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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.