On Being Young, Porno Mags And Lessons Learned

 Well, the Jubilee holiday will see Roger and I face off with our ECW armies in the Rumpus Room. 

I'm really looking forward to it, because there will be savage banter, truly gentlemanly dispute resolution, and the genuine pleasure of playing a game in the company of someone whom I respect on so many levels.

Of course Roger will be joined by his youngest son, who has been bitten by the bug in what seems like the same way his father and I were in the 80s.

He's a well mannered young man, as I would expect, but moreover he is being schooled on how to deal with older gamers - much older gamers - just as we had to learn back in the day. I can tell you from personal experience that this young man can get under your skin to the degree that you could snap a steel ruler over your knee.

I approve of this, having been subjected to it at Christmas for 7 or 8 hours. As kids we were surrounded by highly motivated competition players, who didn't cut us any slack. We earned our chops, and accordingly we were accepted into a much older and wider circle, as well as a pretty varied junior circle at Sheffield Wargames Society.

Another outcome of this exposure was that we could hold our own and also got taken all over the country to shows and competitions. We could stand on our own two feet and certainly weren't 'snowflakes'.

By the time I was 15 I'd been from one end of the country to the other in the company of responsible adults who were also splendidly irresponsible. We knew our limits and if we crossed them, we would be corrected with a sharp comment or an expression. We took the hints.

We once thought it would be funny to drop a few porn mags (Razzle and Escort, because they were just a bit sluttier than Playboy) into the briefcase of that High Priest of Gentleman Wargamers, John Armatys.

We broke two rules there:

1. Never open another gamer's bag without their permission

2. Never think you can shock an adult, even the mildest mannered gentleman.

Some time that evening, John opened his case, quickly twigged what was going on, as we sniggered and thanked us for the magazines, and locked his case. Lesson learned.

I have respected John ever since, even when we have disagreed.

Anyway, I am not taking my briefcase into the Rumpus Room in June, but I am taking a ten gun battery and several units of lancers, because Roger sent me some photos of the cavalry he has at hand, and being a Royalist army, there's a lot of it.

Now, if you will excuse me I have an 11 hour day to tackle before I can kick back and enjoy the long Bank Holiday weekend.

TTFN