The 'What to use as an anniversary thread got me curious......
I wondered how people broke the news to their loved ones that they played with toy soldiers?
I'd more or less turned my back on the hobby in the mid-nineties after a very messy divorce. My 'toys' were all dropped off at the Wargames Club in Detmold West Germany and essentially traded in for Yellow Handbags or at bargain prices to help pay my mounting Mess Bill.
When I met Mrs Nosher about three or four years later I still had no particular hankering for getting back into the hobby, however through a friend of hers I was introduced to one of her friends husbands who was mildly interested in military stuff and the next thing I knew we were both collecting, painting and playing various wargames and its been that way ever since.
I didn't have to admit I played with Toy Soldiers, it just happened and Mrs Noshers appears to tolerate it.
With that in mind:
1. Were you a wargames before you met your significant other?
2. How did she find out about your addiction?
3. What is your significant others attitude towards your addiction?
4. Does she mention it to her friends or dress your addiction up as something else
Lets have some fun!
I did wargame a bit when we first met, although at the time I was more into building models.
I got back into wargaming just after the birth of our son, 20 years ago.
She is fully aware of my addiction and is happy that I have a hobby that gives her almost free unlimited access to the TV remote ;D ;D ;D
It is no secret amongst her friends because they always ask if I am around or am I playing with my little men ;D ;D ;D
1.
she guessed when she saw my book collection ;D all military
She tolerates it pretty well I don't smoke or drink much so she lets me get pretty much anything I want. I did once go a tad overboard and spent 4 figures in one go on some painted stuff "I had to have" ;D , she confiscated my credit card for a while :'( but I did bring up the small fortune she'd spent on jewellery which went down like a lead parachute :(
Normal service has now resumed :-bd ;D
1. Were you a wargames before you met your significant other?
I had been wargaming for eight years before I got married (from age 14).
2. How did she find out about your addiction?
We met at a Sealed Knot do in Brownhills (nr Brum) so it wasn't really all that stranger than dressing up in 17th Century costume and bladdering all and sundry.
3. What is your significant others attitude towards your addiction?
Originally, she treated it with a certain amount of disdain -don't forget this was 1979 and wargaming was still regarded as a fringe hobby. Nowadays, like a good cheese she has matured into a much more tolerant person and basically let's me get on with it. As far as she is concerned, I'm not out every night throwing pints down my neck and she knows where I am so it's a win win for both of us.
4. Does she mention it to her friends or dress your addiction up as something else
She normally mentions my writing first then tags wargaming on the end.
However, as an aside, when my daughter's boyfriend -now husband- first came to the house, he asked my daughter after they had left if I was a Nazi as he had seen all my military books including some on the Waffen SS units.
MickS
1. Were you a wargames before you met your significant other?
Oh yes.
2. How did she find out about your addiction?
I was brazen about it.
3. What is your significant others attitude towards your addiction?
She said it was her or the hobby- one of the had to go. I don't miss her much.
4. Does she mention it to her friends or dress your addiction up as something else
She called it "playing with toy soldiers", but was happy that I wasn't out enjoying myself.
1. Yes
2. Saw me playing it in the school's war-games club.
3. Initially fine. Bought me a beautiful book on warfare in the classical world, which I still refer to. Bought me figures over the years - most notably some Mexican-American figures and a superb unit of 28mm French Gendarmes. Finally cited it as one of the things she found she didn't like about me before we divorced.
4. No idea.
1. Were you a wargamer before you met your significant other?
Oh yes, for many years
2. How did she find out about your addiction?
I told her straight that wargaming was a hoby
3. What is your significant other's attitude towards your addiction?
Broadly tolerant, a previous boyfriend was footy mad and went off every Saturday to some match or other. Wargaming is a lot cheaper and keeps me much closer to home except for a couple of shows a year.
4. Does she mention it to her friends or dress your addiction up as something else.
She dresses it up as 'something to do with history' or 'Dan's interested in the Romans' type of comments, which tends to kill off most conversations. Random perusal of the main book cases show some history books but more climbing stuff so most casual visitors miss the half shelf of crusading titles among all the mountain and geology books.
1. Yes, at least a decade.
2. Hard to miss the painting table in the corner of my room and the painted figures on the mantlepiece!
3. Apparently fine. Bought me figures, board games and books for birthdays and Christmas and put up with regular Friday night RPG sessions where half a dozen people turned up and took over the kitchen. However gaming eventually became one more thing to argue over in the run up to our separation.
4. A few were cool with it, even intrigued. A few more saw it as yet another odd thing men did and no better or worse than their own other half's pastimes. Most were probably unaware/ uninterested.
