Warhammer 40,000

h2. Embrace Your Inner Nerd

For a couple of years, Gabriel and I have played strategy games. We started with chess and Risk. We then tried DND minis, Heroscape. DND minis is a fine game with a long history dating back to the first TSR wargame Chainmail. Warhammer’s been around since I was in junior high. It started as a fantasy wargame with metal minitiatures. The Warhammer franchise has grown quite a bit and hit its zenith with branding when their Lord of the Rings minis hit the shelves around 2000.

I think we may have hit our sweet spot with “Warhammer 40,000”:http://us.games-workshop.com/games/40K/default.htm. Unlike the other wargames, Warhammer is sort of a total package. Games Workshop sells unpainted metal and plastic miniatures. You do the rest. So far I’ve only got one set of troops and it took me 3 weeks to paint them. But time would virtually disappear when I was painting. Gabriel took decidedly less time, he’s only 11. It’s a lot more fun than I imagined before I started. The game itself is a gas, with more intricacy and nuance than DnD minis.

The army building and selection is a time intensive and laborious process that is not a trivial undertaking. The miniatures are more expensive and the preparation and care taken in painting the models is as deep as you want to go. I felt I did a pretty good job painting my first set. I will have to take some macro shots and post them soon.

I chose the “Eldar”:http://us.games-workshop.com/games/40K/eldar/default.htm as my army. I have to be honest I chose them purely on aesthetics. There are more powerful armies that are more aggressive with more straightforward tactical advantage. The Eldar tend to have more advantage defensively, at distance, or in hit and run tactics than straight on hand to hand combat.

Gabriel chose the “Tyranids”:http://us.games-workshop.com/games/40K/tyranids/default.htm. The Tyranids rely on being able to close to hand to hand range and their _typically_ superior numbers.

So far it’s been a good father son activity. He is learning to take his time on his painting, to pay attention to detail, and to see how a lot of hard work can pay off with a very cool looking miniature.

*Note* all shots from this post are from “Games Workshop”:http://us.games-workshop.com/default.htm.

3 Comments

  1. wooow my spouse and i? as if it soo uncomplicated

  2. I’m telling you though, he hits junior high and it’s all football and wrestling.

  3. It is good to see the nerdling-training progresses as planned…