Timothy Boyd

As one of the 20 customers for your book on the Germans in Africa, I want to thank you heartily and express my appreciation for the time and trouble you took to create such a very useful work.  As part of my crusade to paint everything backlogged in the basement, I recently pulled out the ancient Falcon 25mm German colonial figures which have been on the shelf since I originally bought them c. 1990 (?) and your booklet has been enormously helpful in getting the color on them.  I suppose the problem with your work was that it was published before its time: the Falcon figures are, I'd guess, no longer available and haven't been for some time, their line was never completed, and, until recently, with the advent of the "Darkest Africa" enthusiasm, there hasn't been much to replace it. 

I feel very lucky, in fact, to have bought a batch when I did, even though, to complete my units, I've had to use Honorable Lead Boiler Suit figures which, though good figures, are 28s, and the Falcons were definitely a little small in the 25mm department.  (But, I tell myself, this actually is a pretty good representation of the body types:  well-fed ‘Junker’ officers and scrawny recruits from the docks of the Baltic ports).  As well, although there are the Boiler Suit boys, there are no Hereros or Nama, so, unless you have the old Falcon Hereros, what can you do for fighting in SW Africa?

But--this wasn't meant to be an essay, just a note of praise and thanks for work well done.

You have unpainted figs since 1990, geez, I just finished painting some Jack Scruby figs I got in 1964.  Which is not to mention all the figs I have unpainted since 1995, 96, 97, 01, 02, 03 etc.  

As to your having no Hereros try looking at the European dressed africans in the Foundry Darkest Africa range, I think they also do some Maroon carib pirates that might work.  Certainly the Darkest Africa ones will, although there isn't much variety. Thanks for the note, I really appreciate it.

FLASH NEWS if you did not attend Historicon Falcon US (25mm) is making a comeback, some colonial are available (FFL) with more coming (Germans).

Timothy Boyd

1964!????  You've got ‘me’ beaten!   I only began to ‘buy’ figures in 1985 and I've even painted those, mostly.  But it seems the disease of the hobby, doesn't it?  Do all of us have how tons of blank metal stuffed away? A case of "My eyes were bigger than my paintbrush"?  (Wouldn't this make an interesting and revealing survey:  how much backlogged material do you have and from when?) 

But that's why I started my project of trying to go through all of those musty-smelling boxes, digging out whole periods I once saw a bright-colored advertisement for, or read an article or book on, got fired up for a few months, sent for batches of figures, then moved on, and there they were, one more weight for the basement shelves, and actually organizing them into units, filling in the gaps, and painting them.  At present, I'm finally finishing both the Russo-Turkish War of 1877 (begun with Lancashire Games figures in 1993?) and the Southwest African German colonial wars (1990?). 

After that, it's the Franco-Prussian War (Falcon, 1986, plus, more recently, Essex, with a little Freikorps 15 here and there) and then, well, as you know better than I, there are lots of mystery boxes to be opened...

Thanks for your note and for the suggestion for the Hereros.  Fortunately, when I invested in those Falcon figures all of those years ago, I also bought a number of packs of Falcon Hereros, and I've even managed to paint them!  In fact, it's been fun doing this project.  I made a pompom gun unit out of an Old Glory pompom plus Falcon gunners, a limber and team from an Irregular generic limber/team plus two Falcon mounted infantry as drivers, and am thinking of adding a heliograph unit from my spares box of old Frontier heliographs plus Falcon gunners.

None of these things is commercially available, so it's been a special pleasure producing "one-offs".  As well, I've added some very interesting books to my collection--things like Walter Nuhn's Feind ueberall, to inspire me to create rules which attempt to reflect conditions in the era and place.  I was really pleased, I should add, to see the latest Heliograph, in which you, reading my mind, clearly, began to publish even more material to keep me going.

But now it's off to my ‘other’ summer project:  laying brick paths around my wife, Carolyn's, kitchen garden.  Not so challenging as heliographs, but a lot sweatier!

Ah ha, 1985 so you do have some old farts still laying around.  Well with my 1964s finished you are ahead of me most of mine not painted are from 99 on. Lead disease gets worse as you get older, trust me.  A couple of weeks ago I thought I only had a couple of hundred figs to paint, then Ben looked and that changed to well over 1000, don't tell my wife probably more than 2000. Good grief that's a lot, and I'm going to Historicon to buy more, what am I thinking!

