Stuart Asquith

Thank you for issue 111, of The Heliograph, it's a great publication.

I'm not sure, but from your comment in this issue regarding Practical Wargamer, I must not have told you that it has ceased publication.

The news of its sudden demise certainly came as a shock and I truly did,not know when I was over in the USA, but I know for certain that we had a quality product, a quality which the contributors helped me to achieve over the years.

I thought I was over it, but I'm still in the aftermath of shock and get caught off guard sometimes, particularly at the present moment, as I would have been working on 13/2. People have been so kind and while words don't pay the mortgage, it is heart warming to read such sentiments.

My Observation Post war gaming column in Military Modelling has been doubled in size. As regards subs I understand that you will be offered either a "2 for 1" sub to Military Modelling, REGIMENT or Scale Models, or a refund.

It certainly is ashame to loose a quality product like Practical Wargamer. Some of the time it is difficult to tell the difference between WI and MW. PW stood out between the three English 'glossies' by being userfriendly, useful, as well as a good read. It is sad to see the passing of a great publication edited by a gentleman like Stuart.

Patrick Wilson, Editor-Not-So-In-Chief, BY JINGO!

Colonial And 19th Century Gainers, Gentlemen, The April Issue of BY JINGO! is now on the stands, and it's the biggest issue to date. Eleven new articles, two new sets of rules, two new departments, and all the free chicken you can eat!

The Regimental Scrap Book opens with a page of photos of Richard Houston's beautiful scratchbuilt 25mm Colonial Warships. This new department will post your own photos of miniatures, works of art, game photos, and ephemera. Contributions are avidly sought! "What Dreams May Come ... T' marks BY JINGO!'s overdue foray into Victorian Scientific Romance and Alternative History. Edited by Mr. Scott Saylors, contributions and comments are also sought for this new department. Read Scott's introductory letter and his Editorial at Hyde Park Comer.

The inimitable Howard Whitehouse provides a review of the continuing release of figures for The Foundry's Darkest Africa range of figures. Bob Cordery, of Wargames Developments and Editor of "The Nugget" provides a "Personal Perspective" on designing wargames. Andrew Preziosi post a Glossary of Spanish Military Words, Terms, and Phrases, as well as a Dramatis Personae for the Latin American Wars of Independence as part of his ongoing series on Latin American Military History.

Another Briton, Richard Brooks (the other one, ed.), shares his "back of a post card" rules for Darkest Africa, "Drums Along The Watusi." But over in Larry Brom's own TSATF Page, original playtester, Jay Stribling, has posted "Every Man A Briton!" as a m~jor revision to the rules and a pair of ready to play scenarios for the Zulu War of '79.

And if that's enough, it's still not all! Still free to the public and produced without preservatives, not a single tree was injured during the creation of this Webzine! Force March over to http: Hmembers. spree. com/sip/byj ingo/ and help yourself to the free chicken (please, no more than 50 to a customer).

It certainly sounds exciting at BY JINGO, go have a look. So Patrick, send me my, er his address. We should correspond. Geez, what if there's only one of me and I've been living a double life, without knowing it.

Richard Burton, Major (Retd)

I was interested to read in the December '98 issue that you intend to produce special issues covering: German Colonial Uniforms and the gunboat articles with foldout drawings - please let me have these as soon as possible! I confess I am not a war gamer. I collect 54mm. model soldiers with particular preference to the Dervish Wars (against Brits, Italians, French and Belgians) and the NW Frontier campaigns. Ironically I never served in those places, being a post wart soldier with a short time in Palestine Oust before the end of the Mandate), Vienna, Berlin, Trieste and finally Malta and Libya.

For a number of years (1980-87) 1 subscribed to Savage and Soldier and will be writing to Robert Burke to obtain back numbers.

I hope to have the special issues ready for sale by the end of summer. You are certainly not the only non-war gamer subscriber, I hope the mix in articles keeps your interest. How would you like to write an article on the end of the Palestine Mandate or on Libya that might interest our readership.

Bob Ruman, Articles of War

Saw your note on my abebooks.com site. You have to go to the dealer list under Articles of War to find my books. However, I am now also on a better site www.bibliofind.com where you go to Articles of War in the Dealer list then the AOW search engine, which will search in the title and description for any word used, ie: Zulu, South African, Ashanti, etc.

Those of us that have access to the internet here it is right from Bob. I will spend some quality time checking this site out.

