Dice tell stories.
It is the slogan of Vancouver-based YouTube channel Play On Tabletop, but it is also a simple truth when it comes to wargames, or any game really, that use dice. You can have a unit with the best stats and the coolest weapons in the world, but none of that matters if you roll six ones and fail to hit your enemy. Dice and chance told that story.
Dice are at the heart of many tabletop miniature games and Warhammer 40,000 is no exception. A game that's existed in some form for close to 40 years, 40K, as it's known in the community, is fast becoming a well-known pop culture franchise. In addition to video games, books and animations, a live-action series is in the works at Amazon.
Yet at the centre of this universe is the tabletop wargame itself, Warhammer 40,000, now well into its 10th edition. In recent years, more people have grown interested in the world and begun playing the game. Here in 100 Mile House, Creative Magic Art and Hobby has helped a small but passionate community form. From all walks of life, these men and women come together to assemble models, lovingly paint them and then smash their armies together in games that can last up to five hours.
Created by England's Games Workshop, Warhammer 40,000 traces its origins to 1987 with the game Rouge Trader and later Space Hulk in 1989. Meant to be a science fiction companion to Warhammer, their classic fantasy wargame, these early iterations of the grimdarkness of the far future borrowed heavily from both Warhammer and the pop culture of the time. The concept of a galactic-spanning Imperium of Man is directly lifted from Dune, the Lovecraftian Tyranids get their design inspiration from Alien and Imperial Guard legend Sly Marbo is a rather obvious homage Sylvester 'Sly' Stalone's Rambo.
To play 40K, you need a couple of things: an (ideally) fully painted army from your chosen faction, a rulebook, datasheets, a whole lot of dice, some form of terrain, mission cards and a measuring tape. Items like dice trays, battle mats and more elaborate plastic or 3-D terrain can certainly enhance your gaming experience, but are not necessary.
Players then roll off to determine if they are the attacker or defender and set up their units one by one on opposite ends of the battlefield. Some units are made up of only one hero model, while others are made up of 20 different minis. Once all the units are deployed, the game begins and typically lasts five rounds or until one player concedes.
While there is competitive play designed for 40K tournaments which happen across the globe, that's not the only way to play. Crusade play sees players building armies which gained experience throughout several games, levelling up if they survive with new bonuses and potentially taking battle scars that give them debuffs. Narrative play, meanwhile, offers players a chance to play out scenarios that may not be perfectly balanced but result in fun, memorable moments.
When I play 40K, even in the semi-competitive escalation league Creative Magic is running this spring, I always look for the narrative moments in my game. A single guardsman bravely holding the line, a great and powerful villain taken down in combat with my own hero or a tank withstanding an entire army's worth of shooting. These moments are told by dice and player decisions, and to me, they make the game so much more than just a game. It's instead a shared story in miniature form.
But how, you ask, does one play the game? Well, tune back in next month for a more detailed breakdown of the game's rules. If you can't wait till then, feel free to swing by on any Sunday when 40K is being played at Creative Magic.
