"Madison WI / Dane Co. historical gamers wanted!" Topic

My wife and I have recently moved to a home in west Madison from Austin, TX and I'm setting up my game table and unpacking my minis and need some new simpatico local historical gamers to join me for games and fun!

My old TMP membership is in process of being renewed -- contact me at khendryx909 AT gmail DOT com because the PM here doesn't yet allow me to reply.

I play boardgames, old school hexes and beer & pretzels types like Axis & Allies, and miniatures (25mm), all sorts of periods, and can host games for those wishing to bring their own armies. I can't supply everything… but I have thousands of figures and usually play non-tournament rules in all sorts of historical periods. Open to anything fun and satisfying. I've put on games for conventions and am working on an Alamo game for GaryCon in March (Lake Geneva) and will appreciate playtesters for this along with other prospects. Ancients, Medievals, fantasy, Jacobites, Napoleonics, ACW, Colonials, Wild West, Pulp Alley -- just a few areas of interest for me. No game store seems to cater to our crowd, so let's organize a new movement not dependent on the shops.

Check with HMGS-Midwest. Very much a Wisconsin/Chicago outfit.

Hi, I will send you an email, but adding some info here as well.

Welcome to Madison! As Robert mentioned, HMGS-Midwest is an active organization out of the Chicago area that holds events in Wisconsin as well.

I'm over in DeForest (other side of Madison from you) and there are a ton of local options for you.

Stores-
There are a number of great game/miniatures stores in the area (mostly games, but with some miniatures).

Noble Knight- Southwest side- enormous selection of everything you can think of and a ton of gaming space

Pegasus Games- A classic game store on the west side, and oldest game store in the area

I'm Board- Great game store in Middleton and Sun Prairie with lots of play space

Misty Mountain- East side store with tons of gaming space and wide assortment of stuff

There are a few smaller stores as well, but they are more card focused.

Local Cons-
There's a lot of great events in the area each year with the notables being:

Little Wars (April, Chicago)- Miniatures focused and run by HMGS Midwest

RockCon (October/November, Rockford)- Miniatures focused show about an hour from Madison.

TundraCon (January, Appleton)- Miniatures focused small but great show.

GameHoleCon (October/November, Madison)- A mini-GenCon in Madison

Nexus (June, Milwaukee)- More of an everything show with costumes, games and more

There are a number of other shows in the area, but those are the more notable ones.

I will reach out to you on gaming directly.

Welcome to the Midwest!

Congratulations for leaving The People's Republic of Austin!

HMGS Midwest is an awesome organization.

Littlewars is a great convention.

Welcome!

Welcome to Wisconsin! I'm over in the Milwaukee area. Lots of good cons and mini gaming is growing around the Milwaukee area (outside of basements).

Thanks for your replies! I have visited a number of the local game shops but few have the space or time slots for historical games on a regular basis. (let me know if any of you have found out any different angle.) I can work on this but it may not be a viable approach.

I will reply to all inquiries and messages on regular email as noted above -- I am still unable to get TMP to process my Supporting Membership fully or respond to emails, so I still don't know if I can depend on TMP as a medium. Am sending followup messages to Editors.

I have a smashing wargame table here that's about to be set up do want to recruit a new circle of gamers. Send me your stats!

OK! Updating now to bring this subject back into current time in hopes of attracting some more views and responses.

The old comments still hold true -- it's been very difficult to locate historical gamers in the area (altho' I'm told they DO exist); the community seems very scattered now and while I'll continue to look at various Facebook groups, online resources, etc., the visible scene is wholly dominated with fantasy RPGs and card games and some Euro-games, some Warhammer or Bolt Action stuff -- where's the variety and where's the non-corporate dominated gaming? The venerable Axis & Allies? Strategy games, SPI / Avalon Hill wargames with hexes and counters, miniatures that aren't sci-fi or fantasy? I begin to despair. I like D&D in its place and in moderation and have been active in that as a player AND game designer since the beginnings, but a steady diet of it is not what I want. I can't relate to what I see and hear at most game store events these days. Too insular, too in-bred, too divorced from reality and too much based online or derived from pop culture.

The few folks who've stepped forward are scattered all over the county or beyond, same for the people I meet at local conventions (Gamehole; GaryCon), nobody based in Madison. And the RPG groups seem to be very insular; they aren't showing much willingness to leave their RPG cocoons and at the same time, not open to asking newcomers to join existing groups. This seems very strange to me, I always welcomed new blood and that helped replace players who moved away or dropped out. Are Madison gamers that cozy with their arrangements that they never feel the need to recruit more players? (Lucky them, to be so stable.) Or is this just Midwestern reserve or iciness? It's been a very difficult struggle to break into an established gaming group of any kind or meet those with similar tastes who might also be looking for a regular circle of players. Makes me despair of ever thinking of this as a home base. I will keep on working to put on demo games or reach out at upcoming conventions, but I'm also wondering if a move back to Texas (San Antonio would be the most likely) is going to be in the cards if I'm ever going to be able to use my game table, my 25mm toys, or my wargames again. I know there's a large and organized scene there, at least; much better than Austin's was. (Yes, nobody moves across country for GAMES -- do they? -- but this is just another aggravating aspect of resettlement in a new state with all the other inherent challenges and growing concerns about long-term sustainability.)