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Hey all, I need a little assistance.
I am needing to make a speech in my public speaking class on something that not many people would know about, in that end I am looking towards the war gaming hobby. I will be focusing on the Games Workshop part of the hobby but, I need some help.

I have 4-6 minutes to do a speech on such a complex and rich hobby, I am not sure what to include in said speech, I will have 3 main points to go over; history, modeling/painting, and gaming. Any help you all could provide when it comes to suggestions for keeping this in the allotted time would be very beneficial.

As that I need to have sources for my information I will be using the current rule books for 40k and WHFB and probably Codex: Black Templar and the Tomb Kings Army Book. Any other suggestions would be great, not sure how helpful the books How to Paint Citadel Miniatures, and How to Make Wargames Terrain would be.

Thank you for any and all help you give me.
Chaplain Cliff

In four to six minutes I wouldn't concentrate on GW specifically at all.
Talk about the wargaming hobby in general.
From tournaments to historical/fantasy/futuristic gaming , terrain building to painting modelling. A general overview would seem much more appropriate.
You would definately muddy the water talking about Tomb Kings and Black Templars and Slaan.

Understand the timescales of your various subcategories and do plenty of dry runs to get comfortable and not go off on a tangent.

Get a few people to listen to it prior, make sure they aren't gamers and get their opinion on how to make things easily understood.

Sense-check what your saying with them, avoid using inhouse terminology. Draw comparisions with wider understood examples.

Alex Kolodotschko wrote:In four to six minutes I wouldn't concentrate on GW specifically at all.
Talk about the wargaming hobby in general.
From tournaments to historical/fantasy/futuristic gaming , terrain building to painting modelling. A general overview would seem much more appropriate.
You would definately muddy the water talking about Tomb Kings and Black Templars and Slaan.

That is what I was thinking about, I just don't have all the information on all the other big Wargaming hobbies out there to add them in. and the reason for the BT and TK in there was to have for citation referance really, not much more then that.

Look up a book called 'Floor Games', and quote it as an example of how long people have been playing this type of game.

Contrast/Compare with chess, an example I use in my shop
-Both players have an army and a general
-Chess has set movement by squares, Wargames use a tape to measure inches
-Chess takes pieces by moving into their position, wargames generally simulate a random event such as shooting or close attacks with dice

You can cover 'history' by starting with tin soldiers and napoleonics, tell how a bunch of guys wanted to use LOTR and DandD minis for similar games, and invented warhamer. By mixing scifi with warhammer fantasy, they evolved the game into 40k, drawing more heavily on sources such as Robert Heinleins 'Starship Troopers', Aliens, and WWII, to change the fantasy elements.

Make an outline, keep it simple, don't goob. Make it so simple you think it's boring. Assume the audience barely knows what chess is.

chaplaincliff wrote: I just don't have all the information on all the other big Wargaming hobbies out there to add them in.

You don't need it. Maybe just list some of the more popular games.
Be far more general in the time given.
They tend to use models/tokens (of differing scales) to represent 'units'.
The use dice, tapes, yardsticks, squared/hexpaper, calculations, probability, matrices or other such game mechanics.
They are played on a table with terrain or without.
They are fun or not.

Depending on if its just a speech or you have to turn in reference material I found these links you can take a look at,

http://www.hyw.com/books/wargameshandbook/5-histor.htm#Overview

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wargaming

More of a internet overview of history of wargames, so no promises of how accurate they are, but may be of some help...

(just felt like being helpful ) (now back to lurking)

later ogre

Alex Kolodotschko wrote:

chaplaincliff wrote: I just don't have all the information on all the other big Wargaming hobbies out there to add them in.

You don't need it. Maybe just list some of the more popular games.
Be far more general in the time given.
They tend to use models/tokens (of differing scales) to represent 'units'.
The use dice, tapes, yardsticks, squared/hexpaper, calculations, probability, matrices or other such game mechanics.
They are played on a table with terrain or without.
They are fun or not.

General is good, though i don't want to be so vague that the point that this is fun for alot of people isn't there.

mikhaila wrote:Look up a book called 'Floor Games', and quote it as an example of how long people have been playing this type of game.

Contrast/Compare with chess, an example I use in my shop
-Both players have an army and a general
-Chess has set movement by squares, Wargames use a tape to measure inches
-Chess takes pieces by moving into their position, wargames generally simulate a random event such as shooting or close attacks with dice

You can cover 'history' by starting with tin soldiers and napoleonics, tell how a bunch of guys wanted to use LOTR and DandD minis for similar games, and invented warhamer. By mixing scifi with warhammer fantasy, they evolved the game into 40k, drawing more heavily on sources such as Robert Heinleins 'Starship Troopers', Aliens, and WWII, to change the fantasy elements.

Make an outline, keep it simple, don't goob. Make it so simple you think it's boring. Assume the audience barely knows what chess is.

