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Title says it all - why do you love it? Or rather what and how and why do you love this crazy passionate hobby of miniature warriors on the tabletop?
For me my reasons have changed through the years. Originally it was all about tanks and walking castles. Of having loads of thundering tanks rolling over the battlefield and large armies doing war whilst having massive walking war engines towering over all firing vast cannon in all directions. Yeah Titan Legions was my love and I had no interest in 35mm at all!
Sadly around the time I got into it few in my area were into it and even the older kids who were were more 35mm fans. I recall seeing skaven and a brass scorpion and other such models and they did look cool, but I wanted titans and tanks, but never really got the chance. My models of the time saw more use on tables with a considerable amount of "pew pew" going on as opposed to dice rolling.
Steadily I shifted forward and adapted and found a love of Tyranids - monsters and aliens that looked really unique and cool and way more neat than those chunky space marines. Though my early toe dipping was small. - again I was plagued by a lack of easy to get at games (indeed that has plagued me for a good long while).
Fast forward through many changes (which I honestly can't remember all the ups and downs and ins and outs of) and today what I love is far more broad:
1) I have a love of detail and quality in the models and in aiming to achieve as high a finish as I can. I likely spend way too long removing mould lines and filling in gaps. But I enjoy the pride at producing a really well put together model, of being able to look at it closely and see that it looks solid and well made.
2) I've a much deeper enjoyment and awareness of the lores in general. As of late I've even started reading many of the Black Library publications. Taking something that I formally was happy with at a codex and casual chatter level, far deeper. Reading up on old and new stories as the worlds evolve and change; seeing heroes and characters and armies fighting it out across the pages.
For me the imagination of the armies and factions is a big thing and I won't deny - games like Dawn of War and Warhammer Total War have really built this up for me a lot. Heck Dawn of War tempted me greatly to build a Marine army (I never have barring those early Titan Legions tanks and troops and latter Epic 40K)
Heck I'd love to see Warmaster released now - I always hummed and harred over starting it and never did and I now regret it.
3) The laughter at the table. Yep when you get a game and you're playing it out and silly or amazing or cinematic or whatever things happen. The ups and downs of the match and the genuine laughter with your opponent and joy at playing. When that 1 genestealer refuses to die to a whole swarm of orks; when that swarm of tyranids charges and does nothing to a loan scout; when that tank that's been tearing into your army for the whole game finally blows up etc.... The social interaction and sharing of the battle in a joint effort with your opponent even though you still want to win and they do.
4) I want to put the joy at having painted things in here - but I've got to learn how to paint before I get this joy. It's an enjoyment I want, and I desire and which is niggilng at me that I've not yet mastered nor even put in the real time to improve on. One day - one day!!
So for me there's a lot I appreciate that goes more than just competing and winning. So what's it for you - what do you like and enjoy - come share!
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2019/01/13 12:24:10
I love making things and making things up! Even when i was a little kid I loved making stories based around legos and whatever other toys i had around.
So now i do the same thing, but with more glue and accidentally stabbing myself involved. It is good.
I loved games - in many forms - as a youngster and I think it started with Adventure game books. My brother would read the Way of the Tiger series while I would go through the Transformer game books. I remember an Asterix game book too and others such as Deathtrap Dungeon and Space Assassin...
We had the usual board games - Cluedo, Monopoly, Master Mind - but the games that changed it for us was Thunder Road and Space Crusade. Suddenly the playing pieces and boards took on a far greater role. Eventually, when moving house and changing schools we came across the culture of wargaming and the almost rebellious hobby of Warhammer 40K. Oh, in between moving we had to rent for a few months and the girl next door had Heroquest( and yes, she was indeed good looking, but I was only 11-ish and not paying attention to all that jazz ) but couldn't figure out how to play it. She let me borrow it for the next few evenings and we took to the game like fish to water. Hero quest was pretty cool!
Games have always been a part of my life, and I remember fondly the ITV show Knightmare. That had a huge impact on me and has led up today where I now want to pursue a career in VR.
Eventually programming and computer games took over my life and although I still enjoyed painting miniatures, I felt it was a childish somehow and saw programming as my step into adulthood. Sadly, I threw all my miniatures away with a zen attitude to a 100% focus on computing...no more games.
Unfortunately, that had a damaging long-term effect. My father is an engineer, my mother a creative, artistic person and I'm as much one as the other. In a nutshell I became the engineer, but because I had cut off my creative side I no longer knew what to do with that programming skill. Basically, I was programming for the sake of it...
