Just thrown some thoughts down on the blog after re-purchasing an old (1974) book by Charles Grant, that my father originally bought me as a teenager.
Did we 'never really have it so good'?
LINK
http://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/napoleonic-wargames-memory-lane.html
Interesting post Norm.
I certainly feel several of the points myself.
Back in the day, it was simpler, there was less choice, which probably made it easier for everyone to agree and get on with games. I'm probably 10 years younger than you, but my early 80s memories broadly tally. We played WWII with Airfix figures, and kits, with some new ESCI figures with some Matchbox and Hasegawa stuff thrown in as well. We didn't worry too much that some towered over others, even though they were notionally the same scale. I was happy just to have Shermans, rather than the bendy plastic M48s or whatever they were that came with the Airfix play sets. Painting figures and vehicles was rather secondary. And hills were white ovals of polystyrene ceiling tiles - that I remember asking for a large box of one birthday.
We then got into Fantasy with lead Citadel figures. But much of the same terrain as for WWII.
One friend did have some Napoleonics - but he was a rather on the fringe of the group, and I don't remember playing with these more than once.
So that was it, 2 periods. I suspect our teenage finances couldn't have supported more any way. But more wasn't readily available anyway.
I did pick up a copy of the rules we used back then, Operation Warboard, and the Bruce Quarrie rules (green book) but both where rather disappointing when looked at with today's knowledge and experience. Even back then we had created a fairly substantial set of house rules significantly modifying Op Warboard.
But we did enjoy the games - even if moving hundreds of single based plastic figures was rather a chore!
Back in 1968 (aged 15) I had a large collection of plastic figures which were a mix of Airfix and US imports of the sort advertised on the back of comics. Birthdays, Christmasses, hoarded pocket money and the generosity of visiting relatives swelled the throng.
For land warfare I had WW2 Germans, Brits, Japanese and US Marines; I had Union and Rebs for ACW; French and British for Napoleonics; favourite period was Ancients and I had Imperial Romans, Ancient Brits and courtesy of Plasticene, banana oil, a craft knife and dressmakers pins, I had Arabs and Goths and finally some very dodgy US plastics providing the worlds least historical Trojan army :) I think the latter were rip offs of the Britains' Greeks but done in 1/72nd scale.
I had acquired two or three rule sets for each period, mainly Roneo'd off in what was literally purple prose! I can still recall the smell!!
We also did a fair bit of WW2 naval using Airfix kits on the back lawn and a variant Fletcher Pratt's naval rules from Don Featherstone's "Naval Wargames" but I think that was a year or so later.
I played my first wargame in the mid-fifties, with no written rules. I knew I was in trouble when my Renwal atomic cannon fired at an enemy truck and it was determined there was no damage!!!! Shortly after that his parents came home and were less than amused to see four young lads with army men and tanks all over their kitchen and den!!!! I got into what I would venture serious wargaming when in high school and then college in the 60's using converted Airfix figures doing ACW and a set of rules adapted from Donald Featherstone's "Tackle Model Soldiers This Way", which I had purchased (I still have that book). Then one day at the library, a regular hang out for me, I saw the Life magazine issue featuring the battle of Waterloo and that was all it took to plunge me head first into Napoleonic gaming - and I still play Napoleonic games (I also still have that issue of Life as well). Then Sports Illustrated did an article on the Sweet brothers and their AWI gaming and off I went again, always being a sucker for a colorful uniform (and yes, I still have that magazine too).
As I plundered my way through each new enlightenment I also discovered metal figures, and had ACW armies made of Bussler figures, and then got some SAE figures and then learned of the "holy grail" at the time - Scruby Miniatures! I even made a side trip on a business trip to California to visit Jack and do some gaming, which was very magical.
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh235/terry37photos/Misc/TerryatJackScrubys.jpg) (http://s257.photobucket.com/user/terry37photos/media/Misc/TerryatJackScrubys.jpg.html)
A picture of me at Jack Scruby's in 1973.
