Sunday Sermon: Learning to say no!

        
         

We all suffer from varying degrees of what psychoanalysts call "shiny toy syndrome" (it's not actually a condition in the DSM V, but it should be). Be honest with yourself, and I'm sure at some point in your hobbying career you will have procured for yourself far too much crap. More than you could ever possibly need, or indeed paint in a reasonable time-frame. We've all done it. I know for a cold hard certain fact that I have. It's a curse most geeks will have to carry at some point, whether it be owning far to many collectible figurines (toys) or periodical graphic novels (comics). We have a tendency to want to hoard all the cool stuff and things we love. I'm not sure if I have an addictive personality or not, evidence would suggest I don't, but I certainly have a touch of the kleptomaniac about me. It's a terrifying thought actually the amount of "geeky" things I have hoarded over my life.

However, during 2013 I've learned a new word, a powerful word and it's one I wasn't aware existed when it came to buying new toy soldiers... and it's no. It's a simple word, it is really easy to spell and just as easy to say. Yet it can be quite liberating. I'm not really sure when it happened. But at some point this year I looked at the ever increasing pile of miniatures, and said enough is enough. I think the first thing that happened was I got a few Kickstarters sent through to me. Now don't get me wrong, some Ive been very pleased with, but others I've not been so happy about. The quality on some of the things has been utterly shocking. In fact had I seen these products on the sheves of my local hobby shops I would not have brought them. So the first thing that went out of my purchasing window was crowd funding.

Sunday Sermon: Finding the time

    
   

There are, I am reliably informed only 24 hours in the day. Despite the fact that of late it has felt paradoxically like there were too few hours in the day, yet it felt like there were far more than only 24 in a day. It has certainly felt that way at the end of many days recently. I'm not too sure whether that is a full on complaint or indeed just merely an observation. Simply put I've not enough time to ponder on where such thoughts come from nowadays. They pop into my head briefly, and I shrug my shoulders and just get on with whatever it was I was getting on with. Time it seems is a very scant resource round my house at the moment. Which in some ways is an entirely ridiculous state of affairs, but also given the state of daily flux in my routine isn't altogether unsurprising. In short I quite often don't know whether I'm coming or going.

This, as I'm sure you are all aware, is an absolute nightmare for our hobby. I can't just figure out that I might have a spare 3 hours this afternoon, and call up some friends for a game of Infinity or HoMachine. They too have lives, and more annoyingly their own routines. So you need to plan things more than that. Getting to play a wargame requires planning, dates, times and quite often I am unable to give firm answers, it seems, to many of those questions in advance, or more accurately enough in advance to ensure I have an opponent. As such my hobby has suffered horrendously of late. Just picking up a miniature to clean the mould lines and flash off of them has been all I've been able to manage recently. Seriously, I've cleaned five miniatures in 4 weeks. That has to be a new record in tardiness even for me.

Sunday Sermon: Do you know what the definition of insanity is?

      
       

If you haven't played Far Cry 3 you really should. Just for Vaas.

Any of you who have played the excellent Far Cry 3 will recognise the question posed in the title to this Sunday Sermon. In Far Cry 3 the rather unhinged and violent bad guy Vaas Montenegro asks the protagonist of this little adventure, Jason Brody, whether he knows what the definition of insanity is. It's actually a rather interesting exchange, and while it doesn't explain why Vaas is as clearly certifiable as he so patently is, it does explain some of his rather 'erratic' decisions. The definition Vaas is referring too is of course that is often thought to have been proposed by Albert Einstein, although it might actually have been coined by American born author Rita Mae Brown:

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results"

 Rita Mae Brown, "sudden Death" (Bantam Books, New York, 1983) p.68

Yet still it is contested whether Rita Mae Brown was the individual who is responsible for this oft misquoted soundbite.

Truth is for my purposes today it doesn't really matter who said it first. Or even that it has become a cliché I myself have tired of hearing. Nope, what is important is that actually there is, as is often the case with these things, a grain of truth in them. For the past couple of years Dr Brainiac and myself have driven ourselves mad trying to make ends meet, and eek a living out of doing the same things again, and again. Telling ourselves things would get better. I've applied to countless jobs that quite frankly only a few years ago I was considered far too qualified for, and been knocked back again and again. Each time I've dusted myself off, put on a smile and carried on stoically because that's what us Brits do. It has though been slowly grinding us both down.