Michael Parker

The start of the year has been a pretty hectic period, especially coming back to work after being laid up for just over two months with a broken ankle. I shall, in future, apply casualties to units advancing downhill on wet, grassy slopes!

I am something of a maps fanatic. I don't think you can read or study military history without a decent map, and the maps are the first thing I look for in a history book, far more important than almost any other type of illustration. Those in books published before the Great War are usually superb, real works of art. I have just been reading "The Afghan War 1839-1842 and 1878-1880" by Archibald Forbes, published at the end of the last century, and I thought you might like a copy of the maps for the five engagements of the 2nd Afghan War. They are long out of copyright if you ever need to fill a page. The book isn't a bad brief account, but not a patch on Hanna, and much kinder to Roberts.

There are the really great engagements of the British Army after the Mutiny certainly up to the 2nd Boer War (other than as a study in military incompetence, I have never really understood the fascination of that minor skirmish in Zululand).

Maiwand and Ahmed Khel are excellent battles for refighting on a games table. I doubt whether many gainers will make as many mistakes as Burrows, but the rules must reflect the weakness of his native regiments (especially Jacob's Rifles) and how heavily he was outgunned in artillery - if possible that and the position of the ravine should be kept secret from the Burrows player. Ahmed Khel could so easily have been another Maiwand and reflects great credit on Stewart and his troops. We are talking about big battles, and 6mm is the ideal scale.

You mention the "AK-47" rules from Peter Pig. They are good fun, but could perhaps stand a little tinkering (there speaks a typical wargamer). I fear that war in Africa is now endemic and will be so for the foreseeable future, although little reported and, probably less understood. Over here we recently had a very good TV documentary on the American engagement in Somaliland which showed how easy it was for even the best trained and best equipped troops to get into serious trouble.

The figures to go with "AK-47" aren't bad, and really only need black undercoating, drybrushing in camouflage colours and a little detail added: an army in a day (or even an evening if you are quicker than me, which isn't difficult). You could have a very good multiplayer game with a range of armies and planty of scope for double-dealing.

For the ACW enthusiasts Peter Pig also do a train and rolling stock in 15mm. C19 was the great age of railways, but this seems to have been ignored largely by makers of figures and equipment. In Britain we have Irregular Miniatures in 6mm, Pendragon Miniatures in 10mm and Peter Pig in 15mm, but nothing in larger scales.

One final thing while writing, prices for figures. I think Foundry are currently overpriced, certainly compared to other manufacturers, some of whom can now match Foundry for quality. The thinking is coloured by Games Workshop, very successful makers of fantasy and sci- figures , now a quoted public company with a large chain of retail outlets. Children and younger players spend large sums buying their figures and equipment, with the range continually changing, and that seems to be the philosophy. I am not sure whether it will work with historical miniatures, where there is far more competition as to the number of manufacturers.

I take your point on historical growth in price, but I wouldn't now consider a major project in 25mm, partly because of cost, partly because of storage problems, but I may add to some existing arn-iies.

I am less than enthusiastic about the latest ranges from Foundry. I will say nothing about "Zombie Gunfighters", except wonder whether there is a market or this is just another overhead bumping up the cost of figures. The African range look grotesque, overheavily built to the point of being characters looking more like gorillas than people. Hand and weapons are becoming too big and out of proportion, a problem a number of manufacturers have had when striving for too much detail.

In my experience, native Africans are usually of a tall build, well proportioned or slender, certainly not anywhere near as heavy as these figures.

We all have much for which to be grateful to Foundry, but they can't rest on their laurels or let standards slip in a competitive world. I have lots of Foundry figures, NW Frontier (what about the mule carried mountain gun set?), ACW, Plains Wars, gunfighters, Marlburian, even some Woodland Indians and settlers (now there is a fascinating Colonial campaign), but I won't be adding the African range.

I thank you for the maps. As you can see Maiwand is reproduced on the next page, and the others will come as room permits. The comment "minor skirmish in Zululand" will certainly raise some eyebrows, I can't wait to see the mail after this. I am also something of a map fanatic (currently at about 600 and climbing) There is nothing as frustrating as reading a history book or article that has no maps, or even worse has bad ones, which is all too common now. I have seen rules from who I forget to go along 'With Zombie Gunfighters, heck there are even rules for Zombie Napoleonics, called "Flintlock" I believe. I would never have guessed that "wargamers tinker with published rules sets." How many other people know about this. Let me know if you have tinkered with rules sets and we can print them here.

Jumbo Maiwand Map (slow: 162K)