"And the Wargamer Who Most Influenced You is..." Topic

Youtube? Really? Apparently I missed the part of the original question that asked which wargamer made the biggest splash on social media.

Your rambling, breathless and caps-studded arguments are unconvincing.

A lot depends on how old you are, and which side of the Atlantic you grew up on. I don't think Don Featherstone had much influence on US gaming, for instance. Some, surely.

You have to be pretty old (like me) to remember wargaming (both miniatures and board games) before D&D, when Gygax wrote a column about miniatures for the International Wargamer magazine (which mostly concerned board games).

Since the original question referred to 'the wargamer who most influenced you' – not the wargaming hobby in general – any individual response is as valid as another.
For one person it might have been Gygax; for another, Featherstone; for yet another it might simply be a friend who introduced him/her to the hobby but is entirely unknown to the rest of us.
So there really is nothing to argue or get heated about, is there?

(I'll keep it short.) Don Featherstone!

"Which well-known miniature wargamer most influenced you?"

Dick Bryant.

B

As we are back on this, I think Featherstone was such a catalyst for wargaming. There are a lot of contributors and influential figures from that time and to follow who deserve credit as well.

But for sheer entusiasm and inspiration, Featherstone was key in launching modern historical wargaming at the very least, I believe. He is more like a patron saint than a game designer or technical guru. There was a time before the Internet…