May the Forge Be with You
Thunder Forge Gaming, located at 30 E. Main Street in downtown Tipp City, recently held their second annual Thundermania GT competition. This five-round tournament took place over two days at the Forge, on March 28 and 29. It was open to all levels of play (Casual, Competitive, New, Returning, and Existing), and the chapter-approved game was Warhammer 40K.
Thomas Burton, owner of Thunder Forge Gaming, recently spoke with the Gazette about the annual tournament. “The store has been open for going on three years, and this is our second year doing this competition. We had 32 players sign up, and they played a game called Warhammer 40,000. Each mission or round has a different deployment, a different story to collect points. It’s hardcore competitive and judged by who scored the most points by the end of five rounds. I’ve been doing these games and competitions for 30 years, and it’s all about having fun.”
The game Burton chose for the tournament, Warhammer 40,000, is a British miniature wargame. It’s the most popular in the world, particularly in the United Kingdom. Warhammer 40,000 is set in the distant future, where human civilization is beset by hostile aliens and supernatural creatures. The models in the game are a mixture of humans, aliens, and supernatural monsters, wielding futuristic weaponry and powers. As in other miniature wargames, players enact battles using models of warriors and fighting vehicles. The playing area is a tabletop battlefield with buildings, hills, trees, and other terrain features. Each player takes turns moving their warriors around the battlefield and fighting their opponent's warriors. These fights are resolved using dice and simple arithmetic.
Thunder Forge sells the games and kits for players, but there’s some work to do before they can compete. “The players buy these games off the shelf, they put them together, then they paint them however they want with the color scheme they want to use. Some people have different colorations, based on what they want to do or how they want their story to go. There’s a story developed in the game they’ve chosen to play.”
After a grueling two-day competition, the winners finally emerged at the end of the second day. “For prizes this year, we’ll have a plaque for the top person, and the 2nd and 3rd place winners will have their choice of a combat toy on the shelf. We also have an Attendance Award for the player who showed up the most during the year, and an award for the player who stayed all the way through the competition but came in last,” Burton said. “We also give awards for Best Painting of the miniatures.”
The winners for this year were:
Devid Delisle (1st place and 2-time Forgemaster);
Alex Roach in 2nd place;
Keith Peck in 3rd place;
Andrew Diaz for Up ‘n Coming Forger;
Alejandro Lara for Best Painted Mini;
David Peck for Best Painted Army; and
Mikel Giles for True Forger.
“It’s about having fun and getting together for some friendly competition with people who share interests,” Burton said. “We’re the more casual game store in the area, and we don’t really enforce some of the hardcore rules as they do in the bigger competitions. It’s very competitive to see who will score the most points by the end of 5 rounds, but they’re going to have fun with this.”
Thunder Forge Gaming is located at 30 E. Main St., Tipp City.
Hours of operation are
Monday-closed
Tuesday-Thursday 1-9 p.m.
Friday – Saturday 12-10 p.m.
Sunday 12-6 p.m.
For more information, please visit their Facebook page or website https://www.thunderforgegaming.org.
Interested in becoming a Site Sponsor? Your ad will run at the bottom of EVERY NEWS STORY. Click HERE for more details.