[Phil Dutré]

It is true that some things become “collectible” over time, and that you can make a profit on such an item. However, trying to predict what items will become collectible before they actually are collectible is almost impossible in the gaming market. E.g. I once traded away a Beta Black Lotus when MtG was first published. It was a single card, of a not-yet-so-popular game.  And one could always buy more boosters and get the card back, right? OTOH, I still have some boardgames and rpgs lying around from the 80s that are worth a few 100 euros each, *if* you can find the right collector who needs that particular item for his collection at the same time you want to sell it.

But anyway, I consider my hobby expenses as a ‘loss’. You buy stuff because you want to play with them, and I have no hopes of ever recovering the amount of money I’ve spend on wargaming. If I can recover 10% of whatever I paid I would be happy 😉

I’ve said it in the other thread as well, but most wargaming collections aren’t worth that much. The main reason is that wargaming is a DIY hobby. Figures are not kept as bought, but are painted, based, conversed, combined with others from different manufacturers in an “army” (which often is a personal project and not always transferable to other rules or playing styles). Throw in some model houses, some scratch-built styrofoam hills, a big jar full of dice, and well-worn rulebooks, and you have a pile of junk rather than a collection that is worth something. The real value lies in the emotional meaning for the owner – so many battles, so much joy, the memories – but that doesn’t translate into money.

[Phil Dutré]

Sane Max wrote:

Phil Dutré wrote:

Figures? 25 cents per figure in large masses? Even less? The price you bought them for so many years ago isn’t the price you can sell them for.

I would suggest that’s true for some figures. My Games Workshop Skaven on the other hand are currently selling at about £6.00 each, if I was foolish enough to sell them. I am gradually pricing up all of my figures and putting slips in the boxes, so if I snuff it my wife and kids will have an idea how to sell them and for how much.

I also have figures in my collection I can probably sell for 10 quid. But that’s for selected items, or specific ranges that still have a fanbase today. However, I would say that for large collections, containing a variety of manufacturers, scales, periods that isn’t the case. Especially historicals are not ‘collectible’ as some fantasy/scifi ranges are. Go to any B&B at a convention and you’ll see entire armies sitting there, unsold, unloved (not even by the owner since he’s selling them ;-)). So you’ll have to work with an average per figure, and that average is rather low, I’m afraid.

[Phil Dutré]

Not Connard Sage wrote:

Benjamin Cato wrote:

I would also happily play the WRG rules of my youth if I still had any copies.

Must be some on eBay…

The Ancient ones (and a few other) you can simply download: http://www.wrg.me.uk/WRG.net/History/wrg.html

 

 

[Phil Dutré]

If you have to value a wargaming collection, without the intention of selling the collection, that’s very hard. Most items don’t have an inherent value, only ‘collectors’ value, which can be very volatile.

You of course need to look for truely valuable items: first edition books,  some really rare collector’s items worth 100 euro/pounds/dollar or more. Everything else I would just count and multiply by a value per item. I guess for a probate application +- 30% doesn’t matter that much, esp if it might be outweight by other more valuable items in the estate.

The inconvenient truth is that most wargaming collections aren’t worth that much. Books? Almost worthless, esp softcover, but of course not special editions. Figures? 25 cents per figure in large masses? Even less? The price you bought them for so many years ago  isn’t the price you can sell them for.

[Phil Dutré]

I also think one’s taste in rules changes during a wargamer’s career.

E.g. I often observe that younger wargamers like detailed rules, often focusing on army lists and point values as well. This might coincide with a typical ‘my army vs your army’ setup.

Older gamers tend to favour looser rules, and don’t worry that much (anymore) about a specific situation not covered by the rules. Simply decide on the matter as gentlemen. It might coincide with less time available for games, and perhaps scenario-based play ‘just plop some troops on the table and let’s go”. and simply not having the time nor energy anymore to analyse and dissect complex rulesets.

As is usual, this all probably is a gross oversimplification 🙂

[Phil Dutré]

You can use a specific ruleset (commercial or houserules) for a long time, but it’s always useful to keep an eye on recent developments.

