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Cover Story
As pandemic ebbs, popularity of tabletop games is on the rise
Veer Mudambi
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Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK
With the prevalence of massive multiplayer online video games and the ability to create and control everything from small bands of heroes to vast armies in the digital realm, one would be forgiven for assuming that physical models and inperson games were essentially obsolete. Why spend money and time to build and paint each new character when you can make a one-time purchase and have it all at your fingertips? And that’s not even including traveling to meet your gaming group. At the very least, video games are fairly pandemic-proof.
But looking beyond the surface, the effort is what makes it special, as demonstrated by the Worcester Wargaming Group — the local tabletop gaming community. Dan Dudley, tabletop hobbyist, feels these games have teachable moments where one can learn life lessons about winning, losing, teamwork, friendship and sportsmanship. “Games are meant to be fun but also learning experiences so when you are floored by the game you are in, where you’ve spent all your effort, your paint, your time — learning to deal with that is pretty important for growth and being a decent human being.”
Dudley and his friends play a specific game — "Warhammer: Age of Sigmar" — where players construct Tolkien-esque armies of fantastical creatures to do battle over a tabletop battlefield. Its science fiction spinoff, "Warhammer 40K," has also proved phenomenally popular with its armies of Space Marines, war machines and vicious alien hordes. There are other such games, but the experiences of WWG, which focuses on AoS, clearly reflect the feeling of isolation and disconnect of the wider tabletop community during and after the pandemic.
Miniature wargaming is a complex pastime and one can spend years playing but barely scratch the surface, due to the combinations of models and strategies. In addition to the games themselves, there is a modeling and artistic aspect which is a craft unto itself. The
Christopher Clofft and his son Michael started the hobby together. Here they’re setting up their respective armies. VEER MUDAMBI
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unpainted models come in pieces, leaving it to the players to assemble and bring them to life through painting — each piece is an addition to one’s collection and an element of strategy.
What’s more, the depth of the games and the time investment requires a community to play with, layering in a social element. Buying and painting pieces is as much fun as it is surprising your gaming group with new strategies or paint jobs according to Dudley. WWG grew out of this need to create a community of committed members who share a love of the hobby and game. Peter Morand, tabletop hobbyist, said that it’s difficult to find more people who specifically play this game in Massachusetts, let alone in-store events. This makes a group like WWG a key hub for players. “I think what draws me to the game first and foremost is the community,” said Morand. “It’s a fantastic group of people and it’s what keeps me coming back as often as I can.”
Camille Fowley, tabletop specialist and assistant HR manager at the Worcester branch of That’s Entertainment, emphasized that what draws people to tabletop games is the community, and what they missed most during COVID. “The gaming people all know each other and play every week so they come to see their friends.” While That's Entertainment was closed for about a month after lockdown, it then opened for curbside pick up with an occasional delivery. “But,” she said, “the second people could start coming in, they did.”
Dudley agreed that showing up at the meetups has resulted in a number of valuable friendships. He stresses that he is far more interested in what he calls “the social contract” among players. It’s going to be fun, he feels, no matter whether you win or lose. “There’s even an excitement of losing or watching someone shred half of my army,” he said, adding that he's the first one to say, "well done, sir."
Given that there are few to no hobby shops that host Warhammer games, WWG organizes its meetings outside of store events. Morand found WWG “probably a little over two years ago now,” through Dudley, who is an old friend. “Dan is a very outgoing adventurous guy,” said Morand. “I’m a more stayat-home sort of guy.” He looks forward to WWG meet-ups,
Dan Dudley, right, does battle with John St. Sauveur. VEER MUDAMBI PHOTOS
A small warband of undead, brought by Ian Varney. These miniatures are part of a Warhammer board game set.
Similar miniatures can be painted and constructed differently to reflect a hobbyist’s individual style and preferences.
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and he's “very excited since I haven't been able to attend meet-ups since summer 2020 and almost couldn’t go this weekend since it is my girlfriend’s birthday, but she said no, go.”
The first tabletop game for Morand was only 10 years ago and mostly borne out of an interest in Dungeons & Dragons, a collaborative storytelling game with a narrator and a cast of main characters. “I’ve been reading the lore of the [Warhammer] franchise for a long time and knowing where it came from, I wanted to get into it. The painting started off as an artistic creative outlet.”
“During the lockdown, I was disappointed about not being able to play "Age of Sigmar,'” said Morand, “but I am first and foremost in love with the hobby, so I put the time I had to use by painting up my first full army. I also got some projects done that had been sitting on my hobby table.”
The group began tentatively meeting up around September of last year. “Our group agreed to not share dice, or touch the models of the opponents, keep socially distanced while playing, and keep our masks on," he said. "The size of the function hall and the table allowed us to keep a good distance from each other, but I would say that now that I have been fully vaccinated, I am at as many meet-ups as I can possibly make.”
Ian Varney followed a similar entry route to the game — starting as a hobbyist painter drawn by the detailed models. Visiting England with his family, he came across a Games Workshop (the UK-based company behind the Warhammer franchise) store. “I thought, oh that sounds cool, so I went in and walked out with a dragon.” Soon after, he was motivated to start building a viable army in order to give his artfully crafted miniatures a purpose other than display pieces. “The game makes it so it’s not just a static thing that sits there on your shelf,” said Varney.
The laborious process of painting armies has always been a monumental yet attractive challenge to gamers but
Peter “PJ” Morand prepares for battle.