Then my career took hold and there was little time for much beyond getting to do some research every so often for the next 25 years. But then blessed retirement came along and once again I have been able to pursue a boyhood fascination of uniforms, painting figures and gaming. About 2003 I think it was, I was first introduced to DBA, and fell in love with it, and then shortly after that to HOTT, and as time went by I saw HOTT as being much more fun and less dry than DBA, so that is my primary game today. I do play DBN for Napoleonics, and a little DBA-HX written to 2.2 for some non-DBA periods. My favorite periods are Ball and Musket, and Pike and Shotte, due just to all the great uniforms of those periods. But as a HOTT player I equally seem to enjoy total fantasy or futuristic stuff as well.
The biggest difference I've seen in all those years is the hobby is no longer a closet hobby as it was back in my early years - guys didn't want to be known as playing with toy soldiers. I never thought much about it and just had fun and still do. Today it is a very open hobby with sooooo much available to consider in figures, rules, references, you name it.
Terry
A very interesting post Norm, I spotted several parallels
I agree with a comment on your blog, the wargaming is better now, the music was better then ;)
Quote from: fred. on 28 March 2018, 10:12:39 PM
I did pick up a copy of the rules we used back then, Operation Warboard, and the Bruce Quarrie rules (green book) but both where rather disappointing when looked at with today's knowledge and experience. Even back then we had created a fairly substantial set of house rules significantly modifying Op Warboard.
Our group still 'regularly' plays a house set of WWII rules based on an amalgam of Operation Warboard and Bruce Quarrie's rules
In fact we'll be playing them all day tomorrow in a large Eastern Front game on the outskirts of Leningrad :) :) :)
Terry, very similar to my intro to wargames. I visited Scruby in 1967 I think.
Joseph Morschauser's book (All about Wargames?) was reviewed in Popular Mechanics so I ordered it - perhaps 1964? I still have it but can't find it at the moment - actually I have every book I ever bought on military history.
I have been painting and playing ever since. Still working however; need to support the habit.
Kip
Quote from: paulr on 29 March 2018, 03:58:23 AM
Our group still 'regularly' plays a house set of WWII rules based on an amalgam of Operation Warboard and Bruce Quarrie's rules
In fact we'll be playing them all day tomorrow in a large Eastern Front game on the outskirts of Leningrad :) :) :)
Paul, is this something you would be willing to share?
I started proper wargaming with "Charge or how to play Wargames" by Brigadier P J Young. using Airfix Napoleonic's reinforced with Airfix ACW figures, and some railway terrain made by Merit.
I must have been about 11 or 12 so it would have been Mid 70's. I can remember typing the rules out on my Dads manual typewriter, and making the Canister frame from Garden wire and Dad buying me a piece of dowel to make the Roundshot stick. I still have the typed rules and the roundshot stick.
Quote from: paulr on 29 March 2018, 03:58:23 AM
Our group still 'regularly' plays a house set of WWII rules based on an amalgam of Operation Warboard and Bruce Quarrie's rules
In fact we'll be playing them all day tomorrow in a large Eastern Front game on the outskirts of Leningrad :) :) :)
Quote from: fred. on 29 March 2018, 07:16:42 AM
Paul, is this something you would be willing to share?
I'll check with the 'author' tomorrow and let you know
My first wargames book was "War Games" by the Blessed Featherstone. I took it out the local library almost continually for several years, and when it was discontinued I bought it. The Blessed Featherstone, the Grants, Bruce Quarrie and of course, HG Wells led the way. Then point at which I said "whoa!" was Bruce Quarrie's "National Characteristics" in his "Napoleonic Wargames".
Since then, the advent of low cost computing has made wargaming (for me) simpler. I have a spreadsheet of WWII vehicles, with key data (armour, speed, weapon, crew etc) and that translates into the pages of look up tables of yesteryear. So now, I use a drop down of say a Churchill VII firing at a StuG III, and it the spreadsheet gives me range & penetration of the 75mm gun, the size of the StuG and it's armour. That's when I throw the dice ... and miss. (StuG's are like cockroaches on my table ... almost indestructible.)
