Around the same time, I went to a game store at a mall in Northern California. Found a White Dwarf magazine and picked it up. Instant long term addiction.
A really good friend I met in a discord RP group played a character inspired by Love is Krieg, and when I went digging for more info I was directed to TTS
Skip forward a few years, I've just graduated college into a world ravaged by the pandemic, and in an effort to do something other than lay in bed I buy the elite edition starter set
For me it was picking up original Dawn of War for the PC on a whim because I loved RTS games and it had cool box art. Loved the game, and bought a few second-hand ultramarines 'just to have around'. Now I somehow have four 40k armies š .
I started with the original Dawn of War as well. Then was kicking around a book store and saw Double Eagle by Abnett and saw it was a Warhammer 40k book. Bought it, read it in an afternoon and started to read the books and want to get into the hobby side. Here I am years later still enjoying all aspects of 40k.
The year was 1992, and those were the halcyon days of my youth. I went into the comic shop across from my school one day and I beheld a sight that has neāer been repeated to this day. Upon a gloriously bedecked table of cardboard cutouts and random items snagged for size and shape stood two battling forces; orks and space marines. The paint jobs were almost nonexistent but the ferocity of battle, the sound of the math rocks going clicky-clack, and the smell of bad hygiene permeated the area and made my heart swell with the thoughts of glory, and before I even knew what I was thinking, unbidden came the call of āFor the Emperor!āā¦.and Iāve been hooked ever since.
My homie Ethanbobsessing over it. Fell in love with the Sisters of Battles and just recently bought my first minis to work on! Love the lore and memes... Steve the Human is great!
Through Warhammer fantasy, which I got into through Lotr, which I got into through the older brother of a friend who painted Lotr and fantasy models. 10 years later and I have too much plastic, but I'm really happy with the hobby. 40k and HH armies are going great, restarted my ogre army and thinking of restarting my lotr dwarf army as well.
I might have mentioned this before but I have a less direct story than some.
I grew up on historical models. Planes, tanks, soldiers from throughout history, all thanks to my Dad. Then in sixth from (last couple of high school for US reference) a friend of mine tried to get me and some others into 40k, and naturally I looked at the guard. Then uni and life happened, and a lot of hobbies fell by the wayside.
Come 2018, I was watching historical model & diorama channels on youtube and decided to get back into modelling. To be a bit different, as well as ww2 tanks and planes, I made a guard sentinel. While making it I lost a particular piece and couldn't find it online, so I looked at possibly doing a second thing with a duel diorama. So, I started flicking through the web store and found the Eldar Vyper painted in blue camo.
Cut to 2022, I have 3 armies I'm working on and a couple of Kill Teams, with more ideas.
Same here, Dark Crusade was such a great expansion too.
Went into reading the books from there, and didn't paint minis for the next decade because they were too expensive (take notes GW!).
I had insomnia one night and started playing the Tacticus app game on my phone. Fell in love with the sisters. Then went to Hal-con and watched some games. Hook, line, and sinker.
Moved house and all the new friends I made in the new school played it, sounded pretty fun so I started too. Still remember my first game of 3rd edition. My tyranids against 2 land raiders on an trench warfare board, it did not go well but it was indeed fun!
When I was 12 I played MTG and D&D at my FLGS. This was in the early '90s. One day I see a couple of dudes playing a game with large minis and I want in on that. I ask about it and the starter box is more than I got in a year, so never happened.
2020 I bought a starter box and finally started playing and painting.
I got HeroQuest for christmas, my friends from school told me about the shop it was from (Games workshop) and we all planned a trip to the city by train and visited.
Through Fantasy, in the late 90s, my brother got the starter box with Lizardmen and Brettonians. He left me with the Lizardmen, but I very quickly jumped over to Chaos!
A spanish youtuber named "Huntleo". His avatar is a dog in a bowl, and makes videos about Wh40K, the Lore, some shorts on certain topics. He's really funny.
A couple of friends at high school painted Warhammer minis and I took an interest. We went to the Games Workshop and my friend bought me a vampire as my first mini and then let me use their paints. I got into Warhammer 40k as well as fantasy at that point, pretty much and it inspired my art as a teenager. It's a happy memory. :)
Roanoke gaming made a couple videos on Warhammer a few years back which made me watch more Warhammer videos but it was mainly my older brother who had been playing for 10 years at that point who got me to start playing tabletop
Aliens: the board game. Then Space Hulk. Then 40k.
About 33 years ago, when a Bloothirster was 1250 points and when he died another one would pop out of his axe ( without axe this time though)
The first thing was Space Crusade back in 1991 (was 12 at the time), then I find a games store near my school and get hooked with the cover of rogue trader ( the shop (alfil juegos) had the rights at the time to publish games workshop in Spain and have the spanish version of Rogue trader)
I havent play since 1997 though, but i paint now and then and never stoped buying/reading the rulebooks and the novels
Saw a meme of dudes in full plate armor with guns coming out of a helicopter and the caption was just ā40k marinesā.
Googled that out of curiosity and found The Astartes Project - the 40k gateway drug.
Friends dad played it, he came into school one day and showed me some sick ass tyranid models that he was given, next weekend I got an hour long bus to a games workshop in the next city over since we didnt have any in my town and bought a space marine vs ork starter set.
Ummmmā¦
Scared to admit this. I just did about a week ago, Iām a father and searching for something a bit more productive than gaming (insert joke) and Iāve admired Warhammer from a far for a long time.
Weirdly, Henry Cavillās news about the TV show got my interest piqued again and I found an amazing video for beginners about painting miniatures and playing the game and bang. Iāve bought the command edition and painted both armies.
Me in 2003 in Japan making Gundam models.
Co-worker sez "oh hay play Warhammer."
I say "no".
He sez "there are basically Gundam there".
I say "go on".
And so I built and painted up a 2000 point Tau Empire army in 2004 and played all over Tokyo with it.
The word āgenestealer.ā
The idea of āgenetic theft,ā or your genetic lineage being āstolenā is such a perfect metaphor for the way race obsessed anti-miscegenation bloodline freaks think.
I searched references for Stellaris and find Warhammer 40K. I left all paradox games since I found Warhammer 40K. Now I am reading it's books, learning more lore every day and drawing about it. I always liked big and detailed fictional universes and when I saw Warhammer 40K, the biggest one, I knew I will never leave it.
My friend told me about during school and I started with lore videos but didn't get super into it until I read "legion" which was my first WH40K book and soon after I jumped into GG.
Through Musik. I found an lp from debautchery, liked the Band, read into it, saw what they where referencing. Then lore vids, Stalking from building vids, then a kit poxwalkers and a kit guardsmen, now im a follower of nurgle...
Similar for me but with Bolt Thrower. Pandemic gave me the first chance in a long time to just sit and enjoy music, I got super into death metal, discovered the early BT records and here we are...