Is a hoby a bit like a hobo - a bit of a cardboard box, where two corners of the lid have split and the contents, though intact, are in a right mess? Or did you mean hobby?
Quote from: Leman on 16 August 2016, 05:23:31 PM
Is a hoby a bit like a hobo - a bit of a cardboard box, where two corners of the lid have split and the contents, though intact, are in a right mess? Or did you mean hobby?
Channeling FK there Leman? ;)
I first saw my wife at a magic the gathering tournament,about16 years ago. She was the girlfriend of my mate, who was a magic 'judge'.
Fast forward about 9 years and i saw her again, and she was getting divorced from my friend who i hadn't seen in years. (who apparently had been seeing another since they married)
Whe have been togheter ever since.
Long story short, she was accustomed to board and card games, and had seen minutare games before. (my friends brother was a warhammer player) It wasn't that hard to understand.
now for the questions:
1. Were you a wargamer before you met your significant other?
Yes i was, from the age of 12
2. How did she find out about your addiction?
see above
3. What is your significant others attitude towards your addiction?
she doesn't care, unless i spend too much and store things in the kitchen cupboards :D
However, sometimes there is reason in the objections:
'that doesn't fit your other models'
'paint the ones you got first'
'you haven't used the first ones, why get more'
And the recurring catch phrase: where are you going to put that?
4. Does she mention it to her friends or dress your addiction up as something else
She once asked me to go get some models to show off when we had friends over, so she isn't ashamed of me ;D
I have been a wargamer since I was about 11. I typed out the rules from "Charge" on my dads ribbon typewriter using a lot of tippex.
Ex wife (Banshee from Hell - makes a Balrog look like a lovable dog)
1. Were you a wargamer before you met your significant other?
Yes
2. How did she find out about your addiction?
Told her about it as I had regular games nights while we were courting
3. What is your significant others attitude towards your addiction?
Initially quite good. She even bought me a Two godsize Waterloo Napoleonioc Armies from Battle Honours. Then once we were married she got a fairly awkward about it - I had to earn "bvrownie points" to go to shows. She also resented my time painting, although I made sure it did not affect her or family life. She wanted me doing jobs all the time.
She even swept the entire painting table onto the floor a couple of times in a fit of anger
4. Does she mention it to her friends or dress your addiction up as something else
She used to refer to it as playing with model soldiers
Sorry need two replies do not want Mrs Orcs on same post as "The Banshee"
1. Were you a wargamer before you met your significant other?
Yes
2. How did she find out about your addiction?
She knew about it before getting together
3. What is your significant others attitude towards your addiction?
Happy that I am around house as her ex was "always on Golf course"
Wonders why I need so much stuff, but tolerates it to the extent that I have my Own room "The Den" to store stuff and paint. I get to use the dining roomwhen I like and when Lazy stepdaughter moves out ( Please, Please ) I get her room as a regular wargames room
Encourages me especially when I am being "Mr Grumpy" when she suggests I need to go and paint :)
4. Does she mention it to her friends or dress your addiction up as something else
Annoyingly refers to it a "Like Warhammer" How insulting >:( >:(
Quote from: fsn on 16 August 2016, 03:21:09 PM
3. What is your significant others attitude towards your addiction?
She said it was her or the hobby- one of the had to go. I don't miss her much
A most excellent example for us all :-bd :-bd
One person I know had been MARRIED three years before confessing to his wife he was a wargamer
Well pull up a chair and let me begin :D
1: Were you a wargamer before you met your significant other?
I've have war gamed since I was 8 years old
2: How did she find out about your addiction?
My wife's Ex Husband a war gamer walked out and left her and her 4 sons 3 days before I left the army the rest is history 22years this year!
3:3. What is your significant others attitude towards your addiction?
Not to bad as she will play Call of Cthulhu
4:Does she mention it to her friends or dress your addiction up as something else
Yes she tells her friends I war game
The perfect wife :D :D :D :D that's why I love her even lets me go to military museums when abroad while she goes to art galleries does not mind me buying figures or going to my mates to war game
WIN WIN
Quote3. What is your significant others attitude towards your addiction?
