# What got you into Warhammer 40,000?



## Silens (Dec 26, 2010)

I got into 40K at the age of 14(ish). Me and a friend were walking through Cardiff together and we passed Games Workshop. Now he already played 40K a little bit, so this was a bigger shock for me than him. He told me that he and his brothers played this wonderful game with tiny men and that if we went in then they'd let us have a trial game if we asked nicely.

Sure enough, Games Workshop staff were nice enough to let us get hooked on the game so we'd give them all of our money. This was back at the end of 4th edition so we played the Battle for Macragge(?) started set. He was marines, I was nids. I whooped his ass! Our stories differ; he believes he actually got a turn before I'd destroyed near enough his entire army. In fairness, it was probably balanced a _tad_ in my favour as the new kid and my Hormagaunts tore apart his Dreadnought whilst the termigaunts blew apart his marines. I believe I had a carnifex which destroyed a tank but I'm not 100% sure about this.

I've been a 40K nerd ever since.

So what about you? Share your little story about how/why/when/where/theother'h's you got into 40K.


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## LokiDeathclaw (Jun 19, 2013)

Hmmmm I must have been about 11 years old when my parents brought me the Battle Masters boxed set (which was awesome 17 years ago!) Once I had my fill of that I then happened past the GW shop in my town centre and just stared a the amazing display models. For christmas I got the boxed 40k set and became obsessed by Space Wolves. I was hooked. Unfortunately I quit the hobby when I was around 18 but back into it now!


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## darkreever (Apr 3, 2008)

I got into the hobby when I was ten; how did it happen? A combination of chaos gate, the instruction manual to final liberation, and some idle curiosity.

Was at my best friends place and he happened to be playing chaos gate that day, I thought it was cool and noticed final liberations manual on the desk next to the computer. Asking him about it, he mentioned that he and his brother played occasionally and that his brother had an entire company of Ultramarines (not all impressive when you have no knowledge of the game like I did at the time, but looking back and knowing his brother had been playing since the early days of second edition its more so.)

He then proceeded to show me his 'nids and how to play the game, been hooked ever since.


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## lokyar (Apr 24, 2011)

I was like 8 and thought games workshop was a video games store and i saw aliens so i fell in love.

the end


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## Ddraig Cymry (Dec 30, 2012)

Dawn of War. I liked the aesthetic and army's enough to start reading the Warhammer 40k wiki all the time.


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## ntaw (Jul 20, 2012)

My friend on the street when I was like...8-10 had Space Hulk and another older guy up the street was a SERIOUS painter and the models looked tough as balls. Even comparing the models to those pictured in the book I was blown away. Coincidentally the Terminators were all painted Deathwing and Blood Angels...which are still two of my three favourite SM armies to date! Got to playing whatever edition of 40k that came with Marines (BA on the box) and Orks. I remember him touting that it was a brand new release, and he was getting used to the rules as well. I started a collection, but didn't really start playing effectively until 5th (?) edition came out (BT and DE in this one..?) and dropped the hobby entirely when I moved from the town I grew up in since I no longer had anyone to play the game with somewhere around 15/16. Got back into the game when I found another couple dudes locally that were in to it when I was 25ish and immediately went back into BA since I still had all my characters and sergeants - and even my old Land Raider from when the plastic kit first came out! ...plus I love my space vampires and most things red.


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## warsmith7752 (Sep 12, 2009)

This line; "there is no peace among the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaugter in the name of thirsting gods." 

as soon as i read this i new that 40k had everything i wanted from a hobby.


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## Varakir (Sep 2, 2009)

Catalogue that came with my mate's copy of heroquest. We never really figured out the rules for heroquest but my addiction to space marines was born right there.


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## Protoss119 (Aug 8, 2010)

Dawn of War for me as well. It started when a friend of mine started showing me BigDickCheney's videos of the conversations between commanders during the Stronghold assaults. Then I started playing the games and reading the fluff; in particular, after I discovered the Army Painter (B&C and DoW's ingame one), there was no turning back.


