"Miniature Wargamers - Old Men?" Topic

Started by writing a simple set of rules for my Marx toy soldiers around age 10, maybe 1974. Found a copy of France 1940 at a garage sale when I was 12 and played that solitaire until discovering another gamer (same age as me)in 1979, when I was introduced to 15mm WWII. Didn't meet another gamer until 1982, and became part of a group that gamed almost daily for the next few years.

I'm 46 and quite pretty for a roundy, baldy, four eyed little man.

I think there are a lot of younger people coming into the hobby through the "canned" games that are out there. Moreso than when I got into the hobby. I suspect that a lot of them won't stick with it, but that a minority of them will keep the hobby going and actually grow it a little. That said, the only only person I regularly (which means maybe 3 times a year) game with is about 10 years older than me.

My military Dad got me started with Airfix Afrika Korps and British 8th Army accompanied by Roco MiniTanks in Germany back in about 1962. Graduated from those to 40mm Hausser Elastolin Romans, Vikings, Huns and Medievals along with the requisite castles and siege equipment, now all sadly long gone. Moved to 54mm "collector" figures (Britains, Airfix and eventually Historex), then discovered "proper" metal gaming figures in 1972 and WRG shortly after.

Approaching 59, kicking and screaming all the way.

I no longer attend Con's, so can't comment on the young people, but I suspect at least a few are finding their way in, they always have. I also think that just as many middle-aged people "discover" gaming as they get more disposable income and start looking around for hobbies and leisure activities.

Bill
Sir William the Aged
warsoflouisxiv.blogspot.com

I started wargaming when I was 15, I am now 17. So I am a relative newcomer.

I belong to a small group of gamers, we are all between the ages of 15 and 19, there are about 10 of us who participate. So, around my town, we have quite a few wargamers.

Aifix and 53.

Airfix in early '60s.
59, and the youngest of the Fencibles.
I have no idea.

1999-scifi
2002-historicals

37

and beats me, not many that I see, though a good number of clickers and such. They eventually will see the light.

By age 7 I had deliberately launched the dreaded "War of the Bedroom" which lasted for the next five years, as the noble creatures of Bedland battled against the evil invaders from The-Bookshelf-Across-the-Carpet. Many brave stuffed animals, toy soldiers, and one noble nutcracker gave their best against an assorted army of clowns (all evil, of course) and other sundry beasts.

At age 14 I discovered D&D, at 15, Risk. It would be years later before I officially moved into the realm of miniatures wargaming as an adult, but the seeds were clearly there. I'm now 45, not at all old, and not at all grumpy, provided you're not talking to me:
1) early in the morning
2) when I'm hungry
3) when I'm in the middle of dealing with idiots and morons in traffic
4) when I'm watching anything remotely political
5) the exact moment my carefully laid strategy falls apart (I recover quickly from this).

Oh, as to youngsters, yeah, I see 'em all the time. They start with fantasy and sci-fi as I did, and then get interested in historicals along the way.

Depending on what "counts," I started playing RPGs at the tender age of 8. A few years later I picked up Battletech, which probably is my first wargame (as such). As a model builder, I was naturally attracted to miniatures, and dabbled for quite a few years, but never had a large enough collection to really play a game. Fast forward to the early '90s and graduation from HS, and I picked up WHFB. I never really knew about the existence of historicals, with the exception of things like microarmiorm so throughout the '90s remained completely unaware (despite my degree in college being History). Come around '98 or so, and I wanted to start up Bretonnians after a break in collecting fantasy, recalling the excellent 3rd edition figures (which were basically HYWs), and being dissappointed in the 5e figures on the market (too fantasy). That's when I was introduced to WAB. All downhill from there.

I don't see many young kids in historicals, but I see plenty playing GW games. A few branch off into Flames of War, and from there there is plenty of opporunity to take up a broader range of historicals.

I'm 35.

Damon.

Avalon Hill, SPI 1976, Miniatures in 79. Rediscovered miniatures in 2003.

53.

My kids play with me, from time to time.