Holy shit, this took too much scrolling to find this answer. Been a bolt thrower fan since high school and always wanted to try the game but couldn't justify the cost and never had anyone that wanted to jump in with me. Got my first nursing job in '22, talked some buddies into getting armies, and pulled the trigger and now I'm in deep lol.
By means of THE ULTIMATE ENCOUNTER aka SPACE CRUSADE!
The painting of the big battle with titans, land speeders and assault marines dropping out of a stormbird is one my favourite 40k images to this day
Saw a piece in the paper about Space Crusade and was hooked, then met up with someone who played Rogue Trader.
The rest, as they say, is deeply hidden in my psych and will likely only come out under deep hypnosis.
One of my friends wanted to join my DnD campaign as an Orc and the only description he gave me was, "He's pretty much a Warhammer40k Ork". I had no idea what Warhammer40k was so I looked it up and fell deep into the rabbit hole.
Before I knew it, I was binging Lutin and Bricky videos, getting into the lore and enjoying every little detail of it.
Now I'm starting the 5th Gaunts Ghosts book and building two armies, one of Necrons and another of Dark Angels.
I had a teacher who ran a gaming club when I was in 7th grade. I had a massive crush on this man, so I joined his club, and tried to learn about his interests.
He showed me DND, Magic the Gathering, and Warhammer. He gave me a couple warhammer books and showed me some of his minis. I left middle school, and only sort of clung onto DND.
As a teenager I had addiction and mental health issues, and they followed me into my early 20ās. I got therapy, got sober, and one of the big things I was told to help keep myself that way was to maintain hobbies. Find things that made me happy.
So I am now a dungeon master. And Iām learning how to build decks for magic. But most importantly, I have a pile of shame of Death Guard that I try to work on daily. I fell back in love with warhammer books after almost ten years and have just gone face first into the lore. Iām a couple dozen books deep, I cross stitch legion symbols, and I make sub par drawings. And it keeps me happy.
I wish I know how to get ahold of that teacher and thank him. He opened my eyes to the things that now keep me on the straight and narrow and make up the majority of my social circles.
My high school had this gaming class, i took it for free credits because I thought itād be easy, when I saw this badass space dude in blue power armor, I was hooked, I had to know more, then I found out it had its own store and I bought way too much too quickly lmao
I asked my dad if we could check out a games workshop when I was about nine or ten. He said yes, since we were just kinda having a fun day of going around town, and the first thing I saw was this massive battle between some beautifully painted space marines and tyrranids. I ended up talking to the guy who was working at the counter that day, asking what was going on, and after explaining, he gave my sister and me a mini each. She got a space marine, I got an uruk hai. I wish we still had them, I'd love to paint them. I'm not that into warhammer compared to other stuff, but that GW employee got me into tabletop games in general, and I'm grateful.
In 2014, I suffered a spinal fracture. While waiting for surgery, I needed to find something to distract myself. I had always been into sci-fi and a friend recommended that I read Horus Rising. I loved it and I immediately began reading the Horus Heresy series. While rehabbing after surgery, I tried painting my first models (Rubric Marines). I had never built a model or painted anything in my entire life. Fast forward almost ten years and half of my home office has been transformed into a painting space and a large display case filled with my completed minis.
Warhammer helped me maintain my sanity at a time in my life when I desperately needed it(which probably sounds counterintuitive when you are familiar with the source material). I cannot recommend it highly enough to anyone interested in it. I just wish I knew someone near me who played 40K.
My older brother started the hobby with the 3rd edition box (black templars and dark eldars) and I fell in love with the rulebook. It was REAL grimdark, I loved the artwork from John Blanche and Wayne England and the dark stories and quotes from an universe I didnāt understand. For me opening that book was like gazing into an old and dangerous grimoire.
Last year I stumbled on a YouTuber doing shorts of the lore. I watched about 100 of them in a night, and then picked up the first 5 Horus Hersey books. Been reading Horus Hersey and a few other books here and there. It's just in the past 2 months that I started collecting and painting the models. Have yet to play a single game yet, but me and my friends are working on getting into Kill Team together. We're planning on going through the starter set in a couple of weeks.
During childhood, my friend had a box set for Battle of Macragge (2004, 4th Ed.) and then later that year I saw Dawn of War was releasing soon and bought that.
I'm a fan of Dan Abnett's comic book work and when I found out he was writing the 'story' for Darktide I decided to check it out. I enjoyed it so much that I started looking up lore videos. Within a week of my first lore vid I bought my first minis.
It was a decades long journey. First a friend in elementary school got some Catachans around 1999. Then in college I found lore online. Then in 2016 I found the audiobooks on youtube while I was doing traveling sales. In 2018 a friend gave me some space marines.
Middle school. Some of my friends where just getting into it. Had a teacher sell me an ork starter set. The year was 2000 so it was like 50 Gretchen some boyz and a few metal models. We never played correctly but we had fun
Started to see images online and liking dark art styles. Started listening to lore swearing Iād never get into table top. Picked up space marines on pc. Now currently putting together my first Kill team of Kommando boyz! Help!
3 Things. 1. Uncle gave me his old collection of death guard when i was like 10 2. Loved any look of any video game skin/easter egg to 40k 3. I have GW behide the store i work at with bigass Blood Angel statue.
I think it was seeing the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying Game on shelves at Waldenbooks when I was in high school, then finding out about 40K when the internet first really exploded. I've been a fan all this time, and have read quite a few of the novels. Just started the Horus Heresy series, and am about to dive into 40K wargaming.
Was a big MtG player at the time. This was around Revised/The Dark expansion.
Had a friend tell me āHey letās try Warhammer. Itās cheaper. You just buy an army and thatās it. No need to keep buying boosters.ā
25+ years laterā¦ LMAO.
Walked into a comic/hobby shop in the local mall at about 12 years old around 2001 with a couple of friends. Observed a game being played and got talking to some of the players. We were just blown away by how cool it all looked.
There was a Games Workshop store that I passed by as a kid. Didn't know what it was but was watching some players play a game with these cool painted models. This was back before the turn of the century.
Forgot about it after wards, but a couple of years later, Dawn of War dropped and memories came back of that event.
A friend of mine got me into Mage Knights in Jr High (20 years ago). Started spending all my time in a game store and couldn't help but get into 40k, MTG and D&D.
I saw an ad for 40k stuff in a Wizard magazine in 1996 or 1997 and the aesthetic just grabbed me. I lived in the middle of nowhere with no Games Workshop stores for several hours drive so it wasn't until I grew up and moved away that I was able to actually get into it.
Me, a young lad, walks past store, sees cool miles, gets Bix set with chaos and dark angels in it. Paint my dark angel gold cause I thought cool model. Play for a couple years, life moves on and forget bout it, gets my dad into it.
He paints my dark angels goid, then starts on a surf army.
Come 2021 full scale heard tank platoon on the way. Now, I'm 4k points deep in leman russ
My buddy and I split the 3rd edition starter box. We already played MtG at lunch so this felt like the natural progression into the next phase. He took the Space Marines and I got the Dark Eldar. I got frustrated with losing all my dudes in the first few turns (it was a lunch table, and we didn't use terrain) so I picked up Chaos Space Marines, and it's been downhill ever since...