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## Dakingofchaos (Sep 29, 2009)

I was introduced by a mate who got battle for macragge then had nobody to play it with - I started out of pity then decided that Tzeentch had a plan for me!


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## projectda (May 12, 2008)

I ran accross 40k when I was 11 or so. I was playing pokemon card game.at a local shop. Every week the pokemon league would gather. I saw some people playing when the league wasn't gathering. And I watched them play. Then asked the shop ower what was the easiest to start with. So I got 2 friends to join me, but we had no money so never got above maybe 3 or 4 squads. That was during 3rd. I come back to the game when 4th came out.


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## Squire (Jan 15, 2013)

When I was 11 a friend showed me his Dark Angels, which were beautifully painted and seemed ridiculously cool to my 11 year old self. We went along to the store that day and I bought a £5 box of plague marines and became hooked

It later turned out he hadn't painted his DA when the stuff I saw him paint with my own eyes turned out to be total garbage, and he had to admit his older step cousin had painted them


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## Tawa (Jan 10, 2010)

I must have been about eight I think :scratchhead:

My older cousin had - no idea if he still has after all this time - around 14,000pts of Undead. I remember he had a long bedroom and the army was arrayed along a massive side unit.

That captured my imagination, and soon after I was given a copy of Rogue Trader. I got the two Ork books and away I went! In these early days I also had a copy of BattleMasters, Space Crusade plus expansions and Hero Quest plus expansions and I played these almost to death!
(Nice to see another mention of BattleMasters. Remember the tv advert?)

I then moved on to Space Marine and 2Ed of 40k 

I've been mostly a painter since early 4Ed, or thereabouts


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## shaantitus (Aug 3, 2009)

Played epic scale space marine back in the late 80's and loved it, but I gave it up when I went to uni, touched 40k briefly again in the mid 90's but did not get back into it in a big way until 2007, prompted by the DOW games. At which point I went nuts and have since put together a lot of csm's, traitor guard, demons and dark mechanicus. Always chaos, all the time.


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## Da Joka (Feb 20, 2009)

Well many years ago we made up a war game using Legos. After Highschool the friend who I made the game with told me that about 40k and said "It's like that Lego game... but with much better rules"

Been hooked ever since.


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## JAMOB (Dec 30, 2010)

I was six years old. My older brother and sister went to a camp about eight hours directly north of us every summer, so we would drive up twice, to bring them up and bring them back. Each time we would stay with my parent's friends. The oldest son played Dark Angels, and introduced my brother, who started tyranids. He started playing with other people in a local basement *ahem* club and he taught me how to play, starting me off with the SM models from the paint set and a metal Librarian. Slowly my collection grew, reaching two thousand a few years ago, and since then sky rocketing into almost (or maybe more than?) 10k worth of blood angels 1k each of IG and orks 0.5k of Eldar and somewhere around 2k of Wood Elves. That escalated quickly... mainly because I found a club that I loved and have friends who play, so all the more reason to keep going.


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## Archon Dan (Feb 6, 2012)

I started much later in life and much more recently than most of you. Coming up on 3.5 years of being in the 40K hobby. But it is not my first miniatures game and certainly not my first collectible game. 

But it was a friend who got me into it. He asked on and off for a couple months before I started collecting. This was largely due to him getting me into Magic: The Gathering and then promptly quit playing a few years earlier. Fortunately, he is still mostly into 40K but does lack time lately. But I found an awesome gaming group that helped to get me going and keep at the game.


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## humakt (Jan 2, 2008)

A good range of responces here, and it looks like most were introduced by friends or siblings.

For me I played role playing games with my brother when I was about 11. We used to get White Dwarf every month (edition 33 was my first white dwarf). When Warhammer fantasy battles came out we started to play that. Then when rogue trader came out I started to play that. 

I have played ever since. Looking back over the years I would say that 6th edition is probably the most fun to play just because of the sheer scale of everythng.


