Reply To: Reign of the Neckbeards (or why do historical re-fights).

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@angelicdespot feel free to jump in if you make it over here I have no problem in running it. I know it was mentioned on the weekender when I was off enjoying myself and they couldn’t work out whether it was a refight or inspired by the film and in this case it’s both. If I removed the cheesy film quotes and photos from the cards what you are left with is a fairly accurate refight of the engagement at Rorke’s Drift, down to when and where the attacks came from. That was a labour of love for me because I enjoy the research and then the technical difficulties of working out how to accurately portray it on the tabletop.

For other actions it would not be as difficult as many are straight forward fights and off the shelf rules would do the job for you at that stage it is really just the research for the particular engagement you want to replay.

As to why? Well I think @piers summed it up, it’s still a fun game, you may as well ask why do people play games with equal point values, isn’t it always dull? The answer to that is no, but it comes down to the game you’re playing and the people you are playing with and how you use the available forces. Likewise in a historical refight knowing that you are on the losing side from the start the questions become how do I win? In some cases you may know mistakes that were made by your historical counterpart, and if so can you now win, or will your opponent be ready.

A final thing to think about is scale, with the shift in the industry towards 28mm and either smaller scale games or collections is this the reason you don’t see as many people even considering straight refights. The only reason Rorke’s is in 28mm is because I knew I wanted the spectacle for a convention game and it could be played at something approaching 1:1 but I do plan on playing Isandlwana and it will certainly be no larger than 10mm and maybe even 6mm.

Fascinating thread regardless, I don’t think refights are going away but how people consume the hobby is changing and they may not be as easily spotted. WS&S do a fantastic job every issue in leading people to try historic gaming in a more focused way.

Side note, while the majority of the Historicon attendees were grey haired old buggers like myself, there were plenty of younger players getting involved, I think Joby himself said that this year had seen an increase in the whippersnappers, so never fear they are coming into the hobby still. 🙂