The Waving Flag: ADLG: 2022 Survey Results (Part 1)

Firstly, I'd like to thank everyone who took the 2022 ADLG survey, both in the UK and elsewhere. My thanks also go to Tim Porter, Chris Tofalos & Dave Hollin (of the Society of Ancients) for their help in publicising the survey.

Our combined efforts have made the 2022 Art de la Guerre (ADLG) survey a great success with 113 responses, of which 79 were from the UK. To record the results I plan to split them into three parts:

Basic information like age, favourite periods, etc.
People's views on the rule book and the use of the rules in games.
Comparison with the ADLG survey of 2018.

I wanted to repeat the survey because it's been almost a year since the release of version 4 of Art de la Guerre (ADLG) and because the UK competition circuit has fully re-opened after the Covid-19 pandemic.

My main hope was that the new survey would show if things had changed, and if so by how much.

This part deals with the basic demographic data such as age, UK location, favourite period & scale, and what other rules people play or have played.

The focus of the survey was primarily on the UK and to keep the results short the differences between the responses from the UK and elsewhere are only mentioned when they are both striking and pertinent.

If you don't want too much detail, here are the headlines. They are followed by some graphs and more detailed comments.

UK Summary

98% of UK ADLG players are over 35 with 66% over 55.
The South East remains the hot bed for ADLG (28%) with nearly twice as many players as any other region.
The North West (15%) & South West (15%) were well represented.
The Classical (30%) & the Dark Age (25%) periods were the most popular.
15/18 mm was the most popular scale (63%) with 32% using 25/28 mm figures.
Roughly a seventh (14.6%) of respondents used both 15/18 & 25/28 mm figures.
Respondents play, or had played, two (1.97 +/- 1.32) other rules in addition to ADLG.
DBA (37%), DBM (57%), FOG AM (38%) & FOG R (24%) were the most played other rules.

International Summary

Most players were aged 35-55 (47%) with 44% over 55: a significantly younger group than in the UK
The Classical (26%) & Ancient (24%) periods were the most popular, with the Feudal (21%) period a close third.
25/28 mm (23%) was less popular than in the UK, with the majority of respondents favouring 15/18 mm (73%).
Only an eighth (12.5%) of respondents used both 15/18 & 25/28 mm figures.

Now without further ado here's Part 1 in all its gory detail ...

1.1 Age Distribution

ADLG players are getting older!

I will show the direct comparison in Part 3 but those over 55 increased sharply between 2018 & 2022 and now represent the majority of respondents.

1.2 Location

The South East remains the hot bed for ADLG (28%) with nearly twice as many players as any other region.

The North West (15%) & South West (15%) were well represented too. Together with the South East, they amounted to 58% of the sample responses.

1.3 Favourite Period

The Classical (30%) & the Dark Age (25%) periods were by far the most popular:

The pattern is different from that in 2018. I didn't expect this at all, but you'll have to wait for Part 3 for more detail.

For international respondents the top three periods were Classical (26%), Ancients(24%) & Feudal (21%): so a further difference (although the sample size was a lot smaller compared to the UK).

1.4 Preferred Scale

No real surprises here:

Interestingly, further analysis showed that roughly a seventh (14.6%) of respondents used both 15/18 & 25/28 mm figures.

1.5 Rules History

Respondents play, or had played, two (1.97 +/- 1.32) other rules in addition to ADLG:

Given the popularity of rules in the UK in the last 30 years this pattern is to be expected: DBA (37%), DBM (57%), FOG AM (38%) & FOG R (24%).

Many other rules sets were mentioned in the free text comments (which made counting them complex) but nothing really stuck out as a major omission. One thing it does show is that ADLG has attracted players away from those that followed the “classic” DBx/FOG pathway.