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## Shas'Ui (Feb 28, 2013)

a weekly games day at my local library, about 10 years ago now. I was just going like normal and I saw a sign on the front entrance with a advert and an amazing battle scene with little Terrans and Zergs "yeah I know" well I went to check it out and my world was changed for ever. I played a short round with few basic squads. the guy running it let me use his Orks and he had some IG, he won of course but he taught me a lot of about the armies. He also corrected my ignorance of this awesome new game that was copying Starcraft


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## d3m01iti0n (Jun 5, 2012)

I also started with Battle Masters, without having any clue what it was. Just a random Christmas present my brother and I would play in the early 90s. My first actual encounter with 40K was a Bolt Thrower CD my friend let me borrow; I loved the cover and he told me what it was from. Then I started noticing them at a hobby shop (my dad was into model trains). Also ads for the Space Hulk PC game.

Never heard about it again, until the trailers for Space Marine came out. I immediately thought it was the most badass thing I had ever seen, even for having barely any experience with the hobby. I was coming off a 4-5 year WoW addiction, so the interest is understandable. Played the demo and nearly shit my pants at the sheer brutality and blind gothic ignorance/awesomeness of it all. Started looking into the minis and background, dropped the money for AoBR, and the rest is history. Built my Orks to about 1250 (building everything exactly like the box with no clue of tactics). Then I stripped the Ultramarines I painted, went Black Templar, and built to almost 3k. Now they suck hard, and started back on the Orks.

I honestly said to myself where has this hobby been all my life? I used to dick off, buy fast cars, drive around all day burnin gas and getting pulled over, and playing WoW when I wasnt doing that. Now Im productive and creative, take pride in my work, meet new people and throw beerhammer games every weekend. Getting into this hobby has been a great move for me, even with the crap GW throws our way, the experience has been totally worth it.


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## VixusKragov (Feb 21, 2012)

When I was probably 8 or 9, I happened upon a paperback of Ben Counter's Hammer of Daemons in Barnes & Noble. Read the thing about 5 times, never really looked into 40K again until years later, when I realized there was a whole setting of books that were just as great or better.

Thus, I was hooked.


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## DeathJester921 (Feb 15, 2009)

Was in 4th grade maybe when I was staying the night at a friends house. Saw he had Dawn of War and it looked like a fun game. Borrowed it from him, played it, did some searching and found the universe was bigger. Got into the books during middle school, and on the back of them I saw that there were ads for the tabletop. Went into a Challenge Games at the mall here, saw they had warhammer 40K tabletop and bought myself the Battle for Macragge set.


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## Silens (Dec 26, 2010)

I'm really enjoying reading everyone's little stories.  Keep 'em coming, guys!


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## Sethis (Jun 4, 2009)

I was in primary school in the early 90s and my friend brought in a catalogue depicting the neon-awesomeness that was 2nd Ed Orks etc. Basically, we ran around in the playground pretending to be the models - I liked to be a Terminator and one of my friends enjoyed being the little squig-dog on the cover of the Ork codex. A few months later we found our local Toymaster was stocking it, and I had my first game in the Metro Centre in Newcastle.

Looking back, the differences between then and now in terms of company direction are so very clear. I was asked, when browsing, if I wanted to know a little bit more about each of the armies and what story/models interested me most. There was absolutely no pressure to buy Space Marines or indeed any specific models, system or army.

3rd Ed hit just after I joined Secondary school, and found a lunchtime club. Ta-da, here I am, 15 years later and still going strong!


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## SithRaikage (Apr 6, 2013)

Well I am autistic and I have clinical Depression. I was Struggling for years with everything . One day my only friend introduced me to the games workshop. It was in 2006 and every since thing i have loved it. I have gotten and painted models and played a few games. Not as many as i would like but it has helped me and it continues to help me witch is why i doubt i will not stop doing warhammer and 40k even for games like warmachine and horde


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

Way back in 1991 I used to sit beside a bloke in French class because the 2 of us had no interest in it, and the teacher used to leave us alone, giving us up as a lost cause. One day he took out a White Dwarf, and I had a read through it. These were the days when WD actually had some useful, practical articles in it, like a template for making a cardboard Baneblade. 

