Hob’s Hobbies hosts tabletop wargame tournament

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Total war took over Hob’s Hobbies, Aug. 30, as the store became host to a doubles Warhammer tournament, attracting competitors from across the province. 

Curtis Reid, who organized the event, said eight teams of two people signed up to participate in a de-escalation style tournament. This meant that as teams progressed through the rounds, their available resources became incrementally smaller the closer they got to the final round. 

“Warhammer 40,000 is a tabletop wargame. Players pick their personal army and buy models which they then build and paint, then they bring those models to a tournament or an event like this, or wherever there is a place [to play],” said Reid. “The game is played with dice and measuring tapes. Essentially like a little bit of Risk, a little bit of real-time-strategy, and you are using your models – your army, to capture objectives and fight the opposing player.”

Tournaments have been similarly hosted in Strathmore and at Hob’s Hobbies previously, however Reid said not in this particular format. 

“We are trying to run more tournaments. People like the doubles format of it so we might continue with that, or the next one might be individuals, but we are trying to not just do the same old thing every time,” he said. 

Reid is debating the necessity to grow the tournament in future iterations, as this round required the use of a wait list for participants. 

The original idea with keeping an eight-team cap on the event was to have an undisputed winner after three rounds of competition, which fits relatively neatly into a single-day event. 

“Right now, if we added a few more [teams], we have room to add a few more tables at the store, but the dream eventually is to run a bigger tournament. We could get in cooperation with the Town of Strathmore and move into a bigger venue, still hosted by Hob’s Hobbies,” said Reid. 

“It would be great to have a huge tournament with up to 64 players. Some of the big tournaments run that annually. We are a smaller community and a smaller play group, but we are starting to build, so hopefully we get there one day.”

Several of the teams who went out to be a part of the tournament were married couples. Reid emphasized for many, part of the joy is grabbing their best friend or their partner to be a part of the event. 

Prizing was available – not just for the winners of the competition – at the end of the day. Participating players also voted on categories such as best painted army, best painted model, best sportsman, and best army concept.