Miniature Wargaming - The Movie. A Review

Well, it seems this documentary film is now available in the UK, via the Sky Store at a price of £9.99. Check the link here. If you're not a Sky customer you have to download the Sky Store Player app, which is a bit of a hassle but no big deal. So I went ahead, bought the film, and watched it. And here's my review.

I would say that most of the criticisms I have read online, particularly in the review from Little Wars TV, are justified. I would also check out the reviews on IMDb.

First off, the opening scene of an air-soft engagement in progress is confusing and doesn't really work - whilst including the additional problem of having nothing to do with miniature wargaming. There follows a basic introduction to the hobby, which is OK, and then we start to meet the main protagonists around whom the film is anchored. Which is where the film really starts to fall down.

The blurb from the website gives things away - "the movie dives into the heart of the wargaming industry and reveals the impact it has on people's lives". 'The industry' is a term constantly used throughout the film, and much of the film is about this 'wargaming industry', not wargaming as a hobby. Two of the three personal stories told revolve around people running small wargaming businesses. As a result, an awful lot of the film feels like it is about the problems of running a small business, rather than being about the hobby itself. The brief section set in the U.S. also focusses on a (successful) wargaming business. 

Criticisms that the film is rather depressing also ring true. One of the main characters, Andy Bryant, is a war veteran suffering from PTSD who received a raw deal from the British Army and is now struggling with his personal life as well as his home-based terrain business. Another character, Chris Nicholls, is struggling to support his family with his wargaming business and is going under from stress. Even the two actual wargamers, who are followed to a wargaming competition in Norway, find the competition itself a bit disappointing, and furthermore one of them has (you guessed it) struggled with depression in the past and found his wargaming buddies helped him through it. Crikey.

Turning back to Chris Nicholls, the main part of his story is his struggle to get his boardgame ready for presentation at a major gaming show. He fails, as you might expect, but note he is developing a boardgame, not a miniature wargame. This again points to my main issue with the film - it signally fails to do what it says on the tin. Miniature wargaming as a hobby is absent from probably half the running time. The phrase 'playing with toy soldiers' (my own summary of what the hobby is) never even occurs in the film. Henry Hyde's brief canter through the history of wargaming is OK as far as it goes, but is so condensed and rapid that non-wargamers won't gain much from it. Not Henry's fault, but indicative of the film's priorities.

I also found the film frankly a bit dull in parts, and could easily have switched off, but I stuck with it and did find some interest in the personal stories being told. There is also interesting background here if you do indeed want to understand the miniature wargaming 'industry', with companies like Warlord Games receiving a good bit of time. We get to learn a bit about the advantages of Kickstarter campaigns. But the pleasures of playing with toy soldiers are often far in the background.

I felt the film-maker needed to reach out to more grass-roots players and examine their thoughts and experiences concerning the hobby, and give a greater idea of what the hobby actually is and what it means to people. Where were the visits to clubs and wargaming shows? Where were the fabulous games put on by dedicated gamers, such as I saw at Partizan this year? I guess this relates to my own feeling that our hobby is fundamentally a grass-roots one, and that the 'industry' usually feels peripheral to me, although the fact that the hobby does support an industry is an important point to make.

As a final point, the structure of the film can be rather confusing, as it jumps from theme to theme and situation to situation, particularly in the first hour.

So overall, not really a film I would recommend. I was disappointed with a movie which I was keen to enjoy. It would appear from the evidence in the film that most wargamers are dysfunctional, or failures in life, or both. Certainly, most wargamers would admit to being a bit geeky, at least as regards their hobby. But they also tend to be intelligent and sociable people who have fun with a hobby they enjoy and which they don't take too seriously, no matter how much historical research they do or how many hours they spend painting toy soldiers.

If you don't mind having a punt with a tenner, you may find some interest here, even if only in the fact that this is (and is likely to remain), the only film about the hobby. And it is very professionally made. But anyone wanting to know what miniature wargaming is really about would be best directed to Little Wars TV and their YouTube channel - where people actually seem to have fun with their toy soldiers.

A Period of Restraint

In the midst of what is sometimes a period of excess, it was interesting for me to reflect on how little money I have been spending on our hobby recently. For example, my Christmas wargaming binge-out consisted of that which you see below.