I like this, just about everyone I know has at least a basic understanding of chess, this may be the perfect way to relate.

ogre_99_99 wrote:Depending on if its just a speech or you have to turn in reference material I found these links you can take a look at,

http://www.hyw.com/books/wargameshandbook/5-histor.htm#Overview

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wargaming

More of a internet overview of history of wargames, so no promises of how accurate they are, but may be of some help...

(just felt like being helpful ) (now back to lurking)

later ogre

Thank you much, this is exactly the tuype of things I am looking for for referance.

As someone who was in your shoes a few years ago and now delivers "public speeches" fairly often, I can tell you that in 4 to 6 minutes, you will be able to adequately cover one, maybe two parts of the subject at hand.

I'd stick to "What is wargaming?" as your subject. You don't really need to go into the history of GW or wargames. Explain what it is, why people do it, and provide some examples, give some reasons people are attracted, etc.

I wouldn't "cite" rulebooks or codices. That's far too specific for this sort of thing. If you are allowed visuals, it might be a good idea to put together a posterboard with photos of the various parts of the hobby - modeling, painting, playing, tournaments, etc. Include some "to-scale shots" of the miniatures used in most tabletop wargames - from experience, using the phrase tabletop wargame tends to generate snickers, until people actually see the size of what you are painting, at which point they become more interested and impressed.

Successfully conveying your message will come down to how charismatic you are and how comfortable you are with the subject matter. When I was taking Public Speaking in college, I delivered a series of speeches over the course of the semester about Zombies, of all things. Informative, educational, instructive, etc. - and every time it was very well received because it was a fun topic.

I'd even stay more high level.

I Table Top Wargaming
A) History and Information
1) military uses
2) From Military to mainstream
3) What the hobby is today in Business terms (demographics... worldwide participation, Size of Markets (in $$ spent) Euro/NA/Asia.

3) wrote: Today the table top wargaming can be broken into Historical and Non historical segements. The former consists of historical figures from prehistory up to modern warfare. The later can be broken down into fantasy, science fiction and Alternate universe. (mix in humor.... Who doesn't want aliens attacking the Nazis?)

These segment are estimated to serve a approximately 2.5 Million gamers world wide with a market of $1 billion dollars (here you can get your citation and references).

B) The Hobby
1) scales of figures
2) Types of materials figures are made from (Metal/Plastic) - Again... good chance to cite material on type of contsruction.
3) Painting the army (historical vs. Non historical) - don't spend too much time here.

C) Gaming Today
1) What does a wargame try and do. Goal is to approximate warfare and tactical maneuvers through a rule set. Since you are in a school setting I'd also make an effort to note that goal of a game is not to "kill" an opponent but generally to capture/control objectives while minimizing negative impact to your force
2) Game theory - I'd try and find points to talk about the math and logic process behind gaming and game design. Simple up to highly complex. The role of chance in a wargame (dice). (again good chance for some worked cited)
2) Types of rule sets - Skirmish vs. Unit based.

Finally a conclusion.


Good Luck.

Wrap up...

jgemrich wrote:I'd even stay more high level.

I Table Top Wargaming
A) History and Information
1) military uses
2) From Military to mainstream
3) What the hobby is today in Business terms (demographics... worldwide participation, Size of Markets (in $$ spent) Euro/NA/Asia.

3) wrote: Today the table top wargaming can be broken into Historical and Non historical segements. The former consists of historical figures from prehistory up to modern warfare. The later can be broken down into fantasy, science fiction and Alternate universe. (mix in humor.... Who doesn't want aliens attacking the Nazis?)

These segment are estimated to serve a approximately 2.5 Million gamers world wide with a market of $1 billion dollars (here you can get your citation and references).

B) The Hobby
1) scales of figures
2) Types of materials figures are made from (Metal/Plastic) - Again... good chance to cite material on type of contsruction.
3) Painting the army (historical vs. Non historical) - don't spend too much time here.

C) Gaming Today
1) What does a wargame try and do. Goal is to approximate warfare and tactical maneuvers through a rule set. Since you are in a school setting I'd also make an effort to note that goal of a game is not to "kill" an opponent but generally to capture/control objectives while minimizing negative impact to your force
2) Game theory - I'd try and find points to talk about the math and logic process behind gaming and game design. Simple up to highly complex. The role of chance in a wargame (dice). (again good chance for some worked cited)
2) Types of rule sets - Skirmish vs. Unit based.

Finally a conclusion.


Good Luck.

Wrap up...

Wow, that is just fantastic! but i will not copy it as this is my work, a good referance definantly but I am not that bad, lol.

Blue Orphen wrote:As someone who was in your shoes a few years ago and now delivers "public speeches" fairly often, I can tell you that in 4 to 6 minutes, you will be able to adequately cover one, maybe two parts of the subject at hand.

I'd stick to "What is wargaming?" as your subject. You don't really need to go into the history of GW or wargames. Explain what it is, why people do it, and provide some examples, give some reasons people are attracted, etc.

