How Long Have You Been in the Hobby?

[Aegisgrimm]

I'm not sure which edition released when, but I was beginning to paint actual 40k and WHFB minis when I was about 12-13, in the early to mid 90's.  But technically I was into Warhammer back when Chaos was advancing on Altdorf in the game Battlemasters when it came out in 1992.  Hopefully in 2-3 years that same copy will be my son's first wargame, too.

Unfortunately my dead zone of a state means I have played less GW games in that time than some people who have started a year ago.

[Nos]

Back end of 4th, heavy into it from 5th through to the start of 7, as well as 6th Warhammer which I think was by far the best balance between character/games/models there has been I also played quite a bit of Mordheim, Warmaster (probably the best ruleset GW produced but sadly quite niche) and Fellowship of the Ring which had excellent skirmish rules not dissimilar to AOS.

At around 7th GW seemed to lose a lot of its friendly neighbourhood hobbyist vibe and White Dwarf became a catalogue and I dropped out until AOS 1.5 or so.

It was actually the things like Duncan’s vids, a return to Boardgames and more of a hobby focus in general that got me back in. I feel as though GW is probably in as good a place as it was when I started at this stage. 

I find the constant demands to make AOS something it isn’t, either a hyper competitive “balanced” system, or something in which all factions are equally treated as each other to be incredibly odd, as it is the asstmetrical character and tone and focus on narrative which has allowed GW to develop such a powerful and popular brand over the years and prevented it from becoming an also-ran or bankrupt.

Many things have changed in the 20+ years I’ve followed Warhammer but the single consistent aspect has always been that Warhammer is a World first, and the models are simply a system of simulating the stories and protagonists within it. If you look at countless other fantasy offerings this is easily proven, plenty strive for more competitive or balanced or better rules systems but without the heart of Warhammer lore and models they don’t go anywhere.

If Warhammer/AOS was just half assed Rat men and Evil Knights and vanilla Goblins etc who play well on the table but have no character it would have died a decade ago. Careful what you wish for. 

[Throt the Unclean]

6th edition for me. I've played Skaven since I started. 

[Artobans Ghost]

6th ed. 5 armies and 40 5th ed 5 armies AoS  3 armies 2005-2011 2017- today. 

Physically almost non existent except for fluff and rules at the moment but hope to be up and running soon if we stay where we are living. Otherwise a new place in August  with hopefully enough room to start again. If we stay, it should be st least 4 1/2 years so I’ll invest in the new room. Only 11’ x 5’  but we do what we must. If not I Havnt the energy to set up for a few months. 

First game was with my 12 year old son at the time. He’s almost 26 now. . Orks and empire starter box 6th ed at home on our home made table. He got me into the hobby and I was hooked. 

[mastercrafted]

5th edition starter which was lizardmen vs brettonians was my first foray into warhammer fantasy. Actually started the hobby in 94 with 40k though. Had a long break pretending to not be a warhammer nerd around 98, before returning in 2013 with 40k again. Started playing AOS last summer, and is the main game for me right now

[Kirjava13]

I clicked 3rd by accident, but it was 4th, maybe during the tailend before 5th, for me. I distinctly remember that box of plastic Clanrats who had to either look like crabs or rank up really unevenly if they didn't want to be stabbing each other in the back of the head. In 5th, my best friend got a naff little Undead army and a naff little Bretonnian army to rival my naff little Skaven army. Someone had some Wood Elves. And there was a Bright Wizard who boomeranged back and forth between houses. 

I took a break from actually playing the game, as a lot of people did, but always kept one eye on the hobby until I got back in a couple of years ago. With Skaven, of course. 

[Shroud Of Night]

I was first introduced in 5th edition but I took a long break and only got back into the game a little before the End Times. 

[Future]

So I guess this poll determined the main source of toxicity is whfb players, not new players?  

[Sleboda]

18 minutes ago, Future said:

So I guess this poll determined the main source of toxicity is whfb players, not new players?  

Not really. There's no data to make the connection. This was just a poll about entry point, inspired by the toxicity in the other thread.

[Future]

2 hours ago, Sleboda said:

Not really. There's no data to make the connection. This was just a poll about entry point, inspired by the toxicity in the other thread.

Check post history of everyone who replied in this thread. The data is out there

[herohammer]

3 minutes ago, Future said:

Check post history of everyone who replied in this thread. The data is out there

Honestly I hear more complaining from people who switched to AOS from 40k rather than preexisting WHFB players in real life at least, don't know about on this forum. The vast majority of WHFB players that I know either like AOS and play it, or simply quit playing Warhammer when AOS came out to focus on other things like MMOs, Malifaux, etc.

