We received many letters to Bob Beattie about his article on the history of the hobby - DICK BRYANT FROM ONE OF THE FATHERS OF THE HOBBY I was most impressed with your article and your dispositions on the early days of wargaming, recently containedin a copy of COURIER I received. You truly know your subject and I think you deal. very fairly with it all, giving me a hell of a lot of praise. When I was in the Army I always tried to do what my very first Recruit Instructor told us — do your best! And I have consistently followed that precept in my life, and very much with wargaming in its early days. Up stairs in the loft — my wargames room — I have a working model of the Britain’s howitzer which fired shell with springs that gave them three ranges. When Tony Bath and I first wargamed our very earliest games included the use of this gun which we fired once after every move. I think I have a Britain’s Naval gun somewhere, and recall when I was a boy, firing it at an armoured vehicle and trying to knock the driver or gunner out — that was in the backyard of our London home which we left in the days just after the war finished, but my firing efforts took place well before the war. I also have a copy of the 1931 edition of LITTLE WARS which is the one I took overseas with me and travelled around North Africa and Italy in my pack. Also, I have a companion copy of the book he wrote FLOOR GAMES — I intend selling both of them when I get around to it. I have some photos of the 1959 First—Ever Wargames Convention which took place in my house here in Southampton but there are no names on them and I do not remember the names of those depicted. Also, I have a photocopy of the programme of the very first—ever National Wargames Convention, held in a hotel just down the road from where I live now. It was held on Saturday and Sunday 29/30 October 1966 and included the Wargames Club National Championship for the Airfix Trophy, win by the London Club, who beat our Southampton Club in the Final. I was always conscious that the British Model Soldier society had d rules and fought wargames long before I did, in the days of the early and mid 1930’s when Peter Young, Charles Grant, Sachs and others were very active. Although I was a member of the Society I do not recall ever taking part in any of these games, but they were the ‘true’ post—Wells instigators of wargaming really. Sadly, I won’t get to Ameria any more. I am 86 years of age and do not know if I would be up to it, although I still have a lot of energy and go! - DON FEATHERSTONE AND FROM THE DUTCH UNCLE OF THE HOBBY IN THE US An absolutely delightful piece of work. All us lovers of Wellslian gaming and Victorian prose shout your acclaim. This is a pet subject of mine and dear to my heart. Bless you for your continuance of the gentleman’s fine art of military gaming. I have loved those long red boxes and the only gift that mattered for Christmas or Birthdays were Wm Britains soldiers. I sold them off for a pittance as I delved deeper and deeper into sculpturing and molding little 25mm miniatures which for that time were the epitome. Now, nostalgia has overcome me and I regret deeply having disposed of those lovely hollow-cast Guards and Indians and Lancers. Its so bad that I have begun to paint in great detail and then gloss over a large number of Foundry’s Crimea full-dress Brits and Russians. I’m even turning (on a lathe)some wooden trees...and this from perhaps the greatest exponent of detailed and realistic dioramic terrain and structures in the country! You have touched my soft point! Please continue your great work on behalf of all of us! In addition, I wish to thank you for your inclusion of the writer in your top ten list of wargaming pioneers. I am most appreciative of this considerable honor. There occurs upon occasion great love of a subject. I describe it as the GRAND OBSESSION. I have been afflicted with a particular virulent case of this excellent malady... it seems from the very beginning! Little tin soldiers seemed the most splendid thing imaginable. Throughout my life(about 70 now) I have pursued this great love; it has driven me to considerable creative efforts and exhausting extravaganza projects with thousands of figurines (many individually sculpted and animated), lovingly painted with ground,shading, shadowing, highlight and accent. A labor of love. As if that’s not enough, then terrain and structures of a comparable quality must be conceived and constructed. But you understand this...because you are similarly afflicted! Continue with your particular form of this GRAND OBSESSION! Your peers applaud you! DUKE SEIFRIED AND FROM MAGWEB For the Pre-1979 category, I’d like to nominate Greg Scott, president of GHQ. Here's a guy who defined microarmor way back when I bought my first tanks in 1974 or 75. GHQ. I still remember the Avalon Hill General article showing Panzerblitz in 3D with GHQ tanks. Great stuff and still the microarmor