The problem is there are only so many War gamers in the world at any given point in time, as older ones retire or pass away they are replaced by young guys just starting out. Also there are those who simply give up on gaming while there are those who never had gamed before who take it up out of the blue. But in the end there are only so many gamers to go around.
On the other hand there are many era's or periods to war game and many of us cross-play in more than one of there periods. I myself over the years play Napoleonics and WWII while I have friends who also play Ancients, Medieval etc. So when you have so many periods open to you your time gets thinned out between gaming and Real Life. So much so that many times one of your periods simply can get put aside and collect duct for years, then when you drag them out again and look over them lovingly and desire to play again you probably find it hard to find friends or other gamers interested in giving it a go again.
Napoleonics had a read slump in my area back in the late 80's all the way through to the mid 90's. No one would agree on a rules set as there were so many to choose from. Each group or club had its own and separate groups could not play together. This led to many gamers simply giving up on Napoleonics or going it alone in sporadic private groups. Everyone began playing computer games as the graphics improved. War gaming kind of died off as a result to a significant degree and even the war gaming clubs I visited dwindled in numbers of players and visitors. Significantly young players were non-existent as PC's took there leisure time away.
As the 90's went on people slowly came back as Ancients and Warhammer or 40K began to take some kind of following. Before we knew it clubs grew once more with older guys who once had played Napoleonics and WWI in the 80's now playing Ancients with DBA and so on. New fresh faced teenagers also grew rapidly in number as the Warhammer and 40K came on the scene and both groups co-existed in the same clubs playing side by side.
What we older gamers noticed is that these younger gamers began to watch the Ancients players and slowly join in or build their own armies. Some older players also did the same thing and bought Warhammer armies and so on. Eventually Flames of war came out and for the past 8-9 years many players re-invented themselves and began to play WWII once again with masses of players from all ages rapidly building up masses or armies for FoW and the clubs were overflowing with tables full of players, some old, some young and even many returned players who game up on war gaming when WWII died 10-15 years earlier.
This has led to visitors who are usually older players who probably no longer game much or at all or just decided long ago to game with friends privately at homes to come along to the clubs simply for a look at all the hype going on. Before long these older more private gamers became enthusiastic once more because they were encouraged by the numbers of gamers going along to clubs etc and took up Napoleonics once more to showcase their beloved period. This resulted in some exhibition / demonstration games which grabbed the attention of other players, especially younger players who had never heard of Napoleonics or at least never thought to play the period.
Before long these newer younger players stood along side the older veteran players like myself and joined in on games and quickly they enjoyed themselves so much that they stopped playing Warhammer and 40K and began to build up Napoleonic armies. The great thing about young War hammer gamers is their enthusiasm for detail, you only have to listen to them recite details of fantasy units, mega bots and all the other information of their period to understand these younger players have a passion for deep details. This stood them good for learning such a heavy historical period such as Napoleonics. These young enthusiastic players took in knowledge like sponges on the period from 1792-1815 wish such rapidity that I was astounded and encouraged.
It is these cross-over young players aged between 15-25 who actually encouraged us older players to dust off our Napoleonic figures and fight with them once more but more so to teach these younger players the history of the period. Most older players like to halt a war game mid battle to discuss and pass on knowledge to younger players why things happened and how they relate on a war games table. These younger players simply lap it up with relish while the older farts amongst us get satisfaction in imparting our knowledge…
Napoleonics will never die but it was dormant in hibernation for a long while.
Regards,
Shane
returns to Flintloque to paint an Ogre.
