Wargaming - Regional?

[Michael Gray]

Warmahordes has gotten big here in Oklahoma City. Warhammer Fantasy has a couple of small groups, as do Dystopian Wars and Flames of War. I really don't know about 40K, but the game stores are filled with their stuff so there must be some.

If you're looking to start something up, we've found that doing Escalation or Journeyman type leagues can get people interested if you can get local store support.

[Brander]

I've never had a hard time finding Battletech players, even when I was in Gitmo and Guam (probably the military thing).  40K seemed to be almost everywhere too.  On a slightly less popular note, I only ever played Full Thrust in various places in southern Michigan and the Denver area of Colorado (at the sadly gone Valhallas), though I knew of people playing it in New York when I was there, Battlefleet Gothic is what I ended up playing while in western New York.

[Angry_Douchebag]

The OP doesn't really specify if he's discussing board war games or minis games.  Board wargames, with some exceptions, like Battlelore (which also uses minis), seem to have been largely relegated to the past except for small, isolated groups trying to keep them alive.  They seem to be looked upon with some degree of disdain by the current crop of boardgame enthusiasts, which seems to limit their introduction to new players.

Mini wargaming here in the northwest has diversified, but not really expanded, it seems.  40k, Warmahordes, Flames of War and smaller games like Infinity and Malifaux have divided up a crowd that otherwise used to revolve around 40k.  I still buy and paint minis, but more just for the fun of converting, painting and building dioramas these days.  Casual mini wargaming doesn't really exist anymore, having been subsumed by tournaments, leagues, and the whole cash to win mindset that goes along with it.  Seriously turned away by the most of the "hobby" crowd these days.

[kythri]

I guess I'd be referring to "traditional" wargames, like military simulation, that kinda thing.

Basically, I saw a lot of wargame stuff in SF that I've never seen here in Oregon (Eugene to Portland, Bend to Coast).

Warhammer, Warmachine, all of that is pretty common around here.  Don't know what the scene in Portland was like, but if it still exists, it's not being supported by any of the area game stores.

Bridgetown Hobbies may have had some stuff back in the day, when it was Military Corner, but they didn't seem to advertise the stuff in the past decade or so, up until they closed.

[Haffrung]

Around here (Alberta, Canada), we distinguish:

• Wargames - Historical sims of the kind published by GMT.


• Historical Miniatures - Historical minis. Various Napoleonics. Flames of War, etc.


• Fantasy Miniatures - Warhammer and its ilk.

Wargames are going strong. We have a club that gets 6-20 people to its events. Popular games include 2-player block games like Julius Caesar, C&C Napoleonics, and Hellas, and multiplayer games like Here I Stand. Still some traditionalists who play hex and counter games almost exclusively. There are also a couple groups in town who play nothing but monster games like World in Flames.

Historical miniatures are alive, if not exactly thriving. There are always three or four tables set up at Fallcon.

Fantasy miniatures are thriving. Frequent events at the local game store. A couple Games Workshop stores in town.

[Simlasa]

Bridgetown Hobbies may have had some stuff back in the day, when it was Military Corner, but they didn't seem to advertise the stuff in the past decade or so, up until they closed.

Bridgetown Hobbies was the first place I ever saw GZG games... Full Thrust, Stargrunt, Dirtside. I was on birthday vacation and walked there from the fabulous Ben Stark Hotel (name now changed to hide the skeletons).
I bought Full Thrust and a bunch of spaceships.
As I recall it was a nice shop, sad to hear it's closed.

[Herne's Son]

I used to be much more into wargaming of the minis variety back in the late 80s through late 90s. Just don't have the time/ability to paint all those little guys, nor the space to store boxes of terrain any more, though I dearly loved playing the games back in the day.

My perspective (being from the SF Bay Area) is that minis gaming is very much a thing here. Every game store I know around here has tables devoted to minis gaming in their stores. Most have terrain and scenery models which players can use at their leisure.

The big local game cons (DunDraCon, Pacificon, Conquest) all seem to have active miniatures communities as well. That all being said, it's mostly fantasy/scifi stuff these days from what I'm seeing.

When I was doing lots of minis gaming back in the 90s, we played all sorts of stuff. Most of my friends had at least one fantasy and one historical army, and we'd play them with whatever battle rules were hot at the time.

Games I seem to recall playing with frequency included:

Warhammer Fantasy Battle 2 & 3
Warhammer 40k 1 & 2
Space Marine/Epic
(Hell, I'll just say we played most if not all of the GW games at the time)

Fantasy Warlord
Fantasy Warriors
Perilous Encounters
Royal Armies of the Hyborian Age
AD&D BattleSystem & BattleSystem Skirmishes
Tactica
WRG
DBA
DBM
Hordes of the Things

And one guy at the FLGS at the time was writing his own game, "Banneret", which we play tested a lot.

I also had friends who got big into Napoleonics, but that was never really my thing.

[jan paparazzi]

Mostly Warhammer (40K) miniatures where I live (Randstad-Netherlands). I haven't seen anyone play something historical like Memoir 44 or Axis and Allies in a long time.

[GameDaddy]

Wargaming, and Miniatures Gaming is alive and well. Not quite as popular as in the mid to late 70's but there is a loyal following.

HMGS (Historical Miniatures Gaming Society) Great Lakes runs miniatures games and wargame tournaments every year at both Origins and Gencon as well as sponsoring a bunch of Wargame only tournaments like Advance the Colors, Drums, and World at War as well as a bunch of one-shot events at individual club members homes..

More info on this here:
http://www.hmgsgl.org/