She said it was her or the hobby- one of the had to go. I don't miss her much
A most excellent example for us all Thumbs up Thumbs up
In all fairness, my wife once asked me, what i would choose. (Not when we had a fight, just chatting a bit, and asked in good fun)
I told her i wargamed twice as long as i knew her. And said 'what would you think'. was a clear answer and she never asked again. Mind you, she is happy with what i do, she prefers it to her first husband who just went out drinking. She likes it that i'm at home painting or gaming a lot more than out drinking! She even enjoys the occasional boardgame. The closest i have gotten her to a war game was memoir 44 and x wing, but she didn't like that very much. we have played a lot of the hobbit though! (Not the gw hobbit, the Reiner Knizia boardgame 'the hobbit')
1. No
2. When I started buying lots of LOTR figures, and playing D&D.
3. She more than tolerates it, as she likes spending your money on horsey stuff. ;)
4. She tells people I make toy soldiers. (I tell them I'm a sculptor.... =O =O =O)
Cheers - Phil
A condition of me moving to NZ was that any house we got that I would have a dedicated games room big enough to fit at least a 6ft x 4ft table plus painting desk and storage 8)
1. Were you a wargamer before you met your significant other?
Sort of... After a near 20 year lapse I got back into gaming after I got married
2. How did she find out about your addiction?
A friends brother mentioned he was a wargamer when we were out as a group, and he invited me to visit his club. Then I started buying stuff again...
3. What is your significant others attitude towards your addiction?
She knows where I am and what I am doing, happy that I have something in return for my cash rather than a piss stain on the wall :P
4. Does she mention it to her friends or dress your addiction up as something else
Yes, she enjoys telling them I like playing with little men :)
Cheers
Ian
1. Were you a wargames before you met your significant other?
I was only playing Avalon Hill Boardgames when we met in college.
2. How did she find out about your addiction?
She was there at the beginning (we had been married for a couple years). Major discussion about spending $25 for some Der Kriegspielers Napoleonics (we discussed any purchase over $10 at the time!)
3. What is your significant others attitude towards your addiction?
She is thankful that I don't golf, don't mess around with motorcycles and other women, and don't tell her history or wargaming stories that last more then fifteen minutes!
4. Does she mention it to her friends or dress your addiction up as something else
She embraces the full horror of it. "He's playing with his little guys", she tells people AND they all know what that means!
Quote from: Nosher on 16 August 2016, 02:45:21 PM
1. Were you a wargamer before you met your significant other?
2. How did she find out about your addiction?
3. What is your significant other's attitude towards your addiction?
4. Does she mention it to her friends or dress your addiction up as something else?
I was a gamer before my wife was walking on her hind legs. I told her from the start about my little addiction. She is generally supportive, but sometimes gets the sulks when she loses, mainly because she
won't read the rules. As for her friends - they expect deranged behaviour from a paleface anyway, so she probably just laughs about it with them.
Kitty, I am always off-the-chart impressed that your good lady actually plays!
That would make a good fifth question - does your Significant Other play wargames? For me - in a nutshell - no.
Get her to try, and make sure she wins the first few times....
My father served in the RN and one of my grandfathers was in the RA as a officer for 40 years (he retired as a Brigadier) so I think I picked up my interest in wargaming through them.
1. Were you a wargamer before you met your significant other?
yes - for about 20 years before I met my other half (1975 - 1995)
2. How did she find out about your addiction?
Shortly after we met we traveled up to Auckland together by car - its an 8 hour drive so we found out all about each others lives :x
3. What is your significant others attitude towards your addiction?
She very understanding about gaming, though not really that interested herself (she did try a couple of games long ago).
4. Does she mention it to her friends or dress your addiction up as something else
Mrs Shy enjoys telling them I like playing with my toys - but she doesn't dress it up. They are pretty understanding as one of them co-owns one of the last brick and mortar model shops in Wellington,
so they have more "understanidng" about the hobby than most ;)
1. Were you a wargames before you met your significant other?
for about 16 years before I met her
2. How did she find out about your addiction?
believe it or not, it came up in an early conversation. We both studied history at university (I did Archaeology, she did Art), and during some discussion or other came the phrase "oh, and I collect and play with these..............." and she didn't run away.
3. What is your significant others attitude towards your addiction?
Good natured toleration. She has started me in new periods, she's from Chile and took great pains to explain the wars of Independence from Spain to me, hence my growing armies for the period. She shows some interest at new acquisitions, and a reasonable amount of interest in the painting when we do go to a show. in return I fake interest in spinning wheels and weaving looms.
4. Does she mention it to her friends or dress your addiction up as something else
She takes every opportunity to tell her friends that I sit in a room and "play with my privates". Still, keeps her happy.
QuoteIs a hoby a bit like a hobo - a bit of a cardboard box, where two corners of the lid have split and the contents, though intact, are in a right mess? Or did you mean hobby?
