Off to get my ass kicked

[HaemishM]

I'm going out of town this weekend, starting Friday. I'll be in the lovely town of Baton Rogue, LA for a miniature wargames tournament. I think I'm looking good this year. I've had plenty of practice with my Later Hungarian army against my buddy, who is one of the top players in our area. I even won a game against him. :) Considering it was only my second victory against him, in about 5 years of games, I'd say I am doing well. Now if only my dice won't desert me like they did last year.

Needless to say, I'll be off the boards til Monday morning. Not that I make much contribution on weekends, but if anyone tries to get me between now and then, they'll be SOL.

Wish me luck!

[WayAbvPar]

GL and have fun in the cultural Mecca.

[schild]

LIGHTNING BOLT, LIGHTNING BOLT, LIGHTNING BOLT!

[Rasix]

Good luck.  Seems like that might be a fun hobby.  Of course, the expense and hygiene concerns are a barrier for me trying it. And I think there are only certain levels of nerdiness my wife is willing to accept.

Have fun. May the Hungarians whoop much ass.

[Nebu]

Good luck!  You've put in the time and should do pretty well down there.  If everything goes to hell, at least you're someplace with good food.  

Oh and put some Vicks under your nose after the first day... you'll thank me later.

[schild]

Good luck.  Seems like that might be a fun hobby.  Of course, the expense and hygiene concerns are a barrier for me trying it. And I think there are only certain levels of nerdiness my wife is willing to accept.

I quit playing Warhammer 40k because of an ex. Now I have an entire Tyranid army. Meh. Should really break them out and get back into the game with friends.

[Ardent]

I concur, this sounds like a ton of fun.

And I think there are only certain levels of nerdiness my wife is willing to accept.

That's why I don't have a wife anymore.

[Rasix]

That's why I don't have a wife anymore.

She's worth it :).  I've got too many damn interests clogging up my life as is.

[Teleku]

Out of curiosity, exactly what wargame are you playing?  Hungarian seems to rule out the standard Warhammer and WH40K.

[Merusk]

LIGHTNING BOLT, LIGHTNING BOLT, LIGHTNING BOLT!

Old school.  Aren't we supposed to just start calling him, "Colonel," in honor of the "Lost"  character?

I concur, this sounds like a ton of fun.

And I think there are only certain levels of nerdiness my wife is willing to accept.

That's why I don't have a wife anymore.

Do like I did. Marry a nerd and figure out what games you both like. Common interests > all.  I'm just glad I found that out before I got married.

Good luck to ya, Haemish, and follow Nebu's advice. Recall the story of the stench at the last gaming convention folks covered here. (Lum, maybe?)  Hungarians? "Buzmeg, Magyar 4 teh win!"

[Ardent]

She's worth it :).

Good to hear.

If I ever get me one of them wife-thingies ever again, then Mrs. Ardent #2 will have to have a better understanding of my gaming obsessions that Mrs. Ardent #1 did.

[Morfiend]

LIGHTNING BOLT, LIGHTNING BOLT, LIGHTNING BOLT!

Old school.  Aren't we supposed to just start calling him, "Colonel," in honor of the "Lost"  character?

Ha, that was the first thing I thought as well. I used to have a whole bunch of minitures way back in the day, but I could never get past the nerd factor and actually play. I guess thats why I got into smoking pot, drinking, and dating girls several years older than me.

Cant say I regret the choice ether.

[Arcadian Del Sol]

Schild: so desperate to be in touch, yet so desperately out of touch.

table top miniatures are one of the oldest and noblest hobbies in history. Then again, he probably thought you were going to a warhammer convention.

[Mesozoic]

Historical is totally the way to go.  Fuck this shit where one set of rules requires a particular set of miniatures.  Get a dirt-cheap historical army in your favorite scale and then take your pick of rulesets.

[Dren]

I like to play little green army men with my son.  Does that count?

Rules are simple.  Aim at other soldier and say "pkewwwwshhhhh."  If you say it first, the other one falls down crying in pain for 2 minutes.  Then they grab the next closest soldier to exact revenge.