I understand about reading a book and getting fired up over a period.  But I try to stay with reading colonial stuff and not branching out, last time I read about the Napoleonic wars I spent way too much for two armies in 15mm (Wurtemburgers vs Austrians) and still have not finished painting them.  And then some periods just don't grab me the way they once did.  Like ACW, I’ve got some 15s with still more to paint but won't buy more, same for Napys. AWI No, unless I can find some Delaware units my relatives fought in and then only for display.  Ancients, nope, unless there are some really fine individuals for my Darkest Africa lost cities of Rome and Egypt.

I determined a long time ago, well about 96 that I would stick with colonials as my favorite movies and fiction are about the colonial period (well except for Sharpe and Hornblower).

I am currently finishing????? my Chinese armies, of the 20s, Praetorian Guard for Warhammer 40K yeah well they're British redcoats of course to fight my orcs and goblins.  The orcs etc will be used for 1889 Stargate adventures.  More to the period I have a load of Castaway Arts camel corps and mounted Fuzzies to paint up, as well as some of their FFL to add to my OG FFL and Arabs, but never seem to have any Berbers my favorites.  My SW German Africa forces are lacking four more camel corps to be finished, yeah not too many Hereros around.  My East African Germans are done but not their native enemies the Masai.

Not to mention the troops to paint and finish filling out the smallish armies of my Indian Ocean continent (as yet unnamed).

I hope that you will find the next issue to be even more interesting in regards to German casualties in Africa, it's mostly east Africa but you will see the general idea about European casualties.  Which should certainly be reflected in any set of rules, and I don't think they are (not from wounds but from sickness).

The more I think about Hereros for you, I think about info I have or have seen that you could use wild west figures with rifles for Hereros.  As long as the clothing is straightforward on the cowboys, i.e. no chaps or six-shooters, then it would work.  Take a look at Geo-Hex's Monday Knight Product figures of the Wild West. [I understand that they also have some FFL (25mm).]  They just might work.  If you look at the Haitians and think they might work let me know I have a bag of 20 I reviewed about 8 years ago you can have. Actually, I think they would work, from the photos I have seen their hats maybe a bit much but the figs overall will work.  They go from near naked to fully clothed, so even some plain Zulus with rifles should work.

When you get your brick walks done come on over and help me with ours.

Russ Lockwood

I read Timothy Boyd’s letter in Heliograph 136, in which he was looking for information regarding the Spanish victory over the British in 1781 at Pensacola. I did a quick search using the term “Pensacola” and came up with the following articles:  

El Dorado  v8n2: The Campaigns of Bernardo de Galvez

The Spanish Defense of the Americas 1762-1807

El Dorado  vol 5 No. 1 Part 6: Spanish Colonial Frontier Forces 1762-1807
El Dorado  vol 5 No. 2: Part 7: Spanish Colonial Frontier Forces 1762-1807
El Dorado  vol 5 No. 4: Part 8: The Spanish Navy Carlos III and Sea Power  

El Dorado vol. 9 no 1:

Spanish and British Units: American Revolution
1st Note: British at Pensacola
2nd Note: Spanish in Louisiana
3rd Note: Spanish at St. Louis
4th Note: British at Mobile
5th Note: Spanish at Mobile
6th Note: British Attack St. Louis
7th Note: Spanish Garrison of St. Louis
8th Note: Spanish "Regular" units in Louisiana and West Florida
 

El Dorado  vol 7 No. 4:  Moreno Libre De La Habana and Notes on Units at Pensacola c. 1781  

Time Portal Passages  Winter 2000: Spanish Operations During the American Revolution

Spanish Operations During the American Revolution Introduction
Spanish Operations During the American Revolution: Chronology
Spanish Operations During the American Revolution: Spanish Units and Strengths
Spanish Operations During the American Revolution: Spanish Uniforms mid-late 1700s
 

Time Portal Passages  January 1999: 
Chronological List of Battles  Involving Loyalist and Native Nation Forces 1781  

Seven Years War Assoc. Journal vol 12 no 2:
The Forces of King Charles III

Introduction
Infantry and Household Troops
Light Infantry and Provincial Militia
Cavalry: Line, Light, and Dragoons
Artillery, Engineers, and Standards

All these articles (and about 40,000 more) are in the MagWeb.com archive, should he not be able to find hard copies of the magazines. Additional bibliography information is also contained within some of the articles. Access to the MagWeb.com archive starts at $10 for a week of access – perfect for a specific project (a full year is $75) -- and allows you to print out the articles or save them to your hard drive.  

Hope this helps him in his quest for research.

Thanks Russ for the help and MagWeb plug.

