When did you first get into GW games?

[rokapoke]

So I'm really curious about the different experience everybody brings to the table in a diverse community like this one. I know that some of you have been in the hobby from the beginning, and some of you have been in for 10 minutes. The vastly different experiences really show in a lot of the discussions (favorite faction, rules questions and answers, etc.) and I just thought it would be interesting to start a discussion about where the various members of the community are coming from, hobby-wise.

[daedalus81]

Over 20 years - got hooked in HeroQuest and then stared longingly at the things I could afford from the Catalogue.  My most treasured model was the initial LoC that I bought for $50, which is smaller than an ogre these days.

[Lavy]

I jumped in when I was about 13 (16 years ago), some friends of mine had been playing 40k for a few years, I tagged along with them to our local shop and remember seeing the "new" tyranids (they had just received a codex update and a slew of shiny new minis) bought myself some gaunts and a hive tyrant and never looked back.

[Chikout]

I got into the hobby a while ago. I started just reading white dwarf but the first game I got into was Space Marine, the precursor to epic.

For the next 5 or 6 years I only played epic scale games. I switched to fantasy when the first wood elf book came out but since then I have mostly been painting and playing the various sub games like space hulk and warhammer Quest. 

As I am a very slow painter I have yet to do much more than dabble in AoS (read all the novels though). I think the overlords may change that.

[Galas]

I began in warhammer and wargames in general in the 2000, with a lovely collection that to this day I still have, from "Altaya"

 

This where a lovely series of fascicles that bring miniatures, little battles so you can learn the rules, bits about the lore of the game, and even comics of Malus Darkblade!  

The first number, I remember, come with a old orc boy with sword and shield, a orc with a bow, and two Bretonian Archers. The battle was just those 4 miniatures in a 2vs2, but oh boy, to the little version of myself and my brother, that was ace. The number 2 of the collection brought 4 spearmen goblins, 4 goblin archers and 4 more Bretonian Archers and a mini game to play competitions of Archers with Targets, where you calculated the puntuation based in your dice rols.

I remember how my mother stop buying us those because like the 6-7 number double the price (Like 6 € in that time) and just come with a Bretonian Knight. And my mother was like "I'll pay 4€ for those 6 little figures, but I'm not gonna pay 6 for just a knight!"

After that I remember seeing the super cool Tyranid boxes and all of the 40k toys in "El Corte Inglés" (I don't know how its called in other sites, sorry!) but they where so expensive! My parents never bought me anything of that.

After that a long time pased before buying the "Battle for Skull Pass" for Christmas, and at that point to today, I have been playing Warhammer, 40k with my Taus, and Infinity with PanOceania and Nomands. Where I live today, its just like Notthingam with GW but with Corvus Belli. From the window of my appartament I can see the factory of Corvus Belli (The ones behind Infinity) so as you can imagine, here in Vigo all the stores run Infinity tournaments. Its not the first time I have seen in person the big bosses of CB.

Good old times.

EDIT: The comic was so cool.

[erasercrumbs]

Back when Tyranid Mind Slaves were a thing.  First game of 40K I ever played used miniatures from Mutant Chronicles as Imeprial Guard Mind Slaves (I think).  It took Age of Sigmar, and its forgiving price point, to draw me back into the GW fold after a 20 year absence.

[Hollow]

Been back and forth like a battered wife in an abusive relationship for 20+ years.

[The Stronghold]

I started in 1995 with box of mono-pose Warhammer Orc Warriors and Archers, bought from Toys 'R Us after school with £5 of my hard-earned pocket money!

Started playing in 4th edition Fantasy with school friends, then soon migrated to 5th edition and shared the cost and contents of the box set with my bro.

Dabbled with all sorts of GW games since then, but I always went back to Fantasy and now AoS as my main wargame.

[Orange]

I started when one of my friends bought the 2nd edition box set when it came out, and for a long time all anyone did was play marine on marine as we all had the snap fit models from that box--no-one could be bothered with all the orks and gretchin!

Although it all probably started with Space Crusade before that.

I've been revisiting that time with the money and better painting ability I now have 20-odd years later--I made a 2nd-ed style marine army, participated in a 2nd ed league with Tyranids, and have been buying and painting fantasy models from the era for my Age of Sigmar order force.