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most people actually never finish the project. The number of choices is confusing and as a new painter, it is easy to get bogged down and frustrated. The three-dimensional figures of tiny metal and plastic models, measured in millimeters, require assembly with glue and precision painting with delicate brushes. It appeals to those with an inclination for detail and an ability to persist at a painstaking task. It's not cheap. Starter kits of about 50 figures may run between $50 and $80, and one could find oneself spending a few hundred dollars a month, if one gets infected with the lust for military might.
Games Workshop’s sales methods are old-fashioned; it generally uses no advertising, relying on word of mouth and approximately 400 stores worldwide (about 160 in the United States, in several cities) and a few thousand independent games retailers that carry Warhammer to lure new customers. The warring aspect does not seem to bother parents whose teens get into it, mostly because it is creative and it can get them off computers — make the models, paint them, turn up with the models and meet people who are not smoking, doing drugs or drinking.
Morand is working on getting into competitive painting and trying to improve in preparation. Stores like That’s Entertainment hold contests and players vie for the coveted “Golden Demon” from Games Workshop, awarded to the best painted piece. He said of his method, “I approach my painting in a very analytical way — plan out exactly how my models will look, know what colors to use but it does depend on inspiration at the time. You kind of start creating your own little story in your head of what the character is and draw inspiration from fantasy authors like Tolkien, Lovecraft, Salvatore. Got a plan in my head and just a matter of converting it to the actual model itself.”
But he did admit, he will “sit there with paint pots for hours just looking at the colors and go with themes like ‘creepy glowing blue’ for example to contrast with colors like orange, which draws the eye to a section of the model and makes it pop.”
Sorana Gatej, marketing manager at That’s Entertainment, often just called That’s E, agreed that model miniature
Cloftt’s son, Michael, makes his play. Rulebooks and print-outs must always be on hand for reference, especially when starting a new edition of the game, where the company has likely added a slew of changes and updates. VEER MUDAMBI PHOTOS
Morand’s dwarf warriors are not fully painted yet but he wanted to test them out in a game. Working from the bottom up, the assembly-line style reflects his analytical and methodical approach to painting.
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painting was a popular pastime during the lockdown. Thanks to a customer base built over 40 years, their sales during the pandemic actually went up, ”because people were stuck at home with nothing to do, so they wanted comics, games and especially models.”
As stores closed, new people called from farther away looking for a new gaming shop, and That’s E was very fortunate to find ways to adapt — as a mostly brick and mortar store, it couldn’t switch to online ordering easily, so customers ordered over the phone.
The tabletop gaming section at That’s E offers a variety of board games, card games and roleplaying games for all ages, in all categories. The store did see a rise in two-player board game sales since people couldn’t get together in larger groups, and models in particular “flew off the shelf.” But restocking was slow since delivery from Japan was delayed due to the pandemic. The rising costs of shipping containers are reflected in prices of certain imported products, an effect that is expected to linger until about 2022.
Fowley indicated that instore events are back by popular demand like Magic the Gathering and D&D. “We just got back to hosting MTG at the beginning of July with a cap of 24, and the D&D crawl classic
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One of Dudley’s prize center piece units — a horned demon carefully constructed and painted. Games can go for hours — so refreshment is a necessity. Morand’s dwarves engage an undead army VEER MUDAMBI PHOTOS
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before that on June 26 was the first actual in-person event.” The store still requires masks for in-person events regardless of vaccination along with table spacing and a participant cap. Gatej also confirmed that the demand was through the roof for in-store gaming and they made the decision when ”email after email, it was clear that folks were starved for in-store gaming.”
They will also be bringing back the monthly in-store board game demonstrations where multiple games are set up in the event room for people to try out for free — it helps “create community.”
Other events going beyond the store include the annual “Creature Double Feature” at the Elm DraftHouse in Millbury, sponsored by That’s Entertainment. Gatej always sees a lot of store patrons there, and the loyalty of the customer base never fails to amaze her. “I can see 13 years of customers there,” she chuckled, and besides, “all employees were customers before they were hired,” proving the tremendous appeal of tabletop gaming.
Saturday, July 17, the WWG meet-up was the first game night after a long hiatus for not only Morand but the entire group. Members were, naturally, ready and willing so the line of cars stretched around the block and predictably, the game stretched for a number of hours. Tables were transformed into terrain with Styrofoam pieces and cut-outs and people arrived with cases of exquisitely painted armies to arrange on the battlefield. In the past, when a few members had small, distanced meetups, they had been tense with pandemic restrictions in place.
This time, there was a palpable buzz of enthusiasm, but not the loud, chatty variety — instead the quiet intensity of people doing something for which they had been waiting a long time. With more than a dozen attendees, WWG felt this was more like the meetups of old. Members were in excited discussion of the technicalities of the game and complimented each other on the craftsmanship of their miniatures. And the game itself was played with a deep earnest concentration, the players becoming self-contained theaters of tabletop warfare, as players resumed old campaigns or started whole new ones.
It’s easy to write off tabletop wargames with their miniatures, model kits, codex books, hobby paints, brushes, glue and scenery kits as a time and money sink. But really, that could be applied to almost any other hobby or interest. Everything takes time and money — it’s what you get for that investment that keeps you coming back. Artistic expression through painting, fun through gaming, and a close-knit community are, unsurprisingly, more than enough for many people.
Above: Morand refers to a rule from the new edition of the General’s Handbook.
Right: Cloft’s army moves to engage his son’s ogre warriors.
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