Ah yes, the age old question to determine rank. So Dakka, when did you become addicted to wargaming?

I was beginning to wargame at age 10, with 4th Edition WH40k.

Last year...so...if I'm 22 now...I would have been...errr...carry the nine...21.

14, with my fellow newb friend who didn't get the rules until we acutally went to the FLGS and a few months afterward bought the 5th edition rule book when it hit the shelves.

first bought it... around 2001 if I am guestimating right.

But.. hard core, only about half a year.

Get it?

7th grade. So about 13. Played one game of 4th, then 5th edition! I played off and on then. Now I try for a game at least once a month.

I was a very "late bloomer" as far as Wargaming was concerned,I didn't have a clue what it even was until I was in my late 20's and didn't actually start playing until I was 30.

I started wargaming when I was a little kid - like 8 years old. My dad and I would play simplified versions of DBA and his own games. I started using 40k models for homebrew games when I was 13, started playing 40k proper when I was 15.

Introduced at the age of 10.

Chose to start playing as a hobby - around 16.

Chose to start playing 40k - 1987 - age 19.

Chose to forswear fantasy - 1988 - age 20.

Chose to be a gaming whore - 1986 (Not restricting myself to a single company or its product).

I'm now 42.

First played warhammer fantasy at 14, then picked it up with an Empire army when I was 16. Now, 9 years later, I've sold my Empire (sadly), bought and sold Orcs and Goblins, bought, sold, re-bought Warriors of Chaos, bought Daemons, space marines and Eldar. Wow, what a lot in 9 years. Of course, I'm sure other people have done a lot more

I started in 1987 with Battletech, I was 13 or 14. Did that for a few years, then didnt play any wargames until 97(still painted D&D minis) when a freind moved back to Az from Baltimore with a box full of weird little miniatures from this weird game company he had worked for. Games Workshop.

He suckered me in by outright giving me a small army of eldar figs- which were alot of fun in 2nd edition. That was back when I liked GW- the games were fun, the figs were kinda funky, and the game wasnt about profit as tehy had WD articles on stuff like Deodorant tanks(which I think was a brilliant move to get gamers to USE personal hygeine products!!).

So, thats like 22 years of miniatures, and around 16 years of wargaming....I feel old now...

First played in 1993. Aged 12 with 40K 2nd Edition. Hve dropped out and back in a few times over the years. Wish I hadn't, as I'd have plenty of complete armies now.

I was introduced to gaming by a friend at about 10/11 years old. We played a fantasy adventure using the Bloodbowl 1st Ed rules for combat and the GW Fantasy Dwarf Lords of Legend/Prince August Goblin Wolf Riders [which we also cast ourselves]. Immense fun.

He also showed me a mag called White Dwarf so I bought the next issue, number 92 i think.

This same issue saw the release of WH40K: RT from that point onwards I was addicted. That was September 1987.

Started in 1992 with Rogue Trader, so that means I was 16.

1987 with WHFB and Rogue Trader; I came in from RPGs. So I was 11.

Got a Mage Knight model at age 10, havn't looked back.

10. My first rule book was a copy of the original Rogue Trader. I took 15 years off when I was 18, and just returned last year.

Stone age!

Harharhar.

Ok. Growing up, I didn't know anyone who played these games, or
painted toy soldiers as a hobby. We player basketball. Maybe we
played Nintendo.

However, somewhere between the ages of 8 and 13 we made
games where we built something, and then we destroyed it. One
such game involved card castles that we bombarded with a penny.
The second game that comes to mind is the one where each
player created a map and then we took turns flipping pennies in
the air to see what things on the other person's map were
destroyed.

malfred wrote:However, somewhere between the ages of 8 and 13 we made
games where we built something, and then we destroyed it. One
such game involved card castles that we bombarded with a penny.
The second game that comes to mind is the one where each
player created a map and then we took turns flipping pennies in
the air to see what things on the other person's map were
destroyed.

Malfred, we went through this exact same stage! First it was lego fortresses and catapults, launching giant bricks of lego back and forth until one was destroyed.

