August 2022 review
August is over, we're in the last third of 2022. Let that sink in.
I was at RatCon 2022, a roleplaying convention not far from me. It is part of the Ulisses Con Tour and covers multiple pen & paper role playing games, organized partially by the hosts or gamers themself. There are a variety of rpgs available and played, but The Dark Eye / Das Schwarze Auge is the most prominent. From time to time, the RatCon included smaller tabletop side events, but due to the health requirements and organisational conditions, this wasn't the case this time. Yet, I was able to get my hands on an old Armalion blister (with miniatures sculpted by Werner Klocke) and the RatCon event miniature (3d printed in dark grey resin). The next event of the tour will by DreieichCon from 19. - 20. November 2022.
We even met some folks from Asgard Aschaffenburg and are really hoping for a soon return of the Tabletopia event (last one was in 2019).
Prelude to Rhein Main Multiversum 2022
The Rhein-Main-Multiversum returns in September 2022 after a two year break.
Internal CONflict Rheinland 2022
Finally - an update in the event category! Conflict Rheinland returns after a 3 years break with a private event, and 2019 was our last visit to the event in Langenfeld. Yet, the return is a bit special, as this is not a public event, as they had to cancel that format about a month ago and went for an invite only meet up of some of the hosts and clubs, that would just do a private get-together.
Torsten kindly invited me to join that round of wargamers and I happily accepted the invitation as it would be my first wargaming event in over a two years (my last wargaming road trip was January 2020 to Nottingham, visiting Warhammer World).
Throwback to Salute 2012 in London
Another throwback! 10 Years ago, I went for my first trip to Salute and it was not just any Salute, it was their 40th anniversary.
This was during my time as editor-in-chief for a large German wargaming portal, and to cover all (or at least most) of the novelties, we put it in our schedule to fly to London, take a lot of pictures, talk to a lot of people and arrange for some review material to cover in the upcoming months.
Most of the shows I participated until then where local conventions, held in community centres or similar and the largest was the Crisis 2011 in Antwerp or Action 2011 in Rheindahlen at the British Army HQ. And people already told me, wait until you see Salute, it's huge! I knew the South London Warlords from their elaborate participation tables on other shows and was eager to find out for myself.
Kick Off 2021
I gave the indication in the holiday wishes, that I'll do another Kick-Off this year.
A few (or a lot?) of the things that were planned for 2020 had to be put on hold and are still the goals for 2021 - which was primarely having a good time. But let's talk about this in the usual format, answering a few questions.
What was the biggest challenge of 2020?
Well, yeah, the plans for the last year had a full schedule of events along with weekend trips to a couple of cities, picking up on culture and some museums. That obviously didn't happen, turning the vision of 2020 from this:
To this:
spiel.digital and throwback to Spiel 2010
Like many other shows, the large toy and game fair SPIEL in Essen went digital this year to accomodate the needs of the current situation. A good reason to take a look on how they handled the transition from physical show into a digital one and a great invitation for a throwback!
In October 10 years ago, the I was quite busy, we just came back from our Nottingham tour (read about our throwback here), we went to one of the last DUZI shows and the Games Day Germany was just last week (throwback on that one is in preparation). So towards the end of the year and tour season for us, we went to the largest toy fair in Europe, SPIEL in Essen.
Back in the day, due to their size and to safe on marketing costs, Warlord Games and Mantic shared a booth (and Alessio joined in with Riverhorse as well to present Shuuro and support Kings of War), and the old set up of hall 6 at the show took not only a bit of preparation to avoid missing out on some wargaming or tabletop booths. It was great fun to drop by, as we met most of the lovely people just a few weeks ago on their home turf.
 
A comment on “Is Historical Wargaming Dying Out?”
The US-american wargaming channel Little Wars TV asked the question, "Is historical wargaming dying out?"
It feels like an rather odd question to ask, for one thing at the current time, with a completely empty event schedule accross the board of wargaming, not just historical. But not that, but a rather enthusiastic article on The Economist about the lead belt booming - not just Games Workshop.
12 years of “professional” wargaming
Due to the lack of conventions and events this year, I had a look through my archives to see if there would be content that would be interesting for a throwback. While looking through the documents and pictures, I noticed that I have my 12th anniversary of "professional" wargaming this year.
 
(Left: 1999 Warhammer Store Opening in Party in Darmstadt, Germany,
Middle: Mike McVey at Salute 2012 London, UK
Right: RPC 2012 Kick-Off in Cologne, Germany)
What do I mean by that? I am wargaming since 1996, but in 2008 I got a trade licence to run a blog. A trade licence for a blog? Seems a bit oversized, don't you think? Well, it depends on what you're going to do.
Event Schedule for 2020
A brief overview of the events that are on my radar for this year.
Update: September 2020 due to COVID-19
Kick-Off 2020
As promissed, instead of closing the year with a summary, I want to look ahead into 2020 with a proper Kick-Off.
I could begin with the usual new years resolution, setting unrealistic goals like not buying any new miniatures before the others are painted and such. But I want to focus on activities that are fun, that are pro-active. And as such, I want to have a good time in 2020. The goal is not necessarily to have a better time, but to keep on having a good time with(in) my hobby. As pictures speak more than words, more of this:
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