I was intrigued with 40k from from the start, and got Rogue Trader and a box of the RTB01 marines for my next birthday. The rest, as they say, is history.


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## King Gary (Aug 13, 2009)

Don't remember the details, but it basically came down to the old metal Tallarn Desert Raiders and a Basalisk


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## Corporal Chaos (Nov 27, 2007)

Well lets see if I can recall.... OK I have always enjoyed modeling mostly WW2 Infantry and tanks and played D&D at age 13. I was wandering through a hobby shop while home on leave from the Army at age 24 around the time Rogue Trader was rearing its head here in the U.S. and I spotted the RTB01 Marines and the Space Ork Raiders boxes and wanted to build some scifi models and noticed that there was also a role play\TTG rule book, Rogue Trader and was almost instantly caught in the whole ball of wax. I spread the game around my friends who D&D'd with me and found a few others that played. So it began and I have followed ever since, I mainly model and paint these days but tried to get my grandsons interested so I wont have to travel too far to game. I paint to an acceptable standard and have gotten better over the years, and the conversions and wot not have me fiddling in my spare time. Well that sums it up, I'm a beardy git and an old timer but still play for fun. The rules are the frame work but the minis are the core and the fun is a must.
Cheers all! :drinks:
Corporal Chaos


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## Kr00gZ (May 23, 2013)

Walking around the dorm at boarding school aimlessly and passed a room with a game of Heroquest going on. Asked if I could watch! This was way better than Monopoly!!
Got to play and during one of the games I spied a White Dwarf on a guys desk. Picked it up and was in total awe! Went to the local newsagent every week and read their White Dwarf mags and fell in love.
Later that year was walking past a hobby shop that had a big cardboard cutout of a Blood Angel marine advertising 2nd Ed. Bugged the crap out of my parents and got it for my Birthday/Christmas. Been an on again/off again thing and mainly painting ever since due to time/money/youth...until this year when I've totally got back into the hobby as a whole!


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## Iraqiel (May 21, 2008)

I had an older friend who was impressing me with his space wolves a long time ago. I saved up and bought myself a DE wych blister, painted it with all my 11 year old skill and decided to paint plastic army men instead, since I could afford them. Eight years later, I got sick of having nothing to show from computer games and asked a friend of mine I knew was into it to show me into the hobby. I've had my attention to it wax and wane in that time, but I'm accruing quite a collection!


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## MetalHandkerchief (Aug 3, 2009)

Played Magic: The Gathering at a club every week, and there would always be 2nd edition WH40K games going on. I thought it looked crude but fun, especially the models were a turn-off, and they weren't making it easier to like with their flock terrain.

But all I ever saw were Orks, Imperial Guard and Space Marines back then; the first time someone brought in an Eldar army was the instant I got interested, as these models were actually cool. Not long after I was painting my first Eldar army.


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## kiro the avenger! (Nov 8, 2010)

I was enticed into my school club in year 7 thinking it was a computer game, when I found it's not, I was too polite to leave and had a go at a trial game where I was a non against a smerf
Fell in love as the club organiser picture every grim detail for me, as my nobs great knarled hand pounds into the smerfs helm, crushing it into a bloody pulp as blood, bone and adamantine spurt out every where
A trait I'm still proud of to share today, which binds to my flesh tearers much more than me tau, 'cos deep down I can tell I'm a homicidal maniac
Saved up and bought black reach, got my bros hooked some how, bought smerfs as they danced through reach, hated them, then friends convinced me tau where the bomb, I lived them till my homicidal tendencies brought me to flesh tearers a year or two ago
I think that's it, if not, tell me if you've read that block and lived please


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## chris p (May 18, 2013)

started playing heroquest round a friends house when i was about ten loved it got my own set and space crusade for Christmas that year played it to death with bro then got expansions for both then advanced space crusade then when i was about 13 in about 1993 i got fantasy roleplay and rouge trader. Then stopped playing completely until battle for macragge but i barely took it out the box. When i was getting ready to move house about six months ago i found it all got it out all the good memories came back. Decided id build a sm army since i already had a fair bit and found a local club. Now in just trying to build and paint enough stuff and learn the rules to start playing properly but i am totally hooked.


