About Me

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London, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
A mythical beast - a female wargamer! I got back into wargaming in the summer of 2011 after a very, very long break and haven't looked back since. I must admit that I seem to be more of a painter/collector than a gamer, but do hope to correct that at some point in the near future. My gaming interests span the ages, from the "Biblical" era all the way through to the far future. I enjoy games of all sizes, from a handful of figures up to major battles (see my megalomaniacally sized Choson Korean and Russian Seven Years War armies).

Sunday 4 November 2012

Viral Blog Post - "Are You a Proper Wargamer?"

Wow, a week without having posted anything. That's mainly because I haven't had anything to post. Last Sunday, just before I headed off to bed I realised I had another bleeding cold which combined with increasing my hours at work left me too worn our to want to do any painting this week and yesterday.

I did get some work done today though - the dark ages buildings are now finished. I'll take some pics tomorrow and post a review of the buildings. I also did a bit more work on the cuirassiers - armour has received a black wash, saddle cloths have been painted and the horses have been base-coated.


OK, so another viral on the wargames blogosphere has been kicked off by Phil B over at The Wargaming Site

So, here are my answers.


* Spent at least £500 on figures / tanks - and you get extra kudos for every £500 you've spent
Definitely over £500, possibly over £1000 (if not, I'm damned close). Not bad considering I've only been back into gaming for just over a year
* Pricked your finger or thumb on a pike block - several times
Pikes and lances, many, many times.
* Tried at least 10 different rule sets and vowed never to play half of them ever again
Not yet, but with only a year or so of gaming I haven't had time yet. I've definitely read more than 10 and decided against playing several of them (the wonders of free and cheap PDF rules)
* Bought an army off EBay
Not yet
* Sold an army on EBay
Not yet
* spent months painting an army - then used it in anger once
Not an army, but I do have several squads for SF skirmish games that haven't seen any tabletop action so far
* tried several different periods and genres
Yup
* dropped a box of figures on the floor from a great height
Not yet (thank goodness)
* lost a battle on the last throw of the dice
Yup
* made at least one enemy for life
Does having 3 stifles on PMT count as having 3 "enemies for life"? I've obviously upset them enough for them to want to ignore my posts
* had a proper, stand up argument over a wargames table
Nope, probably because I'm too easy going.
* thrown a dice across a room
Not intentionally - some overly enthusiastic rolls have seen my dice skip off the table, onto the floor and carry on to the far wall.
* rebased an army for a different rule set
Not yet. If I changed rules and the new one used different base sizes I'd probably opt for a different army (and maybe scale)
* inflicted a whopping defeat on an opponent
Only once
* suffered an embarrassing defeat due to a stupid tactical decision
Pretty much every game I play
* joined a wargamers club
Yes and no. Central London Wargames Club isn't a membership club, you just arrange games with other "members", turn up and buy drinks
* bought a ton of lead that remains unpainted
Certainly a good few pounds weight
* been to a wargamers show
Yup - Colours 2011, SELWG 2011 and 2012, Salute 2012, Broadside 2012, Campaign 2012
* have more dice than is logical or necessary to own - and have used most of them
Definitely more dice than I really need, but not all (or probably even most) of them have been used
* have taken boxes of troops down to a club just to show them off to your mates
Haven't taken whole boxes, but have taken units or individual figures.

So, that's:

10 definites
6 negatives
4 maybes or partials

I guess that means that I am a "proper wargamer"

21 comments:

  1. Tamsin, hope you feel better soon. Will have to go give the viral a shot myself I think.

    Keep up the good work, always enjoy your post's.

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  2. It was odd not seeing your blog come up on my sidebar-hope you kick this cold and feel better soon.

    You're a proper Wargamer, no doubt about it!

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  3. I never thought there was any doubt!

    I also think you gets lots of extra points for being a "Community minded" wargamer for running competitions on your blog!

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    1. Tam - I'd definitely call you a proper wargamer. Except for being easy going around a wargames table. After a series of bad rolls I have to be restrained from chewing the table in frustration.

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  4. No doubt in my mind! Hope you get on top of the cold soon.

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  5. Glad to see yu back Tamsin, hope the cold does not stick around!

    Ian

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  6. Thanks for the post, interesting and fun read. Off to work on mine now.

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  7. Interesting. I suspect I am not a "proper" wargamer.

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  8. What kind of proper wargamer rebases stuff for a new ruleset? That's what new armies are for.

    Apart from a few old GW minis knocking about I don't think I actually have that much lead at all. My miniatures are in general chewable.

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  9. If anyone is a wargamer, then it most definitely is you; now kick this cold into touch and get on with some more painting!

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  10. Yep I'd say your real wargamer, Also regular colds and colds that are hard to shake off due to lack of fresh air, another sign of a wargamer :-)

    Jason.

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  11. For the pricking your finger on a pike block question, you can't beat the escapade of a friend of mine. Halfway through a game of ancients we left the table set up and went of for beer and a balti. On returning to my flat, worse for wear, he decided he could touch his chin to the ceiling of my flat by standing on a chair (god knows how we came up with this scheme, though evidently it was heavily influenced by beer consumption). The net result was he fell over the table, missing my Indian army but falling right on to his Macedonian Greeks with his massed ranks of sharp steel pikes. Luckily alcohol deadened the pain.

    "Alcohol. The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems" - Homer Simpson

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  12. Thanks all! The cold has pretty much died off now, so normal service should resume in short order.

    @ Arquinsiel - for "lead" in the questions you can always substitute plastics/resin - I was including that in my answers as I've probably got over £100 of plastics and another £100+ of plastics to assemble and paint

    @ Bishop Lord - the thing is I do get plenty of fresh air, I just seem to be very prone to catching colds and have been like that since my teens.

    @ Felonmarmer - great story. I hope your friend wrote up a research paper on the effects of crashing into a Macedonian pike phalanx ;)

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    Replies
    1. We'll give each other a pass on that one then. I'm still screwed on the Ebay thing though.

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  13. Hope you feel better soon, Tamsin. It's the season for wretched colds! As to being a wargamer - yes, definitely you are!

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  14. Oh dear, you started me off on the "Are you a proper wargamer" thing!

    http://legatuswargamesarmies.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/are-you-proper-wargamer.html

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  15. Hi Wargamer Girl,

    I used your answers to Phil Broeder's list for a wider analysis of the questions. You might be interested in the results. See here:
    http://jurrga.blogspot.nl/2012/11/proper-wargamers-analysing-evidence.html

    cheers
    Jur

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  16. And here's part two

    http://jurrga.blogspot.nl/2012/11/what-do-real-rather-than-proper.html

    cheers
    Jur

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