Sweet.

[SirBruce]

So you aren't using the optional indirect fire "lob a marble to simulate a mortar shell" rules?

Bruce

[ArtificialKid]

I like to play little green army men with my son.  Does that count?

Rules are simple.  Aim at other soldier and say "pkewwwwshhhhh."  If you say it first, the other one falls down crying in pain for 2 minutes.  Then they grab the next closest soldier to exact revenge.

Sweet.

BRING BACK PRE-PKEWWWWWWSHHHHHING BITCH!~!

[El Gallo]

I have always been intrigued by wargames, but have never gone beyond the Avalon Hill-style games.  Between my obsessive MMOG and Civ-series play, I am already a little nerdy for my tastes, I fear.  My brother and I play Axis and Allies (poorly) once in a while, but I know that is bush league compared to this stuff :)

Good luck.

[Dren]

So you aren't using the optional indirect fire "lob a marble to simulate a mortar shell" rules?

Bruce

That's a level 2 skill.  He's at level 1.  No powerleveling under my watch!

Level 3 is the "Use magnifying glass to melt head" skill.  It's our cheap version of frikkin lasers.

[Arcadian Del Sol]

My era of choice is Napoleanic ships and my second favorite is WW2 naval fleets.

reason: the terrain is so damned cheap and easy to make!

[Nebu]

My era of choice is Napoleanic ships and my second favorite is WW2 naval fleets.

reason: the terrain is so damned cheap and easy to make!

Not to mention the fact that you can do simulations in the bathtub.  

I used to play a ton of wargames through college and considered myself a diehard Avalon Hill junkie.  Squad Leader, Panzer Blitz, and Third Reich were my favorites and covered strategy from the individual to the company to the division/attrition level.  I never made the leap to miniatures though... seems like playing with cardboard chits is ok but metal replicas made you a geek. It's a fine line between what people consider ok and geek-dom.  I can see the fascination in miniature gaming and can imagine that it makes for a very fun weekend!

[Paelos]

I must admit this is a level of geekdom I don't fully comprehend since I've never seen it before. Does anyone have pictures or rules of such games? Perhaps links that describe the types of games and purpose, or how these games are played?

How long does one game take anyway? Is it like Risk?

[Riggswolfe]

The closest to wargaming I have ever come was a game called Mighty Empires by Games Workshop. The best part of that game was creating the map, the rest was just gravy.

[Signe]

I think I should wish you good luck even though I have no idea what the heck you are doing.   I hope you win or live or something.  Being the concerned and interested friend, I did google this.  Unfortunately, upon entering the site I began to doze off and fell off my chair.  Eventually, I got up but the website had marched off somewhere.  I can't be arsed to find it again.  

Is THIS the sort of thing we're talking about:



Good luck regardless of what you are doing.

[ark0n]

Wow, I thought I was the only one left who still played historical miniatures. I'm guessing this is either DBA, DBM, or WRG 7th?

I'm a huge DBA fan. 1066 Normans or Alexandrian Macedonians...

I'm going out of town this weekend, starting Friday. I'll be in the lovely town of Baton Rogue, LA for a miniature wargames tournament. I think I'm looking good this year. I've had plenty of practice with my Later Hungarian army against my buddy, who is one of the top players in our area. I even won a game against him.
Wish me luck!

[Bunk]

Schild: so desperate to be in touch, yet so desperately out of touch.

table top miniatures are one of the oldest and noblest hobbies in history. Then again, he probably thought you were going to a warhammer convention.

Agreed.  You can't bust out "Lightning Bolt" everytime something you think is remotely nerdy comes up.  It has to involve LARPing in some form.

Back on topic, good luck to you Arc.  Nothing more important than having work you look forward to doing.  Can't imagine having a 2.5 hour commute.  I get pissy when bad traffic stretches mine out to 45 minutes.  The extra free time alone is more than worth the reduced pay.

I'm guessing there are better odds that they'll let you wear the hat at this job as compared to a DoD job.  You're the manager now, make it part of the unifrom.