Sunday Sermon: At what point should you concede defeat?

  
   

The Capitulation of Kars, by Thomas Jones-Baker, 1855.

This isn't something that I've had to deal with genuinely all that often in the recent past, mainly because I haven't played that many games. However, in the past few months I have been there to witness a number of interesting arguments and some etiquette issues that have gotten quite heated. It's not something that I for one have ever had that much negative experience with. I mean I've had people capitulate on me far too easily and early and just pack up because things haven't been going their way. That's fine I guess I don't mind that so much, although it's annoying that they don't want to play the game to its proper conclusion, I get that their heart isn't in it anymore and they just want to walk away. On the flip side I've never once waved the white flag unless my opponent has offered me that way out. I guess I realise that it takes two to tango, and I'm there just as much for my opponents enjoyment as I am my own. I feel it should be always the gamer with the upper hand who offers their opponent the chance to exchange handshakes, although it should always be by mutual consent.

Capitulation at Baylén, by Maurice Henri, 1895.

So what have I witnessed? Well the first thing I witnessed that shocked me was a young teenager walking away from a game of Warhammer Fantasy because his opponent had got off Purple Sun to devastating effect. It was his opponents second turn and he's only had one turn. I could fully understand his frustration and angst, but the thing was the game was far from over. Yeah sure it'd have been an uphill struggle to bring it back on terms, but a hard fought draw was not out of the question and still seemed more than possible. Doing so would have been a moral victory unrivaled as well. He though, "couldn't be arsed" as he so delightfully put it. This left his opponent fuming. He'd turned up to play a game, and now he was having to pack his stuff away after roughly 45 minutes and give his table up to somebody else because his opponent had in effect thrown a hissy fit. I had to say I personally felt this was just utterly terrible form, and I felt the need to say so. The young lad gave a shrug of his shoulders and said "I don't care".

Sunday Sermon: Just what the hell is Crowd-funding supposed to be?

  

Right well I guess this is overdue in some respects. Like many in our community I've spoken about this crowd-funding phenomenon that seems to have swept through our hobby, mainly in terms of the projects that are up and running on various crowd funding sites. Many of the projects that I see are genuinely interesting, and many more really exciting. I'm a terrible person for new shiny stuff, I'm a magpie at heart and I struggle to resist the allure of new miniatures and games. So this crowd funding phenomenon is a bit like a drug to people like me. The opportunity to help somebody else realise their dream and goal of producing their own miniatures range or game has been a very powerful motivator for me, and my currently quite limited spending power. I'm partly a contrary bugger who likes seeing odd ball indie games developed, and I've always sought out the weird and out of way stuff in whatever environment I happen to be operating in, be it comic books, music, films, computer games or hobby. Kickstarter is therefore right up my street.

It also appears quite oddly to be up many other peoples streets too, which is great because it seems many products are getting the funding they require to made into reality. I have personally maintained my belief that Kickstarter and Indiegogo would go through a brief euphoria period with us hobbyists being enraptured and enamoured with it. Spending all of our cash on it, and then settle down. I honestly thought it might be a fleeting fad, and that people would start to get a bit annoyed with waiting for all their shiny miniature goodness to actually arrive. I still maintain this will ultimately be the case, but, I thought this process would actually take far less time that it appears to be taking. This is a boon and a bane in some respects for our industry. You see, I've followed crowd-funding for a little time, and from before our hobby cottoned onto it as a good idea. I've witnessed the collapse of computer game projects after they've received funding, and the inevitable recriminations that follow. I actually think that our industry on the whole has been significantly better than others at actually fulfilling there promises... which either proves as a sector we're awesome, or that these products didn't need crowd-funding in the first place.

Sunday Sermon: You catch more flies with honey!

      
         

One of the many sayings my Grandmother used to tell me, normally when I was being horrid to my little sister over something or other. to be honest with you, as a young whipper snapper I used to sit there dumbfounded as to why on earth anyone would want to catch flies? Seriously, why catch flies. As I grew older I took the wisdom from those words and realised that you often get more things done, and command more respect from others if you are civil, polite and treat other with respect you wish to receive yourself. However, the words of one of my bosses also ring in my ears "flies also like shit, so what do flies know?". It's not a difficult concept this honey pot thing though; simply put are you more likely t respond positively to someone who insults you, shouts at you and generally acts like a complete asshat... or are you more likely to respond positively to a person who treats you with respect, communicates in an open and fair way and is generally a good person? Just think about your own experiences for a moment, who have you been most likely to respond positively too in the past in your social interactions?

