Two new rulesets

So, what does a wargamer do, preparing for the family vacation while the SO is packing the suitcases? Important things, such as making sure we have some shiny new pdf rules with us!

That's why I ordered 2 rulesets: Midgard and Baron's War.

 

Midgard I ordered because I'm always interested in fantasy games, and Baron's War because I have a significant collection of medieval knights dating back to my Warhammer days more than 30 years ago.

I'm not sure whether we will actually play these rules, but stealing good ideas from rulesets and use them in one;s own houserules is a long-standing tradition in miniature wargaming! 

 

I've been to ... Stockholm

During the Easter holidays, Ann and I visited Stockholm. Yes, I know this is almost 2 months ago, but never late then never to publish some images that might be of interest to wargamers.

We visited a lot or art and history locations, and one of the stops was the Army Museum. As could be expected, a lot of focus on Swedish military history. Too much to show it all in photographs, but here are a few fun highlights.

 

A diorama of miniature soldiers showing formations from the Pike & Shot period.

A close-up of that same diorama.

A life-size display of Swedish cavalry charging during the Great Northern War.

An old Swedish Kriegsspiel: "VinterKrigsspelkarta".

Detail of the same Kriegsspiel.

A German cypher machine - these machines always interest me as a computer scientist.

An Engima machine ... Alan Turing and all that.

 Needless to say, we also visited the Vasa museum. I was very much impressed!

TSA Bring&Buy

About two weeks ago (October 15), Tin Soldiers Antwerp organized a 2nd hand event to give wargamers the opportunity to sell their old junk. With the demise of the bigger miniature wargaming cons in Belgium, this type of smallish gaming events is a nice alternative to meet up with old friends and to buy some stuff.

So, what's the loot? 

There's always room for more medieval types in my collection, so I bought a painted set of 5 mounted knights. Unfortunately, one knight lost his arm and shield during the transport back home, we can quickly repair that.

From another wargamer, I bought this nice pair of carts / baggage wagons. These are always a nice addition to any scenario.

I'm an addict of old wargaming books and booklets (although I do have a rather sizable collection already), and I'm always on the lookout for miniature fantasy figures form the 70s and 80s.

Last but not least, a complete set of Vae Victis, issues 1-60, with all the games still unused inside the magazines.

It was a nice event, and so a lot of wargaming junk got moved around. A good quote I heard on the day: "Wargaming stuff moves around all the time, being passed from wargamer to wargamer, in a continuously repeating cycle. Somewhere in the future, the last wargamer standing will have accumulated all our collective wargaming stuff, as a sort of wargaming black hole. And when that wargamer dies, wargaming ceases to exist as a hobby."

Napoleon Socks

Another souvenir from our Vienna trip.

Every wargamer needs a pair ...

Caernarfon Castle

During the last "clean out" drive of old wargaming junk (how long can you hold on to styrofoam hills or old cardboard houses that haven't been used for years ...?), I also wondered whether I should toss out my paper model of Caernarfon Castle.

I still remember very well when I got this model.  I was 12 years old, and we were on a family holiday in Wales. It was exciting, because this was the very first time I would cross the channel and set foot in Britain. I was also doing a lot of plastic modelkits at the time - mostly Airfix, Revell, Heller, Tamiya, ... I ditched almost all of my models during subsequent moves (those colour schemes that looked exciting as a 12-year old do look a bit garish several years later, and invariably there's a lot of accumulated damage), but this paper model castle always survived the cut.

Enough nostalgia! So yes, let's keep it for at least a few more years! :-)

I have been to Vienna

During Eastern, we spent a few days in Vienna. Always a good opportunity for some military history-related pictures.

The car! (Heeresgeschichte Museum)

Left: me. Right: Napoleon. (Belvédère)

During any campaign, it's always a good idea to keep the troops happy.

The state of my wargaming room

I am lucky to have a dedicated wargaming room to play games in. I also have a garage in which I store my excess stuff and do my painting.

However ...

Back in february we ordered a new garagedoor. Delivery and installment was planned for May. So back in April, I started to clean out the garage and put all my wargaming stuff in my wargaming room.

Current state of affairs in my wargaming room.

