Mutterings & Ramblings

 

 

 

I know I am not the first person to make this observation, but these days, ‘armies’ have become factions in historical gaming parlance, and it rather gets my goat up. And the word army, means the few painted figures you can pretend have some real life connection to one another, deployed on a table that can be mistaken for a place mat.

A gang is a faction, a clan or political creed can be factions, but please, armies represent nation sized conglomerations of troops.

WW2 German Factions? Swiss Factions, Napoleonic French factions? GET OUT!

It’s almost as bad as calling 30 figures and a tank an ‘army’ no, no no… By all means call it a platoon, a battlegroup or detachment if you like, but it’s not an army. And to be honest if you are playing this kind of sized game you are not getting the full sense of the period you are depicting.

The rise of the faction type of game is a vile thing indeed. You are being encouraged to buy 30 figures at a premium, and probably a ‘special’ dice set and a sourcebook which is so padded out that it looks like Jordan’s lips. And then when the company tells you there’s a big new thing out, you will probably repeat the whole process again. You don’t focus on learning about the period in any detail. So,if you are always skimming the fat from the pot of rich gravy which is this fine hobby, you’ll be constantly giving up on a project and starting on another one, constantly seeking a bigger buzz, like a junkie. The problem is, those £10 baggies just are not going to satisfy your craving, and all the time, the lead and paper pushers are getting fat on your money.

I recently saw a couple of things which alarmed me. The first one was that 15mm gaming is something new - It’s not, so don’t chase it just because you believe it’s the latest fashion. You’re going to find out that those metaphorical skinny jeans are actually flares.

I also see that particular companies are selling 13.5mm or 8mm figures because they are frankly greedy bastards who want to make sure they have a monopoly . Do yourself a favour and ignore them, because they don’t want you to do what gamers have always done, and buy the figures they liked, from the manufacturers they liked, often mixing and matching to their own aesthetic taste. 13.5mm does not offer any benefit over 10mm or 15mm - it’s the deformed cousin in the attic and nothing more. Think - When that company has milked that non-scale, and they end the line, what are you going to do with all the suddenly useless armies, that you wasted all that money (usually an inflated amount too) on?

There are very few periods which are not well represented by many manufacturers, so if you really must buy into one of these ‘botox’ systems, look around for other manufacturers. Those £6 per cavalry feudal figures are a rip off and someone is bagging a £5 profit for something no better than a £3 model you can get elsewhere.

I beseech you, think before you part with your cash.

Moving on, and this is not gaming related but may be interesting, I’ve heard on several radio programmes, that since the outbreak of the pandemic, there’s been a lot of scientific interest in how people’s dreams are manifesting. This caught my attention because it’s not the normal thing you hear on the national broadcasting platform. I am very interested with dreams and how they can genuinely shape your decision. What also interests me is the idea of the possibility of a parallel world - bear with me.

So, during the last 18 months I have repeatedly dreamed of my city, always experienced in a night time setting, and have experienced imaginary cityscapes which although non-existent in the waking world have developed a consistency, even when revisited weeks and months apart.  I was speaking to my wife the other day, it transpired that she has similar experiences, if not the same locations, and this interested me. And so, we came up with a fun plan…

If you’ve read or watched any of the stuff by Ian Sinclair or John Rogers, you’ll know that the walks they record, are often based on the folk history of an area, or just starting at point A and following where their instincts taking them, much like modern day flaneurs. So, we have posited the notion of going to the recognisable locations and then wandering around, locating where the dream places are located. I’m interested in taking photographs, marking things on a modern map and seeing how things compare to the reality. At the very least we’ll get some exercise and maybe find something interesting about the city we’ve lived in for half a century.

Well, I have just seen the time, and I really need to get back to work for a few hours, so please excuse me.

TTFN