How, Over 40 Years Ago, A Guy Called Andy Changed My Life With 5 Words, And Other Reminiscences...

 As you may have noticed, I've been searching high and low for a copy of the almost mythical 'Encounter 1' sci-fi rules.

These go back to the days of home produced, made-with-love-and-inspirationrules. This set of rules was inspired by the opening boarding action in Star Wars - That's the original first film - yeah that long ago.

What's more, they were written in my home town by the mega-corporation that was Starfleet Studies.

Well, I got one, but at an eye watering £50 for an A5 booklet. And that was after I negotiated them down from £100... Yeah, I know, I know!

 

This got me thinking, after reading the latest Wargames Ilustrated which celebrates 400 issues, and in which there's a thumbing of the nose at the early days of gaming, even claiming that reading the older magazines, it was impossible to tell which rules people were playing to and that rules were poorly produced.

Well, as many of my generation will tell you, we knew what rules we played, and there was a plethora of rules out there, most of which used similar basing conventions. OK they were not big, glossy magazines, they were mechanisms for pushing around the toy soldiers we spent our money on. Apart from a few commonly available gaming dice they needed no special boards, counters, blood oaths to play.

This meant that we could spend more money on the models and terrain.

Now, unless you have a load of equipment on top of the money you fork out (and in some cases it's a stupid amount for what is in terms of production and materials, a magazine) for the rule book, you can't play the rules (there are a few exceptions).

So, it's time the companies were called to task... If you insist on these stupid mechanisms to bleed customers who are (and let's be frank and open here) 'junkies' - I include myself in that, too - then sell all the things you need as a single bloody package! You are not as a certain magazine would have it, the saviours of the hobby, you are pimps and pushers, preying on your marks.

Look, if I have £1000 on a project, I am going to spread that money as far as I can, because by doing so the hobby stays a varied place. I will not spend all my cash with one company, nor will I fall for gimmicks.

£15 for 6 figures? No...

I know what the costs are, and even with contract casters, that kind of pricing, is fucking robbery with malice aforethought.

I prefer to where possible also deal with companies with a long standing reputation, because a lot of the time their figures have more historical accuracy, look great when painted to a competent standard and have enough poses to look good but not take forever to get on the table.

Look, I paint for a living and I can tell you that when you have 500 models, the pose varities disappear into the aether.

Large scale skirmish gaming is being pushed as the new 'cool', but really? 100 figures for a skirmish?

Look at the old WRG or TTG rules... An army to a 'competition' level of say 1500 points would be somewhere between 150 and 200 pieces, so not much larger than the so-called skirmish forces you are being encouraged to buy.

Now, many of those rules seem to come from companies who charge a premium price for pretty average models tagged as 'official' products. so let's say £200 for the figures, plus £50 for the rules... 

OK, go to (for example) Perry Miniatures, having spent a fiver on a set of old style rules, and buy a competition-sized army of say 32 packs... You have a tried and tested rule set and a proper army of around 200 pices (and this is in metal, not plastic, too)

Go for 1000 points and you will have two forces of the same size as the 'skirmish' set at the same cost. You can expand them over time, host a game without relying on others and not die of uniform boredom.

I've got into the habit these days of 800 figure starting points for my projects, and if you saw my pictures of the first outing of my 28mm ECW in the last post, you will have seen how much I managed to get on an 8x4 table. Even then that was 60% of the 800-840 pieces, and that was splitting it two ways, to boot.

Now, I do have longer term plans that will see the whole thing used, but when you bear in mind that those armies were of a similar size to those outlined above, you can make your money do a lot more, if you just stop being blinded by the 'big guns'.

TTFN