How I discovered Wargaming

Today I listened to the latest episode of "View from the Veranda" with Neil Shuck and Henry Hyde, featuring guest Rich Clarke, whose beautiful Dux Britanniarum rules arrived yesterday, and the episode got me thinking about how I got into the hobby. Messers Shuck and Hyde shared their own "conversion" stories and this gave me the idea of writing this little post which is nothing short of naked narcissism.

For many people wargaming begins with Games Workshop, as so too did I. The general story for most people seems to be that they start off with the Fantasy or Sci-Fi offerings at Games Workshop, and then, as they start to grey they turn toward the dark art of historical wargaming with its doctrinal issues. Much like Orthodox theology, historical wargaming is a closed club making very little sense to those who are not participants in the eternal debates. Which Napoleonic ruleset is best? How do we accurately model command and control? What weapons did Hypaspists carry? It is, therefore, no wonder that for most of us Games Workshop is our way in. The rules are simple enough to learn quickly, there are well carved out backgrounds for the worlds, and, most importantly, I can walk into a shop and buy a box with all the bits I need to play.

The thing is, I always wanted to play historical wargames, I just didn't know anything about it, no surprise then that when I was finally introduced to the hobby by way of a sixth edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles starter set I opted for the Empire and set about trying to mimic a Landsknecht army. When I finally decided to dabble in 40k, no surprise, I chose Imperial Guard. Humans all the way, and always trying to build something historically themed, to the detriment of my results... This all changed on the day I discovered Warhammer Historicals. Almost overnight the Fantasy stopped, and I was intent on building an Early Imperial Roman force. The great part was that the rules were familiar, but they did things Fantasy didn't, for instance fire and flee. Because Warhammer Ancient Battles wasn't marketed at ten-year olds the rules allowed for greater complexity, whilst doing away with that magic rubbish which I frankly don't much care for.

The problem was that, unlike Games Workshop's neatly vertically integrated ecosystem, historical wargaming is a fractured mess; I was buying rules from here, figures from there and bases from over there. And it is precisely this disunity which keeps the newcomer out, so that even someone like me, who only ever really wanted to play historical wargames had no smooth path to entry and had to discover it through Games Workshop. From the discussion on "View from the Veranda" I glean that the good news is that this is starting to change. It seems that as the historical wargaming industry becomes more professional, and less of a cottage industry, the companies we know and love are realising the necessity to provide things like starter armies and bundles. This is important because if I wanted to introduce someone to wargaming who shows an interest in the Games Workshop window display, I can show them a demo with my stuff and if they are still interested, for about £80 they should get up and running with a Dux Britanniarum ruleset and a force to start playing. I for one am excited by the prospect of a more user-friendly historical wargaming industry that markets itself more effectively to newcomers and those who cut their teeth on Games Workshop stuff, because frankly I would like some more opponents to play. (and the self-centeredness resurfaces)

In other news, I finally got five more Vikings done and finished basing my first company of Grenadiers, I shall try and get some pictures up tomorrow evening for your delectation, gentle reader.

May 2012 Roundup

May has come and gone, and I thought I would share some of the month's goings on. Firstly, it was all about books, mostly rulesets, in fact 13.4kg of books. Coming back to the hobby after many years "away" I have been trying to get reacquainted with the lay of the land ruleswise. I got the Field of Glory rulesets, the Warlord Games publications "Hail Caesar," "Pike & Shotte" and "Blackpowder," alongside the "Clash of Empires" series from Stuart McCorquodale. Given the demise of Warhammer Historicals, Mr. McCorquodale is currently running a deal for us floor crossers which can be found here. £50 for the core ruleset, "Rise and Fall of Persia" and "Age of Ravens" supplements is a great deal, and I was also pleased to receive the two freebie miniatures in my delivery.

I also got hold of the Principles of War rulesets for the Renaissance, 18th Century and Colonial periods from Northstar to fill out my collection of these rules, which are actually quite good. I have also ordered Saga from Northstar, but it is almost universally out of stock at the moment, but Nick assures me I won't wait too long. My only miniature purchase this month was a singular AB Figures 6pdr Austrian cannon from Fighting 15's, this is to provide the final missing cannon for my 1809 Austrian Army which I will in all likelihood sell in the near future. I am trying hard to avoid buying figures at the moment and paint what I have.

The next month will probably be focussed on testing the various rulesets. Taff and I have already played Field of Glory, and I will endeavour to get the battle report up soon. The next set to be tested will probably be Clash of Empires, with small opposing forces to get a hang of how it plays.

Bumper Book Haul and Recommended Listening/Viewing

I received the Field of Glory rulebooks in the post yesterday and immediately checked the basing conventions for all three the systems, Ancients, Renaissance and Napoleonics, and I think they are the way forward, at least as far as basing goes. I haven't had enough time to really give the rules a proper read through, but I will hopefully get around to sharing my thoughts on each set of rules as and when I get a chance to play with them. I might even run some solo games and record my findings.

Suffice to say, they are very pretty, hopefully the content matches the form. Other reviews have been favourable, as far as I can tell, so I am expecting them to deliver. I have read through the first few sections of the Ancients book and have found them a nice change from the Barkerese of the DBx systems; and aren't they so much prettier? I find that rulebooks can be deeply inspiring, something which Messers Shuck and Hyde discussed on the View from the Veranda podcast, episode three I believe. I love flicking through the beautiful pages, imagining the various things I could do myself, then of course I come crashing down to earth when I realise that I have mountains to paint as is.

Which brings me onto the "recommended listening/viewing" part of the title. I have been listening to "back issues" of the Meeples and Miniatures podcast and View from the Veranda, and have found the stuff Mr. Shuck produces to be really useful, informative and above all a great companion for us wargamers who live sans club. The easy going conversational nature of the podcasts makes them a great soundtrack to paint to, especially when painting Soviet infantry. I must admit that I am somewhat inspired by Mr. Shuck's podcasting efforts, so much so that I am tempted to do some youtube videos for reviews, though I fear my efforts will pale in comparison to the Meeples and Miniatures video reviews. Despite catering to a very niche market, Mr. Shuck clearly puts a lot of effort into his podcasts and videos, and produces quality stuff. Sadly this is the exception rather than the rule in the wargaming hobby, which tends to be very amateurish. Naturally companies like Games Workshop and Battlefront have the budgets to make high end stuff, but it is great to see a "Rogue Trader" like Mr. Shuck produce stuff to rival it. Mr. Shuck might not have the "Hollywood" element, but he makes up for a less flashy look with more quality and useful content time and time again.

I have been looking on youtube for some reviews of gaming systems and sadly I only found some "unboxing" style videos, which while useful, often don't answer the questions that someone like Mr. Shuck addresses. Have a look at the Meeples and Miniatures youtube channel which has some good review videos. Also, I found the toofatlardies videos demonstrating Sharpe Practice to be really informative and well produced. Now, even though I said these were good videos, don't expect flashy stuff, these videos are useful and fit for purpose. My point is that they aren't just some guy ranting into a webcam wearing a cheetos-powder covered t-shirt, that is what I mean by amateurish.