Then it was K'Nex armor and weapons, where we'd physically fight it out trying to smash the other person's weapon to bits.

Good times, good times

I started with 40k 3rd ed so was 11?
12 long years later and I am still going strong

But from like the age of 7 I used to play D&D and other games like that, used to love playing games with models really.

I was 14, and started with Blood Bow. It was in 1994.

I played D&D, Runequest and Traveller and read White Dwarf from the age of 11 to 18 (1979-1986). Towards the latter end of that period I started buying and painting miniatures (they were 25p each back then!). I had a couple of half-hearted attempts at playing Warhammer FB (2nd ed) during my days at Uni, and even bought Rogue Trader, but really my heart wasn't in it, and I was much more involved with Re-enactment (not LARPing - the stuff we did involved research in libraries, making replicas of archaelogocial artefacts out of brass and steel, and hitting each other with them. Not dressing up in a couple of old blankets, shouting "lightning bolt" and hitting each other with a rubber boffer. There's a world of difference. Honest!)

I pretty much quit all my geeky hobbies on starting work and then getting married. However when my kids were babies and toddlers, I found myself in need of something to do in the evenings other than watching the mind-numbing rubbish that is on TV, and so dug out my old unpainted lead and found that many of my paints were still salvageable after over a decade being shunted around various attics! This also coincided with the release of LotR, in 2001, and since then I've been hooked. Firstly exclusively on LotR from 2001-2005, then gradually getting into what is now an unfeasible number of alternative games, mainly played with a mate who is of similar age and circumstances who lives across the road. Also, now my kids are older we are enjoying playing games together. Its a bonding thing!

In my youth I flired with it, playing spinoffs like Space crusade, hero quest and combat cards

but have only started collecting at 26 and playing at 27. Making me one of the oldest in my gaming group.

At age 14 I started with the Star Trek Combat Simulator in 1984. Battletech in 1985-87. Then Star Warriors. Then a 15 year hiatus with marriage, kids, work, etc. Then back into it after playing the first Dawn of War on the PC which drew me into Space Marines. Sold SM stuff to get into Grey Knights. Then IG.

Now Role-playing I started at 10 with D&D until age 13. I don't consider RPG the same as Wargaming even though they're both "make-believe".

I was 10 in 1991, and started out with HeroQuest and then Battlemasters. I suppose the next closest thing I could think of when I was 8 I read the Joe Dever "Lone Wolf" series, and there were pictures of Giaks attacking the Sommelending warriors, all of which were made by "Citadel Miniatures." Hmmmm.... So I guess that clocks me in at 22 years obssesing over little metal and plastic mens.

12 years though the various games. Though came to 40k only a couple years back!

Mistress of minis wrote:I started in 1987 with Battletech, I was 13 or 14.

Same system but I started in '86 at age 10

Started 40K in 1989 at the age 16. Kinda crazy I'm still playing at 37 y.o.

I used to play every now and then with my oldest brother when I was around 10 or 11. Then when I got a job at 16 I started to play regularly and bought my own army (CSM, oh how theyve changed )

malfred wrote:However, somewhere between the ages of 8 and 13 we made
games where we built something, and then we destroyed it.

Hmm, I guess that would count as a wargame

So, going back to when I was 9, me and the neighbor boys would build bunkers/trenches for GI-joes- and then see who built the best bunkers by shooting at eachothers guys with bb guns. I was pretty wicked with my lil crossman lol And we had to switch to green army men after I shot off too many heads or arms.

I still can hear my little brothers enraged cries of "YOU BROKE WETSUIT!!! ARRGHHHH " as he chased me around while I was laughing too much to run fast or fight back.

Kinda sad now, after seeing the prices of the collectible action figures and remember shooting them, blowing them up or cutting them in half with the Laser of Doom! (which was a magnifying glass...)

I started playing Battletech in 1989 at the age of 7. Battletech remains my first love and was my only foray into wargaming until 1998 when a friend invited me to play D&D 2nd edition with him and some friends from high school. From there I quickly branched out into White Wolf's World of Darkness setting, and eventually found 40k in 1999. I didn't have the spending ability to really play 40k so I dropped it shortly after starting and focused on RPGs, Battletech and later, Warmachine. It wasn't until 2009 that I got an itch to make a Guard army and I dove back into 40k. Now I just play 40k and Battletech and life is pretty good.

