"Would you go on a wargaming cruise?" Topic

If you had the time, would you go on a wargaming cruise? You would have to pay, of course. In addition, would your spouse or significant other let you go or go with you? This imaginary wargaming cruise would also have all the other entertainments normally available to the passengers (besides wargaming). Fun or not?

I would but my wife wouldn't so I won't.

Yeah, I was going to ask what activities they would have for the SO.

No – I can play just as much and pay a lot less with a gaming staycation. This is basically what I have been doing the past couple of years rather than go to Historicon.

No

Ditto zippyfusenet.

A few years ago I would have been a definite no myself! Now it sounds…well not too bad at all.

#getting-old

It depends on the itinerary. Maybe, maybe not. If I want to game, I can stay at home or go to a convention. If they are going someplace I want to go to, then gaming is an added bonus, but not the reason for the trip.

No I would stay home a game. Use the money to buy more figs.

Yes. Mixed program with visits, instead of boring " activities"…
Space?
Not sure the price for ot would make it worth.

Wasn't there a wargaming cruise to Alaska a few years ago?

Cocked dice would be a significant problem in rough seas.

If you had to abandon ship, would they cry, "Women, Children, and Wargames Collections First!"?

I don't know about the Alaska cruise, Bill.

It sounds fun to me, but it would be no go from my wife.

Nope. If I am going on a cruise, it will either be a Disney one with wife and kids, or a "real" one with either my wife, or wife and kids.

Wargames are best for damp basements or crowded game stores.

Chalfant

No, if I am going on a cruise I want to go and see and do the things the cruise is venturing to. Going to a war game convention is about the high point for me as far as the hobby. Combining the hobby with an actual vacation to relax seems…well odd.

Not my thing. I would prefer to visit the States and visit a lot of the wargamers I have met online.

That's good money spent on something other than figures, terrain and rules. Besides, if you're gaming, how would you enjoy the luxuries of the cruise? You'd just be stuck in an underlit ballroom with a bunch of smelly guys with bad hygiene. Don't see the point really.

Maybe we can charter a floating Lancaster Host.

dB has it. I had a dream recently in which I was hosting some sort of minicon in my enormous(non-existent) basement. The house caught on fire,but I couldn't get anyone to leave--they all wanted to finish their games first.

Not too big a stretch to imagine an analogous cruise ship scenario…

I've been in the navy, so there is no hypnotic lure of voyaging on the seas and visiting exotic ports. It's a cruise ship, and they're tourist spots. Adding wargaming doesn't do much since, as mentioned above, I can game elsewhere.

Now, a LARP pirate reenactment cruise … that has some merit! Spend a day as a swabbie, a gunner, a rigger, a quartermaster, a cook, a bosun, a marine, and half a day each as the first mate and the captain. That would give you a good week and change. Maybe the next day is a seamanship contest, then meet up with another ship, take the roles you won in the contest, and send the other crew to Davy Jones' Locker!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Cocked dice would be a significant problem in rough seas.

Cruise ships don't do rough seas. Plus if they can do this …

YouTube link

… I think they have our needs covered.

Not during the Commemorative U-Boat Wolfpack Rally. Or the Iceberg Slalom Regatta or the PQ-17 Re-Enactor Event or the Midway Hide & Seek Exercises……

no

Multiple deal-breakers for me.

First, if I'm at sea, I want to be diving. I don't care if Cameron Diaz needs a partner for strip-DBN. There's no way I'm going to sea, and not diving.

Second – I go away to weekend games several times a year, hosted in hotels. I already get to enjoy the experience of being looked-after while having uninterrupted all-day gaming.

Third – I've always hated the imposed snobbery inherent in cruises – you paid for the silver package, you're restricted to decks B and lower, you can't go in the Gold lounge or eat at the Starlight restaurant. That BS makes me feel positively revolutionary.

And E: back when I played in cover bands, we did some cruise-ship work.
It's like sausages – once you've seen how they're made, you're not so keen on them.

I probably would if it was going somewhere I wanted to go.

Like a cruise of the Greek islands where you go about on the island at day and then wargame at night.

I'm not sure what people are talking about with the activities for the SO. Why can't they wargame too?

Is death an option?

NO

Cruises are far too dangerous for mild-mannered gamers. Rogue waves, fires, power failures, communicable diseases (notably norovirus and Legionnaires' Disease), capsizing, pirates, terrorists, and design flaws are ever-present risks.

And they operate in a grey legal zone, so all sorts of major crimes happen and often go unreported and uninvestigated.

Who provides the figures and puts on the games?
I'm paying an exorbitant amount of money to put on a game?
Not bloody likely!

Sure if I didn't have to supply figures

Seeing as I contracted Disembarkation Syndrome on my first and only cruise I would have to say

ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Interesting comments.

My wife and I usually go on 3 or 4 cruises each year, all to and from the UK, and to destinations as far as North America, the Caribbean, Iceland, the Baltic, and the Mediterranean.

Luckily we go with P&O, which is single-class (no imposed snobbery – thank God – or restrictions as to where in the ship we can go) and we have experienced pretty stormy weather (hurricane-force winds, waves breaking over the windows of Deck 11).

Would I go on a wargaming cruise? No, because I go to spend time with my wife and to visit lots of different places. Do I wargame on cruises? Well I've been known to take a portable solo game with me!

I'm not sure what people are talking about with the activities for the SO. Why can't they wargame too?

Don't know. SWMBO would.

Rogue waves,

capsizing,

I'll give you those, even if they're obscenely rare in cruise ship environments.

fires, power failures, communicable diseases (notably norovirus and Legionnaires' Disease), pirates, terrorists, and design flaws

How are those different than any other wargaming convention? Actually sounds pretty mild…

No.

I played Mordheim on the JoCo Cruise a couple of years back. It was pretty cool to look out the window at the deep blue ocean, then return to the Old World to stomp my opponent into paste. :)

No.

Heck yes. The last cruise we were on, there were enough copies of Catan and similar ilk with people's carryon bags that we could run a good size boardgaming convention.

Using miniatures would make it a bit cumbersome. More on the gaming aspects, less on the presentation.

Gaming on Sea days, historical tours on Port days. Sounds good to me.

But could I get duty-free dice from a dealer?

This is what a wargaming cruise looks like.