Mid-week Boredom inspired rant

Warning what follows is a rant and ramble from a board nightshift worker, do not say I have not warned you.

So this weekend see’s Blog-Con and I am very excited and nervous about it, will it be all I hope it will be? Will anyone show up? Will I be able to come out of my shell and socialise?

These are all questions that will resolve themselves over the weekend I am sure the answers will be positive ones. But thinking about this and turning 40 has me thinking about the rest of my life, I have 20-30 years till retirement and can’t see myself in a Warehouse till then. I like to think I have a successful career but if I am honest I am just treading water I made Supervisor about 10 years ago and here I still am and with no prospect of going further at my current company. I like to say that I do not care, that my work gives me the money to do what I want in life but I am bored and it’s even worse on nights I find myself wishing the days away till the weekend and the weeks away till my holidays. Now why am I going on about this on a hobby blog well I would love to be able to create a job career in the hobby but do not see any way to do so, I dream of opening a LGS and selling pre-painted figures alongside the usual figures, rules and sundries. But I know Crewe cannot support a LGS as I have seen 3 come and go (well they were model shops but if anything model shops have a bigger appeal) I can’t see me moving anywhere else as we have a nice house and our daughter is still local plus all my family are only up the road.

This got me thinking about Hobby Stores, I am following the great blog by Peter Brown about his career in the hobby and have joked with him that I should stop reading as he has the work life I would kill for but I know of very few long lasting wargames hobby stores, I see wargames figures in model shops but usually that is because one member of staff is a gamer and has lobbied the owner. I may just not travel enough but in this era of internet shopping is there any room left for the LGS? I worked as a GW manager for a year and my store was all about gaming and fun, I set out a challenge to the locals that anyone could bring in their WFB army and take on my Dwarf army any time and when Warmaster came out I even put up a prize for the first to beat my empire army. I deep down know that if we could do this with our historical based games SAGA, M&T, Black Powder etc and attract just a few of the GW gamers a living could be made because as much as GW has its diehard fan boys there are those that would see the lower cost of historical gaming as a big pull.

But I do not see that as possible by a one man show, I think for us to grab the gamers from GW and introduce them to the historical side (I should point out I am not being down on GW I just feel that many gamer come in to our hobby with GW and pass through and out of the hobby without seeing that there is another side to the wargames hobby namely the historical games), I think it would take a wargames cooperative. Let me explain my idea, say Fred opens a store he is supported but the figure companies in that they supply him with stock (minimal levels) that he effectively only pays for when it sells, each time he sells a product at the RRP he would pay the wholesale price back to the company. Now I can see that not many companies could have this sort of stock just sitting on selves so I guess that is where this idea would fall down, but if a cooperative could be created between all the wargames companies then Fred would have time and money to invest in the eye candy of his store he would create great gaming tables and display cabinets of great looking figures, effectively Fred would act as the store from for all the companies in the cooperative. I sort of see that this is happening over at warlord games and I love the fact that they are buying up stalled micro companies and making the figures available to a wider market and in some case’s expanding the ranges, also the guys down at the Gripping Beast have done something similar. I see the way forward for our hobby is one of cooperation and not competition.

Dam how did a rant about my lack of career turn into a discussion on the way forward for our hobby. I guess it would be because I see them as linked for me, I think I will only be passionate about my job if it were one that furthered of aided my/our hobby. I would love to go into Schools and show the young minds what our hobby can offer above and beyond the actual game. Or as I said above run a LGS that spread the word that you can wargame and not sell a kidney.

Anyway for now I will keep my head down and take my monthly wage, I still feel my role may become redundant soon here but I will wait and see. Enough rambling from me I guess I can save it all for the weekend.

As the record said Blog-Con be there or be square.

 

Peace James

Blog-Con T minus 28 days

So 28 days from today I have two huge events in my life, first is the first (of many I hope) Blog-Con. The second is my 40th Birthday. I did not plan for both of these to be on the same weekend but now they are I am very happy.
I feel that Blog-Con and BfC have for me been a completing of a circle, I have often writen about my early hobby life and said before what a huge part of my life Wargames has been (for anyone who missed the posts a quick summery..
                                             

Met my wife in a wargames club,

                                  

wargames turned my Dad into my best friend too,

 I worked in the wargames industry (GW Manager) and I continue to fund my hobby by commission painting). Why do I feel I have circled back well pull up a chair and I will tell you. I grew up on a Service Camp (RAF Akrotiri) and while the place was all a young lad could want the people (service families) change all the time I arrived in 1980 and quickly made some great friends, in those days I was playing war.