[Sleboda]

37 minutes ago, Future said:

Check post history of everyone who replied in this thread. The data is out there

Not worth the effort for me. 😁

[NJohansson]

Joind somewhere end of 4ed - beginning of 5ed. Still remember all the insanely powerful spells and the “Fly High” rule. Amuses me to no end to hear all the complaints on how the game is unbalanced right now:)

[Lowki]

Depends on what you define as "the hobby". I bought my first citadel miniatures in the early 80's (don't ask me for the exact year though), mostly for using it with D&D en just for the fun of painting them. First game edition I bought was much later": 3rd edition (had to check), and in fact I never got much into playing the game although I was interested and bought most editions that followed. I didn't have friends who have interest in the game, and also never managed to complete a full army painted.

Over the years I kept paining and collecting though, with some major gaps of inactivity.

[Aegisgrimm]

Besides Battlemasters, I actually started playing 40k in a very AoS-like fashion after I bought an old boardgame called Tyranid Attack when I was probably 10 years old.  My best friend and I used the boardgame profiles for the minis in the game (changing the grid measurements to inches) and added in the stats for alternate forces in the back of the book where the marine player could swap out some of their scouts for Space Marines or Terminators. 

 

Then we just plonked the models on a table with some homemade terrain and had fun battles that were not in the least balanced, and the armies started getting larger as I ventured into buying the blisterpack metals.

 

Used to do the same thing with Fantasy as a skirmish game by taking individual models from their Battle Masters unit trays and slotting them into spare bases, using HeroQuest dice, rules and stats (homemade when necessary) to field small warbands amongst model trees and terrain made from my father's train-set making materials.  I fondly remember the fuse-lighter from the Great Cannon being used as my awesome Wizard, lol.

Not my paintjob, but this figure:

[amysrevenge]

9 hours ago, herohammer said:

The vast majority of WHFB players that I know either like AOS and play it, or simply quit playing Warhammer when AOS came out to focus on other things like MMOs, Malifaux, etc.

This matches my experience exactly.  My community is mostly led at the top by the WFB players who stuck around, and mostly populated by people new to Warhammer with AoS.  The WFB people who didn't like AoS moved on to WMH or 9th Age. 

At the local annual 50 player season-capping event, if you look between 2014 and 2019 maybe 10-15 faces would be the same, the rest would be brand new.

[Blightzkrieg]

I've been passively following Games Workshop since I was like 10 and saw some Warhammer in a hobby store, I thought it was the coolest thing in the world.

A few years ago I started looking into actually getting into WHFB, only to discover the world was in the process of being blown up and people were talking about quitting GW en masse.

Decided to check in again a few months back after spending a few months playing Total War Warhammer, and was ecstatic to find out the game (or the new game, anyway) had gotten back on its feet, and I finally started hobbying. 

[Asensur]

Bretonnia vs Lizardmen starter box. 

[JPjr]

Damn, this got me thinking over the weekend of all the main games I owned* and/or played along the way. But then frustratingly also the ones I vividly remember the adverts in White Dwarf for, like Kings & Things and Blood Royale, that I never got to play. I'm actually quite tempted to start hoovering up those old box games on eBay just to finally scratch those itches.

Anyway I'm sure I'm missing a few out here but I think chronologically I would have had/played**...

Fighting Fantasy
Various made up games
The Sorcerer's Cave
Crossbows & Catapults (ok not really the same as the others, but damn it was fun)
Dragon Warriors
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons `(I guess 1st)
Talisman (2nd)
Chainsaw Warrior
Block Mania
Fury of Dracula
Judge Dredd: The Roleplaying Game
Warhammer Fantasy Battle (2nd)
Star Wars: The RPG (1st)
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (1st)
Paranoia (2nd)
WHFB (3rd)
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader (1st)
Heroquest
Dark Future
Space Hulk
Blood Bowl (2nd)
Adeptus Titanicus (1st)
Space Marine
Dungeon Bowl
Space Fleet
Mighty Empires (1st)
Call of Cthulhu (5th)
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We now stop this scheduled transmission for a brief 26+ year interlude of Music, Sex, Drugs & Alcohol (and errr... crushing debt, mindless office slavery, general pretending to be a grown up misery and the like).
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Warhammer Age of Sigmar (2nd)
Warhammer Underworlds: Nightvault
Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress
Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (4th)

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So come on, please, please tell me about the ones I missed or your old favourites and I'll probably start hunting for them on eBay like an idiot!

 

 

 

 

*Guttingly when I was back in the UK at Christmas I searched my parents loft hoping to find all those big boxes just sat there in perfect condition waiting to be plundered. Turns out they all went to the local charity shop about 2 weeks after I first moved out in the 90s...

