A few brief thoughts on the resent war in Ukraine in February 2022, it feels quite close, not just geographical, but also on a private level. I once made a decision not to share any political or private thought in my hobby projects. Since the hobby should be an escape from every day’s problems, especially such heavy weighting ones.
Though reality struck, much faster than expected. After learning a few days ago, that direct business partner works, lives and endures in Kiev, it all of the sudden feels much closer – of some sorts.
gunsandwaffles
First a short derivation of this projects name, it was picked for it’s satiric and dialectic meaning, which may not appear at first glance. With “guns” and “waffles” a sort of absurdity should be created. The guns are our miniatures, our space marines, spaceships, dragons, monsters and what other creative model is out there. The waffles, well I guess almost everybody likes waffles. It’s not about war nor explicit glorification of violence.
War and Wargaming
In the last couple of days is struggled with myself in terms of my hobby. Although I start to believe it’s schizophrenic. After thinking about it, I thought to myself, at any time there is some sort of conflict on our world. Maybe it is “new” for us middle-Europeans, after the war in Kosovo. That such a large country like Russia invades another large country like Ukraine, that approached “Europe”. In my perception there is a shared cultural and mindset between those two countries and “Europe”. Germans may be affected different after 70 years past second world war. Hence, I think it feels so “close”.
Although I’d say its schizophrenic in a sense of morale. During the Syrian civil war, we felt not that affected in our hobby. There are many countries that are at war or similar conditions. We should be helpful all the time and try to change these conditions to the better. I don’t want to relativise the recent events, but I don’t want to stop my hobby. I am not saying, not to reflect and not to be mindful.
Wargaming – Sci-Fi vs. Historic/Modern
Is there any difference between sci-fi or fantasy systems or a historic / modern wargame?
I don’t think so. When starting flames of war, I decided on purpose playing the soviet army instead of the “Nazis” with Wehrmacht and SS, exactly for this reason. In the last couple of days, I considered selling my soviet army. I completely loathe this conflict and every other conflict. What difference does it make in the current conflict?
I cannot answer this question, but todays Russia has nothing to do with the Soviet Union and is not related to our tabletop hobby.
That is why I play tabletops, to have a good time with like-minded. There is very little realism in tabletop games. Warhammer 40K is so over exaggerated, despite real world inspiration, it’s purely satiric. Fantasy games are also over exaggerated or do we need a believable economy to provide shoes to our tiny troopers?
We take our little monsters and let them eat other monsters by rolling a dice or similar. We do not use a Kalashnikov and raid our neighbour, if we are unhappy with the result of a game. Maybe I put certain miniatures aside in the current situation, and put other miniature into focus.
make waffles not war
Coming to an end, a few words on gunsandwaffles.net (in)official slogan.
Why make waffles not war and not make love not war?
The answer for me is quite easy, I do not have to “love” everybody, but still, I can sit down with most people and have a waffle together – figuratively speaking. That’s the core of our hobby, not a blood lust reality, but having fun together. While assembling, painting, gaming or telling stories. It does not depend on if it’s a friend, a stranger or a beginner showing the hobby.
Be respectful and polite with each other and try to reflect on different perspectives. We just want to game.
It’s not the last word on the subject, if we try to be open-minded more often and try to see things from different angles a lot is achieved. It helped me to write down my thoughts and listen to other opinions.
I hope and wish that this conflict is solved and brought to an end very soon, by finding a reasonable and peaceful solution.
