Late last year, without an MMOG to satiate our gaming needs, we turned back to miniature wargaming as an outlet, not just to fulfill our gaming wonts, but to stretch our creative muscles as well. What most people don’t realize is that miniature wargaming is a multi-tiered endeavor that goes well beyond simple tabletop gaming. Or, to be more accurate, wargaming is a hobby in which gamers can do more than just game, because it offers related pursuits that ultimately feed back into the core gameplay, even though these pursuits are fundamentally optional. In fact, when it comes to miniature wargaming, one can participate in one or more facets of the hobby, ironically making the actual gaming optional as well. For typical miniature wargames, we can easily observe the following activities:
- Playing the actual game. At its core, playing a miniature wargame is all about fielding an army, rolling dice, and trying to decimate the opposition.
- Theorycrafting. While the game itself is ripe with strategy, choosing which units to field, and understanding the synergies between them, is an activity in itself. All this takes place before the game is even played, and time vested in this activity can drastically impact the game itself.
- Painting and modeling. Creating unique miniatures, either by modding existing sculpts or simply painting the sculpts one’s own way, is a creative outlet with aesthetic merits on the battlefield. Perhaps more importantly, it’s a part of the hobby with lasting joy, even when a match isn’t on the horizon.
- Terrain modeling. Beautifying the backdrop instead of playing on the kitchen table offers similar aesthetic appeal to working on the miniatures themselves. For the game itself, making terrain also offers strategic options, and determining how best to produce realistic, enticing terrain is often a creative problem-solving exercise.
To us, part of the appeal of miniature wargaming is this multi-tiered approach to the hobby, because we’re not limited to just any one area, though we can easily discount any of these facets should we lose the desire, or have less time, to engage in the hobby in the future. Having these various options also means that we’re not limited purely to interacting with fellow gamers, because in the event that we can’t make it to a gaming event or venue, we can still participate in the hobby by working on our miniatures or terrain. In the event that we do have the opportunity to play a game, the experience is far more social in nature than playing a typical multiplayer video game, as there’s no crux like microphones and teamspeak applications to worry about.
And unlike most games, the result of one’s time is manifest in the figures and terrain we produced, not just in the memories of playing the game itself. And that’s an important variable, because most people want a physical take-away if their time-investment is significant. It’s why many World of Warcraft (WoW) gamers yearn for a physical 3D model of their characters, and why Rock Band gamers order T-shirts with their in-game band logos emblazoned thereon. With miniature wargames, even a basic investment earns one a physical takeaway.
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