Gaming is pretty good these days

[Ivan Sorensen]

Yeah, I know, your fave paint brush company just changed the length of the bristles by 0.2 mm and that one game is ruining everything, but….

we have it pretty good.

When I was a kid, the choices for WW2 miniatures games to me were…. None whatsoever.
The local two stores didn’t stock any and the internet wasn’t a thing. Even when it became a thing, I didn’t have a credit card so it may as well not have been.

My intro to WW2 gaming was a free set titled “1943” because that’s something we could actually get a hold of and play.

Fast forward, and I think I could find more free rules that I could ever find the time to play, let alone the piles of really cool professional stuff out there.
There’s approximately 42 billion manufacturers of WW2 figures (some of them even produce figures that’s aren’t just Tiger tanks).
At the click of a button, I can order any of those bits from anywhere in the world and have them mailed to my house.

If I need to figure out how to paint something, there’s tons of detailed guides, complete with photos or even video, talking about how to paint all manner of crazy detail.

If I need to research something, I can find pretty much any book ever written on the topic and have it mailed to my home (or just get it digital if it’s available) instead of going to the local library and hoping one of the 3 books they had on WW2 equipment happened to discuss what I was looking for.

Honestly? Miniatures gaming as a hobby has never been better.

[Mike]

I concur.

[Gone Fishing]

Yep, it’s true. Simply amazing how many options we have these days.

[Deleted User]

Yeah, sculpting tools, bits and parts for conversion, stuff you could make your own mold with and most recently 3d printing.

[irishserb]

The availability of research material is truly amazing, but I miss not being able to drive to the shop, buy figs, paint them, and have them on the table that evening.

Not that things are bad by any means, But it wasn’t all bad back before ‘lectricity and flush toilets.

[Ivan Sorensen]

irishserb wrote:

The availability of research material is truly amazing, but I miss not being able to drive to the shop, buy figs, paint them, and have them on the table that evening.

Not that things are bad by any means, But it wasn’t all bad back before ‘lectricity and flush toilets.

I might be kind of partial to the flush toilet thing though 🙂

[kyoteblue]

I’m hooked on electricity my self, thou flush toilets are great.  It is a golden age for the hobby. I just need more figures in 15 mm.

[grizzlymc]

I’m pretty big on electricity and flush toilets. The internet saves you having to buy military modelling and get international money orders.

[Mike]

irishserb wrote:

but I miss not being able to drive to the shop, buy figs, paint them, and have them on the table that evening.

I miss that, but when that was a thing I did, I was limited to having to buy what the shop had and make do with close enough.
Now I can wait a few days, get exactly what I need and tackle the unpainted* whilst I wait.

*not that tackling the unpainted happens, I normally just do something else..

😐

[Deleted User]

Mike wrote:

irishserb wrote:

but I miss not being able to drive to the shop, buy figs, paint them, and have them on the table that evening.

I miss that, but when that was a thing I did, I was limited to having to buy what the shop had and make do with close enough.
Now I can wait a few days, get exactly what I need and tackle the unpainted* whilst I wait.

*not that tackling the unpainted happens, I normally just do something else..

It’s that limited selection in shops that drove me to make my own. Although having a shop with landscaping materials I can see and inspect before buying is preferable.

[deephorse]

grizzlymc wrote:

The internet saves you having to buy military modelling and get international money orders.

 

You haven’t been able to buy Military Modelling since it folded in April this year.  But at least I now know who is responsible for the death of one of my favourite magazines. 😉

Play is what makes life bearable - Michael Rosen

[madman]

Getting back into gaming after 25 years out I am swamped by the many titles and systems for my periods of interest. After testing a few new takes on my favorite topics the old games seem so lacking now. For me it has become more of a find an opponent and what do they play and do that. Sometimes that means some holding of the nose but usually we can agree on either a system or mods to an existing set of rules that appeal or offend less.

[grizzlymc]

I have every copy for the first fifteen years of its existence, then I went off to foreign parts with a 25kg baggage limit. Stopped wargaming for a quarter century.

