Little Figurines in Chinook Center (War Hammer)

[Rifleman]

I often pass by this shop on the south end of Chinook Center, and always stop to look at the little figurines on display. They look pretty neat. Can someone tell me what this is about? I understand it's a game people play? They have a fantasy set, a sci-fi set, and even some figures from Lord of the Rings.

[Rathji]

While I do not know for sure which shop you are refering to, I played a little bit of Warhammer in highschool. Basicly it is a turn based combat game where each peice has a certian amount of movement( in cm) a firing range and a firing arc. You move your peices, roll dice for attacks and then damage is applied, possibly killing other units etc.

I only played a few times at a friends, so I couldn't tell you much more than that. For us it would take a day to build the terrain. He had bags and bags of sand with little toy trees, buildings, etc and we would either set it up on a ping pong table with sides or on the floor in his basement.

The goal of the game is to win the battle, either through routing his forces and forcing a retreat or total destruction.

[WhiteTom]

It's a place called Games Workshop, which is the company that owns the Warhammer franchise.

I've never played myself, but I have played similar games and know people who were into Warhammer. Rathji's summary is correct, but I would add in that the biggest part of the Warhammer "thing" is that all of the pieces you collect come unpainted and you are encouraged to paint your armies (and by extension create your own environments to battle on). Painting figurines is a massive pastime for some people, and it can become quite the art.

http://www.games-workshop.com/

[Boblobla]

There is an MMORPG coming out based on this game. Thread here:

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthread.php?t=62016

[North East Goon]

Oh, the geek shop. I think there is one of those in Sunridge as well, at least there used to be one. Never been in one though!

[Matata]

I thought it looked like it could be a lot of fun back in high school, then I realized they charged you $50 for 10 of the smallest figurines, I figured it would take about 20 hours of set up and ~$200-300 just to get my feet wet. After all that, I had to convince a few friends to do the same, or make friends with the ubergeeks who took this stuff seriously and commit myself to the new money/time sink in my life. Thats when it seemed like no fun at all.

[troutman]

There are also many miniature games where the figures are pre-painted, like HeroClix, Star Wars, Dungeons and Dragons etc. These are kind of like collectable trading card games like Pokemon or Magic, in that each package has a random assortment of figures from the set.

[WhiteTom]

Originally Posted by North East Goon

Oh, the geek shop. I think there is one of those in Sunridge as well, at least there used to be one. Never been in one though!

Yeah, they have one there as well.

My problem with Games Workshop is that it is an overly specific geek shop, as they don't have anything other than Warhammer and it's offshoots there. Just like Matata says, it costs a good deal of change to just get into it, and if you find out you don't like it then too bad eh.

Originally Posted by troutman

There are also many miniature games where the figures are pre-painted, like HeroClix, Star Wars, Dungeons and Dragons etc.

This is what I would recommend (I've tried the Dungeons and Dragons miniatures personally) if you want to give miniatures a try, as it is a much lower investment and they can be pretty fun to play. I was able to pick up how to play D&D mini's in a couple of play sessions, but then again I'm a huge nerd. If you don't know where to go to find stuff like this, just let me (or the forum) know.