As mentioned in the previous post, the descent into A Levels, hunting for a part time job and joining a club for ‘proper’ wargaming began in September and I can reasonably claim that was the point at which the childlike joy of toy soldiers began to fade into ‘serious’. At 60, I look back and wonder if that is why I am now so jaded with the gaming element of the hobby. John Ruddles got it right.
One of the things that amazes me was how I managed to experiment with so much in the first half of the year: Pony Wars, AWI, Zulu Wars, Commando raids… All on a shoestring budget! I think the inventiveness that characterised younger wargamers in the 70s and 80s has been lost. How many wargamers nowadays start off looking at magazine photos and aim for that, buying into whatever ‘system’ and it’s associated figure ranges has the best advertising, rather than chopping up cardboard boxes and raiding bins (especially the bins from Skool woodwork and art rooms - yes, I did do that) for useful bits and bobs. Or spun through a loo roll if they needed a lighthouse.
Perhaps I’m being unfair, but it would be nice to see people struggling with hair roller armies, or trying to create pipe cleaner cavalry for pipe cleaner infantry. I can do both 😉.
My main inspiration in those early years came from films, comics and Commando books. Of course, I was reading ‘proper’ history books and building my library (courtesy of Bryan Forbes’ bookshop) but who wants to do a ‘Dark Age Infantry Slog’ when you can be Gregory Peck and David Niven? This game was a mix of all those influences.
Sadly, the music which powered me through all my experimentation up to September rapidly went downhill, UB40 being the catalyst (can’t stand them!) and the excruciating Flying Pickets giving the year a musical coup de grace. There were a few honourable exceptions - Lionel Richie, Simple Minds, Assembly - but even groups that had come up with earlier belters were scraping the barrel. Compare Let’s Dance to Modern Love: even Bowie was letting us down! Little did I know Queen were limbering up to save the world…
However, worth a mention was the late, great Bonnie Tyler, whose Total Eclipse of the Heart video was filmed up the road from me in what was Holloway Sanitorium! I actually visited there on a skool trip once. Yes, St Ann’s Heath Middle Skool thought a great day out for the kids was a trip to a functioning mental hospital. Mind you, it’s where most of the teachers should have been.
1984 would see an improvement musically, academically and financially over the final months of 1983, and I mostly enjoyed my Friday nights at Staines, although it was clear I was not part of the ‘in crowd’ and I would not make any friendships, lasting or otherwise. From a gaming perspective it did introduce me to different periods and scales but I’m not sure if I spent my years there just going through the motions and doing what I thought was expected of me, because no matter what I played there was always something missing…
It was the smell of French Marigolds as you rummage around to find a paratrooper with a broken leg.
Anyway, a quick visit to the loft and I found these survivors from the raid. Enjoy!
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| Lloyd, Ravenwood, Marion & Doctor Jones |
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| Written in 1978! |
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| German mobility! |
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| If I look harder I may find some more bits. Note my WSS generals are being prepped…. |
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| For men of a certain age… |
First of all...KAREN ALLEN ;)
ReplyDeleteand loo rolls make everything better.
and the kids today definitely have lost the cottage industry approach to gaming - and prefer 3d prints...gone is the imagination birthed from those old Commando comics. I said recently that I wanted to do a game based on 'Where Eagles Dare' and received a blank response from younger gamers ...I know right?
Absolute joy to see those old Airfix 54mm items, and Marion Ravenwood.
So much interest in rules and figures now, that the narrative has been lost I think.
'Ohhh look at the detail on those' has replaced 'what can i do with this bit of balsa wood'.
Actually, this was part of returning to RPGs to an extent, as people have to think on their feet, and 'imagine stuff'.
...and finally..KAREN ALLEN !!! Definitely in my next Call of Cthulhu campaign...somehow
I think you would have to use something like Recon in true D&D mode to do WED, but I’m sure it’s possible.
DeleteBalsa was my solution to pipe cleaner horses: a shaped rectangle of balsa with a length of pipe cleaner in a long S shape on top to form the head, neck and tail. Trust me, it works!
Ravenwood is the oldest figure, late 60s at least. Jones was my original Airfix Australian officer purchased from Streets in Ringwood in May 1973. Marion was given to me by my mate Gary, along with two Britains sheep (still have them too!) in 1978, but she probably dates from the early 70s. Lloyd was my second box of US infantry (he’s painted to fit in with my first box, in my dad’s style) and was around before Centennial, so 1977/8.
And… the Bedford dates from 1972, KW was from Noah’s Ark in Boscombe 1977, the checkpoint was late 70s from Woolco’s in Southbourne. Strongpoint and Hanomag: no idea!
DeleteI missed out on the cool 54mm gear back in the day, opting for cheaper 1/72...I do miss Woolco
DeleteI agree with both you and Darren. Something is lost to ingenuity, discovery, and the imaginative freedom we had in the early days of wargaming when put up against today's ready-made hobby. There is something special about creating an entire army or scenario from whatever can be scrounged. or dreamed up. The limitations we faced seemed to encourage far more invention than today.
ReplyDeleteTo save being accused of a ‘youth of today’ rant this also applies to older gamers! I found with Wargames South that every new range was greeted with requests for some obscure unit or something that could be covered by a quick conversion or paint job ‘when are you going to do Polish paratroopers in their distinctive beret?’ In 10mm…
DeleteThere was certainly a make do or scratch build approach as there was never enough money for troops, let alone terrain which had to be made. I seem to remember egg cartons were quite useful to create hills with the tops and pillboxes and dragons teeth with the bottom half.
ReplyDeleteMy first hill was the Matchbox Comet base covered in plasticine. A packet of lichen (still a nostalgic scent) covered most greenery requirements although if you found some binned packing foam and some garden wire you had the Ardennes sorted! Dad’s that could make do and mend with a garage or shed stuffed with ‘might come in useful’ items were an invaluable source, too.
DeleteCan I encourage you to join me in railing against wargame w@nk words/terms like 'game' and 'friction'? Sadly 'narrative' and 'story-telling' are being turned into them too. We proudly announce the release of [name], the game in a box using our patent [insert completely incompatible scale] range of figures which provides an immersive narrative experience with plenty of friction so that no two games are alike. [Get in quickly before we release version 2 with all new figures and rules.]
ReplyDeleteStill, in my saner moments, I realise that there is both, and more. There are plenty of examples of marvellous, scratch-built buildings, overlay terrain and converted figures, along with pragmatic to 'studio-quality' painting of figures, new or old.
Karen Allen almost makes you want to watch "Animal House" again. But 'Raiders' provides the joy of A and a more betterer story too. Seems that she's available, you should drop her a line...
Best wishes, James
‘Faction’ is my particular irritant. The Wehrmacht was a not a ‘faction’ in WW2, neither was Germany. A close second is the figure/rule tie in, so you can only use a particular company’s figures with their rules, or worse, the release of new figures as a ‘new cool faction’ with special rules for their use, thus combining both abominations.
DeleteAll the new kids on the block with their fancy MBAs (on which business ethics 'used' to be taught, but is no longer) - trying to turn a quiet hobby into a business. Damn their eyes I say!
DeleteWait...Karen Allen was in Animal House ? :O ...fumbles though old VHS collection...
She certainly was…😛
DeleteYES, faction. What a lot of dingoes kidneys.
Delete