Some people will tell you it is the best hobby in the world, but most say “I’ve never heard of this before, what are you guys doing?!” Today let’s put to rest many of the common questions about wargaming.
“Are you playing with toy soldiers!?”
Yes.
“I could never paint those tiny things, how do you do it!?”
Anyone can paint good looking miniatures. With a little trial and error, you will get great results. I personally use this method to paint my miniatures.
First, grab a can a spray primer, go outside on a nice day, and spray your little men. Make sure to cover thoroughly.
Second, get some paints and a brush, and paint each part of the miniature with the appropriate color, trying not to get paint in the wrong places.
Third, cover the miniature in a wash, to darken the miniature. A wash is an extremely watery paint, usually brown or black, that pool into the recesses of a miniature, creating the illusion of shadow. Cover the whole miniature, but make sure not to cover too thick.
If you want a dirtier, more battle worn looking miniature you’re done here, but if you want a cleaner, more uniform mini you will want to paint the raised areas over again. This is know as ‘highlighting’.
Now you can see how easy it is to paint a miniature, with a little practice, anyone can get great results!!
“Do you play games with them?”
Well of course! We set up the table with the terrain for our armies to fight on, and the miniatures themselves. Once the game begins it is governed by a set of rules. There are hundreds of rulesets by various authors, for any time period one could imagine. They provide procedures for how well you can command your troops, how far they move, and how they fight. Who wins is determined by the scenario, which may be as simple as ‘kill the other guys’, all the way to a complex historical objective.
“Where does the history come in?”
Our goal as historical wargamer is to put ourselves in the shoes of the leaders of the past. We seek to gain a better understanding of the problems the faced, whether it be Julius Ceasar, or Sergeant Smith. When will you commit your reserves? How will you hold when you are outnumbered? Where will you send your flanking force? These are the thrilling questions we face while wargaming, and we hope it helps us understand history a little better.
I hope after reading this article you know a little better what historical wargaming is. If you want to jump in the first thing to do is to find the people in your area that are wargaming, because wargaming is a social hobby. If you can’t find anyone near you, you’ll have to drag some other newcomers with you!! I wish you luck on your wargaming journey, you won’t regret it.
Thanks for reading, 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.
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Until next time- Joshua, The Napoleon of the West
