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I feel ya, where I live in Portugal there are no stores in a 3 hour ride radius, if not for small (like 5-6 people) wargaming community in town teaming up and managing to convince an local association to give us a small place to play there would be nowhere to play here.

How does it feel?
I guess that is a question that depends on what each person wants from this hobby.

I have aspergers syndrome and all i want technicly is just to build stuff, as i am unable to participtate in the sosial actions that wargames is designed for.
I could ofc do static display models, but the tought of it beeing an item that has 0 practical use revolts me deeply.

As for getting the models, norway is not a place for tabletop games (2 fysical stores in the capital city, 1 is gw, the other is gw heavy import), so i quickly discovered that internet shops and very high custom tax was my only option, as my inntrest is in 10-15mm scale.

While the stuff i collect never will see a gamingtable, it atleast has that option should my condition improve as i get older.

 Sidstyler wrote:


In any case I have a different problem, personally: my brother, the one I talked 40k with the most and one of the only people I still occasionally played with, died in his sleep from a heart attack on March 14th at 28-years-old. Needless to say it hit my entire family pretty hard and dealt a pretty heavy blow to my enthusiasm for 40k and almost literally all of my hobbies, since we were into all the same kinda stuff. I was in the middle of building a new Tau commander and had planned on getting some other stuff built in anticipation for the new Tau codex but it's been sitting on my desk untouched since then, and I haven't even touched the new fething book at all after I picked it up from the store. I've been contemplating just selling everything and getting out of it altogether, and I still have to go through all his 40k stuff and figure out what to do with it, too. I'm just not the same person I used to be, and I don't know if I even really want to play the game ever again. Not sure what, if anything, I can do about that.

Holy cow man, I definitely was not expecting to see anything this heavy in the thread. I know i'm just a stranger on the internet, but you and your family have my condolences. I work in a busy metropolitan hospital, and it always hits me the hardest seeing things like this happen to people well before their time. I wish you the best.


More related to the topic, I know it can be rough to find time to play games. I live in a major city that has many well stocked and functioning game stores, but as I work swing shift and every other weekend, I can't reliably make any sort of league play for anything. I have one buddy who shares my enthusiasm for wargames, but he recently had a child and has a wife that is pretty controlling of his free time, so I can maybe get together with him every 5 or 6 weeks to play a game or two. I've got a couple other buddies who will play games from time to time, but their schedules are just as messed up as mine is, so it's not too often we can get a game together. I could probably play a bit more if I decided to stop in to my LGS on weekdays I have off to play a pick up game of Blood Bowl or Necromunda, but to be honest, while the owner is a great guy, I'm not a huge fan of the people that hang out and play there. They aren't terrible guys by any means, just not the type of people I'd like to spend my little free time with. It doesn't help either that I don't play 40k, X-wing, or Infinity which are by far the most popular games in the area. As such I've pared down my minis collection to Necromunda (all three new gangs), A Blood Bowl Team (possibly more if Blitz Bowl truly can be played in 40 minutes), My old Mordheim Warbands (Witch Hunters, Undead, and Mercs), Relicblade stuff (my wife actually enjoys this one and will play with me), and a couple boxes of Warhammer stuff I have laying around just in case the new Kill Team turns out to be fun.

Deadnight wrote:

celebrandas wrote:

As for a lack of community, I really do understand that. Most people in my area seem to think that any wargame that isn't a historical is "satanic" because of that anti-D&D craze back in the 80's. Anything fantasy based (or Warhammer-style sci-fi) is considered evil and you can be shunned for playing them or showing interest.

I'm sorry to ask, but is that really a thing? I ask out of sheer disbelief - I mean. I've heard jokes dressed up as rumours for that kind of thing. But never really thought it was real.

Anyway, to answer the op, I'm from rural Ireland originally. My neighbours were cows, rabbits and the occasional horse. First few years I was into the hobby, I was pretty much on my own - it was almost an online experience. I only got to experience the actual gaming/community side of it all after I went to university. Even then, in Ireland, Outside of the big cities, and one or two other hotspots, it's a veritable desert.

It is a thing. I had a Magic:TG birthday party when I was a kid, one friend went home with a land-destruction deck, and his mother confiscated it for being satanic. She was a hardcore baptist, and we were 12. I couldn’t even get the deck back from them. They claimed it was evil and had to be destroyed. It’s definitely a thing. Oh, and that was in upstate NY too. Not even Deep South. It’s WAY worse there!!

Oddly, the more other people physically get involved with my hobby the less I like it!

Of course, I have been accused of being a raging Misanthrope.

I had to deal with being a "devil worshiper" as a kid in Illinois. The parents of the family were educated, which makes it even worse in my eyes as I expect better. As far as being a lone wolf goes I know nobody who gets near a miniature in my area. I'm into the hobby because I like to paint. Maybe I'll play with my son when he gets older. Given the limited time we have as adults it would be a tough sell to get anyone on board.

