Monday Night Mordheim: Taking It to The Masses

At long last, I'm going to talk about the project that I've been working on since last Tuesday. I have gotten a wonderful opportunity, one that I've missed in the past, but now I am going to take advantage of.

For those of you who are unaware, my sons and I are very active with the local Boy Scout troop. Now, every few months, the troop has a 'free night' where everyone kinda hangs out and plays games and stuff. It's a good way for some of the guys who need rank conferences and such to do so without interrupting the regular meetings. Generally, I'll sit there and play some game that I have on hand, chess or yahtzee generally since I always have dice and a board.

This time though, when the 'free meeting' was announced, something clicked in my head. It was actually a piece that was written over on Frontline Gamer. Now, granted his post was more about introducing people who were already playing wargames to non-GW games. What I took away from it was to introduce people to table top wargaming in general. Get them started, and introduce them to Maulifaux and FoW later.

Why am I doing this? Well, to be honest, I like wargames. My kids enjoy wargames, and there are a number of other kids there that will probably enjoy wargames as well. I also feel that many wargames don't have a great introduction for people. They suffer a bit from the same problems that the Boy Scouts suffer from. There's a stigma against it, and we have to work uphill against it to get more people involved in something that they would actually enjoy and benefit from greatly. Unlike most things (Scouts included), I can't go set up a table in a local school inviting people come play. Well, I COULD but I would get some looks. So I have to pick and choose how and who I introduce wargames and RPGs to. I know a couple of the kids at Scouts have played Munchkin, Heroscape, and Lego Heroica (all gateways if you ask me). So I figure that Mordheim is right up thier alley, which is beneficial to getting their attention.

Refering back to the Frontline Gamer article, there were some great points that I took away from it for bringing Mordheim to the Scouts.

*I have six warbands. They are from various different types and styles, so there's a bit of something for everyone there. Horde warbands, shooty warbands, melee specialists, there's something there for everyone.
*I know the rules backwards, forwards, and inside out. My kids have a pretty firm grasp of the rules themselves, so if they each get a new opponent, that's a net gain of two new people. I'm really hoping for 4 new people, and I would walk around as referee teaching the game, rather then just playing. Whereas Maulifaux, while neat, I don't know anywhere near as well.
*Mordheim can be a short game that can be done in the hour and a half that we have during the Scout meeting. Even a small game of 40K or WHFB will take twice as long as that.
*Terrain, while I don't have the hugest or best looking terrain collection, I do have enough to put some boards down without looking too sparse.
*The Models, I have models at all stages. Some just glued together plastic/metal, some primed, some color blocked, some converted, and some painted to the best of my ability. Which is great to show the various steps of the hobby aspect of it.

Needless to say, I've been chugging along getting this all ready. I haven't been this excited about a single game in awhile. Which I guess is part of the point, enthusiasm is awesome. I can't imagine being one of the red shirts in a GW and trying to get excited about the same game every day. Now, in a FLGS there's a bunch of different games to get your motor running. Enthusiasm is infectious.

Scout Meetings are on Tuesday, so next week, I'll have some results or some humorous stories, or both. I doubt I'll have pics, since some people get kinda uptight about post pics of thier kids to random places (not that I can blame them). I might get some of the set ups and such, but probably not of the kids.