"Coronavirus/COVID-19 and wargaming" Topic

"Now that the UK is on the verge of moving from the ‘contain' to the ‘delay' stage of national response, the pandemic is beginning to have a significant impact on normal life. We've already seen some panic buying of antibacterial hand gel, face masks, pasta, and toilet rolls, the cancellation of a growing number of sports fixtures, and it looks as if large gatherings of people will be banned sooner rather than later.

So, what will the impact be on wargaming?

At present, SKIRMISH – a wargame show due to be held in Sidcup, Kent, next Sunday – is still due to go ahead, and as far as I know, SALUTE – which should be taking place in five weeks time – has not been postponed … although I suspect that the likelihood that it will be is growing…."
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Amicalement
Armand

3 weeks out of date.

Salute for 2021 has been cancelled, and this years show 'postponed' and moved to the day that next years show was to be. This is just playing with words as it looks like the South London Warlords dont want to have the hassle of paying back monies to everybody who paid in advance.

Even the All England Lawn Tennis Association has cancelled this years Wimbledon championships, and not postponed it to next year.

For the forseeable future wargames shows will not be being held. To be honest, from what I saw at Hammerhead last month, most of the attendees would fall into the 'at risk' category, myself included.

I am afraid that it is either going to be solo gaming, figure preparation, or painting for quite a while.

Stay safe everyone, wherever you are.

I don't see when things will resume. Presumably they will, but none of the decision-makers are personally much inconvenienced, which makes a difference.

Time to be grateful that so many hobby businesses are evening and weekend affairs with kit in basements, attics and garages. They'll be there when this is all over.

As for shows--next one I know of not cancelled is the SYWA Convention, postponed to last of July/start of August. I've got a room and a table reserved, but I wouldn't bet any money on it actually taking place.

IF, things calm down enough for us to be able to have Historicon, I would not be surprised if attendance goes off the shizznet. There is now, and there will be more, a lot of pent up demand.

Yeah, that article is from several weeks ago and there's been a lot of changes since then. Salute has been postponed until 2021, Partizan, Falkirk, Broadside and Durham's Open Day have all been cancelled currently. We're waiting to hear on the other June events.

When this whole thing fades into the background somewhat, it will be interesting to find out who amongst us has a ten year stockpile of pasta and toilet paper.

It would be difficult to hold Salute now anyway. The venue, the Excel Center, has been turned into a hospital…

I don't think we will see any UK shows this side of 1st Sept.

Some of us are on furlough and don't know when we'll be going back to work. My non-gaming friends and family mostly seem to be fairly bored but I'm making hay while the sun shines… or rather priming while the sun shines.

There's nothing I can do about my financial position until the government firms up their directive so there's no point worrying. Stuck at home, self-isolating but with stuff to paint – I consider myself lucky to have such a hobby.

If, things calm down enough for us to be able to have Historicon, I would not be surprised if attendance goes off the shizznet. There is now, and there will be more, a lot of pent up demand.

I work for a hospital in the IT department. We don't know when this is going to subside. Even when it does subside, we're probably going to have to work allot of extra hours to keep projects on track.. Right now they've cancelled all PTO. I don't know how long this will continue…

Long story short… even when this subsides, Historicon is very much a question mark for me. I may have to plan for Little Wars next year.

We are starting our 4th week of "stay at home other than necessary travel" around here. I'm hoping that we have 2 more weeks and then can get back to normal. I think Historicon will be fine…fingers crossed…

Unless this dies off in the summer it's a big question mark if people will feel safe enough to go to Historicon.

Am off to Gencon, having had my trip to Adepticon cancelled sadly. Hope to get to those.

I would say I'm disapointed by the Warlords decision to 'postpone' not cancel, but sadly I'm not remotely surprised at their decision to not do the right thing.

Hopefully other clubs will do the right thing if needed.

Unless this dies off in the summer it's a big question mark if people will feel safe enough to go to Historicon.

This is never die off it will keep on going around and around and all the while mutating/changing just like the Flu does.

What I meant was you can't catch the flu in the summer but yes it does come back in the fall. We don't know yet if the virus will follow that pattern.

"Unless this dies off in the summer it's a big question mark if people will feel safe enough to go to Historicon."

There are a lot of countries were actually is Summer or a perpetual Summer and had Coronavirus (like my country)

Unfortunately I'm not optimistic…

Amicalement
Armand

Sadly I must agree, Tango01.

"Unless this dies off in the summer it's a big question mark if people will feel safe enough to go to Historicon."

Well as I said elsewhere, until a medicine is found to cure it if you get it and it ramps up on you or a vaccine to prevent it, I will not be attending any shows, concerts, functions, weddings, sporting events or any other such large gatherings.

Period.

Imagine if I attend Historicon and start feeling shitty on Saturday; what then? I go into a 14 day quarantine in my hotel room and what happens to all my inventory out on display? Then what if it ramps up and I need to go to some hospital/suttler/butcher in Lancaster or wherever?

