Reply To: Inaccessibility of Historical Wargaming

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@mecha82 well that’s your viewpoint, and you are entitled to it. I cant argue with your perception of it.

I personally wouldn’t read all that into one person not wanting to play a game if the opponent has the wrong stuff. But once more it again sides with one viewpoint over another depending on your personal stance. I see both viewpoints as being equally fine. I may not agree with them, but its their hobby… No one has to play if they don’t want too. If someone gets offended by that behaviour… well it is only toy soldiers.

I will happily play my mates US Airborne army in our Normandy games despite it being painted up for Market-Garden. We all have limits to our enforced rivet counting.

However I wont field anything not suitable for Normandy Germans in my own force in such a game. Im more in the realms of self inflicting pain that doing it to others!

Would I want to play a game of Japanese versus Finns? No I wouldn’t and that’s the way I roll… But then I don’t end up in the situations where playing such a game is an option.

Its also how you handle the situation, which again devolves to the personalities involved. If someone didn’t have the right stuff for one of our games… We would just supply it. When I run games, I try and supply everything so people can just turn up and play. Perhaps its different in clubs or shops where you are ‘cold’ playing against people you may not know. A very different environment from that where my group plays which is in members homes. This by definition means we have a closer knit group.

But it still comes down to the fact that no one way is the ‘correct’ way to hobby. Making generalisations of all the people in a genre of a hobby does nothing except drive stereotypes further. Historical gamers do it all the time in terms of Fantasy/Sci-Fi stereotypes.

Im both. I started the hobby in 1984 playing Warhammer Fantasy Battle… and I still have my armies. I still play it too whenever I get the chance. I also still play Rogue Trader too… My Void Pirates might get a new lease of life with Kill Team coming out! But I also play historical games…

Its not about the genres themselves, though I agree that the lack of easy access starting sets (or selling tools for companies depending how you look at it) is a key missing driver for new players. Its something I have wanted to offer for a long time with our Battlegroup game and hopefully will be available when Northag is released next year – an entire ‘historical’ wargame starter set in a box. But to me its more the fact that some people are just more @rseholes than others… regardless of what they play!

I’ve met gamers from both genres that are wonderful ambassadors of the hobby, and I’ve met ones from both sides that are not…