company, too. When are you going to do post 1979? Some other articles about the history of wargaming. Bob mentioned that he could not find a full copy of Capt. Sachs’ rules, although Jack Scruby printed a partial set. You’ll find this partial set (rules 1-35) in MagWeb.com, under MWAN # 97 (reprinted with Scruby’s permission). Bob also did a great profile of Scruby in Courier Vol. I No. 5 Of course, the best overview is Courier # 81: First Century of War Gaming Literature 1872-1971. The HMGS-GL Herald ran a great series of history of wargaming articles from issue 34 to 48 ‘The Roots of Wargaming’) All of these are in MagWeb.com. Use the search engine, term ‘Sachs’ and you’ll get links to all of the above and more. - Russ Lockwood, MagWeb.com We hope to print updates to the timeline by the end of the year. - DICK BRYANT AND............... FROM ENGLAND Having read the article on the Top Ten Wargames Pioneers I thought I would send my thoughts along, in particular to tke up some of the points made and to nominate a further Pioneer. I began wargaming myself back in 1963 so my recollections of the hobby cover the same sort of timespan as yourselves, though I have lived and gamed in the UK throughout. Throughout its modern history our hobby has very much been centred on our two countries more or less equally and our list must strive to balance developments in each. Those Pioneers who contributed to the hobby in both countries deserve particular recognition. It is for this reason that I would question the placing of Jack Scruby above Don Featherstone. Jack’s contribution in the US was clearly pivotal, but had an impact in the UK that was confined to quite a short period and to quite a small number of gamers, whereas Don via his early books drew many into the hobby in the US, and indeed in countries across the globe. I don’t think we would be doing justice to either of them, however, if we were to start a battle between their respective reputations. Can we not just honour them as equals, tied in second place after HG Wells? I would like to take issue similarly with your identification of 1979 as the start of ‘the modern era of wargaming’. I will take your word for it as regards the North American scene, but what impact do you think the two developmants you mention had outside the US? The first US-style convention? We still don’t have that kind of convention here or anywhere else in the world. And more’s the pity, in my opinion. The dawn of the Courier? Well I’m sure this isn’t the place to downplay the significance of that particular development(!) Nor would I, having suscribed from that first issue. But in the UK there had been a comparable professional magazine Miniature Warfare from 1968 to 1974, and the contemporary era of magazines began in 1983 with Miniature Wargames. Few British gamers would identify 1979 or any other particular year as starting the modern era in our hobby. However something did change around the end of the 70’s/ beginning of the 80’s, and the hobby was in rapid growth throughout the latter decade. Could we agree that some sort of a modern era began within the few years around 1980, say, rather than picking out any one year? In any case all our pioneers made their impact over periods of decades. I totally agree with the inclusion of Duke Seifried, Tony Bath and Phil Barker. Pat Condray and Charlie Sweet? I know the names from the Wargamer’s Newsletter of long ago. They made no impact over here but from what you say they played a great role in the US, so I won’t quibble. But Captain Sachs? Captain who? I know his rules were significant in one British circle at some point in the 1930’s, but the truth is that wargaming was quietly going on amongst the model soldier community throughout the long gap between Wells in 1913 and Scruby et al in the 1950’s. We don’t necessarily need to pluck the good captain or anyone else from obscurity just to represent that period. And so to nominations. I leave it to US gamers to mention other names from your side of the Atlantic. My nomination is not Peter Young, Charles Grant or Terry Wise though all made worthy contributions, but the late Peter Gilder. This name will be known to every British wargamer over the age of 35, and to many around the globe, but is evidently not as well known in the States (the Courier’s Timeline even manages to mis-spell his name as Guilder, repeatedly). So what was Peter’s contribution? He did many things that took the hobby forward. He was one of Don Featherstone’s foremost collaborators in the 1960’s but first became prominent around 1971 as a figure sculptor under the name of Hinchliffe Figures, later as Connoisseur and other names. His style of sculpting was a great leap forward in characterisation and movement, building on the Stadden 30mm tradition. But sculpting doesn’t count for this particular Hall of Fame, so what else? He was a great showman and publiciser of the hobby throughout the 1970’s