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| Site Name: Fanaticus |
| Site Contact: Chris Brantley |
| Nationality: United States of America |
| Languages: English |
| Site URL: http://fanaticus.org |
| E-mail: brant@erols.com |
| Brief: A virtual community for ancient
& medieval miniature wargamers and amateur historians
who use the De Bellis Antiquatitis rules. |
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Fanaticus
First a bit of history. I was introduced to miniature wargaming in
the late 70s, mostly American Civil War and WWII skirmish stuff, but
set it aside after college for work and marriage. Miniature wargaming
always appealed, however, and when I reached my mid-30s, I rediscovered
wargaming through the web and realized I had some discretionary time
and money with which to pursue my old hobby. I also found my old Dungeons
and Dragons group was all on-line, and started a Dark-Ages inspired
role-playing campaign by email, which is ultimately what sent me looking
for a set of quick and easy ancient/medieval rules to fight mass battles
generated by the campaign. I anticipated most of the battles would
be fought solo and I didn't want to invest a lot of time and money
on figures, mastering complex rules, etc.
I'd heard good things about the De Bellis Antiquitatis (DBA) set of
rules, but every time I thumbed through a copy at the hobby store,
it frankly intimidated me. The army lists were so much algebra; I
didn't have a clue what a 4Bd or WWg was; and the terse prose sans
diagrams or examples was almost indecipherable to someone who had
never seen a live game. Eventually, I bought a set of rules just because
they were so cheap, found a friendly gamer to show me the ropes, and
started building DBA armies. I quickly fell in love with the rules;
they offered fast games, with modestly sized forces, in a small space,
with a wide range of historical armies to choose from, and a nice
tactical feel that I would argue is historical at the level of command
and control intended by the designers. During the process of learning
DBA, I found DBA gamers were hard to locate and there was relatively
little help available on th web compared to other rules systems. It
occurred to me that there were a lot of other gamers in the same boat
who might like these rules if they only had somewhere to go for information and assistance.
 My
other personal and professional love is the web. Fanaticus is the
result of linking that interest with my interest in DBA. More specifically,
I wanted to create a website that would help others explore and master
the rules, and also collect resources like campaigns, army notes,
and house rules that would engage gamers and generate a flow of new
ideas and ways of enhancing DBA. The first iteration, known simply
as the DBA Resource Page, was launched in May 1998. As it gained popularity,
I added a Yahoo "club" named "De Bellis Fanaticus",
which put a chat room and bulletin board at my disposal. Hence the
idea of "virtual community" took root and the site evolved
into Fanaticus. By the way, before you reach for your Latin dictionary,
I can confirm that Fanaticus is a made-up word, inspired by the Latin
for Fanatic and by the title of the rules themself.
The core of the current Fanaticus website is still the Resource Page,
which has slowly grown to encompass hundreds of pages covering a wide
varity of topics, including notices on upcoming DBA tournaments, background
on DBA army lists, campaign and battle scenarios, rules
interpretations, how-to guides and tutorials, links, and more. There
is a bulletin-board style Forum, an Amazon.Com affiliated bookstore,
and a Bazaar with links to commercial suppliers of wargaming miniatures
and supplies. I try to publish an update every 2-3 days, and rely
heavily on a large community of "Fanatici" to forward product
news and gaming materials for the site. It is a time-consuming task
maintaining the site, and real labor of love, but one that has paid
off in terms of new friends, the opportunity to interact with people
from all around the world, and all the great ideas and information
that has helped my own enjoyment of DBA.
Ultimately, Fanaticus is about the Fanatici and not yours truly. I
deliberately try to keep as low a profile as possible, while highlighting
the Fanaticus contributers as a way of encouraging them to keep contributing.
But it was a pleasure to be able to share a bit of my story and I
appreciate the opportunity to promote Fanaticus to a broader audience
of gamers. Kudos to Total Model, you have raised the bar on design
and content for a wargamering website right out of the box.
Chris
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