Thanks Tom for "pinging" this thread again. Tomorrow I'm starting my trip to Lancaster for Historicon. I should get there Wednesday afternoon. I will be doing some work in Baltimore and Cartersville, GA after the con. I look forward to seeing some of you there.
Pete - Binpicker, Out!
Growing the Hobby
Moderators: dnichols, GHQ, Mk 1
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Pitfall
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To get back to growing the hobby, are there any microarmor games being run at GenCon this year? I don't think I saw any in the events listing.
If we want more people to play microarmor, GHQ needs to make an appearance at THE largest gaming convention in the US. You're not going to find new players at cons like Historicon. To recruit new players, you have to go to more mainstream conventions and draw in those that play Warhammer and FoW.
If we want more people to play microarmor, GHQ needs to make an appearance at THE largest gaming convention in the US. You're not going to find new players at cons like Historicon. To recruit new players, you have to go to more mainstream conventions and draw in those that play Warhammer and FoW.
I wish I had something witty to say...
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pmskaar
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Growing the Hobby
I haven't posted here in awhile. I just got back from running a GHQ micro armor game with the Mein Panzer rules this afternoon in the Phoenix area. This was definitely a case of set it up and they will come. When I started getting ready this morning, I wasn't sure as to who was coming to play or not but decided to run the game anyway. I knew Thunder was coming and unfortunately none of the other guys that had showed up could stick around. I did manage to get 2 young players interested enough to give it a shot which they did.
We did a 1942 Russian Front meeting engagement with tanks only. Thunder was teamed with Chris one of the young players as the Germans and I was teamed with Ryan as the Russians. Neither one had played Mein Panzer or GHQ Micro Armor before but Ryan at least was very familiar with Axis and Allies miniatures. That was his gateway into historicals and to me the exact route is not important but the destination is the key. It was a good fun game with no clear decision after 2 1/2hours but everyone had a good time and the younger players were asking lots of questions about the miniatures, terrain, and the rules and would be interested in playing again. They got the basics down with the tanks and I would do this scenario again to get players involved in the mechanics of moving and shooting.
As a bonus, Thunder took some awesome pictures and will post these next week so stand by for more.
Pete - Binpicker, Out!
We did a 1942 Russian Front meeting engagement with tanks only. Thunder was teamed with Chris one of the young players as the Germans and I was teamed with Ryan as the Russians. Neither one had played Mein Panzer or GHQ Micro Armor before but Ryan at least was very familiar with Axis and Allies miniatures. That was his gateway into historicals and to me the exact route is not important but the destination is the key. It was a good fun game with no clear decision after 2 1/2hours but everyone had a good time and the younger players were asking lots of questions about the miniatures, terrain, and the rules and would be interested in playing again. They got the basics down with the tanks and I would do this scenario again to get players involved in the mechanics of moving and shooting.
As a bonus, Thunder took some awesome pictures and will post these next week so stand by for more.
Pete - Binpicker, Out!
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Vanvlak
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Sat Aug 26, 2006 11:47 am
- Location: Malta
Hi all,
this is my first post here, and I'm wondering whether I'm the first Maltese player with GHQ armour (a purchase of Stugs, T-28s, M13/40s, Autoblindo 41, and a pair of CR42s for aerial support. An ecletic mix, I guess.... all part of the grat plan.
Anyway, GHQ has now reached the Med, at least via mail order; and I'm hoping I'm wrong in stating I'm first. Anybody out there......?
cheers,
John
this is my first post here, and I'm wondering whether I'm the first Maltese player with GHQ armour (a purchase of Stugs, T-28s, M13/40s, Autoblindo 41, and a pair of CR42s for aerial support. An ecletic mix, I guess.... all part of the grat plan.
Anyway, GHQ has now reached the Med, at least via mail order; and I'm hoping I'm wrong in stating I'm first. Anybody out there......?
cheers,
John
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fullmetaljacket
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- Location: Warsaw, Indiana
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Thunder
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I had a great time with that bin picker guy in Phoenix. Pete does some amazing painting. I took tons of pictures (thats a lot of compact flash cards to weigh in at a ton) Thae game was fun and I can't wait until the next one. One opps though. I left the camera at a friend's place in Phoenix. I hope to have some fantastic photos up next weekend.