Having said that, if you bury down deep enough, you'll find my rules stem from "War Games". I've certain layers of complexity, but kept the same structure, and as a solo gamer, it suits me fine.
I've looked at some "modern" rule sets, and "meh". How many sets of rules for the Napleonic period do we need? (I'd suggest max three - skirmish, division and army.) How many supplements do we need to WWII rules sets? Guess what? A Garand fired pretty much the same way on a Pacific Atoll as it did at Salerno. It seems to me that each new set has to find it's niche, and it's a combination of commerce and love of the subject that produce new ones.
The difference now is in many cases we are being sold
systems - rules, figures, accessories and (in the case of Frostgrave) one colour of white paint for every word the Eskimos have for snow. Frostgrave is D&D and snow. Gangs of Rome. It's a skirmish game doing a Jets and the Sharks with togas. It's a set of ancient skirmish rules with RPG overlays. Flames of War offers you every thing you need to game WWII on a glossy, expensive plate.
So life was better in the 1970's*? Well the music was definitely better, the rules were simpler, and it took me a lot longer to comb my hair. Having said that, in terms of figures, life is so much rosier. Looking at a Battle magazine from January 1977 I see adverts from Skytrex, Heller, Minifigs, Heroics & Ros and New Model Army - basically Ancients, Napoleonics , ACW and WWII, with a frisson of "we're all going to die in WWIII" thrown in. C17 was "exotic"and there's an article about making Han Chinese from Airfix Romans. Minifigs foot figure cost 8p, now they're £1.30-£1.40. In the January 1975 Military Modelling there are two pages of local model shops. I notice with keen interest there were 3 in Liverpool.
Look at a wargames mag now, and there are dozens of adverts for every period you can think of and some you wouldn't. Pendraken makes "3700 products over 200 ranges" and
we I still complain because they don't do Byzantines, Chariot Armies, Apaches and Amazons. We are spoiled for choice in ranges, scales, and poses. I am very lucky to be in then position of moaning that the mg teams are prone, and the Brunswick Avant Garde are in the wrong pose. In 1977 they were Airfix Confederates with a paint job!
In summary, we're spoiled for choice: we have more rulesets that we can comfortably burn in an arctic winter evening, we have a choice of figures that I literally used to dream about, we have resources galore - both online and hard copy, we have acrylic paints, we have on-line ordering and in some cases next day delivery (though my Amazon delivery yesterday was aborted because of "damaged package or dangerous substances").
And yet.
And yet.
One of the reasons for my keeping away from the Wargaming fraternity is the application of all that wealth of resource. My WWII US forces will fight in any temperate theatre from Torch to the Rhine. They will battle on with the same welded hull Shermans for the whole war. Why? Because I like welded hull Shermans better than I like cast hull Shermans, but someone is bound to point out that on that Tuesday afternoon in 1945, all the Shermans were the later ... (at which point I tune out.) We discuss what colour was Confederate Grey, when we all know it was one of a dozen colours and didn't look like that after the first river crossing anyway. Then there are people who actually have an opinion on what a troll looks like.
So is wargaming better than it used to be? In some ways, yes. What makes wargaming isn't just the paint jobs, isn't only the hours of research, but is in the joy of playing a competitive game. Here's a thought experiment. You are washed up on an island. You know you will be rescued in 2 weeks and you have all you need to survive comfortably. You have a beach. On the beach are shells and smooth stones; seaweed and a forum member of your choice. What period do you game, and how?
*Scene from an old folks home in 2078
;D ;D ;D
Thank God, the YouTube video stopped ... #:-S
Whilst I was preparing my own post, you were posting yours, Nobby, so I'll give your question more thought later.
Anyhoo, like many of us, my wargaming roots go back to Airfix models and figures, my own homespun rules, then Don Featherstone's and other "off the shelf" rules, Featherstone's Naval Wargames and Grant's The War Game, Airfix magazine, sandwich style balsa wood ships and figure conversions using plasticine and banana oil. Tried the Fletcher Pratt rules also, Ithoriel, but too complicated for my pals and took ages to calculate ship points.