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## Nordicus (May 3, 2013)

chris p said:


> started playing heroquest


Heroquest! That was awesome!

(Ding: 500th post)


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## EvilAbedNadir (Oct 30, 2013)

Actually quite an interresting story, ages ago there was a Donald Duck pocket book story about wargaming where his nephews all had small armies who fought each other when Donald decided to get himself a big undead army. 

The figures turned came to life and whatnot, but the main part of the story is that I thought it looked like a lot of fan. Several years later I see some Warhammer products in my store so I research a bit on the theme and get into it by a whim.


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## Tawa (Jan 10, 2010)

Nordicus said:


> Heroquest! That was awesome!
> 
> (Ding: 500th post)


Indeed it was! I loved the expansion that gave you a detachment of Men-at-Arms 





500 posts? Get cracking, slacker! :wink:


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## raven_jim (Sep 27, 2013)

If I'm honest I got back into 40k because I was in a very bad relationship, the only escape and time I could get to myself was painting 40k. I associated 40k with peace and escape from the constant nagging... who said in the grim dark future there is only war wasn't haha


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## KahRyez (Sep 7, 2010)

I got interested in the game back when I saw a friend of the family had a starter box of smurfs a decade ago, they were just so cool in my mind at the time ^^. I asked my parents to namb me some, you know what I got warhammer fantasy stuff (empire eww)>.< so yeah....a few years later I was going to buy tau....and ended up with necrons instead due to the ease at which a pitiful painter like myself could make an impressive army, and I've since juggled between them, CSM, and skaven when my mood shifts.


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## MidnightSun (Feb 10, 2009)

Way back, probably 3rd edition. Had no idea how the game was played, but my mate's dad had a large Eldar army and some Dark Angels. My mate had the 2nd ed starter set and a bunch of homemade terrain bits including an Imperial Strongpoint made from WD templates, which I still have. Many happy days were had as a squad of old metal Guardsmen, Yarrick and a Basilisk fended off an Ork Waaaagh! of perhaps 30 Boyz (I thought that was a huge army!). Had absolutely no idea how the game was played, but I remember the spectacle.

Midnight


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## KarnalBloodfist (Jan 30, 2010)

I had been playing WFB for a handful of years, started playing Mordheim, and then decided to give yet another system (and more money to GW) a go.


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## returnoftheclown (Mar 14, 2012)

Back in the days of 3rd edition I would reckon, but didn't actually buy the rule book until the rather short lasted 4th edition came out. 
I went round to a friends house who happened to have a bunch of strange creatures known as Orks. We played a few games of orks vs orks with absolutely no idea how the rules worked. We just made stuff up on the spot, models on the high ground could shoot further, the closer you were the more likely you were to hit, etc.
The friend in question quickly quit the game after I bought the rule book. He no longer felt the game was 'fun' any more...more likely he wasn't having any fun as he could no longer create rules to benefit himself and leave me high and dry trying to stick to some structure. 

However, the memory that stuck with me is how I stabbed my hand on an Ork helmet and the point got lodged in my hand. From that day on I have had a burning desire to crush any Ork army I happen to meet with glee.


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## Shas'Ui (Feb 28, 2013)

returnoftheclown said:


> However, the memory that stuck with me is how I stabbed my hand on an Ork helmet and the point got lodged in my hand. From that day on I have had a burning desire to crush any Ork army I happen to meet with glee.



Looks like you want to go with the Iron Hands


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## returnoftheclown (Mar 14, 2012)

"THE FLESH IS WEAK!!!"

"Yea, but can yoose go in the water hummie?"

*The Ork splashes the marine, who backs away quickly from the waters edge*

"Grrr...curse you foul greenskin! Get back here so I can exact my vengeance!"


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