I entered the world of games at age 12 through miniature gaming, and later branched out into board and card games. After a few years I met a group of gifted and enthusiastic gamers a few years older than me, who started their own club, Murphy's Heroes, in 1989. I'm very proud of being a founding an contributing member of this club that has organised miniature battles with up to a hundred players and game shows with almost 400 visitors. I have enjoyed the trips to conventions and games in the Netherlands and abroad as well as a few unforgettable social events. Every month I struggle to visit the club at least once.
Over the last years I have been playing fewer miniature games. I can't find the time to actually paint the minis and I am not satisfied with most wargame rulesets available. They are long and offer detail in the wrong areas, as far as I'm concerned. Even the excellent Too Fat Lardies keep increasing the complexity of their rules, like Bag The Hun, and it doesn't help my enjoyment.
Through the contacts of our club with the British Forces Wargames Association in Germany, we learned of the phenomenon called megagames, and I enjoyed my first megagame in 1992 or 1993, a Star Trek space battle that resulted in a resounding victory for the Klingons. Early 1994 I made my trip to the UK to participate in my first game with Megagame Makers and been back every year at least once. This resulted in us putting on a few megagames in the Netherlands, for which we set up Megagames NL. Playing, organising and designing megagames is the most fun I have ever had gaming.
I play my board game in a regular game group every two weeks, and the highlights of our year are the three day trip to Essen and the Christmas Offensive, a days worth of gaming. Mostly I like to play strategic wargames or the wonderful branch of Ameritrash. I've been a supporter of Fortress Ameritrash since it's beginnings because it's the best site to find news on the games I like and the Friday Freakouts are legendary.
Between gaming I like to read upon (military) history although I try to avoid the ' Drum & Trumpet' histories. I believe armies are deeply rooted in societies, and that those societies set the parameters for what armies are and can do. Rather than slagging off commanders for stupid mistakes, I'm interested in finding out what circumstances led them to their decisions. You won't be surprised that 'On the Psychology of Military Incompetence' by Norman Dixon is a favourite book of mine.
A bit more about my taste of popular culture and wargaming in my answers to Ray & Fran's 20 questions for wargamers. Great fun to answer!
I've also answered Phil Broeders' questions whether I am a proper wargamer, the extension questions collected on Phil's blog and first answered by Lee Hadley and Trebian's alternative questions. They will tell you a lot of details about my wargaming in over 25 years. Thanks to Phil, Lee and Trebian for these questions which were also a lot of fun to reminisce.
