Looking to Media for Inspiration

Wargamers take inspiration from a variety of sources. Media can play a big role in driving motivation toward a new project, a new game, or even hitting the painting desk.  While friends provide some of this spark, media grabs attention with the ability to direct and multiply efforts in somewhat of a herding instinct.  That is how trends develop.  Wherever this inspiration is found, new or renewed life can be brought to a project.

The 2024 Great Wargaming Survey offered two questions related to wargaming inspiration.  One question asked about a gamer’s primary source for inspiration. The second question focused on media and its influence.  This post takes a look at the latter question by examining which media provides the biggest draw of inspiration.

Today's question asked, 

Through which medium do you get your inspiration? 

Top Media Sources

Respondents could select up to three choices of media influencers.  Results were aggregated to the top responses.  Final counts are shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1

YouTube and other online video take the top media source garnering over 25% of total responses.  Printed media takes the second spot in the ranking.  These top 2 sources claim over 46% of total responses.  Looking at the graphic below in Figure 2, three main tiers of interest appear.  Video and printed material make up the first tier, Film/TV and social media comprise the second tier, while blogs, podcasts and other digital media make up the third tier.

Figure 2

I last examined media sources in the 2021 survey.  Have preferences changed in the intervening three years?  Yes!  Figure 3 illustrates that video leaped over 2021's top choice of printed material to capture the top spot.  Will online video continue to grab more of the "media as a source" market?  Digitial books/magazines and audio books continue to see loss of influence.  Will this tendency continue?

Figure 3

Media Source by Age Group
As each analysis rolls out from my keyboard, a consistent theme suggests that a respondent's age really does matter in how the hobby is experienced.  Does age play a role in choice of preferred media apply here too?

When examining the results as a percentage of Age Group by Media Source, books and magazines (whether digital or print) are favored by the 51-and-over groups. For the 40-and-under age groups, they prefer to either watch or listen to their media content.  Interesting that the 31-40 age group is the most likely to prefer audio books with audio books capturing over 35% of this group's media content.  See Figure 4 for details.

Figure 4

Turning Figure 4 on its head by transposing the axes produces the graphic presented in Figure 5.  Now we look at Media Source by Age Group.  Two distinctive patterns of media consumption surface when the data are examined with this spin.

Figure 5

Looking at Figure 5, YouTube and online video consumption declines monotonically as age increases while printed media (books and magazine) usage increases directly as age increases.  Highlighting generational differences in a sign of the times, this result is not surprising.  While intuition suggests that this tendency would pan out, to see these results graphically confirmed in analysis is comforting, well at least to the analyst.  

Do these media source and age group tendencies hold for my preferences?  Close but not quite. My top 3 media sources for wargaming inspiration are,

1. A Blog
2. Printed book or magazine
3. Digital book or magazine

I derive much more inspiration from blogs than the aggregated survey statistics suggest. Perhaps my perspective is biased since blogging is my main form of broadcasting my hobby activities?

How about you?

What are your Top 3 media sources for wargaming inspiration and do these results mirror your age cohort?

Next Up, Mortimer's Cross

With three days of gaming on others' tables last week, time to bring the action back to my own table.

Since the WotR collection is still out after a handful of Solden Hill games, I decided to drum up a historical battle for the next game.  After some exploration, I settled upon the 1461 Battle of Mortimer's Cross. 

Still working on the details of the scenario but the table is set to help inspire completion of the Battle Briefing.

First game is slated for Monday.  Note that battlefield is back to a hex grid as opposed to the open table as seen in the last game.  Hope to muster six players.

Assyrians and a Pair of Games

In between pushing out additions to the 18mm SYW/WAS collection, I try to plug in a 25mm Biblical unit or two to break up the process and stick in some variety.  Today's offering is one such distraction.

Out from the painting desk today is a twelve-figure unit of Assyrian Auxiliary foot.  Figures are Wargames Foundry.  These dirty and seasoned hard campaigners are ready for service once gaming returns to Biblicals.  Hittite reinforcements are not far behind.

Besides the five-game series on Monday refighting Cunaxa, two more gaming sessions were logged into the Games Played book this week.  Tuesday saw Matt and I battle over the Brandywine battlefield (see Battle of Brandywine Part 2).  On Thursday, I joined Tony (Prometheus in Aspic) in a five player, WSS battle he hosted remotely.  This may have been the first multi-player remote game that Tony has hosted.  He took on the task with confidence and the game progressed with ease.  Great job, Tony!  Oh, by the way, Mark and I came out on top in this clash with a score of 11-3.  Decisive victory!

Tony's BatRep can be found at, WSS Action at Damebrunnen.  Great fun to actually get to play with these fellas rather than hosting.

Battles and Brats

Monday was a holiday.  Given an opening in schedules, Scott invited Kevin and I to Coeur d'Alene for a gaming session and BBQ lunch.  Kevin and I cheerfully accepted!

In the Cunaxa scenario, the first army to score six banners wins.  The table was laid out according to the GB14 scenario.  Cunaxa is the SoA's Battle Day for 2026.  We are getting an early start.

When we descended into Scott's game room, we were greeted by the sight of the Battle of Cunaxa in 28mm.  While I have seen some of Scott's Persians before, this was the first time to study his chariot-work firsthand.  Beautiful models as the lead photo illustrates.

Including a lunch break of grilled bratwursts and all of the trimmings, the three of us managed to complete five games in about four hours.

The results of the five-game series were:

Game #1: Cyrus (Jon) defeats Artaxerxes (Kevin) 6-4.

