I have recently got the Great War bug and started collecting WW1 medals and things. I might even get a replica German uniform and pickelhaube and all the gear and do some re-enacting events. Before the madness goes that far, I was thinking of getting some WW1 figures to work on. I have already figured out how I am going to model the trenches and wire. The trouble with WW2 gaming in large scale (15m or larger skirmish rules) is that with mortars, infantry guns (75mm artillery). AT guns, direct fire artillery, and almost all armor; the ranges are across the tabletop and unless you have a huge room or lots of cover and buildings, it often becomes a game of sniping an M1 carrying GI with an 88mm gun (or if you prefer, a Kar98 carrying Fritz with a 75mm, although in that case Fritz might have a Panzerfaust to help even the odds). Also with most squads carrying some form of automatic weapons, one or two figures can wipe out large numbers of the opposition. I thought that early war WW1 or even late to mid war trench raid fights would make a good tabletop game that a small group could play in a couple of hours and still remain a fairly even contest. Do you know of any companies that make some 20 or 25/28 mm WW1 troops? PETE'S RESPONSE: Mark, YES! I game WW1 in 15, 28mm and 54mm, same for WW2. Well, I also have microarmor-1/285th and 20mm miniatures for WW2. [Call me crazy!] I also enjoyed reenacting it some years ago when I lived in one place for more than 24 months. Let me get you some web sites where you can see some GREAT 28mm WW1 figures! Old Glory and Foundry have them, as well as a LOT of smaller Companies. ALL GREAT FIGS from early to late war. I Game Mastered a WW1 skirmish game at Historicon last year. I didn't plan to, but 20 players showed up with tickets for a 6 player WW1 game. The GM took 2 extra I think, and I took 10 or so, and we had a large WWI pick-up game on an adjacent table. I used my WW2 "ROMMEL RULES!" and we had a blast. By the end of the game several players wanted copies of "Kaiser Rules!" which I had to go and re-write (WW2 rules with the WW1 traits I'd added) and posted to the playtest yahoogroup for them. But WW1 Skirmish with 28mm (or even 54mm!) is killer! Whether you got the terrain to do Trench raids, or just do early and late war "open-country" or bombed-out-town skirmishing. However, that being said, so is WW2!!! In both periods, you just got to refrain from trying to "Cram a six-pack into one-cup holder!" (Or in other words, you don't need 30 T34/85's and 6 King Tigers for a WW2 game! Same applies for WW1, except that an occasional Fokker staffing randomly can add a lot of color, if it's not too time consuming. All gaming periods have rules systems, scenarios and/or gamers who try to do too much. My answer is not to do so much in one sitting. For a "PGE" (Positive Gaming Experience) you need 10-12 fifteen minute turns, ending with clearly met (or missed) victory conditions in 3 hours is the goal. Every minute past 3 hours, risks burnout, and an "NGE" (Negative Gaming Experience). Back to After Action Review April 2004 Table of Contents Back to After Action Review List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by Pete Panzeri. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com