Solo Wargames
Does anyone else find it significant that solo miniature wargames have become so popular in recent years?
Games like that shown here (which you can get a hard copy of through Lulu), Rangers of Shadowdeep, Five Leagues from the Borderlands, and so on. To say nothing of Mike Lambo’s long-running series of rulebooks, William Sylvester’s treatise, and a number of other less miniature focused titles.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m as much a practitioner of the solo game as anyone. And granted, solo games go as far back as the hobby itself, with Donald Featherstone’s book on the subject published all the way back in 1973, but something has definitely shifted in the culture of wargaming.
Is it a refinement of the milieu? Or is wargaming just a late-stage canary in the Western cultural coal mine?
Either way, if you can, try and find a tribe of like-minded wargamers to hang with. Even if it’s just a collection of great online personas. God built men to be social creatures, so we should all lean into that for better results. And if we want the hobby to thrive, we need to be fren-maxxing.
I’ve been a solo gamer for many years. Except for very occasional visits by a son in law and a cousin, games are with me, myself and I. I’m quite used to it.
It’s probably because we are getting older as a group, and have less time to get together as a group. Which is a shame, I really just want to roll some dice with some men, and drink some adult beverages.
My solo table top gaming has come about mostly because of my work scheduled. I’m working when most people I would be playing with are playing. Sunday is the only day I have free but by then, I’m exhausted and don’t have the energy to be an extrovert (my job is basically a mix of having to figure out how to make the really stupid ideas of clueless, collage graduated idiots some how work while also directing a flock of below the bottom of the barrel, low IQ workers they hired because they’re the only ones they can get at the sub Walmart pay they offer to somehow get that impossible idea to function). So right now, solo gaming is a way to get some games in until my current situation changes… and given the fact that I’ve left a few jobs to get away from this kind of thing only to end up in the same position at my next job doesn’t leave me much hope heh. My state sucks.
I wonder if it’s just that the internet allowed solo wargamers to become more obvious?
About forty years ago I remember talking to one figure manufacturer, and he had several customers in our small town and at our small club we’d heard of none of them.
But yes, we do need to build the links wherever possible. But I suspect for some people your channel does help provide a bridge into the rest of the hobby.
People will see things, be drawn further, and make links both internationally and locally