Two years ago, I remembered my 10th Birthday and the evening me and my brother played our first game of Space Crusade into the early hours of new years day, 1990. Our favourite film, Aliens, had come to life! My 36th was approaching and googled the game, for old times sake. People still played it and made new content and rules. Just for a laugh I made a little solo version of the game( I still knew the rules like the back of my hand ) and I loved it! Began watching videos and set aside my Sundays to get up to speed once again...
...didn't have the dice nor card decks so I wrote Android apps to remedy that. Its an on going project, but its bought happiness back into my life. Started collecting game-books once again( including the recent run of Way of the Tiger ) and GW was calling to me. Wishing they had a Space Crusade-like game yet shocked at the price tag for Space Hulk, I was delighted to rediscover Lost Patrol. GW really screwed that one up, but using the original as a guide line I changed the rules and swapped the Genestealers for Hormagaunts. I love it as much as Space Crusade! At the same time I came across an Osprey book called Ronin and was like "OMG! Its a skirmish game! Like old Warhammer!". Wow, boardgames and tabletop was back with a vengence( and a bloody big hike in price! )...
I must say, it was a healing process and made more use of my programming skill to write Android apps and even the prototype for a choose-your-own-adventure game( I must finish it someday! ). VR is my true calling but deep down I have this idea for a solo-cooperative tabletop game, that I would like to put into a pdf to distribute and maybe as a cheap download or something. It keeps nagging at me because the idea is pretty good, but I'd best keep that hand to myself for a while...
It allows me to escape my daily life and various hardships. And sink into a world where I do not need to worry about my health, job or other daily hassels. That and I love working on my Hail Caesare and pike & shot armies.
Building worlds and telling stories in them. Wargaming to me was always like much more interactive train sets.
"By this point I'm convinced 100% that every single race in the 40k universe have somehow tapped into the ork ability to just have their tech work because they think it should."
Sammus sounds like gaming has had quite the impact in your life! Though its a shame to hear you sold on all your old stuff, but hopefully your new projects are rekindling your love of the gaming world and who knows you imght yet fully return to models and paint and glue and all those good things!
Overread wrote: Sammus sounds like gaming has had quite the impact in your life! Though its a shame to hear you sold on all your old stuff, but hopefully your new projects are rekindling your love of the gaming world and who knows you imght yet fully return to models and paint and glue and all those good things!
Cheers for that. The online community - especially here and Oldhammer - have been very supportive.
Sadly, my collection was binned( Eldar Avatar and a Falcon Tank...urghh. ) although one very small box did survive. It contained some raw metal miniatures such as Jain Zarr, a Lictor and a Banshee Exarch. Phew!
Come to think of it, I've been buying a lot of Tyranids over the last two years! 12 Hormies, 5 Termies, 20 Genies...and there is still that unassembled Lictor...hmm! I suppose a Kill Team Broodlord could sneak its way into the collection...what do you think, Overread?
Overread wrote: Sammus sounds like gaming has had quite the impact in your life! Though its a shame to hear you sold on all your old stuff, but hopefully your new projects are rekindling your love of the gaming world and who knows you imght yet fully return to models and paint and glue and all those good things!
Cheers for that. The online community - especially here and Oldhammer - have been very supportive.
Sadly, my collection was binned( Eldar Avatar and a Falcon Tank...urghh. ) although one very small box did survive. It contained some raw metal miniatures such as Jain Zarr, a Lictor and a Banshee Exarch. Phew!
Come to think of it, I've been buying a lot of Tyranids over the last two years! 12 Hormies, 5 Termies, 20 Genies...and there is still that unassembled Lictor...hmm! I suppose a Kill Team Broodlord could sneak its way into the collection...what do you think, Overread?
The SWARM Hungers - it needs feeding. Unleash the might of the swarm atop the table and let your broods feast upon the biomass of your fallen foes. Let the might of the Hive Mind spread far and wide, the will of the Swarm to dominate and consume all before it!
The SWARM Hungers - it needs feeding. Unleash the might of the swarm atop the table and let your broods feast upon the biomass of your fallen foes. Let the might of the Hive Mind spread far and wide, the will of the Swarm to dominate and consume all before it!
I love fantasy and Sci Fi, and have done since I read the Hobbit when I was very young and was introduced to 2000AD when I was probably a bit TOO young .
