Another one to boost replies for compulsive posters

[DaveH]

Got to say I'm not interested in the imagi nations blogs where people indulge themselves writing endless pseudo histories, but nobody is forcing me to read them so I don't have to.

Yes, we all have our pecadillos (Code PEC1, £4.95 for 30).

I eschew fantasy wargaming, but was quite a big T&T fan in my youf. I have more time for SF.

Most Asian conflicts leave me unmoved. I can see the appeal of the AWI, particularly to our friends on the other side of the water, but to me it's a grubby looking affair. I can even see the appeal in ultra-modern gaming, though for me it's a tad too close for comfort.

What I can't see the point in is things like Flintloque where you have musketry armed trolls and orcish riflemen.  

But as I say. It's what gives you pleasure.  

While I really like my Flintloque toys and fact I can be a bit more creative with them than possibly with straight Napoleonics, and I also play regular fantasy and SF.

[Leman]

Have decided to give up wargaming. Much prefer watching Sci-fi and fantasy. I have now taken up historical miniatures gaming, and only with people living south of Berwick, apart from Ian , of course. 

[Raider4]

I find this whole thread strangely depressing.

Martyn
--

[Leon]

It's interesting seeing some quite different viewpoints so far.  I've always preferred reading Fantasy to researching history, and a resulting fondness for our fantasy ranges rather than the historical ones.  So I've also enjoyed seeing people's Imagi-Nation games as well.

While I find real history interesting as well, when you get into the finer detail I do tend to glaze over somewhat.  I'm OK at looking through online sources and checking up on things we need for ranges, but I must admit I've not read a book cover-to-cover for about 5 years now, mainly due to a lack of time.  I think these days the thought of sitting and reading through the 'History of the Grenadier' or something similar would feel too much like work...!

One last point, the most popular show on TV at the moment is basically a medieval Europe imagi-nation with some dragons thrown in...   

[Rob]

Is it real life?
Or is it just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide...

Mama, I just killed a man....

[Rob]

We all use imagination to a greater or lesser extent. Those of us who play historical games know we are kidding ourselves really. We model our forces as closely as possible on the perceived real thing within the bubble of one or more sets of reality provided by the rules we intend to use. But unless we only fight historical battles and make the same historical moves to achieve the same historical outcome, what we are playing is a form of fantasy game.

However I much prefer this as game outcomes can be measured for accuracy against historical outcomes so you can set yourself or opponents similar problems  to those of the generals of the day. A classic but wargameable battle is Quatre Bras 1815. If you leave the average gamer to set up the Dutch Belgiums they will be defeated before any reinforcements arrive where as if you follow the actual deployment used in 1815 it becomes much closer.

When you use your laser blaster against a shielded spaceship the outcome is decided by a spotty geek who wrote the rules and seems to suffer in that who knows or cares whether it is right or not.

Personally I dont read fiction anymore although I will watch films. I found reading military history to include events that would be unbelievable in fiction. Can anyone not marvel at the brilliance of Hannibal during the second Punic War. Read Polybius, if you put the battle of Cannae into a novel people would say ridiculous. Marvel at Marlborough's march to the Danube, how he conned a continent to bring on his decisive battle. Or how he conned the French into filling in their own intrenchments so he could penetrate the Ne Plus Ultra lines. You wont find General Horrocks in any Holywood film telling the commander of the American 34th div in Tunisia, who was complaining his men couldnt take the hill and were being murdered, to forget it, he would take the hill with a battalion of the Coldstrean Guards, and they did it. And dont get me onto the Lucy spy ring, Collossus and all that British secret inteligence stuff, far too far fetched to be real.

I have found fact is stranger than fiction. I think this tends to make series such as Game of Thrones for instance seem so incredibally tedious and limp in comparison with something like the real wars between Sparta and Athens in Thucydides.

My two penneth  

Rob

[Raider4]

When you use your laser blaster against a shielded spaceship the outcome is decided by a spotty geek who wrote the rules and seems to suffer in that who knows or cares whether it is right or not.

And this is different from an older gent deciding that Tigers hit on a 4, but Shermans need a 6 how, exactly?

