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Given that I didn't want to clog up this poor chap's thread, figured it would be better served here and for a wider variety of answers. I've often wondered how those serving in the military deal with gaming and deployment outside of the home country. Numerous times I've read reports of troops having paints, models and all other manner of paraphernalia shipped out.

How does it work? Is each troop allocated a certain weight, volume or value to the goods shipped? Does this extend to those on active combat duty? How are the logistics handled with the shipping of plastic models throughout the army? What happens when your unit is moved onwards to another location? I'm terribly sorry if this is naive of me, it's something I've always wanted to know about. There's a whole melting pot of nationalities here so I guess that circumstances differ, as well as the type of deployment and country of deployment but still, I would appreciate any and all comments.

Thank you!

When I went to Iraq every soldier was given a very large tote for whatever personal stuff they wanted shipped ahead to our duty station. You could always have more shipped to you on your own dime too.

No personal experience, but from what I've heard:

For basic training: forget it. No time, no personal space.

On deployment, it's certainly possible depending on your assignment. I knew a guy who was in the navy and spent several hours a week in a rec area painting his IG. I know another guy who's an occasional contributor for Heavy Gear that has done a lot of modeling, painting, and occasional playing on assignment in the middle east.

Getting hobby supplies can be a little weird, but apparently there's tricks if you know the right people. Spray paints are the big problem, but there's ways.

For games that allow it, tablets/e-readers/PDF viewers on laptops are a great way to minimize book weight if you've got limited cargo capacity.

I've heard long-term deployments can reach the point where guys are living in tents with flat screens and xboxes, so a small game setup shouldn't make anyone blink.

I play Real life Gorkamorka.

Depending on where your at, you can do quite a bit of gaming, if you have the time. Painting is an issue, because its so damn hot, but other then that, you can do some RPG's if you have them.

You can bring stuff with you, or order it. Like was said, Paint is not a good thing to get... Prime your stuff before you bring it, or your going to end up painting metal.

pots dry faster, so if your not using them, up they go.

Other then that, some people, ( not me of course.) don't have alot of time for gaming, but on the bigger posts, they do. SOme people, ( Not me of course) do alot of other stuff, like read books, and work alot.

Some people, ( Not me of course)have computer games. alot of one player ones. Internet is craptastic, so you can't do alot of MMO's very well. the connections a fortune and its not worth the price.

Playstations and X boxs linked to call to duty, or whatever other shooters you can get into.

People do some other stuff too.

Mail is still the way to get stuff, buy online, they send it to you.

Grot 6 wrote:
You can bring stuff with you, or order it. Like was said, Paint is not a good thing to get... Prime your stuff before you bring it, or your going to end up painting metal.

I wouldn't want to get any friends in trouble, but I've heard rumors that there's a lot of black primer available to borrow from vehicle/equipment maintenance if you know who to talk to... This is all hearsay, of course. No one I know would do such a thing!

(Realistically, playing smaller model-count games would be to your advantage as well I would think. If you're stationed with a good crew of gamers, maybe look at starting a mini-league of Blood Bowl, Necromunda, or various non-GW Games?)

(And thanks for your service.)

I've talked with a lot of folks online who painted or played while out in Iraq. A friend of mine's dad used to play D&D with his buddies all the time when he was in the National Guard. It's not uncommon, but for reasons already stated it can be a bit difficult. I do love the idea of there being a small black market on army bases for spray primer though! Imagine getting chewed out or worse because you wanted to prime some Dark Eldar in your off hours.

gaming while on deployment can be pretty difcult, but not impossible, as with any job its finding the time, i used to have a few things in my kit box ready for the 20 mins or so during downtime, i was lucky as my CO also played, so he would "arange" time for us to play lol

Depends what you're doing. Care to shed light on what regiment you're in and where you're deployed/will be?

As some one who's been deployed to Afganistan and has filled various position while deployed, it really depends on your position. Althought I did not start to play until after my tour

As a Canadian, I had two huge mob box that I could have easily put one of the GW carying case inside, so bringning all your stuff over is no problem.

As for playing, when I was in Khandahar, the main base, there was all sorts of clubs that you could join, also having 8-4 job would have been easy to incorporate time for your hobby.

Outside the wire, your limited in what you can bring, so you may be able to bring a reduce army and play a game or two during your off time, but only if you have buddies who do the same. Painting forget about it, not place clean enought to do so.

At my worst, forget it, I once gone a completly month without a shower or a straight 8 hours sleep