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Happy September 2nd!!!

 

 

This weekend, the question of what, precisely, constitutes an "imagination" came up in an online forum of which I am a part.  To be fair, the issue originates from further afield in a Facebook group that I am not a member of, but I weighed in with my own view.  The following was in response to the question posed yesterday (Sunday) morning by an exasperated member of my own rather more gentlemanly town square, who had been met with a strident response to information he shared about his (admirable) hobby activities on said FB group.  Here is, more or less, what I wrote:


To my mind, the concept of imagi-nation(s) is a broad one.  It can range from historical refights or what-if scenarios/battles/campaigns between armies of a particular era, to completely made up combatants operating in a quasi-historical setting, to the rather generic red and blue forces of the Prussian Kriegspiel that examine a particular tactical problem, task, or exercise.   And then there are near endless variations thereof.  Think too of Charles S. Grant's various Tabletop Teasers, Stuart Asquith's refights of famous tabletop encounters, the exploits of The Wargamers back in 2005-2007 (as detailed in the much missed Battle Games), and many others.  

Whew! That was a mouthful. 
 
And that ignores our fantasy-scifi cousins who deploy armies of Skaven (sp?), Orcs, space marines, or what have you.  Certainly imagi-nation in spirit there.
 
We might make the argument that ALL wargaming, even so called historically-based games, to one degree or another is imagination. Even if we do not don silly hats made of folded newspaper, who among us does not hear distant trumpets, drums, and the thunder of cavalry formations passing by as we set up and maneuver our legions and brigades of plastic and tin men across the table? And all without the fear of sudden death, or other horrors of the real thing.


For the record, I've always preferred the term "fictitious armies." But I'm an outlier.  And who would have suspected such opinionated verbosity after just one mug of coffee on a Sunday morning? 

 

-- Stokes

 

Comments

Donnie McGibbon said…
I thought your reply on the forum was spot on Stokes, hit the nail on the head and one I agree with totally. Our hobby is an extremely broad church and people trying to inflict "their way is the true way" ideas on everyone else is a large bugbear of mine.
10:27 PM
Rob said…
Ah, Autumn, the season of mellow mists and fruitless semantic arguments. ;o)
4:25 AM
WSTKS-FM Worldwide said…
Indeed! Thank you for your comments, gentlemen.

Kind Regards,

Stokes
10:48 AM
caveadsum1471 said…
The broad church is surely the best, avoiding the true believers and their exclusivity! I liked your bridge post, it reminded me that I fancied building a late medieval bridge with buildings, like the ponte vechio or the old London bridge, what fun!
Best Iain
9:46 AM
Pjotr said…
Dear Stokes, after another long absence due to life, the universe and everything, I'm back and catching up. I wholeheartedly agree with you're point of view and I'always like to say that we're just playing with toy soldiers, to sum it up.
Best Wishes
Peter
11:41 PM
Jiminho said…
Hi Stokes, Just dropping by to catch up. I liked your Imagination/fictional armies reflection, I am inclined to agree with you. For me, the imaginary part is sometimes more, sometimes less important. Whatever gets the brain and creativity engaged. Nevertheless I'm more inclined to like a touch of RPG than positivist Kreigspiel Red vs Blue however. Jim
2:27 PM
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