Wargaming with my wife and thoughts on why women don't wargame.

After eight years together my wife finally submitted to my unconventional desires this week. Our boy was away at his grandparents so we had some unexpected peace and quiet, and I used the opportunity to bring Columbia's War of 1812 to the table. Well, to be honest it's not her first wargame but it took me four years to proceed with the conversion after that game of Battle Cry in 2011 :)

War of 1812 is as simple as block wargames get, but it serves as a great introduction to the genre and gives a nice stepping stone to the mid-level Columbia wargames so I like to hold onto it in my collection. Sure enough, explaining the concepts to my wife only took a few minutes and after the first campaign year she was already in full swing. War of 1812 has relatively little dice rolling, so luck may become a factor, and I had lots of it in the beginning. I was getting worried that my wife will lose just on the account of me rolling too well, but luckily (heh) the dice balanced out and my wife won a glorious and deserved victory at the end of the second year as the US

After two days my wife wanted seconds (yaaay!). We set up the game again and she played the US again. This time around she lost, but wasn't unhappy about it. We have precious little time for boardgaming these days, so it was quite enjoyable!

The games got me thinking a bit on why there are so few women in wargaming. When I go to a boardgames convention, a good third of the people there are women, but they rarely sit down to play war themed boardgames or heaven forbid a hex&counter wargame. I've seen a woman playing Warhammer or a Commands & Colors game occasionally but that's pretty much it. The female wargamer remains a rare specimen among the population.

Is it the theme? Is war so masculine a theme that it puts off women? Maybe some, but I've seen women play plenty of boardgames with downright macho themes so it must be something else. Is it the complexity? Definitely not. Eurogames can be brutal not only in complexity but in the way you have to optimize every move and plan your game many turns in advance, making many of them more difficult than the average wargame, yet they are still favoured by women.

Is it because wargaming is a boys' club of fat middle aged men and it's quite difficult to fit in that group? Maybe, but I don't see the local gamers here as sexist. We love new blood in the hobby regardless of gender or age. It might just be that the atmosphere of.. err.. manliness condenses around the table and it might not be that attractive.

I think the secret might be in the mechanics. When I look at the games women play at boardgame conventions, they are often based on a "race" of sorts where the players gain victory points and compete for the winning position by "doing their own thing" without much direct and personal interaction between the players on the board. Cooperative games are also popular. Wargames however are based on the idea that you are in direct, aggressive confrontation with the other player and must seek the best way to hit her where it hurts the most. Is it this dynamic that makes women shy away from these games?

In any case, I shouldn't make generalizations and there are women among us who revel in the joy of crushing their opponents on the field of glory, but you have to admit they are few and far between. If you happen to be one, drop a comment and share your opinion!

Some Blood Bowl and Block War

Quiet on the Hobby front. I haven't been finishing many models lately, although I did do some 20mm scale telegraph poles for WW2 I might post later,b ut I did get a couple of games in. Nothing much to report but here's a couple of pics.

Blood Bowl:

I'm shocked to find out that I haven't played a single game of Blood Bowl on the table during the existence of this blog! I have played the computer version(s) during this time but not a single game on the board for years even though I love the game to bits! This will not stand! I dusted off my goblins last weekend (I also have an orc and an undead team) and played against my friends' Ogres. I lost 1-0 after a lengthy grind, but it was fun. I actually noticed I had forgotten quite a few core rules during these years of downtime even though I have scores of games under my belt. I hope to reignite the game in my local group now to get people playing again.

My custom Blood Bowl board transforms into a carrying case to put my figures, papers and dice in.

The Goblins try to catch the snotlings while the Trolls grapple with the Ogres.

This one doesn't like being filmed.

Excuse me..

Napoléon (Columbia Games):

You know I love block wargaming and Columbia's offers are always a treat. I've played an older edition of Napoléon before and got a chance to play the fresh Kickstarter funded edition now. I don't remember much about the first time I played but my opponent says the changes to the new edition are minor. The game details the Waterloo campaign and I played the French. I tried to focus on the Brits first to defeat the Coalition one army at at time, but it didn't work out so well. Napoleon did beat Wellington and force the British to surrender, but the French didn't have the time or the fight in them to stand against Blucher after that

In other news, I've fixed my old Amiga 500 and replaced the old disk drive with a floppy emulator so that I can now load games onto the Amiga from a USB stick. All it took was a firmware flash to a generic industrial pc floppy emulator! Pretty neat, huh?

Waterloo and Borodino

After visiting the Waterloo battlefield, I decided it is high time to fill a gaping hole in my education and watch the 1970 Waterloo movie. I can't believe I've missed it until now! It definitely climbs to the undefined top 5 of my favourite war movies of all time. Apart from a few cheesy moments the movie is a real treat. Christopher Plummer does an excellent portrayal as Wellington and Rod Steiger's Napoleon alternates interestingly (and overactingly) between despondency and inspiring enthusiasm, just as I imagine the Emperor did at that point. The battle scenes are simply epic with about 20 000 Soviet extras bulking up the scenes. There's a lot going on in the background and the fact that none of it is in CGI is humbling. The movie has aged very well and I recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone else who's missed it.

The next day I had an opportunity to end my two month long wargame-less season and with the battle of Borodino, no less! We sat down to play Columbia Games' treatment of the battle. The scenario was set up for the initial engagements at the Shevardino redoubt instead of the full battle. The French are only just arriving on the field and must capture as much ground and inflict as much damage to the Russians as possible, while maintaining cohesion. I got the role of Napoleon and set out to do just that.

The French columns advance towards Borodino, making sure to grab as much ground on the right as possible.

The French move into contact with Shevardino redoubt from two directions. Wait, did someone forget to secure the road on the French left?

Yep, Cossacks exploit the vulnerability by making a rush for the French supply area. The French have to make a desperate realignment to counter. In the center, there is an envelopment developing around Shevardino and the defenders are in the danger of being cut off. The French imperial guard reinforce the right.

The cossacks reach the supply point and block it. Against all odds, they repel all attempts to chase them off for three whole turns. Napoleon facepalms me from beyond the grave.

The noose tightens in the center, but both Russian block groups manage to repel attackers for one round before being destroyed. The French guard moves ahead on the right, but the French left is dangerously thin. The Russians exploit the situation and beat the French back.

The Russians, seeing they're one VP behind the French, make a push in the last turn. On the French right, the Russians send their Guard units to attack what they think is the Polish division. Instead they encounter the French Imperial Guard with a grand battery of guns and the Old Guard coming in from reserve. The result is bloody, spectacular and decisive.

The game ended in a three VP win for the French. In the center, I was pretty pleased with my envelopment around the redoubt where most of the Russian blocks were captured. On the right, the Imperial Guard was in a good position to defend the flank. On the left, however, I made that terrible tactical blunder with the cossacks and as a result, the flank was left in a poor state. The Russians were in a good position to punch through the thin line and managed to capture three blocks. In the end, nightfall saved the French left.

All in all, a good game with plenty of maneuvering and and bluffing. A good offering from Columbia games!

Lousy cossacks.. *grumble*