I use quite  a lot of house rules for different periods. Usually, they are tweaked a bit after every game. But sometimes, there’s a huge rift, and the the house rules undergo a major rewrite. Whether it’s then a new edition or a new set all together is a matter of taste and ego 🙂

 

[Phil Dutré]

Funny, I replayed ME – after it had lain dormant for almost 30 years – last year as well:

https://snv-ttm.blogspot.com/2020/04/mighty-empires-2.html

So what did I learn?
There’s a lot of dice rolling. A lot! 
There’s more dice rolling!
And even more!
To summarize, a lot of dice rolling on all sorts of tables: to determine the content of a tile when scouted; to determine whether you can move over mountains and how much troops that will cost you; to determine the strength of independent settlements; to see what happens when an army banner doesn’t have enough subsistence; and so on…

So is Mighty Empires  a good game? Hmmm, no, not so good. But then, it was never meant as a standalone game. You should really see it as a campaign world generator, with a lot of unexpected events happening, and for that, it does the job.

[Phil Dutré]

Stephen Holmes wrote:

What I did was record the “shots” against each unit, and only rolled the saves when the unit entered or left close combat. This allows a unit that’s taken a lot of fire to close with the enemy, but you only know whether it was shot to pieces, or largely unaffected as the cold steel comes into play. Likewise you record melee successes, but only roll the saves after one side or other breaks off.

I also experimented with this mechanic, but discarded it again. Players like it when they know the impact of their firing or attacks on the enemy, right after when they roll the dice. Only resolving it sometime later detaches that impact from the action.

[Phil Dutré]

I have it. I can send it to you if you want.

Funny enough, I added it to Boardgamegeek a short while ago. It was also missing from their database.

[Phil Dutré]

Wait a minute — weren’t they supposed to have gone bankrupt after every new edition of Warhammer was published since at least 4th?

[Phil Dutré]

As for unified terminology: it doesn’t really matter that much. Terminology changes over the years, or it gets a new meaning and interpretation. Throw in some clever new buzzwords for commercial gain, and you end up with a plethora of terms.

There are even discussions about what is and what isn’t a wargame.

[Phil Dutré]

OSR is a nostalgic recreation of the past that never was 😉

But anyway, these “miniature wargames” you people seem to talk about. You mean Warhammer, right?

[Phil Dutré]

One player – usually the host/umpire, has read the rules. He then explains them during a game as we go along.

This is usually repeated for all the following games using that same ruleset as well 😉

[Phil Dutré]

John,

I renewed my subscription today. I like reading the magazine and still like a paper copy.

But what I noticed:

2021: 92 GBP
2020: 72 GBP
2019: 66 GBP

That’s quite a price increase! Any context?

[Phil Dutré]

I received issue 458 today, and already there’s a new issue to look forward to! 😉

[Phil Dutré]

For 25/28mm I use flocked templates as well, but some of them have at least 1 or 2 straight edges such that I can combine them in larger areas. Single trees are placed on top, such that I can move them around when troops enter.

[Phil Dutré]

I can recommend Trafalgar.

[Phil Dutré]

I also hate those multi-part plastic figures. A toy soldier should be cast in one piece, and is not a modelkit.

[Phil Dutré]

One thing I learned over the years is not to offer advice or opinion on copyright/trademark/IP/… issues. Sure, one can complain about it, but the only thing that matters is what IP lawyers say and eventually what a court says. Everything else usually is uninformed opinion.

[Phil Dutré]

From a marketing point-of-view, linking rules with specific miniatures is a smart thing to do. It worked well for GW, why not for others?

It also is connected to the growing trend – and almost a given these days – that rules are centered around “factions”, “warbands”, “armies”, each which their specific mechanics for building a force that is “legal” under the rules. It almost seems as if building the army has become the game, and playing out a battle is almost an afterthought.

Personally, I’m not that worried about this. I’m old enough by now to look beyond the marketing machines and buy the rules and miniature I want. I don’t really care what wargamers outside my immediate gaming circle prefer to play. Wargaming is very much an indvidual hobby, and everyone has to find their own balance.

However, what does worry me is that many wargaming rules – because of the above evolutions – tend to become self-referential systems and the link with history becomes weaker. Wargamers no longer play “WW2”, but they play “Bolt Action”, which is different from “Flames of War”. The idea that these rulesets are based on historical events seems a like a weird concept to some. The “Bolt Action history” could be different from the “Flames of War history”. “I like BA because I can field 3 Tigers”, “I prefer FoW because then I can play the Canadians during D-Day.” These are hypothetical and  perhaps silly examples, but perhaps not far from the truth.

