How it all started

So, there we were. A father and son, walking into the only “game” store in Fairbanks, Alaska. We were there to look for a game to play together over the Christmas break. I was hoping for a Dungeon’s and Dragons type of game that I remembered from my childhood. I wanted to share what I remembered as some great fun and imaginative adventures with him. He had a different idea. We walked around the store for over an hour-which is quite a feat in any store here in Fairbanks. Anyway, after a lot of wandering, discussing and choking on the cost of most of the board style games, we walked over to a wall of models.

I had looked briefly and dismissed the games that required building, painting and a lot of work before you play. My son, after dismissing everything else we had discussed, he looked up and said “I have heard of Warhammer, let’s go with that.” He said he wanted to go with the future option, not the fantasy variety. While he loves the Lord of the Rings and fantasy movies, he had no desire for any D&D style game.

The next step was to get a salesman to explain what the heck all of this was. He gave us a quick rundown of it, went over some of the options and then recommended the Assault on Black Reach Set. It looked like a plan to us. It came with two small armies, a mini rule book, some dice and the templates. Everything we needed to test the waters. So we forked out 79 bucks and walked out of the store, ready to read the rules and crush each others armies. (inserted the picture from the games workshop website for the kit-not my picture)

That was about a month ago. We have read books, picked our armies, played some practice games and are hooked.

This blog will chronicle the life and times of a couple of newbies to Warhammer 40k. We will talk the fun, progress, mistakes, pitfalls and details of what it is like to just start out. Maybe others will learn from our mistakes and maybe a few dad’s can take heart that they can connect with their sons through whatever means are available.