Why do I do what I do?

Nabbed from Dave's Blog

 

"This is another one of those interesting Internet Memes that occasionally does the rounds within the hobby Blog community. This one comes from the Itinerant Hobbyist who has adapted something he found elsewhere on the Interweb as a way of classifying and quantifying what drives us as individual wargamers. Unlike a set of questions this is designed to gauge the complex interplay of motivations that we all share but in different quantities. There are five basic categories and all you have to do is allocate a percentage next to each according to its significance in motivating you as a wargamer. Of course there is nothing to stop you from adding a little explanation with your percentages, in fact I hope you do.

(Picture Source - 56 Geeks)

The descriptions below are taken directly from the Itinerant Hobbyists post:

• Immersion - You really get into the fluff/universe/world/history of the game you play. 
• Social - relationships are what's important. You look forward as much to the dinner/drink afterwards as you do to the gaming itself.
• Showcasing/Modelling - You really like to show your work and see the work of others. Modelling and painting are what give you the most energy.
• Strategy - You like to read forums, listen to podcasts, work on lists, etc to improve your game. You like the mechanics of how a game works.
• Competition - you like testing your play style and abilities against others to come out on top. Or, to test your strategies against the best."

So from the above let me see,
Immersion: 20%
Despite the fact that I do medieval re enactment my knowledge of history is pretty naff, I can't for some reason take in things and remember them on that large a scale, but the mundane aspects of life in the period I cover I'm good at. Which I think is why I much prefer skirmish/RPG style games which I can get into much easier.

Social: 20%
Beer good... No umm, I'm really not the most social of people to be honest, but I get along with gamers, I prefer the company to the social aspect I think. Hopefully that makes sense, as kids me and my mate would go to each others house and kinda do our own thing with some chatting every now and again.

Showcasing/Modelling: 35%
I do like the look of a decently painted army on the tabletop. I am a very lazy painter though as though I'm a very capable painter and have entered and placed in competitions in the past, I came to the realisation sometime that the look of an army doesn't rely on each model being superbly painted, passable will do for the tabletop. As a result I tend to paint to what I call wargames standard instead of the higher level I reserved for my RPG models. Most recent example was for the Pendraken competition, I painted up a base of 10mm ww2 Germans, up close you can see the difference, on the table you couldn't pick it out.

Strategy: 15%
I tend to go with what I think feels right, sometimes I get it right, other times I prove how much I should actually look at history in a bit more depth. I like to win, who doesn't but I'd prefer a good game over anything.

Competition: 10%
A bit like above, I'm not that bothered, the reason I went in for the Impetus competition was for the chance to play against different people than I'd play at club.

BKC Germans

Mostly finished my BKC stuff, still need to finish off my 3 tigers, 4 panzer IV's and base up my artillery and that last Recce Unit. Anyway here's my force for tomorrows game, the major part of one of the Panzer Grenadier Battalions, with one of the Panzer Companies and some artillery.

Pictures

First off the Tuetonics as they appeared in the tournament (Well almost, minus the javelin skirmishers and in with my proxy bowmen instead. and my unfinished unit of knights back left) as I may have said still some basing and highlights to get done to finish them off to satisfaction.

And finally my vikings as they are at the moment, just because they were sitting out on the table at the time.

Update Time

As was mentioned at Mondays game, been a bit since I last updated. I'd been busy trying to get my Impetus army ready for the tournament so it was all hands to the pumps for that one. In the end with the exception of 1 unit of Teutonics which I couldn't finish because of a lack of spray paint, Hobbycraft didn't have any black and GW with it's really stupid opening times meant I couldn't get any so I ended up borrowing a stand of knights from Dax as well as the javelin skirmishers to replace my proxied bowmen. (I want to pick up the GBP dark age box to get javelins etc and they'll provide all the unarmoured for my Viking stuff as well)

Either way, with only highlights (I stopped after base coat and wash) and basing to finish off completely here's my Teutonics for Impetus.

Or at least it would be if I could figure out how to put pictures up, I can't find a browse option, I think I need to upload everything to google docs and then select them from there? Any ideas anyone?

