Not sure if you caught this, but a while ago (many months in fact) Midwinter Minis YouTube channel posted a piece on the problem they perceived with historical gaming and why it was less popular than Warhammer.
The video is here just in case you want to watch it. Midwinter
It started quite a lot of responses - what some have described as a "circle jerk". Cynically I suspect the original video was actually just an attempt to generate clicks, I'm pretty sure that has succeeded , and I'm just encouraging that I suppose. Ah well.
What they say in case you can't be bothered to watch it (WARNING - the guy in particular is a bit annoying - he freely admits he didn't know where to put the decals on his Pz IV, so rather than, you know, looking at the box art or spending 30 seconds on Google he just stuck them where he thought they would look good) where was I ? Oh yes what they say, is, are historical wargames, particularly Bolt Action, less popular than Sci Fi or Fantasy because someone has to play the Nazis? Though he went to some length to say he wasn't suggesting it, the tone and delivery, at least to me, suggest that he thought historical players in some way were associating with the armies they collected and played. He actually said "weird", "yukki" or "strange". He does phrase this as a question, but the message was pretty clearly there, play as Nazis, you're a (closet or otherwise) Nazi.
They totally blow any credibility by advertising a game (World of Warships) where you err, you know, can play as the Kriegsmarine - you know, the Nazis, and he claims to only advertise games he actually plays so.... but to be honest the irony was initially lost on me as I was still fuming over the decal thing...........
But.
I do sometimes wonder. There's a guy who gets in the pub who is part of a re-enactment group that does Gross Deutschland . For the uninitiated this is a very prominent and famous German Army Division from WW2. Army not SS btw - more on that later. I couldn't get why anyone would want to re-enact a German unit so I asked, and his response was that they were interested in living history and someone had to be the Germans for it to work so..... and I get that. He seems a thoroughly nice chap and well informed, and in no way even slightly Nazi. Even so, it felt a bit strange (and possibly weird and yucky??). How is this different to playing as the Nazi's in our games?
I do play as the Nazis btw. I have Bolt Action \ Chain of Command forces for 1940, Afrika Korps and Eastern Front. I have an embarrassingly large collection of Luftwaffe aircraft for Blood Red Skies too. Hand on heart - err ok just in case that gives the wrong message hands in pockets, I don't associate my gaming pieces with Nazi ideology. I'm also not deluding myself by pretending that those formations are somehow any less Nazi. That's a post war fig leaf to excuse the "rehabilitation" of West Germany. Let's be clear, the German forces of WW2 were part of the Nazi state. This is particularly true of the Luftwaffe which was ideologically steeped in Nazi culture and second only to the SS in this regard. I know there is a trend to excuse individuals, particularly people like Galland as not really being a Nazi, but you don't climb the ladder to high command in the Luftwaffe without a Party Card if you see what I mean?
Where do you draw the line, or should you draw the line at all? Is it ok when there has been a reasonable passage of time or what? I have to admit I have switched allegiance in my ACW game preferences from Confederate to Union, mostly because, to put it simply, the Confederates WERE the bad guys. Then again, as my "Gott Mitt Uns" friend from the pub said, "someone has to be the baddies".
What do folks think?
