Bob Giglio

Thought I would send along an update as to the current status of the COLONIAL GLORY rules (2nd ed. Soldier's Companion).

First, the rules are still on-track to be published in time for Historicon 2000 (July). No word on exactly how the final product will appear, but I am leaning towards three booklets sold together (basic rules book, siege, campaign & vehicle rules book, and army lists book). We'll see.

After the first of the year (by end of January I should say) I will be sending everything along to Frank Chadwick for layout. Frank is doing the layout of the rules and booklets for Glory Press (Old Glory Corp.) at present. Frank is now in the process (I believe) of finishing the layout of his Volley, Bayonet & Glory rules, and says that he "should" be able to start the layout of COLONIAL GLORY by March.

The only real bits I have to finish (still) are the rest of the Army Lists (mainly the Indian Army), as well as an example of a few turns involving a few units (to be used as the major example of game flow for players, to help answer would-be questions). After the rules are published, it is intended that various campaign supplements (Compendiums) will be released for each theater or area of colonial wars. For example - Cape Frontier & Zulu Wars, 1st & 2nd Boer Wars, Boxer Rebellion, NWF, Egypt & Sudan, Algeria, Morocco, South American Wars (US), etc. Each supplement is (at present) to be 64-pages long, and to include full background, units, painting guides, and 10-12 scenarios (as many as I can fit in!)

I was hoping to have the Boxer supplement ready for Historicon 2000, but it all depends on time available at work). Reason for wanting to get this out for Historicon, is that presently the theme is Boxer Rebellion along with 2nd Boer War, and Ian Knight will be the Guest of Honor. Therefore, every colonial gamer should take this as an early warning to *Be There*! :-)

However, to coincide with the release of the rules, my gaming group (The Colonial Boys Club) and I plan to host two days of COLONIAL GLORY demo games of all the major periods (Zulu, Sudan, NWF, Boxer, Boer) at Historicon 2000. We will probably have our own room, with two tables going at the same time over two days (Friday & Saturday). And naturally, one of the games will be of my usual large-format (probably Boxer Rebellion involving river vessels!) Therefore, anyone interested in the rules can try them out in one of the games of the major periods that they like the best. Although, you will want to pre-reg for the games as soon as you get the convention information, as they will fill up fast.

As far as comments from the over two dozen playtest groups; thus far all have been very positive, with everyone that has commented liking the rules and new modifications very much.

Well, back to finishing those army lists...

I have not heard from Bob since I got this so I assume he got everything off to Chadwick and the layout will be starting soon.

Scott Hansen

The attached document is a Spanish American War scenario for the marines at Guantanamo bay. Hope you enjoy it. I plan on writting another scenario for you. It will probably be on that action where a Michigan regiment tried to ford a river guarded by the Spanish.

Over X-Mas work break, I plan on starting to paint Richard Houston's Moro set. This will be my next topic to write about for the Heliograph. I plan on continuing writing for MWAN and Clash of Empires. Probably something next year for Lone Warrior too. I like the variants, information and new product details in the Heliograph. It's fun to read your writting. It seems like your talking with all of us subscribers.

May you have a Merry X-Mas and get plenty of wargame figures!

I bought bunches of extra Darkest Africa packs as well as a few Pirates and just recently Foundry's figs for Dad's Army that I think I will tryagainst Cannon Fodder's new "The Troubles" Figs. See the ad. I just wish I could find the time to paint, all of last year I painted may be three dozen figures,. I am way behind in my painting.

Mark Stevens

The new Belgians are great!

I plan to use the Ral Partha Krupp gun with the Askari gun crew. It looks light-weight enough to drag through the jungle. The ammunition will have to be limited. I suspect the 75mm Krupp was as mountain gun. A cut-down Ral Partha Krupp on a mountain carriage may do. Dixon has Legioniares and Amazons for Dahomey. I have an old Military Illustrated with Amazon uniforms - if I can find it.

Yes! The new Belgians are great.

