The Games that Define Us - Re-post

This is an old post of mine, from 2012, that I just re-read. It made me think, again, about the influences in my games as well as how Rhys has been influenced as he grows up with gaming.

The idea is to talk about ten games that define you as a gamer.  Some interesting things have come out of it.  More North American gamers seem to have gotten in through RPGs, whereas the UK gamers seem to have come into it through GW.

In my case, I definitely follow the trend, coming to GW late in my gaming life.  There are some on my list that I have not seen anywhere else.  Others seem to be on every list.

Kings and Things

I was digging through more boxes from my parent's house and found this old gem in one of them. My sister, cousins and I played endless hours of this game as children. I bought it 1983 - I think.

A hobby weekend

Last weekend was looking to be a tame, stay at home and not do much sort of affair.  That lasted until 5th Monday (sometimes known as Friday in places that aren't my work) kicked in and the work crew decided we needed beers to help ease the pain.  So far, a not uncommon tale for the end of a week.

Four month plan +

There's a lot I want to do this year, since I'm trying everything that catches my fancy for twelve months.  I've called it the year of rules but I'm also dabbling in scales, mediums and genres.  The only real rule I have is that all of my gaming activities have to be games.

This year I'm deliberately being a gaming magpie.

The Games that Define Us

An interesting tide is sweeping our small section of the blogosphere.  I refuse to use the M word (meme, there I did it, but only this once).  It started with the Frontline Gamer, whose blog I've pimped out before.  Several others have done it as well.  The topic has been bubbling around in my mind for a couple of weeks now, and it's finally germinated into something.

The idea is to talk about ten games that define you as a gamer.  Some interesting things have come out of it.  More North American gamers seem to have gotten in through RPGs, whereas the UK gamers seem to have come into it through GW.

In my case, I definitely follow the trend, coming to GW late in my gaming life.  There are some on my list that I have not seen anywhere else.  Others seem to be on every list.

Monthly Retrospective 2

Another month down and not as much to show for it as I would have liked.  Still, I like to take a look back to catalog the progress; it helps me to keep motivated.

I only got twelve models painted.  That's way below my, frankly tiny, goal of twenty.  Even if I add in the models from last month it doesn't average out to 40 in two months.  So, a bit of a failure there and it makes me somewhat sad.  On the other hand, I finished my Haradrim army for Lord of the Rings, so that is something to celebrate.  I'll hit them with some matte varnish this afternoon and be done with it.  This actually slowed me down because I didn't have another project queued up to work on.  I'm still doing conversion work on my Elves and I'm still assembling the Celts.  So, lesson learned.  Have projects ready to go on the paint table.  Second lesson:  paint consistently during the month.  Not exactly ground breaking, I know, but there you have it.

Games for the wee ones III

Castle Fortaan got a big thumbs down from Rhys.  He doesn't even want to try it.  He still, desperately, wants to play Lord of the Rings, but he's just not there yet, understanding wise.  I'm back to looking for a dungeon crawler.  The local Barnes & Noble has two of the Dungeons and Dragons games, Castle Ravenloft and the Wrath of Ashardalon.  I would have preferred to get the Legend of Drizit, but I needed a game right now.   I settled and plumped for Castle Ravenloft.

One of my favorite bloggers, Frontline Gamer, did a review of the product which was not super enthusiastic.  The thing is, the things he didn't like about it are less likely to be problems when I am playing with Rhys.  The real thing Rhys wants is a dungeon crawler with minis that is cooperative play.  He wants the two of us to go kill bad guys and he wants it to be done with miniatures.  This game should answer the mail.

Rhys is not reading yet, so I'll be helping him with that part, but he does understand rolling dice and he certainly recognizes a bad guy when he sees one.  The mechanics of the game look simple enough.  The minis don't look like they will take paint very well, since they are bendy plastic, but I am going to hit them with a black wash to bring out some of the detail.  I'll post pictures to show you how it came out.

Games for the Wee Ones II

The search for the perfect dungeon crawler/mini game for the boys continues.  My stopgap, Space Hulk tiles with LotR minis, has sufficed for four or five games.  Owyn has lost interest and Rhys is struggling but still wants to play.  There's no depth and nothing to accomplish.  Goblins come on the board, they get killed.  It has sufficed to get us through the initial stages and give Daddy enough time to do some research.

