As tabletop war gamer and software developer, I have always found it both interesting and useful to research the history of the periods I game in. By a fortunate coincidence, my local public library has military history as its specialisation. However, it still does not have all the books, journals and videos I would like - what library could!

I expect that many of you are in the same boat and that some of you may not even be within reach of a library with good military research facilities at all (they re not really very common). Consequently, you may be interested in the research facilities that your lephone line can pipe into your house.

There are a number of on-line research facilities available on Compuserve and Internet that are very useful to the gamer as well as quite convenient and comparatively inexpensive to use. Some of you will be well aware of them. However the facilities are not known by all and, given the poorly documented nature of the Internet, we all need to pool our knowledge there to find what is available for our speciality.

COMPUSERVE

Compuserve is a company that owns and provides easy access to a world-wide network of computer databases that are available 24 hours a day 7 days a week. To get access you will need to contact Compuserve and register as a user, at which point they will provide you with a password, some easy to use software (Windows style, so you need Windows installed on your PC) to access the databases and also a book of user documentation.

All of this is provided for a charge of course. Compuserve can also sell you the modem as well. The databases can then be accessed through your home or office phone via a modem linked to your PC. Compuserve also provide Help Desk support which is very useful if you are new to this kind of thing, get stuck or wish to enquire about other facilities they may have available.

Compuserve is fairly well organised and so finding military information is easy using the search facility in Compuserve. This will list all databases that contain anything about the military. However some of these are of peripheral interest, so I will concentrate on the main ones rather than trying to be exhaustive, and getting you bored or side-tracked. There are only two main places I find you need to go to get access to most of Compuserve's military information. One is called All Things Military and the other is called Knowledgebase.

All Things Military is a typical on-line shopping centre for information that also provides you with a means to meet others with similar interests if you are so inclined. All Things Military has three subsections within it.

Military Forum. I spend time here picking up all sorts of information. There is a browse facility that gives the main topics of interest and is probably the first port of call for a gamer new to the place. This lists areas such as Military History, Books and Booksellers, Weapons Systems, Military Studies to name just a few.

What sort of things can you get there? Following my own keen interest in the ACW I often choose the American Civil War topic. There I can find all sorts of detailed information, such as unit histories (e.g. Brief History of the 71st Pennsylvania), Federal and Confederate orders of battle for the Atlanta Campaign, notification about coming symposia. These are all grist for the mill when you are researching a period, preparing a campaign or (if you are like me) developing rules.

On entering the Military History section I have found useful articles on topics as diverse as Leadership Analysis, with Captain J. Rochefort USN, the Role. of the Combat Intelligence Unit at Pearl Harbour, Rommel in his own words, Electronic Warfare Tutorials and a number of other topics. Clubs such as the Napoleonic Society of Amelica advertise their presence there and Jane's also has a section

Military Multimedia. This is a source of graphic images clip art, sound and motion picture vidcos. The information I have obtained from here include colour images of flags, badges, people, forts, units, and battles (such as a colour image of the ACW Battle of Gaines Mill which I was looking for). These images can be included in a document to save you the trouble and cost of doing the search for the picture and the colour scanning to produce the image. It also gives you a source of history through pictures, which some of us find most interesting.

Military Veterans Group Forum. This seems to be focal point for veteran's issues. I have not enquired much into this one.

ELECTRONIC CONTACTS

An interesting aspect of electronic media is that you can interact with other people who happen to be on-line to the military forum at the same time as you. This can be done on an ad hoc basis, or by entering conferences that are help at a pre notified time. The front-end software gives you the option of listing the names of the other people. Iooking at their list of interests. and then asking an individual whether they wish to cliscuss some topic. You can also broadcast an invitation to talk to the entire group present. Those who choose to accept can then discuss matters by typing questions and answers which are displayed on the screens of all conference participants.

People who access the databases are also able to post items on electronic "notice boards". You can browse these and, if the person has left their electronic address, send them a message to discuss the item. For example I obtained a good order of battle for Trafalgar from a billboard and then was able to ask follow-up questions of the gamer who posted it. The player was in another country and I would never normally have been able to obtain this information or to make such a useful contact.

Knowledgeware is a more general research database that covers a wide variety of issues, with military matters being only a subset. I use it for work (:i.e. my real job) to find articles related to computing and it also provides a good base for more in-depth historical research into different gaming periods.

