An army’s soldiers lick their wounds after losing a recent battle. They attempt to regroup for the next fight when another army reaches out to them and offers an alliance. But the alliance is unique. It is an identical army, from an alternate reality, communicating to them from orbit.This is the plot for one of a handful of short stories Mike Hintze helped write. His inspiration? War Hammer, a table-top war game played with miniature armies, artillery and model scenery. After playing a round, Hintze and friends write fiction based on the events of that game and post them online. “That’s what I really enjoy doing, is seeing how this is going to shake out and how do I transcribe that into a good story,” said Hintze, who started playing a couple of years ago after some friends got him into it. War Hammer was one of dozens of games being played at the Prairie Game eXpo all day Saturday at the Core Ritchie Neighbourhood Centre. The free event was hosted by SaskGames and sponsored by ComicReaders.“The goal of this particular event is to provide easy access to anyone who wants to learn about modern board games,” said Davey McLellan of SaskGames. “Lots of people play Monopoly and Clue and the classics, but over the last 20-ish years, there’s been a resurgence in board games.” There’s been a resurgence and a transformation as enthusiasts lean away from the classics and embrace European games such as Settlers of Catan — a German-style board game where participants play the roles of settlers, trading and acquiring resources — and Carcassonne — which involves a medieval landscape built by the players. “There’s more and more games with way more mechanics than simply rolling the dice and moving around the board and lots of people really enjoy them,” said McLellan.