What is the driver of the wargames industry? Rules or new figure ranges?

[vodkafan]

Huge spread of interesting answers, showing how diverse we are. I am very entertained, thanks for all the replies!

[vodkafan]

Like some of the other posters, I mainly buy rules to read, as a form of entertainment. I'll rarely play them.

Perhaps I am just odd:)

MartinR, you open up a whole new can of worms there, I wonder how many of us do that? I remember the very first time I did that, bought a set of rules knowing that i wasn't going to play them at all. I definitely thought I was odd. I just wanted to see how that bit of history had been encapsulated, chopped up and simplified and completely reduced into a series of rules....I call it the "doll's house response". It's the same (I imagine) as when a little girl has a doll's house and everything in it is like a complete small world, under her control...

[Major_Gilbear]

I dunno, I occasionally buy rules "just to read", and occasionally buy models "just to paint".

Not very often though, and less so with rules.

With models, I tell myself that it will be a fun one-off little distraction (like I need more of those...  ).

With rules, I actually find them interesting from a mechanical sense. That is, I like to see how different ideas about manoeuvring, action, and combat are all conveyed through different rules. As I regard games as being like puzzles that need to be solved, seeing other's solutions is always quite enlightening.

[Conquistador]

As to reading rules, yes I too just sometimes read them.

What I am looking for are the mechanics rewarding "historical" methods?  Fantasy should, IMNSHO, reflect a sense of either the world portrayed OR the closest historical era implied by the genre.


Almost as important is the elegance of the rules.  Hit, Wound, Save or something as equally convoluted is definitely out.  Complicated bad, complex okay (maybe) and elegantly simple good.

I may read a set of rules but the goal is to find a satisfying set to play.

[Knightofspades]

Its miniatures for me.
Settings and rules are nice to have but its hard to get my friends to play anything new.