Twenty-five years is a long time for anything to last. The average marriage last fewer years. Most businesses fail before reaching the quarter century mark. Does anyone work for the same employer for that long any more. How many of us have maintained a friendship that long?

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Well, luckily for all of us in the wargame hobby, Dick Bryant's involvement with The Courier has lasted that long. Moreover, I am proud to say, my friendship with him has lasted that long as well. As I look back on my life, there are not many things that made much of difference in the affairs of things but I can claim to have gotten Dick into the hobby and then starting The Courier with him.

In 1968 I moved to Boston from Chicago and was looking for gaming opponents. I came across a short note in Pat Condray's The Armchair General: Would like to find persons interested in wargaming, R. Bryant."

At that time he was an avid diplomacy play-by-mailer and had a big slot car layout in his basement. We got together to discuss what wargaming was all about and played a game of Column, Line, and Square (on a big piece of cardboard from a packing case). Next day he was back with a gaming table he had made (he shares one important attribute with Napoleon, he does not need much sleep).

The next night he came back with a calculator for resolving melees. We played games just about every week night for a few months. My apartment was between his work and home. To this day I do not know if it was the gaming or my ex-wife's cooking that brought him over so often. Some days at work, we would take time out to talk on the phone about projects.

NEWA

After some months we found other gamers and began a group the New England Wargamers Association (NEWA). Once the group was in place it needed a newsletter which Dick and I later expanded into a bulletin. In mid-1969 we reached a cross road. Jack Scruby decided to get out of the wargame magazine business and Pat Condray put TAG on hold. Therefore, we thought we might be able to fill the gap. I say "we" with some trepidation because I was leaving Boston for Ann Arbor and so Dick would bear the burden alone. He was up to the challenge. In just under two years he had become a gaming fanatic. Early issues of The Couriershow his strong devotion to the hobby that has continued to this day (and was acknow ledged by the hobby

community in awarding him the second ever Jack Scruby Award).

I thought, correctly, that it would be interesting to reread issues of The Courier from the first year plus some other publications to help remember what it was like then. It is amazing how far wargaming has come in 25 years; yet there are many things that have not changed much. On the literature front in those days there were a half-dozen little publications circulating. Only one was what we might call a "glossy magazine" format 8 1/2" by 11" with photographs (but not in color). That was Miniature Warfare which had begun just about a year earlier. It was much like the English mags of today: much in the way of history articles and technical reports but short on actual gaming.

The September, 1969 issue covered topics such as Napoleonic Warships, French Armies of 1870-71, Scenic Units (ideas on making terrain that are very useful even by today's standards), Atomic Warfare (!), Animals in Warfare, and Early Machine-guns Part III. The October, 1969 issue had articles on shrapnel, panzer divisions-1944-1945, the Russo-Japanese War (with a little on gaming the naval aspect), the Gordon Riots in London-1780 (shades of Jim Webster), Uniforms of the French Army, 1808-1814 (but only line grenadiers in Spain), RISK, and "How to start a Wargame." Both had nice book reviews and reports on new products. Only one or two articles actually dealt with gaming but in those days we were happy to get any sort of info on uniforms and weapons so it did not seem bad at the time.

The Courier in its first national release with Dick as editor had articles such as: the Battle of Leipzig by Fred Vietmeyer, how to make storage boxes and Colonial Wargame Rules II by Bob Beattie, German military Organization by Arnold Hendricks, Wargame of the Irish Rebellion by Leo Cronin, the Free Move - Timed Move War Game by Jack Scruby, Whermacht Piping Colors by Bruce Weeks, Battle Report of Garcia Forks by Dick Bryant. The next issue was as good: Leipzig part 2, Camels at War, Building a Sumerian War Chariot by David Sweet, Irish Rebellion part 2, Colonial Wargame Rules III, Napoleon's Italian Allies by Steve Manganiello, Napoleonic Russian Capabilities by Fred Vietmeyer, Battle Report of Carthaginian Wars by Bruce Weeks, German Mercenary Troops During the American Revolution by Robert Bonia, and Battle of the Rive by Dick Bryant.

Model

Our model of what a gaming magazine should be was Don Featherstone's Wargamers' Newsletter. The November, 1969 issue was number 91. Don had been at this for some time. There were theoretical and technical sections, but there were many gaming ideas and battle reports. There were, as well, jabs by Don at rival magazines, books and gaming concepts. The October, 1969 editorial, for example, compares his own "amateur" endeavors with the professional Miniature Warfare and further on takes Terry Wise to task for publishing Introduction to Battle Gaming with too much of the same "look and feel" of his own books and for "saying nothing new that has not been written before." Besides Don's "amateur" effort, there were other smaller gaming publications: Bayonet , and Grenadier (in England), Trumpeter (Canada) and the in the US. The Armchair General dealt with miniatures gaming.

