Trying Something New

My friend Eric and I have often bewailed the fact that we find it so difficult to get together with friends for a wargame. Schedules are full, life is busy, and coordinating a group of wargamers is like herding cats (which I've done, but it takes effort!) One starts out with a long list of prospective participants, tries to find dates that will work well for the largest number, then all those unanticipated things hit (partners and family making other plans, cars breaking down, jobs calling in everyone on the weekend).

So we decided to try an experiment. First off, we're going to coordinate more with other existing local groups. It turns out that every different social media platform (Yahoo, Facebook, Googlegroups, Meetup, Boardgamegeek) has its own set of cadres, and none of them talk much with each other (or even know about each other).

Second, we're going to try meeting up once a month on a week*night* (in addition to any sort of weekend games we play). While weekend days provide more time for play, they are also frequently in great demand by family and other hobbies. Weeknights offer less time, so the scope of games has to be smaller, but that smaller timeframe also means that they're less likely to fill up with other committments.

And, third, we're going to stop aiming for the stars. Usually when we try to organize events, we're hoping for half a dozen players or more and wind up disappointed when we're only able to collect two or three (including us!) For these events, we're going to plan on just the two of us and be pleasantly surprised if more folks show up. We've both got large enough game libraries that we could play for years and never exhaust our two-player titles, but if third, fourth, and fifth players show up, we'll still have plenty of options, either for one large game or several smaller ones.

So the first date we're aiming for is Thursday, December 17th. We're looking to play GMT Games' Rebel Raiders in the High Seas, a highly rated strategic/operational game about the maritime and riverine warfare during the American Civil War. If we get more players, we may simply add another game, or we may change over to something multiplayer.

We haven't picked a location yet, but if you post a comment here to indicate you're interested, I'll be sure to get back to you with information.

I'll post an AAR afterwards, and if we continue our experiment, I'll post here so that folks can contact us if they're interested in joining in.