I wouldn't "cite" rulebooks or codices. That's far too specific for this sort of thing. If you are allowed visuals, it might be a good idea to put together a posterboard with photos of the various parts of the hobby - modeling, painting, playing, tournaments, etc. Include some "to-scale shots" of the miniatures used in most tabletop wargames - from experience, using the phrase tabletop wargame tends to generate snickers, until people actually see the size of what you are painting, at which point they become more interested and impressed.

Successfully conveying your message will come down to how charismatic you are and how comfortable you are with the subject matter. When I was taking Public Speaking in college, I delivered a series of speeches over the course of the semester about Zombies, of all things. Informative, educational, instructive, etc. - and every time it was very well received because it was a fun topic.

Thank you that helps, a basic overview is all i am truly planning on doing, for the citations, those are only for the outline for handin, nothing verbaly really needed. and I figured to do this since i am pasionate and genrally knowledgable about the subject already, it is just the specifics I need nailed down now.

you all have been a great help, Thanks, and keep it up!

Any chance you will be recording the speech to put on Dakka/Youtube????
If you are try using lots of double entendres, if you can hack it.
Handling your little men gently, doing it on the table top etc etc
It's like a challenge within a challenge.

chaplaincliff wrote:
Hey all, I need a little assistance...

I have 4-6 minutes to do a speech...

I will have 3 main points to go over; history, modeling/painting, and gaming...

OK, that sounds fun! I use to be the debate team captain in College and High School, and I did a lot of extemporaneous speaking, so I know a bit bout this.

Depending on your assignment I would start with a structure and then an outline, I'll write an example for you here:

INTRO> Subject Matter (Possibly a hypothesis)
BODY> Detailed Subject Matter
SUMMARY> Final Point

Before I get into specific points, I'd like to give you some advice, on research. Do some, speaking from experience is great, as it makes one sound confident, makes the speech more comfortable for the deliverer, and the audience, but having done some research and quoting actual sources really lends credence to a position. In a court it is called evidence.

A word on your topic:

The

history, modeling/painting, and gaming

of the hobby draws it roots from a practice called Kriegspiel, or German for Wargame. This was a real world military exercise performed by the officers of the German (Prussian) army to train them in command. In essence, the command structure would assemble and practice a fake engagement, using only maps and real world communications (of the time). This was during Napoleonic times (1800s), obviously before long distance communications, computers, long range artillery, plastic, air power etc. when the ability to read maps, estimate times, distances, and troop strengths among other things, was vital. This practice was enjoyed by so many commissioned officers that it became a hobby in its own right amongst active and retired Officers and the European nobility. This concept gave rise to the Wargame we know today, or using miniatures with a troop scale (men per figure) a ground scale (scale of the board to the real world) and a time scale (length of time a turn in a game simulates in actual time) to re enact an engagement.

See the wikipedia article on Kriegspiel for more info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kriegsspiel_%28wargame%29

Some versions of kriegspiel included using colored tiles to recreate entire maps where the color represented the terrain type, green for trees, white for open etc. Many kriegspiels were incredibly elaborate multi player Wargames, and the Czars of Russia are famed for having re purposed entire grand ballrooms for the hobby laying out thousands of tiles and commissioning artists to paint and construct thousands of miniatures to recreate whole battles, complete with low, mid and hogher level commanders as players.

Could you imagine playing in a game like that with the Czars of Russia?

The tile versions of kriegspiel are much like chess variants, some of which have equally simple rules as well. This lead many scholars to see this adaptation as a modification of Chess, which was already a very popular game throughout Europe for hundreds of years. Tracing the origins of table top wargaming also has clear origins in Chess.

The origins of Chess however are generally debated, most conclude it came from the east and originated commonly in India and China where the earliest variants are first documented, only coming to Europe later.

....

There is an excellent book that explains this and more, called:

From Tsun Tzu to XBOX a history of war and games

http://www.amazon.com/Sun-Tzu-Xbox-Video-Games/dp/1560256818/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1253030358&sr=8-1-fkmr1

It outlines a lot of the details I described here and more.

Researching the Wikipedia page, this book and quoting my comments here with an outline, if you can speak from experience ought to easily get you 4 minutes of speaking material.

My advice would be to:
(1) Do some research of your own
(2) Flesh out a better outline
(3) Write a catchy opening line like: (Wargaming is a modern Hobby that has roots in the wars of the past, and can be a great vehicle for education and entertainment! I'd like to share the history of the pastime with you today as it's a very rich cross cultural experience.) NOT LIKE... (Hello, I'm going to talk about Warhammer for my speech, space marines are wicked awesome...)
(4) Make some note cards if you need them with ONLY talking points (never read off cards in a public speech)
(5) Practice the speech in front of a mirror with a timer at least once!
(6) Be ready to improvise a little
(7) Quote your sources
(8) Take questions at the end

Good luck, please post if you have more questions, want more help, and eventually with how the speech went!

God, even more help, I know I will kill on this speach, you all have helped me imensly in the development on this subject.

I thank you all, when I have done some good research (I surly have plenty of sources now) I will post up my work for you all to see this!

Again thank you all!