This is a short post I’ve wanted to get out of my head for a while. Essentially, with all of the options for entertainment and creativity…why do I continue to come back to minis games? I’ve always been attracted to gaming, and like everyone else have played plenty of RPGs and video games over the years, but why do I come back to the subset of games that require the most work? Heck, I’ve had periods where I’ve sold off my entire model collection, as well as paint supplies, in attempts to “move on”. To be honest, I don’t really love painting. What am I doing here?

Ultimately, for me, it comes down to the permanence of tabletop games. I said I’ve gotten rid of collections in the past, but my wife held on to a few models as keepsakes. Here’s one. In fact the oldest painted model in my current collection.

It’s a Citadel Chaos Sorcerer from the mid-80s. He’s not my first painted model – that would be a small handful of Ral Partha figs for Dungeons and Dragons – but he’s the oldest I still own. In the late 80’s, when Mr White was a young 14 or 15 year old, a buddy wanted to run a new game called Heroquest, It came with models, but we could get our own to be the classic Barbarian, Elf, Dwarf or Wizard. Choosing the wizard, and a fan of superhero comics at the time, I wanted a figure that the other members of the party could call “Bucket Head”. This was the nickname Marvel characters would call Nova. This Chaos Sorcerer hung on the sprue at the LGS. I had no idea what Warhammer was at the time, but he looked like a good fantasy match for Nova’s outfit. At least having a helmet.

Anyway, back to permanence. Over the years, RPGs and video games felt a little hollow to me. I’d play them, but when they were done…they were done. Nothing really left but the memories of the good times. If I could get Zen for a moment, even that 14-year-old kid who painted the model above is no more. He doesn’t exist. But when I hold the model above, it’s the same model covered in the same paint that those 14-year-old hands held. That 14-year-old is gone, but he’s also a part of me, and this model is a weird artifact bridging me to that child.

On top of that, if the need arises for me to need a bucket-headed chaos sorcerer… I’ve got one. That need hasn’t happened, but…case in point:

When I got rid of all my original Blood Bowl teams a few decades ago, a buddy asked to have the above converted Warhammer rat ogre. I think I made this fella in about 1993, or maybe it was 1994..whenever the 3rd edition of the game came out. My first BB team was made up of this rat ogre and the 2nd edition skaven models. Last fall, I ran a little gaming event that included a Gutter Bowl tournament where the participants used old school, metal BB models. My buddy reminded me that he had this fig and sent it to me. Again, I had a model in hand that a younger version of myself created. Anyway, I went out and chased down some 3rd edition metal skaven models to rebuild a team around this rat ogre.

Happily, this ol’ veteran rat won the Gutter Bowl Event. (The largest Gutter Bowl Event ever held in historic Lockhart, Texas, btw. lol)

Anyway, I think going back to “why minis games?”…for me, it’s never really been about specific rules, but more the creation of the models, and as I’ve gotten back into the hobby pretty heavily about 8-9 years ago, I’ve become drawn to the fact that once created… the creation persists. These old pieces of lead can still continue on new adventures. And, deep into mid-life now, there is a little bit of an attraction to something old still having use as well as new journeys ahead.

So, what are the oldest models still in your collection? Do they see the table?