Cheers, Martyn
--

[Maenoferren]

Technically the Sudan campaign I am going to run is Imaginations. The Anglo Egyptian forces have to get from Suakim to Berber, then down the Nile to Khartoum. They didn't do it, I have given them A camel corps which as we know were up in't north and definitely not east. Another one our club is thinking of is Conquistadors... but we are thinking a two pronged attack the winner gets to the Aztec capital first... didn't happen but as it is made up then is it an imaginations game.
We have run many campaigns using the mighty empires tiles.. the biggest a whole two sets worth as our continent, quasi medieval forces in an imaginary world. We could have used maps of real places but as we had sets of the map tiles it made life easier..
It is down to each to their own, I love the idea of imaginations.. my mate writes role playing games and he developed a whole world in Hellfrost.....fantasy I know but very clever all the same.
I wish I had the imagination and patience to develop a whole army list from scratch, but to be honest it must be nice to paint up a Napoleonicesque force in whatever colour you fancy rather than worrying about the uniform pattern of August 1809 as differs from March 1810. I do however sit in awe at the people that do the research and represent said chappies on the table.
This is wierd as an ex re-enact or accuracy was important (we drew the line at double bits in the horses mouth and used Pelhams)
Apologies for the rambly reply... Sh*t day at work and being on the tablet, struggling  to go back to reread the thread.

[Sandinista]

"There's a time for everything young man
And a way it should be done
You've got to show concern for everyone else
For you're not the only one" - "Flowers Are Red" Harry Chapin

As far as I'm concerned if you're not replaying historical battles over historical terrain with figures in exactly correct uniforms and getting an exactly historical result you're all playing "imagi-nations" to a greater or lesser extent.

And as far as I'm concerned if you ARE replaying historical battles over historical terrain with figures in exactly correct uniforms and getting an exactly historical result ... what on earth are you doing! Go outside, breathe the air, enjoy the sunshine, talk to people ... sheesh!

Agree so much here

Cheers
Ian

[Chris Pringle]

Different types of game scratch different itches. I wrote a bit of an essay about this a while back:
http://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/wargames-how-much-war-how-much-game.html

I'm not a history vs fantasy snob. I happily play fantasy RPGs, and I'm running a fantasy campaign. I just didn't really 'get' Imagi-nations, but now I think I do,  thanks to the posts on this thread from Imagi-nations fans.

Chris

[SV52]

Who cares, do what you like, it's only a game!

[Zippee]

Who cares, do what you like, it's only a game!

Absolutely not! It's my life, my religion, my soap box - it certainly is not 'just a game'

Football that's just a game and dull as dishwater. What I do is far, far more important, vital and interesting and well important than that tosh.

How dare you tell me not to care about my passion sirree - swords, dawn, your place! 

[skywalker]

I don't see what the problem is. I have been involved in demonstration games using the Arnhem scenario book for Rapid Fire rules and had great fun. On the other side of the coin we once did a Very German Civil War game loosely based on Operation Valkyre and yes I was Tom Cruise   
If we all liked exactly the same stuff life would be so BORING 

[Westmarcher]

A lot of the talk here is not about imagi-Nations but of alternative histories and other 'what if' scenarios involving real nations. As regards imagined Nations (i.e., nations that do not exist except in someone's mind), I think my favourite is probably Pottsdorf - a late 19th Century / early 20th Century game with the forces of Crown Prince Hapnick on the one hand against the rebels led by Baron Rolfe von Stuppe and General Kuhster might be quite fun!   

What's yours?

[Zippee]

Pretty sure Kriegsspiel was imagi-nations

if it was good enough for Reisswitz it should be good enough for us

But I agree imagi-nations is a specific thing in wargame circles and usually generic 18th century-ish.

However, although a lot of other fantasy and SF stuff isn't necessarily imagi-nation just because it's not historical, some is. I can think of the Hyborian campaign and Tolkien's works at one end of the spectrum and Star Wars and GW Backgrounds at the other. They all have their own internal 'logic' and setting which defines them just as much as history does  (only with less grey areas as the documentation and interpretation is defined and limited).