"Historical wargamers under 40?" Topic

Every time I stop by the local wargaming venue or a wargamers convention, I'm struck by the fact that the historical wargamers are virtually all a bit long in the tooth. Verging on geriatric. So just as an unscientific poll, how many historical wargamers 18-40 do you know personally? All the younger ones I see are fantasy types, Warhammer, etc.

I'm under 40 so there's that…

Damon.

Most of my wargame/military history associates, like me, are in their 50s – but that is a baby boom fact of life (there are more of us in total anyway) …

On the other hand I know of dozens of under 40s that play.

Of course, youngsters have had fantasy pumped at them relentlessly so many succumb but I've never seen any underlying preference – kids love history (as we saw at Milton Keynes at the weekend) and if historical wargames are presented with knowledge and enthusiasm there is a ready audience.

As a youngster once said to me at a Living History fair … 'so this is like Warhammer but it really happened … Wow!. He went on to explain that all he'd seen before was Warhammer but everybody knows that dragons and goblins don't exist but being able to do real battles would be cool …

So don't give up on them: kids are just as entitled to enjoy their history as the rest of us.

Phil

I honestly think that younger folks just don't judge one set of gamers vs the others that a lot of older gamers seem to do, and have no trouble swapping between these types of games.

I'm in my late 40's, but I know a lot of younger folks who play historicals. Most younger gamers I know have no problem at all switching between playing historicals and fantasy games, so they'll go to shows that allow a wider assortment of games over one that is specifically associated with historical games.

Younger folks tend to hate judgmental approaches, so if your premise is 'that Warhammer stuff is crap, come play historicals!' then you won't find much success with a wider audience. However, if you enthusiastically say, 'Hey want to play a historical game?' you will get younger gamer participation.

If you want more younger gamers to play with you, also- be inviting. I've seen mostly great, inviting historical games at most conventions I go to. Most gamers at historical conventions are inviting, accommodating and approachable. However, there are a few that I have seen or played in where the table is surrounded by grumpy old men who complain about everything and criticize every move, tactic or approach a newbie takes. Don't be that group if you want more young players to partake.

I am 33, and I know at least 5 other historical gamers in the age groups 28-39

We have several in our group, but most of the diehards are 50+ or better.

Jim

I'm 34 (on Sunday), and Ive played historicals for around 15 years. I know 2 other guys whom I play with on a regular bases who are younger then me. one is in his early 20s. the otehr is 30 and has been playing historicals 2 years longer then me.

Historical miniatures are my predominent form of gaming, though the occasional Sci-fi project sneaks in(like robotech RPG tactics)

I think I can safely say that I'm one of the larger die-hard historical gamers in the area.

I was under 40 last year…

My son is (sorta, turning more and more to the PC game dark side…) and he is 18

Nope, I fail, I'm 65.

My son is 15. Has Napoleonic French, ACW, and Macedonian armies.

I'm well past 40 but I resent being referred to as geriatric – I've got a good twenty years before I get there, maybe 40. Long lived folk, we are. No, I just got to beat out great grandma by a few months and I'll tip past a hundred. Why, say any of you wet behind the ears almost forty somethings want to get in a game?

: )

The same trend was in full view at Little Wars. Lots of great folks, but most were 40+

I know quite a few <40 folks that have dabbled slightly in historical gaming, but most are sci-fi and fantasy gamers. I think I only know one who actively games historical.

Im 30.. Youngest of a club im in tho. I have lots of historical figures. Barely any warhammer (more due to how expensive it is)
I notice at shows I still feel a youngling compared to the majority I see

I'm still under 40 (barely) and I've been playing historical games for more than two decades. We've got a couple college-age guys at our FLGS who do historicals.

Not trying to necro, this doesn't seem too old and I couldn't resist.

I play SF and Fantasy games, but do historic games as well. Thirty Years War, WWII, Romans, some nice Normans to face Anglo Danes and Muslims. I've been thinking about trying to expand into skirmishes with Greeks, and into the Italian Wars or the Baltic Crusades. Ohh, yeah, and I'm 17 :)

Most of my historic games are small affairs, like, skirmish level, excepting the Thirty Years War stuff. For me, that's the thing about historic games, as a younger gamer, my budget's limited to what I can make working a Summer job, and most historic games seem to favor bigger, more expensive armies, which doesn't allow a lot of variety in your games if you decide you're gonna build up and paint two larger forces to reenact battles that we know for sure happened. That's why stuff like SAGA or 500 point Bolt Action is so great. One can build a nice, fun, force in 15mm for a small investment, generally a good deal less than $100 USD for two sides, and move on. It doesn't hurt that terrain can be recycled for more than a thousand year if one does several eras of European history. In short, I'd say apparent cost and prep time is the biggest inhibitor to playing historics among younger wargamers.

I've been under 40 for the past 50 years and very historical too…

I'm old and I play both Fantasy and Historicals.

I am 30. Started historicals at like 20 with flames of war, now play lots of others like FoG, HC, Naval Thunder etc and don't play my first mini games (40k/fantasy) really ever.

I have several friends who play too.

For my part I don't go to a lot the convention type settings because I don't really care for being talked to like I am an idiot child of belittled because I am not 65. I have had some good experianced with older games, but a lot have been massively hostile, exspecially in a group setting. The older guys at my local store are cool, but the same can not really be said for the greater community in my opinion. So I play the games with friends. This is in the USA, not sure what others have experianced. My friends are unlikely to try and get me thrown out of a tournament because the color of the crest on some of my 15mm hoplites is not historically correct in their opinion.