OPINION - Warhammer Is The Ultimate Tabletop Game. Here’s Why
James Keown
I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve heard a little about Warhammer already, given its connections to the Lord of the Rings franchise, breath taking YouTube animations, addictive video games and the charming tabletop wargame itself. Its cemented itself in popular culture, with even celebrities like Robin Williams, Vin Diesel and Henry Cavill taking part in the hobby.
But if you don’t know much about what a “Warhammer” is, let me explain. Well, depending on what you mean, it could either be a blunt force weapon used against armoured opponents, or (my preferred option) a franchise that is rapidly expanding and welcoming to all creative, collecting, or competitive types.
The brand draws its origin back to its respective tabletop wargames. Games Workshop, the company behind the hobby, has got you covered in a gritty high fantasy setting in which magic is wild and gods walk the battlefield, or in its sibling bathed in the grim darkness of the far future with aliens locked in a fittingly gothic setting.
Both settings are what I would like to describe as a world designed for creative types, with each universe taking a healthy dose of inspiration from both sci-fi and fantasy such as the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, Star Wars, Dune or Dungeons and Dragons.
With real-world history and culture playing its part in the creation of this world, the tabletop game successfully captures the universes with rules to encapsulate plasma guns, lightsaber-like power swords, magic infused armour, and powerful blasts of sorcery. Each game also leaves spaces in its stories and rules for players to create their own heroes, villains, and armies to populate this expansive and over the top world.
The tabletop game itself has evolved in form of its models. Its early designs of adorable retro warriors and barbarians has been replaced with spectacular figures plucked directly from the imagination of the Warhammer modelling teams. Some of these designs of miniatures are less plastic toy and more bridging into sculptures depicting God’s amongst men or legendary figures of myth.
The Warhammer hobby has a range of paints and modelling tricks allowing you to birth your ideas in physical form and equipping them head to toe with whatever you please - the only limits being your imagination.
The worlds of both Warhammer Fantasy (Age of Sigmar) and Warhammer Sci-Fi (40,000) have a plethora of supplement material that further pulls and stretches the story through expansion of its story and world building.
The collection of writers known as The Black Library are publishing novels shining light on the characters and events in the universes, creating a wealth of information with the depth of an ocean. These novels have even managed to reach the heights of The New York Times bestsellers, most notable being the super-human civil war of the ‘Horus Hersey’. The fan community surrounding the franchise has always been prominent in its role for the hobby, whether that’s the fan animations such as ‘Astartes’, Wargaming channels such as ‘Miniwargaming’ or channels breaking down the story and setting like ‘Luetin09’.
It has never been a better time to get into the hobby, with a plenty of different ways to join the community, whether it’s a starter box bought in store, one of the featured cinematics of the new Warhammer animations studio, a Black Library novel, or one the many video game titles covering the universe.
So, I will leave you with a quote, from one the creators of the franchise, Rick Priestley, in the first ever rule book in the first ever edition of the game.
“If you have ever left the cinema or turned from the tv screen, wishing you could invent your own death-stars, storm-troopers, whirring ornithopters and wild -eyed heroes then this is for you! Warhammer 40,000 is a game that lets you create all kinds of exciting, futuristic adventure on a tabletop. You will need a few models, a little scenery, and the odd accessory like such as dice and a ruler – but most importantly, you will need a smattering of creative genius. The fact you are reading this is a sure indication that you are eminently qualified on that score.”
James Keown is a second year student at Ulster University studying Journalism.