Oh My, This Is A Long One...

 The Stalingrad re-enactment continues here at Fackham Hall, in the shadow of the Dark Tower. Yesterday was particularly hellish with the first visitation of that agent of disorder and damnation, commonly known as The Plasterer.

At 3PM, I found myself almost silent in my distress (a rare thing indeed, as many will atest) with what is left of the bedroom, coated with a layer of plaster because , you know, plasterers just can't work using dust sheets.

Hopefully, if the gods deign to smile upon us, we will have this demon exorcised by close of play on Monday, whereby the other troublesome spirit, The Builder, will return to rip or hammer something else.

If we are lucky we'll have everything sorted by the May Bank Holiday weekend.

I confess that I've done little pertaining to gaming this week, as trying to work in this living hell is bad enough, but I have been thinking as I do, aboutthe hobby in general and reflecting on how far I've come in the hobby and indeed the business.

I am oft heard to wax venomous on the matter of rules, and the propensity to have rule sets which are expensive and glossy but which in fact do not add anything to the tabletop, other than become a great-looking tray on which to remove casualties a few turns in.

The recent announcement that Navwar was closing it's doors , reminded me that they produced a wonderful, traditional set of Renaissance Galley rules which I much enjoyed in my youth, and the traditional Christmas Eve battle between your auditor and his friend Alan 'Stanny' Staniforth, was something I always enjoyed. 

Likewise, the Skytrex ACW naval rules were a joy to play.

I rarely find a modern set of rules which can inspire me in that way.

The eye candy, in my opinion, may sell books, but it detracts the eye from taking in the rules, and must use more ink/chemicals, which I imagine has a great ecological cost.

There is something reassuring about curling up in an armchair or on the sofa with a little, typed, un-  (or amateurishly) illustrated rule book, mocha close at hand, and finding the excitement of a period by READING rather than just looking at pretty pictures, which most gamers will never be able to achieve.

Yes, yes, there's all that bollocks about 'aspirational', but the sooner that accept that unless you give a lot of your life, money and attention to it, you are going to be an average gamer (that is not a slight; by 'average' I mean that you will probably be gaming at a level that most find to be the accepted norm).

If you are aware of your limitations such as time, space and funds, you will be able to crack on with concentrating on gaming your chosen periods and getting a lot out of your hobby.

One of my favourite books to browse is the Know The Game Guide To Wargaming. Most of the KTG series of small, landscape books were about sports, but in a twist, WRG, got the publishers to produce a wargames book.

I read it 45 years ago at school, and it's remained one of my small pleasures ever since.

The reason I bring this book up, is because it showed men and women (yes, it's a complete myth that there were no women in wargaming until the 'Woke' generation with their 'Me-Tube' channels invaded, but try arguing with them...) playing what looked like massive games of ancients, but which were actually only a couple of hundred models per side on a standard 6x4 foot table. Those games looked epic, because the used reasonable base sizes, and not what my friend Ken Reilly calls 'socially distanced', which means that formations looked dense, could contain a number of figures which looked aesthetically pleasing and moreover reduced the need for vast tables for what was in reality, a  fairly average sized battle - what we called a 'competition-sized' game.

Let me try and visually illustrate this:

Here is a 'modern' unit, as promoted by Warlord games, to whom I credit this photo...

 

28 figures, on a 20mm per figure frontage, at an angle, looks OK, but front on, you have the appearance of a marching band, with gaps that you could drive a 1/300th Tiger tank through... Add to this that Warlord units are all a rather uniform 24-26 models, bearing little semblance to the historically varied unit sizes of the associated armies of the period. In line, this meagre looking unit has a 26cm frontage

Now, we look at a more traditional unit, organised at the 'standard' 1:20 figure to man ratio:

The infantry in this pic (French at the top of the pic) are on a traditional 15mm frontage by 20mm depth and there are 36 of them, being a decent representation of a six company, French unit at 1:20. They have a frontage in a two rank line of 27cm, only 10mm more than the first pic with 10 more models, in realistic ratios and moreover looking more like their contemporaries:

Look at those tight packed ranks and files. This is what many 'Johnny-Come-Lately gamers are simply failing to grasp, that if you want a 'period' game to look and feel right, then it needs to have units which look right in the bloody first place...

There is a common excuse that 'modern figures are to large for traditional bases'. This is bollocks.

The models in the picture of 'trad' basing are modern metal castings by Perry Miniatures, Sash & Saber and Front Rank, and are perfectly at home on those base sizes. What makes the difference is sculptore creating models designed to be used in units, which are depicting troops actually following the orders and drill books of the period in question. A regiment was a body of men acting in accord, in a set of complex and well discpilined drills to give them a tactical advantage on the field. They were not (generally speaking) a free for all until the last minutes when melee was joined. 

Smaller frontages mean you can get more on the table and at the same time have room to move tactically about the tabletop field of war.

Stop trying to make every unit a diorama. One or two in a collection will stand out as being something special, whilst having every unit so posed, will just look messy and haphazard as well as looking inaccurate.