The first thing to do is select the database you require. Here are two that are relevant for the military gamer, they are called HISTI and HIST2. No prizes for guessing, that they are indexes to historical literature. There are others such as Books In Print. but I will let you explore this for yourselves.

Regardless of which of these databases you choose knowledgeware provides you with the same facility that allows you to search by keywords for the topic you want. The use of the same facility means you do not have to relearn a search method for each database. There is a choice of a simple prompted search for beginners and a less user friendly but faster and more effective search facility for the experienced.

The type of material retrieved consists of journal articles. You can search for a broad topic such as the American Civil War (this for example produced a "hit" on over 500 articles) but it is best to try to narrow the topic down. This facility to modify the enquiry and then redo the search immediately is very helpful in winkling out the difficult topics, and you can get the hang of it fairly quickly.

The articles and any abstract you have retrieved can be viewed on line, and selected for down loading if they are of interest. This facility to download is a major advantage of online searching I find. You don't have to spend time going to the shelves and getting a photocopy as in the normal library situation. What happens is that, once you select an article the database sends it immediately for storage on your PC. After completing the search you can logoff, this saves costs, and then browse through the articles at leisure using the word processor on your PC. The original document can be down loaded as well in some instances, but often the abstract is all you need.

INTERNET

Internet is probably better known than Compuserve but lacks the centralised organisation and control. Consequently it is not as easy to find what you want. Information is usually scattered ad hoc over several different computer sites. However this is not as bad as it sounds as a number of companies now provide Help Facilities and search software that has a user friendly interface to help you find your way around and enjoy facilities similar to those available on Compuserve.

Here are some of the military studies sites I find of most use.

The Miniatures Page: A WWW Magazine. http://biochem. dental.upenn.edu/Mosaic bill/tmp. html This is a very good magazine for wargamers that is updated with new articles every week. There are lost of useful items such as terrain making tips, pictures of miniatures and a guide to wargames clubs.

ScaleModels. http://meteor. anu.edu.au/-clfk/scale_model. html This one has a lot of scale models of tanks, naval vessels and aircraft.

Military Science Resources. http://sosig.esrc.bris. ac.uk/Subjects/mil.html Has a lot of modern and historical military material from military academies and governments and includes a section for Janes.

Military Information Server. http://kuhttp. cc.ukans.edu/history/deremil/deremain.html This has a lot of material related to the ancient and medieval periods. It is maintained by the Association for the Study of Classical and Medieval Military Matters.

Social History of War. http://www. Iib. ox.ac.uk/internet/news/faq/soc. history.war .world-war-ii. html This is a newsgroup that posts items from members about WW II. Unlike some newsgroups this one seems sane and well organised.

Humanities:History http://www.lib.yahoo. com/Humanities/History This is an index (called Yahoo) that links you to history files and other World Wide Web Sites.

History file of Rice University. http://riceinfo.rice.edu/1 1/Subject/History This is another Internet Index (this one is called Gopher) and it gets you to the university's history files.

World Wide Web Virtual Library:Subject Catalogue http://www.w3. org/hypertext/DataSources/bySubject/Overview.html This is a comprehensive index that will get you a wide variety of history topics.

Library of Congress World Wide Web Home Page. http://lcweb.loc.gov/homepage/lchp.html Another major source of military history sources.

Military History Files of the University of Kansas. http:/ kuhttp. cc.ukans.edu/history/milhst/m_index.html The military history files of the University of Kansas.

U.S. Civil War Bibliography. http://www. Iib. ox. ac.uk/internet/news/faq/archive/civil-war-usa.reading-list.html

Military Aviation Information. http://www.vestnett. no/vulcan/sites/www-air. html This has photos and vaiation information as well as links you to various parts of the Web.

World War II. http://www.webcom. com/-jbd/ww2.html A WWII site maintained by the Pentagon includes personal histories of WWII.

If you know of others please let me know. You can contact me on:-100231,1541 (for Compuserve users) or 100231.1541@compuserve.com ( for Internet users) or if you prefer to write: 32 Brown Street, Bronte, NSW 2024, AUSTRALIA.

Don't forget MagWeb (Magazine Web) with the full text and graphics of over a dozen military history and gaming magazines; monthly password access available for a small fee, with discounts for half year and year-long memberships.--RL

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