Great looking back but The Good Old Days were also the The Frustrating Old Days with regards to the relative unsophistication of the hobby back then. Thankfully, I was not alone and we can now look back and see how this 'frustration' has propelled the hobby forward over the years. Everything is so much better now in every way - wider choice of miniatures, paints, basing, terrain, rules, books and general hobby information from the the likes of blogs, forums, magazines, YouTube, etc. And, of course, I now have more money and time to spend on the hobby.
Therefore, addressing "Nostalgia vs. Today," for me, "Today" wins also.
P.S. One era which is worth mentioning is my "Middle or Wilderness Years" when I neither had the the time, the space or the money but kept in touch with the hobby through mags and the odd visit to Claymore. In these years, nursing the hope that one day I would return (and I did! Huzzah!), I continued to search for the elusive "perfect" wargames rules. The trouble is there are no "perfect" rules just ones that you get very comfortable with. Now I don't know if anyone else agrees but I found that there was a period when rules were getting just too complicated and whilst their authenticity in representing the appropriate period of warfare was unparalleled in the history of wargaming, they were just not fun. As I got back into wargaming, after a hard, often stressful day at work, I just wanted something simple to pick up, give some flavour of the period played and be fast flowing and enjoyable. In that sense, I am therefore glad that this spirit of wargaming, the spirit that seemed to prevail in my nostalgia days, is back.
[Terry - an audience with the famous Jack Scruby. Impressed!]
Nostalgia, it's not what it used to be...
Isn't this one of those topics that come up every two months or so?
Quote from: fsn on 29 March 2018, 11:37:47 AM
Here's a thought experiment. You are washed up on an island. You know you will be rescued in 2 weeks and you have all you need to survive comfortably. You have a beach. On the beach are shells and smooth stones; seaweed and a forum member of your choice. What period do you game, and how?
I agree with a lot of what you say, but If I was washed up on a desert Island for 2 weeks I can think of companions I would rather have than another forum member!! and consequently other games I would rather be playing. :d :d
Karen Gillan
Anne Hathaway (You will definitely approve of that one)
Rose Leslie
Etc Etc.
Quote from: FierceKitty on 29 March 2018, 12:40:44 PM
Isn't this one of those topics that come up every two months or so?
Yes because we have talked "b*ll*cks" round to the same subject again
Quote from: FierceKitty on 29 March 2018, 12:40:44 PM
Isn't this one of those topics that come up every two months or so?
Has anyone noticed that as we all get older, we start to repeat ourselves? Some of us are also hoping the rest don't remember what was talked about a couple of months ago.
Has anyone noticed that as we all get older, we start to repeat ourselves? Some of us are also hoping the rest don't remember what was talked about a couple of months ago.
Has anyone .....
"Accept certain inalienable truths
prices will rise
politicians will philander
you too will get old, and when you do you'll fantasize that when you were young
prices were reasonable
politicians were noble
and children respected their elders" - Sunscreen Baz Luhrmann (lyrics by Mary Schmich)
Quote from: FierceKitty on 29 March 2018, 12:40:44 PM
Isn't this one of those topics that come up every two months or so?
Yes, because our short term memory is shot. Let's face it we all grew up in the same closet.
For me it was Tactics II which led to (when I was in college) - Young and Lawford's, which I kept perpetually checked out from the library (no one else wanted to read it)
Terry, were we ever that young! ;)
Quote from: Orcs on 29 March 2018, 12:50:06 PM
I agree with a lot of what you say, but If I was washed up on a desert Island for 2 weeks I can think of companions I would rather have than another forum member!! and consequently other games I would rather be playing. :d :d
Karen Gillan
Anne Hathaway (You will definitely approve of that one)
Rose Leslie
Etc Etc.
And what would you do with the other 13 days 23 hours and 57 minutes? :P
... and yes, I agree about Anne Hathaway and Karen Gillan.
