RE:[MISC] [OT] Bring and Battle

On Wed, 23 Sep 1998, Jared E Noble wrote:

>>>"Once you have experience" is the operative word here. How many games
>>>does it take to learn a system inside out? *Without* a more
experienced
>>>teacher? Let's say I play a game of SG once every three months
(typical
>>>for a "sideline" game in my group). Let's say it takes 10 games to
learn
>>>the system.

>>Playing a game once every three months isn't giving it a fair go. 
When I
>>buy a new game system I commit myself to learning it and playing a
number
>>of games, up to one every weekend, over the next couple of months.

>Must be nice - you apparently have much more free time than some
people, as
>do those you play with.

Opps....I should have pointed out that I bought most of my new games
when I
was at high school/University and could put aside one day of the weekend
for gaming and it was easy to find people who were interested in
playing. 
I think in the last two years the only new system I have bought is
StarGrunt and I guess I bought it knowing I could organise my time so
that
I coud play on the weekends cause I am back at university doing a
course.
That also makes it easy to find people to play against. 

>Unfortunately, this is NOT a realistic alternative for many.  Often I
only
>get to play any kind of game about once every few months - and my main
>opponent has about the same amount of time.

True...I think I should have cast my mind a little bit further back in
time
to when I was working a rotating shift and didn't play much. 

>>.... contact some other like minded people through the retail store
where
you >>bought the rules from.  Just cause your current gaming group
doesn't
play a >>system doesn't mean their aren't other people around who do.

>But unfortunately it sometimes DOES mean exactly that.  Look, I live in
>Anchorage Alaska. There is basically ONE game store in southcentral
Alaska,
>with 3 locations.  (For reference - thats an area almost the size of
>TEXAS!)  When I went in and ordered FT, MT, DSII, SGII, and finally
FTFB -
>each time I was told by the games guy that he had never heard of these
>products!  Absolutely no chance in hell that anyone else in the area
has
>bought them from the store.  And Peter has been the games guy there
since
>before FTII was published!  So unless people have been buying direct
from
>geohex or GZG, there's almost no chance of experienced players.  I am
the
>local FT expert - and I have played ONCE!  that kind of sucks.  

Being from a country town in Australia, I can understand your problem
(though it isn't as bad as your situation).  From personal experience I
find most people in this situation do use mail order as their main
source
of gaming material.  I was lucky to have a small group of people who
roleplayed and wargamed where I lived so it wasn't all a lost cause.  

>>>And I absolutely hate cardboard counters...

>>I'm going to make a judgement call now and if I'm wrong I apologise to
you
>>before hand, but it sounds like you have been sucked in by the GW
marketing
>>people who's only goal in life is to sell their miniatures and as a
result
>>have corrupted a whole generation of potential wargamers into thinking
that
>>the only way to play is with officially sanctioned miniatures. 

>The GW comment is rather low (not directed towards me but it sort of
>applies)

Hmmmmm.....I think I'm going to get into trouble for that comment....
Putting it in context, I'm a little fed up with my local 40K players and
their need to have the most up to date, offically sanctioned figures. 
To
the point where they only use offical space wolf, blood angel figures in
their squads. (there's no such thing as a generic space marine model in
their armies)  I hope they grow up sometime soon and then I might start
playing 40K again.

As for cardboard counters littering the battle field and using cardboard
tokens in stead of miniatures, I see them as just part of playing
wargames
and don't get to annoyed when they distract from the aesthetic appeal of
the table/game.  Dice do that already so it seems a litle pointless
getting
annoyed at some counters on the table as well.

Wayne.