enjoying salad since 1978.

Sunday, July 10, 2005

What the hell is wargaming?

Here is an odd reenactment of the Battle of Mogadishu.

posted by Steve Jenson at 12:32 AM

1 Comments:

Blogger illovich said...

Minaitaures Wargaming (as opposed to just wargaming I suppose) is a strange and beautifully geeky hobby. It is the progenitor of Dungeons and Dragons (which began at G.Gygax's miniature wargaming club as the game Chainmail).

Miniatures wargaming combines simulation, modeling, fantasies of tremendous power, fan fiction and rules-lawyering into one uberhobby. It basically involves getting a bunch of scale miniatures (15mm and 28mm are common) of an army, painting them and then playing a game which simulates a big battle, or a sequence of battles. Each game can take one to many hours, and as I mentioned it's a terrific geekfest.

(I will point out here that I use these terms lovingly, as I play the wargame Warhammer 40k)

What's interesting to me is how segmented this niche is. For example, I have never even met anyone who would play historical wargames (like the battle of mogadishu that you link to), even though I spend a fair amount of time in hobby shops. Going further, I wouldn't even dream of engaging a model train enthusiast in conversation (about our hobbies I mean), even though the two hobbies intersect in so many places.

Well, actually. I just found a really cool looking train store near my house. I'm going to try to make contact. =)

10:04 AM

 

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