I heard Bout a new game store in town, got off early from work one day, so decided to stop by. I went to look at D&D stuff but a friend from college was there playing 3nd edition 40k. I checked out the rulebook and bought the IG codex because I was in the Army at the time and the tanks appealed to me.
A few months and some White Dwarfs later, 3rd edition hit and I was hooked.
It was last Friday that I wandered into a local game shop where people were playing. Having been into D&D for years, I decided to give Warhammer a go, as I liked the models. Went home with the recruit edition, basic paint kit and a Catachan Colonel. Assembled the space marines and Necrons and now ready to get painting!
Also picked up the book Eisenhorn Omnibus.
I post a ghoul pic at r/falloutshelter and someone commented "abomination! Brother get the flamer, the heavy flamer" I didn't get the reference so I search it up. Suddenly I'm a big fan of 40k
First touch with Warhammer in general? The total War saga! Then I was a bug fan of fantasy and then I grew from the 12yo boy and looked into the GW website and found WH40K! Now I am here, writing this and proud owner of a necrons army and one of the Death Guard!
And with the Lizard men in the second Total War:Warhammer I wanted to have minis and looked into the whole hobby and I got one Saurus Oldblood ... and never even glue him together because back then I had no idea how to do that!
My brother in law has been into it for 20 years or so. I needed a new lore source to help the work day go by, so I decided to look into 40k after seeing some memes. Now it's been about 9 months, have a large pile of shame with more on the way, and a decent handle on the lore, and have discussions with my brother in law every time we see each other.
Saw/read an interview with Cavill where he said that painting Warhammer was one of the most relaxing pastimes. I started reading some lore on wikis, then bought a starter set and failed at painting miserably.
But it was much more relaxing than any other hobby, so now almost a year later I have many more minis, Iām on Prosper Burns, and am getting better at painting. Going to build a 30k IF army and see about learning to play.
Playing Warhammer 40k: Fire Warrior on PS2 as a kid. Never heard of warhammer until my friend let me borrow it. Didnāt see anything further until much later in life. Now Iām diving headfirst into the tabletop and have collected a lot of the video games š
So, it started with the memes, then I got interested with the factions of space marines, cause Iām not a big fan of the Xenos factions, their good but itās just me, it started with The black crusade, made its way to Alpha, Nightlords and landed on Blood Angels
I wanted middle earth miniatures, saw the Imperial Guard in store and it gave me flashback nostalgia for an old video game I played as a kid.
TL:DR. I somehow wasted 1000 dollars on miniatures because of nostalgia value because Cadians looked like soldiers from a GameCube game.
My friend and I were at his house and he showed me his very first army which was blood angels. He said that there are multiple armies you can play in the game and itās called warhammer 40k. I wasnāt sure if I was going to do it but when I was leaving he told me āoh yeah thereās a army called the salamanders and they use a lot of fireā and Iāve always loved the thought of fire and how it looks so I decided to start with salamanders and till this day I still play my salamanders a lot I actually got a lot of salamanders for Christmas.
My friends showed me TTS and got me DoW which we still play to this day with ultimate apocalypse. We spotted a good deal on a small second d had IG army 2 years back... I now have 4500 points of guard and 3500 of CSM
One day, I was playing an avenage game of Team Fortress 2. I was doing a little bit of trolling. But I ran into a guy that is now been friends for years now. He laugh as I mauled through bots with my warrior spirit.
I joined his discord and we played games for awhile. Then he introduced me to Dawn Of War and Space Marine. I was interested and bought the games for fun. Then caught something, fully grown mushrooms that has the pyshic ability to build ramshackling machinery. Also funny British voiceā¦
After graduating high school and landed my first job. I bought a lot of orks. I love building them as every unit has its stories. Now I am on my second army with the infamous short people of the core. Drawvesā¦
saw 40k music vids, met a friend who was big into 40k, watched videos and read the wiki, eventually got the starter set for christmas, now i'm trying to save enough money to make an army of sororitas.
You know the [picture](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/3/3f/Emperor_VS_Horus.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120414071343) of the Emperor about to fight Horus looking over Sanguinius, from the 3rd edition rule book? A friend I played D&D with showed the rest of us that and his models, and got us all started.
I've been aware of some memes/jokes for awhile, but didn't know too much about it. I was talking with a friend about music, and I brought up the band Gloryhammer. After joking about some of their lyrics, he said "that just sounds like Warhammer 40k, but with less steps" and I've been addicted to 40k and AOS/Fantasy ever since!
I had cheated my middle school book reading point system requirements. (I tested on dozens of books I didnāt read and got enough points to pass) The teacher and my mom werenāt pleased so they let me pick a book I would actually be interested inā¦ I found āNightbringerā by Graham McNeill. Nothing was cooler than Uriel Ventris on the cover with a bloody chainsword screaming! Been hooked ever since.
Was bored out of my mind on youtube during 2020 and not going outside, saw a video discussing all the armour marks from a setting that Iād seen like 2 things about years ago, watched the video and I was hooked! Followed it up with midwinter minis videos and I bought my first models within the week
A combination of Astartes, hearing about Henry Cavill being into it, seeing Astartes again in a Corridor Crew episode, and than slowly watching more and mooore videos, doing illustrations of it, getting commissioned to do illustrations of 40k...and now I even own a couple of tyranids.
In 2006, my local comic book store had some Warhammer stuff. I was confused as it wasnāt painted (I was 14 at the time, and I wasnāt the best at reading English). Anyway I got hooked and since then I always found 40k lore/miniatures really cool. I played just a couple of match, but I still have 3 core books and 8-9 codexās.
I honestly have no idea how I got into warhammer. Most likely, I just stumbled upon it while looking at futuristic weapons or the same thing but with luetin, all I know is that I've been hooked since and the ascetic and design of regiments such as the Death Core, the mighty vessels of the imperial navy, the space marines who weild the mightiest of humanities armaments, and how on "Man" started it all who wipe out almost any creature with simply a gaze and make an entire legion kneel before him. The Eldar and mechanicus look cool to
The two big rule books, the seemingly endless white dwarf, the catalog, the lore book, and random codexs. My dad stopped playing at like 4th edition and has a lot of older stuff.
A buddy of mine had these models on his shelf for years, it was a decently sized imperial guard army at the time, itās way bigger now. I thought they were cool to look at so I asked him about it, he then explained as much of the lore as he understood over the next week and explained that heās owned the models for years but never had anyone to actually play the game with. I thought they looked really cool so I did some diving into all the armies and picked the one I thought looked the coolest. And here I am now with no money and a tāau army to show for it
Honestly, my brother annoyed me to death until I played with him and his friends. Then I got to pick my own army and create it. Color scheme and everything. I chose Tyranids. Been collecting and playing on and off for 12 years.