Wargaming for me was and is a way to immerse myself into a fantasy world in a more tactile way. Painting the miniatures and playing with them helps me to put myself into a world, and I find the process of working on them super relaxing and good for my mental health.
It is something to think about outside of my work and general stresses in life, something where I can roll ideas around in my head and ponder them while I am commuting or taking a walk during my lunch break.
It's funny though. My hobby has changed a lot in the past decade. I emigrated in 2010 and left behind my friends who were all competitive players. I used to have a great time going to tournaments and playing with them. When I pondered the hobby back then, I used to spend a lot of time thinking about lists and systems, or doing mathhammer in my head.
I haven't really had many actual games since I left, never found the time to get a group.I started using my miniatures for Dungeons and Dragons just to give me an outlet and an encouragement to use them, and it has really pushed me to paint stuff in a way I hadn't for years. Now I mostly daydream about paintjobs, stuff I want to assemble, and possible uses for models in my game. I feel much less tied to any one manufacturer and instead look at everything available.
I would love to get back to playing, and I think it is going to be a goal of mine this year to use my models for an actual wargame. The system is totally unimportant to me now, I just want to be able to use my toys.
Lastly, as I have gotten older I have really started to appreciate historical games. Since I left Ireland, making historical miniatures and terrain has been a way to spur me to read more history and to connect with the history of my home in a reallly satisfying way. I have not made huge progress on my historical projects, probably because of little prospect of using them in play any time soon, but I am hoping to make a change with that this year.
I love building the battlefields and conceiving the story behind the battle itself. then painting up the armies, etc. we do a lot of map campaigns and such.
Forty two years ago, The Hobbit blew my mind when I first read it. An everyman hero, adventure, wonder, worldbuilding and maps, and a gateway to the heroes of the Old North. I was already a Sci Fi reader, but this was... real.
A few years later, D&D did the same thing, but tenfold. I was already drawing maps and telling stories without rules, this legitimised and put structure on my creations. Could I really fight the goblin king, would my knight's manor really survive at the edge of the wild?
Wargaming lets me build those worlds for real in a very physical sense, gave adventures in those mountains and forests, cities and castles, alien planets and abandoned bases...
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2019/01/13 22:41:59
Started with Heroquest, and has been a massive part of my life since. To the degree that everyone I know in town is no more than two steps removed from being a GW Hobbyist who played in store.
Fed up of Scalpers? But still want your Exclusives? Why not join us?
No idea ... probably something to do with a pack of 1/72 scale Airfix commandos when I was ... 5? 6? (that would have been ca. too long ago)
Interim: lots of stuff with Charles Grant.
Later: more modelling than gaming (as in 0 gaming, but I plan to change that).
Nowadays, I just love that feeling when you have the scalpel almost touching the part you wanna cut and then you realise "I'm totally gonna cut myself" and you do it anyway? And cut yourself... feth!
I suppose because it's the last safe space for socially awkward men where I can kinda exist in peace without worrying that random women are being triggered just from being in the same room with me.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2019/01/14 06:11:47
Posters on ignore list: 36
40k Potica Edition - 40k patch with reactions, suppression and all that good stuff. Feedback thread here.
Gangs of Nu Ork - Necromunda / Gorkamorka expansion supporting all faction. Feedback thread here.
1. Building worlds/telling stories. That's why I got started, and why my fav GW game is Necromunda, and why I went so hard into the 40KRPGs when they were around (ended up writing a bunch of them!).
2. Building buildings! I love building terrain. Of all the miniatures out there, terrain is without a shadow of a doubt the one thing I adore constructing.
3. Tanks! I love tanks. Tanks are awesome.
lord_blackfang wrote: I suppose because it's the last safe space for socially awkward men where I can kinda exist in peace without worrying that random women are being triggered just from being in the same room with me.
Now it's just the men you've got to worry about triggering!
I really enjoy reading, and it's no coincidence that many of the games I play often are licensed products of things I enjoy reading. I'm a big comic buff, so when I found my local Batman group I was all in on that game (and to this day only ever expanding) and comics are where I tend to find inspiration for lists and new models. With almost all the games I've played, I've tried to engross myself in as much of the lore as I could before buying in, and I'll never play a faction for any primary reason other than aesthetic or background. That's not to say I won't decide to take "stronger" options in those factions, but I'll still do so within the framework of what I think looks better and prefer fluff of. I found this to be the case with 40k/30k and Malifaux more than any other non-licensed game, just because the wealth of readily available material and the quality of it was so much higher than others (Warmachine I found to be notably inferior in this regard).