I've often thought about this, because being a 'nice guy' we're consistently told in slightly saccharine American rom-com's means we always finish last, except you don't because the cooky guy with the curly hair seems to get the girl in the end. Puke! Society though does put it out there that if you're nice you become a doormat; that people will walk all over you. A certain Iron Lady certainly believed in this selfish and self centered attitude, and as a society we've brought into this mantra far more than the 'be nice mantra'. You see, for every saying there is an equal and opposite saying. It sucks! Why can't things just be straight forward? I guess though if they were it'd make life a little bit boring wouldn't it? I mean, we all have to work this stuff out for ourselves, find out who we want to be. I've tended to go down the route that I much prefer being a decent person, true I'm likely to get quite vicious if you try to attack or otherwise harm my own, but I'm not the sort of person who views every social interaction as a confrontation. A chance to prove I'm 'better' or I'm 'right'.  I'm just not like that, I don't assume anything, I think long and hard about what it is I believe.

Sunday Sermon: Where was I?

    
    

I've obviously been a little reticent of late (I'm sure you've all noticed). My productivity levels have certainly been 'low' when it comes to output on this here Blog. I've not been sitting in a darkened room rocking gently backwards and forwards though... OK... so maybe I have done a little bit of that, but mainly after attempting to do things like wallpapering and other DIY tasks. Have any one you ever attempted to lay massively uneven natural stone tiles on a floor that resembles the Himalayas? Well I have, and let me tell you, I have a new found respect for tilers. Quite often we look at the stuff other people do from the outside looking in and we think 'I could do that'. Sometimes we're right, we almost certainly could do that, but I think we all too often like to underestimate the difficulties associated with other peoples work.

As a researcher / consultant I often here all the jokes about giving consultants watches so they can tell you the time. They bring a wry smile from me, and I understand some of the hostility towards 'outsiders' coming in to tell people either A) what they already know or B) how to do things. It's a difficult line to tread and get right. Quite often if you are asked to do something for somebody else the reasons are very similar. The most common reason I get asked to do something is because there is a lack of resources at an organisation to get a short term piece of work over the line. This can be the most challenging environment, mainly because the organisation will almost certainly have people who are capable of doing the task themselves... it's just their day job is getting in the way. In these situations I find it is best to acknowledge that fact, and work with those people, keep them informed and pick their brains.

Sunday Sermon: Toy soldiers vs Joypads

  
   

Love it to bits.

This is a topic that has been done to death in our hobby, the idea that computer/console games will ultimately mean we're all doomed Captain Mannering! When I was a whipper snapper in the 80's I heard that arcade games and these new fangled console thingies were going to be the end of our hobby. The same was said of the ZX Spectrum, the NES, the SNES and Megadrive (Genesis for you yanks) and the PlayStation. It seems many in our hobby have an irrational fear of our digital brethren. That they are somehow gunning for us, and that there is this inevitability about our impending demise. Part of me can understand that fear, but it has been 30 years already, and yet still computer games haven't slaughtered our industry, and killed off our hobby. If anything our hobby is the strongest it has ever been. This raises a few questions, firstly why hasn't it killed us off? More specifically why haven't computer games done for wargames, traditional pen and paper RPG's and boardgames? Secondly, were they ever really a threat in the first place, or are they ever going to be a threat? Thirdly and finally, why are so many in our hobby so concerned, and are they right to be?

I still love the rattle of dice in my hands

I'm not really too sure, which question to tackle first. You see my recent hiatus on this Blog has been down to real life 'getting in the way' as it were. During this down time I haven't really had the time or indeed the energy to sit at my painting table and paint scenery or miniatures. I've not felt so inclined to set up a table, invite some friends round and play a load of Warmachine or Infinity. I was planning on trying to convince a few friends to try traditional RPG's, that new Star Wars one and Iron Kingdoms for starters... mainly because a few of you have asked me to do so, but I've lacked the will and drive to make it happen. True I've played boardgames, and I've played some card games during my break, but at the end of the day when I was a bit tired and worn out I've tended to turn my PS3 on instead. I might have turned my Xbox 360 on, but the fear of a 9th RROD stayed my hand. So why did I turn to my consoles for entertainment? Because it takes so little effort to keep me entertained, and a little effort is all I had left in me. It all started with downloading Okami HD off of the Playstation Store (great game by the way).

