Pendraken Miniatures Forum

Wider Wargaming => General Discussion => Topic started by: Orcs on 21 August 2018, 06:09:03 AM

Title: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: Orcs on 21 August 2018, 06:09:03 AM
Seeing the Bulk base deals offered by Leon it got me thinking how much the ability to buy cheap uniform bases has impacted my wargaming.

No longer do I spend hours with a ruler, pencil and scalpel cutting up beer mats or mounting board to achieve a pile of bases that are vaguely the correct size and mostly square. then going through them and ditching 10% as they are a a couple of mm to small and trimming 10% as they are a couple of mm too big.

This lead me on to think about other things that have had a profound effect on my hobby.

1 Acrylic Paints

The quick drying aspect has significantly  improved the speed at which I can paint. Plus ease of cleaning the brushes means that its actually worth sitting down to paint for 10 mins as you do get stuff done

2. Lasercut bases

These are now so cheap and available in so many shapes and sizes, that its not worth cutting your own unless you literally only want a couple.

3 The internet

This makes research into painting stuff so easy, and unfortunately so easy to find new projects and the figures for them.  but it does cut down on the number of expensive books you need. (not sure Mrs Orcs would agree  :) )  But you can find pictures of kit when you think "what colour did they paint the fuel tank on a WW2 German flamethrower"


What things have impacted your hobby 

Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: Duke Speedy of Leighton on 21 August 2018, 07:29:09 AM
10mm figures, look great en masse and lovely to paint!
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: Steve J on 21 August 2018, 07:53:35 AM
1. Acrylic paints. Easy to use and no smell.

2. The Internet. So easy to research a period, a unit, a uniform detail etc. The down side is that you can so easily get side tracked into a new period etc, thus possibly diluting your precious time.

3. Wargame rules. The proliferation of rules these days means that it is relatively easy to find ones that fit your gaming style, space available etc. Most of my gaming is now solo and on a 4' x 4' table, so being able to play large games using Bloody Big Battles or skirmishes with the 'Rampant' series in an evening is simply wonderful,
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: Leman on 21 August 2018, 07:57:18 AM
The Pendraken FPW range enabled me to really develop the kind of gaming I wanted in that period.

Chris Pringle's BBB rules made it possible to stage some of the biggest battles in history on a 6x4 table, whilst at the same time making those rules streamlined and enjoyable.

Impetus enabled me to get back into Ancient, Medieval  and early Renaissance warfare after years in the DBX wilderness.


* Are three things enough? Over on Peter Pig they've just passed 60 of 'my favourite wargame things'
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: fsn on 21 August 2018, 08:14:01 AM
1) Osprey books. They are my gateway to just about everything. For £10-£12 you get a primer on just about everything. If the Osprey tickles my interest, then serious reserach begins.

2) Acrylic paints. Even though I'm still not as good at them as I was with enamels. (I miss my Humbrol Authenticolour)

3) Pendraken. Before donning the off-white robe of a Pendraken novice, I was the victim of many, many scales. I had WWII in 1:300, 15mm, 20mm and ... 54mm. Now, everything is in 10mm. My life is tranquil. Pendraken offers such a wide range, and such a good service at such reasonable prices, that it is a one stop shop for all my wargaming needs.* I will include in that this forum which is what passes for a social life for me, certainly a wargames fraternity.




*expect tiny aircraft and tiny, tiny ships. 
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: lowlylowlycook on 21 August 2018, 02:55:50 PM
1)  Death of Warhammer Fantasy.   Until GW blew the whole thing up, there were always more Orcs to paint and a need to read through the pursuit rules yet again making it, in my mind, hard to justify branching out.  Now the scales have fallen from my eyes.

2) The Terrain Tutor.  In addition to getting me into making terrain,  this guys youtube channel full of  simple advice also got me over the hump as far as basing my figs.  Now to find the equivalent channel for making flags...

3) The unofficial Ethiopian army list for Bolt Action.  Without this, I doubt that it would have ever occurred to me to combine my love for this mostly forgotten country with wargaming.

Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: FierceKitty on 21 August 2018, 03:39:39 PM
I've got Ethiopians in my Achaemenid army, and a 19th century Abyssinian army too. They aren't entirely forgotten, despite my hostile feelings after a six-hour delay at Addis airport last year!
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: Raider4 on 21 August 2018, 05:15:10 PM
1) Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films, and the GW game that followed. Got me back into modelling & gaming after a long time away.

2) The Warmaster game, that introduced me to 10mm, and led me to Pendraken.

3) As others have said, the internet. This opens you up to so much information.

Cheers, M.
--
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: Matt J on 21 August 2018, 07:52:03 PM
1) work

2) kids

3) house

Oh you mean positively....
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: Orcs on 21 August 2018, 07:54:48 PM
Quote from: Matt J on 21 August 2018, 07:52:03 PM
1) work

2) kids

3) house

Oh you mean positively....


=O =O

I notice one very important omission from that list, or are you not brave enough to mention her?   ..... Your wife :)
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: Matt J on 21 August 2018, 08:11:59 PM
QuoteI notice one very important omission from that list, or are you not brave enough to mention her?   ..... Your wife


She passed the cost benefit analysis  ;)
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: Steve J on 21 August 2018, 09:47:33 PM
Too true Matt, too true. I thought as the kids (now young adults) got older, I'd have way more time than when they were young, but sadly the reverse is true. Also being 20 years older does come into the equation somewhat...
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: sunjester on 22 August 2018, 07:31:48 AM
1. Acrylic paints - for the reasons already mentioned.

2. The internet - ditto.

3. My local club (Tring Wargames Club). We are a rather diverse bunch with a wide range on interests and in the 25-odd years I've been a member I have had the opportunity to play a huge variety of rules, periods and scales. Far more than I would have tried (or perhaps even been aware of) if I was gaming solo or with a couple of friends. It's also given me some good friends and, for me, the social aspect is an important part of my gaming enjoyment.
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: Orcs on 22 August 2018, 10:17:17 AM
Quote from: sunjester on 22 August 2018, 07:31:48 AM

3. My local club (Tring Wargames Club). We are a rather diverse bunch with a wide range on interests and in the 25-odd years I've been a member I have had the opportunity to play a huge variety of rules, periods and scales. Far more than I would have tried (or perhaps even been aware of) if I was gaming solo or with a couple of friends. It's also given me some good friends and, for me, the social aspect is an important part of my gaming enjoyment.

Yes we put up with you after all it is "Care in the community" :)
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: Dr Dave on 24 August 2018, 12:43:04 PM
Perry

Warlord

Pendraken

;)
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: Ithoriel on 24 August 2018, 12:50:10 PM
Computer games

Eurogame boardgames

Health problems of self and others
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: mollinary on 24 August 2018, 01:32:43 PM
The internet.  A real gateway to a new world, when in a nano second you can be in touch with the only other person in the world with an interest in and knowledge of the flags of the third battalion of the regiment Ingolstadt-Bratwurst issued in July 1865 and withdrawn in August 1865, and who happens to live in Ulan Batoor.

Retirement. The itmea d space to indulge my wargaming fantasies.

To the Strongest. Discovering Simon Miller's amazingly simple yet subtle Ancients Rules, which have led me into the collaboration that has re-activated my ECW obsession after twenty years of hibernation.
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: Lord Kermit of Birkenhead on 25 August 2018, 08:37:17 AM
Lack of money....
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: Westmarcher on 25 August 2018, 10:09:03 AM
The three things that have significantly impacted on my wargaming are money, computer games,
internet and my unerring ability to find wargame rules that I like that only people on the other side of the world play (and when I did find opponents locally in the case of Honours of War, they played in a different scale!).  ~X(

Four! The four things ...... 
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: FierceKitty on 25 August 2018, 10:55:56 AM
Amongst the things that have had an impact on my gaming are such diverse elements as....
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: Techno on 25 August 2018, 11:52:14 AM
Stop it ! ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Cheers - Cardinal Phil

Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: Nick the Lemming on 25 August 2018, 01:17:44 PM
Internet, Money (lack of), and Time (see: money, lack of).
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: barbarian on 25 August 2018, 07:10:14 PM
Moving to often.  :'(
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: Leman on 25 August 2018, 07:46:44 PM
I've heard it's quite a tranquil place.  :d
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: FierceKitty on 26 August 2018, 01:41:16 AM
Quote from: barbarian on 25 August 2018, 07:10:14 PM
Moving to Often.  :'(

Where is Often?
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: Leman on 26 August 2018, 07:50:44 AM
It's over the hill from Frequent.
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: Techno on 26 August 2018, 08:20:49 AM
 X_X

Cheers - Phil
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: industrialtrousers on 26 August 2018, 10:08:26 AM
Dad taking me to a wargames show as a kid.

