It seems that wargaming is slowly re-starting. Members of our club (Wakefield & District) have commenced Garden Games followed by Home Hosting. Later on the church hall may become available. So, real, social interactivity in the future - maybe! Seems that the Staines club has managed it.
Recent emails with Chris have got me thinking about Post-Lockdown Wargaming and how it might change the status quo. For me the usual fare of regular DBM games has lost its appeal. During lockdown DBA v3.0 has been the mainstay of my diet - with some variations: DBN, DBA-HX, DB3H2, DBA-RRR, DBC & HotT. I have also played Pre-Dreadnought naval (what next?).
[You will notice that "DB stutter" (as Bob called it) does not feature in the above list. This is mainly because, for me, it shares too many mechanisms with DBR.]
The 'pastures new' that I am looking at are:
(1) Spaceships/Starships/Sci-Fi - 'Full Thrust' looks like a good system (plus our own 'home grown rules'). For ground actions maybe the emerging, and free, WTF rules. Also considering adapting 'Wings of War'.
(2) Pre-Dreadnought naval - tried 'Damn Battleships Again' but was not enamoured. Need a fairly simple, fast action, set of rules. Any recommendations?
(3) Renaissance - have played DBA-RRR for some time now and have over 20 armies available. Watched another rules set being played at the club (Baroque - I think!) and that seemed to flow OK.
(4) Rebel & Patriot - plus other sets from the 'Lion Rampant stable'. Unfortunately LR does seem to get a bit bogged down so, maybe, swerve that one.
How many of us have thought about what we used to do pre-Covid? Anybody considering going off in a different direction? Will we be able to persuade others to join in?
I'm somewhat concerned about the prevailing ethos at club level. Having been a member of well over a dozen clubs since 1975 I have noted certain traits, trends and retrenchments.
(a) Fracturing of established rule sets. At one time there were dominant rules e.g WRG 'Ancients. Now they are multiple and competing.
(b) Isolationism - increasingly small islands of players dedicated to one particular set to the exclusion of all others. Difficult to get into these Brobdignavian enclaves.
(c) In all my years as a wargamer I have met fewer than 10 female wargamers. They are, however, present at FRP clubs. Is this cultural stereotyping? Noticed more and more females at conventions but they are usually either accompanying their partners or helping out on demo games. Maybe we need to ask them why they don't join in!
Anyway...I'm looking forward to re-starting face-to-face gaming again. Roll on the lifting of restrictions so that we can all recover from this extended 'Annus Horribilis'.
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