Why Miniature Games?

 Why Miniature Games?

It's a fair question. And one I couldn't answer for a long time. I liked the idea of them! I very much liked the idea of customizing my army/fleet/whatever (with regards to appearance as well as equipment), I liked the idea of the competition, and I liked the idea of the narrative. But it could also be so much work!

I mean, my God. Look at the size of that army! And they're mostly painted white, so it's not even a terribly complicated paint scheme!!!

I was always uncertain I wanted to put that much effort into a game outside of actually playing the game. I mean, the assembly and the painting alone could be so daunting! But then tack on how long a single match can take, how much money is invested into building an army or fleet, the learning curve, the intimidation factor of playing a game wherein centimeters matters enough that units have to be moved thoughtfully and delicately, on and on and on...it just intimidated the hell out of me.

Just around the same time that World of Warcraft released, there was another game called City of Heroes. It was the same notion, but players would create a superhero instead of a cleric/warrior/wizard/etc. It was right up my alley and I was ridiculously excited about it. But I quickly learned it was not a thing that would last long for me. Not because I wasn't interested; I was! But my mentality in such a game is that I want to be good at it. To be good at it, I would need to invest X hours/days. I was not willing to invest X. As such, I'd only ever find myself frustrated at my skill level and abilities. So I'd basically be playing the game just to be frustrated by it. I was not about that, and so I didn't play for very long. It was around this time that I got out of video gaming in general (for the most part) because anything I might be interested in playing was online and I just didn't want to invest the time to get "good enough" at it for "it to be worth my time." I put all of that in quotes because I acknowledge that's really just for me personally. It absolutely does not apply to everyone. And I am not aiming to be THE BEST.

Cue the Pokemon theme song!

But I want to be *good enough* that I am satisfied. So anyway, I steered clear of miniature games for a very long time because I equated them with the online games I chose not to play. Especially because my very limited knowledge was of Warhammer 40,000 and X-Wing. The former is a HUGE game with tons of minis, dice, and rules. So many rules that every faction has its own book! Again, this is what I *know* without having played the game. And as for X-Wing, it just looked to me like a lot of flying in circles and counting on the dice to break your way rather than your opponents.

So how did I end up playing a miniatures game at all!? Much less one in which my investment level is as high as it is with Star Wars Armada?

Well, that's really thanks to Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) - the good as well as the bad. I love competition and deck building. My buddy Biff got me into Conquest, the Warhammer 40k LCG (Living Card Game). We spent a ridiculous amount of time theory-crafting, deck building, and playing. The hours flew by while we sifted through the entire game until we found Warlords and deck ideas that we liked. We would play match after match until we were making the smallest tweaks possible. We'd debrief, talk about the decks as well as play-styles and choices. All of it. Then, just as we were ramping up for competition (specifically, Organized Play, which is competitive tournament play organized and run by FFG; we play against other committed players like us for prizes and recognition), FFG pulled the plug on the game. Their intellectual property (IP) license with Games Workshop (GW) expired and neither side wanted to renew it owing to plans each side had for future product. We were pretty broken up about it. I'm still a little sour about it something ridiculous like 4 or 5 years later because I just love that game so much. So we were in search of a new game that could scratch that competitive itch. There was a sale on Armada starters, and I bought in. Here are the things I learned about miniatures games through Armada that helped me overcome the intimidation that kept me away from even trying a miniatures game.

