Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War

Though it is a hotly debated issue, guaranteed to start an argument between the Astropaths and Psyker-Mystics, many would place the origins of the Warhammer conflict on Terra, eleven thousand years ago when the planet was still wreathed by the Warp storms. The truth is that the Warhammer conflict was born in 1987 in Nottingham, England with the Games Workshop company. The game has since become one of the world's largest tabletop wargames. Every year, some 100 million of the game's miniatures are sold to fans around the world and Games Workshop now claims to have over 10,000 models among its ever-expanding armies.

A Chaos Marine about to get tossed!

Those numbers may seem staggering, but they weren't as surprising to me as the dedication of some of their fans. I have grown up on comics and marveled at the detail of the Warhammer miniatures since I walked by to pick up my first G.I. Joe comic, but never bought any myself. During a recent trip to my local comic shop for some research I ran into a small group playing the highly technical tabletop game. During my questioning I discovered that three of the four gamers had spent over $3,000 on acquiring their armies while the fourth had spent $1,000. With Games Workshop reporting that sales of Warhammer merchandise exceeds $235 million annually, it is easy to see how valuable this franchise can be.