted Space Crusade because that's the first time I remember playing a proper game with Space Marines,which is what hooked me. I used to love borrowing my friend's WD and looking at the Evey Metal pages. I think Blood Angel's have always been my favorites, ever since I realized that Space Marines also come in "not blue". I remember asking my friend "Why are they red?" and he told me they were "Blood Angels". Even the name sounded awesome, I figured they must be some kind of super elite SAS-type space marines (and in my head they still are).

It's a shame they got rid of those games, I played games like that for years before I ever mustered the courage to try 40k (with the infamous 400 page rulebook). It makes me wonder if the drop in sales might also be a symptom of a drop in the recruitment of new players. The MB games were certainly much more accessible. And also the figures were pretty crap, so you wanted to go to GW and replace them with metal ones ASAP!

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/08/22 23:28:05


 
   
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Posts with Authority






I was introduced to wargaming at about the time that D&D was first released. Historicals by Minifigs and Avalon Hill boardgames.

My girlfriend was introduced to fantasy gaming by her mum running Heroquest.

The Auld Grump

Kilkrazy wrote:When I was a young boy all my wargames were narratively based because I played with my toy soldiers and vehicles without the use of any rules.

The reason I bought rules and became a real wargamer was because I wanted a properly thought out structure to govern the action instead of just making things up as I went along.
 
   
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Fixture of Dakka







Wandering into a GW, thinking it was a computer game store.

Coming away with one of those free magazines they used to do, that was surprisingly, not that different from the modern day White Dwarf. I remember pouring over all these pictures of knights and soldiers and monsters for more than 6 months, until I finally found a Games Workshop again in St Albans in Christmas 1997 and had my first demo game, walking out with the Warhammer Fantasy 5th edition starter set.
   
Made in ca
Dakka Veteran




Victoria, BC, Canada

I got into it about 10 years ago after my FLGS (mainly just a card and board game store, I played MTG) started to carry GW product! Thought it looked real cool and turns out there was actually a Local Games Workshop store about 30mins from where I lived at the time. Check that out, played a few demo games and I haven't looked back since!

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Norn Iron

Wandering through the back of Castlecourt shopping centre in Belfast, looking for the old Talisman comic shop, and noticing there was a Games Workshop there. I had a look around and it appealed to my old liking for model kits; a desire to build little worlds (the tables, an article for an industrial table in WD, the CSM raptor conversions with Warmaster dragon heads in the cabinet, etc.); a desire to cleverly command and direct little armies across those little worlds; and a spot of nostalgia and realisation. (that's what those White Dwarf magazines in the newsagents, and those old Space Hulk computer games were about)

So if I could point out one thing that diverted me into wargaming rather than building environments for scale railways, it's genestealers.

I also found the comic shop. I saw a copy of Thrud #1 on the shelves one day, recognised him from a WD Bloodbowl article, and saw the advert for Heresy Miniatures in the back. That was the first inkling that there were miniatures and wargaming outside GW, and I'm unsure which one was the bigger event.

I'm sooo, sooo sorry.

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