I also really love the modelling side of it, although I'm not the greatest at it, and it's a large part of what got me playing in the first place. Around age 13-14 I began modelling Airfix WW2 kits, and it wasn't long after I had bought into 40k and started playing that quite religiously. It was my first real access point into the hobby, and my interest in modelling has continued since, albeit drastically decreased. The days of assembling 100-200 piece vehicles are past me, and I now more enjoy 5-10 piece single miniatures as my normal.
Since my early teens I loved Lord of the Rings, but when I came into the hobby I never considered playing the GW game for some reason. Now, 5 years later, I'm 3 armies deep and absolutely loving the game, planning to read the books again for inspiration and eagerly awaiting Gondor at War. LotR has gotten me revitalised in terms of painting and especially basing, where other projects were more "I want this on the table" in the recent past.
I got into wargaming in the 80s and really got into it in the army in the 90s. I got into it because I love the sight of two armies clashing, managing battle lines, and puzzling through maneuvers.
Which is why I have issues with most modern games today. They removed most of those elements and turned things into a form of deckbuilding combo exercise only instead of using cards we use expensive models.
It's better than most video games. Something about Wargaming/D&D's social aspect. Simply nerding out about fluff, paint schemes, terrain, past games, and future hobby projects makes it a wonderful hobby
I don't have a singular answer to this question - there are lots of elements at play. One of the biggest reasons is the sheer visual aspect. Anyone can open up Steam and play a game that looks nice. But seeing physical models on a table kitted-out with terrain is just so satisfying. Even more so when you realize you painted those minis, you made this happen. GW may have laid the groundwork for the lore, given you names, factions and places, but the army is yours. You decide the fluff, the colors, the backstory of the battle unfolding on the table.
Piggybacking off that, wargaming rewards skills. Painting, converting, actually playing the game, building lists - these are part and parcel of the game. And the more time you put into them, the better you'll get. It's a hobby where you can always learn something new and improve at.
For me, it’s the models - especially the vehicles and planes. The world they exist in, the stories around them, is my secondary draw. When it comes down to it, that there is a game to play them with is a tertiary concern of mine.
However, let me be clear - that rules are a tertiary concern doen’t Give GW a pass on a lot of their bad rule writing; it does mean I won’t buy their rulebooks and may use other game systems instead. And that means that I’m not far from dumping their miniatures for any other company that makes good looking minis as well.
Tabetop games scratch a ton of itches for me. It provides a creative outlet, giving me a way to sit quietly at night and create something uniquely mine. It feeds that "gotta catch'em all" collectors mentality as well as the RPGish stat analysis and character (army) design urges I've often gotten from gaming. It provides casts of colorful characters I used to love in Saturday morning cartoons and videogames.
Above all else though, I think what really keeps me invested in miniatures is that it replicates the kind of on the couch multiplayer I've always loved. The game store feels similar to the arcades for me and its really the sense of community and shared interest that drives me to keep playing.
There are loads of good answers and contributions here already, including some that closely mirror my experience.
For me...
Look, loads of people like games... video games are bigger than anything these days... But it's often in the downtime between games where you can tell the difference between someone who likes them and someone who really loves them.
So the games that deliver the most long-term joy to a real enthusiast are the ones where the thinking and planning and reading and learning and stuff you can do between each game is as good as (or sometimes better than!) the game itself.
Miniature games are the apex of this because for most people the amount of reading, list building, model building and painting vastly exceeds the actual game time.
The other aspect for things like Warhammer and Magic the Gathering and even really successful video games like League of Legends is size of the knowledge space. I love the point where you realise how much you don't know... when you understand the sheer scale and complexity of the interactions between all the factions/cards/characters etc.
And finally for miniatures there's the skill aspect of painting. When I look at my models and think "yeah that's good" or when people ask me "did you paint this?!" you get that feeling of personal development and pride that no amount of Netflix or Grand Theft Auto can really offer.
TO of Death Before Dishonour - A Warhammer 40k Tournament with a focus on great battles between well painted, thematic armies on tables with full terrain.
Painting is my adult coloring book for stress release and relaxing. And my dad and brother both play war games so it’s a good drink a beer and play together type event.
Cadre Coronal Afterglow w1;d0;l0 
" I'm sorry, but after 7200 's that has to be the most annoying sign-off ever." 
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