No thanks, not worth the risk.

I'd be stunned if Historicon is held; more stunned if it is and anyone shows up.

You know; initially when I got screwed out of the 4Ground US distributorship at the 11th hour, I was infuriated, now I am relieved. With the toy soldier market tanking for me at the wargaming shows and the last bits of my friends collection selling well here on TMP and whatever is left goes to Ebay, it will be adios HMGS conventions for me other than going to hang out with my friends, peddle some stuff in the flea market and not be chained to a dealer booth for three or four days, I can actually soak in the convention, maybe take a day trip out to Gettysburg as well.

Sorry fellas, this virus is not going anywhere anytime soon.

The virus may not going anywhere soon but it is not going to be the end of the world. It is a terrible strain of the flu that and has a greater chance of spreading and yes leading to more death. Where I work, every nine hours we have approximately 3-4 people passing. So far everyone has been elderly or has had an underlying illness where I am. Even those who have passed from other illnesses it was easier to classify as the Corona Virus.
About Half of the people I work with have gone sick and 28 confirmed cases of contacting the virus. The symptoms have run from people feeling nothing to some who have experienced the basic flu with body aches and fatigue.
We should all pull together, follow the directions and HOPE we can all enjoy the hobby we enjoy. It's very disappointing, not just this thread but other threads as well, where people consistently complain about venues, rooms, food, and just the overall gloom and doom of past conventions, future conventions, and what is going on right now. Life is short. There are many gamers who wish they could have another chance of rolling dice and moving figures. Lets HOPE that we can be at the next convention and HOPE things will get better. Why should we want not want Historicon to be held Double G.? Why should we want it canceled or stunned if others go? Maybe we will have some positive news in the near future. Lets HOPE for the best, instead of saying Id be more stunned if anyone shows up. There's no rush to cancel. Hopefully, HMGS will make the right decision to either have the convention or not at should wait to the last possible moment.
Double G, I understand you not wanting to go to large gatherings, but you do drive and 38,000 people lost their lives here in the USA in 2019 and close to 40,000 in 2018 and we still get behind the wheel of a car.

Lomb, there is a difference to getting into an unexpected car accident as opposed to exposing yourself unnecessarily to a virus.

I went to the post office here in the Richmond area of Virginia yesterday morning. My purpose was to drop off orders from the Viking Forge. I wore a NIOSH-approved cartridge respirator made of rubber, a full-face shield, gloves, long sleeves and full-length trousers.

One of the three clerks on duty wore a medical-quality face mask and gloves. The other two wore no PPE at all.

I went to a Dollar General store in search of essential supplies. All but one of the six women in the store wore face-masks.

I went to a local grocery store for food. Half of the customers there wore face-masks. My panoply of PPE was greeted with varying degrees of surprise, nodded approval, disapproving looks and contempt.

I have to add that all I could wear was what I could find in my shop. I purchased the face-shield many years ago, but haven't used it until now. I often use the cartridge respirator when doing metal work, so there it was. When a war starts, it must be fought with the weapons on hand and readily available, so I used what I could find.

I encourage everyone who reads these pages to wear full PPE when going out in public.

The only thing we have to fear is the fear of fear itself, so be afraid and live.

"Why should we want not want Historicon to be held Double G.? Why should we want it canceled or stunned if others go? Maybe we will have some positive news in the near future. Lets HOPE for the best, instead of saying Id be more stunned if anyone shows up. There's no rush to cancel. Hopefully, HMGS will make the right decision to either have the convention or not at should wait to the last possible moment.
Double G, I understand you not wanting to go to large gatherings, but you do drive and 38,000 people lost their lives here in the USA in 2019 and close to 40,000 in 2018 and we still get behind the wheel of a car."

We are all free to make our own choices; you go ahead and make yours.

I'll make mine.

Comparing driving a car to going to a large gathering is apples to hand grenades; I HAVE to drive, I DO NOT HAVE to attend large gatherings.

OR, what Long Valley Gamer said.

If you feel comfortable attending a convention in downtown Lancaster with about 1500 other people, have at it.

I also wouldn't freely tap dance in a mine field either.

"I wore a NIOSH-approved cartridge respirator made of rubber, a full-face shield, gloves, long sleeves and full-length trousers."

You went out in public in that get up and people gave you looks of surprise, disapproving looks and contempt; gee, never saw that coming…………

I think people thought Tumbleweed was doing a Dr Who cosplay .

Photos or it never happened…

:)

I was going to say the same thing; let's see a photo of you in that get up……………….

I wonder how they'll react if they see you wear something like this:

That is what he wore.

No, the face-shield was detached.

And I might add there were also quite a few people who approved of my gear. It reinforced their own behavior in wearing masks.

And what have all of you seen out in public? When you go to the supermarket, do any of the other people show up in PPE?