[jpark]

Good luck mate!

Oh - and don't make the same mistake someone else did - make sure you commit enough ground troops to do the job :)

[schild]

Schild: so desperate to be in touch, yet so desperately out of touch.

Agreed.  You can't bust out "Lightning Bolt" everytime something you think is remotely nerdy comes up.

Remotely nerdy? Oh jesus fuck. Adults playing with little miniatures and pretending it's war is ABOUT AS NERDY AS IT GETS. Just because you think it's cool doesn't mean it's not on about the same level as LARPing.

That said, I also would play table top games if I had more time, and loved playing them when I did. But, I'm not going to pretend that it's any less ridiculous than that lightning bolt video.

Edit: In fact, I may very well get back into tabletop games. I'm remembering how much fun I did have with them. Though...Kamigawa comes out on the 25th. Decisions, decisions.

[Shavnir]

Don't do it schild.  Pewter crack is only slightly less addictive than cardboard crack.

EDIT : Silly Haemish, if you don't tell us what game, we can't wish you luck.

Personally I've got a Warmachine tournament tomorrow morning.  Should only be a 2h drive or so though :)

[Pig Destroyer]

Personally I've got a Warmachine tournament tomorrow morning.  Should only be a 2h drive or so though :)

Warmachine is some kind of Steampunk derivitave right?  I saw it at Origins earlier this year, it looked cool.

I've been playing miniatures games for years, the only problem I find lately is the lack of time to actually sit down for 6 hours and play a game.

I have been looking for a good WWII minatures system and recently ran across http://www.battlefront.co.nz/.  Looks pretty interesting, hope to pick some up soon.

[Shavnir]

Personally I've got a Warmachine tournament tomorrow morning.  Should only be a 2h drive or so though :)

Warmachine is some kind of Steampunk derivitave right?  I saw it at Origins earlier this year, it looked cool.

I've been playing miniatures games for years, the only problem I find lately is the lack of time to actually sit down for 6 hours and play a game.

Essentially, yes its a steampunk deritivate.  Its very character-centric and often the commander can walk through a lot more men than in a game like 40k or the like

Oh and at the tournament I was at today we had 60 minute rounds and were actually able to finish games about half the time (most of the time 90m -2h is about the normal game time)

Skirmish sized games = win

[Righ]

I used to play WWII micro-armor. After initially playing skirmish rules, I switched to the Command Decision rules (5-1), which allowed me to play out larger battles. Between the folks that I played with, we never did have enough Russian armor to fully represent all the Kursk defensive lines, though I had enough German armor myself for the Operation Citadel armored forces. A good deal of my record collection was financed by the sale of my armor collection. I kept my meticulously painted British 7th Armored Division.

[Murgos]

Ahh, memories.  We actually had a wargaming club at my high-school.  We had a whole section in the back of one of the graphic arts class rooms all to ourselves and access to all the tools you need to make kick ass maps and paint minatures.  We played all kinds of games there.

Usually because of time restraints we just ended up playing Axis and Allies over and over again.  I don't even know how many classes I missed trying to get a round in before class or during lunch or just ditching class all together to play.

I don't think the vast majority of the school even knew there was a wargaming club.

[Lum]

Remotely nerdy? Oh jesus fuck. Adults playing with little miniatures and pretending it's war is ABOUT AS NERDY AS IT GETS. Just because you think it's cool doesn't mean it's not on about the same level as LARPing.

Miniatures begat http://www.acaeum.com/DDIndexes/SetPages/Chainmail.html">Chainmail.

Chainmail begat D&D.

I trust you can draw the family tree from there on your own.

[plangent]

Remotely nerdy? Oh jesus fuck. Adults playing with little miniatures and pretending it's war is ABOUT AS NERDY AS IT GETS. Just because you think it's cool doesn't mean it's not on about the same level as LARPing.

Miniatures begat Chainmail.

Chainmail begat D&D.

I trust you can draw the family tree from there on your own.

I tried, but all I got was a trunk.