"Why do you play table top miniature games?" Topic

Why do you play table top miniature games?

I like playing games that let you use real world tactics getting believable out comes, letting you practice the tactics.

Also I like the look of a well laid out (real looking/3D photo like)table and minis. even if it is a sci-fi or fantasy background game.

It's an excuse to play with toy soldiers

Because they won't let me do full-scale games with live ammo.

My miniatures are my only friends.

Because, in the words of AHGC, I want to bring history to life.

Because I'm getting too old to out-run and out-gun the young kids in paint ball or simmunitions exercises, especially with my asthma. Or, because I've been doing it since I was 10 years old with my Dad, and we still get a kick out of painting and gaming together!

Because it's fun.

It keeps me off the streets, and away from your women folk.

Relaxing…well, sometimes!

People think I'm not as weird if I'm rolling dice and looking through books while moving around toy soldiers and saying "Pew! Pew! Pew!".

I feel the need to build and create.

I like the creative aspect of terrain making and painting and I like the look of a well laid out table with things on there that I have made/created/bought to life.

The game itself is just something to do with my pretty toys.

I rarely get to game but like to set the table up and pretend I am gaming.

Believable escapism maybe?

I'm not sure if my reasons for playing are the norm, or a bit off the wall, honestly.

I've always been fascinated by things either gigantic, or in miniature, for some reason- as far back as I can remember, the biggest fascinations I've had were Japanese kaiju, and small things like action figures (the Micronauts remain one of my all-time favorite toys), toy cars, model cars, and, from the moment I first received a massive Dragonriders of the Styx playset for Christmas when I was securely in the single-digits agewise, miniature figures. From this, it was a short jump to compulsively customizing everything- mixing and repainting parts of GI Joes & assorted compatible toy lines to create new figures, new vehicles, etc., kitbashing an AMT '56 Corvette Gasser drag car with a model of the Dodge Deora concept car to create what my dad dubbed my "El Corvino" drag truck, etc.

To this day, I remain absolutely enthralled by both, to the extent that I own every Godzilla film ever released on DVD, on VHS, and, if the format gains longterm viability, I'll snag'em on BluRay, as well.

Obviously, I still muck around w/miniatures constantly, as well, or I wouldn't be here. :)

Beyond that? Mostly because it's a combination of telling a story, and playing with toys- especially in my ideal games, where an element of roleplaying game systems show up in the form of attributes, skills, perks & quirks, and character advancement.

- Monk

I just love war games. Computer, Miniatures, or paper and counter style. As long as it makes a reasonable attempt at being a simulation I'm in.

I like the challenge of obtaining objectives within a structured framework of tactics and probability. I don't care if the rules 'simulate' reality or not. As long as they are not so lopsided that only the 'French' or 'Germans' can possibly win.

I like to see my little toy soldiers blow away your little toy soldiers. ;)

I love it when a good plan comes together,
Brian

It's fun and you can't stop me.

When I was fifteen it was the 3D aspect and the figures themselves (painting and sculpting) was secondary. As times progressed it was more about representing the formations and tactics. Then I moved to modeling and creating. Now it's a familiar comfort zone incorporating all of the above.

Not only can I not dance, I can't sing…

Gracias,

Glenn

Semi-seriously; History representation, re-creating a 3D miniatures game of war, playing scenarios with my best SF/Fantasy arch types, and having another excuse to read books as "research."

A lot of the same reasonsas above: 3D histoical recreation, fascination with things miniature, painting the figs, etc.

To meet girls.

I take it nobody has had the talk with Venusboys3?
Dude I hate to have to tell you this…

@ Venusboys- How's that working out for you? :)

@ Rat Monkey- You took apart your GIJoes!!?? Oh, I've developed a twitch over this one!!!:) I've got hundreds of those, and they're touched by anyone but me on pain of death!

Actually, I've always been fascinated by anything in miniature as well…Then I thought the LOTR characters were cool, but couldn't afford entire armies in the action figure scales. Then I saw the GW box sets, and voila! here I am…

Also, I love the creative side of building terrain…

Seriously though, it was the miniature painting and terrain making that interested me the most. The one thing that computer games cannot even come close to satisfying.

Prior to that I was just getting into plastic modelling and, after seeing The Making of Star Wars special on TV, getting into kitbashing. Miniature wargaming and RPGs seemed like an extention of that which I could interact and share with my friends.

Im with Angel Barracks on this one.Love making scenery/terrain.I would like the occasional game however if I had the time or people to play with.
fantascene.net/cart

Best excuse to make models. Also having an opponent across the table from you is something computer games just can't compete with.

Robert

P.S. I think that the correct answer according to the TMP code of conduct was supposed to be "To crush my enemies and hear the lamentation of their womenfolk" so we have all failed this test.

It's an excuse to play with toy soldiers. I love war games. I am fascinated by miniatures. Miniatures bring history, SF, and Fantasy to life better than any movie, And I like painting, research, and model building. My wife married me because I did not have the same old interests as the rest of the guys she dated even though I cant dance.

