Time Spent on Wargaming

This week I have spent a lot of time pondering wargaming uneven battles again.  

I raised the subject on TMP hoping that someone might have experience of a set of rules which worked, and which I could then adopt to my own house rules.   I got quite a few replies but all telling me that it happened all the time, and it should be easy to include in a wargame.   But none suggesting how it might be done, or at least not in a way I could use in my own games.

Then someone asked how long I spent each week wargaming, and I replied about 8 hours.   He seemed unable to accept that it was possible to spend so long and still live a normal life.   He was even more unconvinced when I told him I also spend about 12 hours on the PBEM campaign.   This had not seemed to me to be an excessive amount of time.

We wargame most days for an hour or so.   Usually we aim at two moves each time, or three if it is a small game.   Then I spend about two hours each day working on the campaign.   Total more or less 20 hours a week.

This doubting response made me wonder whether I am excessive in the time I spend on wargaming related work.    So I asked the question on TMP “how long do you spend on your hobby”.   I cross posted it to all of the different period forums.  I was a little disappointed only about 50 replied.  I was quite surprised that hardly any of them reached, let along exceeded, my 20 hours a week.   Most seemed to manage about 10 hours a week, some much less.

It was even more striking that most of those who contribute most to the long winded posts along the lines of “Was Napoleon more kind to children than Wellington”.  These run up tens, or even hundreds, of comments.   Yet few of these posters wanted to share with the wider world how much time they actually spend on wargaming and related subjects.

It made me realise what a time wasting pasting reading forums can be.   Like everyone else I am fascinated by the explosive “flame wars”.   I would not dare to offer an opinion for fear of them turning their hate on me!   But it is absorbing to read.  Much like the crowds who gather at a traffic accident.   Not to help, just to watch.

But back to my 20 hours a week.   It would seem that I am very much in a minority in spending so much time on my hobby.   Or it may be that those who spend as long, or even longer, are too busy painting and wargaming to follow TMP.