• Customization: do it the way YOU want to do it. It's really not as complicated as we sometimes make it out to be. Even in 40k, the rule for official tournaments is that the models must be completely covered, and with 3 colors. It's true that there are incredible and beautifully painted armies out there. Some people are in the hobby more for the painting than the playing! That doesn't have to be you if you don't want it to be. I do not devote enough time to painting to truly get good at it. But I've learned that the painting I do is good enough for me, and that's the key. It was so helpful that Armada ships came pre-painted, but I ended up customizing my own anyway. I kept it simple, but it gave me a sense of ownership over my fleet. Since starting Armada, I've begun painting miniatures from other games, such as Descent, Imperial Assault, and Rising Sun.
• Bit of a sidebar on customization, courtesy of one of my oldest friends, Phil (the Glacial Geek!): paint for as long as it feels like fun. When it becomes a chore, stop painting. This is supposed to be a fun aspect of the hobby, and if it's not, then change your approach. There's really no pressure to "get it right" except the pressure you put on yourself. Work at your own pace and work within your own priorities. That really stuck for me, and while I don't paint as consistently as I'd like, I enjoy it much more for painting when I want to.
• Time Sink: this is absolutely one of those things where all I can do is sort of shrug and advise that you pick a game you reasonably have time to play. Some are shorter (X-Wing, Kill Team) and some are longer (Armada, standard Warhammer 40k), and all you can do is try it out and learn whether or not you want to invest the time. It's true that I don't get in as much Armada as I'd like. But I value that time I invest in it, and when I can invest some more, I do. When it's tournament season, I play Armada more consistently at the cost of playing "regular board games," and it's a trade-off I happily make. It won't always be the case, but you won't know until you try it out.
• Rules: some games are heavy on the rules and some are lighter. I don't enjoy Kill Team enough to memorize the rules for every single faction, but I do enjoy Armada enough that I've messed around with and own all 4 factions, and so am familiar with the basics of just about anything my opponent can throw at me. This is just like any other game; it might just feel more intimidating because so many of these games are played competitively. Which brings me to the next point, which is probably my biggest...
• Community: this is what kept me from quitting Armada. Hell, I'd already quit twice before when I felt like I would just never *get* the game. But the people were so supportive, helpful and fun that I decided to stick it out, and I eventually figured out how to play the game in a way that I enjoyed. The people really gifted me with two bits of insight.
• The first is that the notion that every move matters is a bit misleading. It's true that miniature games are often a game of centimeters. But miniatures get bumped. It's not ideal, but it happens. And centimeters don't always matter. Sometimes, my opponent and I establish that a squadron is engaged with one enemy, but not another. When we revisit the measurement later, suddenly, all 3 squadrons are engaged. We had previously established that was not the case, so we declare that there must have been a bump somewhere, and reset the board state to an approximation of what we previously declared. Egregious and intentional bumps or movements are obviously poor sportsmanship and have no place in the game, and the community will call it out. But I've never had an opponent jump on me for an honest mistake, so I could stop holding my breath that I would so majorly screw up a game that someone wouldn't play with me again.
• The second is that the community is what makes playing miniature games worthwhile for me. I enjoy the hell out of Armada, but I wouldn't have stuck with it if there weren't a bunch of good folks playing alongside and across from me. It was what was missing from online video gaming for me all those years ago: I didn't want to play with people I didn't know, and I would rather be in the same room as the friends I'm playing with than on headset. Conversely, even if I love a game, if it were with people I couldn't stand because they were annoying, abrasive, cheaters, whatever, then I just wouldn't be playing that game. I've left gaming groups that have fit any of those categories because I just don't want to make time for them.

I have discovered that I genuinely enjoy miniatures games! They have to be a certain scale for me to be interested in playing them. In Armada, the most ships a player has on the table is 6 or 7, and that's certainly on the high side. I'm most often flying 3-4 ships and anywhere from 2-8 squadrons. In the couple of games of X-Wing I've played, I've flown either 3 or 8 fighters. In Kill Team, my contingent is between 5-8 operatives. So I like things to be on the smaller side of engagement. But once I took the stress of PAINTING BRILLIANTLY off of myself and decided that good enough was good enough, I found I enjoy painting and making my own customization choices! I like thinking about these games outside of playing, I enjoy theory-crafting around them, and these are games in which you're constantly list-building. I've enjoyed list-building from when I played Magic: The Gathering and Pokemon back in high school, so this is right up my alley. The mental investment is something I thoroughly enjoy, too.

Seriously. No idea how fatiguing it can be to fly 5 timed matches of Armada in a day until one does it...

At the end of the day, you won't know unless you try a minis game. Not really. There are so many out there. If you have even the slightest interest, find a group that plays the game! I guarantee that they'll be happy to welcome you and teach you with some of their own minis before you decide whether or not to buy into the game. If they're not welcoming, then you wouldn't want to be playing with that group anyway. It's a whole world of gaming in addition to the one(s) you know, and I promise that it's worth exploring!