Wargaming in Lockdown

I thought I would start putting down some thoughts on wargaming in general here on Patreon. It will be things that don't really fit on my blog (www.stormofsteelwargaming.com) or my Youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNUYwNznn-ZuNMoHoF3urwQ). It will be musing on the hobby and my personal take on things. 

In this first one, I'd like to have a think about wargaming in Lockdown. Since April, here in the UK we have experienced lockdown twice now, and if I'm honest I really don't think it will be the last time before the Covid crisis has passed sufficiently to allow an easing of restrictions. This may sound disheartening, but we have to look at the positives and wargaming is a great source for keeping busy, keeping your mind active and most of all helping with mental health issues that can arise from the isolation of lockdown. 

Obviously, not everyone is lucky enough to be able to earn money during lockdowns and neither does everyone have space to set out gaming tables, but there are plenty of things within the hobby that require little space or expenditure and will keep you in the loop. 

The obvious place to start is with solo wargaming. I am not going to discuss this too much as I already made a video about it earlier in the year, and you can watch this here: https://youtu.be/-vZ1zQ7HVlk Solo wargaming can be incredibly rewarding, you just need to have a different approach to the games, it's no longer about winning or losing, but creating a narrative that drives your decisions. Will your small force survive long against the overwhelming enemy? Can you root out all the hiding enemy forces in the town? 

I have successfully played a full pint-sized campaign set in Malaya using Chain of Command, which involved seven scenarios of games linked by the same forces and named personalities throughout. It was hard going for the defenders and boy, was I shocked when the leaders who I had gotten attached to were both killed in action. I am lucky in that I have a war room in which I can play games, but any space can be used, a dining room table, the front room floor, make your games smaller if needs be. A lot of rules now work with 3ft x 3ft tables, so they can be placed easily on a table top.

The other obvious outlet is painting. Are you really a wargamer if you haven't got a lead mountain towering over you, causing shame? Now is the time to tackle it! Maybe dig out those those 12mm Neapolitan hod carriers that you picked up at one of the shows in 1993 for that abortive Napoleonic Italian campaign you always planned. Now is the time to paint for pleasure, don't think of it as working towards completing an army, just the simple pleasure of splashing paint about for a couple of hours (whilst listening to a podcast or, dare I say it, one of my videos) is enough to take anyone away from the current issues. Whilst we have been locked down, I have painted roughly over a thousand figures, the vast majority of these were ones that had languished in my lead mountain for easily over a decade in some cases. Now, I have more WW2 15mm figures than I can reasonably get on the table, all thanks to not being allowed out. 

OK, the previous examples obviously cost money and time, so lets look at some other outlets for passing the time and still remaining within the hobby loop. 

Over the last year my listening habits have changed hugely. I used to listen to the radio whilst painting, but I have almost exclusively turned to podcasts. I know this is not news to most, but to me it's been a massive revelation in the scope and breath of content that is out there. Some of these podcasts have been running for years which means there is tons of episodes to listen back to. Even if I'm not particularly interested in the historical subject,  do find the enjoyment comes from people chatting enthusiastically about the hobby which I love. There is always something that piques my interest in these shows. If you are reading this I will assume you have access to a computer, and therefore access to to all the podcasts that are online. These are some of my favourites (but these are by no means exhaustive and there is a wealth of them out there):

God's Own Scale (https://godsownscale6mm.podbean.com/)

Two Fat Lardies Oddcast (https://toofatlardies.libsyn.com/)

Henry Hyde' Battlechat (https://battlegames.co.uk/battlechat-podcasts/)

Across the Pond Wargamers (https://www.buzzsprout.com/995263)

Jay the Veteran Wargamer (https://soundcloud.com/user-989538417)

In a similar vein, the amount of wargaming blogs is overwhelming, ranging across every topic you even begin to consider. These were very popular over the last couple of decades and thousands sprang up and it would be impossible for me to even begin sorting them into a usable list, but someone else has produced a top 20 list of their favourite blogs (I'm not on it, unfortunately.) but it will give you an idea of the amount that are out there and many have links to other blogs you can also explore: https://blog.feedspot.com/wargaming_blogs/ If you read all of them, lockdown will have passed long before you will have finished...

Also, I could talk about Wargaming channels on Youtube, but I will keep that for another post!

And finally, historical research is a great way to pass the time. The vast amount of history websites, museum archives and other digital resources that are available is mind boggling. Many of these have allowed free access to their resources during the pandemic, making it even easier to research your next game when the lockdown lifts. The national Archives (UK) has a fully searchable database of every kind of military resource you can think of from the British Isles, some of it free, but some you have to pay a small fee for (https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/). But you can gather all the war diaries of battalions fighting in the First World War, for example and begin to put together scenarios based on this information. 

The Imperial War Museum has a fully searchable photographic library, hours can be spent just looking through amazing images from past conflicts. (https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/photographs). They also have a searchable object database so you can find out more about weapons and equipment. 

These are just two examples of what is available and with some googling you will find plenty of museums and websites detailing military actions, which in turn will help you plan better game for the future!

OK, this post is intended to give you a few ideas of tackling the lockdown based around wargaming. I hope it has given you food for thought and although it's a basic introduction to all the topics, there is plenty more to go at. I am sure we will return to some of these topics in future, but for now, thanks for reading and keep gaming!