Joe Ben Deal of Galactic Comics and Games in Statesboro hosts a weekly gathering called the Hammer Vox Relay, a "battle" for people of the community to get together, play, and enjoy face-to-face, unplugged gaming and a Hammer Vox Relay Hobby Challenge, which takes place every month.
"Vox Relay is our group dedicated to miniature wargaming," Deal says. "So anybody can join on Facebook; usually, people use that to arrange games and then they can meet up here and play games. We have tables set aside for it and we have scenery they can use to build their battlefields."
The game, futuristic and fantastical, is called WarHammer and has been around since the 1990s. Warhammer 40K takes place 40,000 years in the future and Age of Sigmar is for those who love fantasy. This franchise is a hobby as well as a game; participants literally assemble their characters then paint them before any battles take place.
"With Warhammer, everything comes on sprues, so you've got to cut them out and glue the pieces together to create your figure, which gives you some ability to make it different than other people's," Deal explains. "People paint it based on their own color scheme. You can look up official color schemes, or you can design your own faction."
Gamers congregate weekly in person to engage in skirmishes with their unique miniature warriors. They also have the opportunity to engage in various hobby challenges which are listed and change regularly.
"They play games every Thursday night, but once a month we'll have some type of tournament," Deal notes. "Then the hobby challenge is going on all year long; they just do a couple of challenges every month."
"The way it works is people have a certain number of points, so when they're playing they decide 'we're going to meet and do 2,000 points' and each miniature has a point value." Battles may employ a hundred miniature soldiers or more. Groups of similar figurines are called units.
In addition to countless figures, the Warhammer phenomenon also has a plethora of books -- nearly 500 -- to provide background information as well as ever-changing story lines to fans of the franchise. Deal says books are published by Black Library monthly, so there is always new material for those who can't seem to get enough.
A few weeks ago, the news revealed an Amazon Prime show is in the works and will star Henry Cavill, so the Warhammer sensation will continue to grow as it expands to a wider, mainstream audience.
Deal shared a story about a customer who had not previously been into Warhammer, but decided to try something new and found a new couples hobby in the process. "He bought one of the big boxes that has like 70 miniatures and he said he and his wife have been working on it while they watch TV at night; they've been painting miniatures together. He was talking about how much fun they've been having."
The Hammer Vox Relay event is free of charge and takes place at 6:00 PM every Thursday evening.
For more information about the Hammer Vox Relay or the Hammer Vox Relay Hobby Challenge, please visit Galactic Comics and Games on their website on, Facebook, or on the Facebook event group.
