Why are adults still launching tabletop war?
It's a table top game, but on a large scale. You use paper/pencil and dice, but you don't play a character, you play an ARMY!
The idea I have come to understand is that it's comparable to 2 other table top games. Risk and Chess. You are playing an opponent across the table from you. You have your army and he has his. The only difference is, you had to purchase, assemble and paint the army yourself.
It goes to the model building that we all have starting back when we were kids. We all had our phases of building blocks and assembling things with Lego's or Linking Logs or whatever construction kit you had as a kid. Some people find other things after a while to interest them, where others still enjoy building things. Be it full size Lego kits, Model trains, cars, airplanes, which can then lead to carpentry, architecture and even computer building.
Human beings love to build. If it's not with blocks its sand, mud, wood, metal, clothes, anything that can be done with your hands, we work with it.
This is just an expansion on that but with finer detailing. The miniatures that are involved with Warhammer 40K come in 2 types, plastic and metal. Many come as one piece and others in pieces that need to be assembled. Once those pieces are assembled, the process of painting them to your liking is started. Once they are finished, they are ready for the battlefield.
I personally have been involved with the game since High School. I discovered it on a day trip in Philidelphia, PA. I passed by a store called Games Workshop and I went in to see what they had. I was amazed at what I found and couldn't help but pick up a few miniatures. I took them home and had them for years before I realized what the game was and how it worked. I then began collecting more miniatures and building armies around them. It was after I graduated High School that I began working on them at home in my spare time. Then when I went to college I had to leave them behind. After college I came home and was revitalized by them, while I was hunting for work and trying to scratch out a living. I invested my time and creativity into the hobby and found it very fulfilling and enjoyable.
The only drawback was the amount of traveling I had to do to get to the locations to play. I wasn't guaranteed a game but when I did they were fun. I didn't win most of the time, but I was playing and having fun and that was all I needed.
I still have armies and I still work on them but just not as often as I like. I still love the game and keep up with it as much as possible, but I have chosen to only play 2 armies in Warhammer 40,000(Space Marines and Tau). I originally had plans to build up 4 or 5 armies but finance, time and need for space made that impossible. Not to mention that I got married and now have a kid to support, so my armies are a side project based on freetime. But I still love the game and keep track of the developments and rules so I can jump back in when I can.
I may not always get to play or win, but it's a game that will never be old for me.
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