MagWeb.com Kriegspieler was recently posted on the American “Magweb.com” site for military historical and hobby magazines, the largest repository for this genre of publication on the ’Net. All the articles from issues #5-8 are on this site and if you are a subscriber to Magweb.com you may view and download them all for free, in fact you can do the same for any other article from over 80 publications - more than 18,000 separate pieces - and this number is constantly growing. Tabletop Tactics Another friendly American I’ve met ‘on-line’ through the Napoleonic Forum is Mark Diehl, who is an enthusiastic wargamer, Napoleonic nut (such as Yours Truly) and Web author who has a very comprehensive wargaming site called “Tabletop Tactics - 21st Century Wargaming” at: www.tabletoptactics.com The Tabletop Tactics Warhorse logo. As stated in the title bar, this site is devoted to Historical Miniatures Wargaming International. Mark has the details for wargaming clubs and societies all over the world and including Australia and New Zealand. If you want your club or group’s details posted on the Web email Mark through his site, if you’re a serious wargamer and a Nethead to boot you should give his terrific site a guernsey anyway. He has very kindly posted details of the ‘Kriegspieler’, with a link to our site and even the contact and meeting details for our local wargaming group recently formed, the “Canberra Kriegspielers”! On the title page, below the fold are some of the goodies you can get on the site, starting with the main articles/subjects for the week and including such titles as: Nations Challenge Cup 2000 (US-International comp) Mathematical Entrophy & Combat Resolution Patton’s Duel (an on-line wargame) L’Armee Francais Napoleon Fire & Fury Rules (MS Word document) Acrylic Figure Painting Miniature Wargamers Discussion Group (another Net forum) ‘Berthier’ freeware (a make-your-own Napoleonic orbats program) A Logarithmic Distance Scale etc, etc. In other words, something on just about everything to do with the hobby of wargaming. The list of subjects also constantly changes and is updated each week. The site is done in frames (love ‘em or hate ‘em) but is clean, ordered and functional without trying to be too flash - no high-res graphics that take for ever to download which I find a real turn-off when I surf onto a site (life’s just too short to wait to and see the pretty pictures!!) and dead simple to navigate. The goodies (and, as you can see by the list above - there are lots of ‘em) are but one or two clicks away - none of this drilling down 10 levels to hit the ‘good oil’. This is aided by a side frame on the front page with direct links to all the main categories on the site such as News, Clubs(by region and country), Conventions (again, by country), Articles, Links, Rules & Reviews, Vendors, After Action Reports (battles/rule sets given the once over by wargamers play-testing or just re-fighting a stoush). Below these are links to a “How-to” segment - everything you wanted to know about wargaming for the novice gamer or interested Net surfer divided into categories of increasing complexity. You start with “About the Game”, in which Mark gives you an overview of the hobby, then onto “Field Regulations” - basically ‘Rules 101’ - followed by “Basic Training” to give you the necessaries to start off. The intro is finished off with “Tabletop Strategy” to give you a few more pointers about wargaming now you’ve mastered the basics. All in all an extremely useful feature - all too often the beginners are overlooked by experienced gamers and the fundamentals of the hobby can be difficult to grasp if you’re totally unfamiliar, which can also be very off-putting! Last but not least on the “Tabletop Tactics” front page (”but wait... there’s more!”) is “Hot Site of the Week”. Mark is constantly surfing the ‘Net to find new and interesting stuff which is previewed on Tabletop (when does the man find time to eat, sleep etc?) The site of the week when I last looked was “War is Over” - an Eastern Front scenario site at: www.wio.newmail.ru/ and of course, for WWII buffs - definitely worth a visit. At the bottom of the page are all the useful links to other wargaming Meccas such as the Napoleon site (er... for all things Napoleonic!) at www.napoleonicwars.com/ The site is also a member of more rings than a triple-arsed Bandicoot; there’s the Wargamer’s Ring (naturally), the Historical Miniatures Wargaming Ring (of course) and the Miniature Wargames Authors, Designers & Writers Webring (no kidding!?!) Right at the bottom is also a “List of Hot Sites” with all the links divided into the categories of History & General and Wargaming, with the latter subdivided into Ancient & Medieval, Gunpowder (Horse & Musket) and Mechanised (ie, Tanks). That just about covers “Tabletop Tactics” suffice it to say: ‘do yerself a favour’ and give it a visit. To check everything out would take a month of Sundays but the amount of info available either on the site or through links from it is stupendous. If you’re a South Australian, South African or even South American wargamer chances are you’ll find the club and/or the con nearest you and that alone has got to be worth the price of admission! Rating: 9 out of 10. Reviewer: BRS Back to Table of Contents -- Kriegspieler #10 To Kriegspieler List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by Kriegspieler Publications. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com