John Zeitler

Warhammer 40,000 has been around for the better part of two decades now, and its players are varied in their ages. Having just turned 30 myself, I’d have to guess that I’m about in the middle of the pack in terms of age, even though I’ve only been in the hobby for about a year, and only seriously playing for eight months or so. However, there’s something universal about the game that appeals to a wide range of folks, and even though the crowds I hang out with tend to skew a little bit older, once in a while, I’m not the newbie.

Roughly three or four months ago, I took part in a “new players” tournament, the second time I’d been playing, and the first time I’d brought out my Space Marines chapter, not even half-painted at the time, but at least colored almost in my team hues. At that time I met Luke, a kid of about eleven or twelve who was bringing out his Orks for the first time. (Due to his age, I’m going to use an alias for him.) He’d conviced his parents to let him participate in the tournament, and there was a little friction when he explained to his mother that the event would run five or six hours. I was matched against Luke in the first round, and as a result I overheard everything.

There’s a bit of a stereotype of gaming and comics shops being seedy joints in darkness where youths waste days at a time, accomplishing nothing and possibly using the shop as a cover for less wholesome activities than, for example, tabletop warfare. I can say with conviction that I have never encountered one of these kinds of shops in reality. My current haunt, Legions Games, is probably the most well-maintained shop I’ve seen, and the players and staff are to a man among the nicest people I’ve ever faced. So, I felt it necessary to step in and let Luke’s mom know that he was perfectly safe in the store, and that if there were any problems, he could use my phone to call her. It took a little more discussion, but eventually, she relented, and the match went on as scheduled.

I won that round, but if you think I went easy on him, you’re wrong. He put up a good fight, and the scenario was the standard Assault on Black Reach setup (Orks vs. Space Marines, pretty much a wash if all else is equal), so there weren’t any inherent advantages or disadvantages to either of us. We were learning our armies as well, and I had the slight tactical avantage of having played as the Orks before. The point being, we had a good match, and Luke was really enjoying himself. I came away with the thought burning through my brain: “Luke’s a good kid.”

Flash forward to last night, then. My Imperial Guard army’s been assembled for weeks now, and painting it up is a slow but steady process. I went to the shop last night to try to get a couple short games in for the escalation campaign, when Luke saw me and said hello. I hadn’t seen him since the new-player tournament. He was eager to get a game in before he had to go home, and so I obliged him. We set up, and I saw that he was playing Space Marines this time around… kind of a reversal for us, really. He hadn’t played against the Guard before, so I gave him a few tactical pointers here and there (“Are you sure you want to shoot those? This tank’s a far more dangerous target for you right now…”), but again, I didn’t go easy or let up at all. He didn’t either, though it still felt like he was getting used to his army and their style; the Space Marines are average at everything, really, so tactics for them boil down to “know your enemy’s weakness and exploit that”. Again, we had fun, and this time it came down to a draw– a very, very narrow draw, as he got luckier with some rolls than I did.

And again, as I was driving home, the thought came to me. “Luke’s a good kid.” He was polite, amicable, and a little on-edge but still okay– I think he was just nervous playing against older opponents, which can be intimidating to anyone. When his dad came to pick him up, the two of us were going over the battle, noting what we could have done better and what worked well for us. He also signed up for the escalation campaign, so we’ll likely be playing more often– but as allies, since we’re both on the Imperial side.

It can get a little discouraging at times when all you seem to hear about is gamers going nuts or people doing stupid things over their games. I’ve lost track of how many dumb crimes were committed over XBoxes, or cards, or other amusements. But, knowing that people like Luke are playing, and learning good sportsmanship and good thinking skills– that makes me smile every time. And if I have to lose a thousand matches to get more players like Luke into gaming, then I’ll lose a thousand, and a thousand more for good measure, because in the end, everyone wins.