EDITORIAL: Wargaming Melancholy and it’s Cures
So you love wargaming. You love it like sunshine, and spring rain…until you don’t. Eventually all of us hit the wall for a myriad of reasons, and struggle to rekindle the fire of wargaming. Here are a few tips I use to get back in the groove:
Its Time for a Change
Most of us tend to one part of the hobby more than the others. Be it rules and playing, or converting and painting to terrain and display building. Whatever your main area of expertise, give it a rest for a while, and go explore the other portions of the hobby.
If you can’t manage to walk up to game table, and throw down some dice, then take some time and try building that fantastic display board for your army you’ve always said you would do someday. If you can’t pick up that paintbrush, gather together whatever you can, and plan some pickup games with your friends. Can’t stand the sight of 100s of unpainted minis, then put them away, and look through the army books to find that one unit you think just looks fantastic and work on them and them alone.
New Systems, New Perspectives
Sometimes even moving around within a particular portion of the hobby won’t cut it. For these cases, I heartily suggest, packing away your beloved toys (don’t sell them on ebay, trust me you will be kicking yourself in 6 months if you do), put them somewhere safe, and head out to a local FLGS. You have 1 simple goal, pretend you’ve never seen a wargame before and do some window shopping among the systems that weren’t around or have changed drastically since you selected your last wargame.
You could go all in and pick up a new big system like any of the Games Workshop or Privateer Press offerings. If you like something a little more down to earth, Flames of War, or even Warhammer Ancients is definately a change of pace.
Finally if you want a smaller side diversion, check out some of the smaller systems out there like some of the Specialist Games, or even board games/campaign games set within the big Wargames universes, such as those available from FFG, Privateer Press, and Battlefront.
You’ll Be All Patched Up in No Time
So you’ve embarked either by yourself or with several friends on a new part of the wargames universe. Several weeks or months down the road, that old system will start to seem like fun again, and when its time to come back to your favorite system, you will return as more than when you left. You will be a more well rounded wargamer, with broader skills and a larger perspective on the various games and aspects of hobby than a gamer who only focusses on a single fragment of the wargames universe. In the end, more experience is never a bad thing. You can unpack the minis you packed away safely and get back on the horse.
~So who has had bad cases of wargames block, and what did you do to keep the magic alive? Remember that if no matter what happens if you just can’t stand your minis, BoLS is more than happy to give them a new happy home. 🙂
