Radio Free Battlefront vs WWPD

In Radio Free Battlefront Latest Episode Mike poses a question back to the WWPD guys.

I thought it would be very interesting to answer these questions myself.

On a scale of 1 to 5 how would you rate the importance of Modeling, Historical, Gaming, and Social as it pertains to Flames of War.

Modeling - 5

The Last hand painted model I did.

As the Radio Free guys pointed out this could very easily be a 2 or a 5 depending on what you are painting at the time.  When you are painting 240 Strelkovy this number quickly drops by the end of  the project.

I'm trying to be a 5 all the time.  But I'm such a slow painter by the end of some projects I just want to get it done.

This is something that has to be important to me.  The FoW community has all but disappeared, with a few people here and there.  So I don't actually get to play much.  I've had to concentrate more on the modeling aspect.  And my stuff is getting better and better all the time.  Where as I think most people are happy with something simple to get theirs stuff on the table.

This is also why I've played the big cats lately.  I want to show off my newest work, but I'm so slow I have to play these armies that have very few models.

Historical - 5

Cool panthers, but no detail.

When I first started FoW I thought I was a 5.  I knew a lot about WWII.  I hadn't even scratched the surface.  So in my minds eye I thought i was a 5 when really i was a 2.

But now I am defiantly a 5.  I will not paint something because it looks good.  I've see some great paint jobs at the last 2 tournaments on individual tanks.  Brian's T-34's...their paint scheme was super cool, but not historical in anyway.

And this past weekend, another guys panthers were painted really cool, but also not historical.  Which is fine. To each their own.  But there is also no detail in them.  Maybe they weren't done?  I started out this way too.  But now I want my stuff historical.  Or at least as best as I can get it.  The research is one of my favorite parts of this hobby.

My First panther

Because of these, I'm actually thinking of doing a Pink Panther army.  Not historical, but it would be fun.  One can't be all business.  I may even field them in a tournament. 

But historical stuff is important to me.  I even have a few Panzer III's where the crew uniforms were painted field grey instead of black.  I just didn't know when I first started.  So, those will eventually go into the Simple Green, and repainted.

Historical is actually suppose to be part of your score, but I find most guys don't know whats historical.  They vote 1 to 5 based on how good it looks.  I also not sure guys really know what they are looking at half the time, or they just give everyone the same score.  Shawn's armies are insanely well painted.  One of my buddies even borrowed one of his.  5's across the board without question.  I could even understand the occasional 4.  But some schmuck gave one of his armies a 1, and another one a 3.  1 is unpainted for peat sakes.  "Did you even look?"   

Gaming - 3

One of the first...Time for Simple Green?

This is a hard one for me to score because I am very competitive.  But the difference between me and most other competitive people I know, speaking in FoW terms, I would rather lose 4-3 in a great battle then crush someone 6-1 in 2 rounds.  I love the stress of close games.  Its very exciting.

So, playing at home for fun with my buddies, I spend a lot of time teaching.  I don't care about winning.  I want that person to be a great player, so later we can have great games.  I know guys that are so competitive, they would rather get the win by someone not showing up then playing against a great opponent.  

But really because Flames of War has all but collapsed in my city, its forced me to concentrate more on the modeling then the gaming, as I mentioned before.

I'm slowly but surely trying to build up the Regina Community.  As the group in Regina grows this number will go up.  For now the gaming is just a great by-product of the modeling.

Social - 5

Isn't that the reason we play board games?  I've met some great new players at the tournaments in Saskatoon.  I'd really like to get a 2 day event going so we could go out for drinks one night.  Instead of everyone dispersing after the tournament is done.

I even thought of giving this a 3 or 4 because I do more modeling then playing.  But really, I still talk to a lot of other people in the FoW community.  Even asking for painting advice (which I do a lot) from the FoW forum is a social aspect of this hobby.  So it has to be a 5. 

Cool question, I look forward to hearing the WWPD guys answers.