One US professional magazine, Strategy and Tactics, covered board games but had some articles on miniatures. Modeling magazines such as Airfix Magazine, Meccano Magazine and Scale Models and history oriented publications such as Savage and Soldier, Tradition, Soldier, and the Vedette often had rticles on some aspect of wargaming. The Society of Ancients was devoted to both the history and gaming of the ancient era and it had a publication, Slingshot. There were quite a number of periodicals out there if one could find them.

What were not out there were published sets of rules. Dick and I began playing Napoleonic games with "Column, Line and Square", privately printed by its author, Fred Vietmeyer. Pat Condray had recently translated and published a set of rules from France. The WRG Ancients - First Edition might have been available. Don Featherstone was the author of a couple of hard back books including his seminal Wargames(1963), Naval Wargames, and Air Wargames and he offered 8 "handbooks dealing with wargaming" that covered ancients through 1944. These were written by Don (Napoleonic, US Civil War, colonials, and colonial WW 1), Tony Bath (ancient, medieval, and 1750 period), and Phil Barker (WW 2). Other options for rules were those written by Jack Scruby . Besides Don's books there were a few others:

Little Wars(1913), How to Play War Games in Miniature(1962) by Joe Morschauser, and the recently printed Charge or How to Play War Games and the Terry Wise book mentioned above. There were few published rules available but even so Don Featherstone wrote in November, 1969, "Perhaps the outstanding feature that has arisen during the rapid growth of wargaming is that we are no nearer conducting our battles under any recognized universal set of rules." He further noted that most gamers preferred to write their own rules rather than accept those done by others. In the September 1969, Miniature Warfare, Bob O'Brian commented similarly "... I shall expect to see generally accepted rules in operation in some 40 years time. Until that occurs I think we must expect rules to be produced by groups and individuals in ever increasing profusion. ... For the time being, the test of a set of rules remains ... that of the market place - if they are good, or even reasonable, they will sell, and be played if not, they will fall into disuse."

Home Grown

The "homegrowness" of rules of the time was evident in the pages of those early Couriers, none of the battle reports were based on games using published rules. This is a far cry from the situation today. Not only were there few rules to chose from in 1969, there were certainly far fewer wargame figures to chose from. Miniature Figurines were just introducing what was to be known as the 25mm figure. Prior to that time there were three gaming scales: 54mm, 30mm and 20mm. To correspond to the premier of "The Charge of the Light Brigade" movie, Mini Figs released a range of figures denoted as the "S" range. These were designed by Dick Higgs and were more robust than their existing 20mm's and those made by major rival, Hinton Hunt.

They were still advertised as 20mm but Jack Scruby noted that the English 20mm was approaching 25mm and began to release figures with that designation. These would correspond to the Airfix HO/OO size Napoleonics that came on to the market in late 1969. It is hard to believe that at one time Airfix figures and 25mm were synonymous. The most popular scale of the day was probably the 30mm. These were available (although in fewer numbers than in earlier times) already painted as the SAE line. These were just about the same size as the 25mm's of today. Ted Suren and Charles Stadden in England and a number of companies in the US besides Scruby offered unpainted figures in this larger scale. Jack also provided a wide range of 20mm for many periods.

The Thomas Co. offered a very complete selection of 20mm US Civil War figures and Almyer of Spain had an excellent selection of many nationalities and periods already painted in that scale. Just because there was a dearth of figures do not think many games could not field the troops they wanted. Airfix Magazine ran an article in every issue on how to convert one type into another. I changed many Native Americans into Zulus and US Civil War figures into Napoleonic troops.

Those Mini Fig Crimean War figures I mentioned appeared in Napoleonic games between Dick and me, converted into the 95th Rifles, the Coldstream Guards, French Voltigers, and the entire Brunswick contingent at Waterloo. Dick at that time was the world's foremost expert on the Brunswickers. We did not have the vast pool of figures to draw from but we seemed to get by well enough. Of course, there were no figures other than Airfix in stores; all business was done via mail order with Jack on the west coast or with England. In either case there was the many weeks wait. We were five years away from Duke Siefreid's introducing blister packs of figures for the local hobby store. The prices were a bit different too. We were paying between $0.10 and $.25 for infantry and maybe up to $.50 for cavalry. Anybody know what that is in 1994 dollars?

It was possible to pick up figures at gaming conventions. But in 1969 there were probably not more than 3-4 in the world.

The Miniature Figure Collectors of America 'had their 6th annual one-day Wargames Convention in the fall of 1969. This was in the old Masonic Hall on Wormrath St. in Philadelphia. It was quite small by today's standard; even smaller that a typical game day put on by a local club. There was a competi tion game using DBA type setup, but most of the schedule was devoted to demonstration games. There was a Napoleonic demo by the MFCA gaming section, a 18th century siege by the Northern New Jersey Wargames, the NEWA put on a colonial game (which was by the way, the first role-play type game - the Irish Rebellion game), and the Washington Area Wargamers did an ancients setup.

Other components of the convention were a painting demo and a dinner with awards presentation. NEWA won best in show for its game. Fees were reasonable: $1.00 registration, $4.00 for dinner and $.50 for the challenge game. In England, the major component of the national convention was club vs. club competition(as it is today). Don quotes a local group's newsletter, "I feel that the Annual Convention is a grand gathering of wargamers which is rather overshadowed by the actual wargames."

