Words by Tim Franklin
■ The Spanish team huddle to discuss tactics for fantasy wargame The 9th Age. (ETC)
Wargamers are some of the most competitive gamers around, alongside chess grandmasters, CCG champions and your nan during the annual family Monopoly game on Boxing Day. They tweak their armies and hone their strategies for days on end, removing every weakness and claiming every advantage, striving for victory in the next clash of toy soldiers. Kitchen table battles are hotly contested, and tournaments resound to the noise of dozens of gamers rolling dice and pushing plastic, steam whistling from their ears as their brains overheat.