Yes, 8 prone BAR gunners. I needed some BAR gunners to reinforce my Polish 1939 infantry, but the availability of 15mm figures for this period is now very restricted. True North Miniatures seem to have disappeared, and Flames of War also seem to have discontinued their Polish stuff - so much for big manufacturers supporting the hobby. But at 15mm size an American BAR gunner will do fine - the helmets in particular are almost identical. The lovely people at Peter Pig do a bag of 8 BAR gunners, and they agreed to make up a special pack of 8 in the prone position at a small extra charge. Just over £8 including postage and they were with me in 48 hours. Now there's a company supporting the hobby - and they've been doing it for decades.

Not buying much has been a trend for me since I started work on Shadow of the Eagles. I thought maybe when the money from sales came in I would think about putting together a couple of Napoleonic armies, but the enthusiasm doesn't seem to be there. I did end up ordering a 'brigade box' of the new Warlord Games 'Epic' figures, just to see what all the fuss was about, but then cancelled the order the next day. (I got an immediate refund at around 8 o'clock at night, another bit of good service from a wargames seller). I really couldn't see myself painting 80 figure units. Or even halving the units and painting 40 figures at a time.

Broadly speaking, it would seem 3 collections is the most I can cope with. I haven't touched my ancients in months, for example, and I would like to get some games in with them in the New Year. Starting a new collection would just be a distraction from enjoying what I already have.

So at Partizan in October, when I did the Shadow of the Eagles demo, I came away with  single Osprey book (on War Elephants). And that was it. I've spent out on a couple of military history books since then, but no specific wargaming stuff. Until my monster purchase with Peter Pig!

This I find very satisfying. Coming back to my existing periods after a deep dive into Napoleonics has been a great pleasure, an example being the large Battle of Chotusitz game I played with some old friends back in November. You can find an excellent report on that game on the Wargaming Addict blog. The photo below shows the game in progress, using a 10' x 6' table and a rented room at my local community centre.

Steve and Paul played the Austrians. They pulled off a famous victory
when Frederick arrived too late to save his advanced guard and cavalry. 

So my New Year starts not with plans for adventurous new projects, but a hope that Omicron will allow me to get back into the swing of playing my SYW, Ancients and WW2 Poland games with friends, just as in the past. Well, there is the matter of continuing to develop my revised edition of the WRG 1973 WW2 rules. There will be more of this in another post.

Happy New Year everyone. See you in 2022!

'Miniature Wargaming The Movie' - Whatever Happened?

One or two of you may remember a post from February this year which I called 'Why We Wargame'. The post had some interesting responses, but its inspiration was a documentary film called Miniature Wargaming - The Movie'.

I was fascinated by the concept of the film as soon as I learnt about it. Like many wargamers, my first reaction was - you must be joking. Closely followed by - I bet that will be a heap of crap. But I have learnt during this year that what resulted looks like a thoroughly professional, eye-catching film that really sets out to say something about the hobby. 

Fortunately, it wasn't the film a lot of gamers seemed to want - a history of the hobby along with details of how miniature wargames are played, a film that would have been of interest mostly to people who are already wargamers. Instead it seemed to focus on what the hobby (and by extension all hobbies) meant to people and how it affected their lives. We all spend a fair amount of time thinking about and participating in our hobby, so why not take a bit of time to think through why we do it?

The film clearly concentrated on British gamers and the British hobby. The main problem is, the film was released in 2019, won some awards, was released to the public in the U.S, but remains unreleased in this country. As far as I'm aware, the only Brits who have seen it are those who participated in the crowd-funding which got the film made.

From what I hear and have found online, the other surprising thing about the movie is how little real interest it seemed to generate amongst UK wargamers. Here was a professional movie that was worth watching, made about our hobby, and no one seemed to care much.

So I very much hope it will be released soon in this country. In fact, I emailed director Joe Piddington via the film's website to ask what was going on. He was kind enough to send a pretty full reply, and in short he is waiting on the film's distributor's in the UK to complete negotiations with people like Sky and Amazon - a process that is entirely beyond his control. Lockdown was apparently part of the problem, and reading between the lines I could sense Joe's frustration at the film remaining unavailable in the country of its birth. This exchange was in August, and Joe mentioned that the intention was to get the film out this year. Well, nothing yet. I can only say that as an ordinary punter it all feels a bit weird.

Anyway, my fingers remain crossed. It is sad that this film seems to have been forgotten in the UK before it even became available to watch. I hope the situation may be resolved soon, and I wish Joe all the luck in the world. Meanwhile, see this review on Little Wars TV for a bit more info and an interview with Joe.

'Til next time!

