Most of my adult life, I’ve always wanted to try my hand at minature wargaming. It’s a hobby that has intrigued me since I was really young, but really didn’t know where to start. Growing up, me and my dad would spend hours on a game of Risk and Axis and Allies, which were my gateway into the hobby. It was a little taste of an obsession that I would, even to this day, never be able to touch.
As I got a little older I really started to dive into the deep rabbit hole that is the Warhammer 40k lore. Like, oh my gosh that’s a lot of lore. It puts Dungeons and Dragons lore to shame. I would read, research, and even watch lore videos obsessing over the 40k tabletop game, but would never commit to buying into it.
My obsession didn’t actually truly begin until I discovered Little War TV. It’s a YouTube channel about a table top wargaming group that records battle reports of their historical wargames. It absolutely fascinated me. It is literally a group of friends who have a spot where they can put on historical table top wargames! Their little building and play area is decorated with portraits of famous generals through history, and even replica weapons mounted on the walls. Their content is amazing, but I now believe it spoiled me of what table top wargaming was.
What Little War TV has that I’ll never have, or find, is a dedicated group. Finding a group of people who truly want to play is a rare thing. It’s like trying to find a group of adults to meet up for a D&D game once a month. It just rarely exists, but they have it. Good for them, but it almost makes me a little jealous, because I know there simply isn’t anything like that in central Illinois.
So, why do I call it my forbidden fruit? I spend way more time just browsing online mianture wargaming sites than I’m comfortable admitting. There’s so many epic games and rules systems out there, but I never pull the trigger and buy any simply because there’s no point. There’s no one for me to play with. Some may argue that you can play any wargame solo, but that just doesn’t interest me. I like the drama of two general facing off on the field of battle. If I just did it myself it literally makes me feel stupid. I’ve tried…
Now where does this leave me? Well, no where. It’s a hobby that I’ll most likely never get to enjoy, and I think I’m slowly starting to accept that. Maybe, battle report blogs and videos are my only taste of this epic hobby, but this doesn’t necessarily mean the end of my wargaming pursuits. There are so many amazing video games that come close to replicating the feel of the table, and of course none ever will fully give that experience, it’s the best I can do. That’s a win for now. Maybe one day I’ll find a group, but for now it’ll just be reading other people’s battle reports and facing off against those A.I. commanders.
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