The Lazy Gamer's Mission

Part 2 of the Lazy Gamer's Guide to Wargaming

The Mission

Last week I introduced the Lazy Gamer’s Guide with the philosophy of focusing on what’s important. Furthermore, I stated that what was important to me was playing games and flexibility. Recently, I decided to clarify my approach by creating a mission statement.

Note - At this point, some will scoff at my using and overwrought business term. Normally I would agree. Surprisingly, in this case, I found it quite instructive.

I defined my mission as:

Derive maximum enjoyment playing miniature wargames in multiple eras/settings

with minimal preparation and effort

I have underlined a few words in order to elaborate on them.

First, I underlined “playing” because I want to stress that my primary goal is to play games. As noted last time, I don’t really care about collecting figures or having impressive displays. My main desire is to play with my toys. This is crucial because it will influence the preparations I make.

Next I underlined “multiple” to indicate that I want to be flexible in my gaming. One week I may want to play Romans vs. barbarians and the next week I am into a science fiction battle. My preparations need to be able to accommodate my shifting interests.

Finally, I noted that I want minimal preparation and effort. If preparation is too burdensome or extensive, then the project will languish and I will not get to play a game.

With my mission statement in hand, I can begin to develop my plans for fulfilling it.

Why Miniatures?

At this point, someone might ask why I would deal with miniatures in the first place. Surely it would be easier to buy and play boxed wargames. This may be true, and I do play boxed wargames from time to time. Nevertheless, I keep coming back to miniatures. I have discussed this topic in a previous blog post.

Reconsidering, I think that the main reason I play miniature wargames is because I like the flexibility it provides (remember that flexibility is one of the things that I consider important). It’s possible to play out battles and even eras that are not covered by boxed wargames. It is also easier to tailor rules to your style of play. Thus, even though it may require a bit more preparation for a miniatures game, the added flexibility is worth it to me.

Of course, I could satisfy my desire for flexibility by creating my own counter-based wargames. I have considered this at times. But I do like the 3D aspect of miniatures. The armies seem to come alive when they are represented by miniatures as opposed to counters, even if they are fighting over a 2D board (something I discovered with the old Axis and Allies game). Besides, it is easier to pick up the units if they are 3D (I am a miniatures heretic in that I don’t mind picking up figures by their heads).

For the above reasons, I have chosen to go with some kind of miniature set-up for my gaming. Sometimes you will need to make compromises when different aspects of your mission statement collide. For me, miniatures may take a little longer to prep but pay off in terms of flexibility and ease of use.

Now that I have my mission defined, I can devise a strategy for achieving it. My strategy involves 3 key components, which I call the Three S’s.

Next

I will define the Three S's.