[Ivan Sorensen]

madman wrote:

Getting back into gaming after 25 years out I am swamped by the many titles and systems for my periods of interest. After testing a few new takes on my favorite topics the old games seem so lacking now. For me it has become more of a find an opponent and what do they play and do that. Sometimes that means some holding of the nose but usually we can agree on either a system or mods to an existing set of rules that appeal or offend less.

There’s always the “We’ve both played games for 20+ years and we just realized we literally dont play a single system we both know” moment 🙂

[Logain]

madman wrote:

Stephen Madjanovich wrote: Getting back into gaming after 25 years out I am swamped by the many titles and systems for my periods of interest. After testing a few new takes on my favorite topics the old games seem so lacking now. For me it has become more of a find an opponent and what do they play and do that. Sometimes that means some holding of the nose but usually we can agree on either a system or mods to an existing set of rules that appeal or offend less.

My experience as well, now I’ve started collecting both sides of a conflict/period so that I can lend a potential opponent an army. Otherwise it’s too difficult to find opponents interested in trying trying a new game.

[Tim Snoddy]

One of the biggest changes for me has been social media.  Rather than the acutely embarrassing approaching someone at a convention or club and asking if you can play a game of toy soldiers with them social media provides me with more opponents than I have time to play without any embarrassment.

I am amazed at how game design has improved since I started gaming. The first rule books I used were small, closely typed in black and white with few if any illustrations. I remember one world war two rule book that had a shooting table that involved looking for the technical name of a particular gun in a paragraph of about twenty names with ten or more paragraphs. No one thought to give all the guns in a given category a numerical value and then put that in a table. The quality and choice of rules and models has grown and improved enormously especially since the advent of the internet. Not only have games improved themselves but we now all have computers and printers to make life easier. I remember when affording to pay for photocopying out of pocket money was a real concern. Photocopying was expensive in the early eighties!

For a long time I thought I just needed to demo games with greater tactical depth to get people interested. I actually feel nervous when I give a game demo now. If it does not go really well the system will never be played by that player again. Why would they when there are so many alternative choices out there. I realise now I was wrong in thinking that demo games would be enough to interest players in a given system. With the multitude of games and systems available I realise most people only play the same game a handful of times in a year. A single demo game is not enough for anyone to see the tactical depths of a given game.

In the local club I have most connection with I cannot believe the churn factor.  A game is lucky to be brought to the table twice.  Then an intro game or first scenario is played with a stumble through the rules only for it never to be seen again and something else to hit the table.  Serious in depth games that require repeated play to understand and a serious figure count are disappearing from the wargames scene.  Does anyone play a game like Field of Glory (Ancient and Medieval) or any high complexity ancients rule set aged under forty?  I doubt it.  Simplistic games with a small figure count are dominating.  And if that is what the people have chosen who am I to say they are wrong?  I do miss more in depth games with deeper tactics though.

[greg954]

irishserb wrote:

The availability of research material is truly amazing, but I miss not being able to drive to the shop, buy figs, paint them, and have them on the table that evening. Not that things are bad by any means, But it wasn’t all bad back before ‘lectricity and flush toilets.

With the internet the choice is truly mind boggling. But it does lack that….how shall I say…..tangible feel. It was a small little hobby shop that was local to where I used to work about 6 years ago. That got me into the hobby. My work colleague buying booster packs of Pirates of the Spanish Main. And those lovely little ships, lovely little models were my catalyst into the hobby.

Soon I started to find out more and obviously the internet was the place to go. From Wizkids PotSM to some bloke called Angel Barracks doing some 6mm stuff, you may of heard of him. Then Brigade Models and more SF armour.

[Ivan Sorensen]

Oh yeah, I think the local stores play a huge role in recruiting for sure.

[Ivan Sorensen]

Tim – Yeah, I think there’s been a distinct move away from larger, heavier games in favor of “warband” style systems.

To some extent, it’s probably understandable: I’m a big proponent of writing games people can actually get on the table, but there is something special about that big miniatures battle that goes on all day, with gives and takes as the game unfolds.

[Author]

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