I haven't had the time or inclination to post for awhile, but I have been gaming. Haven't done any miniature painting lately, though I have some 15mm German armor on the way.
I'm going to paste below an email I sent to some friends of mine on the topic of board games vs miniatures games.
"Obviously miniatures and board games have their respective pros and cons. I think what makes me have the opinion that board games are better than miniature games is that when I play a board game I am more likely to have fun than when playing a miniatures game. Of course now you all are saying no shit Sherlock! So let me explain."
"Both board games and miniature games have an equal potential for enjoyment. It's just easier for a board game to reach that potential. There's a lot more that can go wrong with playing a miniatures game. And a lot of what can go wrong is tied up in the fact that who you are playing with can make or break a game. I really like Command Decision, but I doubt I will play it at a convention anymore. I played in a CD game at the last Fall In, and the game as far as the scenario and miniatures went was fantastic. But I got stuck playing with someone who probably should be committed to an institution and it's one of the worst times I've ever had playing at a con. At the same Fall In I played in a Russian Civil War game that had beautiful miniatures and used a pretty cool set of rules that I had never heard of. Should have been a great game but I was sitting between two jackasses. The guy on the right kept doing dumb shit (which I didn't really mind) and the asshole on my left kept getting mad about it (which I did mind)."
"So great miniatures games can be ruined by the numbskulls you have to play with. It seems the best times I've had playing games is when we all play together. Case in point the Carnage and Glory game at the same Fall In when me and Kevin were on one side and John and Scott were on the other."
"Obviously a game where there are flaws in the rules/scenario/playtesting/figures/general preparation isn't going to be that good."
"Board games don't suffer from these problems since you generally don't play on the same side as any of the other players. And a good game has been playtested and refined before you play it."
"And they come in such nice pretty boxes."
