Smokin' my pipe on the mountings, sniffin' the mornin' cool,
I climbs in my old brown gaiters along o' my old brown mule.
The monkey can say what our road was -- the wild-goat 'e knows where we passed.
Stand easy, you long-eared old darlin's! Out drag-ropes! With shrapnel! Hold fast -- 'Tss! 'Tss!

For you all love the screw-guns -- the screw-guns they all love you!
So when we take tea with a few guns, o' course you will know what to do -- hoo! hoo!
Jest send in your Chief an' surrender -- it's worse if you fights or you runs:
You may hide in the caves, they'll be only your graves, but you can't get away from the guns!

-- Excerpt from The Screw Guns by Rudyard Kipling

Well we made it to our third issue in The Herald and the howling mob of ancient gamers has failed in their attempt to breach the defenses! Load the guns with double canister and stand fast and wait for the order to fire! I think Mike Demana is being rather sporting about this don't you think?

What inspire us to game a certain period? Is it a fondness for that period in History? Or maybe it's because one of our mates is gaming the period currently. Perhaps we were inspired by a game that we saw at a Con, or while channel surfing we came across a real cool movie on the period. Does it matter? I say not! Just as long as we game and enjoy ourselves doing it!

Once again it's time for a confession. Hmmm, if I keep this up... It was the movie Waterloo that first whetted my appetite for gaming. I was lucky enough to see it as a kid on the big screen at the age of eight, but of course I didn't understand a bloody thing about it! However as the sands of time ground on it showed up on late night TV. I had the opportunity to watch it again and take in the full meaning of the movie. I was hooked! I immediately (well, actually, about 10 hours later -- nice to be young and able to sleep in!) went down to the local hobby store and picked up some Airfix figures for about $1.50 CDN for 50 figures.

You remember that, right? Ghoulish yellow, Battleship grey or Union blue plastic figures that only had about three figures doing the same thing in one box, so you had to buy 20 boxes to get a reasonable amount of figures you could use. Why is it that the artillerist in the French Napoleonic packs all look like they were wearing a truss for a hernia? Off to the races we went and never looked back. Period after period was ventured into, only limited by the offerings of Aifix. Ahh...those were the days!

Why on earth am I talking about Airfix figures, you may ask? Simple. I wanted to use this month's column to list various resources for figures, rules, information, movies, etc., to inspire others to jump into the glorious period of Colonial gaming. I had tried here to the best of my ability to compile the most comprehensive list that I could. I apologize in advance for any oversights and look forward to any additions or corrections

Part 1: Internet Newsgroups
www.groups.yahoo.com/group/ColonialWars -- A mailing list devoted to Colonial Wargaming
www.groups.yahoo.com/group/Back_of_Beyond -- A mailing list devoted to the eclectic 1920's backwater areas
www.groups.yahoo.com/group/Darkest_Africa -- A mailing list dedicated to Adventure gaming in Darkest Africa: "Dr. Livingstone I presume"
www.groups.yahoo.com/group/DashingAdventure.com -- Similar to the Back of Beyond site
www.groups.yahoo.com/group/OstAfrika -- Great source for German East Africa gaming
www.groups.yahoo.com/group/ralladillo.com -- Spanish and Iberian gaming info here
www.groups.yahoo.com/group/SpanAmWar.com -- Great source for Spanish-American War gaming
www.groups.yahoo.com/group/swordflame.com -- Dedicated to followers, like myself, of The Sword and the Flame rules
www.groups.yahoo.com/group/GASLIGHTrules.com -- Victorian Science Fiction and all that nonsense
www.groups.yahoo.com/group/SGoM.com -- Ever wanted to do War of the Worlds? Here's the place to start
www.groups.yahoo.com/group/S1889.com -- Victorian Science Fiction and role playing gaming
www.groups.yahoo.com/group/RussianCivilWar.com -- Always an interesting and multi-faceted period
www.groups.yahoo.com/groupBetweenTheWars.com -- Dedicated to that time between WW I and WW II and the wars in the various Great Nations' colonies
www.groups.yahoo.com/group/BloodandIron.com -- Franco-Prussian, Russo-Turkish War and all that
www.groups.yahoo.com/group/littlewars.com -- Mr. H.G. Wells would be proud!
www.groups.yahoo.com/group/DashingAdventure.com
www.groups.yahoo.com/group/ironcladscom -- Ironclads from 1860 to 1880 for all you seadogs
www.groups.yahoo.com/group/predred.com -- Another naval site for pre-dreadnaught gaming
www.groups.yahoo.com/groupVictorianAdventure.com -- More Victorian Sci-Fi and role[playing

Various Colonial Gaming Sites
http://www.zeitcom.com/majgen
http://www.warflag.com/shadow/index.html
http://theminiaturespage.com/
http://tetrad.stanford.edu/HM/Colonials.html
http://www.terragenesis.co.uk/
http://www.warfactory.co.uk/
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Corridor/3588/index.html
http://www.icenter.net/~gisby/links.htm#4
http://www.geocities.com/cdferree/index.htm
http://members.spree.com/sip/byjingo/web/Gallery/Dioramas/BobDuncan1/Kafiristan1.htm
http://members.spree.com/sip/byjingo/web/NEWS/BattleLine/OuargistanStation/Ouargistan1.htm
http://www.warflag.com/
http://home.comcast.net/~theangle/
http://www.savageandsoldier.com/
http://home.earthlink.net/~cyberkiwi/soldiers/index.html
http://www.oakglen.ns.ca/macduff/macduff.html
http://www.flagshipgames.com/RampantColonialism.htm
http://www.stapells.com/wargames/
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~beattie/steam.html
http://www.cpjohnston.freeserve.co.uk/olistan/
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Fortress/8798/DAindex.html
http://ice.prohosting.com/~minigame/
http://www.eurekamin.com.au/EurekaJurassic_Hyde_Park.html
http://embark.to/kingscarbine
http://www.bovver.freeserve.co.uk/
http://www.amazonminiatures.com/youandwhosearmy/
http://home.att.net/~cmior/title.html
http://home.att.net/~cmi-lmi/index.html
http://www.nirya.be/snv/fb/index.html
http://www.thortrains.net/armymen/
http://www.thortrains.net/armymen/fflgame.htm
http://scholar.library.csi.cuny.edu/ewing/leads/leads.htm
http://www.geocities.com/la_pipe/Mexico/colonialbattle01.html
http://www.geocities.com/faskew/
http://www.angelfire.com/games3/jacksongamer/
http://www.smallwars.co.uk/
http://daw.multimania.com/
http://www.miniblaze.com/
http://www.cowell.org/~andy/min/col/
http://pease1.sr.unh.edu/conspiracy/events/1999/Aortisan/
http://home.att.net/~essjam
http://www.sirgarnet.com/
http://cpu2212.adsl.bellglobal.com/~tod/colonial/colonial.htm
http://www.geocities.com/mogdonazia/index.htm
http://www.rudi-geudens.be/
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Zone/3323
http://www.fightmasters.com/upthenile/Home.htm
http://bagamoyo.freewebtools.com/index.html
http://members.rogers.com/sirrand/
http://www.britishempire.co.uk/empire.htm

So, as you can see, there are plenty of internet resources available to get you started in the period. Next issuem we have sources for figures, rules and the best part: MOVIEs!!!!

Get out there and game, and we'll see you all at Drums Along the Maumee May 14-15 in Toledo, OH.