Toaster,

Actually that's "To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women" but thank you for playing!

Actually I play as a social activity. I like history and pushing lead but it's mainly a social activity.

Jason
Stafford, VA

There was a local hobby shop as big as a closet run by Mr. Brown filled to the brim with trains, games, models and in the corner.. Airfix 1/72 scale soldiers…hooked. I had shoe boxes full of these and set up and replayed all sorts of battles throughout history.
When Mr. Brown closed the store, because of his age and our dying small town could not support a hobby shop, He called me and my bother on the phone and asked us to come in.
To our surprise he told he was closing up and that we could take what we wanted. Dumbfounded, we stood there looking at all these toys that we had pined for. We refused at first, but spurred on by Mr. Brown, my brother Mike took some RR cars and I took a Tamiya 1/35 Stuart.
Mr. Brown then told me he wouldn't sell the 1/72 Airfix he wanted me to take the stock. I heartbreakingly accepted knowing this was the last thing I'd ever get out of that store.
I still have the soldiers and still have the unbuilt kit.
Mr. Brown unwittingly started a fire within that burns bright today. A 5'X 12' table brimming with WWII miniatures.
and although the scale is 10mm I thank you for the Airfix soldiers Mr. Bob Brown.

with Sharps 54 for the most part.

It's a great excuse to get away from the house in the winter when i cant use fishing as an excuse.

There are 3 reasons I minis game:
1) Hang out with my pals
2) Drink beer with those pals
3) to show off my hackney painting skills.

that's about it.

I like toys
I like Science Fiction
Wargaming let's me make my own Science Fiction Toys and spend time with friends playing games with them.

I have gotten active again in it because my son is old enough to help paint and play with me -in a fashion. He is in first grade so he makes up with boundless enthusiasm what he lacks in skill.

I've been doing it since I got out of 3 cornered pants.

Damned if I know why I started.
However, I seem to enjoy it, so I continue.

The whole creative thing, modeling, building, painting. And then I get to actually do something with my creations and play a game. But the creative/imagination thing is the big thing for me. Lets me vent alittlebit of the noise in my head.

Keeps my free time occupied and therefore i didn't need to take up smoking, however playing with toy soliders may not look as cool to the girls…. :-)

because under-the-table miniature games can be quite dangerous, and ceiling-hanging miniature games are bad for my neck (besides being hard to set-up and play)….

("Of the mark", are you sure?) ;p

because the police tag means I cannot leave the house, and they also limit what I can do online, thus I had to find a hobby I could enjoy indoors and was safe to look at online – although the gun and bomb phrases flagged up a lot to start with, let alone political debates, but now the system has settled down and I don't end up with another visit to 'check up on me' because the system said I was browsing how to blow up the goverment – saying it was Bonoglesia didn't help :-(

Because the figures talk to me and tell me to.

They also make me spend all my money on more.

It is the voices. The VOICES I say!

And like Venusboys3 said, to meet women.

Why not ?

I started

I carried on

Sometimes I stop for a few months or a year even

Then I play a game. And it's fun so I carry on.

Oh (as others have mentioned) and for the women – that was a big attraction (pardon the pun). Hot women. In skimpy outfits. Sweating.

Hang on. No. No, that's beach volleyball. Not wargaming. Not at all.

Seariously ?

Because it combines buying and painting shiny things with reading (history or Fantasy), and playing games which I just enjoy because of the social aspect and also for the driving my enemies before me and hearing the lamentation of their wimmin aspect.

Painting helps keep my fingers nimble.

Playing is a social outlet and keeps my mind active.

@Ranger322: I did, indeed, take apart my GI Joes.

Not only that, but I also did things like cut the original Dreadnok Buzzer's glued-on rubber hair into a mohawk, shaved off (or added) details using a homemade chisel (i.e., a short piece of rebar I found on the side of the road, and ground to a flat blade on a friend's dad's grinding wheel when his parents' weren't home to stop us, since we were roughly 9 at the time), etc. Heh.

I see how valuable some of them ended up in retrospect, but I figure it's offset by the fact that I had a blast as a kid and, as a result, there was never any possibility of not converting a good 80-90% of my actual miniatures, once I got into it, as a result, since I already had the confidence in my ability to make a project work the way I wanted. :D

- Monk

A love of history.

A love of toy soldiers.

A love of games.

The great people I've met in historical gaming.

The fun of the games, and especially of the research and setting the games up. Ditto for writing rules.

Nowadays, I use figures and terrain to help teach about battles and the like. It helps folks understand if they can actually see it.

Because I am a cool kid?

Rat Monkey, you're just plain evil!

Actually, I did very similar stuff…but I bought the cheap Corps guys and did all that stuff to them. They got dismantled, reassembled, burned in gasoline trenches during battles, shot with BBs, blown up with firecrackers…all while my GIJoes sat by and laughed their more expensive plastic rear-ends off!

Because I am the sort of dweeb who plays with toy soldiers.

It's cheaper than doing drugs and hanging out at stripjoints.

It's cheaper than doing drugs and hanging out at stripjoints.

Not in my experience.