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Thunder
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GHQ
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This is a good topic that we thought should be added to. There are some things that GHQ as a company can do to grow the hobby, and some things that all of you, as historical wargaming miniatures enthusisats can do as well. Here are some of the things that we are planning that have already been hit on. A different thread had a discussion about having a GHQ "demo team". We have taken this idea very seriously, and are planning a program for experienced gamers/modelers to go out and put on demonstrations at stores, convenetions, schools, etc. We also have re-opened the idea of a GHQ convention. Another idea is to come up with a program that supports stores and convnentions better. The idea of a player/opponent locator is also being considered. Some of these ideas we have kicked around for a few years, others we got from seeing posts, but all of them are great ideas that were discussed on this forum! It takes a lot of discussion and planning to get any of these rolling, and that is why they didn't happen right away. However, we want you all to know that we do listen, we do follow the forum, and we do take your suggestions to heart.
Now from our point of view some of the biggest things that you can do to grow the hobby are: 1) Bring your games down to the local hobby/gaming/militaria store and play them. All of you know that this will attract attention, and people will ask questions. This is a hobby that many people don't even know exists, and the only way that some people will be exposed to it is if it is put right in front of them. The world is full of military enthusiasts. Many of them read military history books, some of them build military models, a lot of them play fantasy/sci-fi games and want something "real", others are glued to the Military Channel or watch every military documentary on the History Channel. These people will be interested in your games, and will ask questions. Many of them have been waiting to stumble on to a hobby like historical miniatures wargaming, but didn't know that it existed or where to find it. 2) Ask your local gaming/hobby/militaria stores to carry GHQ miniatures. We attend a lot of shows that are only for people in the industry, and not open to the public. Many of the store owners/managers don't have the time to stay up on the products that they carry, and rely on their customers to request things (this is true, really). Tell them that you are interested, and place an order with them. Give them our phone number, address, or e-mail, they will find us. (on a side note, we don't have a minimum order for stores, and despite what you may have heard we have NEVER had a minimum order for stores). 3) Use this forum, be active on it. We hear from people all of the time who say that they have been "lurkers" on our forum for months. When you go to the "Forum Index" you can always see that there are several unregistered users looking at the forum. We don't want to discourage these people from looking, we want to encourage them to ask a question, to post an interesting fact, to add a different viewpoint to a discussion, to GET INVOLVED. As you can tell from the beginning of this post, we really value the suggestions and ideas that are posted here. If you read a topic and have a lightbulb come up in your head, don't be afraid to post. Keep the forum fresh, give everyone a reason to keep checking in to see all of the new posts. 4) Look at other forums and groups, and get involved in those. Yahoo has a few different 1/285th scale groups, check those out. Post some of your great ideas about micro scale gaming on www.theminiaturespage.com- tell them why gaming with Micro Armour is the way to go. We can tell people and stores that Micro Armour offers huge advantages in space, price, selection, flexibility, etc., but it doesn't carry as much wieght as if a bunch of you do it.
Those are just a few of the ideas that GHQ and all of you can do to grow the hobby. Obviously there are many more- do you have any? All companies are only as strong as their customers, and we feel that we have got a really strong, enthusiastic group of customers. Spread the word, the more people that we can get involved, the more of the esoteric models that we will be able to come out with
. As always, thanks for looking.
GHQ
Now from our point of view some of the biggest things that you can do to grow the hobby are: 1) Bring your games down to the local hobby/gaming/militaria store and play them. All of you know that this will attract attention, and people will ask questions. This is a hobby that many people don't even know exists, and the only way that some people will be exposed to it is if it is put right in front of them. The world is full of military enthusiasts. Many of them read military history books, some of them build military models, a lot of them play fantasy/sci-fi games and want something "real", others are glued to the Military Channel or watch every military documentary on the History Channel. These people will be interested in your games, and will ask questions. Many of them have been waiting to stumble on to a hobby like historical miniatures wargaming, but didn't know that it existed or where to find it. 2) Ask your local gaming/hobby/militaria stores to carry GHQ miniatures. We attend a lot of shows that are only for people in the industry, and not open to the public. Many of the store owners/managers don't have the time to stay up on the products that they carry, and rely on their customers to request things (this is true, really). Tell them that you are interested, and place an order with them. Give them our phone number, address, or e-mail, they will find us. (on a side note, we don't have a minimum order for stores, and despite what you may have heard we have NEVER had a minimum order for stores). 3) Use this forum, be active on it. We hear from people all of the time who say that they have been "lurkers" on our forum for months. When you go to the "Forum Index" you can always see that there are several unregistered users looking at the forum. We don't want to discourage these people from looking, we want to encourage them to ask a question, to post an interesting fact, to add a different viewpoint to a discussion, to GET INVOLVED. As you can tell from the beginning of this post, we really value the suggestions and ideas that are posted here. If you read a topic and have a lightbulb come up in your head, don't be afraid to post. Keep the forum fresh, give everyone a reason to keep checking in to see all of the new posts. 4) Look at other forums and groups, and get involved in those. Yahoo has a few different 1/285th scale groups, check those out. Post some of your great ideas about micro scale gaming on www.theminiaturespage.com- tell them why gaming with Micro Armour is the way to go. We can tell people and stores that Micro Armour offers huge advantages in space, price, selection, flexibility, etc., but it doesn't carry as much wieght as if a bunch of you do it.
