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I'm interested to know what got you into this wonderful hobby. I'm 16 and stumbled on warhammer by accident. I ordered dungeons and dragons books from the library, and they ordered warhammer fantasy rulebook.... I started playing fantasy with an uncle who had miniatures. Needless to say I wanted my own miniatures, wherein I found 40k. Loved the lore and the fluff. The models looke cool, I played with a friend a few times using army men and pdf eulebooks. That was 3 years ago. I finally got a job and some money, I bought aobr and some paint. Converting the sm into csm and fencing them for some daemons. That's my story

I've only been playing for a little under two years now. Third year of university when I watched a spaceship combat game which got me into wargaming in general.

1987.

Why? Because it was SF (fantasy has never been something I've been into.).

A scant few years earlier, I had read Asimov's Foundation series, Herbert's Dune trilogy (at that point - by 1987 it was up to 5 books I think), Harry Harrison's Deathworld stories, Nemesis and Torquemada and Judge dredd from 2000AD, Heinlein's Starship Troopers and a few others.

40k was the game that seemed to combine elements of ALL of this source material into ONE cohesive (somewhat) game.

I started in 2009, when I read the Imperial Guard omnibus and the Ultramarines omnibus.

I started playing in 1999 or 2000 I believe it was. I had a friend who played WFB and tried to get me into that, I was on GW website looking up WFB stuff and saw 40k and was instantly in love with it. Surprisingly enough 2 guys I was in school with played and I got started with my little brother. My first army was Tyranids and then I played Tau the summer they came out. I quit playing as my play group moved away and I happened to meet a few friends through MTG that were interested in playing and we have been playing on and off since 2008. Currently I am just getting back into it and started building a GK army as I liked the fluff of them but didnt know they were "OP" until I actually purchaed some and started my force. I enjoy playing but wish there was a place or more people closer to me that currently play.

You know that thing where both members of a couple abruptly develop new hobbies after they get married? Mine was a pet lizard and miniatures wargaming (hers, btw, was makeup). I started a little more than a year ago.

I play 40k because I don't have a lot of free time to play games in. In order to make sure I could get to play, I needed to play the game that had the most evenings a week. 40k won by a landslide. I also play other games (which I honestly prefer), but 40k is enjoyable enough to keep me hooked.

I started 40k at the launch of RT, back in 198x (1987?).
I'd been getting White Dwarf for ages, for the D&D stuff, and had looked into WHFB, but hadn't made the leap.
When Rogue Trader hit, I got a couple of models for all sorts of armies, and we played week-long games on my bedroom floor.

It was the fluff, and the image that 40k portrayed that got me.

I started playing in about 2003 when a friend took me to Warhammer world for his birthday, then suprised me by giving me a box set of Lord of the Rings Last Alliance models, paints and glue to get me started. However, after becoming bored with the system after about 4 years playing it, my group of friends took the leap into 40K and we haven't looked back since. Were it not for that trip to warhammer world I doubt I would have got involved with the hobby in any great way

For me it all started in Christmas 1990 when I was bought Space Crusade and Mission: Dreadnought. From there, it took me over a year to discover Space Hulk and then White Dwarf, 40k Rogue Trader and Epic soon afterwards. An early game of 40k that I always remember acted as a catalyst for me. I remember one of my L4 psychers using telekineses to pick up a Marine dreadnought and dropping it on a nearby squad.

Well my uncle always had 40k models lying around his house and I've always thought they look cool, then about 2-3 years ago (when I was 11) he invited me to come with him to a 40k tournament in Warhammer World. I had a great day watching him play 40k, looking at other peoples' armies and going around the place.

He even bought me a box of Dire Avengers to get me started! I thought they looked the coolest

Since then I've continued in the hobby expanding my Eldar army and even started a DA army and so far I've loved it!

The early 90s. 1992 or 1993, can't remember exactly. It was right around the release of 2nd Edition, but the guys were playing Rogue Trader, and let me have partial control of a Squat army.

While I never actually collected Squats, it may be why I have something of a soft spot for the bastards.

I started in 2000. The reason was MTG, actually. I was playing then with my friends, whose parents were all fantastically more wealthy than my own (I wasn't poor, but one of my friends' dads was a regional VP for a multinational corporation and another was in charge of an entire research facility, etc.). This meant that my friends could afford to buy cards individually, while I was stuck buying booster packs.

Especially in the early days of MTG, that had fewer of the constraints it has now, this meant that after a half a year of playing, I was getting slaughtered in every single game - it wasn't even close anymore. After a few weekends in a row of getting completely shut out in every game against each of my friends, I was done.

What I wanted was to have a game I could play wherein your ability to win wasn't based purely on how much money you had. It was around this time I heard about a game called 40k where the choices you had were limited by a codex, and that each individual game was played with a set number of points. Instead of my friends being able to pick as many units of whatever codex they wanted and field as many of them as they wanted, regardless of what I was showing up with, in this game, there were actual rules to make sure that games were fair.

Add to that the fact that I was already painting in miniature for non-gaming reasons, and it seemed the obvious fit.

I started in 7th grade. And because some friends talked me ino it saying they prefered it over fantasy. So I was in 7th grade from 98-99. Crazy thinking how long ago that was. Even crazier knowing that half my life I have been playing 40k

I started playing in 1987. The miniatures were cool and the background was so dark and foreboading. I really enjoyed those early years as the fluff expanded and new rules, races, and units were released. Now the universe is too static for my tastes but the models keep me interested.

I love that my Realms of Chaos books had a parental warning on them, something i was careful to make sure my parents didnt notice. Oh and heaven forbid my best friends mom see it as she tried to get me to burn my D&D books and rebuke satan. Imagine if she saw papa nurgle...

My parents were similar in regards to d&d. But they got over it. Then I bought blood letters..

I started in 1994. My brother brought home a White Dwarf his friend lent him, and we both loved the new Titan Legions game. In particular, I really liked the Imperator. So we drove about 3 hours to the closest GW, walked in, and our dad bought us Titan Legions, while alternatively recommending this other game, Warhammer 40,000. We wanted Titan Legions.

6 months later, we bought 40k and never looked at Titan Legions again, except when Epic 40,000 was released, to grab all of the old models.

To this day, whenever my brother and I talk about 40k when my dad is around, he always says something along the lines of 'remember when I drove you guys all the way to Games Workshop, and said you should by 40k instead of that other game, but noooooo, you wanted the other game? Do you even know where the stuff from that game is now?'.

She got over it too. It only took about a decade...

Begginging of my junior year in HS.