Thar's Warhammer 40k Journey

[Thar 502]

Why hello there, didn't see you come in.

So yeah, I decided to give Warhammer 40k a try.

For those of you who don't know, Warhammer is a tactical wargame where you command an army of miniatures on a table to fight another army of miniatures, but I assume most of you already know that, so we can just get right to it.

Warhammer is something I've been pretty intrigued by for a while now. I'd say at least a decade. I'd see a game going on every so often whenever I go to my local tabletop store. The terrain, the buildings, the custom-built and painted armies... it was quite a spectacle for just a bunch of plastic figures.

Now, why didn't I get into it sooner? Well... in case it wasn't obvious, everything involved in having what you need to play the game is... hilariously expensive. We can get to how much I spent on it already just to have a starting army, but it's safe to say that I've hesitated to even get into it for a long time solely because the investment was just not something I was prepared to dive into. Not to mention, I knew literally no one who even played.

Fast forward to recently: I'm doing quite well for myself, all things considered. A new year has begun and all my years of trying to get into a new hobby has weighed my conscience down for a long time. I needed something new. Something that I can dedicate time to and get involved in with other people, and I needed to get out of the house more and not just for work, shopping, and family visits.

So I decided I'd find an event to attend nearby, and sure enough, the local tabletop place hosted a board game night every Thursday. So I went. I had a blast. I learned a handful of new games, met some people, and we all had fun. I went home that night satisfied with what I did that day and said to myself "I need to do this more."

So then I found out that shop had its own Discord server, which I joined. There were multiple tags that I could assign myself based on my interest, so I joined a couple, and that's when I saw the Warhammer tag. Having been so interested in the concept for so long, I decided "screw it" and jumped in. I was welcomed with open arms. A handful of people, some of which were also pretty new at it besides me, already hit it off with me about the game and were incredibly helpful just with what I needed to know and the best way to get started.

It all started with what kind of army I wanted to start with. How did I want to play? What sort of playstyle was I looking for? What aesthetic appealed to be the most? How much was I willing to spend? This all played a part in how I wanted to approach it, and the options were overwhelming. Literally dozens of factions to choose from, each with dozens of miniatures to build with even for a starting army, each with a few variations of loadouts to choose from for each model depending on how I wanted to play. It was all overwhelming just picking which faction I wanted, and despite me narrowing it down to something either upfront and tanky or glass-cannony, that still didn't seem to help me figure out what I was gonna jump into this with...

...and then I saw it. The energy of this one particular following in the community that I just felt resonate within me like nothing else the game had to offer.

The Orks. The most violent, tribal, and hilarious faction in the entire game. Just a bunch of brutes slapping together whatever scrap they can find to create weapons, armor, and vehicles to accompany their overwhelming numbers that just can't seem to stop growing. Their aesthetic, their carefree attitude, their overall ENERGY that they give out just called to me. It was meant to be.

So here I am, finally committing to something. With a few people in the chat welcoming me to the Orks clan, I went ahead and got the Orks Command Patrol box. Even though it was still pretty pricey, these boxes were the ideal entry point into specific factions.

However, that was just the army. There were still a bunch of stuff I needed to even get started putting everything together myself.

This is my journey into Warhammer 40k.