I think a lot of men refuse to wear a mask because they haven't got the guts to do so in front of the other guys. They don't want people to snicker at them and think of them as "tin foil hat" types.

Do you want to be safe or would you rather take the chance the ambulance will come for you?

And what about your loved ones? Do you want to be the one to bring it home?

It is a terrible strain of the flu…..

No. Different viruses.

COVID19 is caused by a new strain of Betacoronaviris. Influenza is a orthomyxovirus. Not the same family and genus even though they both cause similar "flu-like" symptoms.

Tumbleweed in answer to your question I venture out Tuesday nights at 7pm to shop at Aldi in the uk.

I have done that regularly before the crisis and 3 times since the UK lockdown has been implemented.

Some observations.

Last night was 1st time I had to que as they have implemented a door warden (young lad bored senseless) So had to wait 5 minutes to gain entry. OK as lovely evening and we ket about 2 meters apart as 4 people ahead of me.

No face masks worn at all. In fact during crisis I might have seen 1 person or 2 wearing them. UK advice is still currently not useful. YMMV.

Fruit / Veg supplies somewhat depleted and certainly the worst I have seen. Could be stocks are not getting picked?

TP I think was available and certainly I picked up a pack of kitchen rolls.

The number of people in at that time was fine and people pretty much kept distance, a few were not but you could avoid them.

The big change this week was the implementation of plastic screening for the checkout staff. Seriously high and well designed clear barriers with hole cut out so scanned items passed to customer. Perhaps a tad overkill but I bet staff are happy with the barriers. Better than having to wear a face mask.

So in my part of the UK not much PPE, London might be very different? We can't get PPE to the hospitals and care homes and I have seen pleas on LinkedIn for donations to be sent to specific hospitals…

:(

If it causes Flu like symptoms then it is a form of the Flu.

Flu does come in many different forms.

If you feel safer wear a mask or whatever you want.

I will not wear a mask and just on with my life.

We were told initially NOT to wear masks, only those who are sick should wear them to prevent them from making others sick, plus they told us to stop hoarding masks and leave them for people who actually need them such as doctors and nurses.

But that didn't stop all the gun nuts from hoarding 20,000 rounds of ammo now did it, or the ballbags who bought 500 rolls of toilet paper when the first hit the fan.

Then recently we were told TO wear masks in public, sick or not, as droplets from sneezes or coughs could go in your mouth, nose or eyes (and if the latter is so, what good does a mask that does not cover your eyes do, you also need eye protection. They then went on to tell us droplets can come out when you are talking, so put on a mask in public.

I started to wear a mask to the supermarket and the post office, the only two places I venture out to these days.

I first time I wore one, I felt like an idiot, so maybe I was someone who fell into the "I think a lot of men refuse to wear a mask because they haven't got the guts to do so in front of the other guys. They don't want people to snicker at them and think of them as "tin foil hat" types" category.

At this point, I feel safer wearing one, plus most people I see are wearing one, anyone who does not is taking an unnecessary risk, sort of like not suiting up in the 80's when you'd be ready to tap some smokeshow you met at the club that night.

And I have no idea what PPE stands for, I never saw Omega Man……………….personal protection ensemble, I really have no clue……

"… tapping some smokeshow… "

😆😆😆 Double G in his libertine youth !

""… tapping some smokeshow… "
😆😆😆 Double G in his libertine youth !"

Or in the case of others, some slob.

PPE – Personal Protective Equipment

Imagine 20,000 rounds of ammo and no face mask. Not exactly the most useful "doomsday prep" in this case.

I guess the uk advice will change at some stage and then I will follow the advice. The sad fact is that without any hope of an imminent vaccine I will have to get it at some stage.

Hopefully when there is still capacity in the health care to deal with me if I can not shake it off.

Obviously I am in no hurry to get it and don't want to be a burden to the health care system.

Just trying to think through what the exit strategy is likely to be….

Either to stop it from finding hosts and stop it dead. This would require the whole world to lockdown and unlikely to be achieved.

That or a controlled "burn" through population with health care systems in place to manage the 20% who need help. Backed up with extensive testing.

The UK is desperately trying to ramp up testing but we are still not there.

holien & Double G:

Stay well, my brothers.

You too Tumbleweed………….

If it causes Flu like symptoms then it is a form of the Flu.

Thanks for your biological insight.

Flu does come in many different forms.

Well there are many strains of orthomyxovirus. Doesn't make them coronaviruses, however. Nor is the reverse true.

We were told initially NOT to wear masks, only those who are sick should wear them to prevent them from making others sick, plus they told us to stop hoarding masks and leave them for people who actually need them such as doctors and nurses.

+1 George.

The problem is you can be infected and not show any Symptoms and this seems to happen the younger the carriers is. Look at the South Korean data.

The problem is you can be infected and not show any Symptoms …….

Well, you are most infectious before any symptoms come to light. Probably just stating the obvious by now.

No Bowman some folks are symptom free and that is the major concern. This seems to be difficult for many to understand.