The writer goes on to complain about the bickering over which rules will used each year. The club which wins the championship is the host the next year and picks the rules to be used (usually its own). Don does note that "there was a excellent display of figures and armies, whilst the Trade stands were colourfully prominent."

Terrain

Another interesting comparison between then and now is terrain for the tables. A recent issue of Miniature Wargames had full a color cover devoted to a US Civil War scene. The September 1969 issue of Miniature Warfare likewise had a cover of the Civil War. The earlier cover was in black and white but the interesting comparison is that the figures are set out on a bare table while the current scene has a fully sculptured hill side with dense foliage and flocking. In those days of old, we thought nothing of playing on a bare table with roads chalked in or marked with tape. An advanced table would be a green ping pong table. Hills were made of books or stacked up plywood.

Trees and houses were closer to today's standards because they were from the railroad supply shop, usually Life-like trees and those now outrageously expensive German plastic building kits. The Courier, Vol. II, No. 2 presents a breakthrough article by Bob Gryga. He starts by saying that "the generally accepted rule is to play the game with these painted figures on a ... plywood table." He then goes on to suggest that a more realistic table top can be made by using a cover of green felt with blue and brown felt pieces as rivers and roads.

He suggested fiberboard painted green for hills. Dick Bryant is not sold on that idea so adds to the article by mentioning a method which he finds most attractive. "My table is made from hardboard, smooth side up. Standard green blackboard paint ... is brushed on in two or three light coats. The entire table now becomes a 'green board' on which roads, rivers, swamps, woods, etc., can be drawn in various colored chalks." Dick does mention what may be the first reference to flocking game tables. He tells of Bruce Weeks using oregano to cover the table. Well, we do have to give Dick credit, if he was not forward thinking in this area back then, he now is one of the strongest proponent for well presented tables and I suspect he would not be caught playing with chalked on roads today.

Long Way

I have presented a view of certain aspects of the hobby as they existed 25 years ago. We have come a long way since then. There are more easy-to-obtain color-laden magazines than one has time to read. Even the best amateur production of today - Midwest Wargamers Newsletter - has more in one issue than the original Courier had in a year. There are a dozen specialized societies each with its own publication: ancients (three), medieval, solo, WW2, Seven Years War, Victorian, etc. I should mention that back then when we said modern, we meant World War 2. I cannot recall anyone gaming contemporary or potential war. It was a number a years prior to GHQ's innovation that made such gaming possible - micro armor.

We have more rules now than possible to comprehend. There are must be a hundred different rules available from stores or dealers. Indeed, in issue 63 of The Courier, I counted ads for or reference to 25 different commercial rules. In the late 60's articles tended to be those in which someone suggested how to implement a gaming concept such as artillery or morale into rules in general. Today, articles tend toward suggesting modifications to commercial rules for the purpose of changing the historical era of the rules or adding some more detail. "The Sword and the Flame" had a publication devoted for many years to rules modifications and "Command Decision" has its own newsletter.

Did I forget to mention that there were no fantasy or sci fi ranges back then. It was a number of years before one of The Courier editors said D&D ™ would never catch on in a review. Did I forget to mention, too, that at the 1970 MFCA convention, The Courier staff won their second best in show with a Middle Earth Game. Dick even ran an article about it in Vol. 2, No. 7.

Today there are more figure makers making more figures for more periods in more poses in more scales than possible to keep track of. We have 1mm, 2mm, 6mm, 10mm,. 15mm, 20mm (making a come back), 25mm (in various sizes from 24mm to 35mm), and even 40mm for those who miss the 54's. The convention scene has exploded. There are some 75 per year in the US alone - locally, regionally and nationally. Bob Marshall, of the Miniature Gamers of Michigan (MGM), runs a gameday that has perhaps more games than at all the conventions in 1969. There were local groups in the US then but now there are regional groups like the various HMGS organizations besides large state wide clubs like HATSOFF and MGM.

Anyway, even with the glut of products and services today, we still face issues that existed 25 years ago: the dilemma of realism vs. playability, the problem of enjoyable games vs. serious simulations (what Don Featherstone then referred to as the split between the fun wargamers and the staff and command boys), the need to recruit people into the hobby, the tension between the consumers and the producers of figures, rivalry between rules authors, and the discussions over standardized rules and army lists.

Some things are different like the place of fantasy in the historical miniatures hobby. I believe the hobby is strong today and is flexible enough to let most of us fit in where we want. Ted Haskill use to talk back then of the various types in the hobby: the rules lawyer, the artist, the strategist, the architect, the collector. All of these folks can still find a niche. The Courier has been with us for these past 25 years and might still be around in 2019. Will it be just a holographic publication, an on-line media service, or a cable TV channel by then? That will depend on the good services of its champion Dick Bryant. He got a late start in the hobby so he will be pushing his eight decade at the 50th anniversary, but with his imagination and drive, anything is possible.