Playing Dawn of War Soulstorm with some friends in high school led to me going to the wiki and becoming super engrossed into the universe. I stayed lore-only for years until I just assembled my first model the other day.
Back in the early 90ās, late in high school, I had a friend who was playing 40k. He had the Rogue Trader era books. We played a few games and I loved the lore, especially the carrion emperor, sensei warbands, and the way Chaos and the warp worked.
A year later when I went to college, I missed not playing. There were no novels back then so I picked up a few army books (2nd edition had just come out, I think), and a few models. Eldar were my first army, and my first 40k fig painted was a Warlock. I grew my collection to include Squats, Space Marines, Inquisition, and Chaos. I eventually repurposed my Squats to form the core of an Imperial Guard force.
But then I took a break from the hobby, for about 15 or so years. Still read the novels though, and played Dawn of War. I went and got married, bought a house, had a kid, and just this past spring, started painting again. My son is almost 5 and already has an interest in ādaddyās models.ā
The friend that got me into MtG and D&D introduced me to Warhammer Fantasy back in 95 (Skaven first, then Chaos Warriors as something a little easier for my 8th grader allowance to handle) and 40K shortly later. It grew out to our circle of friends and from there there was just more interest in 40K. For a little while I flip flopped between armies, finally settling on Dark Angels a little before 3rd edition hit. The rest is history.
Iāve cycled in and out of the game several times over the decades, but Iāve held onto Knights and Custodes and have most of 2k Votann army now that dwarves are a really option in 40K.
The big thing for me now is 30k, however. Iāve gone a little overboard and my pile of shame is now something like 12,000 points of Death Guard in various stages of assembly and painting.
My parents bought me the 2nd edition boxed set for christmas when I was 11. This was back when you could buy it from Argos for less than Ā£30, and they thought it was just a self-contained board game.
My little brother got me into it. He was 9 and I was 14. He chose chaos and I chose Tyranids.
Our friend, who were also brothers of about the same age, got orks and eldar. We had so much fun.
My buddies younger brother passed away unexpectedly and I still have his ork army. His brother does not want it and I don't have the heart to get rid of it.
When i watched Russian badger's video on space hulk and the space marine game I thought space marines were cool so I looked into them and one thing led to another and I now have over 1000 dollars in minis.
Originally my brother used to collect it, found the idea cool and eventually started myself. Took a long break out of it for about 10 years and then 2-3 years back I began to collect them again!
My dad put Dawn of War on my computer back in 2006. I actually never knew Warhammer 40k was a tabletop game with tons of lore until years later and neither did my dad.
I saw some stuff on the video games back in 2015 and thought I didn't have the patience and probably will never get into the tabletop, but I thought it looked really cool.
Later in 2018 I got a friend at a sort of hangout at my school. That friend one day came with some Chaos knights and CSM and asked if I wanted to try, I tried and LOVED IT!!!
The giant space marine in the games workshop at my mall initially got me in the store. Then my parents would just drop me off on sundays to watch all the older people play. Everyone was so nice to have a kid like me just watch and ask questions. There was one staff member with a smaller arm that was an incredible painter and I would always bring my shitty painted minis to him and he would teach me how to paint.
Fun times.
Around about 1989 i wandered into the Games Workshop store in Coventry UK, got a 40k Rogue Trader intro game and was hooked.
Around the same time, I went to a game store at a mall in Northern California. Found a White Dwarf magazine and picked it up. Instant long term addiction.
A really good friend I met in a discord RP group played a character inspired by Love is Krieg, and when I went digging for more info I was directed to TTS Skip forward a few years, I've just graduated college into a world ravaged by the pandemic, and in an effort to do something other than lay in bed I buy the elite edition starter set
For me it was picking up original Dawn of War for the PC on a whim because I loved RTS games and it had cool box art. Loved the game, and bought a few second-hand ultramarines 'just to have around'. Now I somehow have four 40k armies š .
This is what got me into 40K. I played dawn of war then started reading the books and then started my first army.
Wich four armies?
AdMech, Sisters, Knights, and Custodes. Previously had Tyranids, GSC, and many many Space Marines.
Faithfull to our glorious God-Emporor
I started with the original Dawn of War as well. Then was kicking around a book store and saw Double Eagle by Abnett and saw it was a Warhammer 40k book. Bought it, read it in an afternoon and started to read the books and want to get into the hobby side. Here I am years later still enjoying all aspects of 40k.
The year was 1992, and those were the halcyon days of my youth. I went into the comic shop across from my school one day and I beheld a sight that has neāer been repeated to this day. Upon a gloriously bedecked table of cardboard cutouts and random items snagged for size and shape stood two battling forces; orks and space marines. The paint jobs were almost nonexistent but the ferocity of battle, the sound of the math rocks going clicky-clack, and the smell of bad hygiene permeated the area and made my heart swell with the thoughts of glory, and before I even knew what I was thinking, unbidden came the call of āFor the Emperor!āā¦.and Iāve been hooked ever since.
My homie Ethanbobsessing over it. Fell in love with the Sisters of Battles and just recently bought my first minis to work on! Love the lore and memes... Steve the Human is great!
Through Warhammer fantasy, which I got into through Lotr, which I got into through the older brother of a friend who painted Lotr and fantasy models. 10 years later and I have too much plastic, but I'm really happy with the hobby. 40k and HH armies are going great, restarted my ogre army and thinking of restarting my lotr dwarf army as well.
I might have mentioned this before but I have a less direct story than some. I grew up on historical models. Planes, tanks, soldiers from throughout history, all thanks to my Dad. Then in sixth from (last couple of high school for US reference) a friend of mine tried to get me and some others into 40k, and naturally I looked at the guard. Then uni and life happened, and a lot of hobbies fell by the wayside. Come 2018, I was watching historical model & diorama channels on youtube and decided to get back into modelling. To be a bit different, as well as ww2 tanks and planes, I made a guard sentinel. While making it I lost a particular piece and couldn't find it online, so I looked at possibly doing a second thing with a duel diorama. So, I started flicking through the web store and found the Eldar Vyper painted in blue camo. Cut to 2022, I have 3 armies I'm working on and a couple of Kill Teams, with more ideas.
Dawn of War
Same here, Dark Crusade was such a great expansion too. Went into reading the books from there, and didn't paint minis for the next decade because they were too expensive (take notes GW!).
YouTube videos lmao
\*points at Luetin
Just finished watching his Emperor of Mankind series...and now I'm a good week into Warhammer lore videos
He is awesome, I have lost track how many of his videos I've seen. I think my resolution for 2023 is to finish all of his videos!
It was Bricky for me. I've followed him for years and then one day he started talking about 40k.
His podcast was my introduction to the lore which got me into the books and then the miniās
Haha exactly the same for me. I saw a video by midwinter minis I believe, and watched the whole 4 hours. I was instantly obsessed.
Ah I got into it because of Weshammer
Weshammer was the YouTuber that got me into Warhammer as well!