I got warned off D&D as a kid by a well meaning friend, 80's UK had a touch of the gaming-fear too.

I'm fairly alone in the hobby these days, between kid, wife and crazy shiftwork I haven't managed to do more than buy models in a long old time. Big language barrier here doesn't help (my Italian isn't the best).

I'm from central washington USAm and almost 2 hour drive from the nearest place that does any kind of table gaming. I got into the hobby with an enthusiastic coworker just over a year ago. Then when I had a medical emergency I spent the better part of 5 months laying in bed with nothing else to do but binge watch netflix/hulu. So my army very quickly out grew his at a pace of 4 to 1. We managed to get another coworker to buy some minis. And he purchased already painted armies with the hope of saving time and being able to just play. We got in 4 or 5 games before coworker #1 got a huge promotion and moved across the country to another facilities within the company. And the second coworker totally flaked out on me. I tried to get my kids to play but the one one game of 500pt Drukhari vs Death Guard took up the table for three days and on the final day my wife ended the game....

So its been 6 months now and I can't find anywhere that will host games. I found one other person who plays in the whole area but he works night shift. I contemplated selling them. But I can't bear the thought of having put in so much effort and selling them off. It certainly sucks being so far from any other location that does War gaming. I also made a ton of scenery, some of which has sat taking up space undone. So I finally got out of my rut and decided that maybe its time to create dioramas with what I have. Once I find a nice display case I'll go back to work making some cool scenes to fill it up. Can't think of anything else to do with them at this point.

Totally feel you all.

I've been a Southern Californian forever, and had similar experiences to all of you. Growing up with the hobby in the late 80s and early 90s, had all the satanic nonsense tossed at me, friends not allowed to associate with me, the stigma of being a high level nerd before that was socially acceptable... and this was in the suburbs outside LA.

Outside of family and a few Dakka members I've had the pleasure of gaming with, I find it quite difficult to find people I'd actually *WANT* to play with.

Maybe it's just the local scene but I don't enjoy the company of most of the players around here. Neckbeards and diet racists are people I have little in common with.

On the other hand I do try to be as helpful and as friendly as I can with locals who are on the spectrum. Sadly many of them don't have the funds or table space to actually play though and end up hanging around the shops irritating the employees who aren't really trained with how to deal with those kinds of kids.

Azreal13 wrote:


Strombones wrote:
Yes. There was a belief that Dungeons and Dragons was related to Satanism by fringe Christian groups in the 1980's.

The same does not extend to "non historical table top gaming" in 2018.


You say that like anyone who believed it in the first place would be well informed or open minded enough to draw the distinction.

Either way, of all the places I have lived and gamed in the South East, and trust me the list is long, I've never once found Warhammer 40k to be connected to Satanism. Of course I can't rule out that it is possible, as I certainly believe frozen wastes unfortunate story above. My point was that i don't believe there is a broad cultural taboo that could get one shunned from a community in the ways that playing D and D in rural 1980s Missouri would.

I am 47, the response of every non hobbyist, that I have ever explained table top war games too was "so it's like Dungeons & Dragons?". Yeah, to the average person there is no distinction between the two.

When I was in Highschool (back in 1992) I was introduced to a new friend that we were hoping to pull into our D&D group. His mom, absolutely thought that D&D was worshipping the devil... so the group switched to playing Robotech... which his mom had no issues with... This was Maryland... which I never considered to be overly conservative or overly religious...

Now, at 42, I am in a weekly RPG group. Most of my group has not been into wargames but one of my friends and I have started to convince them to get into gaming in a small way. So far just Wrath of kings and Guild Ball. I still collect and model warhammer, and 40K and other games but haven't rarely played any of them.

You know, this is the exact reason we need some form of online gaming resource, a way to play turn based Warhammer of any variety on some host site. Take pics of your units, software creates avatars/sprites/whatever based on those, and have at it. Granted, guessing distance will be severely difficult, but most everything else could be handled. A randomizer engine to "roll dice", that sort of thing. It could work.


Either that, or the PVP video games we have right now. If you can't recruit players, you're stuck with either moving, or coping with some electronic format while you continue to paint.

I understand that Tabletop Simulator has a number of both official and (ahem) unofficial supplements for (ahem) popular tabletop games.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/286160/Tabletop_Simulator/


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Back in 2002, so social media were not what the power they are now, I printed off a poster with some pictures of my painted models and my mobile phone number advertising that I was interested in setting up a wargames club and asking anyone else who was interested to contact me. I put it up in a couple of local shop windows.

A couple of folks who lived nearby got in touch, and 16 years later we are still gaming.

Personally I think if I were in your shoes, I'd concentrate on getting two small "starter armies" painted up and a bit of terrain, so that when you do find someone else who is interested you can say "Hey, I've got some stuff ready, do you fancy coming over to my place (or insert "neutral venue" here) for a game to see if you might enjoy it?

mrsevenplus7 - I have some understanding of this, having lived in South Korea for a few years and where there was almost no wargaming community.