Shadow of the Eagles - On The Road At Partizan 2021

Thanks to Dave Ryan at Caliver Books/Partizan Press, I had the opportunity to put on a demo game of Shadow of the Eagles at the re-scheduled Partizan Show on Sunday 10th October.

Well, I and the four other gamers involved had a great day, the Caliver Books stand was busy all day, and the show itself was very well attended and had a large number of fantastic games to enjoy and inspire. I decided to put the main report on the 'Shadow' blog, which seemed the right thing to do, so follow the link to see that. Just a couple of photos below to whet your appetite.

For those interested in the wider show and the fabulous games being demonstrated, as well as a fine report on our own game, I can do no better than direct you to Steve's Wargaming Addict blog. Well done as usual Steve in creating an informative and nicely photographed record of the day.

"I heartily endorse this product".
The man himself, Dave Ryan.

Steve and Jon contemplate the task ahead
for their Russian forces.

So head over to the Shadow of the Eagles blog for my take on the day. Thanks to Steve, Jon, Paul and Roland for making the day so enjoyable and the game so easy to run. 

Might be time for a brief rest from Napoleonics, so look forward to posts coming up on SYW battles and maybe some WW2 or even ancients. Could take a while though!

Go well 'til next time.

Cotswold Wargaming Day - Full Story and Pictures

So the day finally came, two years after the last event. 

Thanks to the very co-operative caretaker of the hall, I had been able to get all the tables set up the evening before, and so arriving at the hall around 08.15 to make the finishing touches was much less stressful. By about 10.30 we had 29 people in the hall, and there were two or three visitors who popped in later, so overall numbers were the same as in 2019. 

There were 8 games, 6 in the main hall and 2 in the side room. It was interesting to have 4 big games present, all using 12 foot long tables. There was still room for a couple of extra games of average size, so there is room to expand the event in 2022. Unfortunately, three games were cancelled before the event (all for very good reasons), so we could have had an even busier day this year. However, I also concluded that expansion beyond about 10 games and maybe 40 people would make things too crowded and intense.

Overall, the day couldn't have gone any better. Everyone seemed to be relaxed and enjoying their gaming, and everyone found time to chat to old friends and new acquaintances. It was a lovely atmosphere and I thank all the participants for coming, especially during a fuel shortage! 

The Scene

Evidently I was getting a bit over-excited, as my photos weren't really up to scratch. Particular apologies for the photos of prize winners which look like they were taken on a 1970s Instamatic (if you remember those). We can start with a basic trip around the hall.

Tim Cull and members of the Farnborough Wargames Club presented The Battle of Sentium (295 BCE). 12' x 6' table with 6 well-briefed players.

At the other end of the scale was Steve Johnson's Napoleonic battle,
using a scenario from Grant and Asquith's Scenarios For All Ages. 3' x 2' table.

Stuart C and the Cirencester Wargames Club brought a Renaissance game,
with Poles against an Ottoman army. 12' x 4' table

This is JP's great-looking Napoleonic game, The Battle of Dollitz, using General d'Armee.
Another biggie on a 12' x 6' table.

Equally lovely was this ACW game led by Keith McWilliam.
Another 12' x 4' game. 

Couldn't miss out the train. Nice!

My old buddy Paul put together a Cold War Commander game
featuring a battle from the 1967 'Six Day War'. 

No wargames show would be complete without someone using a plastic beaten zone.

In the side room Dave Kenyon and friends had set up a 6' x 4' table
with a Sharp Practice game set in the French-Indian War.

Game 8 was Jon Billington's WW2 game using the old
Battlegroup Panzergrenadier rules from 2002.

The Winners

I think everyone was a winner on the day, but I like to have a light-hearted prize giving to say thanks to those who take so much trouble to put on games. I have kept in touch with Stuart Asquith's son Tom, and was delighted when he agreed to come along and present the prizes, as his father had done 2 years ago. Tom also judged the prizes in conjunction with myself and Jon Billington. Thank you so much Tom.

Best Game and the Stuart Asquith Trophy went to Tim Cull. An impressive game,
with a lot of effort put into historical background and player briefing.
Plus some very high quality figures.

Best Figures - Steve Johnson. Tom was very taken by the 10mm MDF figures
Steve was using, and felt Stuart would have loved them.

Best terrain went to JP. A really attractive game which drew you in with its visual appeal.

Honourable mentions to the other 5 gamers who braved the fuel shortage
to put on games we could all enjoy. Thank you gentlemen.

