The Wishful Wargamer

Hello there.  This is my first ever post in my first ever blog so bear with me. 

I spend a lot of time thinking about wargaming but very little time actually playing games, hence the Wishful bit in my blog title  (I toyed with 'Wistful' but that made me seem a bit poignant and sad).  That said, I wanted to make a record of my various activities related to thinking about, planning and preparing for wargames and, hopefully, occasionally reporting on such encounters.  And as blogging is essentially a self-indulgent and potentially egotistical pastime, I may make the odd non-wargame related post, but only if it’s relatively interesting, in the scheme of things.

So, as is traditional, here is my version of that oft heard tale about "how one got started in the hobby".

I've been pretty much involved with wargaming since the early 1970s, playing with Airfix soldiers with my brother (British Commandos, Romans and Ancient British being the earliest that I can remember).  From basic, last man standing style, 'wars', which involved lining all our troops up behind defences and then throwing lego bricks at them (graduating to firing matchsticks from Britains field guns) my brother, and then I, discovered the existence of wargame rules.

The first of these were the (still enjoyable) Airfix guides, principally Bruce Quarrie’s WW2 and Napoleonic wargaming books.  Amongst many others, subsequent and influential books that I have to mention include Operation Warboard by Gavin Lyall and Sea Battles in Miniature by Paul Hague.

Oddly, it was only later that I discovered Donald Featherstone and all the rest of the greats.  To be honest although I’m not a classic wargamer (I’ve never read Charge or relied on Don’s earlier works, preferring his Advanced Wargames and Wargame Campaigns) I’m still a bit old fashioned and need a lot of convincing to change rule sets (doesn’t stop me buying and reading them though).

So, with regard to rules I’m a bit of a stick in the mud and I generally like to stay with what I know (WRG, I salute thee).  I’m going to post my thoughts on the various rules sets I’ve tried (or more likely just read), in later entries, so you can all look forward to that (or not, as the case may be).

Anyway, I’m looking forward to this blogging lark and I hope you are too.

Cheers

Brian