Sunday Sermobn: Long overdue update

     
       

Firstly sorry. I haven't exactly been regular with my updates lately, and the tail end of December and the start of January have been... well... sparse. Actually that's being ever so slightly kind on myself, there's been nothing. I've also not been answering emails, which for those of you who have communicated with me in the past will come as a bit of a shock I'm sure. I'll be honest here, I've had a lot of shit to deal with over the last few weeks and I've had neither the time nor the inclination to update this Blog. There has just been too much real life *bleep* I've had to be dealing with, and a fair few disasters have befallen my little world. It is fair to say that I feel bad about not responding to the literally hundreds of emails I've seemingly received (sorry I've not really been checking) I'm not going to beat myself up about it.

In some respects I'm sure I've found my absence more frustrating than most. You see I'd got a whole heap of stuff planned and ready to shoot out onto the Blog prior to the month from hell happening. I've also got a few products I want to talk about, namely Dreadball, Sedition Wars, Gruntz and Star Wars the Card Game. There are plenty of other things too that I want to chat about, but I've not had the energy or felt I've had the time to sit down and do them. Hopefully I'll be starting to get back into the swing of things shortly and I'll be able to put a few more articles up. But, I'm not going to be as prolific as I have been for a while I think, there's just too much going on, and too many things I need to sort out. This sermon is just to say that sometimes things come out of the blue and there's nothing you can do about it, and that's what has happened to me. Any way, I'm not dead. Peace out!

Sunday Sermon: A year of Sermons

    
    

William Holman Hunt, Her First Sermon.

A little over a year ago now, on the 4th December 2012 to be precise, I started an experiment of sorts and wrote my first Sunday Sermon article. That first Sunday Sermon seems a very long time ago now, but it wasn't really, I just guess it feels like that because I've written so many of them, that it seems such a long time ago. When I first started out writing these Sermons they were as I said an experiment, primarily to see if I could somehow increase my then meager and paltry hits on a Sunday's. At first they seemed to have little to no impact, but you know what, 12 months on and my Sunday readership has gone through the roof. Indeed some of my Sermons have even snuck into the top 10 most viewed articles on my all time greatest hits list. I'm not going to tell you which ones, because today's Sermon isn't going to be a sermon at all really. After writing these for a year (although I did take a brief break around July / August time) I'm going to take a rest from preaching... instead I'd like to hear from you lot as to, which of my Sermons over the past 12 months you've enjoy the most. Hell, I'd even like to hear about the ones that annoyed you, made you angry and even made you want to rip my head of. In short I just want to know what you all have made of them, some general feedback would be nice and highly useful to me. Also, are there any topics you feel I should have covered in my sermons, if so what are they? Peace out!

Sunday Sermon: Getting my s*** in order!

      
      

No, that's even too pink for me!!!

Sorry that this Sermon is bit of a late one. But the last few days have been very productive in terms of hobby and writing actually. I've got a fair bit of scenery on the go, got close to finishing some long-term projects off and also managed to crack on with some things I really wanted to do. However, there have been real life issues:

1. I've really been suffering quite badly with debilitating headaches again
2. I've really fallen behind with responding to everybody's emails. Sorry I'm about 7 days behind on most of them.
3. The element on my electric fan assisted oven went kaput and is apparently so old I can't get a replacement part,

So I've been rushing around trying to finish this and that off, while trying to sort out getting a new oven. It's not been the most calming period of the year that's for certain, plus unlike everyone else it seems I have a massive aversion to Christmas.

Sunday Sermon: What a mess!!!

  

Today's sermon is going to be as brief as I can make it, but I can't lie to you, it's a huge issue so it might go on for longer than I initially intend. As I say, I don't want to bang on about this topic any more than I have too today, but I think it's something that needs wider discussion within the industry and people seem to be pussy footing around it. Primarily I'm talking about the sustainability of our hobby. I'm not just talking about whether big retailers like Maelstrom Games are actually sustainable in a fiscal sense, but how the whole industry seems to be in a bit of a mess from top to bottom, and how us as hobbyists aren't exactly helping things. We have Games Workshop who have all but confirmed they have an annual above inflation price hike every year to keep their business 'sustainable'. May I humbly suggest if the largest player in our industry feels the need to do something that ultimately will prove inherently unsustainable, we as a hobby and industry have a problem. A big problem! Also how many of their stores in the UK are hitting their extremely modest targets? If store managers I know are to be believed not many.