Games for the wee ones

Rhys goes with me to the store on Thursday nights.  While I play or talk, he hangs out and plays with Star Wars minis on some of the store terrain or plays the DS.  Lately he has been wanting to play LotR with me.  He'll be right around the table, "measuring" things with a tape measure.  Thursday nights are special bonding time for Daddy and Rhys, but he is also starting to intrude into the games.  So far, everyone at the store has been very nice about it, but I obviously need to get Rhys his own game that we can play together.

You see, Rhys is seven and has special needs.  He doesn't grasp the rules for LotR yet.  He's, among other things, developmentally delayed about a year and a half to two years.  I've been looking for the right game for him, but have not been able to find something.  I finally gave up on buying it and decided I'd just have to make something up.  He loves the mini's and he loves the Lord of the Rings. 

I decided on a dungeon crawl game.  I wanted something simple and quick to pick up and put out.  I don't have any dungeon tiles but I do have Spacehulk.  Problem one solved.  They may be Space Ship tiles but to a little boy they are tunnels and rooms in a dungeon.

Lord of the Rings - Risk

Oddly, SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed) likes Risk.  We have three different versions of it, including my ancient version from childhood.  Naturally I assumed that she would be as excited as I was when I found this for a good price on eBay.

Perhaps I was a little bit optimistic.  On the other hand, she did smile as she was shaking her head, so there is still hope.  I'm looking forward to playing this, at any rate.

Monthly Retrospective 1

What did I accomplish this month?  A big part of the reason I keep this blog is to motivate myself to get things done.  I'm always happy to play; it's harder to get myself motivated to build terrain and, especially, to paint.

I painted twenty six models.  That beats my goal of twenty a month.  That's a success and having the month end deadline definitely helped.  I'm a "beat the deadline" kind of guy.  Tournaments, challenges, those work to motivate me.  Those twenty six are completely done, to table top standard, except for grass on the bases.  I plan, eventually, to come back and hit all of them with some more paint to spiffy them up before the Mayhem in the Mountains tournament in September.

I also played quite a bit this month.  I got in seven games, which is almost two a week.  I can't really complain about that.  One of them was a teaching game, which is always a good thing.  More opponents are always good.  I hope to be doing a lot more of those this year, leading up to and following the Hobbit, since we have a two or three year window where GW cares about the game.

The history of gaming - my style

I have always loved games. Board games, miniatures even legos. I spent most of my time as a child playing by myself so games were my friends.

When I was young I would save my money up to buy board games. My best friend, Cam, and I loved Axis and Allies. I also bought Shogun, Rome, Fortress America and Broadsides and Boarding Parties. I loved all of these games, though Axis and Allies was always the best to my mind.

Legos were my first miniatures. I got my first set on my sixth birthday, starting a life long love affair. I have hundreds of pounds of legos (how do you measure legos?). In addition to the obvious use of lego people for armies, I wanted to play mass battles. This pre-dated Warhammer and such by a few years, and I was not aware of those games even after they came out.

I did collect the Dungeons & Dragons miniatures game. The cardboard cutouts never thrilled me but they did let me fight out some battles here and there. I also played the rules for armies, making hunrdreds of units out of note cards, playing out battles with the cards representing the units and tracking them through entire campaigns.

There was a period of about seven years, between 1995 when I graduated from college and 2002 when we briefly moved to England, that I did not play any wargames. Then, in 2002 we were in Harrogate. Tracy had gone home for a few weeks and I was wandering down the high street after eating dinner. I walked past the Games Workshop store. I stopped. I stared through the glass at the models. I did not go in. I knew this was a slippery slope. If I went in I was doomed.

For several days I walked past every night and did not go in. Then I crossed the threashold. I looked at the fantasy side of the store. I looked at the Lord of the Rings mini's. I looked at the 40k (Sci-fi) stuff. I walked out. The next night I went in again. The manager asked me which army I was going to play. I didn't know enough to answer him. I fled. The next night I was back. I looked at the books. I was drawn to Empire. I asked the manager questions. He was reasonably helpful.

After a week of going in I bought the starter set. Empire and Orcs. I got it back to the hotel room. I felt that old shiver of anticipation as I got ready to open the box. I pulled off the top and there it was. Sprues of mini's, rule book, quick start rules, templates and dice. I read the whole rule book that night.

I snap fitted the guys I could together. Some of them required glue. The next night I was in the store buying glue, the Empire and Orcs & Goblins army books and a paint set with paints, brush and six Bretonnian archers. (think feudal France). That night I had everything glued and was playing through the rules on the floor of the hotel. It was like I was 12 again. I was hooked.