Hobby Thread - November 16, 2024 [TRex]

Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread.

We gave the Ace of Spades Wheel of Hobbies(TM) a spin and it landed on a theme of strategy games for this week. Apparently the Wheel is interested in games of tactics and strategy. For purposes of the Hobby Thread, we are not talking about real-life diplomatic and political dynamics. We are talking about games, scenarios, and simulations done for fun and hobbying. If your professional job involves running military simulations or your education involved re-visiting battles of old, you are welcome to share.

Once upon a time, TRex played Stratego and Battleship, but that is about it. Difficult to play strategy games with these short arms. Besides, dinosaur history games typically involve an asteroid and end quickly. Others, however, are much more into war gaming and strategy games. Some of this fun exists in board game form with dice or cards. Some fun exists on computer. Some fun involves getting together with others to recreate military conflicts with scale figures and landscapes.

Do you play games of strategy? Are they role playing games or board games or games on a computer? What are your favorites? Are there eras in the past or military engagements of the past that you find most compelling? Do you keep close to reality or do you play in the sandboxes of fantasy and fiction? Are you wise in the ways of Dungeons and Dragons? Aside from the fun aspect of gaming, have you found that strategy games helped your problem solving skills in general? Do you play games with your children to teach them about history?

Content below to get the conversation started, but looking for participation from our gray box friends. If meaningful to you, it will be meaningful to the Horde.

As per usual Hobby Thread etiquette, keep this thread limited to collecting money. It can be difficult to separate money with politics but try to keep some tenuous connection to games and hobbying. Politics and current events can reside in threads elsewhere. Play nice. Do not be a troll and do not feed the trolls. As usual, wearing pants is optional for thread participation.

Our friend Skip sent a report from his war gaming trip to the fall convention of the Historical Miniatures Gaming Society. The event is called Fall In! (like the military command) and was held in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

While I have thousands of figures, one does not need to take anything but your person. All games are played with the game masters figures. Sometimes a club pools figures for the game masters. I could if I wanted to run a game and pack my figures to the venue.

But came just to play, and maybe buy a few figures from the vendors. First game was a Wars of Oz. Yes besides characters from the Wizard of Oz, they have expanded not unlike Tolkiens world with factions good and bad and magic in a black powder period. I seem to be attracted to playing on the Munchkins side.

Next couple games went back to my usual Napoleonics. In the first game, the game master connected different sessions by continuing where the last game time ended. The next played a Napoleonic era game with rules from Wars of Oz.

Day 2 refought a historical Napoleonic game with a fantastic game board called the flank of Waterloo. The Prussians assisted the British/Allies at a town called Plancenoit. We almost won, losing one of the goal positions. On the last roll for a Prussian unit to stay or run out of that position, they ran.

Did not play this game, but just to show what extraordinary preparation some game masters do on their time and money. This was a modern warfare game.

I watched a WWI flying game that I see often at conventions. Well, watch enough and they will talk you into playing. I shot down one German but got myself shot down as well. Mostly tried to stay out of anyones sights.

These miniature game conventions are all over the country, and throughout the year and in other countries as well. One just needs admission and then find what you want to play. They are happy to explain rules, usually a quick description at the beginning and questions along the way are never a problem.

Thanks Skip! Anyone else participate in these types of events?

Due to my small dinosaur brain, I do not pretend to understand all the nuances but it looks like part of the magic is the games and part of the magic is the builds and pieces parts. You can buy and paint figures, but people often make their own buildings, landscapes and figures. 3D printing is a big thing. Here is an overview of the event Skip attended - maybe he is in there somewhere?

From the HMGS website:

More details at the site.

How D&D Grew Out of Historical Wargames

Battleship is known worldwide as a pencil and paper game which dates from World War I. It was published by various companies as a pad and pencil game in the 1930s and was released as a plastic board game by Milton Bradley in 1967.

You can make your own Battleship game with grid paper.

The Horde Might Know Things:

Here is a challenge for the Horde. The sign below and accompanying scale models are located in the North Carolina Racing Hall of Fame (near Charlotte). As the sign says, the museum would like help learning more about the two model cars in their collection. Does anyone in the Horde know or know someone who does? If the Hobby Thread is not successful, I will post on a future ONT for another attempt (but I have faith in the Hobby Thread Horde).

Unrelated to strategy games but some of the Horde enjoys working on cars or following motorsport. This is the story of how one person became a lead engineer for a NASCAR racing team (Xfinity Series, JR Motorsports, Sam Mayer). Short summary: a lot of work, a lot of physics knowledge (some learned through academics but most learned through the school of hard knocks), little money, and little sleep. Success mocks those who want to accomplish big things and maintain a work life balance. It takes total commitment.
I Did Not Have The Money Or Skill To Be A Pro Race Car Driver So I Did The Next Best Thing

Also unrelated to strategy games but very related to tools and proper caliper usage:

(h/t Kindltot)

Did you miss the Hobby Thread last week with a collecting money? The comments may be closed, but you can re-live the content.

Notable comments from last week:

Honorable mention:

Words of wisdom:

"Because despite all our troubles, when things are grim out in that wide round world of ours, that's when it's really important to have a good hobby." Posted by: tankascribe at June 22, 2024 07:41 PM (HWxAD).

If war gaming and strategy games are not your thing and you have trouble finding something in the content or comments that resonates with you, hijack the thread for your hobbying as you see fit. We will feature a different hobby next time. Send thoughts, suggestions and photos of your hobbying to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. The only winning move is not to play.

posted by Open Blogger at 05:30 PM

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