You raise an interesting point Sir, in reply I'd point out that:
1) A hobo is a homeless itinerant worker, not any sort of cardboard box, with or without corners. :P
2) The word hoby is derived from 'Old Hob' a euphemism for the Devil, by derivation and association 'a hoby' is any pastime which is Devilishly good fun. :P :P
3) The occasional deliberate error in spelling, grammar, the apostrophe and semi colon keeps FK on his toes. :P :P :P
3) Korrect spulling uz sew list centuarrie :P :P :P :P
All clear now :-bd
1. Were you a wargamer before you met your significant other?
Yep, I've been playing since school, (Heroquest was the kickstart)
2. How did she find out about your addiction?
We met through the Roleplaying club at Uni.
3. What is your significant others attitude towards your addiction?
She doesn't care, it's not the first time I've gone to a show and spent more on models/boardgames for her than I have models for my self. She's a crafter so there is a lot of yarn, spinning wheel, etc in the house and as others have said, she knows where I am and what I'm up to. She even helps out when the club are doing public display games (non wargame shows)
4. Does she mention it to her friends or dress your addiction up as something else
I'm off playing with my wee men, or wee wee men if it's 10mm.
She does play herself, but prefers fantasy to historical or scifi. She has a Skaven force for Mordheim, Tombking army for Warhammer and a 10mm Arabian army alongside various other small skirmish things. Reapers Mouslings for example. But it's mostly Boardgames that she prefers.
Quotedoes your Significant Other play wargames?
Games yes :D :D :D, wargames no but she does like some board games, for instance 'The Witches' because it doesn't involve 'killing things' =)
Quote from: mart678 on 16 August 2016, 07:37:37 PM
My wife's Ex Husband a war gamer walked out and left her and her 4 sons 3 days before I left the army the rest is history 22years this year!
Did he leave all his wargames stuff behind as well? That really would have been WIN WIN :)
I inherited The following
Mrs Orcs
A Fast Sporty Peugeot 307 (Fun to drive When it worked)
A Nice stepdaughter
A Lazy stepdaughter ( chartity shop keeps refusing her as a donation >:()
set of golf clubs (charity shop took these though )
Some nice military books
On an historic note, we're "riding our hobby-horse" (in American, a stick horse).
See Tristram Shandy, where Uncle Toby is our patron saint as, invalided back to England after a wound at Namur, he fights Marlborough's sieges on a commandeered bowling green.
Damned if I know why the thing's put half the above paragraph into italics, but I seem unable to rectify it.
Quote from: FierceKitty on 18 August 2016, 12:25:13 AM
On an historic note, we're "riding our hobby-horse" (in American, a stick horse).
See Tristram Shandy, where Uncle Toby is our patron saint as, invalided back to England after a wound at Namur, he fights Marlborough's sieges on a commandeered bowling green.
You had missed the back-slash in the tag after "stick horse"
Sounds like a fancy cavalry sabre-stroke.
Yes, that is how one spells "sabre" in reality.
I'd always thought that 'sabre' was the correct spelling....
Who spells it 'saber' ? (I presume)
Cheers - Phil
"Sash & Saber Miniatures - Old Glory UK" - for one :)
Jedis, old Confederates, other strange beings on the fringe of unreality.
"Saber" - more sabie.
Quote from: FierceKitty on 18 August 2016, 08:56:40 AM
Yes, that is how one spells "sabre" in reality.
A rather subjective reality actually. ;). I have always used sabre, however, just as I use colour.
Quote from: d_Guy on 18 August 2016, 02:07:08 PM
A rather subjective reality actually. ;). I have always used sabre, however, just as I use colour.
Aha! Admit it, you are really a closet Anglophile but you disguise it well for the sake of appearance. (I bet you say sidewalk just to fit in though.) ;) :D :D
MickS
Quote from: Subedai on 18 August 2016, 03:32:54 PM
Aha! Admit it, you are really a closet Anglophile but you disguise it well for the sake of appearance. (I bet you say sidewalk just to fit in though.) ;) :D :D
MickS
OK-a fair cop! ;D I think it stems from being in a loyalist regiment for RevWar (AWI) reenactment ( although we were all pretty much British Isles folk back then anyway - except for the Dutch and Germans of course).
We do use the idiom "out on the pavement".
1. Were you a wargames before you met your significant other?
Yes since 18 mainly Fantasy, but also the Island hopping stuff for WW2 Pacific
2. How did she find out about your addiction?
I confessed on the nest, so she was not really paying attention
3. What is your significant others attitude towards your addiction?
She doesn't get in a flap about it
4. Does she mention it to her friends or dress your addiction up as something else
She is fine as long as I hide the bills
Quote from: Subedai on 18 August 2016, 03:32:54 PM
Aha! Admit it, you are really a closet Anglophile but you disguise it well for the sake of appearance. (I bet you say sidewalk just to fit in though.) ;) :D :D
MickS
Sidewalk is a pretty good word, when you think about it.