Eye Candy

Pictures of rather better quality are available at a couple of other blogs, Wargaming Addict and Battlefields and Warriors. Below are a few close ups of some of the action, and pictures of gamers enjoying themselves. Which is always good.

Cavalry clash at the Battle of Dollwitz.

Crazy-good figures and models.

Dollwitz again. A fine spectacle.

The ACW game gets going.

Steve's now-famous MDF figures are from Commision Figurines.

More terrific figures in Dave's FIW game.

Gamers having fun. 

The Arab-Israeli game from the Israeli side.

More gamers having fun.

Did I mention the terrific figures?

'Best Game'. 

Oh, for goodness sake stop enjoying yourselves.

Jon's game used the 'Pont de la Croix' scenario from
Gavin Lyall's 1976 classic, Operation Warboard. Very high nostalgia value.

A man and his game. Dave Kenyon with his FIW skirmish set up.

The day flew by, and I loved every minute. So many people came up to me to say thanks and what a great day it had been that it started to get embarrassing. I think this is something clubs and groups of gamers all over the country should consider - hire a hall and invite local gamers to showcase what they're doing. It makes a great halfway house between everyday gaming and the big shows. 

Partizan on Sunday. Phew! Hope to see you there!

Dice Tray

Little things please little minds, they say. Well, one finds that hobbyists are often highly pleased with small things that they convince themselves will enhance their hobby. Hence my recent hankering to try out a dice tray.

Rolling my dice on the table has been good enough for me for nearly 50 years. I think the catalyst for a dice tray adventure was seeing dice trays in use during recent viewings of Little Wars TV. And then there was that advert for a dice tower that came up during a recent punt around the internet. However, I rejected a dice tower as just too intrusive. And a bit silly.

A rapid search on Google turned up a number of options, but in the end I decided to go cheap and cheerful, so not too much money would be wasted if the idea turned out to be another pointless purchase. To my shame Amazon got my business in the end - I guess Mr. Bezos needs to buy more rocket fuel at some stage. Just £5.99 for this cute little made-in-China item. It came next day and I am really quite pleased with it.

A smooth baize-like material on the inside, in a suitable shade of green.

Button up the poppers and there's your tray

The underside is a slightly shiny faux black leather.

Size is about 6" x 8", which is just about right for me. Plenty of room for dice rolling without taking up too much room. It's obviously designed to be something you can carry around flat, for convenience, but I wouldn't want to keep using the poppers too much - they don't feel that solid. I'll keep it done up and ready to use. Otherwise, quality is actually pretty good for the price, with no flaws or manufacturing faults. And it works really nicely, cushioning the dice as they fall with a satisfyingly soft thud. Oh dear, I think I'm getting a little light-headed.

So, from now on, no searching for dice that have rolled onto the floor, no dice hiding under trees, and the dice you are actually rolling won't get mixed up with others that just happen to be lying around on the table. I'll be ordering a second one in time for my demo game at Partizan on 7th October.

Exciting Times Ahead

On the subject of Partizan, I have two big weekends coming up - the Cotswold Wargaming Day on the 3rd October, then Partizan the following Sunday to do a Shadow of the Eagles demonstration game. So look out for reports on both of those in the not too distant future.

'Til then, go well, and good gaming.

Cotswold Wargaming Day - Update

COTSWOLD WARGAMING DAY 2021

SUNDAY 3rd OCTOBER 08.30 - 17.00

Westwoods Community Centre

Bassett Road

Northleach GL54 3QJ

The good news is that this event is going ahead as planned. The restriction in numbers has been lifted, and the only covid issues will be a requirement to sign-in and use hand sanitiser on entering and leaving the venue. Masks are not required.

An email has gone out to all on my mailing list. At the moment, 9 games have been offered, but not all are confirmed yet. We will have the use of a decent-sized side room this year which will give a bit more space, but I think I'll set a limit of 10 games to avoid overcrowding. If anyone not on the mailing list or who hasn't received an email wants to get in touch and/or swap contact details, I think the best plan is to send me a private message via the Honours of War website. If you have any problems let me know by leaving a comment here.

It's looking like it could be a great day. Not much to add to the post I put out on 12th April. If you've attended before, it will be the same format but with a smaller second room in use. If you're a new attendee, I suggest you bring some food (although the town is 2 minutes drive away and has a cafe, wine bar and pub if you prefer), and bring any stuff you want to sell or give away. And bring some cash to buy other people's stuff to replace the stuff you've just got rid of.

Ooh, I think I'm getting a bit excited!

See you there!