Game #2: Artaxerxes (Scott) defeats Cyrus (Kevin) 6-1.

Game #3: Artaxerxes (Jon) defeats Cyrus (Kevin) 6-4.

Game #4: Cyrus (Scott) defeats Artaxerxes (Jon) 6-4.

Game #5: Cyrus (Scott) defeats Artaxerxes (Kevin) 6-0.

Cyrus won three of the five battles.  Scott came away the big winner on the day (as usual!) going 3-0 while I managed a respectable 2-1.  Kevin, however, could not see his way to victory and fell 0-4! 

Persian chariots attacking the Greek line

Great day out!  Hopefully, we can return to the table and Cunaxa again soon.

Spanish Brabante Cavalry

Another body of Spanish cavalry trots out from the painting desk.  This time, the Brabante Cavalry Regiment makes its way off the workbench and into the holding box.  These twelve figures are from Eureka Miniatures.

More units for the 18mm SYW/WAS project are stacking up in line awaiting a turn at the photo box before we see a return to a few Biblical units including Hittites and Assyrians.  There are a handful or two of Swiss handgunners for the Great Italian Wars working their way through the production line as well.  A batch of Piedmontese infantry began work at the painting desk yesterday.  

As expected, May painting production will see a dismal total of only 30 figures completed.  Perhaps I can pick up the pace as summer approaches?  No guarantees as Real Life is throwing up an almost constant barrage of distractions and mileage on the bike climbs.  After not much gaming, next week should see a pick-up in activity on that front.  Hoping to return to another playtest round of the WotR rules' work soon featuring a new scenario.  

That is all for today!

Solden Hill without Grids

Coming up on nearly three weeks passed, I jog the memory on a battle Mark (Mud Blood and Steel) and I contested on the fields of Solden Hill.  Tony (Prometheus in Aspic) joined in as an observer and first-rate kibitzer.  In a change from the prior two battles of Solden Hill, the hexes were dispatched.  We played the battle out on an open table.  I have not seen a non-gridded game on my table in a very long time.  This might be fun change of pace or a challenge.

Mark chose to command the attacking Yorkists while I was tasked with leading the Lancastrians to victory.  My attempts to pull Tony into commanding the Lancastrians were unsuccessful.

Having seen my Lancastrians fall in the two previous games, will they see more success in this outing?  For a brief recap, please read on.

As in the other games, one Lancastrian Battle
 begins atop Solden Hill, alone.

Somerset ready for action!

Yorkist march on Solden Hill
as Lancastrian reinforcements arrive.

Suffolk closes in on Somerset on Solden Hill
while Edward veers off to the left to prevent
 enemy from reinforcing Somerset.

Suffolk attacks up the hill and into the awaiting Somerset.
  After letting loose their arrows,
both archers fall back behind the melee lines.
In melee, Suffolk suffers more and falls back.

With Northumberland advancing quickly down the main road,
Edward attacks! 
Not expecting an attack from that quarter,
Northumberland steps back to regroup.

Ignoring the threat from Edward, now on his flank,
 Northumberland pitches into Stanley.

Fighting is desperate.
Stanley is driven back with Northumberland in pursuit.
Casualties mount.

In the heavy fighting, Northumberland wavers.
Stanley counterattacks!
Pembroke is seen alongside Somerset on the high ground.

Exhausted from his efforts against Northumberland, Stanley pauses.
Seizing the opportunity, Edward hits the wavering Northumberland.
Northumberland's Battle breaks with Edward's main melee line in pursuit.
A gap opens in Edward's ward.

This is the opening Pembroke wanted!
Coming down from the heights,
 Edward's archers fall back while a body of Yorkist MAA rout.

In foreground, Yorkist MAA in flight.

While Suffolk and Somerset continue trading blows...

Stanley goes in against Pembroke.

Both Pembroke and Somerset fall back...

but Stanley keeps up the pressure.

Both combatants are being ground down in melee.
Finally, Pembroke, in an uneven exchange, breaks.
The Lancastrian Army breaks and withdraws.

Well! Another game and another loss for my Lancastrians!

Congratulations, Mark, on a game well-played.  I thought the Lancastrians had the upper hand at times, but it was not to be.

Reverting to an open table took some time for my brain to readjust.  I quickly adapted after a turn.  My initial impressions of the differences between gridded and non-gridded I save for a follow-up discussion on the merits of each.  For now, I reckon we see a return to hexes next time.

Good fun!  Thank you, Mark!

Chasseurs de Fischer

Activities on the hobby front continue winding their way through the month of May in the seasonal downturn mentioned in an earlier post (see A Few Spanish and a Seasonal Funk).  Contributing to this stall and recent lack of posts was my week away in California.  Nine days between posts is likely the biggest gap in more than a dozen years.  Returning sees even more work to catch up with on the home front.  Hopefully, I will be back to normal operations soon.  The forced hiatus presents one interesting fallout.  Having not posted in more than one week, I find it challenging to actually restart the blogging routine.  I considered holding off for even a few more days needing a little recovery time to collect my thoughts.  Once jostled out of a routine and regular habit, I am a little surprised how easy it would be to either slow down or stop altogether.  

Anyway, back to today's offering.

Mustering out earlier in the month are the French Chasseurs de Fischer.  This body of 15 light infantrymen are added into the French Army for the 18mm SYW collection.  Figures are Old Glory.  Still a number of units awaiting their turn at the photo booth.  With luck, I will return to the painting desk soon and the next post with not be nine days away.

Until next time.