Just back from a very snowy walking holiday in the Cheviots, so not sure what is being said about Anne Hathaway and Karen Gillan, but AH is very attractive (and that Tarbuck woman seems a right good laugh too), but sometimes Karen Gillan comes across as being a tad naggy, in some of the Dr. Who episodes but most especially in Guardians of the Galaxy.
Like most here I go back to the very early 70's -and have pictures in Miniature Wargames to prove it- but it wasn't books that got me hooked, it was a small diorama of Airfix Highlanders in square facing off against their Cuirassier counterparts set up in the History Room at school. Painted by a chap two years above me, it was inspirational. I found him, got chatting and that was it. We became close friends until I married and moved away. Sadly, he is no longer with us, but his legacy lives on. I was invited to the local club in a pub in Southend and that was it. Home grown rules, Airfix buldings, Rico Minitanks/Airfix models and three choices of metal figures, Mini Figs, Hinchcliffe or Hinton Hunt...none of which were really compatible with each other or affordable to a pre-pubescant 14 year old even at 5p per Mini Fig infantryman. But ingenuity was the order of the day and Airfix WW I French infantry became Napoleonic Prussians in greatcoats overnight with the addition of a small piece of plastic straw filled with plasticine set with Humbrol Banana Oil while Wagon Train outriders became Prussian uhlans in shako by the same method.
Yes, the music was much better, Radio Caroline in it's earlier, more piratical format, used to balnket out Radio One so I was weaned on Sabbath, Zeppelin, Free, BJH et al and still like all those bands nearly 50 years on. I'm still here rocking away to their tunes even if a lot of them aren't. Unfortunately, music has not advanced much over the intervening years, it has become very formulaic, and not a very good formulae at that.
Do I miss it? In some ways I suppose I do. The pace of life has got almost exponentially quicker for youngsters who now don't seem to have the time to do all the things we did but instead would rather have everything served on a plate, almost an army in a box, with rules and research done by somebody else because they can't seem to find the time to do theirown. People nowadays bemoan the fact that they have demanding jobs and thus don't have much free time. Spoiler alert people, we had jobs -some of us still do but present company excluded- and yet we managed to find the time.Although, maybe as a generalisation, everyday life was simpler back then.
Scouring through the wargaming periodicals to work out figure requirements to buy at the next big show you were going to, checking the Inter Library Loan Service for a copy of a book only held by the Bodlean Library in Oxford etc. All were exciting things and gave you something to look forward to over the coming weeks or even months. Nowadays, not so much. A wargamer can develop a minor itch for a new period, check Wikipedia for background information, possibly Amazon or even online for some research material; order figures online and then when they arrive, let them languish in the postal packaging because you've lost interest as suddenly as you began.
However, it is not all doom and gloom.Wargaming, as a global hobby has advanced by several orders of magnitude much to the beneift of everybody. Fora such as this means you can now bounce ideas off someone living the other side of the world in minutes -if the time zones are compatible of course- rather than days or even weeks back in the day. Remember postal campaigns anybody?
Quote from: fsn on 29 March 2018, 02:38:30 PM
And what would you do with the other 13 days 23 hours and 57 minutes? :P
I'll have you know I have far better stamina than that, so its only so its only 13 days 23 hours and 51 minutes :D
Quote from: Orcs on 30 March 2018, 08:15:58 AM
I'll have you know I have far better stamina than that, so its only so its only 13 days 23 hours and 51 minutes :D
Eh ?
So it's only so its only ?
Wossatmean ?
Cheers - Phil ;)
Quote from: Techno on 30 March 2018, 09:54:19 AM
Eh ?
So it's only so its only ?
Wossatmean ?
Cheers - Phil ;)
Dear Mr Pedantic
I just typed the words "so its only twice" :)
Mr I really ought to get on with my work and stop looking at the forum
This is a topic I always enjoy, even if it has been discussed and cussed before many times. I like hearing about how others got into the hobby, and hoe different folks perceive the hobby then as compared to today. I also enjoy hearing about others ideas and especially those who share my periods of interest.
