The question that always seem to come up in any conversation about our hobby, will our hobby die, and if so, how long do we have? This is a very brief article and just my non-expert opinion on the matter. Before we get into it I will go ahead an state that I am optimistic about the state of the hobby, take that nay-sayers!
A Wider Definition
Historical wargaming in a broader sense includes games that many of us ‘grognards’ wouldn’t really consider to be historical, such as Bolt Action, SAGA, Flames of War, Black Powder, and Blood and Plunder. It could even be stretched to include historical inspired games like Zona Alpha or Silver Bayonet. So is Historical Wargaming in a very broad stance dying?
Short Answer: Absolutely not, it’s booming.
Long Answer: Companies like Warlord Games are doing an excellent job bringing droves of players over to historicals from the Games Workshop world. They are making historical wargaming more and more accessible to new people. Just look at the huge number of Bolt Action tournaments springing up around the country. I see post on Reddit and other social media sites often where a 40K player is curious about one of these big historical games, and the advice on how to jump in comes flooding in from players already invested in the game.
If you zoom out to include historical inspired games, things are looking great. You see lots of these games making appearances at predominantly sci-fi/fantasy conventions and events. They are also featured often with hugely popular wargaming YouTubers such as Tabletop Minions.
From all of the activity I see online and in person, I think it is safe to say that a wide interpretation of historical gaming is not only growing, but booming.
A Narrower Definition
A more specific definition of historical wargaming includes many of the games the readers of this blog are most likely more familiar with. The space is very diverse, including big battle, tactical, and skirmish games, with rules ranging from old-school number crunching games, to the most elegant modern designs. These games put much more of a focus on trying to capture a historical period over pick-up game mechanics or balance. Is historical wargaming in its purest form dying?
Short Answer: Also no.
Long Answer: I wouldn’t say that it is growing but also do not think it is going to die. While it is true that the average age is very high I think that it will continue to be a hobby with a high average age because of the large amount of time and money that it requires. Those are things that typically older folks have much more of. Additionally an interest in history is needed, which in my experience tends to be something people grow into as they get older. Though that is not the case with myself.
This next section is based completely in my personal experience as a 15 year old involved in the wargaming community. The old guys that I got involved with created an extremely welcoming environment when I discovered them a few years ago, and I think that positive environment is amazing for building a strong community in a cold world. Since getting into wargaming I’ve brought some friends along with me, I have group of 5 that meets once a month, and not a single one of us is over 18! 2 of the other guys run games and we all paint so much we almost have to compete for each months GM spot.
The local conventions that I attend having been slowing but steadily growing over the past few years, and I see more young people there every year it seems. I think all of this adds up to create a solid showing for the continued livelihood of historical wargaming. I know for a fact that it will never die as long as I’m alive.
Conclusion
I hope you love this hobby as much as I do and couldn’t stand for it to die. Let’s all work together to make sure that never happens.
Thanks for reading, comment down below to let me know your feedback as it means the world to me. Stay tuned, we’ve got more quality, entertaining wargaming content coming your way. Please tell EVERYONE you know about the blog.
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Until next time- Joshua, The Napoleon of the West
Nice job youngin, keep up the good work.
Hey guys, I couldn’t find any other way to contact you. The “Contact” field on the podcast website doesn’t appear to be set up, and I couldn’t find any social media presence for you.
I just listened to the second podcast and enjoyed it, and wanted to offer a couple of comments.
First, I don’t see a clear dividing line between tactical, grand-tactical, and operational gaming. I see it as more like a continuum from 1 to 10, in which 10 is: “All my focus is on logistics, communication, and the management of time, resources, and space.” And 1 is: “Little dudes shooting at each other.”
I’ve done many games that are somewhere in the middle of that continuum, but I find that tabletop gamers don’t want to get too far away from little dudes shooting at each other, so that has to still be in there somewhere.
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Second, I love high-level operational games and have always tried to go as high-level as my topic will permit, but I find that the higher you go, the less precise you can be with scale: time scale, ground scale, unit scale, etc. If you really go as high as you said in the show (Army Group South in Case Blue), then you’ll have some real issues with scale, since one map grid might have 200,000 men crammed into it, while a dozen other map grids would be effectively empty because forces there are so spread out and thin.
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I’m nearing completion of a new game (tentatively called “Eisenhower”) that will be a more operational WW2 game than “Rommel” was. I originally had it with 1 unit = 1 division, and we tested that for months, only to find that it required so many exceptions, special cases, and had so many scale issues (since forces rarely kept divisions in neat, tidy boxes, nor even kept their elements together, not to mention all the cases of divisions with supplemental attached assets), that I ended up going all the way down to: “1 unit = 1 battalion.” THAT has been working great, and I expect that “Eisenhower” will get published this Autumn.
Since I know you guys are interested in this and also working on a similar scale, contact me via my website and let’s chat a bit. We’re nearing the end of playtesting, but I could always use more input.
best,
Sam Mustafa