Greetings fellow wargamers! Life continues to be busy but from time to time we get to do and see things that make life particularly enjoyable. While in Maryland for a wedding, I took the family to Gettysburg and Antietam. I thoroughly enjoy walking Little Round Top and standing at Cushing's Battery [Lieutenant Alonzo Cushing is a hometown hero]. My two young boys enjoyed climbing the boulders of Devil's Den and chasing snakes among the rail fences. I have not strolled through the town of Gettysburg in years and was very pleasantly surprised by two shops. The first is The Irish Brigade, which is full of Irish Brigade T-shirts, hats, mugs, flags, prints etc. etc.
The name of the second shop escapes me, probably because we stumbled upon it quite by accident. It sells toy soldiers and miniatures and not just ACW. The youngsters bought new Warhammer kits while I got the 54mm styrene kit by Dragon of four Union infantry. The pieces are configured for multiple poses so you can construct about a dozen distinctive poses from four sets of body parts. Now we wait for Dragon to come out with Confederates, as well as officer, musician, flag bearer figures and a wider variety of weapons, heads/hats, and equipment. I have dreamed of multi-pose napoleonic styrene kits. The Historex kits were expensive and the old Airfix kits were great but too limited in choice of pose. I recall the British rifleman and French infantryman had only two variants each. Anyway, with so many napoleonic uniforms sharing similar features, a multi-pose kit with numerous head variants could produce a vast array of figure types and conversions.
At age 50, I am getting prepared for my senior years. Already my eyesight is just weak enough to prevent me from enjoying the full visual sensation of an array of 15mm troops. I focus on small 25s for mass armies and large 25s for skirmish. Now I am considering expanding my 54s in anticipation of any further visual degradation. I am sure you are aware, 54mm scale is enjoying a vast resurgence in popularity with hundreds of new figures and reputable dealers. As far as I am concerned, manufacturers would do well to produce figures of hard plastic as opposed to softer materials. If I am going to invest time painting a figure, I want the paint job to last. That's why I believe I will be satisfied assembling/gluing these multi-pose figures; the final result will hold a paint job and I should be able to assemble nearly any reasonable pose.
Antietam was all I remembered it was. Bloody Lane is dramatic. I rediscovered that the field of view from that sunken road was vastly curtailed in some spots. There are a few places where the defending confederates would not see the advancing federals until they were only a score yards away! Imagine the shock to the northerner who crests a rise only to be greeted by a volume of fire at near point-blank range! The park service has emplaced a number of rail fences in appropriate places. It would be wonderful if they could restore the East, West, and North Woods to their original perimeters in order to recreate the original lines of sight.
Burnside's Bridge is always a treat. If you haven't been there, you probably don't understand that this stone bridge exits directly into a steep and fairly high ridge at a sharp right angle to the bridge. The attackers who managed to get across the bridge then had to make an immediate left or right turn to get past the well-defended ridge. Talk about your suicide missions. Standing on the summit of the ridge, you can understand how a battalion of Georgians could hold up the advance of a union corps for hours. And we must not forget the sacrifices made by these thousands of Americans who fought for what they believed in. Their efforts made America what it is today. Could the D-Day landing as portrayed in Saving Private Ryan be much worse than the charges and countercharges across the cornfield of Antietam?
Lone Warrior almost came to you in shortened form. There was too little material to fill forty pages this quarter. Therefore I have included a piece which first appeared in issue 58 as well as a review of Gates of Fire, a stunning historical novel of the Battle of Thermopylae. I entertain high hopes of giving you more and more pages of solo wargaming material but this won't happen if you guys don't write that material. Believe me when I say that our SWA members draw great satisfaction and inspiration from the goings on of their fellow members. Surely someone has fought a solo battle recently and can write us a description of the action as well as discuss how he handled some solo aspect. Or perhaps you have played a computer game or used a rule set with solo applications. And of course, our readers forum is an opportunity to just tell us what you've been up to. I think we have amply demonstrated that you don't have to be a literary giant to get published in Lone Warrior, just an avid wargamer who does it by himself from time to time and enjoys telling others about it.
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