My Wargaming History

I have enjoyed this hobby for a long time, easily the vast majority of my life. It all began in 1989…

1988-1993: I was introduced to the world of Warhammer by a group of older friends. They somehow obtained a copy of the 3rd edition rulebook for Warhammer Fantasy Battle and were able to read it (it would be a few years before I knew a word of English so the books were a mystery to me). I gathered together my first army from a range of Heroquest, Battlemaster, Grenadier and Game Workshop figures. Painted mostly in enamels, I achieved somewhere around 200 models spread across Orcs, Goblins and the odd Chaos models. Back then all of this somehow fought together.
For a few years we would play regularly every week on a ping pong table. And I lost every single game for at least 3 years. Not just lose, but getting trounced without mercy, partly due to my inability to read the rules and partly due to the more creative interpretation of such rules by my opponents. Formative memories of this time include:

In an allied Orc/Chaos army I was given a huge unit of maybe 100 Fimirs. These big monsters were expensive and thus the bulk of my force. We played lengthwise on the ping pong table so I had around 5’ to cross before I could reach the defending Dwarf army. Those Dwarves had a bunch of allied wizards who ALL happened to have rolled the “Quicksand” spell (back then spells were randomly generated with a d100). That spell created a dinner-plate-sized zone in which everything instantly dies if it doesn’t roll under or equal to its Initiative value. Fimirs have Initiative 1…

My regular opponent had a chaos army with a handful of minotaur lords, ALL of which managed to randomly roll the same set of mutations on a d100 table every game. That gave all of them the ability to leap a long distance over terrain (e.g. houses), smash a unit, and then withdraw from the fight by jumping back. Days of my life disappeared while a gang of jumping minotaur’s bounced into my units, killed, left, and bounced again. I don’t think I ever killed one of those lords in 3 years of trying…

At convenient points during games (i.e. when I came close to actually winning), various buildings on the board would transform into more Dwarf units (usually in my rear). The apparent interpretation of the “Illusion” spell for this scenario was that the “hidden” unit didn’t need to be paid for in points, the spell doesn’t need to be written down, and the location of the hidden unit can be selected as needed. In fact, many times even having a wizard in the Dwarf army didn’t seem to be necessary …

The turning moment of this phase came at an open gaming convention where we played a public game of Orcs vs. Dwarves. Somehow, the Dwarf army outnumbered my Orcs, despite the fact that they were all +4 Elites (back then you would take a base trooper and “upgrade” him to get better stats). Looking back, I must have been so used to this setup that I didn’t notice anything wrong. By some miracle I actually managed to get across the table and push the Dwarves towards a loss. Suddenly, all of the Dwarf casualties up this point were reformed into units and placed at my rear. Something about “outflanking reserves” was mumbled and the trashing commenced. At the conclusion of the game, a bystander pointed out that by his estimate the Dwarf army (including mystery reinforcement) was in the order of 5 times bigger in points than my Orc force. My eyes were opened and never again closed…
The above might sound like I had a horrible time for years. Nothing could be further from the truth. I had fun each weekend and learned the first fundamental rule of wargaming: It’s a game, so have fun and don’t get caught up in the stress to win.

1993-1997: I expanded my circle of opponents, largely as a result of some of the encounters during the above mentioned convention. Games Workshop also started to distribute its game systems to Germany and a new system called “Space Marine” caught me eye in the local game store. The game, now in its long discontinued 4th edition called “Epic Armageddon”, provided an interesting counter-point to Warhammer’s “blocks” of fantasy troops. In the manner of the early days, I gathered huge SM/EPIC armies with limited attention to painting, and we played massive multi-player battles that took most of the day to complete. During this time I am also introduced to the new Blood Bowl miniature board game and take part in a few exciting leagues with my Reiklander team.
At this point I am spending maybe a solid day per week in actual game play for several years. My home became the hub for the local SM/EPIC community and sees a revolving door of new players each weekend. The Space Marine rules of the day left a lot of room for interpretation, especially in a massive multi-player setting with new players. During that time I learned the second fundamental rule of wargaming: It’s a social game, so be generous and win by tactics, not argument.

1997-2007: Adulthood, driver license, and international moves opened the door to a significant addition to my gaming experience: tournaments. I attended local and later international tournaments. My first army of choice were the new Warhammer Bretonnians and they did me proud in many European competitions. After moving to North America, I switched to Warhammer 40k with a new Eldar army, and later back to Warhammer Fantasy Battle with an Empire army. Being able to experience early European and North American tournament culture was an interesting experience. Tournaments in this era were still dominated by “herohammer” forces with few high power units and no consideration for “soft scores” such as painting or sportsmanship. I learned a lot about rule mechanics during this period and developed a “counter-culture” game style with large horde armies. My Eldar force featured countless basic Guardians while my later Empire army focused almost entirely on humble soldiers. In a world of “big heroes”, this strategy yielded surprising success with consistent tournament wins across both continents (and many confused opponents watching their elite models figuratively drown in an ocean of cheap troops). This approach taught me the third fundamental rule of wargaming: It’s a game of statistics, so use math as the basis for all tactics.

2008-2015: This period saw a lot of real life change for me. Kids were born, education completed, jobs switched, and financial independence reached. My gaming interests shifted from competitive tournament play to the hobby aspect. After moving a few more times, we settle in a place where I could build my ideal wargaming room. My focus remained on the world of Games Workshop and I try to recreate the glory of my early years. Most notable was a multi-year project to re-created all the armies of the old Epic Armageddon system – I had sold my 90’s collection – in a major “Tale of Gamers” program on the Tactical Commands web forum. This blog was launched initially just as the hosting solution for this project. I greatly enjoyed the encouragement of the online community which enabled me to complete such an ambitious project. I dabbled in historical games but the focus was squarely on the Warhammer universe. And then Games Workshop killed it all. To my great dismay, Games Workshop releases the “End Times” as the swan song of the Warhammer World in 2012 and ultimately discontinued all associated game system by the end of this period. Facing the extinction of my childhood memories, I frantically bought the disappearing collections for Warhammer, Warmaster, Mordheim and Necromunda. This disagreeable event taught me my fourth lesson about wargaming: It’s a big hobby, so don’t limit yourself to one corner of it.

2015 onward: Prompted by the gradual collapse of the Warhammer World, I started to explore the world of historical wargaming in earnest. My initial foray was Flames of War as really the first “gamer” focused rule set for World War 2 (as opposed to simulation rule sets requiring days to play). After collecting several Flames of War armies I expanded into Ancients (using DBA rules and 15mm figures, later 28mm Hail Caesar) and most recently started to work on armies of the Napoleonic (28mm figures for Black Powder). My collection keeps growing and gradually requires ever more expansion of my gaming room. In 2022 I crossed the threshold of over 10,000 painted figures (or bases of figures for smaller game systems). This blog continues to serve as a motivational tool to finish some of these projects, as well as share the results with the broader community. I still have more to learn, but for now my final lesson of wargaming after over 30 years is straightforward: It’s part of my life.