Of course, we seem to have a new generation who care not for authenticity. They are to be shunned and derided at all costs, because their revisionist attitude is going to be the ruination of historical gaming. I blame my generation for not properly disciplining their children properly in many cases. A few good smacks and some serious wargames publications, could have nipped such diabolic deviancy right in the bud, and we could still be in a Golden Age of Gaming.

Now we have a generation that believe if you have a swastika on a model tank, you are a fascist, but think it's OK to put rainbows and unicorns on everything.

Now, as you know, I am a fan, nay, devotee of fantasy and historical gaming. I apply different rules and aesthetics to both. My fantasy armies look fantastical and my historical armies look as they should. All is good, and I get the right 'feel' from both types of game. I beseech you, young gamers, stop treating everything like Warhammer... It's a tired and broken system, which has strayed from it's original roots, themselves deeply fixed in the dark, rich loam of historical gaming.

Remember, you can use a Landsknecht as an Empire solder, but those GW, Empire soldiers are not (with few exceptions) going to cut it as historical Landsknechts.

Take a trip to the Royal Armouries or a decent gallery (Manchester has some fine Napoleonic paintings) and perhaps pick up a 'proper' history book, or at least talk to one of those grey haired, stooping members of your club (assuming you haven't already purged your club of them becasue they are middle-aged, hetrosexual males with opinions different to yours like some modern day concentration camp commandants) and you will be on the way to becoming useful members of wargaming society.

(Also remember that if your club has a no dogs policy, it does not mean that the member who identifies as a 9 year old spaniel called Prince, can't come in, no matter how much they protest at being discriminated against. That said, if they shit on the floor, they will no doubt be thrown out regardless., And if they shag your leg...)

But seriously, take the time and effort to seek out some of the older books and magazines. Even if you are set in your modern ways, you will I am sure find some really interesting information. If you can see where it all began and how the hobby has progressed, you might understand that there is more to the hobby than Games Workshop or companies comprised of the fall out from that company. 

There are loads of original wargames companies out there who have produced figures which even 40 years down the line are bloody excellent. Likewise, there are some great 'old' rule sets which give fantastic period feel without the need for fancy dice, special packs of cards or 'battle boards'.

And if you can't afford big armies then that's probably because the companies you buy from are taking you roughly from behind and not even offering a 'reach round' or leaving a few crumpled notes on the pillow afterwards.

Like I said, look at the older companies and support them.

Now, I think I also alluded to other ways of approaching the hobby, and assuming that you can't yourself sculpt and cast models, it may actually work out better to locate a sculptor and caster to create your own figures. In most armies there will be a 'majority' troop type.

Have one sculpted (it'll cost about £120) and have some command figures designed (similar cost per model). You can probably find a designer who will sculpt separate heads, so that a standard body can have varied heads and by this add variety to a unit whilst retaining and orderly look (as well as keeping costs down).

You send the models to a mould maker and they will make a master mould of the sculpts for under £100.

Then you need to decide what you want to go in the production moulds. Try and work with numbers that can make up units with as little effort as possible.

With French Napoleonics, you will need officer, drummer, standard, flank and centre company figures.

For a 36 man unit you will need 1 officer, 1 drummer, 1 standard, 12 flank company and 21 centre company. 

So have a mould made with 4 flank and 7 centre companies, and another with 4 sets of command figures.

The command mould will get sufficient for 4 units in a single spin with no wastage.

The other mould gets spun three times and you'll get a regiment with no wastage.

13 spins will get 4 regiments of 36 with no wastage at about £3 per spin plus metal costs.

What's more you will own unique figures or indeed a commercially viable set of models.

This was what I decided to do about 8 years ago now, which evolved into Satanic Panic Miniatures. I make the models I want and if others like them, then that's great. I also make figures for people. They cover the cost of sculpting and I get them turned into moulds and add then to my own range, allowing the commissioning individual to get the models at base production cost. 

And, dear reader, these are just a few ways of approaching the hobby. Many of my generation began with Airfix 20mm plastic figures, which we often had to convert. Today there are hundreds of sets by myriad manufacturers and you can see them on the website www.plasticsoldierreview.com

You will need a few basic preparation skills, but you can build massive armies VERY cheaply, and 20mm is pleasingly large whilst allowing you to use less space for playing with and storing you models. There are even 20mm etal manufacturers, so the world is your oyster. I am assuming here that you prefer the larger aesthetic, so omit 6mm and 15mm, but these too, are great ways to get more from your hobby if sopace and funds are at a premium. 

It's all too easy to fall for the flim-flam of manufacturers and think that a rule set 'must' use 28mm models. Simply converting inches to centimetres is often enough to use them with smaller scales.

Ask yourself, do you really need to run with the pack, if space and/or money are an issue? Trust me, I have seem many people leave the hobby or lose a spouse because they've let their infatuation with the hobby go too far. I have lost count of the number of people I've seen selling 'collections' because they have run up against 'real life'. That said, many of them have had piles of unpainted or part painted junk. I say junk, because they have not focused on a period long enough to build a comprehensive or viable force for the given period. 