 

[VBS]

22 minutes ago, Galas said:

I began in warhammer and wargames in general in the 2000, with a lovely collection that to this day I still have, from "Altaya"

 

No way! I remember those!! I actually started like you, around 2000, at the end of 5th edition and the beginning of 6th ed. Damn, those were glorious days 

I even remember this map that came along those Altaya supplements, one of the first things I had along a box of orcs I bought during my first visit to a GW store, and had it for many years over my hobby desk (lost it since... ) :

 

*puts on rose-tinted glasses*  

[Galas]

That map was the gate to fantasy in general to me.

A revelation.

[AAL]

I got started a little over 10 years ago in WFB but I was young and didn't really understand what I was getting into as a hobby and as a result only played around with it for a year. I got back into the hobby last year because I missed the stories and throwing dice with my dark elves. Lucky for me AoS had just started and it was very easy to jump back in and relearn everything!

[rokapoke]

How I see it that 17 votes in, I'm still the only player who came in since Age of Sigmar!?

i had played the Microprose Blood Bowl game on my computer ages ago, which was my first exposure to the Warhammer universe. I left it way behind and eventually wandered into my local game shop on their Warhammer Gameday within a week of AoS's release - pure coincidence, but a happy one - and here I am. GW now essentially has direct access to my wallet... also, I want to get Tyranids and start playing 40K. I'm pretty sure the Shadow Wars release will be pulling me in to that.

[Hollow]

The plastic crack forms a tight and all encompassing embrace. Once you have drank the Warhammer elixir you are doomed to clamour after little plastic men for the rest of you wretched days. Doomed I tells yah! DOOOOMMMED! 

[Ratamaplata]

I started with Heroquest when I was around 10 (27 years ago!) and then played 40k, Necromunda, Bloodbowl and a little bit of Warhammer and even Man'O'War until I was 16. Then nothing until now slowly getting into AoS with my 6 yr old son

[rokapoke]

7 minutes ago, Hollow said:

The plastic crack forms a tight and all encompassing embrace. Once you have drank the Warhammer elixir you are doomed to clamour after little plastic men for the rest of you wretched days. Doomed I tells yah! DOOOOMMMED! 

That last part was to be read in the voice of Morbo, right?

[Praecautus]

I guess my foray into things warhammer and ge related started well over 30 years ago when I got The warlock of firetop mountain fighting fantasy book from a company with a certain Steve Jackson. 

Fast forward to early teens and I remember buying lead minis from all sorts of systems from a local hobby shop and displaying them unpainted. I recall the shop sold games and whfb looked interesting but grown up.

Around this time friends were getting into talisman and rogue trader 40k, I bought Thrugg Bullnecks space ork raiders box set due to the fluff on the back and a friend bought some ultra smurfs. The first battle was a resounding defeat for thrugg and his boys but the badly painted army grew and grew. My dislike of imperial space marines had not changed since that battle.

White dwarf with thrudd the barbarian made an appearance in my life. After which all games gw like soon followed: WHFRP, Dark Future, Adeptus Titanicus, Space Marine and Bloodbowl.

Meanwhile Thrugg was leading his army from one epic defeat to another when Realm of Chaos Slaves to Darkness came out and Thrugg decided to become a chaos worshipper for the power, plus a Slaanesh worshipping ork, just because. The army evolved into a mess of renegades and their messed up retinues, slaves with exploding collars and, to my friends annoyance, chaos terminators from the Sons of Horus. Thruggs luck began to change until I ended up at university and warhaming fell off the radar.

Now more than 20 years after my last battle my son his friend and cousin are into AoS and I form the usual bad guy and mentor to help them build their armies. We regularly goto our local gw in bury to play paint and chat.

[Carnelian]

It all started long long ago in 1995 when I was just a 10 year old boy and a friend brought a blood angels rhino into school....

[RuneBrush]

Very first dabble was about 29 years ago, my brother and I had gone on holiday with an Aunt to Devon (holiday cottage type thing) and the neighbour had a few Warhammer armies (including the treeman with the models on the shoulder).  Fast forward a few years and started getting into the hobby properly around 1992 with my Space Wolves and though I've had a couple of fallow years have largely kept doing something related.  Didn't get into AoS properly until May last year though, so was a little late to that party.

