"Wargaming 101 on TMP?" Topic

Are you sure you mean 101? A room 101?

Derived from a torture chamber in Orwell's 1984 the term "Room 101" is referred to in many fictional works as a place where unpleasant things are kept.

If we were dumping poor castings etc maybe but the originator of the poll seems to want it for good things.

It is a reference to (American) college course numbering. The most basic introductory course for a given department is traditionally numbered either 100 or 101.

So, in American parlance X 101 means a basic intro/overview of X.

Two nations divided by the same language again!

In the UK we have a TV show where personalities try to persuade the host to allow him/her to put his/her pet hates into Room 101.

The concept of the poll is interesting but I suspect there would be too many subjective judgements to make it the objective tool intended.

No!, TMP is filled with old grognards. Imagine at least a quarter of those grognards discussing about basics of wargaming. The bricole wars would seem a tea party in comparison.

Palafox has a point! Anyone ever see Parliamentary or Congressional committees in action? Everyone would have their own agenda; the Napoleonic guys alone would cause a magnitude 1000 earthquake with all the dainty fussing they seem to do!

Bill should secretly seek out contributers, ie, find someone he thinks has a good grip on a period and ask that person to write a little ditty. At the same time, he can solicit from all of us lists of manufacturers to include with the appropriate section.
--
Tim

I wonder why the most basic course is the 101st? What are these other hundred things even more basic than basic?

Things like 'learning to share the toys', 'colouring in', and 'not pooing myself' I suppose? Stuff parents are supposed to teach before the student reaches college.

I wonder why the most basic course is the 101st?

Courses intended for the first year are numbered 100-199, 2nd year 200-299, etc.

In general, only Community Colleges offer courses numbered under 100. Those are normally remedial classes – things you should have learned already but for whatever reason you still do not grasp. They are a step above "Not pooing myself", but they fall into the category of "You are 18+ years old, how the heck did you fail to learn this already?"

Actually 101, as far as I'm concerned, was the number of the old one inch Ordnance Survey map covering Manchester. It was an essential part of every Boy Scout's equipment in our area.

Indeed. Chenmistry 11 was the course for those having a hard time with water being H2O.
Chemistry 101 was for those who could grasp that.

Back in my day, it was a lot easier to type the 2 in H2O. You just cranked the typewriter roller down a half notch.
I was looking for that roller on my keyboard just now and couldn't find it…

I think an introduction to wargaming, with links to manufacturer's and all, would work very well in Wiki form.

It'd need good editors, though, willing to put quite a lot of work into it.

But it would be great, and needn't be limited to just basic stuff.

TMW – The Miniatures Wiki! ;-)

In principle it sounds like a good idea…

…in reality I suspect we'd have pages of debate about which rulesets, scales, figures etc should/shouldn't be mentioned…god help us if the Napoleonics players get their hands on it!

I think it's a good idea. It's the sort of thing TMP was when it started out, before it became primarily a discussion forum. That was really useful and I miss that.

Yeah, I know, it'll be impossible to get everyone to agree on anything, but look in the old manufacturers and rules sections of TMP to see what I mean.

I was looking for that roller on my keyboard just now and couldn't find it…

It's right here:
irvania.com/501.shtml

Why all the animus to Napoleonics? I suspect that you're all ancients players trying to deflect attention.

"DBA is a fine introductory game"
"No it isn't, it's rubbish"
"Barker is a god"
"Barker's a fool wot can't write English proper"
"You should try WRG 7th"
"Everyone should try WRG 7th, so they can appreciate other rules"
"You're an idiot"
"You're a poltroon"
"Well you play FoG, so nyaahhhhhhh"

"I know most of that is on the message boards but takes maybe more work than my attention span warrants."

So: if you can't be bothered to lift a finger, why should anyone else?

you mean like a Wikipedia of war gaming.
With basic info of weapons and wars.
with a list of games that cover them
with reviews,
sounds like a very good idea.

you mean like a Wikipedia of war gaming.
With basic info of weapons and wars.

That would be a Wikipedia of weapons and military history…

Handy if your Google's busted

"…I suspect that you're all ancients players trying to deflect attention…"

I got better and don't own any miniatures (other then the ones I want to sell) whose historical era is before 1492.

Gracias,

Glenn

The problem with this proposal is that any 101 information will be terribly dated in 4-5 years and who's going to update it?

In a perfect world a great idea. In ours ?????

mjc

It sounds like a good idea – but don't we have Wikipedia already? If the idea is to have a Wikipedia style board where the topic is discussed, edited, and maintained by the members – it will not be what any of us envision – as they say – Garbage in, garbage out.