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"If there’s one word that sums up everything that’s gone wrong since the War, it’s Workshop." Kingsley Amis, Jake’s Thing The wordsmith extraordinaire Amis was not, of course, referring to the Workshop that most impinges on the world of wargamers. Although having been to a few workshops in my time, I heartily agree with Amis’s sentiment with regards to them. The Nottingham-based Workshop that we are all more familiar with has been dividing gamers (of various hues) for the last 20 years. First came the Great Betrayal, when White Dwarf ditched its loyal Role Playing Games audience (at the time, including me) in favour of blanket coverage of 40k, Warhammer, and spin-off games like Bloodbowl. Despite many valiant attempts over the years , no paper-based RPG magazine has filled the black hole left by White Dwarf, most lasting only a dozen or two issues. The subsequent history of GW took the company at its (version of the) “Hobby” to world-spanning dominance, at least in the sphere of fantasy and Sci-fi miniature gaming, and introduced more children and young adults to wargaming than any other company in the history of the hobby. Many new players (and their parents) fell out of love with the hobby as a result of a seemingly ever-changing line up of rules and modifications, expensive figures, and a perception that the latest army was given overly favourable treatment by the rules. However, GW deserve the gratitude of wargamers for raising the profile of the hobby in the public mind in a broadly positive manner. True, say you play wargames down the pub and the uninitiated will assume you have something to do with Orcs (or Orks), but pre-GW you’d have faced a blank stare and an awkward conversation beginning “well, it’s a game you play with toy soldiers…” GW forays into historical gaming have been no less controversial. WAB has in the past caused some heated debate in the letters pages of the Society of Ancients magazine Slingshot. I must admit to loathing the rules myself, but I recognise that many find their combination of antiquated mechanisms, mini maxed army lists and competition play just their cup of hemlock. In fairness, dodgy armies maxed out for ahistorical competition play are hardly a unique feature of WAB. Indeed the whole ancients competition scene seems rather more geared to fantasy encounters than most traditional Fantasy games ever manage. Whilst I regard WAB as the spawn of the devil, Warmaster Ancients is an altogether finer beast. Whilst somewhat caricatured , it is at least fun to play and has a jolly clever command mechanism, which has been used to great effect elsewhere, notably in Peter Jones’s rather superb Blitzkrieg Commander, now available in a second edition. I know Warhammer Historial have produced historical games in other genre although I have to confess to not having played them. Clearly they too have their advocates, although WAB and WA seem by far the most popular lines. Despite its having spread a trail of disappointment through my gaming life, I still look fondly on Games Workshop and recognise that their contribution to the hobby, in terms of broadening its base, goes far beyond the limitations of its rules and the frustrations of its pricing policy. So from me, as from them, there are no cheap shots. My own writing has resumed after the winter break with some playtests of a new set of Pulp sci-fi rules from Mike Baumann (more of which in future tales), a return to the Aeronef Campaign system for some further detail, and as if this wasn’t enough, some amendments to my hopefully-released-this-year alternative WWII rules to accommodate popular historical figure basing conventions. Not much concrete to report in detail but 2010 looks like it is shaping up to be a good year for new products from me. Matthew Hartley
February 2010 |
