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The Great Wargaming Survey is here. This is one of the most important wargaming events of the year for the industry and it behooves us all to participate and spread the word as much as we can. This survey, which is put on every year by Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy Magazine, is the closest thing that the public gets to market research and demographic data about the state of the wargaming community.

The survey is hamstrung a little bit, in my opinion, by the fact that it doesn’t get the kind of broad reach that it needs to get an accurate picture. It does a tremendous job of hitting the indie and historical markets, but there’s less buy-in from the big companies: you don’t see Games Workshop represented as the behemoth that it is as much as I think it should be. (This isn’t me saying “we need to see more Games Workshop”. This is me saying “the lack of more of Games Workshop indicates that the survey isn’t getting the broad reach it requires”.)

So, first and foremost, TAKE THE SURVEY. CLICK HERE. BEFORE YOU READ THIS ARTICLE, TAKE THE SURVEY.

You can find results from previous years’ surveys here. And it’s fascinating stuff. But looking at some of these graphs you can see what I mean about the results being skewed: it shows WWII gaming is a 30% more popular than Warhammer 40k, which is simply not the case by any of the online data that I have drawn.

But I thought it would be worthwhile for me to walk through the 2021 survey and discuss my answers and go into some depth about why I responded the way I did.

Again: TAKE THE SURVEY FIRST. I don’t want my answers skewing your answers.

So let’s dive in. I’m not going to answer every question in detail, but I am going to give broad opinions.

The first section is demographic. I am a man, I am in my early 40s, I live in the United States.

I have been a wargamer for 20-30 years. It might technically be a little bit longer than 30 years, because I can’t remember the age at which I bought my first army men and started playing Vietnam rules from an old copy of Wargames Illustrated. It might have been 11 years old or it might have been 13. Either way, it’s about 30 years.

I am very likely to continue wargaming in the future.

How much do I plan to spend on the hobby in 2021, including miniatures, supplies, terrain, and other related materials? The two most enticing answers are “between $501 and $1000” and “between $1001 and $2800”. I’d like to say that I have my hobby spending under a little bit of control, but my base budget for wargaming is $130 a month, which equates to $1560. And that’s base budget. True budget it probably an additional $500-750 on top of that.

Is the amount I plan to spend more or less than last year? I would guess that it’s going to be less than last year, because last year I got HEAVILY into both Bolt Action and Team Yankee (aside from standard GW stuff) and I bought a crapload of tanks for both systems. I would not be surprised at all to learn that last year I broke $2800 easily. (Which is why I’m on a tight budget this year.)

Where do I generally buy my wargaming supplies? I have a wonderful FLGS who is able to get me every limited edition Games Workshop release I ever want with no hassle whatsoever, so they’re my number one. My number two is absolutely Amazon. I always seem to have something coming in the mail from Amazon. And my number three would be eBay. I don’t use them often, but when I do want something special (usually some individual models from a larger set) they’re a good go-to.

Where do I rarely buy wargaming supplies? I marked down every answer that had to do with conventions. I don’t go to conventions even when there aren’t pandemics, and I certainly don’t load my backpack up with precious models that could be broken, lost, or stolen. So, “from a retailer at a convention”, “at a ‘Bring and Buy’ at a convention”, and “from the manufacturer at conventions.” I don’t hate conventions, but there really are no wargaming conventions anywhere near where I live (the Mountain West), and I don’t see myself braving crowds at Adepticon, Gencon, or the NovaOpen anytime soon.

Do I consider myself mostly historical or more sci-fi and fantasy? I think that I’m smack dab in the middle. Model for model, I own more historical than anything else, but I think I spend more money on SF&F (probably because GW is so much more expensive.)

Which arena do you prefer your games to be in (land, sea, air, space)? I chose land. Land on other planets still counts as land. I don’t think that I have any air games (I sold my Aeronautics Imperialis stuff), and I have two games on the sea that I have never finished painting (Black Seas and Victory in the Pacific). What periods do I not enjoy? That’s harder, because I like some of everything. But if I had to pick I’d go with Pulp, Pike and Shotte (I love the models but I know ZERO of the history), and Ultra Modern Warfare. Which types of games do you prefer? That’s easy: Campaign-driven games, Scenario-driven games, and Big battles with hundreds of miniatures.

How often do I currently game? This is hard with COVID. Playing with my kids? Probably once a month. Playing at a gaming club? Probably not before lockdown.

What do you like best about this hobby? Collecting and building terrain, painting (and collecting) the miniatures, and doing background research. What do I like least? Building the optimal army list (I could care less about meta and tournament play), collecting rulesets (I play what I have and I’ll occasionally grab a Codex or a magazine if I have a game or article coming up), and playing the game (I know, I know. I love so many things about this hobby, but rolling dice and moving models isn’t my chief love.)

What size miniatures do I prefer? 25-28mm, 28-32mm Heroic, and 15mm.

What type of material do I prefer? Hard plastic, 3d Printed, and Resin. (They didn’t ask, but I loathe metal and soft plastic.)

How many figures do I have in my collection? This answer may surprise you, because I buy so many miniatures, but I also Marie-Kondo the crap out of my hobby shelves and I sell anything on eBay that isn’t being used regularly. I’d estimate that I have between 1000 and 2500 miniatures. (That may seem large, but the largest choice in the survey is “more than 25,000”.

Do I generally paint one faction for a new game, or two or more? Always two or more. I like to be able to have enough armies that, if I ever play with someone, I can supply all the armies they need. Being a game advocate by making the barrier to entry easy.

What inspires me most? Manufacturers’ advertisements always get me–I’m a sucker for a good ad. Also, articles about another wargamer’s models or games, and articles about historic events.

Through which medium do I get my inspiration? This is hard because I get it everywhere, but if we have to pick three, the first would be online video (YouTube speaks to me), social media (I love scrolling wargame Twitter and wargame Instagram), and blogs.

The size of the group I’ve been gaming with this year? Solo, or maybe one of my kids. I’ve been taking COVID very seriously.

What are my feelings about attending large gaming events? I’m not comfortable attending any this year–maybe in 2022. But the way things are going, maybe longer than that.

What are my feelings about attending small groups for games? I’m not sure when I’ll be ready to be comfortable meeting for games again.

Did I play any virtual games this year? If you mean Tabletop Simulator, no. If you mean Warhammer II Total War, yes.

And then there are some short-answer questions about what you like most and what you like least.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. If you have different opinions, feel free to drop them in the comments. And, of course, TAKE THE SURVEY. We need good data.