Take some advice from someone who has been there in his time - FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS.

You can't play everything and owning everything does not make you in any way superior to any other gamer save in your own mind.

I am fortunate to have a decent sized gaming room, with a good sized table, and a LOT of top end terrain and figures. BUT, this was not always the case, and I have known poverty.

When my wife and I met in the late 80s, we were destitute and living on £7 per week for food. I was addicted to my hobby back then (so were some of my oldest friends, despite what they say) and I would put figures before basic essentials. Whenever I bought an army and got bored or more usually, saw something new and shiny being pushed by the industry I had to have it, and whatever I had was sold to start another project.

I worked out that if I worked on a 1:60 ratio, I could in a year, starting after that years Triples show, save £1 per week and build a division with some cavalry and artillery. I gave up...

I gave up because frankly it would have looked terrible and moreover was not compatible with the armies already at the club. I'd have a Napoleonic Nothingness. I swore off Naps, finally, at that stage...

More importantly I was saving £1 which could have gone to better use.

40 years down the line, and I have a new methodology which I cleave to, when it comes to gaming.

I am not poor by any stretch (thank heavens) but I do retain a few of the lessons learned 'the hard way'.

When I look at a new project, I try to decide what I want from it, and how it will look best.

With Napoleonics, I've gone for 1:20 ratio and 28mm, because the games I saw at shows in my formative years put on by the likes of Selly Oak & District or featured in Miniature Wargames, still make me go a little moist in both eye and underwear.

As it happens, several friends have independently heard the call of the period and luckily we have discussed this abhorrent thinking with each other, so there are opponents.

So far, so good...

Then, I have bought and horse traded, a few armies in a month or so, so that I can achieve the  subject, standard and size of project I want, without the financial burden. (Admittedly I could have just bought it at the start, but if you can reduce the financial footprint, all to the good - learn from this example)

Then, I have looked at orders of battle. 

I like quirky stuff, so I chose the Dutch-Belgian forces of the Hundred Days campaign. With three divisions of infantry of varied and interesting nature, 3 cavalry brigades and good number of artillery batteries, this looks like a decent-sized collection in the making, which is also esoteric enough for me to get really into the history and background, thus keeping me engaged.

It also conveniently gives me an actual force which is viable for the period, and which, even using premium metal models and having it all painted will come in at under £5000 which is the budget I set (and I always set a budget because that way there's an end to the projects you undertake and moreover you keep a control of yourself if, like me, you have something of an addictive personality).

Anything left from this project can be redirected into other stuff, be it skirmish projects or the start of another epic collection.

I limit myself to one, maybe two projects at a time, and I also plan out how long I want to be throwing money at a given subject. For the Napoleonics, I wanted it to self fund in 4 months of my gaming allowance, and it has done so. It's another self-imposed control,  that I allow ten months of spending on gaming, and then have November and December 'off' to enjoy Christmas and also to assimilate the year's acquisitions into my collection.

I always allow for the cost of storage boxes, as it's easy to spend £200 on flags and boxes alone for the average project. I could paint them myself, but my time is worth more and by buying good quality printed flags, I help out another small business, thus expanding the hobby somewhat in my own small way, From tiny acorns and all that jazz...

Everything must have a use and wastage must be minimised. So, I will buy from a manufacturer which can offer not only quality, but allow me to construct units with the minimum of wasted miniatures. The odd spare figure is OK, and will be destined to be used on command bases for 'colour'.

It's worth saying that you should always have the cash for the project as a whole before you start. Just the time it takes, if you need to save first, could give you the time needed to avoid 'buyer's remorse' and wasting time and money on a 'no goer'. - A lesson hard learned.

If like me, you are not painting it yourself, find a reliable painter, and pay them the whole amount or set it aside with the understanding that you are committed to paying that person, regardless. Remember, you could be causing them serious problems if you pull out.

Talk to the painter and set out your expectations as well as any 'hard' rules for the work they are taking on. Ask them if they need reference material. A good painter won't, but if you want something specific, spend the time and put together a written and visual brief. It will be helpful to both parties.

I know a wealthy friend who has to be chased by the same painter I use, for payment. And then he wonders why I get preferential treatment, and moans about it. Well, there you go mate...

And then, once all that is taken care of, I 'sign off' on the project and sit back and wait. I am already planning my next project, albeit in a mental sketch format, because I'm not sure about it yet. The fact that my two painters of choice are fully engaged, means that I have time to make a firm decision based on all of the aforementioned criteria and concerns.

This approach has meant that I have more figures than I have ever owned, fully painted and ready to go in 45 years of gaming. True, I have been (very) fortunate to be able to afford it, but no matter what your budget, these principles are a proven set of checks and balances that can help you maximise your enjoyment and engagement with the hobby. 

Well, this 'quick update' has evolved into something terrifyingly out of control, so if you will excuse me, I need to go and enjoy the rest of my Sunday before the 12th SS Plaster Division return in 22 hours...

TTFN