[Nick in York]

I originally got into GW when I was 10/11. Some kid at school had a copy of White Dwarf, I loved the pictures of models. This would have been about 1993/4. A teacher set up a lunchtime club where he taught a few of us a D&D style game called Dragon Quest. And then I got 4th ed. Warhammer Fantasy for my birthday.

I played and collected on and off for a few years until I was 16 or so around 1999.

Then got back into it earlier just under a year ago with AoS.

For the survey I ticked just since AoS as I really didn't do anything miniatures/tabletop since I was a teenager and I'm in my 30s now.

[Soulsmith]

Back when I was 7, so 16 years now, I got an orc chariot... which they still sell today! (criminal). Only ever followed fantasy on and off for a long time, very few purchases in 40k and never kept speed with them. Then really took the plunge again when ironjawz came out, and have managed to keep up painting ever since, which is just under a year now i guess (when I joined here too!)

[Splitbristle]

I've had minis since the mid 80's when a school friend brought some of his older brothers pre-slotta goblins, knights and who knows what else into school. I had no idea what they were for but I was heavily into The Hobbit as a child, and they looked so cool I was hooked.

Then via Fighting Fantasy books and, weirdly, the TMNT role playing game I discovered GW with a few school friends in comprehensive school. This was around the time of Rogue Trader and WHFB 3rd edition. We got heavily into it for the next 5yrs or so and played everything GW had - Blood Bowl, Epic, Space Hulk, Space Fleet - you name it we probably gave it a go! Then came University and beer and ladies and other types of fun and the hobby dropped right away.

Got back into it around a year and half ago after chatting to a long time skateboard friend who is also into the hobby (and an amazing painter) - when I told him I had a ton of old stuff in the garage he got really excited so I sent him some to paint, he got stoked - I got stoked on him being stoked and picked up a paint set. I have a 5yr old with mobility issues too so figured this could be something we can do together, AoS came along at just the right time as something to focus on and a good way to ease myself back into the swing of things, and I'm fully back into it now! The boy still doesn't understand the need for set rules so usually makes up his own but we do have a lot of fun trying. Also got a great little local crew going now with @RuneBrush and @Chrisdanish which is really helpful.

[fartsocks]

Can't really remember exactly how I got into the game. I know at school in the early 90s when I was about 9 or 10, some bigger boys had Citadel combat cards. Basically top trumps with warhammer models, like the Bloodthirster below. From there I must have found out about Games Workshop, and got Warhammer for Christmas one year (the box with high elves & orcs and goblins) and I remember my mum taking me to a GW store and a helpful man suggesting that I start collecting more orcs & goblins because they were his favourite. I got a few squigs and fanatics, but then switched to the elves. At some point, I don't remember why, I switched to collecting dwarfs and have done ever since. I also played a lot of blood bowl and bought some random 40k stuff that I liked, but never played much more than a few 500ish point games of 40k. Then I went to uni and pretty much forgot about the hobby until last year when my mum moved house and dumped a couple of boxes full of models at my door. I think I was looking up prices on the GW website while considering selling stuff on ebay, and I saw all the AoS banners. Starting reading into it, and decided to get back into the game. I also recently got into Infinity through the club I play AoS at.

 

[Russellbogentoff]

I originally fell into the hobby when on vacation in England when I was a teenager... grabbed a white dwarf and some models and didn't do much more than that! Always remained an interest though, and I checked in every once in a while to see what was new.

I now live in England, and started up properly around the end of 8th edition with some friends, but the bug really got me when AOS started, as the local community was 'kickstarted' so to speak! Now have 3 armies, and will be playing my first local tournament in two weeks time!

[Aginor]

I had to vote "Other" on the second question, since I haven't played other Tabletop Games. I played D&D but without miniatures.

Started Wargaming in AoS only recently, in September 2016, because a friend motivated me to start the hobby with him. I like it so far. My main reasons for not doing it until now (despite being interested for decades) are:

- didn't know I could paint
- needlessly complex rules standing in the way of fun, not accessible for beginners
- too expensive
- didn't know anyone really playing it.
- dislike the look of the old miniatures. Slann for example looked like the Frog Prince. Really silly.