Decisions...................

Throughout my life I have made decisions that later I regretted, thinking why the f### did I do that.The latest one was to accept a temporary job with my council. I think I applied simply because the job was on offer and I thought I should be gainfully employed?

  Anyway I forgot just how much full time employment can interfere with wargaming.

 So as a consequence there has been a paucity of wargaming, and painting of figures in my world. 

  The positive is that it is only a short term job, and I cannot wait to pick up a paintbrush again and get cracking with some figures. 

 So in a way, employment is a great stimulus to wargamers who are suffering from a bit of wargamers bloc. Well thats what I keep telling myself.

 Lacking in game time has not however stopped me from adding to my metal mountain, especially after I saw Colin's SYW Saxons from Eureka on his blog Carry on up the Dale.

 I have always had a soft spot for the Saxon army, it was probably after reading about Augustus the Strong, Maurice de Saxe, and that knob Frederick's actions after the surrender of the Saxon army at Pirna.

 Anyway, I have opted to collect some Saxon units,pending a decision about what to do next in my wargaming world. Do I return to ancients or do I start a completely new project like the French Wars of Religion? or the Great Northern War?

  Thanks to Andy of Old Glory fame's plug in this month's Miniature Wargames, about my blog, I feel I should throw in some views about the state of wargaming, just to perk things up a bit.  

 I do have a few observations about current trends that have perturbed me a bit.

 One is the current fad for all things Zombie like. This is purely a personal thing, and is not meant as an attack on what to some people is a fun sub genre. But the question I ask, is why?

 Does it all stem from Buffy the Vampire slayer, and perhaps Shaun of the Dead, which I did find funny. What exactly attracts wargamers to paint up loads of figures that should in the main be poor at reacting to any changing situation, act in a stupid and brain dead manner and by the same token difficult to kill, because they are already supposed to be dead.

 I just dont get it. 

 Clearly a lot of wargamers do, and also a great number of other people who have taken to Zombie Larping in a big way.  But to me it just seems a dead end [pardon the poor pun] 

   It hasn't stopped a lot of small companies releasing new figures to corner that particular market.

 The fantasy market as a whole appears to be very buoyant at the moment, with new figures, accessories etc being released daily. I suppose this is to fill the void left by the demise of Warhammer World, but what do I know. 

 I was never able to get to grips with what Games Workshop were trying to achieve. I painted up a wonderful Brettonnian army, spending loads on it, to then sell the lot after I had completed it, so a bit of a waste for me then really.

                                        A bit of a dead end, and only used once?

Of course Games Workshop has still been able to significantly influence the wargaming world by downsizing its empire and unleashing a lot of its well trained staff upon us.

 The behemoth that is Warlord Games is proof of that, not that I can complain too much as I use their Black Powder rules.

 Still I wonder where wargaming would have gone if Games Workshop hadnt got rid of a lot of its staff, and allowed them to effectively influence the wargamers world.

 Supposing, the Perry twins, Mark Copplestone, Warlord,Rick Priestley and the other GW trained personnel had remained in the confines of Warhammer World, and not made the cross over into mainstream wargaming, what would have happened instead.

 Would there have been £30.00 plus rulebooks, crammed with wargame porn. Would the plastic figure have taken off as it has, would there be such an emphasis upon history lite wargames and rulebooks? The list is pretty long if you sit down and think about it.

 I am ambiguous about the pro's and cons of the fallout from Games Workshop. 

 I love the Perry range of figures, I admire the professionalism of what Warlord have achieved but sometimes I cringe at the lack of depth and knowledge exhibited by some wargamers when playing a wargame. But then I am an old fart, and accept things have to change.

  So if Warlord would like to release the Pro Gloria range of plastic landsnequets that they bought this year, then I would probably be convinced that ex Games Workshop employees were a force for good.

 But then I am easily bought.