The Loose Association of Wargamers

A pal of mine escaped from London a fortnight ago & has just finished his mandatory Lock Down for 2 weeks here.

He rang, suggesting a game this afternoon. In our little group, I tend to plan, prepare & host the majority of our games so the request was not out of order but I knocked him back...a little to his surprise.

I mean, I have all the figures, terrain, rules etc at my finger tips, but it would be very difficult for me to get decent game up in a few short hours.

Which period? The scenario? I'd better skim through the rules.....and set up takes about an hour. I'll certainly get something up next weekend but today? Not possible.

Am I alone in this? Can you chaps throw a game together in a short while? Are you wargaming hares or, like me, a wargaming tortoise?

donald

Yup. I always have several scenarios ideas kicking round at the back of my head. Table set up takes less than half an hour. And that includes getting the boards out from under the spare bed for the dining room table

Scenario based games are a bit more difficult and I prefer to think them through but could do one at a push. Donald you describe lots of great scenarios on here - do you keep your notes so that you could reuse them ?

Points and army list based games are often sneered at but are perfect for this sort of situation. Played many many pick up games of ancients, 40k etc.

My main issue would be making sure I had enough jelly babies, can’t game without them.

I think a little notice is polite, unless you suggest it.

I remember a game in my late teens. I woke up with a stinking hangover on may mate's couch. His mother (a woman of amazing quality) oozing sympathy made us breakfast and said, "As you're here, why not have a wargame, when do you want lunch".

So we got some Shermans and T34s together for an Arab Israeli Meeting engagement.
Then Grant rang up to make sure everyone had survived, so he brought some more russkis;
Then Peter called and brought round his Vietnam yanks;
By midday, the bloody Israelis were deploying M60s and Centurions, so I nipped home and grabbed some JS3s, T34s, and a couple of T54s, along with my scratchbuilt Russki 122mms, all of them.
We had a few more join what was now a set piece Israeli attack after lunch.

Partly from doing show games I could throw a couple of different games together at short notice, although setting everything up tends to take an hour.

So, it's just me? I find there's a mental preparation also: something akin to getting your head in the right place before you run onto the field for a game of football. And I think there's self-imposed pressure to make any game I run, a success. Demons. The self-imposed ones & they're the worst.

Grizz: he's a pal. He may be English but I've never held that against him & between being locked down/up in the UK & now here, he's allowed to be a bit desperate about human company.

donald

(invited him for some home made cannelloni tomorrow night where we'll talk about a small game, next weekend).

Ten minutes to bung the terrain down. Ten minutes to think of a scenario. Make the rules up as you go along. Simples.

Essex Boy wrote: ↑Sat Sep 26, 2020 11:04 am Ten minutes to bung the terrain down.

Yeh Andy was really happy with that ten minutes you gave him to make the terrain for shedcon

goat major wrote: ↑Sat Sep 26, 2020 11:20 am

Essex Boy wrote: ↑Sat Sep 26, 2020 11:04 am Ten minutes to bung the terrain down.

Yeh Andy was really happy with that ten minutes you gave him to make the terrain for shedcon

It was character building. You can't deny that he's a better person for it (although he has developed an aversion for green).

Essex Boy wrote: ↑Sat Sep 26, 2020 11:04 am Ten minutes to bung the terrain down. Ten minutes to think of a scenario. Make the rules up as you go along. Simples.

And all the de-frosted lettuce you can eat for lunch?