Discovery of warhammer forces of fantasy.

After moving to UK from NZ and spending hours looking through the GW shop there my wife suggesting I just buy something and get on with it. I did warn her....
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: Techno on 26 August 2018, 10:53:10 AM
 ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Cheers - Phil  ;)
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: barbarian on 26 August 2018, 05:39:51 PM
Quote from: FierceKitty on 26 August 2018, 01:41:16 AM
Where is Often?

Yeah, well...
That too.
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: Sunray on 06 September 2018, 08:53:55 AM
I am going to show my age here:  :)

Three things/people that impacted my wargaming :


1. Airfix H0&00 plastic figures at 2/- a box. (1960s prices at Woolworths). Without them, I would never have started.

2. My cousin James, who arrived one Saturday in 1966(?) with a ruler, dice, and a hand written set of Charles Grant rules. On that Saturday, I stopped playing
    with toy soldiers, and began wargaming.

3. The late Dr Paddy Griffith.  He established wargames as a serious adult pastime.  I still treasure my copies of the Nugget. 
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: T13A on 06 September 2018, 09:48:08 AM
Hi

1. Same as Sunray above.

2. In 1967 seeing a copy of Young and Lawford's 'Charge! Or How to Play Wargames' in a display case in Hamleys in London and having to wait for about six months until father Christmas brought me a copy (actually I was twelve then)!

3. 1967-68 ish coming across a copy of (I think) Meccano Magazine in my school library which had an article on wargame rules for WWII.

If I was allowed a fourth it would be coming across Bruce Catton's 'Golden Book of the Civil War' an accompanying volume to his 3 volume centennial history of the civil war aimed at younger people, while I was still at primary school. I came across it in my local library in Fulham and it had (and has, my own copy is sitting on the shelves downstairs) the most marvelous pictures/maps of most of the civil war battles, something I have been trying to recreate in my wargames ever since.

Cheers Paul
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: Techno on 06 September 2018, 11:08:08 AM
Changing from enamels to acrylics.

Working for the Evil Empire.

The huge help I get from forum members, AND the internet.

(Right...If Paul can sneak a fourth in.... ;)....I'll have.......Green stuff & Dental tools.)

Cheers - Phil
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: Lord Kermit of Birkenhead on 06 September 2018, 11:58:51 AM
Quote from: Techno on 06 September 2018, 11:08:08 AM
The huge help I get from forum members,

Thought it was the sworn mission to hinder you !
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: Womble67 on 07 September 2018, 04:16:49 PM
Airfix models got me into the Hobby

But wasn't until my early 30s that i discovered Grimsby Wargames Society and I've never looked back since

Changing from enamels to acrylics, I still prefer enamels

And the internet is a double edged sword, brilliant for research, but so easy to get distracted and flit from one thing to the other and before you've noticed you've wasted a few hours

Take care

Andy
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: Sunray on 06 November 2018, 03:52:15 PM
Its no surprise that Airfix H0&00 impacted an entire generation of wargamers.  I often wonder who made the decision at Airfix to make soldiers- the first sets were Civilians (1960) aimed at the model railway buffs.  And possibly the Guards Band & Colour Party as a scenic backdrop.  The real soldiers came with 8th Army (1962) - was it to allow modellers to build little dioramas around the tanks ?  If so the early scale was a bit off as the tanks were 1/76 and the accurate HO&00 was 1/87. 

The dichotomy in scale did not stop Airfix releasing box sets like Stalingrad.  Later Airfix like 8th Army (second type, 1974) were sculpted nearer to 1/76. 

