Two issues have been published within the span of five months and it has become clear to me that the editorial function is the toughest part of publishing a newsletter. As l began to research the Second Silesian War and formulate ideas for articles, it became apparent that there was too much material to cram into one issue. In other words, I had twenty pounds of stuff to put into a five pound bag. My first reaction was to expand the basic length of each issue from 64 pages to 72 pages, but even that was not enough. I could have easily doubled the length of Issue No. 2, given the amount of material that I wanted to cover. So the end result is that I will have to split our coverage of the Second Silesian War into two parts. Part I appears in this issue and covers the period from August 1744 to June 1745. Part II will probably appear during the later half of 1993 in issue No.s 5 or 6.
For those of you who were kind enough to send in articles, rest assured that they will be published in the near future. We will shift our focus to the Anglo-French conflict in Flanders in Issue No. 3 and explore the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 in Issue No. 4. I still intend to find the space to include letters from the readers and I will continue to include some "non- theme" articles in each issue. An example of the later is found in this issue as Tod Kershner takes us to 18th Century India and tells us how to cope with Screaming He-Devils from Calcutta. Nevertheless, there is a never- ending need for articles relating to any topic and I would encourage anyone with a particular interest to pick up their pen and write.
Speaking of Tod Kershner, he has managed to persuade me (albeit indirectly) to do something that I never thought I would do : build and paint 15mm wargame armies. I have always preferred the visual appeal of the larger 25mm and 30mm figures on the wargame table and I never figured to give the little guys a try. However, Tod's Sport of Kings campaign system has changed my mind about all this. Normally I don't care for the 50:l figure ratio which results in small 12 casting units representing battalions, but if you want to field an army quickly, then all of a sudden 12 man units aren't so bad. I found that I could crank out battalions at the rate of one per day using the combination of 15mm figures and the 50:1 scale employed by Tod's Age of Reason rules.
When you are involved in a campaign and face the prospect of fighting battles in the far-flung theaters of India, North America and Scotland, then you need to be able to field units as quickly as possible so that you can play campaign tactical battles. For example, the Jacobites decided that they did not like Good King George and so they initiated a rebellion on the second game turn. Within one week I was able to paint six Jacobite clans for the necessary battle, a feat that I could not have accomplished using 25mm figures and a 30:1 figure ratio. At any rate, I now have SYW armies in both 15mm and 25mm scales and find that I enjoy wargaming both scales and using different sets of rules. ln the l5mm scale, I use Age of Reason rules, but switch over to my personal favorite, Rusty's Rules for 25mm wargames.
As for the campaign, I would encourage everyone to pick up a copy of Sport of Kings and give it a try. The game resembles Risk in its simplicity and requires a minimum of paper work. There is a lot of entertaining diplomacy, intrigue and backstabbing (done in a funspirited way of course) plus a number of random events can occur during each turn to throw a wrench into your plans. For example, if you are Britain, then there is always the possibility that the Jacobites; may rebel, or disease and desertion may prevent you from launching that big offensive into the opponent's country. Likewise, your steadfast ally may find your undefended border too much of a temptation to pass up and he may march into your homeland through the back door.
At any rate, I've had a lot of fun in this campaign (I play the role of Britain), and the need to build new armies on the fly has given me the incentive to build my long-planned Jacobite army and to start a Hanoverian army. Next on my list are British and Colonial troops for the SYW in North America to fight those battles in my campaign. Likewise, I now know that I can throw together a few bands of Screaming He-Devils and Mad Mysoreans for campaign battles in India, at a moments notice. So thank you Tod for opening my eyes to the many possibilities inherent in 15mm wargaming.
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© Copyright 1992 by James E. Purky
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