I started collecting at the tail end of 2nd edition 40k when I was a freshman or sophomore in high school, so around 13-14 years old. I really didn't get into the swing of playing all of the time until the next year when I discovered some friends at school that played.

I got my first Tau minis for Christmas when I was in 10th grade. So, lets see... I would have been 14 years old.

I started playing DnD when i was 7. Started learning about actual wargames when i was 9, got my first orc boys (back when they were practically 1 peice, and came in a box of 10 boys and 10 archers) never looked back. did spend a few years on hiatus after my army was stolen though.

Well, ignoring chess and computer games, I started wargaming when I was... eleven, I think? This would've been towards the end of second edition 40k. That said, I didn't actually stick with the hobby, and only really got into it properly within the past year, and even then my focus is very much on painting and building over playing.

On the other hand, I've loved electronic wargames, starting with Prince on the Atari ST when I was five, without surcease (hell, it's the fault of Shadow of the Horned Rat that I took an interest in GW in the first place. Well, that and Space Hulk, Space Crusade and Hero Quest). The highlights of that particular interest both came in 2000 - the greatest real-time tactics game ever released (Ground Control), and the greatest turn-based tactics game ever made (Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord) were both released that year, and have never been bettered.

Um, but I digress.

I started with board gamees like battletech and kingmaker at the age of 8. got the 40k starter for 3rd edition and been playing since. Now at the age of 24 I've been gaming for sometime haha.

I was given Space Hulk short after its first release, I remember the expansions coming out later so I would have been 6-7.

About 14 I suppose.

I started playing at 10, and painting at about 11, I think.

My first wargame was at 11 with Mechwarrior: Dark Age and played till I was 13, took a break and started warhammer 40k at late 18.

6 years old. Believe it or not thats when I recieved my first 40k model and I was not a dumbass.

I started in the late 80s with battletech in the good old fasa days.after that first Ed. 40k.

Got my awareness for it around 13. Started buying models the following year.

Found my first White Dwarf in 2001 - Age 12

Started Wargaming the following year in May 2002

There is a lot of Battletech loving in this thread. I used to always jokingly refer to it as my "gateway drug" and it looks like I am not alone.

It's funny, the majority of posters on this thread started wargaming at 14 or less. How many of us now rail against "kids" annoying them at the store or GW's targetting this age group as its primary audience?

Just sayin'.

Started back when I was 8,but I didn't really kick it into full gear until I was 14.

I would've been... 20 or 21, I think. Can't recall exactly at which point of the year I started, which would itself depend on whether you counted from when I first started looking at the rules/source material or when I bought my first models (AoBR, from Ebay). If you count from when I started playing/painting consistently, then... let me borrow your time machine, please? I'm 23 now and I still haven't made it there.

Started at the age of 10 with 40K, i was only really collecting then and not doing much serious gaming, that started when my uncles re-joined the hobby, i was 11 then. I think that's also when i started WHFB.

I was 10 years old when I started wargaming. That was when I found some skeletons in a shop and thought they looked cool.

^My story too, but I was 9, and it was the skeletons, but mainly the Zombie regiment, with the awesome artwork..

I got my first army (Black Templars) in 2001 when I was 14-15. I've been an avid gamer since 1990...when I was 3...broke my thumbs playing too much NES. GW has been horrible for my addiction.

Oh and I'm only 10 pounds over weight and I'm married, so I'm proud to be a gamer and have a life.

notprop wrote:It's funny, the majority of posters on this thread started wargaming at 14 or less. How many of us now rail against "kids" annoying them at the store or GW's targetting this age group as its primary audience?

Just sayin'.

I was a kid when I started, I just wasn't a douche. Also when I started there wasn't even a GW in Wales. We had to drive to England to spend some vouchers that were given to us.

