Alright, here's the deal. I won't fool you into believing what's what with how much you're gonna spend with a miniature hobby. If you're serious with the hobby, you will spend.
Don't take it too bad. Trust me, ANY hobby is expensive. It's just varies on certain aspects. With CCGs, the startup is affordable, but the long-term expense becomes taxing. New expansions within a year force you to keep your current collection up-to-date. Either you spend a lot and keep buying booster pack after booster pack, or you sell off your cards to earn back some amount of money (sometimes even more if you're good) that you spent on them.
I'm not trying to discourage people from playing CCGs. My roots at number-crunching can be traced to MTG. But I'm not a rich person. Buying boosters constantly is something that is just impossible for me. And I totally suck at selling stuff. That basically just made playing on Type 2 tourneys unattainable for me. And when I decided to stick to playing just Type 1, someone out there was hoarding all the Tundras, so I wasn't able to put together a real nice Type 1 deck without those nice cards. The same goes for Clix games. It's the same booster mentality. Sad to say, I'm just inept at an environment.
What I wanted was a game where having a super rare card did not give you a straight advantage. I wanted a game where buying and buying did not give you a straight advantage. I also wanted a game where you can be creative and still be competitive tactically. If you feel that way, then miniature wargaming is also for you.
The initial startup for this hobby is costly. Not only do you need to buy expensive miniatures, you still have to invest on hobby supplies as well. I will discuss about this in great depth in a future article.
Bottom line is, people shouldn't turn away from miniature wargaming because of it being expensive. EVERY other hobby out there is even more expensive than this, you just don't know it yet.
The Price To Pay
What Is Miniature Wargaming?
As taken from Wikipedia, Miniature wargaming is a form of wargaming designed to incorporate miniatures or figurines into play. The miniatures used represent troops or vehicles (such as tanks, chariots, aircraft, ships, etc.). The games may reflect historical situations and armies, or may be futuristic or fantasy-based.
Many miniatures games are played on a floor or tabletop, with terrain represented by miniature scenery (hills, forests, roads, etc.). In this respect, miniatures wargames theoretically offer players great freedom of play, as well as a visual spectacle. Movement of the miniatures is regulated using a tape-measure. However, like boardgames, miniature games can also be played using gridded terrain (demarcated into squares or hexagons) or even gameboards.
One of the main reasons people play miniature games, as opposed to computer or boardgames, is because many find the tactile element of soldiers and scenery on a tabletop to be aesthetically pleasing; additionally, some hobbyists enjoy the challenge of painting miniatures and constructing scenery. Miniature wargaming may be seen as combining many of the aesthetics of tabletop train modeling with an open strategy game predominantly, though not exclusively, with a military theme.
+++
In the words of a great mini-wargamer himself, Jay Estaris: it is the hobby where grown men get to play with little toy soldiers on top of a large table. They move the soldiers around and pretend that they’re generals in a small war.
+++
Whatever definition, for me, I'm in it because it's fun!
First Post
Hello. Welcome to Miniature Wargaming. Everything's still under construction but I hope to put up some more material real soon. Please check back for updates.