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? 

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

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

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?")

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

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.

Quote

QuoteIsn'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