Howard A Treesong wrote:

notprop wrote:It's funny, the majority of posters on this thread started wargaming at 14 or less. How many of us now rail against "kids" annoying them at the store or GW's targetting this age group as its primary audience?

Just sayin'.

I was a kid when I started, I just wasn't a douche. Also when I started there wasn't even a GW in Wales. We had to drive to England to spend some vouchers that were given to us.

Huh, I've been wondering about that - when I started (see earlier in thread. Somewhere between '96 and '98) I only ever went to the Gloucester GW (on weekends, when visiting my dad who lived there). This despite living in Newport. I honestly have no recollection of whether that was simply due to only going on weekends, or whether the Newport GW didn't exist at the time.

wiper wrote:Huh, I've been wondering about that - when I started (see earlier in thread. Somewhere between '96 and '98) I only ever went to the Gloucester GW (on weekends, when visiting my dad who lived there). This despite living in Newport. I honestly have no recollection of whether that was simply due to only going on weekends, or whether the Newport GW didn't exist at the time.

Cardiff was the first in Wales, when it appeared there were still probably no more than 20 stores across the whole of the UK. We went to Bristol to spend vouchers. Before that you could only get GW stuff in a shop called Encounter Games and if you remember *that* shop then you've been in the hobby well over 20 years. Newport came a good bit later than that, Newport was there when they had the great lead sale because I recall buying the first "white metal" figures in the Newport store the week after. And GW stopped using lead around 1993 because of changes in the law abroad (just had to wiki that date).

By the way, a bit off topic but you could see the Newport GW store in the background of an episode of the most recent series of the Sarah Jane Adventures.

Ah, it was certainly around when I was starting, then. Probably just a weekday issue (well, that and the fact it's never exactly been in the most prominent of places, hidden as it is behind that odd wall, er, thing).

Amused to learn that it's been on TV (albeit in incidental fashion) - hurrah for BBC Wales

I don't suppose you ever pop into the Newport store these days? The current manager, following the quiet death and rebirth of the store, is actually a really good guy, and has done impressive work getting the store back on its feet. And of getting me to spend far too much money on plastic (and metal) kits I really don't need. Which, thinking about it, goes hand in hand with the former achievement

And, er, I'm totally dragging this thread off-topic. I should probably stop talking now ^_^

I was about 21 when I started gaming.

Was introduced to the game when I was 10, through my older neighbour's Rogue Trader. I got into it at secondary school, with 2ed. Stopped for a few years in 3ed, and when I got back into it was the very end of 3ed. Been playing since. I'm 29 now.

Well for me me it was about 2000? My dad introduced me to his old space hulk and rogue trader space marines and decided to try and get me to play many bitten and badly painted marines later I finally got into LOTR when I was 7, so about 2002-3 then seriously got interested in 40k about 2006? So going into my eleventh year now and still enjoying it, which I hope is a good sign

Fourteen, in the tail end of 1988. I got some figs and 2nd edition Blood Bowl from Trago Mills near Liskeard.

That game brought me into GW hook line and sinker within a year, and I had 40K and fantasy stuff, along with Space Marine (epic) by the end of 89.

I began 40k when I was 13 or 14.
I did LoTR and RPGs when I was 9 or so.

I know what you mean, there was only a GW in Hammersmith when I started, maybe one or two other in the rest of the UK (Birmingham?). Suffice to say I wasn't allowed to get on the train up to London @ 11 so I would continually try to get my Dad to write cheques for me to send to GW mail order amongst others [no internet then kids ]

I was however lucky enough to witness many GW store opening up across southern England and managed to bag allot of great deals in their now defuct opening sales.

Yeah I remember going to Plymouth's and the Truro grand opening, the latter requiring a few hours on the bus from Launceston.

Well worth it with the multi-buy deals though.

Freshmen in highschool ....15.....1998! ---damn you 2nd edition blood angels staring back at me in the Games Plus store window on California ave in the Junction in West Seattle!

1998 at 23. Picked up the game to break my playstation addiction....lol. now addicted to plastic crack. My favorite toy as a kid growing up was Legos and I was a huge chess geek in school too. Add in the fact I grew up to Star Wars, Star Trek, and read all the Dune books... Yeah never saw this coming. 12 years later and I just insured my hobby collection for 10k.