Then the news came that due to shortages of steel and other materials, it was postponed to June.

Then it got postponed to September ...

That has left me without any significant space for my wargaming activities. So I'm currently confined to reading, hoping that friends will host a game at their home, or playing Wingspan with the missus.

Age of Sigmar start-up scenery box

One of my teenage nephews took part in a "Warhammer camp" during the Easter break, run by a (for him) local gameshop. Apparently, the camp lasted a few days (no sleeping overs), in which they learned how to assemble figures, paint them, and play games. As part of the event, they all got an Age of Sigmar starter box. 

Although I was a GW fanboy during the 80s and 90s, I for long don't consider myself as part of their target audience anymore, but I do recognize their potential and power for attracting new wargamers. And I do realize the focus teenage boys can have on using the "official" figures and rules. I was there, once. So I am not going to lure my nephew away from Warhammer and bombard him with sermons about why rulesystem X or figure range Y is more superior. I'm letting him and his friends grow into the hobby, at their own pace. The last thing they need is an uncle who tells them what to do or what to enjoy.

Nevertheless, when I saw my family during our Easter family get-together yesterday, I brought a box with "scenery items" for him. I have huge amounts of scenery, so a few items less is not going to make a practical difference. I put together generic scenery items I knew are going to usable in their games.

So, what did I give away?

• a large green scenery mat;
• A couple of Kallistra hills;
  
• a home-made fort, which I called an "Orruk Fort", to give it credibility to those Warhammer youngsters;
• A bunch of river sections, walls, hedges, trees, ... ;
• An "official" GW rules I had still lying around ;-)

 The response was enthusiastic ;-) 

Your old junk is my future junk

When I was visiting JP yesterday, he wanted to get rid of some "old junk".

I'm always eager to pick up old wargaming items from fellow wargamers, although I know very well I just adds to my junk pile, and chances are I will try to unload them on some other innocent wargamer a few years from now.

Over the years, I've become more conscientious about what to keep w.r.t. games, wargaming items, history books, etc. I prune my hoard regularly, getting rid of things I know I will not use again. After all, the memories are often better than the actual game or items ;-). Nevertheless, sometimes the hoard grows again in unwanted directions.

Anyway, this is my free loot:

• 2 old AH games I will probably never play;
• A Zulu supplement for Black Powder (I do not have figures for the Zulu war);
• A ruleset for Arthurian skirmish - hmmm, doubtful;
• 3 Ospreys - Ospreys are always good;
• A Cthulhu book - fun read probably;
• 2 general wargaming books - I love the genre of the 'wargaming book'.
  

What to do with old miniatures?

Listening to a wargaming podcast yesterday, the topic was discussed whether you should sell miniatures of projects that have finished and will probably not used again.

I have been painting miniatures for at least 30 years, but never sold any that I have painted myself. Over the years, I have painted many miniatures for games we used to play quite lot at that point in time, but are now sitting idle in my wargaming room.

A good example are my Full Thrust spaceships. All bought and painted in the 90s, but I think it has been 15 years or so since we have played a FT game. So, what to do with them? Hold on to them for nostalgic reasons, knowing that they'll probably never see a gaming table again? Or passing them on, then regretting it several years later? Or simply consider them as trophies and mementos of gaming days long gone?

My drawer with spaceships. They saw quite frequent space combats, but now have been sitting idle for almost 15 years.

A few more magazines and the wargaming hoard ...

Yesterday I received a few more missing magazines to add to the growing database and my wargaming magazine collection.

 I received them from a wargaming friend, who is handling (part of) a large wargaming collection from a deceased wargaming friend of his, who passed away unexpectedly. Apparantly, the amount of wargaming figures, books, rules he left  ... is rather huge.

It makes you wonder what will happen to your own hoard. It's something I'm not terribly worried about yet (still young and healthy), but still ... Over the past years I've made a habit of trying to get rid of many old books and games of which I'm pretty sure I will never read or play them again. I'm trying to keep my collection within certain bounds - although it is still very large ;-) But I'm not allowing my hoard to expand without limits anymore.

Brexit Woes

So the Brexit has been in full effect for a month now. I don't want to start a discussion about the politics involved here (follow my twitter account :-)), but I can say a thing or two how it will influence my wargaming purchases.

