What kind of gamer are you?

Bear with me on this one, it might get a bit meta.

I started playing Drakar och Demoner, the Swedish-language local version of (GURPS, actually) D & D back in 1980-something with some local middle-school friends. Read Dragonlance books. Read Battletech and Warhammer and Tolkien and the first big 40K story that made a big impression on me - Deathwing.

Gang Wars/Necromunda style game in White Dwarf 207 (?)

Got the Blood Bowl game. Got Adeptus Titanicus. Got some 40K terminators but never actually played any of the games. Played computer games. Fast forward to 2002-ish when I got the Diablo bug while studying for a Master's Degree (during a blazing war out to sea in the Persian Gulf, no less - but I digress). D2X. Then World of Warcraft fairly hardcore for 4-5 years, off and on - see coldbear.wordpress.com

All this time I've been more interested in immersion and emotional feedback from games, than winning (I'm hugely competitive in many other aspects of my life, and like to win at games, too). Games are memorable when they create emotions. See http://liquidcode.org/~lostman/wow/dkeserver.se/stuff/angwe/

Warhammer Fantasy Battle unit platter

If there's no emotion involved, if there's no caring, no immersion, then it's just a game. Of course it's just a game, it's not real, it's play pretend. But if you can invest something in it more than just some dice rolls or hitting hotkeys, then there's something there - and a potentially huge emotional involvement and payoff. To a point.

Warhammer Fantasy Battle - not much terrain, eh?

Let's face it, most of us live fairly mundane lives (though I've seen the depths of the ocean at 2,000 ft, have been to one of the toughest military training programs on the planet, been close to death on plenty of rockfaces and been around the globe twice etc etc...). It'd be cool to step into something more exciting once in a while, with no risk. Therefore my computer gaming insistence on lack of UI and immersion and internal consistency and believability - let's not explain everything with the old "oh, it's magic."

Now for the Games Workshop/Warhammer focus bit. Some pictures first:

Mordheim?

 Ok, the pictures are gonna have to hang out on the side. Take a look through them.

Warhammer Fantasy Battle - no or little terrain, moving things around on platters. No immersion. Just a flat field and weird big platters taking up space and making it seem like the bases of a bunch of models have a really huge footprint. Let's not forget the "ok, now there's big magic flying bolts going off, and this guy here has a magic sword thing." The latter part which is purely imaginary - there's no visual representation, unless you're in a computer environment.

40K with more terrain than usual

Necromunda professionally done

Mordheim - tons of terrain. City stuff. Individual units. Campaign-focused or individual skirmish games with low-model-count. Lose one model and you care. Lose a few more and you're done.

Same with Necromunda, Coreheim, Deathsquads, ITEN, Killzone or any of a number of skirmish-focused Warhammer Fantasy/40K styles. This is where the models really look like they fit in. Small bases that don't obscure the terrain much, since the model is large compared to its footprint. Sure it's just a toy soldier, but darnit - it fits. It's not quite an awesome immersive experience, but pretty darn close.

Epic 40K

Mordheim

40K regular style. 2000 pts on a 6x4 table top. Tons of models. Individually moved models. Small bases or no bases in case of vehicles (I hate vehicles, it's silly to have flyers - hell no a fixed-wing airplane with wings and propellers/turbines isn't a skimmer - and in a small tactical situation). Fairly decent, better than WHFB for me, and a bit more believable with some terrain and whatnot. I'm not a big fan of units just unloading and moving 30" in a turn straight across the board, but what the heck. Now there's less magic and more just shooty guns stuff. That's a bit more immersive to me than big magic - there's a guy with a gun, he shoots, you can't see the bullets anyway so there's no break in the suspension of disbelief (minor and tenuous as it is).

I'd prefer 500 pts or 1000 pts and not so many vehicles and less movement per turn to make the field of battle seem larger and each turn be a "smaller snapshot in time" of the battle. I'd rather have an immersive simulation than a game that you just play to win with GK vs GK and silly things like that. I'd much rather have a story-line narrative tournament/campaign than just a straight-up measure of skill with diabolically and clinically even playing fields to make sure that skill is the only thing that comes out on top - similar to the arenas in World of Warcraft.

