Punk Wargaming

 

The world of wargaming has always been a little bit punk. Bear with me as I give my argument.

“The punk ethos is primarily made up of beliefs such as non-conformity, anti-authoritarianism, anti-corporatism, a do-it-yourself ethic, anti-consumerist, anti-corporate greed, direct action, and not "selling out".”   - Wikipedia.

All right, maybe not all these things, but I would definitely say the non-conformity and do-it-yourself ethic have always been there. When addressing this topic is difficult to not address the great big Oliphaunt in the room, Games Workshop, so we may start with them. Early days of GW where what I would call punk. The adopting of sci-fi and fantasy themselves in a wargaming setting were definitely not the accepted norm in the hobby at the time. 

Up until that point wargaming was mostly re-enacting of real historical settings. The industry itself was still very small and a lot of hobbyists were casting their own soldiers in lead in sheds and kitchens across the country (something I think of as a little bit punk too.)

These actual punks appear in the first edition of 40k, Rogue Trader

Going forward through the eighties with the actual birth of punk, we have the release of GW’s sci fi game Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader. Is it a coincidence that another British home grown success, the comic 2000AD had a similarly named title. Another company that had a punky anti-establishment feel to it.

Another image from Rogue Trader, real punk vibes

Early GW games had their own limitations due to the range of products not covering everything required, so there has always historically been an encouragement of colouring outside the lines by the hobby including scratch building or “converting” as the slang was at the time. This was also partly due to the inclusion of randomness in some of the rule sets. I am guessing this is something that bled over from early roleplaying games like Dungeons and Dragons where players liked the dice to decide what their characters attributes were.

Random ability table from Rogue Trader

Still a popular game today, Mordheim encouraged scratch building your gangs as well as buying the provided kits.

The possessed gang could even gain mutations, definitely something that needed a bit of hobby converting!

As GW became a shareholder led business, they themselves have become the corporate, consumerist entity that punk is “anti” so it obviously leads to these attitudes being less encouraged. I’m not completely against this, when a company grows and has to start ensuring that it has a guaranteed business certain decisions have to be made. The company still has a place in the hobby, it definitely is the gateway drug into a large community that definitely would suffer without it.

The Freebooterz expansion rulebook had a whole army list of Ork/Genestealer hybrids that could only be played with conversions. There were no models!

So, what is Punk Wargaming now? Well, I think I have come up with a definition.

Punk Wargaming – Wargaming with the rule of cool. Not always using models for their intended purpose. Scratch building and converting models. Finding a way to play a game in your own budget. Playing to tell a story rather than win a game.

Not all of the above is required to be a Punk Wargamer. But having the attitude to accept these things in your opponent as well as yourself is probably enough to cover it. So, how do I join the gang I hear you ask? Well, luckily in this current world of the World Wide Web, PDF's, self publishing, 3D printing, it is easier than ever to be a Punk.

Firstly there are a lot of rule sets out there now for whatever your budget. There are free rules from the likes of the 28 community who I would definitely say are Punk Wargamers. There are various self published rules out there that expect you to find your own models.

Self published skirmish cyber-punk rules from Wargamer Punk Patrick Todoroff

If you are still a bit of a traditionalist but want to be a bit punk, well Opsrey do a whole range of miniature agnostic rules. Some which cover historical periods as well as sci-fi and fantasy. The best way to be a Wargaming Punk however when it comes to rules is to write your own. if you aren't confident enough yet maybe use an existing set of rules and write a set of house rules or a campaign. Be inspired. (As long as you don't start publishing and making money from this, being a Punk does not mean being a stealing douchebag, Respect copyright laws)

If you want inspiration for being a Hobby Punk, you are advised to go and watch all the videos from Trent at Miscast. I can heartily recommend his channel, it's great fun. If the written word is more your preference, then go read 28 magazine for inspiration from a whole host of hobbyists. Or if you don't think you can cope with making a mess with hot glue guns and resin, then maybe try some 3D sculpting, you may surprise yourself.

Or, if you just want to buy some different models for your games, then start looking around on the internet for alternatives. Maybe visit Ramshackle games or The Still Tower, two companies who I would say are Punk Wargamers. Or buy something from one of the hundreds of smaller companies out there. Why would you want to have exactly the same models as everyone else in your army at club night, you're a Wargaming Punk now, be individual. (Although I don't recommend putting a safety pin through your nose, Sepsis is still a thing.) Next time you are at a show and you see a model on display, when you say to your friend "That's cool, but I have no use for it in my games". Buy it anyway, you will find a good use and it will look cool on the table.