Long time lurker, first time poster, or so the saying goes. I welcome the opportunity that Eric presented to get the whole group posting for the anniversary. And so, having decided what I wanted to write about, I’m launching into these couple of lines for my first post on the A Gentlemanly Sport blog.
How it all began
I have been wargame adjacent since getting into the hobby through an innocent enough Beavis & Butthead Trading Cards poster in the window of Fantasy Bazaar, our FLGS. It was on the way to my school ever since reaching the final grade of middle-school, and a bunch of people I knew were customers already. Inside I discovered a wealth of Science Fiction and Fantasy games, first heard of something related to dark vaults and the matching large scaly lizards that one Gary Gygax and his partner Dave Arneson had conjured out of their wargaming hobby. A large table, covered with meticulously cut out polystyrene hexes of different height, and covered in colourful paper drew attention. I would only later find out that it was the store owners’ Battletech table.
What drew me into the hobby initially were Magic: The Gathering cards. The groups we played in further delved into Vampire and Legend of the Five Rings. Eventually D&D, the L5R RPG and other would join our weekly ludic outlets and eventually AEG decided to launch a miniatures wargame based on the world of Rokugan explored in the card and roleplaying game of Legend of the Five Rings. Four of our the group decided to pick up some boxes and blisters and launch into it. I remember only two games ever being played.
At university in Aberystwyth, Wales, Albatross Models and Toys, a small cramped store, with model kits, toys, boardgames, minis boxes and all the paraphernalia needed to our hobby and its close cousins offered a veritable Ali Baba’s cave. And eventually tempted me into picking up a very small contingent of Imperial Army which never went beyond being eyed – I eventually sold it to a friend in a pretty active wargaming group.
My return to the hobby
Blood Bowl had gained my fascination and I am the owner of two boxes and an undercoated Nurgle team of one of the recent releases. Unfortunately my consistently bad tactical choices have made playing the game something I am more dreading than looking forward to.
My return, and more active immersion in the hobby are due to this blog and its regular contributors, my interest and activity as a 3D-Printer owner, as well as the exchanges about the hobby and its releases at large. I have grown infatuated with Trench Crusade, the world and the artwork, but also looks fondly at Stargrave, the Five Parsecs ecosystem, and Cyberpunk systems like Combat Zone, Gangs of the Undercity and Reality’s Edge. My immediate goals are to get some TC terrain and warband(s) painted up, and give some colour to a 3D-printed Cyberpunk neighbourhood.
But let me get to what I initially wanted to write about:
Wargaming in education.
As a gamer and an educator, I firmly believe that games have a major role to play in education. Many studies support this and my own experimentation with games in classrooms have shown me that students take well to the change of pace and structure. Furthermore, I have taken this conviction as an opportunity to establish a space dedicated to games at my school – with a little help from an impressively large grant to do so. The space, named GameLab and accessible through the library, sports a shelved wall with board and card games for every experience level and addressing many different skills. But for this blog particularly there are three points I wanted to raise beyond the fact that games in education are good, ugh!
Games Workshop’s Alliance programme
A FLGS owner pointed me to Games Workshop’s Alliance programme as a potential way to bring wargaming into the GameLab. The sign up process was very easy and in relatively short time a box filled with the materials necessary to run the activity at a school showed up. One of the technical staff at my school, fascinated by WH lore, was impressed by what we had just received, namely, a set of handbooks which, in well thought out steps established WH’s SF and Fantasy Lore, gets the kids to design their own banners. It further shows them how to assemble the included minis, of which the latest packs have contained four different ones, with the included clippers.
In the next step the paint pots and brushes see action when it comes to giving the small soldiers their coat of colour. Playmats, tokens and dice do their thing to provide game environment, and the handbooks give handy examples as they establish the rules for the game. Downloadable material allows for even inexperienced teachers to take on the challenge of getting students to explore, assemble, paint and play. Students are invited to expand their exploration by visiting their nearest store for extra goodies and experiences. Sadly this part falls a bit flat in our case as there are no official stores close enough to make this happen currently. All in all the juggernaut of the industry provides a delightful batch of activities and the necessary equipment to set up a wargaming club at school and handholds for immersing students in the hobby and lore.
One Page Rules as an alternative
I am convinced that providing even just digital downloads for an educationally minded approach to their games would make some game companies’ presence in schools and other education institutions more widespread. A lot of teachers hold a lot of goodwill towards the hobby we all love and making it easier for us to share this with our students is always a welcome option. For my part, I hope to bring One Page Rules’ system to the table as an alternative, for example.
A Second Life for Miniatures
The second point I wanted to make has a number of origin points. Firstly, a wargamer trying to thin their collection prompted me to reach out and suggest that the GameLab could take anything that other gamers would not want to pick up. I ended up picking up a huge load of two armies for Warmachine, as well as a number of board games with four made up of Kickstarter pledges including many expansions.
But more on the former. Attending Metropolcon in Berlin, the 2026 European Science Fiction fan convention, one panel was dedicated to supporting through fantasy writing, RPGs and games more generally. The small group in attendance and the panellists soon found themselves in a lively exchange around the many facets of this that we have experienced. On mentioning the above story one of the group approached me to discuss the use of minis in games like Frostgrave or Stargrave suggesting that those might work very well. I replied that I was also thinking about exploring OPRs possibilities when it comes to the more distinct world and thus sculpts and equipment of the minis that the GameLab holds. For now, though, the larger and impressively painted pieces adorn the top of shelves and cupboards in the GameLab and make any visitor Ooh and Aah at them. Here’s hoping that one day soon they’ll see the table again.
The future of the GameLab
Finally, I want to end on a bit of a low, though not too much. Life, work and circumstances have made it so that running the tabletop part of the GameLab has been less smooth than others. First and foremost I have found that reaching out to attract some members of our not insignificant school population and getting them interested in the hobby’s many facets has not been easy. Hopefully the upcoming school year, and reducing distractions from other areas of teacherdom, will allow me to be more successful in that area.
I for one look forward to sharing my passion for games, the benefits they bring, and the lessons they can teach us with the next generation of players out there.
Happy fifth anniversary to our blog, and here’s to many more, and hopefully some posts of my own in the future.
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