1) Began wargaming proper (i.e. throwing dice etc) in 1976.
2) I'm 43 years old.
3) The youngest person in my gaming circle is about 30, I think. However, there are three sons who are are slowly but surely taking their first steps towards wargaming with their dad's. Fingers crossed for our next generation.

I grew up playing with lots of plastic soldiers and legos, fighting all sorts of made up wars. In highschool discovered Risk and Axis & Allies. Then through out college played several computer wargames. Just over a year ago became interested in miniatures due to a guys post on another forum I frequent. Since then I have started to get into and enjoy the hobby, or as Im learning "the life style" :) So while Im still a total newbie I think I count.

Did I mention I am only 24 years old so I guess I qualify as younger one. Unfortunatly not many of my peers are interested in my hobby. I've had couple of them say they would try a game with me but none would seriously get involved in the hobby.

Dan

thecommandtent.blogspot.com

I began miniature wargaming in the late 1960's with Airfix models and plastic soldiers (WW II and Napoleonics). Then in 1972, in Fourth Form, I discovered the Wargames Club at my school and it was "love at first fight". Zulus and Imperial British was the first game I played with metal miniatures. From then on its was steadily down-hill as more and more of my time and disposable income was given over to this high maintenance metal mistress! Today I am 50 years old and game with gamers between the ages of 19 and 60. The field is definitely skewed towards the older folks but there is new blood too. Many Warhammer types are coming into the historical field now so new blood is making its way slowly into our hobby.
Rod Robertson

Started at about age 10, with the ever-popular Airfix as noted above – currently I am 55

While most of the guys at the club are 35 plus, there are a few young 'uns – as noted, who tended to start with things like Warhammer or 40K and then get into historicals

The Little Prince (age 6) plays Lego Star Wars all the time and likes World War II and his Gun Bears (Eureka Teddy Bear Grenadiers) – No. 3 son (aged 20) is big into D & D and I am trying to get him to pick up a paint brush

I'm 49. I've been playing with toy soldiers all of my life. I started playing wargame boardgames in middle school, but then started gaming with miniatures my freshman year in high school.

I think it might be a little more difficult to attract younger gamers than in the past, due to the various competing pasttimes such as computer and video games. None the less, there seems to be a draw to our hobby still.

I think what we have over the video/computer games is that we really employ our imaginations to a greater degree. We don't enter somebody else's world, we create our own.

Playing with toy soldiers at 6 or 7; graduated to solo wargames with rules and dice at 10 using Airfix plastics, first opponent at age twelve [wargames group at school in Nuneaton] – haven't looked back since.
Fifty years old.
I think the hobby is generally too expensive for the average teen, too expensive from the aspect of both time commitment and finances – and the majority of gamers they might see are a bunch of old guys – great pity.

npm

Airfix n MB boardgames (battlecry, dogfight, etc) in 60's.
Now 53.

Played with Airfix in the 70s. We made up our own rules to fight big battles. As we got older it included pyrotechnics. I'm still trying to figure out how to bring that into the games I play now.

42

Yes, there are younger gamers all around. It depends on the game but don't assume any one game is only kids or only adults. I've run WWI games where a kid would show up and know as much as the rest of us about the history and/or the equipment.

Hah, wow, I'm young.

Started gaming when I was 8 or so, so 93.

I'm 25 now, the club I attend is pretty much crewed by people in my age bracket or younger, but a large number of them are into warhammer, although I have converted a few to fof

60. My 2 brothers and I played with soldiers, cowboys and Indians, airplanes, etc from the cradle. A bag of army men was a cherished posession.

At Christmas my father would get us boxed army sets of some kind. Having 2 like minded brothers gave us regular opponents. One year we all got ACW sets. Mixed them together for some really cool big fights. In the 60s the 3 of us went into the military to do it for real.

Formal wargaming started in the 70's. Picked up Airfix' Waterloo wargame in Pontypridd, Wales in 1977. Still have the game. That really hooked me. Did a lot of boardgaming along the way, but that was put aside about 10 years ago.

1. When did you start miniature wargaming?
2. How old are you?
3. Are there many youngsters (less than 30 years old) coming into the miniature wargaming hobby?

