Oops, there goes gravity, as Eminem once said. Not quite the point I have in mind here, but what goes up does still, inevitably, come down. As the UK reaches the end of its third (And hopefully, final) lockdown I have been reflecting on my relationship with different aspects of the hobby at large. While it is true and certainly well known amongst my friends that I have never been one to focus much on the gaming aspect of the wargaming hobby, instead preferring to focus on painting or collecting armies I realise that it is an aspect of the hobby that, through it’s absence I have come to miss more than I care to admit.

Why is that I wonder? Could it be the desire to get back into the vicious nature of competing, in a very limited sense, against another person? To see the wheels turning in your opponent across the table as they try to react to your skilful (debatable) general ship? Possibly. Or, it could be that face to face debate that you don’t get from the grim world of internet wargaming forums over a rule or army point, or some other fixed point of hobby debate. The ability to look at the person you are speaking to and properly articulate your point and listen and react to that of your ‘opponent’ during the debate is something that, again, has been lost both from wargaming arenas and in wider society as a whole. I find that for me personally, it is most definitely that human element that I have missed from wargaming that I have been missing since the lockdowns began, as I am sure it has been for many of us. Going forward, my main new resolution I have chosen to take forward from the hobby (And in life!) is to spend more time with the friends that this hobby has introduced me to. Many people have used their time during the national lockdowns to decrease the size of their hobby ‘pile of shame’, and while this can only be a good thing to take from a bad situation, I cannot wait to get re-acquainted with an aspect of the hobby that once did not hold such an important place to me.

So, my advice to everyone would be to look forward to those days of gaming with your friends and time you can spend with your loved ones, and celebrate the joys of our hobby with your fellow gamers and never take any part of the social aspects of the hobby for granted (Good and bad, yes, even the odd rules disagreement!) as you will quickly miss them again if they are gone again! I certainly know I won’t ever take them for granted again, and I look forward to spending time in the company of the wonderful people I have met in this hobby face-to-face, or across the gaming-table! (And I can’t wait to hopefully meet many more awesome people in the hobby too!)