But why is that important? Well because we have a model of business in this industry that is massively antiquated, it's so old that even the Victorians were trying desperately to evolve it, yep I'm talking about passing trade. This is a model that says to pull people into our hobby we need to expose them to the product in person, and the only method we've come up with so far is via bricks and mortar stores in the center of towns, where people will hopefully stumble across them. It's hardly cutting edge marketing techniques, but we know for a fact that it has worked, what seems less certain is whether it's still working now. You see in this day and age, with Internet retail already such a huge part of most of our lives, and all the 21st Century has to offer, bricks and mortar retail is becoming increasingly difficult in all sectors, let alone niche sectors like ours. Companies like eBay, Amazon, Play.com and many more besides are selling us goods from the comfort of our own homes (depending on how comfy ones sofa is). They're shipping them to us, and undercutting high street retailers who have their massive overheads and sales environments to manage. The same is true of our industry. Yet it's only a problem because we as invested hobbyists don't support our local shops. Why should we as rational consumers? Sustainability is important but shops shouldn't be treated as charity cases that need our support.

In North America I guess you guys have the Warstore and Mini Wargaming, while in Europe we've had Wayland Games and Maelstrom Games, with the new kid on the block Firestorm Games trying to cut out its own piece of the gaming market. There is no question that such large discount online retailers have had an impact on our hobby, for starters people like Maelstrom Games have introduced people already in the hobby to HoMachine, Infinity, Mofaux, Freebooter's Fate and many more besides. Whether that is positive or negative impact remains to be seen in the long-run. I'll be honest here and say that I looked into opening my own shop a few years back, I wanted to run a shop in a town center, not on an industrial estate miles from any recognisable high street, because I know that the lifeblood of our hobby is new customers. There were a few snags for me, first was professionality within the sector, or the lack thereof... but I might return to that at a later date. The other was the inconsistency in what companies said they wanted, and how they actually behaved, I guess that's professionality too.

Sunday Sermon: What is a proper wargamer?

   
    

Surely if we say somebody isn't a proper wargamer, it's the same as calling them a fake.

I'm sure many of you have watched this meme develop on various Blogs over the past fortnight or so. It was all started by Phil Broeders over at The Wargaming Site Blog. The idea being that to call yourself a proper wargamer you must have ticked off a list of things you have achieved or done before you could be considered a proper wargamer. I think, and I hope the article was written in a fun and tongue firmly in cheek way, and indeed many have taken it that way. However, Phil stared his article by saying that "One does not simply claim to be a wargamer by having a couple of games of 40k.  No, no,no." and while I agree with that sentiment to an extent, I really don't think there is much more too it for me. To call someone a wargamer I'd like to see somebody buy, assemble and paint their own army first, and then play a few games of whatever their game of choice is. You know what, for me I don't think the threshold for being a proper wargamer is set very high.

Obviously there have been many people who have risen to the challenge of answering Phil's original questions, I myself attempted it here.  Then Lee over at the fabulous Blog Big Lee's Miniature Adventures added a huge amount of extra questions, as Phil originally asked others to do, but yet again I'd suggest many of them focus on the historical side of the hobby too much to be generally applicable. But, some of the others are actually more general and actually hint at things many experienced and long in the tooth wargamers will have felt, like hobby burnout and purchasing shame. However, as a researcher by trade it is two articles by J de Jong over at Rear Guard Action that have interested me the most, mainly because they involves graphs, and researchers love visual representations of statistics, it's like stats pr0n to us... now if only he'd included an SPSS output sheet, phwoar! You can read J de Jong's articles here and here, and if this meme has interested you then you probably should.

Some think to be considered a proper wargamer I need to do ^this^.