But we did not worry about details like scale or uniforms too much in the 1960s.  :)
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: Steve J on 06 November 2018, 09:47:34 PM
1/72 & 1/76 figures and tanks etc were freely mixed together as we gamed across bedroom floors, the garden and the drive way, depending upon the weather. Happy days!
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: Sunray on 08 November 2018, 10:50:39 AM
Quote from: Steve J on 06 November 2018, 09:47:34 PM
1/72 & 1/76 figures and tanks etc were freely mixed together as we gamed across bedroom floors, the garden and the drive way, depending upon the weather. Happy days!

Indeed, I have even heard that French Foreign Legion were pushed into proxy service as ACW Zouaves  !  Disgraceful !  :o

Now I get asked if 37 or 44 web on a 10mm figure will pass as 58 pattern to the naked eye.
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: FierceKitty on 08 November 2018, 11:04:37 AM
1) Leaving my collection behind in the care of a "friend" when I had to move in a hurry, and never hearing from the sub-human again.
2) Endless experience, and a readiness on my part and of my advisers and gaming buddies to make changes as a result thereof.
3) And 10mm, after trying most other scales.
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: d_Guy on 08 November 2018, 08:36:17 PM
1) Rules. Prior to rules things were a bit chaotic. Implausable events often occurred but the dialog accompanying those events was very exciting, particularly when playing solo. Generally a game consisted of a single move that encompassed everything at once.

2) Miniature Figures. Because of their colorful nature and the ease of collecting many of the same type and logo, building armies using bottle caps was simple and only the purist felt any need to paint them. I had a slightly rusted, Canada Dry bottle cap which played the part of Napoleon in several games. He is still in a drawer somewhere.

3) Dice. The first rules used various types of auguries for resolution of events, flights of birds, the cries of a wild loon, that sort of thing.
I preferred the casting of dried chicken bones which, to the skilled, offered finely nuanced outcomes. The interpretation could sometimes take hours (even days) which would often slow things down or end the game altogether. The advent of dice has reduced the number of blood feuds but I am nostalgic for a well cast thigh bone occluding a femor.
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: Ithoriel on 08 November 2018, 08:56:28 PM
I am now imagining a rule set where combat resolution is done by the casting of bones in the manner of a game of "Pass the Pigs."

"Alas! Hammurabi has cast "Makin' Bacon" causing his death and the rout of his army." :D
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: FierceKitty on 08 November 2018, 11:25:49 PM
Quote from: Ithoriel on 08 November 2018, 08:56:28 PM
I am now imagining a rule set where combat resolution is done by the casting of bones in the manner of a game of "Pass the Pigs."

"Alas! Hammurabi has cast "Makin' Bacon" causing his death and the rout of his army." :D

I remember but have never played that one. Was it any good, or just a "beer and pretzels" novelty?
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: Ithoriel on 08 November 2018, 11:47:43 PM
"Pass the Pigs" is a hoot.

Ideal as a game to play with kids, as an end of evening game for a gaming session or as a casual game for friends who "aren't really into gaming."

It's basically a game of knowing when to stop and when to push your luck.

The final positions of the pigs determines your score, if any. Keep rolling if you dare. The wrong roll ends your turn and loses you the points scored that round. If the pigs touch they are "makin' bacon" and your score is zeroed.

Plus it's a game where you roll small plastic pigs instead of dice ... what's not to like :)
Title: Re: Three Things that have significantly impacted your wargaming
Post by: Orcs on 09 November 2018, 12:13:30 AM
Quote from: Ithoriel on 08 November 2018, 11:47:43 PM
"Pass the Pigs" is a hoot.

Ideal as a game to play with kids, as an end of evening game for a gaming session or as a casual game for friends who "aren't really into gaming."

It's basically a game of knowing when to stop and when to push your luck.

The final positions of the pigs determines your score, if any. Keep rolling if you dare. The wrong roll ends your turn and loses you the points scored that round. If the pigs touch they are "makin' bacon" and your score is zeroed.

Plus it's a game where you roll small plastic pigs instead of dice ... what's not to like :)


There is now a "Pass the big Pigs" version, with - you've guessed it BIG PIGS!

My kids all love it, even though they are not kids any more