[Consim-l] Re: #400 for me

[bieksza at erols.com]

On 25 Dec 2006 at 9:03, John Best wrote:

> (First of all, my apologies if you see this twice.  I sent it yesterday, 
> 12/124, but didn't see it 12 hours later, and when that happens it's
> usually a sign it's not going to appear at all.)

Second try for me, too.

> There are a couple of other questions raised too.  Such as, 
> "how many wargames does one person need or want?"  Or, "What are you going 
> to do with all of them, now that you have them?"  Let me say that, in 
> response to the first question, I really have slowed down in my purchases a 
> lot over the last several years.  I'm really pretty selective in my 
> purchases now, and generally, the new games don't tempt me too much.

Same here.  I obtained just one through all of 2006:  Strike Them a 
Blow.  The reason is due in part to the fact that wargaming is no 
longer my #1 recreation and in part to the idea that I can't justify to 
myself getting a game on a given topic when I already have N 
games on the same topic that I haven't played yet.

> That's also partially my answer to the second question too:  I'll
> probably keep buying games once in a while, and there are a couple of
> games that I'm on the hunt for.  But generally, at this point, I feel
> like I have all the games I need or want.  

One motivation that keeps me buying games is the current state of 
the business -- I have the feeling that if I don't obtain a given title of 
interest now it won't be available later (or only for an inflated price at 
some reseller).

> Now the last question: What are you going to do with them all?  
(snip)
> But I have fun using them in other ways
> too.  For example, it was fun, and it suited my needs, the other day to
> be able to look at and compare something like five or six different
> divisional-level or lower countermixes for the Waterloo campaign
> (Napoleon's Last Battles, 1815, Last Days of the Grand Armee, Armies of
> Waterloo, Armee du Nord, etc.).  It was fun just to look at them and
> see how they were similar and how they were different.  So what will I
> do with the games?  I plan on using them in a number of different ways,
> in part just to study them as objects themselves. 

Back in the glory days of SPI I recall a statement that "wargames 
are to military history as Classic Comics are to literature."  
Nevertheless wargames are still a useful supplement for me.  For 
example, if I'm watching "Dogfights" on the History Channel and I 
get curious about the planes involved, I can pull out Air Force / 
Dauntless or Flight Leader for a quick comparison.

Oh, and Strike Them a Blow is acquisition #204.  That also 
represents the size of my collection because I could never bring 
myself to sell anything no matter how bad it was.


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