** Weird looking at that list is it occurs to me the odd discrepancy with some of these between how much I spent thinking about them and how much I actually spent playing them. WHFB, WH40K, WHFRP, JD:RPG, CoC (5th) these are the games I probably devoted most of my time to actively thinking about, obsessing over and reading, re-reading and reading again and again and again the rulebooks, supplements and the like. But I reckon I probably played more hours of Dark Future or Blood Bowl than all of those combined.

[syph0n]

Lots of old heads in the hobby but interesting to see AoS is the starting point for many.

TL;DR - started in 1995 with 40K, but always dipped in and out after painting a few units and building a load. Have loads of different stuff from different eras. AoS has a cheap starting point, easy to build an army, so drew me in properly. Kill Team and AoS2 so easy to play, I don't expect to dip out.

Full story for those who are bored: 

I voted AoS, but I've been in the hobby (and out) since 1995. My dad brought home a yellow cover Warhammer book which I must have read cover to cover 10 times over. It's still in my loft I think. He also brought home the Warhammer Fantasy Battle Book at some point, though I can't remember know when. Google tells me this was 5th ed. 

However, it was 40K I started with because the friend I went to Games Workshop with preferred the Space Marines over the dragons, vampires and skellies I was more interested in. So that was that, Friar Lane in Nottingham, painting Ultramarines. I played a few games of 2nd ed but never by myself, just at GW shops. I played a little bit of 3rd ed with a different friend but that was probably towards the end of 3rd ed. I played a lot of Necromunda with an Orlock gang during this time and probably painted quite a lot of models, especially Ultramarine characters. I must have stuck around the hobby for a while because of the launch of 5th ed Fantasy that I had the book for and 3rd Edition of 40K I had half the box of with a friend. 

I picked up Fantasy in 1999/2000 ish with High Elves. I preferred Dark Elves, my  mate preferred Wood Elves but because we didn't have the money, we divided the High Elves up between us by units. The intention was to play and we started going to Warhammer World, but although I managed to paint up a unit of spears and a unit of archers, GCSEs got in the way so again, never played. 

Back into the hobby again in probably 2002/3. I did then start my Dark Elves but despite painting a box of Dreadspears and my wife (then GF) paining some Witches Elves, dipped out again. I collected the Lord of the Rings magazine collection, but didn't do anything with it and sold it to someone in New Zealand!

I think I played a game once in Warhammer World of Goblins vs Dwarves which must have been another dip in, sometime around 2006/7 because it was the Battle for Skull Pass starter. Whenever they came out, 2007-9 maybe, I picked up a load of the last line of Dark Elves - new Cold Ones, Corsairs etc. Some of my favourite models ever. Again, they remained unpainted but I did build a load of them. I also got some more 40K stuff when Assault on Black Reach came out, but again built a lot but painted or played very little: I got married, had another kid...

AoS launch is when I first actually played. When you first get back into the hobby, you have a routine of having to buy a rule book, a codex or battletome,  models, paints to replace knackered ones. It's quite expensive. AoS was good because I could use the mass of models I had from my High Elf days, Dark Elf days and just play. My daughter was just about old enough to play with me so we had a few games of it and although I did drop out again before the first General's Handbook, I kept reading online and sorted out a lot of hobby stuff. Hence, my vote for when I've been in this side of the hobby. 

Last February is when I've actually, properly got engaged fully since the mid-90s. I've got a hobby box which I got the previous dip in, organised all my paints, old models and the AoS system, app, warscroll builder, TGA (especially) and Twitter have made it really easy because I've had next to no initial outlay. I've got more disposable income than before, kids are older (13 and 8 ) so my time demands are different. I've bought a good daylight lamp, Really Useful Boxes to organise stuff and I've got my own storage space for it all. I've been able to play 3 or 4 games of AoS, but I would play more if I had more than 1000 pts painted of my Order Serpentis stuff. I've also got into Kill Team and play it at the school club I run and with friend of mine who works for GW. I can't see me dipping out now. 

 

[Kramer]

On 2/10/2019 at 4:41 AM, Future said:

So I guess this poll determined the main source of toxicity is whfb players, not new players?  

What an incredible toxic remark, you must be a new player!  

[Kirjava13]

2 hours ago, JPjr said:

Turns out they all went to the local charity shop about 2 weeks after I first moved out in the 90s...

Oof.

[JPjr]

3 minutes ago, Kirjava13 said:

Oof.

Oof indeed.

[Mosquito onthe TenthFloor]

30 years, no gap or break.

[SwampHeart]

Started at the tail end of 5th going in to 6th. I never had the 'stop playing while you're in college' break because I ended up going to work for GW for 7 years (I no longer for work them) after I graduated highschool so I've been playing for about 16 years now?