MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- Huddled around a table in the activities room of Building 658 here, a few Marine sergeants and civilians try to determine their next plan of attack. For today, they have been promoted to generals. Each commander’s mind was bent on pushing the will of his army to attack and defend the ruined landscape arranged before him.
This is war, or rather Warhammer 40,000, a world of strategy mixed with a bit of luck.
Twice a month, painstakingly hand-painted forces gather on the detailed miniature battlefields as the antagonists battle each other for bragging rights in an attempt to wholesomely spend a Sunday afternoon fighting it out as friends.
The Iwakuni Community Gaming Club consists of members interested in several types of tabletop conflicts.
Warhammer 40,000, or Warhammer 40K as it’s called by the salty players, is the mainstay of the group. It is a game that has evolved over several years from an extremely complicated and difficult conundrum into a fun, fairly easy to learn hobby with tens of thousands of fans throughout the world.
But the club also dabbles in other, smaller strategy games, including “Blood Bowl,” a combat football game, and “Battletech,” a large-scale combat game revolving around futuristic giant robots called “mechs.”
The club was founded two years ago by Marine Corps Community Services supply technician Eric Perez.
“Basically, we’re open to all games. Any type of tabletop game or role-playing game, card game, we’ll encompass it all. The gaming club is a generalized club. We’re not looking for any certain type of game that’s out there. We specialize in 40K because that’s what most of us are interested in. There are other games we play, but they aren’t as popular,” said Perez.
“It initially started with three or four of us, and we would get together at my house. But we needed a bigger place, so we started reserving the community rooms. Once we got about six people, we thought we might as well form a club,” said Perez.
At first, a new arrival to the group may feel that the more experienced players are speaking some sort of foreign language consisting of acronyms and numbers. It can be overwhelming at first, but all a potential table gamer needs to do is pay attention to the game, and the rules will probably seem to unfold and make sense rather quickly.
“Warhammer 40K revolves around three major concepts: movement, shooting and close combat. Everything after that is pretty much learned by experience. You can sit there and read a rulebook all you want, but until you get there and move some models around, you can’t really learn as far as 40K is concerned.”
The components of most of the games played here are fairly simple. All one needs are some dice, a tape measure, a few templates for measuring distance and good sportsmanship.
For Warhammer 40K, most experienced players have their own custom built, hand painted army made up of miniatures from various “factions” in accordance with the games’ rules.
Newbies are not expected to show up with their own army, as there are plenty of model armies to experiment with before a player commits himself or herself to the extensive, time-consuming task of purchasing and assembling his or her own forces to throw into combat.
“That’s the only negative part about the hobby is it is a little expensive, but once you get your army set up, you don’t have to spend a lot of money. It’s not like the card game “Magic” where you have to keep buying booster packs. Once you have your army the way you want it, you’re done.”
The more experienced players are happy to spend any amount of time necessary going over the rules and fighting
skirmishes with newcomers until they feel comfortable with the slang, theory and tactics of the game.
“That’s how we keep the game going. You can’t expect people to pick it up on their own. It’s a great way to meet
people, and it’s fun,” said Sgt. Nicholas Lee, an Air Traffic Control technician with Marine Air Control Squadron 4 here.”
For many Warhammer 40K fans, this is more than just a game. It is a full-fledged hobby. Some participants get just as much of a thrill assembling their army as they do entering into miniature combat.
One player may have his models painted with just a few unique marks, while others spend hours assembling and painting just one figure. To become good at the latter requires a bit of patience.
“Painting isn’t necessary, but it’s something you can look down at and have a feeling of accomplishment. Let’s face it, a lot of people who have an army will never have a completely painted army, so when you show up with one, it’s awesome.”
For more information about participating in the Iwakuni Community Gaming Club, e-mail
iwakunigamers@gmail.com.