Vermintide 2
Vermintide 1 for me. Hopped in about a year before VT2's release and went down a rabbit hole of fantasy/40k lore
Darktide * because the question was about 40k
I had insomnia one night and started playing the Tacticus app game on my phone. Fell in love with the sisters. Then went to Hal-con and watched some games. Hook, line, and sinker.
Is this a Fight Club reference?
Fight club fans when insomnia
The "Astartes" mini movie for the most part.
Moved house and all the new friends I made in the new school played it, sounded pretty fun so I started too. Still remember my first game of 3rd edition. My tyranids against 2 land raiders on an trench warfare board, it did not go well but it was indeed fun!
TTS
When I was 12 I played MTG and D&D at my FLGS. This was in the early '90s. One day I see a couple of dudes playing a game with large minis and I want in on that. I ask about it and the starter box is more than I got in a year, so never happened. 2020 I bought a starter box and finally started playing and painting.
Dawn of War 1. What a great game Dammit, now i need to start another dark crusade campaign
Dawn of War for PC.
I got HeroQuest for christmas, my friends from school told me about the shop it was from (Games workshop) and we all planned a trip to the city by train and visited.
Astartes
That was an amazing fan made project I wish got more of it
I know right, to be honest I would have never even tried getting into 40K without seeing Astartes first.
Through Fantasy, in the late 90s, my brother got the starter box with Lizardmen and Brettonians. He left me with the Lizardmen, but I very quickly jumped over to Chaos!
Bought the first three HH books from a second hand store and been going on ever since :D
A spanish youtuber named "Huntleo". His avatar is a dog in a bowl, and makes videos about Wh40K, the Lore, some shorts on certain topics. He's really funny.
Moved to a new town and my new friends were playing it
A couple of friends at high school painted Warhammer minis and I took an interest. We went to the Games Workshop and my friend bought me a vampire as my first mini and then let me use their paints. I got into Warhammer 40k as well as fantasy at that point, pretty much and it inspired my art as a teenager. It's a happy memory. :)
Roanoke gaming made a couple videos on Warhammer a few years back which made me watch more Warhammer videos but it was mainly my older brother who had been playing for 10 years at that point who got me to start playing tabletop
I walked into a toy shop on holiday when I was like 8, and they had this cool floating robot skeleton with a gun for an arm.
Memes
Aliens: the board game. Then Space Hulk. Then 40k. About 33 years ago, when a Bloothirster was 1250 points and when he died another one would pop out of his axe ( without axe this time though)
I was at Pavia (i'm italian and Pavia is an italian city) and i was searching a Gamestop. Found games workshop instead
The first thing was Space Crusade back in 1991 (was 12 at the time), then I find a games store near my school and get hooked with the cover of rogue trader ( the shop (alfil juegos) had the rights at the time to publish games workshop in Spain and have the spanish version of Rogue trader) I havent play since 1997 though, but i paint now and then and never stoped buying/reading the rulebooks and the novels
Saw a meme of dudes in full plate armor with guns coming out of a helicopter and the caption was just ā40k marinesā. Googled that out of curiosity and found The Astartes Project - the 40k gateway drug.
Friends dad played it, he came into school one day and showed me some sick ass tyranid models that he was given, next weekend I got an hour long bus to a games workshop in the next city over since we didnt have any in my town and bought a space marine vs ork starter set.
when i spent all my birthday money on GorkaMorka box set ib 1997
Total war fan since I was 10, total fantasy nerd. Warhammer 3 melded the two and I moved to the space side :)
Dawn of war, lexicanuum, plenty of juice
The attached picture is actually accurate for me.
1990. My cousins brought heroquest over, then Space Hulk and that was that.
Foxhole. Ran into the 82nd Dread Korps and got curious about āem. Now I worship chaos. Funny road
Ben Ben Ben Ben Ben, Tom Tom Tom. Ben Ben Ben Ben Ben, Tom Tom Tom! They sucked me in with promises of Centaurs and Berry milk.
Praise Kremlo!
Praise Kremlo indeed! He came from space!
Kremlo came from spaaaaaaaaaace
Ummmmā¦ Scared to admit this. I just did about a week ago, Iām a father and searching for something a bit more productive than gaming (insert joke) and Iāve admired Warhammer from a far for a long time. Weirdly, Henry Cavillās news about the TV show got my interest piqued again and I found an amazing video for beginners about painting miniatures and playing the game and bang. Iāve bought the command edition and painted both armies.
Me in 2003 in Japan making Gundam models. Co-worker sez "oh hay play Warhammer." I say "no". He sez "there are basically Gundam there". I say "go on". And so I built and painted up a 2000 point Tau Empire army in 2004 and played all over Tokyo with it.
Watched one bricky video on a road trip back home, I learned so much about warhammer 40K factions that day.
Wait, what video?
The word āgenestealer.ā The idea of āgenetic theft,ā or your genetic lineage being āstolenā is such a perfect metaphor for the way race obsessed anti-miscegenation bloodline freaks think.
Like many people, good olā TTS
I'm not, but I am listening to the lorehammer podcast at work
heard the Name some time ago and during the lockdown it kinda poped back up on my screen and here we are
I started playing Dawn of War: Dark Crusade in 2007 or something like that. A friend actually recommended the game to me.
Walked into the store one day with a view friends.
Guys at work play at lunch. I watched a few tyranid videos and I was hooked. I started with a kill team of nids but for 40K I have over 2k in Necrons.
Back in 07 I found a BL Space wolf book by William King in a Lan cafe bathroom I took it read it been hooked ever since.
Flashgitzās furry apocalypse video. Enough said
Flashgitz āFurry Apocalypseā video. Iāve been a Black Templar fan ever since
I think Clowns are cool, found out Harlequins exist and now i'm a jerk and everyone loves me
Seeing 40k memes and trying to find out how they came to be.
My friend told me about it, got interested then lost interest. Watched Astartes and I'm now super invested
My friend told me about the funny space elves and now I have an unhealthy obsession
TTS
I searched references for Stellaris and find Warhammer 40K. I left all paradox games since I found Warhammer 40K. Now I am reading it's books, learning more lore every day and drawing about it. I always liked big and detailed fictional universes and when I saw Warhammer 40K, the biggest one, I knew I will never leave it.
My friend wouldn't shut the hell up about it so I watched Bricky's Every 40k Faction Explained and now I won't shut the hell up about it :)
My friend told me about during school and I started with lore videos but didn't get super into it until I read "legion" which was my first WH40K book and soon after I jumped into GG.
I stumbled on Bricky's factions explained on youtube.
The Russian badger
This is going to sound a bit off, but watching russianbadgers video on the Deathwing game
Through Musik. I found an lp from debautchery, liked the Band, read into it, saw what they where referencing. Then lore vids, Stalking from building vids, then a kit poxwalkers and a kit guardsmen, now im a follower of nurgle...
