Warhammer 40K, a tabletop strategy game, is growing in popularity in Northland after the pandemic, with local tournaments occurring weekly.
A tabletop strategy game named Warhammer 40,000 (Warhammer 40K for short) has seen an uptick in players. This increased popularity has been most noticeable after the Covid pandemic.
Warhammer 40K is a tabletop strategy game where players each spend a set number of points to build their own armies to combat each other. Actions and movements of the game are decided via dice rolls. The game started in 1987, with some players continuing to play over two decades later.
“Warhammer has exploded in popularity. In fact, there are more events this year than there were players in events back in 2017,” said a local player from Gordon, Wisconsin, Joshua Sawlaw. “So, a pretty remarkable statistic. There are now grand tournaments like this or majors or super majors that can be played almost every weekend within two, 300 miles here.”
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Joshua is a part of Team Dirt Review (TDR). The growing popularity of the game led players to form teams with one another. These teams have over a hundred players. We spoke with members of TDR about their experience playing Warhammer and the growth they have seen as a team.
“Our team is TDR. We’re about 180 people from Duluth, Wisconsin, and all the other surrounding states,” shared Emerson Maki, another member of the team. The team has also had players join from across country borders, with a few players visiting tournaments from Canada.
Though strategy is a core aspect of the gameplay, some people enjoy the artistic outlet of designing the miniature units. According to Sawlaw, miniature-based games come in a variety of forms. People who built model kits found similar characteristics in the process. “You have to cut them out, assemble them, glue them together, and then you actually paint these,” he said.” A large number of painters live in Minnesota and often attend local businesses to paint their miniatures.
“There are a lot of people who like to paint in Minnesota,” Emerson said. “So, when it comes to mini painting, we have, I think, the largest concentration of professional mini painters. And our art is just like any other art. Our canvas is a three-dimensional shape.’
Local businesses, such as Level Up Superior, Rogue Robot Games, and The Loch Cafe, help foster the Warhammer community through regular events at their stores.