Timothy Boyd

What an amazing amount of info!  Thanks for thinking of me--and thanks, as well, for your thoughts on the Hereros.  As I begin to read more about the era, however, I'm always being smacked by the horrendous brutality of German colonialists, seemingly much worse than the behavior of the Brits or French, the Belgians being the only ones in the same league.  I guess I shouldn't be surprised:  the Germans were brutal to occupied France in 1870-1 and to occupied Belgium, Luxembourg, and France in 1914-18, (not to mention all of Europe in 1939-45) so there appears to be a tradition here, but it makes me wonder whether planning to pursue this period isn't dipping towards the so-called "black wargames" discussed in wargames magazines a couple of years back.  You seem to have been interested in this era for some years: any thoughts on my hesitation?

Since I research the 18th century colonial period here in SC for work and read/research 19th c colonialism as a past time I can't help but think that the Germans and Belgians were not the only brutal forces.  The Brits have always shown a callous disregard for their colonial subjects.  On the other hand they did not brutalize them (I take that back they were quite brutal to the Native Americans when they did not bend a knee to whatever George was king) as the Germans and Belgians did.  I think it is all part of the political game that power hungry people/countries play, after all it's not their "people" that are brutalized (well it is in some cases).

However, I do not let that come into play in my gaming.    My colonial powers do not brutalize, the local population fights for its freedom/religious/economic rights but not against brutality of the colonial power.  It is not that I don't want to acknowledge it, it was a reality, but just not in my fantasy world.  And I try very hard to keep them separate. 

I of course do have vile and despicable characters (I try and stay away from stereotypes but it doesn't always work) for example slavers and gangsters (gangsters as a generic term for groups that do anything for money but not to a set time period). These characters have no redeeming characteristics whatsoever, but so far none have been colonial powers, that does not mean they would not run a large territory/country. I hope this makes some sense, this is all "play" and not real world, lead soldiers cannot brutalize only real people can.  That's does make a difference.  None of what I play do I think is real, nor do I translate real world actions to the game table.  Historic accuracy is strictly for troop size, morale, firing etc.  The rules we use are very different from those used by military types for simulation exercises.

I think I'm getting off track, I play wargames because they're fun, I enjoy reading history, I love planning, collecting and painting my troops, sometimes I even have battles with them, but they are not real.  If a colonial power brutalized the locals in the real world it was not appropriate and will certainly not happen in my world.

Am I too optimistic? in my philosophy? what is your reaction? I noticed you didn’t write anything about helping with our brickwalks.

Timothy Boyd

What do your brick walks need?  Just yesterday, we got to the nearly-final stages of ours (a little cleanup and the addition of some supporting earthwork, plus mixing the hydrogenated cow manure into the new flower bed and we're done--for now), so I'll be free soon for consultation.

Thanks for your note about wargaming, which I found very interesting and helpful.  I agree with you on the idea of placing the emphasis upon ‘game’ rather than ‘war’, even though, I must admit, if I think about the consequences to humans of the ‘war’ side of things, I still hesitate a little.  I suppose, though, I need to go back and read things like ‘Charge!’, where old warriors like Peter Young show such relish for the ‘fun’ of it all:  if men like that, who've seen all too much of the real thing, can see what we do as merely a lively game, then who am I to have such modern doubts?

But--though the brickwork no longer calls, or at least not so loudly, the babies (our nearly-two-year-old twins, Elspeth and Alisdair) are definitely calling, and it's bath time (rubber ducky optional, though anything which causes loud splashes is always welcome).

Thanks, again, for your note and know that I would be glad to offer helpful hints about paving (beginning with rule #1:  buy and read all of those Sunset House books, but then put them back on your DIY shelf and go play in the dirt--it's sweaty, but fun.)

Ted Herbert

Many thanks for your kind comments in 'The Heliograph' on my book.  I am currently working on volume two covering the period 1919-1939. 

Scott Hansen

How have you been doing.  I've written you a short article on some terrain ideas.  I started working on 15mm Sudan 1880's last Fall and fought my first battle a few weeks ago.  I use "Battles for Empire" rules and discovered they work well.

They had some issues when I read them where I felt they wouldn't work but they did in practice.  I remember a while ago you mentioned them and were bothered by the lack of figure and ground scale.

I got tired of skirmish style rules rolling dice for every figure to perform melee and fire combat so these rules eliminate all that along with extra phases.  My friend and I gamed a battle with 25 Sudan and 8 British units in about 3.5 hours.  If you are interested, I could write and review them for you.

Have fun going to Historicon.  I need a break from it this year.