Dave,
As you can see by the # of my posts, I used to be quite active on these boards a while back. I was mostly into AAR before they came out with the anniversary edition and, frankly, I lost interest between personal circumstances and not wanting to re-learn the boardgame from scratch. Coincidentally, about that same time, I became interested in AAM and Mot may remember that he and I played a couple of PBF games right here using Mapview. It was fun but, frankly (and with apologies to Mot), laborious to play by forum. I thought posting the maps for AAR was time-consuming, but it was nothing compared with having to post your movement phase, wait for your opponent’s moves, then post your assault phase, wait for DF opportunities, etc. Frankly, this game was made to play FTF, not by forum. And as my collection grew along with my FTF opportunities, I became less interested in PBF.
Now to your question about Forumini. As I stated before, I started out here, but the AAM community here was never large to begin with and by the time I got interested on online support for the game (I took a break from all A&A activity for a while), this AAM site was dead. Heck, it made WOTC forum look lively by comparison! So when forumini got started, I, like every other rational homo sapien, went where the action was! I have downloaded dozens of scenarios from forumini, not to mention making trades, exchanging tactical advice, etc., etc. For a collectible miniatures game, I think you really need a dedicated site, because the experience is so much more immersive than the boardgame. For the boardgame, you pull it out, play a few games, you put it away. You don’t paint your pieces, you don’t design custom scenarios, you don’t design custom units and you don’t trade units. You do ALL of those things (in my case, except the painting :lol:) if you are into the AAM collectible miniatures.
So when you ask, how to get AAM players back to A&A.org? I have no idea. I don’t really see it happening. Not hating, mind you. I’m just being realistic. (And that’s taking nothing away from the excellent site you have otherwise built here. If I were still into the boardgame, which I am not, you would see me here all the time. In fact, I think I’m STILL one of the biggest all-time posters here. :-D)