 But within 3 years my friends Dads were posted away and this pattern I could see was going to continue, my answer was not to make good friends, don't get me wrong I made friends but I always knew they would leave. My one constant once I started wagaming was the club in total I was at the club for 8 years and while the face's would change the club feel remained, in fact we had several gamers who reappeared on second tours. I loved my weekly club nights and holidays would be filled with all day games or busy painting sessions at home.

 

 As with us all life gets in the way of hobby you get a job, marry have kids (which can be fun) [I look half asleep at Melissa's graduation because I went straight from work and managed to not fall asleep in the warm hall while speeches were done in Welsh and English.]

 

but always in the back ground was my wargames. I am now fully reinvested in the wargames world (my body has put an end to any silly sports I would think of playing (even if my mind still thinks I could play a mean game of rugby)).

 

 But I still have this habit of keeping friends at arms length, that was till last winter and Curts Winter Painting challenge. This made me interact more with the bloggers I already followed and let me meet many more. You all know the results, Blog-Con, Bloggers for Charity, and the Community Currency are all ideas that have been fed by you guys.

 

 I really feel that I am back in a great wargames club, and just like the club of my youth the face's will change. Bloggers will step away for a break or a rest. Some bloggers find little time to get a game or live in wargames isolation, you prolific gamer/bloggers may not understand what these guys get from reading you batreps and drooling over you battle pictures, but I understand. In our Bloggers club we have all you could possibly need we have guys with in depth knowledge of most eras we have world class display painters we have world class gamers and world class army painters. I am not daft enough to think we will all get on all the time but the joy of the blogosphere is you choose who and how you interact, but I again plea to you all to take the time to comment on posts or even just G+1 the post I know what a boost it is to a blogger when he loads up his dashboard and sees a new comment, it is not going too far to say you can change some ones day. We all live hard lives in only  this year I know of bloggers who have lost jobs and suffered illness but I get a little smile when I see a new post or comment form one of my Blog mates who may have been off the scene for awhile.
So for me Blog-Con is like my old weekly club night when I may not have known who would be their each week but I knew that whoever was would be looking for the same thing I was, a great game and some good crack. If you are on G+ why not come along and join the Bloggers Wargames Group it is just another tool for us to interact with each other and share ideas, you will find while it is not a forum you can get some quicker reaction to comments.
So In conclusion if you are still with me thank you for staying through another of my monologue's but please take away the message of my post, the Internet means that as a wargamer you need never be alone, while you may not be able to table top wargame over the Internet (yet) you can make some great friends who share your hobby passion what ever period it may be.

 

Peace James

Wargames, Why do I do it?

So I guess this is another reflective post from me, looking back through my blog it seems that you either get a, this is what I have painted post or an I’m sharing my soul post. Maybe it has something to do with being a nightshift supervisor where other that checking orders and correcting pick locations my night is spent waiting for something to go wrong. This of course is not a bad thing as it has brought you BforC and Blog-Con and the Community Currency.

 

Any way to the question at hand Wargames why do I do it? I first got into wargames as I loved the game the moving of figures and rolling of dice. I was not that fussed about the history of the battles or the armies taking part for me as a shy teenager the wargames club was where I felt at home not for me the youth disco or local meeting place, no I wanted to order my British line to fire and retire in the face of the Zulu hordes or for my Dwarves to rain a storm of crossbow bolts down on the greenskins. Alongside this I started painting and while I am the first to admit the gaming slowed to a snail’s pace and stopped for many years the painting has stuck with me (mostly), I am a firm believer that in each of us is a skill we excel in if you are lucky it is a sport that you can be paid thousands to play or you may be lucky to have a skill that fits in with a job role. For me despite me being down on my painting sometimes I know I have a talent for  painting toy soldiers and having found this fact I get great personal satisfaction from producing units of fine wargames figures.

But back to the question at hand while I got into wargames because I loved the game, I stayed because of the people I met and the friends I made, some come and go while others I can’t shake off. My one lifelong gaming buddy as I have said before is my Dad and wargames has given us such a great relationship that I know is the envy of many fathers and sons.