 (Addendum: As I said, I don't want to start a political discussion here. Comments regarding experiences ordering wargaming products from/to the UK are welcome, but other Brexit-related comments - especially if politics-oriented - are not. Such comments will be deleted. And yes, I already deleted a couple ..)

There have been reports in the press about small businesses hit hard, especially when sending orders across the channel. VAT should (or should not?) be added, custom duties are in order, carriers charge more because of extra paperwork. This creates confusion with the customer. After all, nobody likes to pay an additional sum that comes as a surprise, or that you weren't aware of before.

I am old enough to remember what it was like to buy wargaming items from the UK before the single market. During the early 90s, I made regular trips to London to go shopping (often combined with some other visits). Many products (I was heavily into Games Workshop and into roleplaying at the time) simply weren't available here in Belgium. Mail order was something that was not always easy in the pre-internet days. I still remember going to the local post office, and transfer money using postal money orders in the hope that the full amount would be transferred to the seller some days (more often weeks) later. Ordering from the UK was considered carefully, often trying to group several orders with friends.

Since the single market, but also thanks to the internet, that all changed. Ordering from abroad (or in my case for wargaming, the UK), was made very easy. But it has been made a bit more difficult now.

So, what's the effect on my personal shopping habits?

Since long, I have ordered many books through Amazon UK. An update was probably long due, but I switched to Amazon DE and NL. Now, in practice, this might not make much of a difference, since Amazon's processes were probably already optimized, but for me as a customer, it's a psychological shift.

For wargaming, I tended to order quite regularly from smaller UK companies. But I have put all my UK orders on hold for the time being, and I am going to wait till the dust has settled before ordering again. I have enough wargaming stuff lying around to keep myself busy, so that's not the problem. But I will also take a more active look towards manufacturers and companies this side of the channel, and that might be business lost to the UK wargaming companies permanently. Sure, one customer might mot make a difference, but if more people act like me, it might become a problem.

I might even consider postponing all my purchases till CRISIS 2021 (if it will happen). With the cancellation of CRISIS 2020, CRISIS 2021 might even become a huge shopping spree. Not only for me, but for many wargamers this side of the channel. We'll see. Hopefully, all the wargaming companies present during past years will still make the trip to Antwerp. Brexit has all sorts of weird and unforeseen consequences after all ...

Soulless plastic

I have ranted about plastic modelkits vs toy soldiers before.

The latest issue of Miniature Wargames, came with a free sprue of a mounted knight, for the game Conquest - The Last Argument of Kings (never heard of this game before, but I also think I'm not the target audience anymore :-)) The figures of this game are also much larger as what we would expect even from "heroic 28mm" (which really is 32mm?). The figures looks closer to 42mm, although I didn't make a formal measurement. But you can probably find the relevant information online.

The sprue didn't look very inviting. Sprues these days are very obviously "computer generated", a result of some optimization algorithm to lay out all 3D components. To me, it simply looks like a piece of soulless plastic. How can a good toy soldier ever come out of this?

Yesterday - after working in the garden - I suddenly felt the urge to put this thing together. So I set myself to it, and 15 minutes later (take or give a few minutes), the knight was assembled.

Now, I admire the design of such a figure. The level of detail and complexity is something that was unachievable when I starter miniature wargaming in the 80s. And if you paint it up, it would probably look fantastic.

 

But to me, it has no character. No matter how detailed, it feels like a modelkit, not a toy soldier. It's still soulless plastic to me.

Managing the collection

In the latest issue of Miniature Wargames (448, already added to the index), there's a column by Tom Holden about wargamers not only being gamers and painters, but also hoarders.

I guess this is familiar to most longtime wargamers. We have a tendency of buying stuff, storing stuff, hoarding stuff ... without ever using most of it. I recently saw a remark by someone on a discussion forum "If wargamers would only buy what they would actually use and play with, the wargaming industry would be in deep trouble."

But anyway, this hobby of ours indeed has a tendency of growing out of control at regular intervals. I guess every individual wargamer need to find the right balance.