especially, organising a TV series on wargaming and the biggest UK convention of that time, Northern Militaire. He was the founder, at least over here, of the art of wargames terrain making, building beautiful layouts for everything from the Sudan to Normandy, via Renaissance Italy. His techniques were picked up later and developed by the likes of Ian Weekley. He seemed to think of a better, faster way to model or paint everything. He actually invented terrained figure bases: before him they were just painted green. At the start of the 80’s he set up the Wargames Holiday Centre, a new way to enjoy the hobby. It’s still going strong now http://www.whc.info/index.html and you can still play there with his thousands of spectacular figures, over his 15’ by 27’ terrain, as many hundreds of gamers have done over twenty-odd years. He wrote wargames rules which are still popular over here. And in 1983 he co-founded Miniature Wargames along with Duncan MacFarlane, the main selling point of which was inspiring colour photographs of Peter’s miniatures and terrain. Tragically he passed away about twelve years ago now, at a lamentably early age, but our hobby is immensely the richer for his colourful contribution. I’m glad you’ve gone over to doing ‘Volley Fire’ on the internet. Being in the UK I have to subscribe to the Courier via Caliver Books (a pain to deal with, between ourselves), and thus never got the Volley Fire cards. Anyway, keep up the good work. I have subscribed to the Courier since Issue 1 back in 1979 and have the complete collection of back issues. What I value most about the magazine is the high quality of most articles. Of course some articles are going to be up my street more than others, but I’m happy to accept articles which aren’t in my area of interest but are evidently of superb quality, like the Colonial stuff in the last few issues. For some reason, colonial wargaming generally seems to be much more popular in the US than in the UK. - John Boadle Thank you for your comments. It is true we have been wearing american colored glasses for this excercise and I am doubly grateful for your additions. I do believe that Don was originally inspired by Scruby and became for a while, his UK Editor of the Scruby magazine. Later they had a falling our over editorial content and Don went his own way with wargamer’s newsletter with its amazine benefit to us all. We have been lucky that we have been able to honor Don while he was alive and honors have been deservedly heaped upon him. Unfortunately we were not able to do so for Jack Scruby - whish is perhaps we may have gone a bit overboard on this side of the pond. In any case I will pass this on to add your facts to update the timeline and your note will appear in the next issue. I am exceedingly aware that we have only a microcosm of the hobby here. I sometimes literaly lie awake at night wondering who is the “Don Featherstone” or “Jack Scruby” of Russia or of India or of so many other locales where the hobby is starting to grow in leaps and bounds. Yes there is the internet to plant the seeds, but the wargaming “warlord” who is the mover and shaker in his country for the hobby....I would very much like to know him and discuss this great hobby with him and perhaps to help garner the kudoes for him that he also so richly deserves. - Dick Bryant A very subjective area of speculation at best. As for Gilder being undervalued because scupting doesn’t seem to count, there were dozens of good, bad, or indifferent sculptors in the trade. Scruby was at best an indifferent one, but his impact on the hobby during the immediate post Britains era was profound, and amplified by his publishing role. Gilder’s excellent artistry had no such role. He was perhaps a successor in interest to the Stadden and Suren series which were essentially collectors figure producers dabbling in the gaming genre. Minifigs had a much more profound effect. Gilder’s son had a figure company going down here in the Tampa area when I retired here, but I never met him. He soon moved to North Carolina, then disappeared. Although Don collaborated with Jack Scruby, my impression had been that Tony Bath was more of an influence. Charlie Sweet’s influence is easy for Brits to overlook, but coming out of the closet on 60 Minutes and in Sports Illustrated had a big impact here. Probably they didn’t make it to British syndication at that time. Phil Barker has often mentioned that Joe Morshauser III was, after Jack Scruby, one of the few Americans known to British gamers in the 60s. Joe was deceptively influential. Few speak of him in the same breath with Scruby and Featherstone, but, as I noted in volume I, he and Don both published their seminal works in 1962, and while Don’s continued to address only single mounted figures, Joe’s were mounted on bases-a tradition which had become almost universal by the mid 1960s. Joe’s “roster system” likewise inspired imitation, though to a great extent