The Road Ahead, Random Musings

Medieval

I'm continuing to work on the Burgundians & Low Countries figures for now. I've got some more archers just about done. At some point I'm going to work out some way of arranging a gallery o images.


Ancient

I still intend to do an ancient army again (I sold off all my ancients during my time away from the hobby.) It's just up in the air a bit. Right now it all depends on whether Wargames Factory's figures come in before the holidays and whether or not they are any good. Otherwise, I think I may have to take advantage of Foundry's holiday deal on Ancient Germans. But that creates a deadline for me that I'll need to decide upon very soon.

In order to fund my ancient army by year's end without dipping into holiday gift money ("Sorry Mom, I wanted to get you something nice, but Foundry had this great deal on Germans...") I'm trying to sell off a few things to cover at least part of the expense. If you're feeling charitable, you can check out one of my ads at Bartertown: http://www.bartertown.com/trading/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=74461


Miniature Wargaming as a Hobby

This may get to be a bit of a rambling babble...

I've recently come back to the hobby after a bit of time away. Previously I ran events at stores and conventions, was a fairly active part of a local game club, did some playtesting for a couple of developers/manufacturers, and seemed to have a bit more involvement in the hobby. Lately I've been going to a local store for WFB games and some WFB tournaments in the region, plus a return to Historicon. It all seems a bit different.

For one thing, I feel like I'm not as much an active part of the hobby. I'm not running any games, no demos, no playtesting, no leagues, nothing. I just show up, play some games, chat a bit, and that's it. Except maybe for some online stuff like this blog.

On the other hand, the hobby itself has changed. It has become a more "competative" atmosphere, in my opionion. More people are interested in tournaments than in participation games or demo games. A lot of the big conventions I used to go to are gone, replaced by game-specific tournaments (mainly WFB & 40k.)

So I've been thinking about what I can do to contribute somehow. Everything that I've considered has been tainted with my own selfish desire to get more opponents. What my wandering mind has been considering...

• Participation/Demo Games. I've been thinking about trying to put together a WAB medieval demo game to run both at the big HMGS-E conventions, and possibly at some more local events/stores. Honestly I enjoy WAB and I'm especially a fan of medievals, so this would be a good chance for me to try to promote something I'm genuinely interested in. (And maybe convert some new opponents.) I'd like to do it right, however, with huge armies and beautiful scenery. So I've got some work ahead of me, but a decent start.
• Local Gaming Group. I'm on the east side of Cleveland. I know one other miniatures gamer on this side of town. (WFB player.) If I drive 30-45 minutes south or west, I can find more players. There's a similar situation with game stores. If you plot my location on a map of Cleveland, there's a bubble of no-game-stores within a 30-45 minute drive. They're mainly on the west side & Akron. I know there's got to be some east side players. So maybe I should see what I can do to locate & contact people. I've got one table here at home. It would be even better to have a store around here.
• Convert the Nonbelievers! This one is a little more tricksy. Most of my non-gaming friends don't seem the type to be in any way interested. The few that might be interested, I fear would be put off by spending the money to buy a bunch of little toy soldiers, paints, etc. I have no problems providing everything, but it would be good to have some other people who are completely into the whole thing on their own. Not just in terms of materials, but learning the rules & providing some challenging games.
• Non-Competative WFB Games. My introduction to the game was a huge multi-player battle. In the far recesses of my memory, this is still one of the Best Games Ever. There were objectives, tons of figures, and it wa a lot of fun with little competative pressure. The entire focus of WFB seems to be on competition lately. No veering from "official" armies, strict counting of VPs, etc. even in non-tournament settings. Don't know where I'm going with this. Just that something needs to save my interest in the game. I was originally looking forward to painting up & playing a WE army. Now I've trying to sell it and have little interest in WFB at the moment.
  

So that's my bit of "blog confessional" regarding a scattered thought on the hobby. A lot of it's things that pass through my mind while I'm painting.

Maybe it's the weather...