I had planned to publish Part II Of the Battle of Camposanto in this issue and undoubtedly some of the members are left wondering what ever happened to generals Gages and Traun. I am working on adding some maps to the translation in order to clarify things a bit and the result is that I had to postpone it for another issue. I want to thank Jim Mitchell, our new assistant editor. for making the trek up to the Newberry Library in Chicago to secure some maps for the Italian campaigns of the War of the Austrian Succession. I plan to use some of these in future articles.
Wanted to hire: Cartographer and Typists
Concerning the subject of maps, I would like to put a call out to the membership tor someone to step forward and volunteer to become the "Official Cartographer of the SYW Associalion Journal". This person would be adept in computerized graphic arts ( i.e. be able to scan maps and pictures, or create maps f'rom drawings using Adobe Illustrator or some similar program). This individual will receive a free subscription to the Journal and undoubtedly will become rich and famous as a result of his or her association with our august group. Interested persons should apply directly to the editorial "station' at 3127 Park Place, Evanston, IL 60201 or send an e-mail to the editor at JPURKY@aol.com.
I would also like to ask for volunteers to help me with thc typing of articles for the Journal. Sometimes I receive articles that are not on computer disks and it can be quite time-consuming for me to type them while I am in the midst of laying out the next issue. Such help would be a Godsend to me.
A Plan
This is all a part of my plan to utilize the many and diverse talents of the membership so that I can delegate some of the work and keep my energy going. The fact of the matter is. that after nearly five years of writing, editing, doing the art layout, and licking a lot of envelopes, I have reached a state of "burn out." And while I fully intend to get the next two issues of Volume over the next six months, it is quite obvious to me that I can no longer publish the Journal four times per year.
I am currently considering several alternatives. The first, is to reduce the number of issues per volume to three and accompany that change with a corresponding decrease in the price...say to $20. The second alternative is to return to the what my predecessor used, i.e. publish four issues per volume, but spread delivery over a two-year period.
I have not made up my mind as to which alternaeive to pursue and I am certainly open to suggestions from the members. First and foremost though, I want to be able to have enough energy and spirit to publish the best Journal possible. Rather than cut corners on content or quality, I would prefer to reduce the number of issues published each year, but still maintain a high slandard of excellence.
Announcement: Issue number Three in the current Volume IX will be published and mailed in February 1997. Issue number four will be published after the 1997 SYWA convenlion and will probably be mailed in May 1997.
Leuthen Day
Last year's annual Leuthen Day Wargame/Convention was held on one of the coldest, nastiest winter days in recent memory. I always figured that it was only a matter of time before Mother Nature turned against us for having the audacity to stage a wargame convention in December. We had been fortunate, up until last year, to have never been snowed out by the weather. It was so cold and bitter that I vowed never to do it again during December.
Accordingly, I switched the event to a weekend in October (Oct 19th, 1996) and prayed that football or deer hunting season would not interfere. This year we will be re-fighting the Battle of Kolin on the tablelop, using 25mm figures and home-grown rules. It will be interesting to see if Alte Fritz can pull his own chestnuts out of the fire, this time wilh the hindsight of history on his side.
Austrian Augmentation
I have been able to augment my Austrian forces with a considerable number of newly painted reinforcements, including six infantry battalions (using the new Old Glory figures), three cuirassier regiments, three dragoon regiments, two battalions of Croats. and one converged unit of horse grenadiers. Now my Austrian army actually outnumbers my Prussian army.
Over the winter, I would like to add more Austrian infantry, but at the same time, I find it hard to resist painting some of the new 25mm Prussians that are streaming out of Guernsey Foundry's factory. These are marvelous figures and I have been able to paint an odd sample or two to see how they look but have not had the opportunity to field a full battalion. I don't want to have my Prussians outnumher my Austrians, so perhaps I will resort to painting a few battalions of Prussian freikorps. At least the new units will not be as powerful as the stalwart line and grenadier units that populate my army ol blue coats.
One unit that I am looking forward to painting is the Prussian Garde du Corps. Guernsey Foundry will soon release its first Prussian cuirassiers, including the Garde du Corps standard bearer. I have always wanted to add this three squadron unit to my army but I could not figure out how to make the unique "Romanlike" standard of the Garde du Corps. Thankfully, Guernsey Foundry has solved my problem by creating the very figure that I require. How's that tor service? Now if we could get some mounted kettle drummers for the cavalryand perhaps a vignette of Frederick and his greyhounds.
Skirmishing at the Convention
I ran several SYW skirmish games at the 1996 convention in South Bend using a modified version of Tom Kelley's Woodland Wars skirmish rules. The game went fairly well, except for the melee segment of the game. This may be due to the fact that I increased the size of the basic units from 12 or 16 figures to 24 figures. The card draw system did not seem to work as well for these larger skirmish units. Consequently, I am looking for some good ideas for skirmish level melee rules trom the members. If you have a simple, easy to use system of melee that you use in your games, then please write me a letter and share your ideas with me. I want to get this part of the rules smoothed out betore taking my skirmish rules project any further.
I like the idea of fighting the SYW in Europe using skirmish rules. For one thing, it involves fewer troops to paint and the whole game setup is easy to pack into the car and carry to a convention site. I think that the advent of quality 25mm figures from Old Glory and Guernsey Foundry help to promote skirmish war battles in the European theater of operations. Hopefully, this concept will catch on and the Raid at Domstadtl will become as standard a skirmish scenario as Braddock's Ambush is for the French and Indian War.
Speaking of the French and Indian War, Jim Mitchell has asked me to put in a plug for him. As our new F&I War editor, hc needs bucket loads of articles from the members. We need your help if we are going to include more coverage of this aspect of the Seven Years War. So get those typewriters out and knock out an article or two on the French and Indian War. Since the backlog is slim, the odds are great that your efforts will be published soon. Send your article submissions to Jim Mitchell at JACKSON @CROWN.ICONGRP.COM
Finally, I have enclosed an insert with North American subscriptions for the Tricon Convention on November 2 and 3, 1996 in Concord, Massachusetts. This first rate convention has been organized by SYWA member Byron Champlin and is sponsored by the SYWA. See the newsletter section of this issue for complete details of Tricon. And if you are in Chicago on Oct 19, 1996, drop on in at the Emperor's Headquarters and join us for the Battle of Kolin.
Back to Seven Years War Asso. Journal Vol. IX No. 2 Table of Contents
© Copyright 1996 by James E. Purky
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