Squat Epic 40K

BFG/Aeronautica Imperialis/Man O' War - kind of special deals here in that there's little actual terrain, mostly just empty space, a felt mat or whatnot. Plus no-one really plays much AI/MOW anymore. I'd love to get me some AI. Either case you can see that the model is not dwarfed by the base as is the case in WHFB platter-syndrome. Still looks a bit weird sometimes though.

Epic 40K and Warmaster etc - big bases that clash with the background. You look like you're moving around little squares with pegs on them instead of units. No. I'd rather not. Epic 40K looks nicer and more impressive and immersive when you're talking Titans. Or Battletech style. Big models relative to base size. Especially if the underlying terrain is a contrasting colour. Pet peeve with me. Nice looking model on crazy base that clashes with the terrain and just ruins how it looks in play.

But then again many people don't agree with me. I'm ok with that. It's just a matter of finding like-minded people to play with. I'd love to play this girl's list: http://elorrahstormbringer.blogspot.com/2011/12/genestealer-overkill.html Yes, she's a real live girl that plays 40K.

Battlefleet Gothic

 So - what kind of player are you? Is it a game or a story or both or more of one and a bit of the other? Is it about painting and the hobby and the fluff or more about finding a way to win.

To each their own.

How to find players

NEW: http://www.tabletoptournaments.net/ - seems populated database, checking now.

Finding players is a huge issue for some of us.

Well-supported, popular games and you don't care who you play or what terrain or format or how things are done or the WAAC meta? Congratulations, you're all set. But for Man O' War, BFG, Aeronautica Imperialis, Epic 40K, Necromunda, Mordheim, Dark Future and whatnot you're a bit S.O.L.

I've been working on solutions. Best I can find is these:

• Google gaming stores. Use the Games Workshop store locator. Google "" and all the games you're interested in. Keep in mind that people who play a well-spread game like Epic 40K might be open to BFG or AI. 40K players might be interested in Necromunda or its fan-made variants that they don't have to buy stuff for. Fantasy players will be interested in Mordheim etc.

• http://nearbygamers.com/ - Probably the biggest of the "let's make a database for gamers" websites.

• http://www.accessdenied.net/ - Nicely set up, but seems to have a lot VERY OLD information.

• http://www.meetup.com/ - Good for lots of popular things, not so good for trying to find people to play old board games/wargames with. If you want something not just for wargaming, this is it.

• http://needgamers.com/ - New startup that looks great. But not so great once you realize the guy who's operating it is just doubling up on the work already done by people on the three above websites.

• http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?372312-A-List-of-Player-Finders - Where I found most of this, some dead links, and the RPG one is a non-functional website (process died halfway through registration).

• boardgamegeek.com is a great website, but sadly not much in the way of finding players. They really should have put a map up and let people network.

I recently purchased an awesome vintage 1980s GW game called "Dark Future" - but finding people to play with is going to be a...

San Diego specific stuff I've found (might be in DC soon enough):

• http://www.gameempire.com/forum/

• http://rpg-sandiego.org/

Getting into 40K etc.

New job coming up, eventually. New location. 37 years old, unmarried, with liabilities and uncertainties. Money issues.

$1500 on a 40K army is just not gonna happen.

But how about:

Aeronautica Imperialis

Aeronautica Imperialis and few Eldar or Tay or Imperial fighters and whatnot. Plus a rulebook and it's cheap enough.

Battlefleet Gothic is just a few models and a second-hand rulebook.

Titanicus - Epic scale 40,000. Cheap enough. Just go with the Titans and stay with a few medium-size models to keep it cheap.

Blood Bowl - teams are only so big.

Dark Future - books are cheap if you search for used. Small number of models. EBay.

EBay.

500pts 40k army consisting of 20 non-GK models, or 1000pts at 36 models. GK no GK, no vehicles, triple assassins for fun and cool and insanity. Not gonna win much, but it might throw some people off.

Yeah, that last one will have to wait.

Ok - Eldar AI squadron. Eldar BFG fleet. Eldar Titans. Or Imperials v.v. To start with.

Blood Bowl team from eBay. Dark Future and whatnot as opportunities present themselves. Might even make a buck off of knowing how to buy, split things into pieces and re-sell.

Thunder Road or Dark Future or Car Wars or all three?