I started around my 10th birthday with Blood Bowl in 1988.

I started 40k when I was in middle school, with 3rd edition orks.

I started at 13.

Heroics & Ros 1/300 WW2 gaming with Wargames Research Group rules. All played on terrain made from ceiling tiles!

Then Kingmaker, 1829, early D&D, Traveller, RuneQuest, Judge Dread RPG.

I remember going to GW's first little store on some little offshoot of the District Line to buy one of their games. Can't remember what it was called, but it was basically Risk with Nuclear Weapons. They had Rogue Trader which I completely ignored.

Finally started with 40K second edition.

Wish I still had the Judge Dread miniatures - they were fantastic.

1995, so around 10 or 11. Though I'd been buying the models since around 90-91.

Like most I started gaming by playing Magic: The Gathering. Then a few people starting painting these Eldar Striking Scorpion models and I took interest and from that point I started collecting a marine army. I was in the 7th grade so this would be back in 96ish? I still game but not as much as I used to. I'm playing possibly 2 - 3 tournaments per quarter.

Started miniatures gaming in 1972 with "Rules for Wargaming" by Arthur Taylor. I was 18.

14 i was fourteen, when my mate said '' hey lets do greenskins, you do night goblins and i'll or orcs''

he lost his orcs i think a couple of years later, night goblins still on display.

i've been playing longer then i have known my wife - o yeah she knows it

My first real game (with written rules) came at age 28. But then again that was 1977.

Have I replied to this thread? oh well, I started when I was 11 back in the halcyon days of 1991

I was 6, and my older brother got Rogue Trader (what eventually became 40K) and needed an opponent.

Then he sold the effing thing to a friend a year later because I kept beating him. I got the original Warhammer Fantasy Battle when I was 8 or so i think (still have it) and ran Undead (back when they were just one book and the most powerful wizard in the world was Nagash the Evil Clown..)

(still have him somewhere too..)

Last summer so I was 17

11 or 12 with 15mm airfix WW2 stuff. Then a friend and I started making our own rules for it. Then 40K was released and I discovered D&D. Spent a couple of years working for GW while at uni (Luton and Oxford Street stores), and built up a huge army.

Then, got out of the hobby, moved to the US, gave away a lot of my stuff (bad bad mistake). Then had kids who decided they were into games and rediscovered the hobby with them.

Now why did I give my land raiders away again?

notprop wrote:It's funny, the majority of posters on this thread started wargaming at 14 or less. How many of us now rail against "kids" annoying them at the store or GW's targetting this age group as its primary audience?

Just sayin'.

When I started, GW didn't have ANY stores outside of the UK.
I started 40k at 18/19 - not 12 as is customary nowadays. I at least knew SOMETHING about wargaming and didn't need some beep-bip-bop vidjagame to tell me stuff that had no relation to the tabletop version.

In those days, Games store staff didn't target the munchkins. Gamers were mostly uni students or late teens (high school seniors). We knew when to stop buying stuff though, so GW switched targets to an easier, softer one. Guilty parents.

chromedog wrote:In those days, Games store staff didn't target the munchkins. Gamers were mostly uni students or late teens (high school seniors). We knew when to stop buying stuff though, so GW switched targets to an easier, softer one. Guilty parents.

By the time I was working there (early 90s) it had already turned into the day care center for kids whose parents were off to the shops (or probably down the boozer). Being the part timer, I used to teach them how to paint and the other two staff got to play games with them. The parents weren't really around to try and guilt trip into buying stuff.

chowderhead13 wrote:Ah yes, the age old question to determine rank. So Dakka, when did you become addicted to wargaming?

I was beginning to wargame at age 10, with 4th Edition WH40k.

Awesome. same here

Mageknight when I was 11-13

40k when I was 16-19 (Current)

I bought my first models of WFB when I was 14. 5th edition chaos warriors(thought they looked bad ass) and the plastic saurus basic paint starter kit.

