A wargamer returns, and proves to be a heretic!

[Valentinian Victor]

Greetings one and all!
Before I start I'll give a little background about myself so you know where I'm coming from.
I've been wargaming since 1966 when my late grandparents bought me a copy of 'Wargaming' by Donald Featherstone. I've met many of the well known 'personalities' involved in our hobby since that time, including Tony Bath, Charles Grant, Stuart Asquith, and Phil Barker. I had the pleasure of playtesting Phil's 'One Brain cell Ancients' rules at one of the Society of Ancients weekend get together's during the 1980's. This set of rules became DBA. I believe my contribution was what has become the 'PiP' system.
I used to play competition games during the 1990's using 7th Edition WRG Ancient rules. However, I gave up wargaming at the end of 1996 due to lack of players where I live, and my discontent with 7th Edition which I found generally caused a lot of hot feelings between those who played it.
I did discover DBM when it was released but could find no one to play it. The main complaint was that the few wargamers I knew felt 7th Edition was a step too far, they did not agree with the way combat was simulated and were of the old guard who liked to remove individual figures.
I myself actually liked DBM and its mechanics, I found the games more 'realistically' represented what an ancient battlefield must have looked like.
Only recently I discovered DBMM and this has reawakened my interest in wargaming. I had moved to a new town in 1998 and have found some wargamers who are more open minded and willing to give DBMM a try.
Now come's a heresy!
None of us has the time to paint up figures, so we have taken the radical step of just using the bases the figures are on, with appropriate symbols to represent the various troop types. Our belief is that both DBM and DBMM removes the necessity of having figures as they are purely there for visual representation, they have no actual impact on the mechanics of the game. This means we can fight battles with literally hundreds of armies should we so chose.
This is not to say that we may not acquire painted figures, I myself have a load of Late Romans I never got around to finish painting that may well see the light of day, whilst a couple of other gamers are going to purchase ready painted armies for competition games.
So, what's the point of all this?
I believe there is a market out there for 'army packs' comprising of sheets of card with top down depictions of each armies troop types set within marked base sized areas. I have actually considered getting an artist friend of mine to do actually this and to call them 'Card Warriors'. I feel this may be a way of encouraging new players into the hobby as they will not have to worry about purchasing relatively costly figures, painting them etc, as well as getting them playing games very quickly. Carrying an army or armies will no longer involve having the strength of Goliath or the worry of the figures and their parts breaking during journeys (how many times has my figure box fallen over resulting in broken spears, lances, detached figures, chipped paint etc).
So, what do you other gamers out there think?

[Platypus]

Hi,

A guy here in Canberra (Australia), Olympian Games, used to sell bases just like that. Basically pre-cut plastic bases with a printed sticker on them describing the troops, type, grade and also the combat factors and move distances.

Some people did use them for local comps. No-one was too fussed over people using them.

But they didn't sell like hot-cakes. Dean sold way more bases for mounting troops than the printed ones. I think it was that people are drawn to the  hobby by the miniatures, and want them. Hence, say "Wings of War", which is a perfectly good card game, but sells lots more miniature planes! Also why we have a 3rd world figure painting industry rather than people using cards or other markers.

But I was going to buy them. It was just that I collected a lead-mountain instead! If fact, I should be painting my Condotta instead of being on the net....

If you have some people interested, go ahead. It's a broad church. I want to do French Wars of Religion in 2mm........

G^is,
JohnG

[Tim Child]

For years my brother and I played 7th in our bedroom (I hasten to add that this was when we both had yet to leave home - going back 20 years or so now...) using nothing more complicated than bits of card cut to size and with symbols on to mark the troop-type.  I have some fond memories of a friend's "Paisley Knights", so called because of the patterning on the card he used!   I could keep an entire army in a zip-lock bag, and knock up a new one in an hour.   

When I first joined a wargames club it was all miniatures of course, which adds so much to the fun and visual effect of the hobby.  But that was where I encountered DBM (what a relief after the headches of 7th!) and my first step was to make myself some half-size card bases on magnetic strip that I could use for solo play to teach myself the rules, without investing in lead.  Good job too, since one of my first choices was Early Hebrew, which would have been a tough learning curve in DBM.

I then bought and painted Sub-Roman British as my first figure-army - so that shows how much little I had learned in the solo-play.      

There's nothing wrong with card armies in and of themselves.  Among a group of friends learning and experimenting with a new period, set of rules, basing regime, etc it's a great idea.  As a tournament-organiser (Warfare, Reading UK in November each year) we wouldn't allow it to our competitors - but it's a public event, a showcase for the hobby, and even professionally-printed cards don't have the same visual look and appeal as decent dollies.

Mind you, good cards might beat some of the worst examples of painting/morphing that I've seen over the years!

Tim Child

[Doug M.]

Welcome back to the hobby. One of the things you might want to investigate is Cyberboard. There were a whole bunch of illustrations made up to allow people to play the game over the net. The other fruitful area might be DBAOL (DBA Online) which has very good illustrations.

cheers