Gaming With Miniature Figures

Welcome to My Hobby!

My hobby is collecting, assembling, converting, painting, writing rules for, and - most importantly - playing with miniature figures!

My Site
At the top of most of the pages in this Web site you'll see six buttons like those above. Here's what you'll see when you click on the buttons:

• Home - When all else fails, go back to the beginning. This choice brings you to this page.

• Gallery - Pictures of my toys ... er ... action figures ... miniatures! And I need to add more!

• Games - Brief overviews of the miniatures rules or games that I use the most.

• HOTTs - Pages devoted to my favorite set of rules, including optional rules and game aids.

• Free Rules - This is where I put rules modifications (optional rules) for my favorite games along with rules that I create or develop.

• Links - These are links to hobby-related sites that I like for a variety of reasons.

• Bio/Contact - There's no good reason to go to this page. Especially if you're with a law enforcement agency or America's Least Wanted.... Really, I did return the library book!

Mailing List
I started a mailing list for miniatures gamers in the Minnesota (or Upper Midwest) area. You can use the site in a variety of ways, including receiving messages three different ways. To sign up with the list, click on the following:

Click to subscribe to Minnesota_Miniatures_Gamers

Having Fun
One of my other hobbies is having fun. In fact, some might say that I have too much fun. (Shows what they know!) Anyway, I found a great comic strip for miniatures gamers - Larry Leadhead! 

First, wargaming is a hobby. Those of us that game with miniatures are using figures or models in a variety of scales to create something like historical or fictional combat in a competitive game. Each miniature can represent anything from a single being or vehicle to hundreds, depending on the rules in use. Players act as commanders. Generally speaking, gamers use rulers (or similar things) to determine the movement of the miniatures on the battlefield (or game area) and dice to help determine the results of combat. As in real combat, a combination of skill and luck determine the winner.

In a typical game, there are 2 to many players playing as the commanders of armies or other forces. Personally, I have played with miniatures and figures from 2mm to 54mm in figure scale or height.

The game surface is mostly 3D. In my set-up, I try to represent the significant battlefield terrain. The gaming area is normally set on a table. The area varies in size, the main limit being that a typical gamer can move their figures on the table without falling on the table. The represented terrain can limit where or how fast a figure may move, and can give advantages or penalties to figures who are in combat or giving or receiving fire while in the terrain.

The objectives vary widely from game to game. One side may have to take and hold a particular village, escort a group of civilians safely across the table and into the town, rescue hostages, destroy critical supplies, or any of a thousand other goals. The other side must prevent them from doing so or have separate objectives of their own.

Many gamers - like myself - are history and/or fantasy/science fiction buffs to some extent; but hobby wargaming is a social activity, as well as a technical exercise. Some gamers prefer a realistic and detailed simulation of actual historical combat, even though this often leads to more complex rules and slower, longer, and sometimes more frustrating game. Others prefer simple rules for a fast-moving game with a definite conclusion, even though this may mean sacrificing a certain amount of realism and believability and ignoring many details. Since a hobby is an activity for personal enjoyment, both these philosophies are perfectly legitimate as long as the person holding them is enjoying their own particular style of wargaming.

If you play with me, you'll find that I tend towards fast, simple, and fun games. Some of my games are intense and serious, while others are just plain silly. But almost always, the games are fun social activities.

Gamers have an enormous choice of subject matter. Rules and miniatures are made for every major historical period and region of the world – although some may not be easy to get. In addition, rules and miniatures are made for imaginary fantasy and science fiction universes.

Most gamers combine the historical and fantasy aspects to some degree. Even historical gamers like to play engagements that might have been, rather than limit themselves to actual historical battles; some even fight battles between armies that never met, such as Japanese samurai versus Aztec warriors. Some create armies for nations that never existed.

Straight fantasy gaming (which could be thought to include science fiction) create battles based on myths, legends, published works, cinema, and personal imagination.

My preferences? Historical combat set before 1150AD, science fiction/fantasy set in the Victorian Era, fantasy armies (no gunpowder, please), and science fiction in the far future (ground combat, in the main).

Wargaming is a hobby combining at least four types of recreational activity:

• It is an intellectual activity. The knowledge of history, literature, psychology, and various mechanical and technical subjects are a large part of the enjoyment.
• It is an art and craft. The figures must be painted, the models must be built, and the terrain and accessories constructed in such a way as to combine practicality with visual appeal.
• It is competitive. Any game with winners and losers is competitive.
• It is a social activity. Games usually require at least one – and preferably more – opponents or partners.

The main advantage of the wargaming hobby is that it fulfills so many different recreational needs at one time. A main disadvantage is that so many of those in the hobby is of the same gender (guess which one), though it's possible that some gamers consider that an additional benefit.

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