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A Song of Ice & Fire TMG made a nice splash when I first received it shortly before Gen Con but then it only came out that one time<\/a>.\u00a0 It was unfortunate as we liked the game but then Gen Con hit and things got busy. I was still playing the game at Gen Con<\/a> though, even through the debacle that was their first tournament attempts.\u00a0 Even though that tournament soured me on pushing for more competitive play at GC, we still had fun running a full game of the Night’s Watch and Free Folk<\/a> advanced demos.<\/p>\n All-in-all, the game was fun and even though Gen Con was a mixed experience, I still came out of it excited and ready for more.\u00a0 Getting back home, I was reminded that I was still missing half of my Kickstarter pledge and, initially, I thought it would be ok since we still had enough to field armies and play.\u00a0 But games never materialized and my set was mothballed for awhile.\u00a0 I repeatedly bugged CMON on ship dates for the remaining items but every month was the same story about having to wait until after the late pledges were filled.\u00a0 The mind understood but the soul did not.<\/p>\n It seemed petty to ditch the whole game just because of a mix up, especially when we could still fully play it but we just lost all drive to move forward until I got that shipment notice.\u00a0 Then it dawned on me truly why we weren’t playing the game: it takes two to tabletop tango.\u00a0\u00a0 Even though half my shipment was not provided, we still had a core set and several expansions, not to mention the Hand of the King extras.\u00a0 Correction: I<\/strong> <\/em>had the core set and several expansions.\u00a0 Or technically my friend could have had them but he said I should keep the first set.\u00a0 See, to save on shipping, my friend and I went in on one order and doubled everything.\u00a0 So while I technically had something we could both play with, my friend didn’t actually have anything of his own until just yesterday when the rest of our stuff arrived.<\/p>\n Having dived into many different tabletop minis games, my friend and I started to realize something- one person can’t source a miniatures game. It just doesn’t work for us.\u00a0 Unlike board games, to get a minis game on the table takes a lot of individual effort.\u00a0 There is the assembling and painting.\u00a0 Then there is learning the rules followed by further understanding your own faction’s rules.\u00a0 Then finally, there is list building.\u00a0 All of these elements can be governed by one person (likely the person owning all the minis) but that only gets you the first taste of the game.\u00a0 It’s like demoing it to your friend.\u00a0 Demos are fine and fun but until your friends also put in the effort to learn the idiosyncrasies of their faction and build their own lists, the game will only be a shadow of its full potential.<\/p>\n It takes two to tabletop tango.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n We started to realize this when we get into a new minis game and, with some exceptions, our group typically doesn’t get into a new minis game unless everyone is on board.\u00a0 Without the group, there will be no shared impetus to get the game on the table.\u00a0 No fellow encouragement when assembling or painting your army. No want to develop new and unique armies.\u00a0 I can (and have) built lists for the non-owning player but it typically fails because the developing the build also develops your ability to play that list.\u00a0 Handing that list over to someone else rarely leads to the new player feeling successful in the game (regardless of their win or loss).\u00a0 All too often, the player feels frustrated or confused as to what to do with specific units or combinations of forces.\u00a0 Again, usually not a problem if you are just demoing or running your first game but a big appeal to most gaming experiences is personal growth: developing strategies, understanding the subtle nuances of complex rules’ systems, and learning the flow of the game.<\/p>\n Due to board games’ typical simplicity (when compared to a tabletop miniatures game), one does not need to study the game rules and components.\u00a0 Simply playing the game multiple times will yield the growth that gamers need.\u00a0 Due to the tabletop miniatures game’s complexity and drive to constant asymmetry, the player needs to study the game and its components.\u00a0 This study makes up part of the “lifestyle” aspect of so many of these game systems and helps drive the appeal.\u00a0 If you know that you’ll only see this game (which will cost 10x or more than a normal board game) once a month or often less, it seems highly inefficient to get involved, especially when considering the time and effort it takes just to get the game table-ready.\u00a0 Luckily, these lifestyle games come equipped with a ton of downtime activities and it is those “solo” aspects of the game that will keep players interested even though they aren’t hitting the actual very often.<\/p>\n With the shipment complete and the full game soon to be in my friend’s hands, I’m excited to see the prospect of the game hitting the table again.\u00a0 Time to go make some lists and see if I want to start painting up this monster of plastic and parts. Maybe I’ll even dust off a pimping project idea I had shortly after Gen Con…<\/p>\n