In other projects a good portion of the 10mm Saracens are now based and undercoated, mostly infantry and a 2 units of camels, need to get some Cavalry from Old Glory before that lot can get based up.

Finished off some of my command and misc units for BKC, FAO's etc. Pic's to follow at a later date (See above). 

Just finished converting one of my Novices for the Mordheim Campaign I'm playing in at the club, just adding an extra hammer seeing as she found some talent from somewhere, it probably should have been as a seamstress or something, but that's maybe how the sisters pulled the Elf Ranger in to help them out in the wilderness so far away form their monastery.

Will try and get a picture of the warband put together at somepoint as well. I'm thinking as a little project to try and figure out the settings I need on the wife's SLR that I should over the coming months, dig out and photograph all my armies etc. Though it does sound like an awful lot of work it could case some fruitless inspiration of "Oooh, I want to try playing that game again" But it'll also serve as a chance to sort through some of the crap I have sitting in boxes that I'll never use, like the 6mm ancients and moderns, and the 28mm ECW stuff I have.(Which I think may actually be lead)

Starting Point.

Well here's some bad pics of where I'm starting out with my Tuetonics.

Armoured infantry (Military Order Sergeants) are Fireforge Foot Sergeants, so are the crossbowmen (Military Order Crossbowmen). Front right and left with a dodgy Pavise from a Tombking.

Archers (Livonian Foot Skirmishers) and semi painted knights are Bretonians (Nobles and German Mercenaries)

Horse archers (Livonian Horse Archers) are some really old Grenadier elves.

Mounted Sergeants (Turcopoles) and the Teutonic Knights (as is) are the other ones from Fireforge with several still to be made up. However I really need to get my hands on 2 skirmish bases of Livonian Javelins t omake the force I want to try and field, then see how it all works out.

Next up Vikings and Tuetonics

Well now that I'm back from my little trip away for one of my other hobbies (IVFDF) it's time to get ready for the Viking exhibition on Sunday (After the Scotland vs Wales game on Saturday) I have my how to paint a model in stages done. Just got a few little bits to finish to round that off so that I have some proper finished off models to display as well. Then it's buckets of dice, Vikings and Scots.

Pics to come for both.

Next up is my Tuetonics, I play Impetus already though generally with Dax's models. I got my teutonics mostly assembled now and the undercoating has started, there is a tournament at the club in April which is my goal to get everything ready for. Though I may need to borrow some skirmishers as I don't have anything suitable in my own colelction for them yet. I'm slotting in my Bretonians on some makeshift sabots to make do for nobles and German mercenaries, and they don't look too out of place thankfully.

Some make shift Pavises will also need to be made probably, but I have some old Tombking shields I can stick on a base for now.

Agian pics will come once I have things a little bit better organised.

Vapnartak

Well this weekend was Vapnartak, the club went down in force in a bus and although I could have done without the 5am start it was a good day out.

Lots of games on show, pretty much all 28mm, I think I saw a FoW game and teh 15mm Critical mass but that was it for other scales. Had another go of Saga, which I still enjoyed, I think I need to finish off my Vikings and get going with that one.

There were purchases a plenty though, mostly finishing off armies which I'm quite pleased about.

15mm ACW standard bearers, All I need to finish off the models I currently have.

10mm Saracen Infantry for the missus, now that I have the mix of models I can start thinking about basing that lot for painting.

A 1/144 scale ME109 to complete my BKC Germans, it'll proxy in for whatever aircraft I'm using on the few occasions they do get used.

A small horde of bases for the above and some Impetus sabots for the next purchase and a new army, period etc.

Teutonics from Fireforge Games, 3 boxes to be used for Impetus. I think that should give me the main core of troops that I need as I got the Teutonic Cavalry, Mounted Sergeants and foot Sergeants. That should give me 7 Cavalry bases, (3 heavy, 4 medium/light) and 6 infantry bases, (More if I shift my crossbowmen down to one rank to start with.)

So all in all, a good haul. I'm still going to finish off my WW2 Germans first I think, they're all tanks, transports and artillery pretty much, so easy enough to paint.