With the "real" football season upon us. I've dusted off my troops and laid out the battlefield. is this wargamlng? I hear you cry. I certainly think it is. Using a mixture of guile, brute strength and luck to get through the enemy's defences, while he attempts to stem my actions and turn this into a counter attack. All this in a bid to gain territory or yardage and to carry the 'ole pigs bladder into the end zone. Figures for this "period" are readily available from Heroes Miniatures in 25mm scale along with goal posts to add to the aesthetic appeal. Rule sets are available, Gridiron Heroes by K J Guliver and 4th & 99 by A R Orbison. Both give a good game, however from a personal view the first has a few flaws but gives an Insight into the mechanics of the game. The other is very well produced. covers every eventuality, has very good player rating systems but can be slow and very complicated. With all sets of rules it's assumed that the player has a knowledge of the rules of American Football. If you have not, then Ken Thomas's Guide to American Football, a Channel 4 publication, is a must. Also another must is the NFL Playbook. You will find these in most sport sections of book shops. Football is a one hour of playing time game, because of the various stoppages it takes around 3 hours. Not so on the table I What takes a few seconds in real life can take several minutes as each player moves 11 figures. This many not be every ones can of coke, if so then games of say. 12 plays per half may be used in an evening. Myself, always a glutton for punishment. prefer to play a full game, spread out over several evenings. As you pack away after each session. Just make a note of where. you are. i.e.. 2nd & 8 on the Cowboys 32 yard line. One game played recently lasted 7 weeks with my finesse-arsed San Francisco 49ers winning with a field goal in over time. We do fight campaigns. I play a league system with six of us playing each other twice. For your army or team you need 22/24 figures. If you play a league system with star players. injuries etc. you may want to go the whole "hog", as one of us does with his Washington Redskins, all 45 players, coaching staff and extremely well depicted cheerleaders. (It's rumored more care and attention was lavished on the lasses in an attempt to divert his opponent). To compile your team rosters, magazines (i.e. Touchdown) are full of this information as you can build up your teams character. Our American cousins are very fond of statistics with the game, how many completed passes to a tight end on Astro turf in November may not be of that much interest, but you may build in a ranking system based on STATS to upgrade or down grade your players. OK: you've got your teams, what are you going to play on? To my knowledge there are no "pitches" available, some use the backs of Subbuteo or other felt materials. I find these tend to "move," crease, and bunch up, so I've made my own out of white card and thin green paper. First decide your scale, as the figures are 25mm I've gone for 1 yard = 1 cm, the bases of my figures are 2cm sq. Use three pieces of white card, for ease of transport, as white lines every 10 yards extend the width of the pitch. cut the green paper so that when stuck on to the card the gap between each piece represents this line. Use a white marker for the hash-marks and letraset for the white yard markers. In the end zone area use different colour card, red is good for this. Also to depict the chain gang, if you are not a Redskins fan, a piece of balsa with 2 nails either end and a piece of chain plus markers 1 to 4, to record the "downs". For ease of use I've mounted the bail on a pin and on a base 1cm wide. Being a Jeweller / Pawnbroker by trade I can boast a silver chain and both of my balls are gold. No comments please, I mean they are old rugby ball charms. When playing it's useful to have a selection of "play" cards for the offence, choose the one for a particular circumstance and stick with, mine have several options, different receivers etc. This may be reepured if you need to prove to your opponent as to who is the primary receiver fur example. I hope dear reader this has given you an Insight Into a very absorblurg game. As a Ilnal point, our set of rules called P.A.T. by Pat McGill will be produced later this year or early next by Freezywater Publications, 14 Meadway Erfeid, Middx EN3 6NU Back to The Gauntlet No. 3 Table of Contents Back to The Gauntlet List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1995 by Craig Martelle Publications 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