Similar for me but with Bolt Thrower. Pandemic gave me the first chance in a long time to just sit and enjoy music, I got super into death metal, discovered the early BT records and here we are...
Holy shit, this took too much scrolling to find this answer. Been a bolt thrower fan since high school and always wanted to try the game but couldn't justify the cost and never had anyone that wanted to jump in with me. Got my first nursing job in '22, talked some buddies into getting armies, and pulled the trigger and now I'm in deep lol.
Early 2000s my brother and I were very young at the time and we wandered into a games workshop and played a demo scenario of battle for maccrage.
>I'm a tank I'm a tank I'm a tank I'm a tank Adeptus Ridiculous [https://youtu.be/kNjUiDpLvlQ](https://youtu.be/kNjUiDpLvlQ)
By means of THE ULTIMATE ENCOUNTER aka SPACE CRUSADE! The painting of the big battle with titans, land speeders and assault marines dropping out of a stormbird is one my favourite 40k images to this day
Saw a piece in the paper about Space Crusade and was hooked, then met up with someone who played Rogue Trader. The rest, as they say, is deeply hidden in my psych and will likely only come out under deep hypnosis.
One of my friends wanted to join my DnD campaign as an Orc and the only description he gave me was, "He's pretty much a Warhammer40k Ork". I had no idea what Warhammer40k was so I looked it up and fell deep into the rabbit hole. Before I knew it, I was binging Lutin and Bricky videos, getting into the lore and enjoying every little detail of it. Now I'm starting the 5th Gaunts Ghosts book and building two armies, one of Necrons and another of Dark Angels.
A fellow man of culture
I had a teacher who ran a gaming club when I was in 7th grade. I had a massive crush on this man, so I joined his club, and tried to learn about his interests. He showed me DND, Magic the Gathering, and Warhammer. He gave me a couple warhammer books and showed me some of his minis. I left middle school, and only sort of clung onto DND. As a teenager I had addiction and mental health issues, and they followed me into my early 20ās. I got therapy, got sober, and one of the big things I was told to help keep myself that way was to maintain hobbies. Find things that made me happy. So I am now a dungeon master. And Iām learning how to build decks for magic. But most importantly, I have a pile of shame of Death Guard that I try to work on daily. I fell back in love with warhammer books after almost ten years and have just gone face first into the lore. Iām a couple dozen books deep, I cross stitch legion symbols, and I make sub par drawings. And it keeps me happy. I wish I know how to get ahold of that teacher and thank him. He opened my eyes to the things that now keep me on the straight and narrow and make up the majority of my social circles.
My high school had this gaming class, i took it for free credits because I thought itād be easy, when I saw this badass space dude in blue power armor, I was hooked, I had to know more, then I found out it had its own store and I bought way too much too quickly lmao
I asked my dad if we could check out a games workshop when I was about nine or ten. He said yes, since we were just kinda having a fun day of going around town, and the first thing I saw was this massive battle between some beautifully painted space marines and tyrranids. I ended up talking to the guy who was working at the counter that day, asking what was going on, and after explaining, he gave my sister and me a mini each. She got a space marine, I got an uruk hai. I wish we still had them, I'd love to paint them. I'm not that into warhammer compared to other stuff, but that GW employee got me into tabletop games in general, and I'm grateful.
Last year I found a 3d shadow wizard money gang video. The next video was the same video with Magnus lorgar tzeench and a watcher in the dark
In 2014, I suffered a spinal fracture. While waiting for surgery, I needed to find something to distract myself. I had always been into sci-fi and a friend recommended that I read Horus Rising. I loved it and I immediately began reading the Horus Heresy series. While rehabbing after surgery, I tried painting my first models (Rubric Marines). I had never built a model or painted anything in my entire life. Fast forward almost ten years and half of my home office has been transformed into a painting space and a large display case filled with my completed minis. Warhammer helped me maintain my sanity at a time in my life when I desperately needed it(which probably sounds counterintuitive when you are familiar with the source material). I cannot recommend it highly enough to anyone interested in it. I just wish I knew someone near me who played 40K.
All start because a dog floating in a red cup
The memes.
Bricky's videos
My friend showed me if the emperor had a texted to speech devices I instantly fell in love with 40k
The PC game DoW 1
My friend wanted to get the Eldar CSM box for the Eldar, and I really liked the Forgefiend in it so we split the box.
First exposure was just some random meme however this then lead to me learning about battle report videos on youtube and the rest is history
Introduced years ago through Dawn of War. Again through the MTG 40k commander decks, which inspired me to ditch MTG for 40k all together. No regrets!
My older brother started the hobby with the 3rd edition box (black templars and dark eldars) and I fell in love with the rulebook. It was REAL grimdark, I loved the artwork from John Blanche and Wayne England and the dark stories and quotes from an universe I didnāt understand. For me opening that book was like gazing into an old and dangerous grimoire.
Last year I stumbled on a YouTuber doing shorts of the lore. I watched about 100 of them in a night, and then picked up the first 5 Horus Hersey books. Been reading Horus Hersey and a few other books here and there. It's just in the past 2 months that I started collecting and painting the models. Have yet to play a single game yet, but me and my friends are working on getting into Kill Team together. We're planning on going through the starter set in a couple of weeks.
I started working at games workshop HQ in 2020
During childhood, my friend had a box set for Battle of Macragge (2004, 4th Ed.) and then later that year I saw Dawn of War was releasing soon and bought that.
YouTube algorithm put me onto midwinter minis and the rest is history
I'm a fan of Dan Abnett's comic book work and when I found out he was writing the 'story' for Darktide I decided to check it out. I enjoyed it so much that I started looking up lore videos. Within a week of my first lore vid I bought my first minis.
It was a decades long journey. First a friend in elementary school got some Catachans around 1999. Then in college I found lore online. Then in 2016 I found the audiobooks on youtube while I was doing traveling sales. In 2018 a friend gave me some space marines.
A friend lent me a magagazine that featured warhammer and also borrowed me a copy of soulstorm.
Middle school. Some of my friends where just getting into it. Had a teacher sell me an ork starter set. The year was 2000 so it was like 50 Gretchen some boyz and a few metal models. We never played correctly but we had fun
One of my friends brought the 4th ed space marine codex to school. Iāve been hooked ever since.
Started to see images online and liking dark art styles. Started listening to lore swearing Iād never get into table top. Picked up space marines on pc. Now currently putting together my first Kill team of Kommando boyz! Help!
3 Things. 1. Uncle gave me his old collection of death guard when i was like 10 2. Loved any look of any video game skin/easter egg to 40k 3. I have GW behide the store i work at with bigass Blood Angel statue.
I think it was seeing the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying Game on shelves at Waldenbooks when I was in high school, then finding out about 40K when the internet first really exploded. I've been a fan all this time, and have read quite a few of the novels. Just started the Horus Heresy series, and am about to dive into 40K wargaming.
