I am only interested in historical wargaming. Does such a wargamer exist?
Yup, I discovered the other day when discussion turned to Warhammer 40k I zoned out completely. I'm not a wargamer, I am a historical wargamer. I really have no interest in sci-fi or fantasy wargaming. This is because my main interest is history. I love learning about history. I have no problem popping into any historical game even though I may know very little about the period.
78th Highlanders based out of Halifax, Canada in Estes Park, Colorado, USA (2004)
Within the historical wargaming hobby I find myself focused on actual historical battles rather than just a hypothetical battle. I'm sure lots of gamers have no problems having a DBA game between Ancient Chinese and Romans, but I find it a little off. Also, I like to try and paint my miniatures the most accurate as possible based on the resources I have access to. Other gamers, for example, have no problem painting a pre-dreadnought either the black and tan or white, where I have painted them grey. Sure the black and tan or white looks cooler, but grey in the battles was historic. I guess that makes me a hardcore historical wargamer. We all approach the hobby differently, which is okay.
I am not a fan of mixed wargaming content, like in a magazine. Some magazines for example have become dominated by non-historic articles. The mixed content is also prevalent in Podcasts. Am I going to listen through a one hour Podcast for a 10 minute discussion on a new historic ruleset with the rest being non-historic? Nope, no thanks.
I have no problems with sci-fi/fantasy gaming, I just don't have the time or brain power to filter through it to get to good historic wargaming material. 40k painters are great painters, better than I am, but I don't need to read/spend money on how to paint a Grey Knights army.
Maybe someday I'll get into Star Wars or Battletech gaming, but for now I continue to charge ahead with all sorts of historical wargaming projects.
Hi Eric
ReplyDeleteJust remember your just playing with toy soldiers and enjoy whatever is on the table.
Bill Daniel
So much fun on the table. Miss seeing all those games.
DeleteAgree with you sir.
ReplyDeleteI'm certainly not a 40k fan - I think it's crass, childish, and quite where the concept of 'there is only war' comes from, I find offensive in terms of an understanding of what humanity has been through, and an appreciation of military history, at more than schoolboy level ...to an extent ;)
Having said that, I'm a fan of fantasy/sword & sorcery novels and have a penchant for sci-fi where it echoes reality, so a game involving advanced 'modern' tech with a 'free Mars' faction or similar certainly interests me, as Star Wars appeals to my fanboy mind ...but even Star Wars, was streets ahead of that 40k mess.