1 Naval gaming in 1970 (thank you Donald Featherstone & Phil Dunn)
Land gaming in 1971 (thank you Donald Featherstone & Charles Grant)
2. 54
3. Into historical, not as many as I would wish, plenty playing the GW games.

29

Started with Heroquest and Airfix plastic sets aged about 8 .. Zero Hour toys probably helped aswell. Then my uncle got me Waterloo and Zulu around my 11th birthday, coupled with my interest in GW I got into Zulu War and waterloo minis.
had a small break away from them at uni and for my first year in Japan. But toy/model soldiers have been a constant since young. Wargaming since I was about 12. Epic, Warhammer and solo napoleonic.

1. My first real wargame rules were Charles Grant's Battle! which I received for my Christmas present when I was 10.
2. I am now 47 so have been a wargamer for 37 years
3. There are definitely young players entering the miniatures hobby even if a lot of them are playing fantasy or SF games.

Started up playing with Marx playsets BR (before rules), I am 65 now and I don't remember anything else that has happened……… what?

Started with a free Prince august set when I was about 13, I am now 37. There are plenty of youngsters ( teens/twenties) at the local shop. I already have armies painted for my two sons ( aged 1 & 3).

phil

Marx 54mm playsets, with marbles and rubber bands and cupfulls of mercury (for artillery and airstrikes, the stuff bounces and scatters on hardwood, sending figures sprawling, my Uncle lefty used to bring me mason jars of the stuff from the steel mill, Uncle Bub showed me how to use it as napalm for wargaming :) :) ) at about age 3

Airfix, ESCI and Atlantic 1/72s since about age 10 (33 years ago :) )

Dungeons and Dragons with Ral Partha leads in 6th grade

Colonial and micro armor in the late 80's

I did warhammer 40k when I was 10-12, but that's not real wargaming is it.

I started real wargaming when I was 22, now I'm 25

Started with Airfix Civil War in 1976. 40 Years Young.
My daughter participates in 54mm Medieval Skirmish and she turns 4 next Wednesday.

I've always had a tub of Airfix soldiers for as long as I can remember.
44 now (really? Certainly don't feel it!)

Can really speak about young 'uns in general, but my three young boys are following in my footsteps (and hopefully the baby girl too!)

Miniature games against my dad, Marx alamo playset, home brew rules, at four years old, 1955.

Avalon hill board games (tactics II) at eight years old (1958 or 1959)

Painted lead miniatures at 28 years old, (for Swashbuckler) in 1979.

I'll turn 60 in nine weeks.

But between my ears I'm 14 years old.

1. Started with Britains and Airfix models, then became a teen and quit for many years until my 29th birthday then I returned with vigor.
2. 38
3. My son.

1. Wargames (i.e. AH) – early 70s
D&D, – late 70s
Historical miniatures – mid 80s

2. 50

3. Not really, though some of the guys bring their kids (but they don't play with the grownups).

I started off with Rogue Trader when I was 12 or 13. Im 37 now.

Chainmail Silver Cover Edition.
40yrs young.
Lots of young whippersnappers joining us. Some as young as 11… For real wargaming.

Get off my lawn!

Started w/ Marx playsets in late 1950's.

59

There are guys in their 20's in my wargaming club, The Northern Conspiracy.

I'm 35 and started miniature gaming in 1983.

Battle by Charles Grant, bout 1972 before then it was airfix with made up rules, there was also a little games booklet that came out about 1970 or so called 'know the game' wargaming. First metals were Hinchcliffe Scots Greys (3 of them in about 74.) I am now 45, and most of my club are 40+ with a few youngsters, and a lot of juniors playing DBA thanks to some very enthusiastic organisers in town.

My first memory of miniature gaming is back in the early 70s when I pitted my 1/72 Airfix BEF against Marx dinosaurs. My first proper ruleset was purchased in the late 70s, and my first metal miniatures in the 1980s.

Im now 45

My first troops were Airfix USMC and Africa Corps @ 1967. My brother had always had Marx sets, and as he is six years older than me, so "Army Men" were always around. About a year after Airfix a cousin gave my brother some AH games and the rest is history.