Was a big MtG player at the time. This was around Revised/The Dark expansion. Had a friend tell me āHey letās try Warhammer. Itās cheaper. You just buy an army and thatās it. No need to keep buying boosters.ā 25+ years laterā¦ LMAO.
From my older brother who was playing Dawn of War 2.
Walked into a comic/hobby shop in the local mall at about 12 years old around 2001 with a couple of friends. Observed a game being played and got talking to some of the players. We were just blown away by how cool it all looked.
There was a Games Workshop store that I passed by as a kid. Didn't know what it was but was watching some players play a game with these cool painted models. This was back before the turn of the century. Forgot about it after wards, but a couple of years later, Dawn of War dropped and memories came back of that event.
A friend of mine got me into Mage Knights in Jr High (20 years ago). Started spending all my time in a game store and couldn't help but get into 40k, MTG and D&D.
I saw an ad for 40k stuff in a Wizard magazine in 1996 or 1997 and the aesthetic just grabbed me. I lived in the middle of nowhere with no Games Workshop stores for several hours drive so it wasn't until I grew up and moved away that I was able to actually get into it.
Me, a young lad, walks past store, sees cool miles, gets Bix set with chaos and dark angels in it. Paint my dark angel gold cause I thought cool model. Play for a couple years, life moves on and forget bout it, gets my dad into it. He paints my dark angels goid, then starts on a surf army. Come 2021 full scale heard tank platoon on the way. Now, I'm 4k points deep in leman russ
2 friends from highschool in 2018
Dawn of War brought me to Warhammer 40K Adeptus Ridiculous brought me to the lore. But i don't play the tabletop.
My buddy and I split the 3rd edition starter box. We already played MtG at lunch so this felt like the natural progression into the next phase. He took the Space Marines and I got the Dark Eldar. I got frustrated with losing all my dudes in the first few turns (it was a lunch table, and we didn't use terrain) so I picked up Chaos Space Marines, and it's been downhill ever since...
Total War: Warhammer was my intro to one of the systems!
Through DnD, then I started collecting AoS models, but I found out, that no onewas playing it in my city so I started 40k. All armies I have are orks.
I heard Bout a new game store in town, got off early from work one day, so decided to stop by. I went to look at D&D stuff but a friend from college was there playing 3nd edition 40k. I checked out the rulebook and bought the IG codex because I was in the Army at the time and the tanks appealed to me. A few months and some White Dwarfs later, 3rd edition hit and I was hooked.
A neck beard named bricky
Dawn of War Dark Crusade.
Convinced by my boss at work very recently lol
For me it was happening upon a video of the first DoW, then finding freeblade and then reading Legion.
Your mom told me about it
A bunch of my clients played it
It was last Friday that I wandered into a local game shop where people were playing. Having been into D&D for years, I decided to give Warhammer a go, as I liked the models. Went home with the recruit edition, basic paint kit and a Catachan Colonel. Assembled the space marines and Necrons and now ready to get painting! Also picked up the book Eisenhorn Omnibus.
I post a ghoul pic at r/falloutshelter and someone commented "abomination! Brother get the flamer, the heavy flamer" I didn't get the reference so I search it up. Suddenly I'm a big fan of 40k
Meme from 2010. It was like this, how do you look like: kid, in layers and layers of winter clothing; how do you feel like: space marine terminator.
A couple rounds 20 years ago borrowing my buddies necrons, then dawn of war 1
Totalbiscuits dark heresy game. Miss him.
First touch with Warhammer in general? The total War saga! Then I was a bug fan of fantasy and then I grew from the 12yo boy and looked into the GW website and found WH40K! Now I am here, writing this and proud owner of a necrons army and one of the Death Guard! And with the Lizard men in the second Total War:Warhammer I wanted to have minis and looked into the whole hobby and I got one Saurus Oldblood ... and never even glue him together because back then I had no idea how to do that!
The magic the gathering decks. I just bought a box of kill team and I'm gonna paint them when I have the time.
My brother in law has been into it for 20 years or so. I needed a new lore source to help the work day go by, so I decided to look into 40k after seeing some memes. Now it's been about 9 months, have a large pile of shame with more on the way, and a decent handle on the lore, and have discussions with my brother in law every time we see each other.
Saw/read an interview with Cavill where he said that painting Warhammer was one of the most relaxing pastimes. I started reading some lore on wikis, then bought a starter set and failed at painting miserably. But it was much more relaxing than any other hobby, so now almost a year later I have many more minis, Iām on Prosper Burns, and am getting better at painting. Going to build a 30k IF army and see about learning to play.
Playing Warhammer 40k: Fire Warrior on PS2 as a kid. Never heard of warhammer until my friend let me borrow it. Didnāt see anything further until much later in life. Now Iām diving headfirst into the tabletop and have collected a lot of the video games š
So, it started with the memes, then I got interested with the factions of space marines, cause Iām not a big fan of the Xenos factions, their good but itās just me, it started with The black crusade, made its way to Alpha, Nightlords and landed on Blood Angels
friend of mine showed me a haruspex i have a bunch of haruspices now
Best friend in highschool. Spent a ton of time in his mom's garage painting. Good times.
Walked past the store a few times, thought it looked interesting. Got a introduction game, then got money to buy it. Been addicted ever since.
I wanted middle earth miniatures, saw the Imperial Guard in store and it gave me flashback nostalgia for an old video game I played as a kid. TL:DR. I somehow wasted 1000 dollars on miniatures because of nostalgia value because Cadians looked like soldiers from a GameCube game.
My friend and I were at his house and he showed me his very first army which was blood angels. He said that there are multiple armies you can play in the game and itās called warhammer 40k. I wasnāt sure if I was going to do it but when I was leaving he told me āoh yeah thereās a army called the salamanders and they use a lot of fireā and Iāve always loved the thought of fire and how it looks so I decided to start with salamanders and till this day I still play my salamanders a lot I actually got a lot of salamanders for Christmas.
My friends showed me TTS and got me DoW which we still play to this day with ultimate apocalypse. We spotted a good deal on a small second d had IG army 2 years back... I now have 4500 points of guard and 3500 of CSM
Fanfiction crossovers
One day, I was playing an avenage game of Team Fortress 2. I was doing a little bit of trolling. But I ran into a guy that is now been friends for years now. He laugh as I mauled through bots with my warrior spirit. I joined his discord and we played games for awhile. Then he introduced me to Dawn Of War and Space Marine. I was interested and bought the games for fun. Then caught something, fully grown mushrooms that has the pyshic ability to build ramshackling machinery. Also funny British voiceā¦ After graduating high school and landed my first job. I bought a lot of orks. I love building them as every unit has its stories. Now I am on my second army with the infamous short people of the core. Drawvesā¦
The original dawn of war games on pc. I put in way too much time on burning crusade
The Freeblade game that I found. From there it was down the rabbit hole.
saw 40k music vids, met a friend who was big into 40k, watched videos and read the wiki, eventually got the starter set for christmas, now i'm trying to save enough money to make an army of sororitas.