To call ones self an expert or indeed a veteran requires different and varying amounts of experience or skill I would suggest. Expert for example implies a level of knowledge about a subject, that might require a considerable amount of time to acquire, but not necessarily. Whereas veteran is all about the amount of experience you have, either a lot crammed into a short space of time, or over a longer period with less cramming. But, for me to be considered a wargamer, or a proper wargamer, doesn't take much. If you've invested your own money and time to this hobby and stuck with it to get your own painted army on the tabletop, and play a few games in my humble opinion you are part of the fraternity. I'd much rather stick to my inclusive methodology than the exclusive one put forward by Phil. The other problem I have with the idea that Phil put forward is that although I'm sure it was a joke, 'many a true word hath been spoken in jest' and I think it does speak to a problem that we have in our 'community' at large. We all think the way that we personally approach the hobby is in some way the 'correct' way to approach things. Often at the exclusion of other points of view and experience.

Sunday Sermon: Lest we forget.

    
     

I will be brief today, because that is what is demanded of me. I'm sure some of you were wandering what today's Sunday Sermon would be all about. Would I talk about failing online retailers and the cut throat world of business? Perhaps I'd talk about cliques and how we believe how we approach the hobby is the right way? Often to the exclusion of others and other experiences. I could've done that, and I may indeed return to both subjects soon enough. But, these topics pale into insignificance for me around about this time of year, it all seems churlish today. I myself might not have had to fight in any conflicts, a fact that I am eternally grateful for, but I always show my own personal respects for those who have. More importantly I like to show my respects for those who fought in such conflicts and gave their lives so that I might have a better life.

So that we have freedoms to do what we want within reason. So that others might badly run companies. So that we all might buy toy soldiers and play pretend war. So that we have choices that many of these young men and women were not really given themselves. I don't think about such things on a daily basis, because if I did I'd probably slide into depression, but it does me good to think of the sacrifice others have made, so that we might make a complete pigs ear of things. I'd say "lest we forget" but all to often it seems we already have. I don't want to say any soldiers sacrifice was ever in vain, but so often when you look at the progression of history you realise that quite often they were. Why? Because of the way we live our lives, and the way we quite often take what we have for granted. We spend so long wrapped up in our own little worlds, with our own little problems that we very rarely stop to think how good we have it in comparison to past times, or even others on our planet this very day.

Sunday Sermon: How to survive the zombie apocalypse!!!

This week has been about preparing you for the inevitable... Z Day!

Maybe this isn't a purely wargaming based article today, but lately I've been thinking about the apocalypse. Maybe it's the global economic crisis, perhaps it's my melancholy attitude of late, or I could just have watched way too many movies and sci-fi programs about the end of the world. I don't think anyone will ever truly know why I've been thinking about the human races inevitable doom... wait you what? What's this? Sorry readers my better half has just handed me a note. I should just read it?... hmm... it raises some good points. Ahem. Oh yeah right, of course! OK then perhaps the reason I've been thinking so long and hard about the coming apocalypse is because those bloody Mayans predicted the world was going to end on December 21st 2012, and I've been playing a lot of zombie games lately. Plus I had a marathon zombie film fest in preparation for my zombie week. Even though there's actually a lot of conjecture whether what the Mayans predicted was exactly the end of the world or not, I mean what they said could be interpreted in a number of ways. Why the hell are chuffing predictions like this always so vague?

Do not get trapped in Tesco's looking for cans of Spam!

But, I'm not taking any chances fellow gamers. Nope I'm going to prepare for the coming Zombie Apocalpse, and what oral history will refer to as 'Z Day'. It's OK though, a diet of computer games, comic books, horror films and boardgames have definitely prepared me for the coming horror and the end of days. Last weekend I asked whether our gaming skills are transferable, come Z Day we'll be able to say they most certainly are! For starters my pantry has a rather unhealthy amount of spam and corned beef in it, plus dried fruit. Although this is mainly down to a potentially senile old relative who insists on bringing me tinned food whenever he visits... hmmm... perhaps he too knows that Z Day is coming. Canny old bugger! So I've stock piled plenty of dried food and tinned food to last me for a seriously long time... although I don't like either spam, or corned beef, which could be a problem if the zombie apocalypse doesn't happen. No I'm not going to think negatively, Z Day will definitely happen! So part one of surviving the initial zombie apocalypse is sorted... I have an easy and readily available supply of food all ready for when the inevitable looting and chaos starts. I pity the fools who'll be fighting over the last can of Spam in Tesco's. Idiots.

So what will you need to do to survive Z Day? Well thankfully I've watched, and interacted with an awful lot of zombie related material over the last few months in preparation for my Zombie Week. So here's my guide to surviving Z Day:

The Sunday Sermon: Are our gaming skills transferable?

