UNDER WARGAMING COVID!
Wargaming is fundamentally a social activity...
Wargaming: ultimately it comes down to getting around a table with friends, making pew! pew! sounds and moving toy soldiers about, doesn’t it? Having said that, the recent Covid 19 pandemic has probably brought that to a temporary end for most of us. Yes, we can paint (the few traders I’ve spoken to have all said they’ve had an increase in direct sales as gamers get in a load of models for painting whilst in isolation), and we can build terrain and scenery.
The question is, though, what next?
SOCIAL SCIENCE
At the Maidstone Wargames Society we’ve come up with a few ways we can all still interact as a club, how we can engage with our hobby, and how we can get our gaming fix. So I thought I’d share some of those ideas with you.
There are, of course, the obvious routes into the hobby during these times: forums and social media. I’m sure we are all aware of these and have made a decision on what we think of them. They have their uses and limitations. I’m not going to spend too much time dwelling on these because I think they are selfevident and already prolific. Instead I am going to talk about some of the unique – or less thought about
– ways that we, as a club, have come up with, some of which you may find useful.
RIDDLE ME THIS...
Online Quizzes – Yeah, online quizzes have become as ubiquitous as baking banana bread recently. It’s still a good way of doing things though, especially since some web conferencing apps are allowing extended use time. We got all clever with ours: we did some picture rounds as well.
But – to add social elements – one of the things we did was book a time slot that allowed for a little extra time so we could all chat first. The quizzes can be as serious as you like but we still wanted to chat!. To keep the idea rolling, we have now arranged it so it’s the winner of one quiz has to come up with questions for the next session. You could try that approach but you could also have different rounds with different people being quiz-master.
We find that about a dozen questions fills half hour, what with the banter and jokes, etc. User names can be interesting – and fun – as well. You can tell someone’s area of interest by the questions they ask (once it goes beyond the 15th century I tend to phase out). You can theme it (a WWII quiz or a Cold War Jets quiz, for example) or just make it a free-for-all. This is a good
chance for you all to see each other, keep in touch, and remain friends. The quiz isn’t so much a competition but an excuse for everyone to get together.
We posted our questions (and answers) on our public blog for others to use, so take a look and feel free to use and abuse as you see fit: I’ll put a link at the end.
WORK IN PROGRESS
WIP Wednesday: we have our own club forum (which can be viewed by anyone but only members can contribute) as I’m sure most clubs do. This is a place to discuss club matters, upcoming games, and other nonsense. However, what we’ve started doing every Wednesday is sharing a WIP Wednesday (because it alliterates). The idea is that club members share pictures of projects they are working on. Post a picture or two, that kind of thing.
This keeps members motivated and interacting with the hobby where otherwise they could get disenchanted. It’s a chance to share with others, show what you’re up to, plan for the future, get ideas, hints and tips. It’s a way to get through that lead mountain, or start that ambitious build you’ve been thinking about for ages, or finally paint up that thing you bought on a bring’n’buy donkey’s years ago.
You see some inspiring ideas on WIP Wednesday along with some flights of fancy; things you want a game of yourself; and you can see what others are thinking. Some things you’ve been thinking about as well but weren’t sure others would be interested. WIP Wednesday is a good way of sharing how you are taking part in the hobby, it’s a good way of providing a deadline to work to.
VIRTUAL REALITY
Virtual Meetings: at time of writing this, our meetings still haven’t resumed. We use a local village hall for meetings and the hall is still not open. And we’re still not sure when that will be. As I said in the introduction, ultimately wargaming is about having a game. WIP Wednesday is all well and good, but the reason we are buying, painting, and making, is so that we can have a game of something. Right now, as a full club meeting is still not scheduled, we had the idea of a ‘Virtual Meeting’. Normally, we meet on Saturdays so it was decided that our virtual meeting should be on a Saturday.
So, what is a Virtual Meeting? Well the idea behind it was that we would do something hobby related on the same day, at the same time. It’s a sign of solidarity, a recognition of our identity as a club, as a community. There aren’t really any rules to the virtual meetings, it’s about including rather than excluding. In the past some have played solo games. Those lucky enough to have house members who are into gaming have had a game together. It could be a computer game. A bit of painting. Some members met over Zoom and played a game. At some point the government will again announced people can get together outside, so a few members did some alfresco gaming in a member’s back garden between lockdowns.
It’s a time that we are all together, psychologically if not physically, meeting and participating in our hobby at the same time together. That’s what a club is, isn’t it? There’s no reason why that should end.
We then post a picture or two of what we did to the forum and this gets posted on our blog for anyone to see. That Saturday would usually be a meeting day and so it should continue to be so!
That’s what we’ve been doing to keep our hobby alive and maintain our club identity. Hopefully it may help others. If you’ve come up with other Covid 19 activities then I’m sure everyone would like to hear about them.
Fingers crossed that it won’t be long before we, and you, can resume meetings as usual. ■
LINKS
Our Quiz Questions: brigademodels.co.uk/mws/blog/ category/maidstone-wargames-society/quiz/ Club Forum https://groups.io/g/maidstonews