No spoilers!
Losing favorite models in a wargame consistently troubles new players to the wargaming hobby. In my last Warhammer 40,000 tournament, I eliminated a squad of Ork Gretchin in the first turn. With over a decade of Warhammer games under my belt, I knew the Gretchin served their purpose by taking the Tyranid claws intended for their bigger brothers. My opponent, on the other hand, egregiously mourned the loss of his humorous little goblins. This sorrowful reaction told me right away that I should spend the rest of the game coaching and teaching rather trying to win. If I chose to press on for the win, then the hobby would have ended the day one person less than how it started. I decided to help my opponent through this difficult moment in the hobby because I remember myself in that situation in the not to distance past.
I vividly remember the joy of buying my first wargaming miniatures, Games Workshop Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game Moria Goblins at the Games Workshop on High Road in Edinburgh, Scotland in 2005. I loved those models and I held pride in getting the first few painted as I am sure that many players starting in this hobby do. Due to the lack of a player base back home in the States for Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game, I never suffered the traumatic sight of watching them leave the battlefield much sooner than I wished. The traumatic sight of watching my army explode came a few years latter during the beginning of 5th Edition Warhammer 40,000 and 6th Edition Warhammer Fantasy. In fact, I left the hobby for a good chunk of high school and college because I failed to enjoy doing something supposedly fun.
Today, I know several of the new players in our gaming community put quality time into their painting and losing their favorite miniatures early in a game disheartens them. My advice to these new players, just keep playing. You learn more from defeat and loss than you ever will from winning. When I learned to take my defeats on the chin, I became a better player. I picked up my rulebook and my army rules to look for any under utilized mechanics I missed up to this point. I went online, borrowed my friends rule books, or better yet simply conversed with my friends in order to learn what threats their armies poised against my favorite models.
Soon, my favorite miniatures started surviving because I deployed them behind line-of-sight blocking terrain or out of range of enemy artillery. I let my fellow player go first in order for them to spend of turn coming into range of me instead of the other way around. My movements behind cover or charging into combats to stop incoming fire in the next turn kept my miniatures on the table as well. All these elements I added to my game after a long string of loses made me a better player.
Sadly, like in the real military, the repetitiveness of losing the same models all the time every game will stop the hurting too. I am not equating the loss of a miniature to the loss of life. After all, our miniatures go right back on the table for the next game when in a real conflict a young person comes home in a coffin. Rather, wargamers need to cultivate the mental and emotional shield military leaders possess when leading their soldiers into certain death. Luckily, wargamers know we will never struggle with the remorse and regret that real war brings to its leaders. This lack of real world responsibility doesn't detract from the fact that gamers still need to steel themselves for the inevitable loss of their miniatures. We play at war and in war things are lost; win or lose no exceptions. After a few hundred games, losing those Gretchin turn 1 won't hurt anymore. Instead, you will think, "Good work lads, you just soaked up an entire turn of shooting for the boyz!"
My suggestion to new players dealing with the loss of their favorite miniatures remains to keep playing. Learn your rules and the rules of the game in general because this puts you in a position to play your miniatures with the best possible outcome. Stemming from learning the rules comes the concept of setting realistic expectations for your models. Everyone owns a cool model that looks like it will conquer the world when in reality it dies every game. If you say to yourself before a game, "I know this model will die it always does but I am going to make it die in such a fashion it will be worthy of song and memory." Then you are well on the way to tackling the struggle of losing your favorite miniatures. If you just keep playing, just keep studying, and just keep learning eventually everything will fall into place for you. It may only take a few games. It may take years but don't ever forget that your main goal is to share a fun experience with a friend. The miniatures will be there in the morning ready to go again the next day and not going to a funeral for their lost comrades. Remember, this is only a game at the end of the day. You move your mice, you roll your dice, and nobody gets hurt.
Keep it Dank,
Bailey
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