[unofficial weekender] It’s all fun and games

Pledge:  Keep plugging away with the DoW minis.  I’m still working on the big archer unit.  I’m liking how it is looking but haven’t had much time at the painting desk for the past couple of weeks.  Meanwhile I’ll be dancing around in tiny circles trying to contain my excitement whilst waiting for my discount KoW minis to arrive.

Answer:  Fun!!  That’s why I do most things but particularly hobby.  That said I enjoy working on an army list and it helps if the system is well balanced as this gives you the impression that you have an even chance at getting your army in a good state/better than last time.  This is of course an illusion as I often get thrashed due to my very aggressive gameplay style – everything charges all the time 😀  That too is fun, regardless of the outcome.

How about some Nu Metal today for a change:

Pledge – Must try and crack on with my Paint Comp entry, something Noble. I have something in mind. Then back at the horde of Orks 🙂

What is more important to you in a miniatures wargame: fun and humour or highly balanced gameplay? Fun and humour win out every time. Hopefully, all games are ‘balanced’, but it’s the fun ones you want to play.

Pledge: Finish all my current projects before starting any new ones (not very likely).

Question: it depends on what you mean by “balanced gameplay.” If you mean meta-chasing and optimizing army lists to win at any cost, then of course fun wins out — I would much rather lose at something that’s thematic and/or narrative than win at something that is not. I appreciate that to many gamers winning is the most important thing, and that’s what makes it fun for them, but that’s not why I play games.

However, even if you’re playing for fun, games still need to be balanced. Rules need to make sense and be consistent, and all the players need to feel like they have agency and can make meaningful decisions during the game. Games that turn on arbitrary dice rolls, or where one side is hopelessly outclassed by the other, aren’t very fun (at least, not in my experience).

Short answer: both, as long as the balance is contributing to the fun rather than detracting from it.

Music: apologies if I’ve posted this before, it’s one of my favorites and I tend to post it a lot.

Yep! It’s a handle for jigsaw blades @sundancer But there are times when you need precision not speed with crafting, or something that will fit in a small space, so I think I will get some use out of it. And £5 is barely a pint of beer in the pub.

You are so lucky getting snow so often 🙂

We had maybe two days of it this winter.

Pledge:: this weekend I’m reading through the 400 page core rulebook of ‘By Fire and Sword’ (not part of the second edition wave).  After Gerry profiled the system of ‘By Fire and Sword’ I’ve been buying the second edition books and some army boxes, but in my own deep dive I kept coming across the large 400 page book and seeing that it had everything in it, plus much of the history was included within that volume.   After bookmarking some sites that claimed to have had it in the past I finally found one in stock and snagged it!

It’s been a very interesting read.

Question of the week:

What is more important to you in a miniatures wargame: fun and humour or highly balanced gameplay?

Answer ::  FUN……..after diving into a game I can always write my own house rules to balance out anything that I think is sucking the fun out of the game.  Also, I generally walk away from any gaming opportunities that are in the presence of a “Captain Alphastrike”.  CA’s, in my experience, aren’t GAMERS.  They don’t enjoy a game, they only enjoy crushing an opponent.  The game doesn’t matter to them, just the adrenaline rush of dominating someone.  It’s hard to have fun in that kind of match.  ……………… OK, I’ll step down off of my soapbox now. 🫣

Fun, a good looking army full of character and a back story.