 
 

A thoroughly depressing and demoralising experience if ever there was one!

I've often wandered whether my wargaming, and indeed boardgaming skills were in anyway transferable into the real world. No I don't mean could I take my love of toy soldiers and open a shop or write my own game. That's not what I mean. No I mean has my obsessive love of toy soldiers and stuff taught me things, skills if you will that can help me in the workplace? It seemed unlikely at first glance when I first asked myself this question years ago when I left university. I was trying to work out what I should put down in my CV, you besides saying I like reading books, sleeping and going on holiday. Do I mention I love comic books, toy soldiers and one day think the zombie apocalypse will happen? I went with no at first. Simply put, I know I'm a nerd and I wasn't sure how it would go over with prospective employers. I'm still not.

I watch it for the deep political and social commentary... honest I do!!!

However, I am far more comfortable telling people that yes I am a nerd. I do think Battlestar Galactica is awesome, yes I read comics and like a man in spandex, and I also play with toy soldiers. In the past I've actually had some interesting and positive responses to some of my more geeky admissions. I once had a really long chat on the phone with someone about a job and I made quite a geeky reference to Firefly, I can't quite remember what it was now... but the chap at the other end of the phone got it instantly and we had a good geek out. He made sure I had an interview, but sadly wasn't on the panel, so I didn't get the position. In my first job after university I had a line manager glance at me with a resigned look on his face and tell me "in the grim darkness of the council there was only bureaucracy". The fact that I instantly got the reference and we had a good laugh about it led to us both knowing we were wargames geeks. 

Sunday Sermon: Cheats never prosper!

 
  

Is he or isn't he?

There's been a lot of talk in the news recently about cheats, and it seems eventually cheating will catch up with you. No I'm not talking about Lance Armstrong, although that in and of itself is an interesting cautionary tale. Here we have a man who was undoubtedly an extremely talented and gifted athlete, who if you believe the huge body of evidence against him is actually guilty of quite possibly the most elaborate doping scheme the world of sport has ever seen. Obviously Lance Armstrong denies these allegations, and I'm torn about whether to believe them. I mean the brain looks at what has been said and by whom and nods in sad agreement. But my heart, the part of me that admired Lance Armstrong as the supreme athlete I thought he was, just can't bear to think that he might have won all his titles and performed all these super human feats while under the influence of performance enhancing drugs. It honestly, and genuinely upset me an awful lot.

Why? Because I take the spirit of competition very, very seriously. You see to me if somebody kicks my ass at any sport or game I want to know that my ass is being kicked fairly. I might not like it that somebody is getting the better of me, but if it is in fair competition I'll extent my hand at the end of the game and be a gentlemen about it, and say well played. Sport was always the same for me, although the levels of sport I've played at have never got to the levels where doping would have been present (I hope) there were always cheats. People willing to bend those rules just a little bit to gain an edge. Here's the thing, I think the urge to cheat, to gain the upper hand is so ingrained in the human psyche that it is almost inevitable. Here's why. Even me, who I think is a paragon of fair play at times, I inform opponents when they've forgotten to do something, even when it's to my own detriment, so yes, even I sometimes get urges to 'nudge' that miniature slightly when no one is looking because then it'll be in charge range. We've all had these thoughts I'm sure, even if they are infrequent.

Sunday Sermon: Were there five or six brass buttons?

 
 

I'm not going to pretend I get this topic totally, so before historical gamers take out a hit on me I'm trying to cover this topic from the perspective of a chap who'd rather play a game with giant manga inspired robots, than a North African WWII conflict with my Grandfathers actual unit. So bear with me as I try and tackle this subject in my own 'unique' way. I'm not going to lie to you, historic wargaming has always made me personally feel a little 'hinky'. I don't think there's anything wrong with it per se, nope, it's just that I feel a little weird plonking 'actual' historical units down on the board to play pretend fight a battle that actually happened. A conflict where real people fought and tragically lost their lives. I'm not going to sugar coat this, I think for me personally I used to find something a little distasteful in it, part of me still does. The idea of placing actual units on the table that existed to play the Battle of the Somme didn't leave me cold, it left me recoiling at horror and the potential insensitivity of such actions.