Personally, I have culled my collection at regular intervals, often triggered by a house move. Since 2008, we live in our current house, and I am lucky to have my own wargaming room. But, I try to keep the room nice and clean, without collecting junk in there. After all, the gaming room serves as a gaming room, not as a storage space, and having a nice room helps in making gaming enjoyable.

I also have my "work space" in the garage, where I do my painting, and where I keep my "junk". In that space, things grow out of control now and then, so I regularly try to toss out or sell things I longer need: boardgames, materials for modeling projects I will never finish, etc. It really helps to prioritize, and to be realistic about things. E.g.:

• Games? Is there any chance I will still play the game in the next 10 years or so? If the asnwer is no, I bring it to the local gaming shop.
• Books? Is there any chance I will read the book ever again? If no, I bring it to the local charity shop, or put in the local "book exchange closet" (boekenruilkastje in Dutch, don't know how to translate it, but it's a box where people can leave old books for free and take some other ones for free left there by other people).
• Miniatures? If the miniatures are unpainted, I don;t have a hard time getting rid of them. Exceptions are vintage fantasy miniatures - I'm a sucker for those!

I'm still not ready to make really rational choices based on life expectancy though. I'm 53 now. Suppose I live for another 25 years - that's 25*52 = 1300 weeks. If we would play a game per week, that means 1300 games. Perhaps that's a bit optimistic, so what about a game a month? That's 300 games. What figures and rules do I need for those 300 games ... ? Nah, we're not ready for that sort of analysis yet!

Game schedule 2020

Those of you who know us personally, and those of you who frequent this blog know that the frequency of our games has dropped to levels somewhere between 'once in a blue moon' and 'geological time frame'. For various reasons, both Phil and myself have, conventions aside, not hosted a game in almost two years now. This is obviously not a good thing. For nostalgia's sake, here's a photo of a game setup on my table:

Let's attempt to rectify this a bit. This post is me putting up a list of games I plan to organise at my place this year. Hopefully, by listing these games here, they might actually really happen :) . So, without further ado, here's the list.

Very probable

These games are very probably going to happen, simply because they use bits of my figure collections that are already complete and need no extra work:

• Another Great Northern War game
• 'All along the watchtower' -- the third game in the Grassus Gambit series. Game 1 was published way back in Miniature Wargames with Battlegames 374, game two was played many moons ago but not reported (except for the picture up top). This is Ancients, using my Celt and Roman collections.
• Another Ancients game using my Post Roman (Arthurian) British and Saxon collection

Less probable, but still will happen

• The battle of Linz Uhrfart in 1809, between Württemberg troops (French ally, part of the Confederacy of the Rhine) and Austrian troops, in the long tail behind the French army about to fight Aspern-Essling.

This is in the 'slightly less probable' category because I'm currently replacing my Victrix French plastics with German troops - actual Württemberg troops and (so far) two battalions of Rheinbund - one of Saxon-Coburg-Saalfeld-Gotha troops (probably including some ancestors of our king) and the other Würzburg. I know that the Würzburg battalions actually fought in Spain, but I'm calling wargamer's license on this, because they were the only ones in stock with Dave Thomas at Warcon 2020 I could build a complete battalion with. So there.

Less probable

• A game with my nascent collection of Thirty Year's war figures (currently tallied at all of 2 pike and 2 shot units), using Pikeman's Lament
• If my dwarves get to a playable level (currently tallied at one unit of crossbowmen and one of artillery), and Phil or JP (who has a wonderful Orc army) are willing to schlep along an opposing force, there will be a Dragon Rampant game with them.

These are obviously the least probable, as the big majority of figures for them still needs to be painted.

So, let's get back together a year from now and see how many of these games were actually played :)

Wargaming plans for 2020

2019 wasn't much of a wargaming year. In my logbook of wargames played in my wargaming room, I recorded zero (yes, you read that right) games played during 2019. Going through the blog archive for 2019, we also didn't play a wargame at Bart's wargaming room. It seems both our wargaming mojo's have reached nadir. As usual, we can blame personal and professional circumstances, but still ... a sad state of affairs.

That doesn't mean I was void of any form of gaming.  I played a number of boardgames (16 games logged on boardgamegeek), and I got my wargaming fix at Crisis and Warcon.

