Wargaming in a Budget is a new book form Ian Dickie and Casemate publishers that should find a place on the shelves of every gamer limited by money and/or space (and that’s 95% of us). Trying to hit a happy medium between quality and cost, Dickie has produced 176 pages of concrete advice on making wargames tables, figures, outdoor terrain, buildings, ships and airplanes. There’s also a section on the types of games that you can play to get the most bang for your buck (skirmish, et. al.)
Its all good stuff, and I’m going to use a lot of his advice for my new wargames room.
About the only thing he left out is an examination of the different kinds of high quality free wargames rules you can get for every period under the sun. And you can get those right here on MiniatureWargaming.Com.
Kickstarter is a new internet project with an interesting idea. It lets you post descriptions of an artistic project and basically beg people for the money to do it. If enough people pledge to meet your goal, you get the money, less 5% taken by Kickstarter. If it falls short, all pledges are off.
In either case, the creator retains all rights to the project. The donated funds are not investments, but gifts. To encourage gift giving, however, creators can offer perks, such as autographed copies, and whatnot.
There are quite a few gaming related projects here. Just use the search function to find them.
This past Saturday afternoon I visited the World Steam Expo in Dearborn, Michigan. Dedicated to all things Steampunk, it consisted of live entertainment, panel discussions, audience participation events, board games, computer games, a charity ball and—of course—a large vendor area for purchasing the very latest in steam age clothing, accessories, art and literature. Costumed “characters” were at every turn. If you’ve ever been to a Star Trek, fantasy or science fiction convention, you know what it was like—except you can mentally replace the Star Fleet uniforms with semi-goth Victorian garb.
Among the panels: The Cult of Death: Us and the Clockwork Afterlife; The Ethics of Mad Science; Weird Chemistry; A Demonstration of Rules and Techniques For A Gentlefolks Duel; Megalomania: Is It For You?; Basic Swordsmanship; Card Games fo the Victorian Era; Bartitsu; Gear Mining: How To Pillage and Plunder a Defenseless Mechanical Clock; Thrifting Your Way To A Steampunk Wardrobe; Victorian Fashion For men; Steampunk in the Media, Accessorizing and Modifying Nerf Weaponry; Steampunk in Pop Culture; Victorian Literary Themes In Modern Literature and film; Steampunk and History; Steampunk 101 and the Origins of Steampunk.
I managed to attend three of the lectures, two by Steampunk author GD Falksen: The Origins of Steampunk and Steampunk 101; and Steampunk Costume and Gadgetry, by a group called the Outlanders. I found both to be quite informative and instructive. The Falksen lectures touched on broad themes, examining the origins of the genre in 19th century science fiction (Verne, Wells, et. al.), and how it has developed today. The Steampunk Costume and Gadgetry discussion covered scrounging for materials, and putting them to use in making some of the more outlandish costume accessories.
In the vendor area, I was very much impressed with the imagination, artistry and craftsmanship on display. During one of the lectures, Falksen noted that Steampunk is a craft-oriented, industrial aesthetic in which steam engines are engraved to produce individualized works of art. It’s very detail oriented, and that shows in the works for sale. Leather, brass, glass, felt, lace and broadcloth were on display in abundance. I very much liked what I saw—although I can’t imagine ever personally wearing such things, or having them in my house.
I hope it comes back next year. I’d actually like to spend more time at the panels, and actually get some gaming in. Perhaps I’ll run a game of my favorite RPG of all time: Space: 1889
As a tourist attraction, a guy in Arkansas is building a medieval fortress the old-fashioned way—with historical techniques, hand tools and lots of human labor. The plan is expected to take 20 years, just like a real fortress.
Miniature Wargaming is part of the "adventure games" hobby, which includes r ole p laying and board games. Wargamers recreate battles on the tabletop with toy soldiers, like a more complicated game of chess. Models range in height from 6mm to 28mm tall, with 15mm and 25mm being the most popular. There also is a growing interest in toy soldiers and military models, such as the 1/32 and 1/35 scale plastic soldiers from Conte, and Marx.
The most popular miniature wargames are fantasy and science fiction based, such as Warhammer, Warhammer 40K, Warmachine and The Lord of the Rings. World War II games such as Flames of War and Axis and Allies are new favorites. Other favorite historical periods include Napoleonics, the American Civil War, and ancients, such as Romans or Greeks. Other gamers enjoy miniature naval wargames, recreating battles like Trafalgar, Jutland and the Coral Sea.
Hobbyists research historical periods and paint their tiny soldiers in accurate uniforms. Others develop "historically realistic" rules sets or build scale battlefield terrain using model railroad techniques.
For pictures, visit the gallery.
Some of the bigger hobby companies are Games Workshop, which produces Warhammer, Wargames Foundry and Old Glory Miniatures. Wizards of the Coast produces several lines of pre-painted miniatures games, such as the Star Wars and Dungeons and Dragons miniatures games, and a historical game with pre-painted miniatures: The new Axis and Allies game. Wizkids produces a fantasy collectable miniatures game, such as the Mage Knight and Heroclick fantasy games, the science fiction games MechWarrior and Rocketmen, as well as the quasi-historical Pirates of the Spanish Main.