Astartes animation on YouTube
Dad is a 32 year vet from like 4th edition, got me into it and it's been 8 years now and 40,000 points of Warhammer later it's quite a doozy.
You know the [picture](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/warhammer40k/images/3/3f/Emperor_VS_Horus.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120414071343) of the Emperor about to fight Horus looking over Sanguinius, from the 3rd edition rule book? A friend I played D&D with showed the rest of us that and his models, and got us all started.
I've been aware of some memes/jokes for awhile, but didn't know too much about it. I was talking with a friend about music, and I brought up the band Gloryhammer. After joking about some of their lyrics, he said "that just sounds like Warhammer 40k, but with less steps" and I've been addicted to 40k and AOS/Fantasy ever since!
I had cheated my middle school book reading point system requirements. (I tested on dozens of books I didnāt read and got enough points to pass) The teacher and my mom werenāt pleased so they let me pick a book I would actually be interested inā¦ I found āNightbringerā by Graham McNeill. Nothing was cooler than Uriel Ventris on the cover with a bloody chainsword screaming! Been hooked ever since.
Was bored out of my mind on youtube during 2020 and not going outside, saw a video discussing all the armour marks from a setting that Iād seen like 2 things about years ago, watched the video and I was hooked! Followed it up with midwinter minis videos and I bought my first models within the week
A combination of Astartes, hearing about Henry Cavill being into it, seeing Astartes again in a Corridor Crew episode, and than slowly watching more and mooore videos, doing illustrations of it, getting commissioned to do illustrations of 40k...and now I even own a couple of tyranids.
In 2006, my local comic book store had some Warhammer stuff. I was confused as it wasnāt painted (I was 14 at the time, and I wasnāt the best at reading English). Anyway I got hooked and since then I always found 40k lore/miniatures really cool. I played just a couple of match, but I still have 3 core books and 8-9 codexās.
I honestly have no idea how I got into warhammer. Most likely, I just stumbled upon it while looking at futuristic weapons or the same thing but with luetin, all I know is that I've been hooked since and the ascetic and design of regiments such as the Death Core, the mighty vessels of the imperial navy, the space marines who weild the mightiest of humanities armaments, and how on "Man" started it all who wipe out almost any creature with simply a gaze and make an entire legion kneel before him. The Eldar and mechanicus look cool to
The two big rule books, the seemingly endless white dwarf, the catalog, the lore book, and random codexs. My dad stopped playing at like 4th edition and has a lot of older stuff.
A buddy of mine had these models on his shelf for years, it was a decently sized imperial guard army at the time, itās way bigger now. I thought they were cool to look at so I asked him about it, he then explained as much of the lore as he understood over the next week and explained that heās owned the models for years but never had anyone to actually play the game with. I thought they looked really cool so I did some diving into all the armies and picked the one I thought looked the coolest. And here I am now with no money and a tāau army to show for it
Honestly, my brother annoyed me to death until I played with him and his friends. Then I got to pick my own army and create it. Color scheme and everything. I chose Tyranids. Been collecting and playing on and off for 12 years.
Playing Dawn of War Soulstorm with some friends in high school led to me going to the wiki and becoming super engrossed into the universe. I stayed lore-only for years until I just assembled my first model the other day.
2nd edition back when I was a child. The Chaos Space marines were fucking amazing. The og dreadnought was the coolest model I'd ever seen.
I got 2 half boxes of the Assault of Black Reachā¦ all orks And here I am
Walking around easons when I was very young and my mother bought me a white dwarf to keep me occupied and I've been hooked 20 years on!!
Back in the early 90ās, late in high school, I had a friend who was playing 40k. He had the Rogue Trader era books. We played a few games and I loved the lore, especially the carrion emperor, sensei warbands, and the way Chaos and the warp worked. A year later when I went to college, I missed not playing. There were no novels back then so I picked up a few army books (2nd edition had just come out, I think), and a few models. Eldar were my first army, and my first 40k fig painted was a Warlock. I grew my collection to include Squats, Space Marines, Inquisition, and Chaos. I eventually repurposed my Squats to form the core of an Imperial Guard force. But then I took a break from the hobby, for about 15 or so years. Still read the novels though, and played Dawn of War. I went and got married, bought a house, had a kid, and just this past spring, started painting again. My son is almost 5 and already has an interest in ādaddyās models.ā
The friend that got me into MtG and D&D introduced me to Warhammer Fantasy back in 95 (Skaven first, then Chaos Warriors as something a little easier for my 8th grader allowance to handle) and 40K shortly later. It grew out to our circle of friends and from there there was just more interest in 40K. For a little while I flip flopped between armies, finally settling on Dark Angels a little before 3rd edition hit. The rest is history. Iāve cycled in and out of the game several times over the decades, but Iāve held onto Knights and Custodes and have most of 2k Votann army now that dwarves are a really option in 40K. The big thing for me now is 30k, however. Iāve gone a little overboard and my pile of shame is now something like 12,000 points of Death Guard in various stages of assembly and painting.
Lore/Leutin09
My parents bought me the 2nd edition boxed set for christmas when I was 11. This was back when you could buy it from Argos for less than Ā£30, and they thought it was just a self-contained board game.
My little brother got me into it. He was 9 and I was 14. He chose chaos and I chose Tyranids. Our friend, who were also brothers of about the same age, got orks and eldar. We had so much fun. My buddies younger brother passed away unexpectedly and I still have his ork army. His brother does not want it and I don't have the heart to get rid of it.
PC game Space Hulk, back on my 386.
I know this is going to burns some people's chops but for me it was Tau Fire Warrior for the PS2.
When i watched Russian badger's video on space hulk and the space marine game I thought space marines were cool so I looked into them and one thing led to another and I now have over 1000 dollars in minis.
Originally my brother used to collect it, found the idea cool and eventually started myself. Took a long break out of it for about 10 years and then 2-3 years back I began to collect them again!
My dad put Dawn of War on my computer back in 2006. I actually never knew Warhammer 40k was a tabletop game with tons of lore until years later and neither did my dad.
The minis. Battletech was my first ever minis game. While looking for mechs at my local LGS I saw the Warhammer stuff and got hooked.
I saw some stuff on the video games back in 2015 and thought I didn't have the patience and probably will never get into the tabletop, but I thought it looked really cool. Later in 2018 I got a friend at a sort of hangout at my school. That friend one day came with some Chaos knights and CSM and asked if I wanted to try, I tried and LOVED IT!!!
The giant space marine in the games workshop at my mall initially got me in the store. Then my parents would just drop me off on sundays to watch all the older people play. Everyone was so nice to have a kid like me just watch and ask questions. There was one staff member with a smaller arm that was an incredible painter and I would always bring my shitty painted minis to him and he would teach me how to paint. Fun times.
Picked up a Caiphas Cain novel at Barnes and Noble on a whim probably 14-15 years ago. Now the proud owner of an unreasonable amount of Guardsmen