That dammed Yank Webster has much to answer for.....
IanS
Well
1. Were you a wargames before you met your significant other?
Yes from the age of 12
2. How did she find out about your addiction?
I proudly showed her my wargames collection, luckily it didn't put her off - it must have been my good lucks ;D
3. What is your significant others attitude towards your addiction?
Shes okay with it, it got bad when I took figures away on holiday to paint, that caused a lot of trouble :-[
4. Does she mention it to her friends or dress your addiction up as something else
She tells her friends, if I've annoyed her its ' he plays with toy soldiers' ;D
Dave
Quote from: Dave on 19 August 2016, 09:30:00 AM
3. What is your significant others attitude towards your addiction?
Shes okay with it, it got bad when I took figures away on holiday to paint, that caused a lot of trouble :-[
Dave
I have to say Mrs Orcs is a bit of a Unicorrn. I get told to "sort out what your bringing to paint" when we go on holiday.
Quote from: ianrs54 on 19 August 2016, 06:07:35 AM
That dammed Yank Webster has much to answer for.....
IanS
This guy!?
(https://i1.ytimg.com/sh/HBk420l-eZ8/showposter.jpg?v=5016d82b)
Never take figures on holiday. It's supposed to be a break from routine, not just from work. I never even took figures to university to paint; so many other things to do there.
Me neither for the same reasons as Leman. Never went to uni but when I was working in Oxford -early 80's- I managed to paint the majority of a 15mm ECW Parliamentarian army. Still have them all as well.
MickS
Quote from: Leman on 19 August 2016, 12:55:23 PM
Never take figures on holiday. It's supposed to be a break from routine, not just from work. I never even took figures to university to paint; so many other things to do there.
For the break was from casting!!!!!!! :D
dave
Quote from: Dave on 02 September 2016, 09:42:09 AM
For the break was from casting!!!!!!! :D
dave
missed out
me >:(
What's a break ?
Cheers - Phil
Quote from: Dave on 02 September 2016, 09:42:09 AM
For the break was from casting!!!!!!! :D
CASTING? Are you doing a Pendraken Film? I'd be very good as the male lead, you know. I have experience. :-[
I suggest Jane Horrocks as Leon, Catherine Jenkins as Techno, Karen Gillan as Westmarcher, and Anne Hatahaway as the new member on the forum who has a love of British armour of the post WWII era, tanks, but doesn't know how to express it.
I may have a script here somewhere ...
just to go back onto topic.......
I was at a party the other night with friends and I'm quite a chilled out relaxed guy I don't drink, smoke, drugs or many vices. Everyone else was discussing their own secret vices and indulgences and excesses, bad moods etc. Everyone looked at me and 'well Matt you must have some vices or dark secrets' I replied 'not really'. Then they looked to my darling wife who by this time had had a few drinks. I thought she is going to mention I like painting mini men or playing with toy soldiers which is going to open a raft of awkward questions and possible piss taking. I started to sweat slightly and shuffle uncomfortably.
She smiled looked at me and said very loudly 'SEX, he's an absolute bugger for it, always wants it'.
I was soo relieved..........
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Cheers - Phil
Outed as a sodomite!
Quote from: fsn on 02 September 2016, 10:29:34 AM
CASTING? Are you doing a Pendraken Film? I'd be very good as the male lead, you know. I have experience. :-[
I suggest Jane Horrocks as Leon, Catherine Jenkins as Techno, Karen Gillan as Westmarcher, and Anne Hatahaway as the new member on the forum who has a love of British armour of the post WWII era, tanks, but doesn't know how to express it.
I may have a script here somewhere ...
I think you might find the pages a bit difficult to separate ! :-& :-&
Laminator! :D
:D
I want Jodie Foster to play me.
Dame Judi Dench can portray oldblindjohn. :D
I think Kristian Nairn (with prosthesis) would be quite adequate to play my part.
In my late teens to late 20's I was told by several people I reminded them of Omar Sharif, early 30s the comparison was with Trevor Eve, mid-thirties to mid-forties is was Jonathan Frakes from ST:NG, after a drought of comparisons for almost a decade I found several people comparing me to George Clooney (voice and demeanour not looks, alas!) but now I'd have to go with ... Jabba the Hutt :(
I grew my first beard so people would stop thinking I was Sean Connery, and then he grew one too!