Sounds like some of my friends who are into Flames of WarOriginally Posted by Popsical
Sounds like some of my friends who are into Flames of War
Lol. Over the years i've come to appreciate games that are easily set up and played and packed away. I can understand the appeal of Xwing in that regard (not my cup of tea, its a bit too meta-game like for me). Whilst playing huge battles with vast numbers of models is fun, time and space limit their often playability for me.Sounds like some of my friends who are into Flames of War
Too many games suffer from the limitations of "I go, you go" turn systems which can lead to the game being over before it gets going. This combined with lengthy setting up and packing away plain ruins them for me (yes im looking at you GW lol). I find historical based games dont suffer as badly in that regard, which is why i prefer them to sci-fi fantasy stuff. One day i hope to commit to WoG, if and its a big IF, i can convince my mates to give it a go. Im not holding my breath.
Trends in gaming are always waxing and waining. What I have noticed at gaming events is that almost to a man, all the people at them are clones of me; paunchy, white haired men between 50 and 70, or paunchy 20 somethings still living in their mother's basements (I'm looking at you, Magic The Gathering players). Most genres get a punch from a successful film like "Master and Commander" or "The Blue Max", which romanticizes their subject and creates interest in a specific timeline. I noticed an uptick of interest in Napoleonic warfare after the 200th anniversary of Waterloo and the auctioning off of things like Napoleon's hat and other stuff. I'm subject to that phenomenon, too. I got really interested in world war one dreadnoughts from the anniversary of the battle of Jutland about 50 years ago. Next year is the 100th anniversary, and I hope someone comes up with something new in the gaming department for the occasion. The same applies to model builders. Nostalgia seems to be a driving factor, too. But you have to be old enough to have nostalgia for a time gone by.
My Love of all things WW2 comes from the films i saw with my granddad as a child and his involvement in WW2.
Later came an interest in WW1 for no particular reason.
Im an absolute passionate fan of all things ECW because i adored the BBC adaptation of "By the sword divided" as a child.
ACW is also cool and a real interest of mine, but like WW1, for no particular cause other than i like it.
Sails of glory, probably because Victory and Nelson and Trafalgar.
My friends and fellow gamers just dont have the diversity of interest in wargaming that i do. Its pretty much "pew pew" sci-fi fantasy bigger and bigger guns and swords for them. Yawn...
After attending Origins and playing in 3 out of the 4 SoG games Eric put on I can only conclude the following:
1. Keep it as simple as Eric did.
2. Keep the instructions simple as Eric did.
3. Watch the players and guide them through the first few turns.
4. Add in a few more rules.
5. Help them work out damage.
After 30 minutes playing, and all the games had 12 plus players, the players were running cpmbats themselves, marking damage and leaving Eric to run the game.
I played in 3 fantastic games had tons of fun. It only remains for us others to emulate this and crack on.
Neil
Great photo's - I can't believe that was all going on a few feet behind me and I missed it all. Alas I feel That this could become something of an expensive habit, lol
I'm with you on that Neil - let the revolution begin, think we need to try to get sails into as many shows as possible (if only so I can get a game or two under my belt, lol)
I also agree with that totally.
Bligh.
I missed this - just to add there's now info and registration form up at the show site - http://www.hereward-wargames.co.uk//
"And we'll rant and we'll roar, like true British sailors
We'll rant and we'll roar, all on the salt sea
Until we strike sounding in the channel of old England:
From Ushant to Scilly, 'tis thirty-five leagues."
In my experience at the UK shows, it is not simply a case of keeping things simple, yes it helps, but again people who stopped and had a game enjoyed it, we keep to a set sequence and the players sion got the hang of things and it was only odd rules queries that needed a look up.
Despite the Pretty models, which they are, it was grabbing power the game seemed to lack. cant see why but i saw at Hammerhead a group of three look at our tables, one WW1 one WW2 and Sails and after a few mins they decided to go for WW1, despite sails being empty and a group already playing WW1.
I cant put my finger on it but the sails just doesnt seem to grap the attention of casual gamers.
Mayhap I am looking at this the wrong way. Perhaps it could be the fact that there are a lack of starter kits, etc. People like it but if there are no outlets with minis and basic sets etc, what's the point in punters playing. Not explaining this well but I hope you get what I'm trying to get across.
I'm not sure that is totally the problem Neil, because most punters don't ask about availability of models until they have tried the game out. Then they get the disappointing news about how few and far between they are.
Rob.
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