This was with a father figure... erm... my 'father' displaying nothing but respect and reverence for the subject matter, and of course those soldiers who sadly and tragically lost their lives. The men who were fighting for whatever silly and selfish cause their leaders had decided at that time was worth these brave souls sacrifice. I saw how seriously good historic wargamers took the subject matter from a very early age. I saw the levels of respect and knowledge they had about this Hussar unit, or that unit of Riflemen or Dragoons... or whatever. They knew the names of commanders, where units were mustered from, and which wool factory in Yorkshire had made their sodding tunics! The levels of knowledge, and indeed the time commitment displayed to obtain that knowledge is actually quite impressive now I look back on it. I've slowly come to realise there is something noble about the pursuit of such gamers, and their attempts to pay homage to the soldiers of our past battles, and their desire to want to learn so much about their lives, and the inevitable loss of them.

Sunday Sermon: Have I made the right life choices?

   
    

(apologies I have no pictures because apparently my memory card decided it didn't want to play!)

This is not the Sunday Sermon I'd intended to post up today, I had a spark of inspiration. Sometimes in life you have your life choices brought into very sharp relief and you ask yourself... did I make the right choice? You know, should I really have gone with extra chilli sauce, did I really need the stupidly expensive store insurance that they never intended to pay out on and... wargames or motorsport. Invariably I've been happy with the choices I've made. OK so sure I'm not an international playboy with honey's dripping off of my arms. But that's OK, I only need one honey and the one I've got is one of the best a man could ever hope for! No really she's awesome.  However, as the Cursed and I walked up to the Castle Donnington Exhibition Center to attend the Derby World Wargames event, a choice I made many, many years ago now was brought into focus.

You see, when I was a wee nipper I was offered a choice of attending one of two events. The first choice was whether I wanted to go to some Superbike race or other my dad and brother were wanting to go to. The other option was whether I wanted to go to Games Day instead, as I'd already got the tickets. Now I can't remember exactly what the motorsport event was, but I did love my motorsport, and I still do. My father, and indeed my older brother have taken me along to witness many forms of mechanized transportation vehicular races, and jolly good fun they are too. But, for some reason that day I chose Games Day. Thus condemning my brother to a weekend watching said motorsports event on the TV, while my dad had to suffer taking me to the NEC I believe it was to play games, and see stuff I'd already seen and played... just on a grander scale.

Sunday Sermon: Does familiarity breed contempt?

   
     

I loved 4th Edition Fantasy, warts and all.

I asked myself this very question over 3 weeks ago now. I was thinking mainly about my sometimes awkward 'relationship' with Games Workshop. Here is a company that over the last 27 years, nearly 28, has given this hobbyist countless hours, weeks, months and years of gaming and hobbying pleasure. There is no doubting that without Games Workshop I wouldn't be the horribly shameless nerd, and depending on your viewpoint, totally awesome geek that I am. If it wasn't for 4th Edition Warhammer Fantasy and my High Elf army I'd almost certainly never have gotten into playing wargames as much as I have. If it wasn't for Blood Bowl I would never have made as many hobbying friends as I have. In my Sunday Sermon entitled 'The games that define us' I spoke at length about the games that have come to shape me as a hobbyist. Lets be brutally honest about it here, 6 of my 10 games were Games Workshop products, true they weren't always positive experiences, but they were Games Workshop games. Going further I would say that 70% of my wargaming past-time has indeed been dedicated to the products developed and supplied by Games Workshop, and for the most part I've enjoyed my hobby... just not those rare occasions when I lose!

A few months back now I wrote a Sunday Sermon that was sort of about somebody who had fallen out of love with Games Workshop, and in particular 40k, because familiarity had sort of breed contempt. Then this past week I purchased the first Games Workshop product I have in a fairly long time, thanks to you guys... and even though it felt like a good product, I was underwhelmed... so yes, I have asked myself the question as to whether the same thing had happened to me? Had I become overly familiar with the products produced by Games Workshop? Did this mean I was forever doomed to view their product through the eyes of a jaded cynic? Can I no longer feel the joy of seeing yet another Space Marine Chapter being released? The answer is possibly. Yep, for sure I've seen it all before with Games workshop, very little they do now surprises me... no... scratch that, nothing they do now surprises me. I am more than familiar with what they are doing, and how they do it. There has been very little over recent years that has taken me by surprise. It's all become predictable for me, so is it this predictability that Games Workshop are actually struggling with?