Wargaming for Boys

My pal Daddy Grognard has posted on his blog about RPGing with small/medium sized people, so I thought I'd do something in similar vein about wargaming.....


Now I got into wargaming via a slightly circuitous route via RPGs. Another mate of mine has always been both an RPGer and painter of figures going back to oh....when dinosaurs ruled the Earth.....


In 2000 the first LoTR film came out - and GW - more on them later jumped on the bandwagon and got the licence to produce the LoTR miniatures - "this looks cool" thought I and in no time was painting a batch of goblins and Uruk Hai......badly .....but not that badly to make me give up....B-)


Wargame shows became an annual pilgrimage - Derby mostly being a Midlander by birth and more recently since moving to the Burning South, Warfare at Reading.......which until last year was a "me" thing............


Until a certain fateful weekend in Leeds when the ladies were going out and Fiasco was on at the Royal Armouries.....


Along we went - and the resident medium person showed an interest in the noble hobby of "little men games"...............and wanted to play............


Now I'm approaching an innings of half century and I dont understand the rules for either Warhammer or Warhammer 40k ......there seems to be an industrial sized bucket of dice involved somewhere , but thats as far as it goes with me before thinking "meh" and putting the books back on the shelf



So there we were with one boy wanting to play - some "men" and some dice.......thus was what originally became known as "The 456 game" was born......this is now a ruleset called "Dark Empires" which is still being revised and rewritten with each game played.

So - one basic set of rules - some figures - some dice and off we went................

Here I have to make a nod in the direction of the Playstation generation as once we'd established models cant shoot through scenery/around corners/move erratically with creative use of the measuring stick............it was jolly good fun and the rules didnt cost thirty quid.

Nor were we restricted by canon what figures we could use......how I loathe Codexes......



The upshot of which was a good time was had by all and the ladies got to do whatever they do when us chaps - and boys are engaged in hobby stuff........



But from one who has been there and done it, be prepared to have fun, keep it simple .......and be prepared to deal with some what I can only describe as "creative and unusual" tactics..........(dont say anything though....I learned this the hard way!)


"No matter how hard your Leader figure is - he always fails on a 1"