Those are just a few of the ideas that GHQ and all of you can do to grow the hobby. Obviously there are many more- do you have any? All companies are only as strong as their customers, and we feel that we have got a really strong, enthusiastic group of customers. Spread the word, the more people that we can get involved, the more of the esoteric models that we will be able to come out with
. As always, thanks for looking.GHQ
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chrisswim
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- Location: Jacksonville, FL
Ideas to Grow the Hobby.
I know in the past, GHQ has sponsored numerous games and conventions when I've run micro armor games, and I would pass out a package of tanks/apc to a play, usually a new player. Certainly, if they have a good time, have a good game (perhaps win or do real well) and then win a package of tanks, they will need to build a force around that. Than you have a gamer.
Good ideas, thank you.
I know in the past, GHQ has sponsored numerous games and conventions when I've run micro armor games, and I would pass out a package of tanks/apc to a play, usually a new player. Certainly, if they have a good time, have a good game (perhaps win or do real well) and then win a package of tanks, they will need to build a force around that. Than you have a gamer.
Good ideas, thank you.
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Mickel
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- Location: Adelaide, Australia
However the new player is not likely to rip your arms off if he loses.Let the Wookie Win
It is true though... there is nothing more off putting than having your head handed to you on a plate (repeatedly) by someone that knows all of the rules and ignores the ones that don't suit them. Unfortunately that was how I was introduced to it. I got over it with historicals, but didn't with 40k (not that this is a great loss).-
tstockton
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- Location: Indiana
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skypig53
- Posts: 61
- Joined: Sun Oct 01, 2006 11:38 pm
- Location: Soon to be Quantico, VA
In response to GHQ's post. My local hobby shop doesn't carry GHQ, (altough he has thousands of dollars of warhammer). According to him GHQ is web order only, and you guys don't distribute to stores. If this is false I will certainly correct him. As for growing the hobby, I stumbled on it completely by accident on the good old web. I was building a terrain board for use as a training tool at my squadron and needed miniature aircraft. I googled CH-53E images and GHQ's product was one of the results. I ordered a couple strictly for training purposes about 6 mos ago. Now I'm well on my way to having a full Marine Expeditionary Unit and 3 buddies who are getting a box of combat commands each. I haven't played a single game but I spend countless hours in the garage painting in preparation. Suprisingly there aren't many historical gamers in the Marines in Jacksonville, NC. They all seem to be into warhammer which is a little too "star trek convention" for my tastes, no offense to any hardcore nerds out there. I guess the Marine thing to do would be go to the the hobby shop on a Saturday when they're all there playing, kick their @$$es, break their sci-fi garbage and steal their terrain boards to start a game of our own. Growing the hobby...through fire and manuever.
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fullmetaljacket
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- Location: Warsaw, Indiana
Hey skypig welcome to the addiction:) As for not selling in stores that is a false and a lie. I was just in Madison Wisconsin this past weekend at the Last Square hobby store and they have well over 1,000 pieces of micro aromr GHQ for sale from world war two to modern to micronauts. Now unless The last Square has a special deal with GHQ and they are the only store in North america to sell it i think your local store is telling you a little white lie.
As for playing to bad you dont live in the upper midwest around the Chicago land area there is roughly 15 or so of us that gather once or twice a month in Chicago IL, Madison WI, or South Bend IN to do nothing but play micro armor modern or world war two era either one.
But hobby stores like The last square are few and far between they have it all from micro to sci fi to any book or reference material you want. They even have model rail roading stuff. Madison and the lower Wisconsin area you have it made when it comes to the hobby heaven.
FMJ
As for playing to bad you dont live in the upper midwest around the Chicago land area there is roughly 15 or so of us that gather once or twice a month in Chicago IL, Madison WI, or South Bend IN to do nothing but play micro armor modern or world war two era either one.
But hobby stores like The last square are few and far between they have it all from micro to sci fi to any book or reference material you want. They even have model rail roading stuff. Madison and the lower Wisconsin area you have it made when it comes to the hobby heaven.
FMJ