Warhammer battle

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Hob’s Hobbies was host to an open Warhammer 40,000 doubles tournament, March 22, which saw players from across Alberta coming to Strathmore for the opportunity to compete. 

“Myself and another player in town, we have known John and Nathalie (Hilton-O’Brien) for a long time and played at the store and there is just not a ton of opportunities for organized play. They obviously have a great space there, but somebody just needed to take the reins to organize that,” said Curtis Reid, one of the tournament’s organizers. “It was tough at first trying to find the right ideas so that it would be interesting and appeal to have people come out and play, but we have run a few over the last year, but then the last one, we had a full 16 players – eight teams; we had quite a few people come in from out of town for it.”

The doubles tournament saw teams of two players each piloting one half of an army on the tabletop. The one-day tournament consisted of three rounds, which allowed only one team by the end of the day to remain undefeated. 

Warhammer 40,000 is a tabletop strategy war game which sees players fielding armies of miniatures built and painted by hand, playing out skirmish combat scenarios. 

As the game progresses, completed game objectives earn players points. Whoever has the most points at the end of the game wins.

Reid explained he would like to see local tournaments become more regular in Strathmore, both for the benefit of the local community, as well as to attract competitive players from outside the region.

“Other tournaments will go over an entire weekend, which is something we would like to build to, but it is also tough because we are here and we are drawing players from other communities,” he said.

Player admission into the tournament was converted into the prize pot, which consisted of prizes for the tournament winners, best sportsman, best painted armies, and other player-voted categories. 

Another prize category was created for the most bizarre pairing of armies, which for lore or practical rules purposes did not appear to cooperate well when it came to playing on the table. 

“My co-organizer and I are actively drawing up the blueprints for the next tournament. We are probably going to look at the end of May or June for the next one so we will start advertising right away,” said Reid. “We like the team aspect and that was a format that was popular, so we are looking at keeping the team idea but we are going to put an exciting twist on it.”

Though many tournaments require all models fielded by participants to be fully painted in order to increase the aesthetic appeal as the event takes place, Reid added in order to reduce that barrier for many players, that was one such requirement which was dismissed.

He said overall, between the three rounds of gameplay, as well as a break for lunch, players were on their feet for approximately 12 hours throughout the tournament. 

More information about future events will be made available through Hob’s Hobbies in person as well as online.