ANOTHER CONVENTION DIES FROM LACK OF SUPPORT The Newburyport Wargaming Association in conjunction with the Toy Soldier, Newburyport, Mass., held its thirteenth Wargamers Weekend on May 16 and 17, 1987. The event was held at Triton High School in Byfield, Mass. The staff of the NWA and The Toy Soldier would like to thank all the Gamemasters and individuals who donated time and energy to the convention, and we wish to extend apologies to all of the GMs whose games went unfilled. The convention was attended by about eighty people each day. The majority of the attendees seemed to be interested in FRP games as these seemed filled and had few cancellations. Also attending the conveniton were Falcon Miniatures and The Toy Soldier. RSM miniatures and Geo Hex helped with prizes and cash donations. The highlight of the convention for most people was the 25mm French Foreign Legion game. The fort, named fort Zindernorf by its designer and builder, Mr. Kevin Burns, was an upscaled version of the game of the same name put out by Yaquinto. Falcon Miniatures were used and they also donated prizes to the first Arab over the wall and the last Legionnaire alive. Also of interest was a large 25mm Napoleonics game run by Peter and Gene Lejune. Christopher Parker demonstrated his new Medieval game KNIGHTHOOD AND THE MIDDLE AGES 2nd Edition and Ray Estabrook demonstrated his Dark Ages game, DAY OF BATTLE. It has been decided that there is too little interest and support in New England for historical miniatures conventions. There are numerous clubs in the area but very few seem interested in promoting the hobby beyond their own tables. This sort of attitude helps no one in the hobby and tends to restrict the flow of new gamers into the hobby. Again thanks to all that have helped in the past and present conventions. And no thanks to all the gamers out there in New England who couldn't be bothered. Sincerely, Christopher Parker, Secretary, The Newburyport Wargamers Assoc. Sorry to see this go under, Chris. The Courier and Old Colony Wargamers always tried to help. - DICK BRYANT TRYING TO LOCATE STRATEGEM Reader Roy Downes is trying to locate a company called STRATEGEM Miniatures who make a line of 25mm Jacobite Highlanders. Anyone who knows, please write to Roy at Box 263, Upsala College, East Orange, NJ 07019. Let us know as well - thank you. - DICK BRYANT AN OPEN LETTER ON WRG ANCIENTS After reading the exchanges on the 7th edition of WRG Ancients, I feel things haven't changed much from the 1st edition. People back then were disagreeing and arguing with Phil Barker. Reading letters about WRG is like going backwards in time. I've seen progress in every era but ancients. Many eras offer choice of levels from army to skirmish. Fun games like those popularized by Featherstone, Grant, and Young are returning. Wargames magazines are exciting now as gamers now discuss their new ideas and rules. Meantime ancients wheezes along with only 1 to 50 tournament games. If you want to personally command several legions of 2-10mm troops for a battle played to a conclusion without exhaustion -- too bad. If you want a fun game with short and simple rules, not because you're a wimp, but because after a week of fighting with computers at work you want some relaxation -- too bad. If you want to play ancient wargames instead of reading the latest amendments, commentaries, fiddles, heresies, clarifications, and explanations -- look elsewhere. If your view of ancient warfare is bent badly by considering early gunpowder armies as properly being 'ancient' armies -- too bad. It's past time to recognize not all the world's collective ancient wargames wisdom resides with WRG. Unfortunately the more this era gets locked into one person's perceptions the more stagnant and boring ancients will become. Providing Sacramento is typical, I can see plenty of signs showing me the impending collapse of ancient wargaming. Locally only competition gamers play WRG, not for fun or social games but as a warm-up before a convention. Not even the most enthusiastic hasthe nerve to recommend the set to newcomers. In the local game store, nobody is buying ancients. Instead, "Warhammer", a mass action fantasy army game with little magic used is extremely popular. Some gamers even want to modify it for use in straight ancients games. I'm not recommending junking WRG ancients, instead use them when they are best for what you want. If they can't deliver the kind of game you want, don't use them and don't waste your time arguing with Barker. Likewise if your perceptions of this period violently disagree with his, don't vent your wrath in nasty letters to the editor. Instead try other people's rules or write your own. If you can't write, then for heaven's sake encourage others who can to research and write. When you find something better or different than WRG, PLEASE, tell other ancients gamers. As ancients gamers we have a choice. We can keep on arguing about WRG until everyone diesof boredom or old age. Or we can catch up with the rest of wargaming. - JIM McDANIEL MORE ON THE 7TH FROM PHIL BARKER I've just read Rick Laver's review of 7th in VII/4, having been away umpiring the New Zealand Nationals. There are two points I would like to take up. Firstly, he misunderstands what we mean by "stepping forward". This is another case of two nations divided by the same language! We mean "echeloned" so that each base is further forward than the one on its flank but still touching, not "moving forward". Secondly, like the previous writer, he assumes that climate, weather, alternative deployments and our terrain choosing method must be abandoned in convention games. Well, the New Zealand Nationals used the lot, as had the Australians previously and all the British conventions, exceptthat the biggest of the latter used our terrain picking method to generate terrain before the convention, then rotated players around the tables. One of the generating players uses a Galatian army and the other is a cavalry fan, so the terrain was a reasonable compromise for everyone. Real wars ARE fougnt in weather and climate, and real generals have to cope with them, as also occasionally ambushes, night attacks, surprises or treachery. The rest of the world's wargamers are taking these in their stride and say only bad generals need be worried by them. I really can't accept that the razor-sharp players I've faced in the U.S. need protection. Acceptance of 7th continues to make progress. Only a minority of British players (all 25mm) now stick to 6th, the Lord alone knows why. New Zealand 25mm players didn't seem to have any trouble with 7th. I was a very under-used umpire. - PHIL BARKER MORE DATA ON GARIBALDI I refer to the letter of Mr. Burkhard published in The Courier Vol. VII/4. Other than Trevelyan works cited there are some others in English: Viotti's Garibaidi and His Thousands and Thurnbull's Solferino, the Birth of a Nation. There are a number of Italian, Austrian and French works, of course. American wargamers interested in the Italian wars of XIX Century can write me to obtain information about organization, uniforms, and battles. With reference to the article by Pat Condray about the Austrian Army from 1859 to 1866, I would like to remark about an Italian firm which produces wonderful 25mm figures of Piedmontese, Garibaldini Austrians and Neapolitans; infantry, horseand artillery. The address is: Mirliton SG,via Achille Grandi n.7, 50129 Tavarnuzze (Firenze), Italy. In 15mm there are two others firms which produce figures designed specifically for the Italian Wars armies: Peter Laing and Freikorps15. This last produces the best and most complete range of figures for the period. As for transformations from Airfix, I like to suggest that Austrians can be obtained from the Waterloo British infantry figures. They need only to have their frontlet cut away and to paint the white jacket on the trousers [sic]. The Italian firm Esci offers a good selection of plastic figures which can be transformed for the 1859-1866 period; Waterloo British Infantry for Austrians, Crimean Hussars for Austrian and French (cutoff the busby and substitute it with a shako), French Cuirassiers for Austrian Dragoons, and Italian lancers, French lancers for Austrian Uhlans and French lancers. - LUIGI CASALI Back to Table of Contents -- Courier Vol. VII #6 To Courier List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1987 by The Courier Publishing Company. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com