My advice would be to take this path:

If you have friends who are into Sci-Fi/movies/etc ->
If you ever get together for video games evenings ->
Suggest a 'board games' evening. To begin with go for something that will appeal - maybe computer game related, or Zombicide (something quick/fun) ->
Move on to some GW boardgames (the more fun/shorter ones first) ->
Maybe wargaming from that (or skirmish/lighter game, such as Blood Bowl or Necromunda).

Have had a few friends who I've got into wargaming through this route, via baby steps. If I had dropped some rank & file Chaos Warriors directly in front of them they would have run away directly to the hills.

Hope that helps!

 Just Tony wrote:
You know, this is the exact reason we need some form of online gaming resource, a way to play turn based Warhammer of any variety on some host site. Take pics of your units, software creates avatars/sprites/whatever based on those, and have at it. Granted, guessing distance will be severely difficult, but most everything else could be handled. A randomizer engine to "roll dice", that sort of thing. It could work.


Either that, or the PVP video games we have right now. If you can't recruit players, you're stuck with either moving, or coping with some electronic format while you continue to paint.

Tabletopsimulator is the closest thing to that. It has everything from dice rollers to measurement tools. There are a few discords for various games, and if you find one for the game you want it will probably have links to files you can use to "emulate" your game.

There's a strong community of about 40-50 players in the Chicago area, but I play Tau so in effect I'm alone


Joking aside I rarely play as it's the painting and building part of the hobby side that I enjoy the most, so I don't feel a huge need to be at stores or in groups for gaming. I enjoy discussing things online so that usually scratches that itch for me but I can certainly see how being isolated from real world interactions with other gamers could put a dampener on things.

The stuff I tend to game with is non-40k and more board game styled like zombicide which I've found it easier to get non-wargamers to try playing. Wargaming can be a bit intimidating to people that aren't broken into the gaming culture yet, but most people have played board games so it's an easier bridge to make as there's not a huge fictional setting to understand or countless hours poured into building and painting. With games like Zombicide people can pretty much set up and go right from the box, I've had female friends that were regulars at game night with zombicide that wouldn't be caught dead playing wargames, but to them it's like a board game so there's more appeal.



To Sidstyler who lost his brother, that is painful and I'm really sorry to hear that. I can't imagine losing my brother but I lost my best friend of 23 years who was like family and was one of the main people I played battletech and zombicide with and ever since then I haven't had much interest in playing those games again for the last 3 years, most of my excitement towards gaming as a whole took a huge hit but it's slowly coming back around. Sometimes it helps if you find a different system since a lot of the sting comes from the history of the game that you shared together. I found my interest being reawakened by Star Wars Legion because it's something new that I can find other new players and groups for so it's a sort of fresh start.

I became the caretaker of my friend's gaming stuff once he passed and it wasn't an easy thing, it took me almost a year before I could bring myself to look through it let alone had the resolve to throw anything out. Over time I decided what was important to keep and what wasn't, a couple of the items I never even played with him but I kept because I knew how much he liked it. (his dawn patrol game for instance) Hang onto to his stuff for now and let it settle a bit as it takes some time to adjust after somebody close to you is gone and your thoughts will also change a bit once there's some time. Even if you decide not to go back to gaming you might want to keep a couple pieces of it as sort of a signature piece or symbol of your good times together. Especially if there's something he built or painted that he was particularly proud of. While there might be a temptation to make a clean break simply by dumping it don't be in a rush since it takes a bit of time to come to grip with things and later you might find that you regret not keeping at least a token reminder.

 Just Tony wrote:
You know, this is the exact reason we need some form of online gaming resource, a way to play turn based Warhammer of any variety on some host site. Take pics of your units, software creates avatars/sprites/whatever based on those, and have at it. Granted, guessing distance will be severely difficult, but most everything else could be handled. A randomizer engine to "roll dice", that sort of thing. It could work.


Either that, or the PVP video games we have right now. If you can't recruit players, you're stuck with either moving, or coping with some electronic format while you continue to paint.

There's ways to do it online, but I fear I'm too much a grognard. If I'm not pushing lead (okay, plastic) around it's just not the same game.

 Vulcan wrote:

 Just Tony wrote:
You know, this is the exact reason we need some form of online gaming resource, a way to play turn based Warhammer of any variety on some host site. Take pics of your units, software creates avatars/sprites/whatever based on those, and have at it. Granted, guessing distance will be severely difficult, but most everything else could be handled. A randomizer engine to "roll dice", that sort of thing. It could work.


Either that, or the PVP video games we have right now. If you can't recruit players, you're stuck with either moving, or coping with some electronic format while you continue to paint.

There's ways to do it online, but I fear I'm too much a grognard. If I'm not pushing lead (okay, plastic) around it's just not the same game.

Oh, I get it. If left with lemons, though...