The Ukraine Invasion

I could fairly be accused of sometimes stretching things to make them fit the context of a wargaming content creator. In the past I've talked about capitalism, intellectual property, BLM, #MeToo and even the alt-right and its connection to our industry.

To those who whine about "keeping politics out of my hobby", I have consistently stuck up two fingers, because everything is politics. And my own lefty-liberal ideology has been key to informing my approach to not only the fictional settings of my games but even the game designs themselves. The idea that war is bad, that people die and that, whilst a game can be fun, players shouldn't feel that they actively want to be one of their characters on the tabletop, is absolutely core to my design philosophy.

The invasion of Ukraine has been a huge psychic shock to Europe and the US for all kinds of reasons, but I think there's one that - whilst it only really affects our community - we shouldn't overlook and which, in fact, deserves a little more consideration.

The invasion of Ukraine by Russia is the first time, to my knowledge, that there has been open war between two countries with large and enthusiastic miniatures wargaming communities and this is a thing that I think is worth unpacking.

The invasion of Ukraine by Russia is the first time, to my knowledge, that there has been hopen war between two countries with large and enthusiastic miniatures wargaming communities and this is a thing that I think is worth unpacking. Miniatures wargaming has exploded in Russia and its former satellite states. There are significant names in the hobby that aren't just doing the manufacturing in former Soviet countries but which were conceived, founded, grown and unleashed on the world from these countries. Poland is, of course, the beating heart of this (and this is the main reason I am diligently learning Polish on Duolingo at the moment), but Estonia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Ukraine and, of course, Russia itself have their own home-grown manufacturers, designers and developers as well as big groups of fans and players.

Miniatures wargaming is, in my opinion, a bellwether of a lot of things: access to international creative content, access to technology, access to luxury products, access to personal leisure time, access to storage space and transportation... But most of all, miniatures wargaming is a hobby for people who don't expect to have to up-end their entire lives at a moment's notice - people who have every reason to believe that tomorrow will be more or less the same as today and that dramatic personal changes of circumstances will be supported by an infrastructure that will make moving thousands of dollars of toy soldiers from point A to point B completely achievable even if it is still a bloody pain in the arse.

Russia's - or, perhaps, I should say Putin's - invasion will have shocked it's own wargaming community, I suspect. This is a young-minded, outward-looking bunch who have spent years building connections across Europe and the US with people who share their passion even if they don't share their language. And because Ukraine is full of Russian speakers, quite apart from its ethnically-Russian population, there has been years of cheerful cross-border rivalry over the tabletops of wargamers in the region.

Our community has never seen anything like this before.

Whatever you think about Spiky Bits, they've provided a great resource of Ukrainian wargames manufacturers who could benefit from your spending, right now. Obviously, you might not receive your orders for a while, but think that's probably fair enough and they will need your money to stay afloat through incredible times, so check out this link:

https://spikeybits.com/2022/03/buying-miniatures-from-russia-ukraine-right-now.html

I'd also like to draw attention to talk about boycotting Russian manufacturers. I have no opinion on this, per se, but I would say to see what Russians, ArtelW, themselves say, which is to encourage folks to spend their money with their Ukrainian competition. And I think this sums up how Russian hobby wargamers are feeling, right now.