Wargamers Newsletter Ends
London, January 21, 1980: After 18 years of continuous publication, Don Featherstone has decided to end production of THE WARGAMERS' NEWSLETTER. The costs of production and mailing have increased to the point where a substantial sum of money was lost on each issue and although this has been a labor of love for Don, there certainly is a limit to the degree of personal expenditure of funds at such a labor.THE WARGAMERS' NEWSLETTERTHE COURIER know this for a fact since we have received reader inquiries from each of those places after being reviewed in THE WARCAMERS' NEWSLETTER.
For years Don's incisive and pithy comments have added greatly to the hobby and have provided untold numbers of gamers with stimulating and useful ideas. We hope that we can convince Don to continue to add to the hobby by making his experience and ideas known through the publication of his throughts in THE COURIER.
Gleanings
THE DRAGON (13 issues -- $24.00, T.S.R. Periodical, P.O. Box 110, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin 53147)
Volume IV, Number 7 (January 1980) has an article on painting miniatures; a list of Dungeon Masters and many articles which deal with quests, characters, monsters and spells as well as the use of the computer for adventure gaming.
I find the magazine to be quite fascinating and of great interest to fantasy role players everywhere. The illustrations and photographs are also quite good. This magazine is not of interest to historical miniature wargamers,
MILITARY MODELLING (12 issues -- $16.00, P O. 35, Bridge Street, Hemel Hempstead, Herts, HPI IKE England)
December 79 has articles on: Painting Elephants; Battlefields Then and Now; Naval Wargames Rules (a series); Uniforms of the Romans, a.series by Phil Barker.
Ever since S&T came out with a game in each issue and other boardgame magazines followed suit -- Miniature magazines have tried to do something similar: a pull out set of rules, painting guide, etc. MM, not to be outdone, included a free plastic scale ruler with each December issue sold over the counter (not to subscribers)! It is quite handy with 1/76, 1/35, 1/72, and 1/48 scales as well as MM. and inches.
THE MILITARY JOURNAL (4 issues -- $5.00, 218 Beech St., Bennington, Vermont 05021 U.S.A.)
Number 11 has articles on: 1979 Paris Air Show; Japanese Rail-Riding Vehicles; Wing Commander GeorgeC. Keefer, RCAF; M.A.N. Military Trucks, Lt. Paul Baumer's Fokker Dr. I; Panzer Korps Tunics; Free World Military Support of the Republic of Viet Nam.
The articles in this magazine are oriented towards military modelers and historians and have little direct application to wargaming per se. The magazine is well produced, however, and the articles and illustrations are of high quality. Of particular interest is the "For the Bookworm" section which reviews recent publications of a military nature.
FIRE AND MOVEMENT (12 issues -- $26.00, Baron Publishing Company, P.O. Box 820, La Puente, Ca. 91747)
Number 19 (October-November 1979) has articles on Various Board Games: Games of the American Civil War; Road to the Rhine; Napoleon at Bay, Cobra and Caen and several others. Also featured is an interview with Kevin Zucker as well as pictorial spread on Origins '79.
The articles are well written, informative, and of particular interest to the Board Gamer. Miniaturists will not find much of interest in this publication, however.
WARGAMERS DIGEST (12 issues -- $13.95, McCoy Publishing Enterprises Inc., P.O. Box 5526, Madison, Wisconsin 53705)
Vol. 7, Number 3 (January, 1980) has articles on Tactics and Game Theory; Naval Maneuver -- And Formations, The Prussian Third Corps -- at Waterloo;A skirmish wargame; Pikes and Muskets -- 17th Century Infantry. Additional space devoted to M. M. W. A. news and regular departments.
The articles in this issue are quite readable and copiously illustrated. It is indeed unfortunate that few of the photographs are captioned or keyed into the text. A good number of pages are devoted to the promotion of the magazine's "Military Miniatures Wargaming Association" and hold particular interest for members of that association. At this point the magazine has a general appeal and is of limited use to miniature wargamers other than M.M.W.A. members.
More Dispatch
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