Dad after I gave him his retirement Present two 28mm SYW armies

 

 I am now starting to reconnect with guys from ages ago and its odd that while the years between may be vast the common hobby lets you pick up as if it was only last week you last met. In the last 4-5 years (what I guess is my wargames mid-life) I have found that the history of battles and armies has taken more of my interest; I guess driven by all the uniform research I do for commissions. As I stated in an earlier post in the next few years my gaming will increase and this blog will start to carry BATREP’s but even this has been driven by the great friendships that wargaming in general and the blogosphere has brought me. The last weekend that Loki and Kev went up to my Dads to play we spent hours sitting in the garden and conservatory just talking about all things wargames and blog. In no other area of my life would I feel so comfortable with guys I only met in May. This is what wargames gives me, it gives me a common ground with guys who take the time to get to know me, this blog and the hundreds I follow have become a large part of my life (not as sad as it sounds) but I know it’s not just me, how many of you have had a supportive message from a fellow blogger about not just hobby subjects. I am sure that this support network happens in many good wargames clubs but by their nature they are regional. The internet in general and the blogs specifically make you “”Club”” worldwide, let’s face it most of us are blokes and we are not built to talk about feelings and problems but maybe within the support of our “”Club”” we can break this mould. Every ones log has the options to contact the blogger and this is done in private, for example Loki and I have two IM (instant message) threads about the BforC and our Community Currency trade which now run to hundreds of messages. What I am getting at is that if you read a post and feel you can offer advice be if hobby or life do not hold back because you do not want to comment publically send a message privately I know the blogger will appreciate any advice you can give him.

message with Blogger

message with Google+

So I guess I should conclude my post before you all call the padded white van on me, why do I wargame? I wargame because of the people I meet and know, for me the gamer is more important than the game.

The futures so Bright

So as anyone who follows my blog will note I am a prolific painter, but an infrequent gamer. I see this changing in the next 12-18 months and it is mainly down to a few silly ideas of mine and the power of the blogoshpere. I have always painted wargames figures and as I often say I love to do so, I have not enjoyed playing so much since the heady days of my youth (a combination of lack of opponents and real life getting in the way). I now find myself with a group of gamers who I not only enjoy good gaming with but are fast becoming good friends, this is only going to increase with Blog-Con and next year the BfC game all in all not too shabby for a shy guy from the train spotting capital of UK.
I guess what this post is getting at is that if you are happy to make the effort (travelling and organisation) then the UK (and I am sure Europe and the USA) has some great wargamers who will open their homes and wargame rooms to you all you need to do is ask. I will shortly have my own wargames table (TBH I have a battlemat and terrain already) so will be able to host my own games, if you add to this the family Wargames room by the sea I am a very happy gamer.

 I have created a Google+ Community for all us Wargaming Bloggers, I want it to be a place to share ideas find who is going to the local shows so you can meet up. My long term goal would be for Blog-Con to be a success and form the annual get together for the Wargames Bloggers Community and if it is also a success the BfC game could also be our annual bit for charity. As a quick aside when talking about BfC with Andy from AW Miniatures I was so happy to see how excited he was for the project and it was he that started asking what we planned for the next one, so lets face it if the guys who is putting his hand in his pocket to provide us with the figures is that stoked about it, then we have a good idea on our hands.

 

 

So with all this gaming in my future I only have a few problems... you are all showing me so many nice new periods and rules sets I am having a bad case of the shinybloodyitis  should it be Naps, ACW.. hail Cesar looks good then so does bolt action or the new fatLardies game....dont get me started on Cowboys or darkest Africa....Victorian Steam punk.....even some of the Zombie stuff looks good (dam you Micheal). No luckily I have the next years painting sorted with a vast Zulu War BP project with my Dad and still more SYW to paint then I have my SAGA forces and I did spy a few boxs of French Nap..... I am Doomed .....but I love it.
On the painting front I have been surprised to see that since I started selling on Ebay again I have had several commission enquiries which all help to make my hobby pay more than for its self. All I need to do now is sort of my Day Job and life will be as they say peachy.
Peace James
I leave you with some very happy bloggers full of Sunday Roast and tea.

 

 

Exiles Musings

Recently I have been thinking about our hobby and what the future holds for it, I hear a lot about the “golden age” of wargames in the 70’s and not wanting to upset any of you who agree I have to say I think we are in the golden age now.

Let me explain why. I cannot think of a time when we had as many professionally produced wargames rules and if you look carefully for most periods you can find skirmish rules and full battle rules. I am not saying we have not had as many rules before but before the 00’s they were club rules and is some case’s guarded as if a hoard of treasure. Now with the advent of print-on-demand someone with the passion can produce their own rules and get them on the market. Add to this the increase of companies that produce and support their own rules sets and you have a rich and vibrant market of rules to fit all tastes.

On the figures side the introduction of hard plastic injection moulded figures has opened up all our options, while before the investment needed to play one period could be very high now you can build up big armies for most of the popular periods without remortgaging your house or selling body parts. Suddenly even a gamer on a modest income can have two or three periods covered up to fair sized army level. Away from big battles the increase of micro-companies producing fine figures for some times little covered conflicts has been a joy to behold we have bloggers who just wanted to get their own figures for a period that were pestered by followers into selling figures and fine sculptors who produce their own range and with the internet can market and sell them all themselves some time from their own house’s or even garden sheds. This does not end at 28mm either the amount of detail that you see now a days in 15/18mm is eye watering, I cannot be the only one who sees the detail in today’s 25/18’s being better than the 25/28’s of my youth. On top of all this you have the increase in 10mm companies and 6mm companies and it all adds up to a rich and exciting figure market.

