Do you live in a Doll's House??

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barr7430
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Do you live in a Doll's House??

Post by barr7430 » Mon Apr 13, 2009 12:30 pm

Recently someone introduced me to a new wargaming term..

'Doll's House Wargames'... :shock:

My understanding is that a DHW is something that looks so good, that is so perfect that it is unplayable :cry:
The figures and terrain are either so nice or so detailed(terrain) that you can't have a real game.

In other words it is a pejorative term for wargames that look nice...hmmm

now where did I leave..
Sackcloth
Ashes
Unpainted plastic Airfix figures
carpet tiles
fuzzy felt
Humbrol gloss enamels.... :roll:

Anyone else heard about or bought a Doll's House recently?? :?
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Post by Duke of Plaza-Toro » Mon Apr 13, 2009 1:49 pm

Sounds like someone is suffering from 'wargames envy' Barry.

DHW is probably a term dreamt up by one of the same crew who used to brand Duncan Macfarlane's portrayal of the hobby in Wargames Illustrated during the 1990's as "too elitist"

Carpet tiles? Fuzzy felt? And what's wrong with chalking the roads and rivers straight onto the ping-pong table may I ask?
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He found it less exciting.

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Post by Atheling » Mon Apr 13, 2009 4:22 pm

Add to that the fact that they're likely candidate for a closet Wargames Dolls House and I think the picture becomes clear :D .

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Post by sharnydubs » Tue Apr 14, 2009 9:49 am

I guess there is a serious point here that there is a danger that one's figures, terrain , scenery etc becomes merely visual and not practical. The same could be said for rules, ie.e extremely historically accurate but totally unplayable. Getting the balance between just rolling a D6 and consulting multiple charts and rules is the challenge.

Having said all that I think we are a long way from a "Dolls House" or more accurately "Railway Layout" type game. When we start playing on tables with 4 foot high hills and start firing tanks from one room across to another I know we will have taken things too far.
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Post by Yermolov » Wed Apr 15, 2009 8:44 pm

"Dolls House Wargames"... nice...

Around here it's not uncommon to see people playing games (40K, FOW, WHFB among others) with unpainted figures on plain tables. Many of the historical figures that are painted and of recent vintage are usually products of overseas painting services.

Most of the games played around here are in 15mm scale. There's something about that scale that both induces gamers into fits of megalomania (due to space and relative cheapness) along with the ability to be satisfied with a crude paintjob, since they're tiny and most details won't be see at 3-4 feet distance. Other than a few GW players, almost no one takes the time to put any serious effort into painting. For most people painting is an unpleasant chore that gets in the way of pushing masses of crap around the tabletop.

Different strokes for different folks. I would rather take my time and do a nice job painting up a few quality figures and play with them on quality terrain. I know a guy who has invested heavily in Old Glory 15mm Napoleonics. He has several thousand of them and is slowly working his way through the pile painting up the entire Grande Armee of 1806 in 1:60 scale. When I broached the idea of 28s he stated that it was too expensive... then I pointed out that he'll never play with all of those figures he's bought at the same time, and he could have sank all that money into several hundred quality 28mm figures and still saved some cash most likely.
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Post by twargod » Thu Apr 16, 2009 12:16 pm

No danger of that around here (almost wish there was though)
I can handle unpainted figures especially if someone is working on them, but I had someone show up to play Warmachine and threw empty base on the table then proceded to tell me what each empty base represented :roll:
Also had a guy take a 1 foot section of castle wall place it in the middle of the table and claim that was his terrain placement choice (shakes head) just dont understand.....
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Post by Black Bob Craufurd » Thu Apr 16, 2009 12:17 pm

I like my terrain to look nice but your right it needs to be pratical as well, its a fine balance

and example of what im working on is here : http://1809project.blogspot.com/

as to 15mm v 28mm ive played in naps anyway 15mm and whats more put effort into the paint job but i can see and im tempted by 28's though will do it for sharpe's practice rules and not in any large numbers.

to me 15mm strikes the right balance of the grand specticle while still allowing for some artistic work to come through. Of course living 15 seconds from where AB' are made in large numbers helps allot as well:P
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