Hi I'm Matt, The Prodigal Wargamer
Why the Prodigal Wargamer?
To explain we must journey back through the mists of time to the late 1970's.
My wargaming passion was ignited like many of my age by the vast range of model soldiers and vehicles made by manufacturers such as Airfix and Matchbox and feed by comic book stories such as Warlord, Battle and Commando. My move from toy soldiers to wargaming was facilitated by a family friend, an avid wargamer, who had written a simple set of rules for his son that allowed us to fight out battles using dice and rulers rather than just pinging marbles at each others forces. A monthly visit to the local friendly wargames & modeling society introduced me to other players and periods and other types of games including D&D and other early Role Playing Games.
From my early teens through to my early twenties I was a passionate gamer. Playing everything I could get a game in, micro armour (WW2 & Modern), Napoleonics, American Civil War, Ancients, Fantasy and even a foray into Vietnam. Games played on land, sea and air. In my early twenties I had settled into Games Workshops Epic scale Warhammer 40K battles and had invested much in building a number of armies.
Then two things happened, adulthood and the responsibilities of becoming a parent and Games Workshop changed the basing in a new edition of epic and all my armies became redundant under the new rules. With money tight and time even tighter it was time to pack stuff away. And there it sat for about 20 years!
In the intervening years I maintained a passing interest in the hobby, I watched the rise of Games Workshop from a small UK niche company into the mainstream international corporation it has become today but that appeal was lost. I would browse and occasionally pickup a copy of one of the Wargaming magazines but cost and time continued to be a factor and slowly I fell further away from the hobby. I played some RTS strategy games on PC but these never quite scratched the itch the way that picking up and moving models on a table did so even this slowly faded away.
Then in my mothers last days, she asked me "Do you still fight your tabletop battles?" When I said no she simply said "That's a shame. You had such passion for it and should make time for it."
When the Pandemic came along in 2020 I found myself with time on my hands so with my late mother's words in mind I took the jump back into the hobby and brought an El Alamein Starter set for Warlords Bolt Action. Once I had miniatures assembled I was keen to begin playing so with lockdowns in place i returned to my childhood roots, set up a game and rolled dice and used rulers for both sides. That spark was all it took.
Since then I've hooked up with a local club and rediscovered that spectrum of players and games that excited me in my youth, Like the prodigal son I had returned to a family I had been separated from for too long.
In this electronic age I've been able to share my passion with other wargamers around the world in Facebook Groups, on Discord servers , on forums. I've consumed hours of videos of others games. This blog is just intend to be my own journal of the the games I play which now includes a range of Era's and scales. If your passing by and have enjoyed anything here then just say Hi in a comment possibly ;)
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