Fall has arrived which means pumpkin spice is back, its time to get out your scarf, and Harvester has begun.
Harvester is a local Warhammer 40,000 Tournament put on by local hobbyist and Warhammer enthusiast, Bob Kelly – owner of the Gamers Haven hobby shop off Pines.
“Harvester is a National Grand Tournament (GT) it is the first one in Spokane, and participants come from Seattle, OR, MT, ID, CA, and other states, to participate,” Kelly said.
Harvester caters to a large audience, with close to 100 participants every year. But why would someone want to play at the Harvester, and what are the benefits of playing there?
Stefan Shultz, a volunteer at Games Haven, attends Harvester for several reasons.
“Its super fun playing a weekends’ worth of games, and you get to see really cool painted armies and you can even get painting and scratch building tips,” Shultz said. “You also get to play with some of the best players in our region, which lets you see what people are playing with and how to counter it.”
If you don’t have an army and would like to play in Harvester, or other Warhammer 40k events at Gamers Haven, can you still participate?
“Well, getting started playing Warhammer 40k is a matter of about two accounts; the first is money. An average Space Marine army can go for $300, whereas most other armies you’re looking at about $400 or $500,” Caleb Twitchell, a local hobbyist, said.
“The next question is what is your play style; do you like to be hyper aggressive and more defensive, or do you like fast armies, or do you want to stand back and shoot?”
Harvester is a very large event which needs a lot of prep work on many different fields.
“A tremendous amount of work goes into preparing for Harvester. To enter, gamers have to submit game data and sportsmanship information. They have about 25 minutes to submit that information for almost 100 people, and thats just during the game before hand,” said Kelly.
“You have to get everyone listed into your system, and you have to put their entry information and find out how many people are playing, and get their entry fees into the books. And thats just the paperwork aspect.”
Then the day before we have to clear up the gaming floor and set up the tables and what not,” Kelly said. “out of a 6000 square foot shop the gaming area on tournaments like this it take up 4500 feet of that”
But Just because its a local shop doesn’t mean its a safe or family Friendly place to play.
“We have never had any problems at our tournaments no cheaters no one curses, no fighting and we always have parents come in and say that we are the only shop they take their kids to so I think that testimony speaks louder than anything I can tell you,” said Kelly.