it is known for the lengths people go to in avoiding the paperwork. As an editorial note, you refer to honoring Don “while he was alive.” I got a package of old articles from him last week, suggesting that “is alive” would be more correct-until further notice. There were efforts made to honor Jack Scruby in his lifetime. The headline in THE COURIER’s report on ORIGINS 82 proclaimed “JACK SCRUBY HONORED,” though I can’t remember what was done to honor him. I don’t think he was dead at the time. Every so often I run the search engines against Morschauser. He comes up on a WWII naval history epic co-written with the Captain of the destroyer “That Wouldn’t Die,” and for the famous 1962 book. But nowhere have I been able to find anything biographical on him. He lived in upstate NY, and in the 60s worked as a junior editor for a soon to be defunct glossy (LOOK I think.) I’’ve seen copies of Captain Sachs work but I don’t know that it had profound effect. Fletcher Pratt’s naval game was more widespread, and I have a recollection of meeting people at Corr’s Hobby Shop in my youth who apparently gamed a variant of Pratt’s game for years with numerous associates. I do not believe that there is a Jack Scruby or Don Featherstone of India or Russia. The third world is not a likely hotbed of toy soldier gaming. Usually such gaming as occurs in those areas is carried into them by expatriates from the west. There has been a long but quiet tradition of historical miniature gaming in France, but not on the scale we have it in the English speaking countries. As long as I had close contacts there “les amateurs de jeu de guerre” seemed closely tied to collectors groups as ours were in the 50s and 60s. I share Mr. Boadle’s skepticism about 1979 as the dawn of a new era. But his reference to the various pubs in England during that period is overstated. We had numerous fits and starts in that direction over here, some that ran on for years, others that were shorter lived than TAG. They were often reviewed in WARGAMERS NEWSLETTER, TAG, or other pubs. WARGAMERS DIGEST, (McCoy), GORGET AND SASH (Curt Johnson-who published others before that.) - PAT CONDRAY VOLLEY FIRE COMMENTS It was really nice to see the detailed article on the effect of musket fire in the Napoleonic wars. I’m sure that a lot of people may not like that amount of detail, but it brings new thought on how rules present this part of comba The part on the Royal Swedish Fleet was interesting for just the rarity of that kind of information. In age of sail, the swedish fleet did not have a great record of success. - Roy F. Powell Thanks to Rod Hamper for encouraging Ned Zuparko, and to Ned for his article on Napoleonic Fire Combat as part of the Wargame Design Series. The article packed a lot of interesting points into 8 pages that can be applied on the tabletop. Gaming a Napoleonic firefight has always made me wonder about what actually happened on the field of battle. This article gathered a lot of data and answered some of those questions using comtemporary sources. While I could have spent hours researching the topic as Ned did, I would rather spend that time gaming and applying the concepts on the tabletop, so once again, thanks for the value added by The Courier. - author unknown Larry Brom ought to be included in that list of influential gamers. He’s been gaming since the 50’s & was even in a postal game with Peter Young. His TSATF & other simple rule sets are classics. TSATF is responsible for creating a colonial wargaming industry. Great issue-I love the article on HG Wells gaming.Like the new look as well. - MARK STEVENS First time I have purchased The Courier and purchased it for the Modern Spearhead Scenario. Though I’ve only seen The Courier on sale once before in New Zealand. Overall an excellent magazine. If another Spearhead or Modern Spearhead scenario is published I’ll certainly buy another copy. - AUTHOR UNKNOWN Beautiful cover! It reminded me of how I got started. I had read in the Avalon Hill General about a guy who was using Airfix figures to play out his AFRICA KORPS board game battles. He mentioned Joe Morschauser’s rule book. My library found me a copy. My board gaming buddy and I got out his old Britains troops and pushed them around his living floor. We were hooked! It was off to the hobby shop to buy airfix Russians and Germans with Mini Tank vehicles to match. It has been a wonderful forty year ride! THE COURIER is part of what makes the hobby so much fun. - terry griner This is a wonderful way to submit the Volley Fire survey. It takes less than 2 minutes, no folding, taping, and mailing (or remembering to mail). If you have internet access, why wouldn’t you take advantage of haveing your opinions heard. - Bill Hession Back to Table of Contents -- Courier # 91 To Courier List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by The Courier Publishing Company. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com