Obviously there is a new swathe of wargamers from the Warhammer route, and for all that GW pile on the books and figures and so on, the core system there is quite simple.

I have to say *Open Fire* could get me to buy my first WWII wargame.. and I’m not exactly young..

WWII is the epic conflict that is certainly engaging the public, as well as potential hobbyists, across all forms of popular entertainment.

WWII is more popular now then it was a generation ago in our youth. Saving Private Ryan rekindled the WWII genre and every year see a couple major WWII movies. Valkyrie and Defiance, both WWII-themed movies, are in theaters now. The Band of Brothers TV show was wildly successful. Call of Duty and Medal of Honor are hit video games. For hobby gaming, there's Memoir 44 and Tide of Iron in addition to Axis & Allies minis and numerous versions of the board game. Walk down the any store's toy aisle and you'll find WWII action figures and vehicles next to Star Wars and the latest super hero movie. They are a far cry from the simple "green army men" of yesterday.

Looking back, its amazing we got into WWII at all. How did we come to "[know] its strategies, equipment and limitations"? When we were kids, all we had was reruns of Victory at Sea, John Wayne movies (of dubious factual merit) and the original A&A; game. Sure, there were dozens of Avalon Hill games and the like. However, we're discussing entry products for youth. The back shelf of a bookstore is a far cry from a color ad insert by most major retailers in the Sunday paper announcing the release of the latest WWII video game.

Today, it's never been easier to be a WWII fan.

WWII is the epic conflict that is certainly engaging the public, as well as potential hobbyists, across all forms of popular entertainment.

WWII is more popular now then it was a generation ago in our youth. Saving Private Ryan rekindled the WWII genre and every year see a couple major WWII movies. Valkyrie and Defiance, both WWII-themed movies, are in theaters now. The Band of Brothers TV show was wildly successful. Call of Duty and Medal of Honor are hit video games. For hobby gaming, there's Memoir 44 and Tide of Iron in addition to Axis & Allies minis and numerous versions of the board game. Walk down the any store's toy aisle and you'll find WWII action figures and vehicles next to Star Wars and the latest super hero movie. They are a far cry from the simple "green army men" of yesterday.

Looking back, its amazing we got into WWII at all. How did we come to "[know] its strategies, equipment and limitations"? When we were kids, all we had was reruns of Victory at Sea, John Wayne movies (of dubious factual merit) and the original A&A; game. Sure, there were dozens of Avalon Hill games and the like. However, we're discussing entry products for youth. The back shelf of a bookstore is a far cry from a color ad insert by most major retailers in the Sunday paper announcing the release of the latest WWII video game.

Today, it's never been easier to be a WWII fan.

The great thing about violence in games? It’s in games. The more of it there and for the longer, the better. IMO. 😉

Now, today’s youths simply don’t have that relationship with this dusty old war.

For the hobby to be revitalized, what we need is simply put a new war. And I don’t mean a completely lopsided one as US vs Iraq.

Then we can argue if that’s enough or if the games need to switch to another media (computers), but what history mostly needs is an epic conflict that could engage today’s potential hobbyists.