So, what do we plan to do for 2020? First of all, we need to play more games. Since we can't hit rock-bottom any further, this should be easy to achieve.

What else? I would like to run some games using my Imaginations in 42mm toy soldiers, perhaps at a convention. Warcon is only a few weeks away, so maybe we could use that opportunity for a first playtest.

I'm not going to project anything else ... it's a bit too embarrassing given 2019's record ... ;-)

There's a time to say goodbye ...

I've been (war)gaming for over 30 years. That means I have bought a lot of games, books, ... over the years.

Yesterday I went to the local gaming store to put a number of games up for sale. They have a system in which you put your games for sale on a shelf, and if they get sold, you get store credit. The store takes care of the logistics. Much easier than trying to find buyers online or hauling your stuff to a con to sell it there. Of course, the trick is to set the right price. I usually put a low price on items because it's more important for me to get rid of them rather than to fetch a "market-conform" price - whatever that means. So far, all of my stuff I've brought to the store has been sold.

In my early years I was an avid buyer of roleplaying materials. The local store-owner once called me a "very good customer". But in 1998 I moved continents, and I sold of a huge part of my gaming collection. That's when I mentally made the decision not being a collector of everything, but rather be more selective in the games I keep.

During 19998-2001 I lived in the US, and this was the start of the "German board games" craze. So I acquired a lot of those. I also bought a lot of old boardgame titles (mostly Avalon Hill) through eBay, which was also in its infancy at the time. But when I moved back to Europe, I again sold a large part of my collection. Nothing makes you clean up your junk more heavily than moving continents ...

At regular intervals since then I have sanitized the gaming closet. I still have a lot of stuff, but I don't keep everything. Some things I keep because they have emotional value, e.g. the Starfall game my late father brought from a business trip when I was a teenager - being a space addict it was the perfect present at the time. Other things I keep because of good gaming memories, e.g. the entire The Enemy Within campaign I ran during the early nineties. Other are true collectibles, such as my original copies of Little Wars and Floor Games. And of course I still have a large amount of toy soldiers.

Some games I have kept because they symbolize (for me) a golden age of gaming. One of these in my Avalon Hill copy of Diplomacy. Back in the late 80s and early 90s, when I still had a lot of time as a Ph.D. student, I loved this game, and so did many in my gaming group. At one point I even set up a large 30+ player game, based on a variant I found on the proto-internet. But at one point we realized that Diplomacy as a game showed it age, and did not fit our views on gaming anymore. The built-in assumptions of treachery and back-stabbing, no matter how fun, was not for everyone's tastes. And we simply didn't have the time anymore. The last game I played was 20 years ago. I played Russia and lost badly. I remember that much.

Nevertheless, I always kept my copy of the game, in the hope one day we would play it again. But yesterday it struck me. We will not play this game again, ever. Not this year, not in 10 years, not when we're retired. It's only taking up space, and after all, it's simply a box including a map, a rulebook and plastic(!) playing pieces. If I want to have a nostalgic look at it, I'll surf to Boardgamegeek.

So I was ready to part with my physical copy of Diplomacy. Along with some other more recent games, I handed them over to the friendly storekeeper. "How much you want for this one?" "10 euro" "Ok!". I'm pretty sure the next time I visit the store, the game will be gone. Perhaps sold to an Avalon Hill collector. Perhaps to a youngster who has 10 euro to spend and wants to try something new. Perhaps it will end up in someone's trash bin. All fine by me.

Keep the memories, not the games!

How do people keep up?

One of the recurring questions on many wargaming forums is whether there is too much on offer these days. Too much rules, too many figures, too many of everything? Invariably, people then refer to the golden age (the "golden age" is always personal to the individual, of course), in which everything was much simpler, we only had two different figure manufacturers, we had to carve our own dice from a piece of wood, and the only rules available fitted on the back of a postcard.

That last nostalgic sentiment is pure nonsense, of course. I think the wargaming community is blessed to have such a rich offering of different figure ranges, rulesets, etc. available these days. What does happen though is that trends come and go, and what was once seen as mainstream wargaming (e.g. big battalions on a large table using Grant rules), might no longer be a dominant mode. Often this is what long-time wargamers lament. The preferences of their youth - the personal golden age - have somehow been superceded by another style of play.

