Well folks, it looks like we survived another winter here in Nashville, the flowers are coming up, the last snows of winter are (hopefully) receding, and Al's unheated, un-air conditioned painting room is finally habitable again' (Drop by the shop sometime and I'll tell you the story about it.) Just in time too.. There's a lot of new stuff out I want to start painting on The first thing on the list are the new FOUNDRY Pirates & Buccaneers range This prolific outfit has just released 13 new packs with everything from Edward Teach and his pals to the characters from TREASURE ISLAND. There are also packs of miscellaneous swashbucklers, boarding pikes, musketmen, and (my favorite) Bizarre Weapons! There are seven figures in the three personality packs and eight figures in the rest. They measure out at 27M on the Barrett scale and appear to have no flash or seam lines. They are piriced at $11.00 per pack so you figure cost is $1.38 to $1.57 which is not too bad. Plus they are packed with more personality than any 25mm figures we have seen in a long time. Waiting in the wings are 13 more packs which are scheduled for release in the next few months. These are to be more swashbucklers, musketmen, cannons, gun crews, Chinese Pirates, and a whole lot more. If this is an era that interest you, these figs are good value for the money. Dixon has also increased their Pirate range this month. There are two figures with boarding pikes, one firing a pistol (very nice detail), a treasure burying party complete with treasure chest, and cannons with crew, They are a little smaller than the FOUNDRY figures at about 25M, but the detail and casting quality are up the usual Dixon high standards. The figures run $1.49 each and the cannon, which appears to be a six pounder, is $6 99. Between these figures and the ones from FOUNDRY, you ought to be able to put together a respectable pirate crew. Also out last month was the new Warhammer ARMIES OF ANTIQUITY, the army list volume for their ANCIENT BATTLES rule set. The listings include every major force from Sumerians to Crusaders as well as ancient Chinese and Samurai. Granted, this list has been available on the Internet for some time, but there are also rules additions and clarification, as well as expanded information on the Barbafian list in the ofiginal book. The price is $15.50 and since you've already paid thiny bucks for the rule set, you might as well. I really know how to sell the product... The final item on the list is the new WAR GALLEY game from GMT. While this is a board game which is something we normally don't get involved with, there is a tremendous amount of potential for use on the gaming table. This is a big, expensive ($59.00) game with 2 map sheets. 560 double sized counters. 560 V2- counters. rule set and scenario book The time scale is one turn = five to ten minutes and each counter represents one to eight ships The sixteen page rule set is fairly well organized complete with historical and players notes and the scenario book gives an OB and historical briefing for thirteen battles from Lade (494 B C ) to Actium (31 BC ) The game system is a little more ivolved than the DBM/A version and a whole lot more playable than the Navwar ANCIENT NAVAL WARGAME RULES. As far as beiriv used as a miniatures garne, grab a Geo-Hex Seascape cloth and blow the dust off your Navwar 1/1200 Ancient ships and you're reay to sail. Back to Dispatch Jun. 99 Table of Contents Back to Dispatch List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by HMGS Mid-South 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