Hello fellow gamers, let me introduce myself, I'm Dave Marks your newly appointed wargaming representative. I'd like to start by wishing Ian Barstow the best of luck in his new capacity as Secretary for the N.A and look forward to building upon Ian's endeavours to make the N.A. wargaming brigade a force to be reckoned with.

How am I going to achieve this, I hear you cry! Well to be honest on my own I can't but with your support I am certain we shall accomplish many things.

I will be putting on a few demo games at the shows throughout the year in order to promote the N.A to a wider audience. However, this should not just be limited to me and a few faithful. After all we are an association and so I shall be happy to support any N.A wargamer's who wish to stage their own game at a local show in their area.

How do you gamers out there feel about a "Games Day", where the N.A hire a hall for the day and us gamer's bring bits of terrain, figures etc., and have a great day of gaming, milking the rules etc. and socialising. This way even people without a set-up or just a passing interest in the hobby can come along and join in the fun. I can see no reason why we should remain inactive names on a list of members.

What about a painting competition or even a National gaming competition for what will hopefully become the coveted "N.A Shield".

Rule sets - Which are the best, what do we like or dislike about current rule sets. Lets get the rule debate going. Lets even try and develop the N.A's own rule set. This might be a waste of time knowing how fickle gamer's can be but we won't know until we try. Ian recently stated in the last edition of First Empire that "You can learn a great deal about wargaming from re-enacting" and the re-enactment section of the N.A have certainly provided us wargamer's with food for thought. We also have the additional back-up from our research section and I feel we are very fortunate to have this wealth of knowledge and experience to call upon.

While we are on this subject - Calling all experienced gamers, lets make ourselves known and available to those members who are new to the hobby. This way we can help new gamer's to gain a better understanding of tabletop gaming mechanics and rule sets etc. We could even run some wargaming workshops in our local area to pass on any particular skills we may posses such as figure painting or terrain building to name but a few.

These are just a few suggestions to get the ball rolling. What do you think? Can I call upon any members for their support? I need to have feedback from yourselves so that I can give wargaming within the N.A the direction that you the members want!

Well that's enough for now, but in the meantime if any of you readers need any assistance or even a game drop me a line via First Empire and we will try to arrange something.

Figure Review.

The comprehensive range of Napoleonic figures offered by Adler Miniatures continues to expand with these delightful offerings. The figures submitted for review are cast in white metal and are superbly detailed and animated. The figures required little preparation before painting, having minimal flashing and no visible moulding lines.

To be honest I thought the original 1812 French Infantry 'marching' and 'advancing' were good enough, but not so Adlers. These remoulded figures are an improvement upon the original chaps, but my only gripe is that the gaps between the 'marching' Infantry figures are quite wide. This means that although the individual figures are easier to access for painting the figures will have to be individually based should a denser looking unit be required.

Line lancer officer comes on a strip of 2 figures and appears to be the same figure repeated. However, the open shouting mouth and the determined posture of the figure really creates the feeling that this commander can encourage his men onto greater glory. The horse looks like it's just getting up speed with the horse furniture being beautifully depicted.

The French wounded have 15 variants. At first I thought the large exit wound hole on some of the figures' heads a bit excessive, until I realised that they were actually location holes for gluing the separate shakos onto the figures. Although a fiddly exercise the finished result was very effective, with the shako appearing to fall off the poor fellow's head.

The figures are priced 14p per strip of 4 Infantry, 23p per strip of 2 Lancer officers and £1.20 per pack of 33 wounded figures. As previously stated the Adler range is very extensive and the outstanding quality of these figures, coupled with the 10% discount to all N. A members makes them a range well worth viewing.

Letter to Editor FE#37

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