The Loose Association of Wargamers

I have nothing to say on this subject. As you well know, it doesn't interest me in the slightest.

Henry's read about non imaginations wargaming in Battlegames, but he doesn't actually believe it exists.

battleeditor wrote: ↑Sat Sep 16, 2017 10:49 pm I have nothing to say on this subject. As you well know, it doesn't interest me in the slightest.

What a load of old Prunkland....

Zenbadger wrote: ↑Fri Sep 15, 2017 6:00 pm Ruritania has been a strong thread in Western culture for a long time. The idea of a small, overlooked country somewhere in central or eastern Europe has been a staple from The Prisoner of Zenda right through to The Mouse That Roared. As a packaged concept it was practically made for gaming.

Perfect.

If I had no other obligations in the real world, I would love to take the campaigns of my imaginary world from ancient times through to near-modern (a more civilised version of WWII, perhaps).

Escapism, pure and simple, and no-one to say "I think you'll find that the Knyphausen Grenadiers used silver, not brass cuff buttons between April and June 1753".

Also, I find imagi-nations a great way to explore tactics in a non-partizan way, without arguments about 'national characteristics' — all armies enter the table on an equal footing, so the victory goes to the better player on the day, not the one who can field über-weapons or who argues that the Borsetshire Fusiliers were slightly more elite than the Barstadt Musketeers.

Other than Purps' dice rolling of course. Nothing can make up for that.

battleeditor wrote: ↑Sun Sep 17, 2017 8:24 pm
Other than Purps' dice rolling of course. Nothing can make up for that.

Truth, pure & simple.

When I saw your post I thought "simples!" but on reflection the answer isn't simple at all. In the end i decided to bullet my reasons.

1/ THAT book charge given to me on birthday by my dad when we couldn't have a model railway any more. Charge started my wargaming and set imaginations in stone for me.
2/ No button counting. I use the troops I like and paint them how i want.
3/ I love designing the uniforms and flags although not terribly artistic i do enjoy seeing the standards on the table.
4/ Pure escapism. I love to write short stories. I have done it for every game genre I have played in. Fighting a battle and turning it into a saga is great fun.
5/ I like developing the countries . Not just the military but the geography , economy and reason to exist. Mapping my imaginary states is good fun too.
6/ It's a complete package if you really get into it, It stops being imagi-nations and becomes imagin-eering. "For every season" etc etc etc..

It was my dream to have my own imagin-eered states and politics and it took me over 40 years to finally get down to producing it in 10mm not the 28mm I originally wanted. Having said that I do like my end product . I like it enough that when Commission figurines sent me samples of their latest MDF ACW figures I immediately began thinking late 18th century wars of unification in my valley in 6mm. Who knows I may even do just that. HEHEHEH. On a recent visit my nephew who will be the owner of my collection when i finally snuff it said " make sure you paint all this lot first because i won't have "f¿**?¿?*" time. One day I will run out of new projects Then again maybe I'll just run out of time

Good post, Curly.

Iain

Agreed.

MickS

Yes, excellent post, think I can relate to all of that.

Although my imagi-nations is Fantasy, quasi-medieval states using my historical ancient/medieval armies with clerics, magicians, appropriate beasts (every 'Welsh' army needs a dragon, every 'French' army needs an Obelisk) and orcs, goblins & trolls as the randomly invading northern barbarians. Haven't mapped it all out yet but it's slowly growing as the lead pile shrinks.

My mob have put on a demo game based the French 14thC concept of le Armee d'Morte where the Black Death causes the graves to overflow and a Skellington army faces off against the classic HYW force. Entirely historical, I've got the engravings to prove it

Post- medieval I find the real history engrossing and weird enough (and orcs with muskets just look silly) so I tend to stick with that.

One thing I've not seen mentioned is that, whatever period your Imgination starts in, you can use earlier armies to contest the "back story" as far back in time as you want, or have armies for. And of course, forwards as well, as I think the mad Count has done with his equally deranged Swans.