Gregory Blake

I am slowly returning to some form of normality [boarding my flight at Madras airport was a bizarre experience. Four hours on my feet amidst a sea of humanity before I sat in my seat!] India was fun, in every sense. It is an almost overwhelming place but nevertheless thoroughly enjoyable. As it turned out I was very lucky in that I travelled over there with a couple of friends, one of whom was born in India. Therefore I had a relatively soft landing and was molly-coddled by her family. This made things easy. I don't know how someone arriving cold who has had no experience of such a place would fare.

My thoughts about India are best described as a muddle of impressions. It is a bizarre place where the 21stC lives happily alongside the 11thC. A good example of that was seen by me last week when I visited the house of my driver's sister. It was simple one room house with thatched coconut frond roof, and mud walls. Inside there was Cable TV, a Tropical fish aquarium, full size refrigerator and electric light. I also remember passing by a rural village south of Pondicherry. The village was little more than thatched humpies out of the top of one of which protruded a satellite dish. Other places are indistinguishable from the most modern locations. Traffic is another feature one just cannot ignore.

Everyone owns a motor bike or motor scooter. Highways are flooded with roaring gaudy trucks, ramshackle rattling buses, cars, buzzing auto-rickshaws, motorbikes, bullock carts, meandering cows, wandering water buffalo, mobs of goats, feral pigs, dogs, human powered rickshaws, pedestrians, crops drying on the road surface, harvested rice thrown down to let the traffic thresh it, and any other obstruction imagination can devise. Road surfaces vary from excellent to something like the remains of Berlin after a 1000 bomber raid. Average road speed for cars works out to be c.30kmh, so you don't go anywhere fast. This was particularly true one day when our car persisted in breaking down and a 12 hour trip turned into a nightmarish 23 hour purgatory. There are lots of road rules but only three that matter: try to drive on the left, sound your horn whenever you come in sight of anything else on the road and always give way to a bigger vehicle regardless of what he is doing. If you live by this credo you will survive. I never saw a collision occur even though I was in a few extremely tight spots.

If the Indians learnt anything from the Brits it is that bureaucracy is God. They love shuffling paper, signing and counter signing, ticketing and rubber stamping. It took thirty five minutes to change some money one day because of the almost endless procession of clerks that all had to do their little bit.

The people are wonderful, very friendly and incredibly hospitable. They love feeding you. Never let anyone tell you there is a food shortage in India. The place is awash with tucker. At one stage I berated my hosts and told them that I was eating three times more than I ever did in Australia, their answer was to pile more food on my plate. Despite that though I did lose about 9Kg. This was due to another inevitability of travelling in India - dysentery and stomach infections. I was paranoidly careful what I ate and drank, but one day I did eat outside the safety cocoon of my friends kitchen. And yes something struck me down. I spent New Year's Eve in bed with a temperature of 102F, and this was basically the story for about a week. Then just when I thought it couldn't get any worse I threwup a great gob of what I can only describe as poisonous bile [that was fun]. This helped a bit but absolutely buggered me and I couldn't do anything much for another week. I totally lost my appetite and subsisted on a diet of medicine and Horlicks. Eventually I progressed to rice pudding. Even now I can't eat as much as I used to be able to. Good for weight control but there must be a nicer way to do it. Still, at least now I can claim to have campaigned in India, suffered dysentery and had a "fever" - a true colonialist.

I spent all of last week in Mysore, a truly great place. The Palace is awesome [the Maharajah still lives in the back]. I went out to Srirangapatnam the fortified city of Tipu Sultan stormed by the Brits in 1799 [a Colonel Arthur Wellesley had a fair bit to do with that]. The fortifications are still pretty well intact and the sense of history there is very profound. One day in Mysore I spotted a mob of fellows forming up outside the Mounted police barracks. I told Nazim my driver to stop and go and ask them if I could take some photos. He came back and said they had no objections provided I gave them some coffee money. So I got the best photos. These fellows were in full dress Indian lancer uniforms. Beautiful, turbaned, spit polished images from the past. They all insisted on shaking my hand and I think enjoyed the experience as much as I did. When I get back to work I'll scan the photos and send them to you. I also got a photo of a guard at the Palace. He was basically dressed as a late 19thC/early 20thC Sepoy and was carrying a 1942 model .303. All very atmospheric.

Well I could go on and on but I'll leave the rest for another time.