Tue, 11 December 2012
I was thinking about a question Volko asked on Episode X: "Why don't you like to game modern conflicts?". Basically, I answered on the podcast that it was due to story; that somehow the stories from the past are "richer". It may be that we've had A LOT longer to develop the narrative with stories of yore that stories from present times. I also remembered that I had conducted a poll on BGG a few years ago regarding what are gamers' favorite armies/least favorite armies to game out: image below. Something about pushing around roman legions in a rich political game context (a Pax Romana, Carthage: The First Punic War or even a grand tactical like Siege of Jerusalem). Maybe it is that the game designers bake in more political dimensions with those conflicts than with a WW2 (exceptions: Empire of the Sun, World in Flames, etc) or modern design. Maybe it is that the more recent conflicts grab more attention on the toys (ex: panzer tanks). Of course, Volko's COIN series and Train's variety of modern conflict games (ex: Algeria) aren't guilty of that (of ignoring the political dimension - or a focus on "the toys"), but I think so many of the games we began with were (ex: The Avalon Hill Classics). Of course, there other issues with modern conflict games: too raw, too messy, etc. Anyways, I'll take a non WW2 era game over a modern or WW2 game anytime when it comes to wargaming: I'd play Empires in Arms over any WW2/modern game. Or, any number of ancients games for that matter.
Category:general
-- posted at: 11:52am CDT
Comments[3]
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Wow, kind of surprised ACW USA came out ahead of ACW CSA on the "most enjoy" scale. The wargaming and ACW hobby enthusiast market is heavily dominated by Lost Cause mythology (try finding a "Legends in Blue" calendar sometime) - making the Confederates the valiant underdogs against the modern Federal Government straw man of the Union. In my days playing ACW miniatures, nobody ever wanted to play the Union - my friend and I, with a massive Union army, and who only played the Union, were always in high demand for games.