The next week I bought the 5th edition summary book and decided on Empire. Wizards of the Coast was going out of business and had 50% off GW. Got the battalion for $45 for Christmas, and the 6th edition box set for my birthday shortly after. Here we are some 11 years later and I still have some of those paints.

I started at 18 in 2007. I definitely don't qualify as a vet.

when I was ten...so five years ago...I'm a kiddo. I know.

I was around 11 or 12 When I started - almost 20 years ago :-/

some friends got me to start warmachine with them back when i was 19ish, started branching out into a gw and odds'n'ends a few years after that, so 6 years or so i've been in the hobby now (granted, i played magic the gathering and tabletop rpgs years before that)

started age 11. I guess thats 4th ed. Been doing it for 4 years and I already have a massive stock pile of models. (parents complain about it a lot.)

I beat you all.... I started at the age of 2!!!
my dad was a 40k nut and so where all his friends.
Heck I WAS RAISED ON SPACE MARINES!!!!!!!!

I got my first RPG when I was about 10. D&D the red box set. I did a lot of RPG playing during high school and up until my mid 20s or so. D&D, Robotech, Vampire, Shadowrun, Gamma World, etc.

I started scale modeling around 12 or 13. Started with 1/48 aircraft then moved into 1/35 armor.

I started with minis when I was 15. I went over to a friends house after school one day to play some game he was all into. It was Battletech. I was pretty "meh" about it until he broke out the minis. Little stompy robots with big guns...it was all over. I was hooked on minis from that day on.

Started to play Wargaming till I was 27, first with Warmachine and later 40k in 5th edition.

@Mad4Minis - Haha, the red box D&D was also my first purchase before 40K came out. I only got it because the 2ed WFB in the local toy shop that I had been saving my pocket money for had finally been sold.

Should have order WFB in rather than take the leap on something else. I never met one person that wanted to play D&D.

Damm I regret buying that even after 24 years!

notprop wrote:@Mad4Minis - Haha, the red box D&D was also my first purchase before 40K came out. I only got it because the 2ed WFB in the local toy shop that I had been saving my pocket money for had finally been sold.

Should have order WFB in rather than take the leap on something else. I never met one person that wanted to play D&D.

Damm I regret buying that even after 24 years!

Must be something about your area...Ive probably played more D&D than any other single game. Even living in several different towns and 2 states. Theres even a game going right now that I could jump in on if I had the time.

I was eight when I got my first minis, and earliest D&D books. I remember that for my 9th birthday, I got a box of Grenadier halflings. I guess 'wargaming' might include the simplistic games we played with those, or picking up the small silver Chainmail book. I've been painting minis on an off for the last 30 years.

I didn't get into really playing until 2004 though.

few days after my 11th birthday

Between 12-14 being shown the Rogue Trader rulebook.

Aged 12-13 and seeing a mates white dwarf. Went into a games store the next week and my dad bought me white dwarf 135, been hooked since then... especially my love of the imperial guard!

At 13, about 1 year before the Chaos Codex came out for 2nd edition... so so long ago...

When I was 11, in 1996
my neighbour , who was 5 years older than me, was a very talented painter. He had painted his entire heroes quest set, was starting squats 40k (he got me into Eldar) and he played Necromunda.

I bought a Van Saar Necromunda set, then his Bretonnians off him when 4th Edition came out and played in a teacher's office in the school with other likeminded players.

It has been a very long ride come to think of it... almost 15 years...

Started doing WW2 planes when I was 4 or 5 but started Warhammer 40k when I was 7 been doing it 5 and a bit years now.

FITZZ wrote: I was a very "late bloomer" as far as Wargaming was concerned,I didn't have a clue what it even was until I was in my late 20's and didn't actually start playing until I was 30.

THIS^

My first war game was a Battletech 3rd 3dition box set, so right around '92. That would have made me 12.

Unless you count BattleMasters, that was a year or so earlier.

I was about 14/15 years old in highschool and started playing/collecting space wolves! that was 15 years ago and i've only had a couple of short breaks throughout for a couple of years, thanks to my bitchy ex girlfriends who didn't like me playing with toys!....


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sweeeeeeet 600 posts :-) happy days