Terry
Hi Norm,
another great read that gets the old grey cells going! My first foray into wargaming was a mix of fantasy (Thane Tostig and D&D) and the Airfix WWII rules. To be honest I'm not sure which came first as it's so long ago. Looking back there was certainly less choice, but in one sense that helped focus our gaming, which was pretty crude compared to today's games. Back in the '70's we could only afford the Airfix figures which, with their range of plastic kits, pushed us towards WWII. This was of course more than aided by an addiction to the war films that we devoured with regular glee. Also of note is that books were damned expensive, compared to todays prices, and there were far fewer of them. Living in a village we simply could not easily get into town to access the library and the few toy stores that stocked wargames stuff. When we could we could only marvel at what was on offer, most way out of our price range. Again I think that is why fantasy gaming caught our attention; a few figures, so very basic scenery for the dungeon, and away we went. We could only dream of having tables and armies that we saw in Military Modelling and Airfix magazine. This did not stop us dreaming however and regularly looking at the H&R lists etc.
Fast forward to today and we are positively spoilt for choice. More rulesets than you can shake a stick at, every obscure army or nationality catered for (no more converting Airfix ACW figures) and many, many more superb military history books to devour. Then of course there is the internet and access to pretty much anything you need in a few clicks.
Is it better now than then? Most probably yes, but sometimes I do yearn for the simplicity of those formative years. But then maybe I'm looking back through rose tinted spectacles as they say.
The other thing I would add is that the figures of today are of such a better quality than of yesteryear.
Looking at the old magazines makes me realise how wooden some of the poses were.
Quote from: fsn on 30 March 2018, 04:57:52 PM
The other thing I would add is that the figures of today are of such a better quality than of yesteryear.
Looking at the old magazines makes me realise how wooden some of the poses were.
Anyone remember Peter Laing 15mm? Talk about basic, but painted up they looked the dogs, at least if you applied the three foot rule.
I had lots of Peter Laing.
They were definitely mass effect sculpts. To be fair the WWII figures weren't that bad.
Quote from: Subedai on 30 March 2018, 08:00:23 PM
Anyone remember Peter Laing 15mm? Talk about basic, but painted up they looked the dogs, at least if you applied the three foot rule.
I am custodian of absolute tons of Peter Laing figures. The Crimean range was largely sculpted for my club for a Crimean exhibition.
Thanks all for the comments, stories, both here and at the blog. At the Lead Adventure Forum, one poster showed his collection that he still has of painted Airfix napoleonics in 1/76 plastic, including conversions for a Prussian army .... of course these days, several 1/72 manufacturers do Prussians, but it must be nice for anyone who still has their early stuff, if it still brings a pleasure.
As I mentioned on the blog comments, there is a certain irony that our modern day situation of plenty of product in some areas may actually be too much goodness and reaching a point of saturation, not so much in terms of the product itself, but more our ability to absorb it and turn it into leisure time. I am particularly mindful of the Kickstarter boardgames that are fairly large and complex, but no sooner is a game in your hand. than the next 'big thing' is being Kickstarted and wanting your money, so one never really gets good at any one game or gets enough time to explore it properly and dare I say play it to death. I suppose the lead or plastic mountain is the same dilemma and since the good old days of WRG being a standard of what people would 'know' for tournaments, we now have a plethora of favourites to choose from. As Goldilocks might say about 50 years of wargaming, 'not enough goodness, just the right amount of goodness and too much goodness' :-)
I suppose there is always self restraint and pruning. I now know that WWI Middle East, for which I had bought half a dozen packs will now never be followed up, despite new packs being produced. The First Schleswig War will be restricted to a Neil Thomas style conflict, the 28mm WOR mothballed with no new additions, all the figures for FK&P already assembled - etc. The problem is painting time. Once this problem is recognised, then impulse buying goes out the window pretty quickly.
