Wargaming Anecdotes - The Land

One quirk of wargaming that I have always found mildly amusing is how the uninitiated relate to the hobby, particular in terms of the vocabulary.*  Someone who's never seen this stuff before and who wants to engage you in conversation about this very strange pastime will likely not know the proper terms for all of our hobby paraphernalia.**

One of my favorite all time examples of this is The Land.  In college my buddy Justin worked at a Wizards of the Coast store and they let him take home a War-Zone Terrain game board that got too beat up to be used in the store.   His roommates took to calling the board "The Land," as in "Justin, are you gonna get out The Land and battle?"  The name stuck and even though Justin has acquired a few other gaming boards, only this one is known as The Land.

Here's some action shots from our first game of 6th edition where we brought out The Land.  Take note of the matching hills that I got from War Zone.

The Orks and IG prepare to battle for The Land

Justin's Catachans take up position on one of the matching hills

*The same thing happens in the legal profession when dealing with laypersons, but it's not amusing when you're dealing with a client's employee whose eyes glaze over while you explain the importance of the declaration you need to them to provide in support of your motion for summary judgement.

**During a game at a GW store a passer-by asked if my Orks were Ninja Turtles.