That’s also what I meant with my wargamer-tinkerers vs wargamer-consumers remark before. Back in the day, as a wargamer, you had to build your own game. Mixing and matching rules and miniatures was part of that effort. These days, wargamers are more like consumers – you buy a system that has everything: rules, miniatures, even the dice and scenery. Miniature wargames will become more like boardgames, everything is in a single box. Sure, you can use a meeple or die from one game in another game, but who does that, really?

[Phil Dutré]

It’s linked to the shift from the wargamer-tinkerer to the wargamer-consumer that has been playing out over the last decades.

[Phil Dutré]

Years ago I invested a number of dials (0-9) and applied a green colour/flock that blends with my terrain mat (from http://www.dialdude.ca/Home_Page.php but no idea if still active). I use them for all sorts of games. But I also use skulls, wounded figures, pebbles, meeples and pawns, etc. The exact choice depends on the period and/or scale.

I even have pebbles (collected from my driveway), and hand painted numbers on them specifically for this purpose.

[Phil Dutré]

Mike wrote:

Northern Monkey wrote:

, certainly 14 year old me, whilst loving the system(especially the careers) and the world, basically played AD&D/MERP in the Old World until I got my hands on the first 3 parts of TEW which changed the tone of the game entirely, by

Bit tired so forgive me if wrong. Until The Enemy Within came out, there was not enough detailed lore to allow you to play warhammer as warhammer, but more of a generic fantasy game? I am now thinking about the games we played and how or if they differed from our DnD.

WFRP was published a bit later than WFB2. WFB1 was very generic, but WFB2 and its supplements already had a fair bit of Old World lore, but mostly from the point of view of fighting battles, which is something different than running a rpg campaign.

[Phil Dutré]

MartinR wrote:

I do follow a few WP blogs. As a reader, I never comment on them as I need to create some sort of WP account to do so, whereas with blogger I can comment away happily.

I can confirm that. Reacting to a WP post is always a bit more hassle. Might depend on the settings of the blog though.

[Phil Dutré]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaur_coloration

 

[Phil Dutré]

Depends a bit on your goals.

Wordpress allows you a lot of functionality, and you can shape your blog exactly they way you like it.

Blogger is very easy to use, but you have less control over how viewers will experience it. If you don;t want to do “fancy stuff”, it doesn’t matter that much.

For the blog of our gaming group, we changed from WordPress to Blogger many years ago. Readership went up significantly. There used to be different ecosystems of readers associated with WordPress and Blogger, but I’m not sure this is still the case. In the end, what counts is how easy readers can link to your site from their own preferred blog reader app, and whether your blog allows that. Don’t assume readers will go manually to your blog every day 😉

[Phil Dutré]

Don’t write battlereports if you don’t enjoy writing them 😉

But anyway, I like reports mainly consisting of photographs, with only 1 or 2 lines caption with each photo.

 

 

[Phil Dutré]

What’s the advantage over simply shaking the bottle yourself?

[Phil Dutré]

If you want to game something like this, I don’t think it will teach you much. Miniature games usually are at the tactical scale, and putting a platoon or even a few companies in a tactical battle against each other might yield any type of result, especially if you use a “vanilla” ruleset that is more inspired by mid- or late WW2 rather than pre-WW2.

The failure or success of any possible Saar-offensive has to be seen at the strategic and/or political level, something miniature wargaming is not very good at it, if at all. YMMV.

[Phil Dutré]

As for any military “what if”, it’s always a matter of weighing military capability (what could have been done) with political decision making (what could have been decided).

I guess in 39 neither FR or UK were psychologically ready to start a war against Germany that involved large-scale military operations. Esp fear of retaliation (e.g. bombing of cities), with the lessons learned from the Spanish Civil War, was probably a major factor. Also remember that WW1 was only 20 years before. I don’t think FR was ready to go through another slugfest, as they envisioned what another war would mean. The mobile Blitzkrieg type of campaign was somewhat unexpected in Spring 1940, and neither FR nor the UK were prepared for that, let alone do it themselves on the offensive.

As for the political situation: Poland was probably not worth it at the time to start a war over. Harsh, but probably true.

[Phil Dutré]

I have a book about famous raids in WW2 (on both sides). And although these were usually somewhat bigger than platoon-sized, they can serve as an excellent inspiration for wargame scenarios. You can also find a lot of info on ww2 commando-raids online.

[Phil Dutré]

Most of the photographs in magazines are convention games (in the European sense). These games have a lot of eye candy precisely because eye candy is the primary purpose of these games; the actual game is of secondary importance.