So with the great rules and figures out in the market you would think our hobby is in a great place? Well not from where I look I think we are in trouble, we are getting old. All you have to do is look around the average wargames show and you can not disagree with me, where are the young ones? We cannot say that the young are not interested in playing “toy soldiers” have you walked passed a GW store on a Saturday or Sunday they are packed with young enthusiastic gamers. But why are these young gamers not becoming middle-aged gamers? I think to some extent we have only ourselves to blame how many time have you heard someone who loves pushing around his/her ACW/ECW/AWI....etc figures talk down about Warhammer and those that play it. I have been on the end of this barb. I was the member of a vibrant RAF Wargames club in fact I ran the youth club that had several members (a couple of which have recently been back in touch and still play), we moved our club house and had a huge open day to showcase our hobby. We had stunning modular-terrain as we had Wynn Rodgers (of Gripping beast’s terrain fame) as a member and he spent all hours building terrain for the club, we had gamers who loved all periods from 15mm Zulu through to jet planes and micro-modern. On the open day I was playing Warhammer against my gaming buddy and having a blast (as an interesting aside that was the day I met my wife, she popped her head in the room and asked if I wanted a cup of tea). Our club chairman was showing the Station Commander around and when he came to our room he stuck his head in and said “And this is just a bit of fun”.

While I know the lad involved and he was not being mean it is this very attitude that could be part of the cause of our aging hobby. I have also been on the other side as a gamer looking for a club, I have talked before about my shyness so looking for a wargames club was not something I was actively doing but when invited to my next-doors for a BBQ I happened to meet one of his friends who it turned out was a wargamer, he informed me that the local wargames club met at a pub 5 minutes walk from my house. This was too good to miss so I went along the next club night (at the time I was heavily playing WAB) on entering the room the club used I was met by a dozen staring eyes that quickly return to the game they were playing (an ACW game using a laptop to do all the working out) I think that there was another game or two being played but I cannot remember, the guy I had met came over and introduced me to the clubs chairman who asked what I played, after my response of WAB and a bit of Warhammer his eyes glazed over and he directed me to a corner of the room where two shy looking young men were playing a small 40K game. That was it I was dismissed as quickly as that, needless to say I never returned and the club in no surprise to me later ceased to meet.

I seem to be rambling on but I do have a point, I love wargames I love all aspects of the hobby from the buying of new figures to painting to planning games and playing games. But most of all I love the joy of sharing this with fellow gamers. I can say this hobby has given me so much as I said I met my wife in a wargames club; the hobby has given me and my Dad the best relationship any father-son could wish for because we are best pals too. I do not want to see the hobby grow old and fade away I want to share what I get from this hobby so others can gain as much as I have. I think while there are great clubs out there they are not good at recruiting for our hobby. In today’s age of multi-media I think that the best tool me have for grabbing these young gamers that show and interest in wargames is what you are reading now and the people who are reading this now. Just on my blog alone I have followers who cover all ways to start in our hobby I have guys who played with airfix figures as kids I have GW staffers and GW fan boys and I have guys who started in this hobby to get to know their kids, and those who were just looking for stress relief or work for idle hands.

We bloggers are already having a get together with Blog-Con but I would love it we could group together to help our hobby. Why could we not get together as the biggest wargames club in the world (that can cover the world), we would have a committee and membership fees and run as a proper club but we do not need a clubhouse we would provide contacts so you can game with likeminded gamers in your/their own house. We would have Blog-Con as our annual meet (AGM) and the bloggers-for-charity idea could become annual too. This vast club and the funds generated would give us the skills and people to spread our hobby, I would love to see School clubs or even Summer Wargames Schools, why can we not grab on to the kids who show and interest in wargames via GW and show them that they can do so much more in our hobby which for me is the one constant that runs through my whole life I have made friends lost friends moved house’s changed jobs but through all this if I needed a bit of peace of to relax I picked up a brush or some dice and lost myself in the world that is Wargames.

If you have stuck with me through to the end thank you, I hope you have not been too board, I would love to have some feedback on what you feel about our hobby and the direction its going, and if you would be interested in a Blog based wargames club or even if you think it could work. I am not the only blogger with a passion for growing our hobby so shout out and lets all do something about it.

Peace James