One thing I’ve taken up during lockdown is listening to Podcasts. It’s nothing new but I just never got into them before. I was getting fed up with talk news stations endlessly moaning about things so I was looking round for some new food for the ears.

I took part in a Podcast style interview for a fellow Utubes channel,

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Whilst listening back to it, to see if I’d made a reet tit of myself I found I was quite enjoying listening to the format, a couple of chaps chuntering on about gaming, now that’s what I want to listen to ! So I started to delve into the world of The Pod and started with The Veteran Wargamer (Jay Arnold). The Wargames Soldiers and Strategy, and the Toofatlardies.

I really enjoy listening to them but one common thread seems to run through the episodes, a negativity towards big style games. All are very keen on the Skirmish or Big Scale Skirmish and don’t get me wrong there is nothing wrong with that scale of gaming. It’s a great way to get into a period but there seems to be no drive to go bigger.

Nearly all modern rule sets are designed for Skirmishers or small battles, 20 to 30 figures (I’ve got more 28mm farm animals !) to maybe 100 to 120 figures top, and maybe a couple of vehicles seems to be the drive. Bolt Action, Lion Rampant and other Osprey rules. It’s all about getting a „force“ on a table with no drive to go bigger. Where are the new „let’s do Jutland“ at 1 to 1 or Leipzig at 1:20 people ?

There are of course exceptions , the refight of Waterloo in Glasgow „The Great Game“ being the obvious one. I’m sure there are lots of people out their with big collections they have had for years but are new big collections being built ?

Growing up I saw those huge games at shows and that inspired me to build bigger and more impressive armies. The drive, echoed by the podcasts I’ve been listening to is for small games at shows 4 x 4, a dozen nicely painted figures, rules that a box of wood could understand, is this the future of gaming ?

I get that people want to get started quickly and many Sci Fi, Fanatsy games have this draw, but when I get involved with a game like that it disappears up its own backside in a couple of years.

Babylon 5 Acta (Mongoose stopped supporting)

Star Trek Acta (guess what, Mongoose stopped supporting)

Malifaux, great game changes versions quicker than a Camelion 

Empire of the Dead – still around but doesnt seem to be played.

The advantage to having say a 28mm Napoleonic collection is that although rules may change people will always game that period with whatever rule set is in vogue.

Hopefully big gaming will keep going and podcasts will start to cover it more, it also got me thinking about how many figures I actually have, it’s a lot, I’ve estimated 20,000 in the past, I’m up to 13,500 in #greatwargamesfigurecount with a long way to go !

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