But for home games, the visuals are also very important for me. If not for the visuals, why bother with miniature wargaming in the fist place? But you have to distinguish between two things: density and quality. Density should be such that there is still enough to play the game (and it depends on the game, e.g. skirmish vs big battle). Quality should be as good as you want it to be and/or can afford it.

But there are of course a few tricks that can help:

• Many smaller vignettes can be moved around during play, even trees and/or smaller buildings, to make place for units. Make a distinction between the terrain area for rules purposes and the terrain item for visual purposes. Grid-based rules are a big help here.
• Small items such as animals, tree stumps, etc can be used as all sorts of markers (hidden units, unit status, …).Double whammy.
• Movement trays for entire units are a big no-no. At most bases that hold 3×2 figures.
• A good terrain cloth can do wonders for visual appeal. If you have a plain green cloth, sprinkle it with lichen, little rocks etc. When done, fold or roll it up with all the ‘debris’ still inside. Occasionally vacuum it and refresh 😉

[Phil Dutré]

Deleted User wrote:

I agree with Ruarigh. Very jealous. Do you have each interior set up on the side or put them together as needed?

I put them together as needed, but the interiors are very simple. Just some floorplans, add some furniture and done.

I was also inspired by this blog, The Kingdom of Wittenberg, which does it much more elaborate in an 18th century imaginations setting: http://tidders-kingdomofwittenberg.blogspot.com/

There are many more similar examples of wargamers trying to fuse storytelling with wargaming and miniature photography and actual games. But it’s about finding the right balance that makes it interesting for each of us. Personally, I am mostly interested in the event generation and how it can create a developing fantasy setting, while also producing some skirmish games. I think such an approach is more fun (and feasible) compared to trying to define your setting completely before you start. I therefore try to find a good balance between having open random events that still leave room for improvisation when the event is rolled; and having a fair number of events that lead to conflict and therefore will directly or indirectly lead to a game. Also, since I play this solo do far, I’m not worried at all about “fair” games. I see games more as supporting the story rather than the other way around.

So far, I haven’t painted figures specifically for this project (I’m simply using what I have available and I know my painting limitations both in quality and quantity :-)), but that might still happen in the future.

[Phil Dutré]

Excellent work!

[Phil Dutré]

Take a look at how I’m currently running a solo fantasy city campaign:

• define 10 possile events for each “game week”
• roll a random event, develop the storyline for that event
• If the event triggers a skirmish game, play it out.

See http://snv-ttm.blogspot.com/p/chronicles-of-lowenheim.html

[Phil Dutré]

Mike wrote:

Is that the original Mighty Fortress?

Yes it is. I bought it 6 years ago at a con, still in the original box and unpainted. 100 euro. Best buy I made at that con. 😉

https://snv-ttm.blogspot.com/2014/11/look-what-i-got-this-weekend.html

[Phil Dutré]

Not really, but I have thought about it, running a sort of narrative campaign.

I have the “Arabian Nights” rulebook from Two Hour Wargames (but it’s old), and I always wanted to use that.

But there’s also the game 7th Voyage from Crooked Games – a bit more modern – that might fit the bill

[Phil Dutré]

Welcome to the pre-single-market world 😉

I’m old enough to remember I had to go to a customs office (I live in Belgium) to collect my packages that came from abroad and pay import taxes. And yes, sometimes something came through undetected, but usually not from companies. Every package normally needs a label declaring its value etc.

I’m not completely familiar with all new rules when ordering something from the UK now, but I have decided not to order anything from the UK for the coming months and wait it out till the dust settles. And yes, that also means I will probably start looking for alternatives and wargaming manufacturers this side of the channel.

As has been said numerous times, big multinational companies can handle these sort of changes. Small companies will pay the price.

[Phil Dutré]

Nope, don’t know any.

But the true spirit is to make them yourself.

E.g. here’s some skaven cavalry I converted some time ago: http://snv-ttm.blogspot.com/2019/10/skaven-cavalry.html

Plastic wolves, goblin riders, goblin heads removed, skaven heads put in place. All plastics are old Citadel or Battlemasters. You could do the same for halflings. After all, goblins and halflings are the same size 😉 And there’s no shortage in goblin wolfriders.

 

 

[Phil Dutré]

Looking forward to the articles on armies in Beleriand!

[Author]

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