I'm 50

yes, miniature war gamers are old men. You got a problem with that? 38, going on 65. Age is a number in your head. People who play the numbers game don't enjoy life to the fullest, IMHO.

Also, I don't war game, I theorize on it, except for a 2-3 year stint in the mid-90's when I played a lot of ASL.

"…1. When did you start miniature wargaming?
2. How old are you?
3. Are there many youngsters (less than 30 years old) coming into the miniature wargaming hobby?…"

1) Like others I define toy soldiers as miniatures.

So sometime in the early 1950's with plastic soldiers (detoured in 1959-1960's starting with a Civil War boardgame using plastic Infantry/cavalry/Artillery figures through the demise od SPI) and model kit airplanes/AFVs. What we call table top miniatures/war games in the 1970's with Chainmail was the core of my current hobby.

2. 60 Last April.

3. Check Recruits (Kansas City area) convention website. Looking good.

Gracias,

Glenn

"1. When did you start miniature wargaming?" (14)
"2. How old are you?" (52)
"3. Are there many youngsters (less than 30 years old) coming into the miniature wargaming hobby?" (NO)

"Growing old is not an option." (Yes)
"Growing up is." (Says Who?)

I started wargaming in 1973 with 25mm Scruby Napoleonic's
And after going with everything from 6mm – 54mm and from Ancients – Moderns I'm back to my beginnings with 25mm Napoleonic's. Not 28mm but 25mm.

Robert Henry
link
link

Started with AH Panzerblitz, then Heritage Napoleonettes with EMPIRE back in 1973. I'm 55. No.

Warmest regards,

/// BILL ///

Wilbur E Gray
Colonel, US Army (Ret)
AOE, PSS, HMGS WFG+

ageofeagles.grouply.com

"The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools." Thucydides

Marx play sets about 1955 ! Thank you Uncle Matt a WW2 VET I will be 60 next month! I just love the ancient period,but do FOW with a very great bunch of guys! Mike Adams

Got a Marx Alamo Playset when I was 5 or 6, and then an ACW one a couple years later. Started wargaming in 1968 at the age of 13 when my friend and I co-discovered both Airfix plastic figures and Charles Grants' book and rules. We were using the British 8th Army and German Afrika Corps figs and any vehicles we could get our grubby hands on.

I'm 55 and still gaming.

We have an organization/club that has members all over the state of Maine. 1 convention a tear and 4 game days a tear. Many of the members game with eachother at homes, stores, etc.

We are fortunate to have quite a few younger members, and I don't see wargaming dropping off here in Maine for quite a while yet.

1. When did you start miniature wargaming?
2. How old are you?
3. Are there many youngsters (less than 30 years old) coming into the miniature wargaming hobby?

1. Epic Space Marine, age 12? Later modern and ACW.
2. 30
3. Yes

In the late 40's, don't remember the year, might have been 1946. My Dad still wasn't home from WW2 yet, my middle sister took me age 5 or 6 to see "Richard the Lion Hearted" with Henry Wilcox or Wilcoxson anyway it was in color, I flipped out all those guys on horses wearing silk shifts with red crosses on them. The movie never left my mind, so I became an early reenactor running around the neighborhood with an old bed sheet that I made into a poncho with big red crosses on both sides, a trash can lid for a shield an a wood sword. The whole neighborhood thought I needed help, He's a real Nutter. so my Mom take my armour away. When my Dad finally gets home, my Ma tells him the sad story about his only son, out of his duffle bag come 3 red long boxs "Britians cowboys and indians" I've never stopped playing and gaming! oldbob 69

1. When did you start miniature wargaming?

Early 1970's with Airfix figures.

2. How old are you?
48

3. Are there many youngsters (less than 30 years old) coming into the miniature wargaming hobby?
Yes loads, however they tend to play games us old farts don't like much usually by GW…

11, now 38. My 4 & 1 year old sons would love to play with Daddy's soldiers

1969

Airfix, 8th army and Afrika Corps boxes I think, followed by many others WW2 WW1 and eventually Napoleonics

50, oldest in our merry little band of gamers, but a lot of new (-30) blood showing up for FOW, LaSalle, FOG etc in the past few years, sort of encouraging.