Get out there and wargame!

Over Christmas and New Year I have seen lots of posts on various wargames fora where wargamers have been reviewing their activities in 2016, and discussing their plans for 2017. I was struck by how many self-identifying "wargamers" actually game very little or not at all. That struck me as really sad. I mean that in the sympathetic "oh what a pity" sense, not the disparaging "you sad man" sense.

I myself am about to do what for me is a rare thing: go more than a week without a wargame. (Don't feel too sorry for me. I'll more than make up for it the week after.) These days I have the fortunate luxury of a great gang of regular gaming buddies with enough shared enthusiasms and similar approach to gaming that there are always games to be played and players to play with.

But it was not always so. There were long years when I didn't get that many games in, and the games themselves, and the company, weren't always satisfactory. For a long time I was a bit frustrated in my quest for the High Quality Gaming Experience (TM). What was the problem? Partly it was the games themselves: too many evenings wasted using lame rulesets, or playing poorly designed scenarios (sorry, guys). But partly it was ... well, me.

A wargaming friend who was a psychologist once confirmed to me that hobbyists in general - including wargamers - tend to have poorer social skills than average, to be further than average along that autism spectrum, maybe with a dose of OCD thrown in. A very broad generalisation, of course, plus I may be misremembering and misquoting or exaggerating what my psychologist friend said. Still, it does tally with my personal observations of wargamers as a breed in general.

In that I include my younger self. When I started wargaming, I was excessively concerned with winning. I won the junior title at my then club's annual tournament. That was great for my ego, but I am sure I was obnoxious and annoying to play against, and not considerate enough of my fellow players and of what made a game enjoyable for them. As an adult, hosting games at my place, I'm sure I wasn't a very good host at first: minimal hospitality, inadequate appreciation of or concern for my guests, still too interested in winning and power.

I like to think I am a better person now.  :-)  I'm sure my social skills have improved. I'm no longer so insecure that I need to win games and trample over others to feel good about myself. I've learned from friends what makes for not just a good game, but a good gaming occasion. Our corner of the club is now always the lively noisy fun one, and new members often gravitate towards it. The games I and the other members of my group host at our homes are always popular, well-attended, convivial affairs bursting with bonhomie and good cheer.

If it was possible for me to do this, it could be possible for you too. So don't be a sad lonely non-wargaming wargamer: get out there and play! Thanks to the wonders of the web, it is relatively easy now to find other gamers within striking distance. Pluck up courage, bite the bullet, get in touch with someone and set up a game. Follow my advice about the HQGE. Choose a ruleset that will enable you to finish a game in whatever time you have, and that ticks all the boxes, not just for you but for the other player(s). Don't go out there to win, go out to have a good time yourself, and more importantly, to make sure the others have an even better time. Maybe you won't hit it off with the first group you try. Don't be deterred, try another, and another, until you find the one that you get on with.

Make some new friends, and have a happy 2017!

Solo Wargaming

These days I have no shortage of gaming buddies and can usually get a game most weeks. It was not always thus, and in years gone by there have been times when I have perforce been a solo wargamer, working through tactical problems on a tabletop on my own. Nowadays, of course, with computers and the internet there are many more gaming possibilities than there used to be. Even so, from the various wargaming web fora, blogs etc that I frequent, it is obvious that there are many folks out there who still want to game with miniatures rather than pixels, but who are not as blessed as I am with regular gaming opportunities and agreeable fellow-enthusiasts. So in today's blog I'd like to spare a thought for all those would-be players, who spend so many hours lovingly creating fabulous armies, but who have all too few occasions to actually use them.

One of the resources I used years ago was Charles Grant's book, "Programmed Wargames Scenarios".
Beyond that recommendation, I'm not really qualified to advise on how to do solo gaming. Fortunately there are others around who are. For instance, there is a SoloWarGame group on Yahoo. Check out Jay's Solo Wargaming Blog. This Solo Wargaming Guide was published recently by William Silvester - I haven't seen it myself but it gets good reviews. Caliver Books offers a guide to solo wargaming by Stuart Asquith. There is also the Solo Wargamers Association (SWA) and its Lone Warrior Blog.


What particularly motivated this post was the fact that Lone Warrior has just published Paul Le Long's review of my own "Bloody Big Battles". Some choice quotes from Paul's terrific review:
"BBB is an excellent game ... 
It's simple and you'll have learned it all within minutes ... 
You get the feel that you are commanding a whole army, not just a brigade ...
It feels realistic and dynamic but without unnecessary complexity ... 
Highly recommended."

On the question of BBB's suitability for solo play, Paul says, "there's nothing particularly that's solo friendly. But I didn't find anything that militated against solo play either". I suppose I'd add that I think the movement rolls provide an element of unpredictability that helps to make solo play interesting. The many BBB historical scenarios lend themselves to multiple replays to explore how different plans for each side work out, which can be a fun solo exercise. And the campaign mechanism used in BBB to link nine historical Franco-Prussian War scenarios, and in BBEB for smaller Crimean and Russo-Turkish War campaigns, is a simple and solo-friendly way of integrating campaign consequences into games.

Finally, for any solo BBB players out there who are able to make the effort once a year to meet up with fellow players: come to the next BBB Bash Day, our mini-convention in Oxford UK, on Saturday 18 February 2017!