Nevertheless, it seems we have become part of a maelstrom that is constantly gaining speed. When I take a look at the announcements of new products in the wargaming magazines, it seems rulesets are already out of fashion again before they had a chance to solidify. New ranges and rules are hailed as "the next big thing", but are already forgotten 6 months later when there's another "next big thing". I wonder where the wargamers are who do have the time and energy to follow up on all these new products? Or is it because as a 52-year old I am no longer part the target audience?

The latter may be part of the answer. When I was much younger, I was involved quite heavily in roleplaying games. I bought many different systems, many different source books, ... all with the plan of starting up grandiose campaigns. Of course many of these plans never materialized - although many of the books were read for inspiration, but never used for actual games. I guess the same is true for wargaming these days. I cannot imagine people actually play all these different releases, although wargamers might read them and look in them for inspiration.

I do of course realize this is partly - if not mostly - all driven by commercial factors. If you want to sell lots of rules in a limited niche market, you either need to relaunch that set of rules in newer editions, or feed the beast by publishing supplements. And the same goes for figures. I understand that dynamic, but it makes me feel "wanting to catch up" sometimes.

Just to give one example (but I could give more ...): I bought the Frostgrave basic rulebook when it was first published (2016). Since then, there have been a number of supplements, even some spin-off games. That's all good, and the system looks interesting, but I still have to play my first Frostgrave game. This is of course completely my own fault. My gaming frequency has decreased over the years, due to professional activities (which only have increased), and personal life (which goes in up and downs :-)). So perhaps I should simply play more. But even then, it seems one does not have the time to really "get into" a system such that it becomes second nature. Judging by the number of products that are being released, fed by the cycle of forums, blogs and podcasts, the thoughtful wargamer ever seems to be in a mode of trying to catch up ...

One of the more curious trends I have seen is the search for more obscure and weird settings and periods. One that I noticed recently is "Wild West Exodus", that I have seen through various advertisements in the magazines. At first I thought it was a new Wild West game with a twist, but every new advert makes it look weirder and weirder ... It looks like a convoluted invented world without much coherency (I have no opinion about the rules, which might be good or bad, since I didn't read them). Who buys this stuff? Apparantly some people must do so, otherwise the product wouldn't exist ... But again, I'm probably not part of the target audience (anymore) :-)

One of the "solutions" I was contemplating is restricting myself to fewer wargaming interests. Play only a few chosen periods, stick to proven (self-written) rulesets, and only scout the market when you really, really, really, need something new. The maelstrom of the market will not slow down, but at least my wargaming mind will find some more rest. Perhaps, one day :-)

There ain't but one true scale

Co-author (well, main author these days) Phil was interviewed by Henry Hyde for his Battlechat series the other day, and the byline at the top of this page here was mentioned -- There ain't but one true scale.

The idea behind the byline is of course that, for me, there is only 'one true scale' for gaming, and that is 28mm. Except for planes, where it is 1:144. Oh, and WWII, where it is 20mm. Or 6mm. Bah - whatever :).

The very concept of there only being 'one true scale' to game in is of course ridiculous. Any scale of miniatures you have an enjoyable game with is the correct and one true scale, and there's nothing more to it than that.

That said, I came up with the byline because for my hobby, 28mm is the sweet spot. One of my main interests in this hobby is the visual aspect of it, and more particularly the (more or less) nicely painted toy soldiers we use.

In very broad terms, the things that attract people to miniature wargaming are in the name itself: miniatures, war (or rather, the history thereof) and gaming. Of those three, the 'miniatures' part is the main attraction for me -- I'd be playing historical board wargames otherwise. Painting miniatures (and terrain) is an essential part of the hobby for me. And I find that for the sort of painting I do, 28mm is the best. Hence the 'one true scale' bit.

As to the actual phrasing of the byline -- 'There ain't but one ...' -- that's a blatant rip off of a wonderful sketch by Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, which forms a perfect (and topical these days in Belgium) note to end this post on:

Lazy Sunday Morning

A lazy Sunday morning ...