Quote from: Norm on 31 March 2018, 05:50:42 AM
I am particularly mindful of the Kickstarter boardgames that are fairly large and complex, but no sooner is a game in your hand. than the next 'big thing' is being Kickstarted and wanting your money, so one never really gets good at any one game or gets enough time to explore it properly and dare I say play it to death.
Indeed so. Indeed so.
Quote from: Norm on 31 March 2018, 05:50:42 AM
I am particularly mindful of the Kickstarter boardgames that are fairly large and complex, but no sooner is a game in your hand. than the next 'big thing' is being Kickstarted and wanting your money, so one never really gets good at any one game or gets enough time to explore it properly and dare I say play it to death.
I have a well thumbed copy of Heroes of Normandie that begs to differ :)
Quote from: Norm on 31 March 2018, 05:50:42 AM
Thanks all for the comments, stories, both here and at the blog. At the Lead Adventure Forum, one poster showed his collection that he still has of painted Airfix napoleonics in 1/76 plastic, including conversions for a Prussian army .... of course these days, several 1/72 manufacturers do Prussians, but it must be nice for anyone who still has their early stuff, if it still brings a pleasure.
We will be playing with a friends mainly Airfix Napoleonics week after next, the Prussians (mainly not Airfix) arriving at Waterloo vs Airfix French :)
Airfix Napoleonics is one of our 'regular' games :)
Quote from: Norm on 31 March 2018, 05:50:42 AM
As I mentioned on the blog comments, there is a certain irony that our modern day situation of plenty of product in some areas may actually be too much goodness and reaching a point of saturation, not so much in terms of the product itself, but more our ability to absorb it and turn it into leisure time. I am particularly mindful of the Kickstarter boardgames that are fairly large and complex, but no sooner is a game in your hand. than the next 'big thing' is being Kickstarted and wanting your money, so one never really gets good at any one game or gets enough time to explore it properly and dare I say play it to death.
It has certainly led to more fragmentation of the hobby, or greater choice :-\
Quoteso one never really gets good at any one game
This is one of the reasons I tend to avoid boardgames, the aesthetics is another :-\
An interesting discussion, I look forward to the next round in a few months ;)
Combining the Nostalgia thread with my extreme productivity over the last few weeks, I'm minded to fight the Ancient battle from "War Games" by the Blessed Featherstone - "The Battle of Trimsos". This was Hyperborea against Hyrkania, of course - and I remember being dazzled by the concept of Horse Archers and war elephants. I had no thought that all these years later, I would have sufficient figures to be able to recreate my idol's OOB?
The Blessed Featherstone used flats from Tony Bath's collection ("Perfectionists may detect some slight deviation in their respective period or eras- but what's a few hundred years amongst so many?")
(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--fW1chUyoDc/WfZjChDO_jI/AAAAAAAAGew/UQ6yePU4Sp4reXXAElOqUwY8iZ1eOu5kQCLcBGAs/s1600/Trimsos%2Bphoto.jpeg)
Quote from: fsn on 30 March 2018, 08:24:08 PM
I had lots of Peter Laing.
They were definitely mass effect sculpts. To be fair the WWII figures weren't that bad.
In still have some very nicely painted (not by me) landsknect Arquebus serving in my renaissance armies. Crude figures but painted up well
Quote from: Orcs on 30 March 2018, 08:15:58 AM
I'll have you know I have far better stamina than that, so its only so its only 13 days 23 hours and 51 minutes :D
Tell the truth - if you entertain young ladies the same way you wargame that will be 4 minutes of deciding what to do, and 4 minutes of wandering off to see what else is happening.
QuoteQuoteIsn't this one of those topics that come up every two months or so?
Yes because we have talked "b*ll*cks" round to the same subject again
Or 'Being a wargamer' as it is officially called.
Quote from: Last Hussar on 01 April 2018, 12:02:40 AM
Tell the truth - if you entertain young ladies the same way you wargame 4 minutes of wandering off to see what else is happening.
As you well know, you have to see what other options are available
Not fair - I didn't realise I was cheating on my girlfriend with my wife.