When Hal kindly invited me to write something for this edition of MWAN, I was extremely flattered. Whilst considering what to write, I fell into some generalized musing on the hobby, my involvement and all the resulting wanderings in period, figure size, etc. I ' v e been war gaming for quite awhile now. I don't know exactly when I started but I reckon it was about 1965/1966 when Airfix first introduced their "window boxes" of 1/76 scale plastic figures.
I well remember painting up the contents of several WWII German infantry and British infantry combat group boxes, making umpteen Sherman and Tiger tank kits, as well as painting WWI German infantry as British colonial infantry and pitching them against the natives from the Tarzan box (an exercise that always left you with lots of spare white hunters, Tarzan, crocodiles and elephants).
Then I discovered Hinton Hunt 20mm metal figures, which were very expensive at the time - about 1/10d for one infantryman as I recall, when you could buy an entire box of Airfix for around 1/-- and had chunks of "flash" to be pared away. But the figures had style and were detailed than those from Airfix. There was the monthly Airfix Magazine too, which was eagerly awaited for its diagrams of tanks, warships or planes, figure conversions and "raising an army" type articles. Donald Featherstone's Wargamer's Newsletter was around about this time and that really was the business. Each issue was read from cover to cover, placed carefully on the shelf, frequently referred to and often reread time after time.
Miniature Figurines started about this time, with their range of 25mm figures, now nostalgically referred to as "the telegraph pole era" as all the spears, lances, etc., were cast on the figure and were very thick, but they were great figures.
Moving on, my first published article for which I received payment appeared in Miniature Warfare in 1976. John Tunstill ran this magazine and it must be seen as the fore runner of today's "glossies" (I hate that word).
War gaming really took off in the 1970's thanks to the efforts of stalwarts of the hobby such as Don Featherstone, Charles Grant, Peter Young, Terry Wise and Charlie Wesencraft, who published a number of high quality "text books" between them, and rule writers who produced a seemingly endless supply of commercial rules.
The real boom in figures also started about this time with 25min predominating. In the Asquith household army after army of 25mm figures followed, many by figure manufacturers now long gone such as Douglas Miniatures, Phoenix, and Greenwood and Ball. I honestly do not think that there is a period of history that I have not wargamed at one time or another.
Plastic figures all but disappeared, with Airfix in particular seeming to adopt a policy of self destruction. More figure sizes came in with 15nim staying the course, but the Hinchliffe 12mm and Minifigs 30mm. series didn't seem to catch on.
On the writing front I nervously sent in my first article to the editor of Battle for Wargainers. It was a piece on the battle of Edgehill 1642 as a war game - it appeared in the February 1978 issue and a whole series followed (I must have caught him on a good day) and I have been writing for MAP/ASP/Nexus ever since. They even let me write a few books and edit two of their magazines.
Back on the figure front, I toyed with 15mm, but I didn't really enjoy painting or using them, although I still have my two l5mm ancient period armies - Sumerians and a non-descript generalized army for opposition.
In the mid 1980's my childhood interest in 54nim "toy" soldiers - as opposed to "proper" war gaming figures - was rekindled and for some time my two interests moved in a compatible, comfortable, parallel existence. War games were played with hundreds of 20mm, 25mm, 30mm (Tradition) and 40min (Wargames Foundry) whilst 54min metal toy soldiers were simply collected and displayed. Slowly but surely however, the toys took an increasing amount of my time, interest and capital.
Once again, I can not recall the precise moment I switched from the dual role of war gamer with small figures/toy soldier collector to someone who also war games with toy soldiers. I would hazard a guess that the bug finally "bit" in 1990, certainly by then I was into collecting toy soldiers big time.
I staged a number of war games using 54mm. toy solders at war game shows and military fairs, assisted by fellow war gainers whom I had dragooned into helping and humoring me.
Now, set against this background was the fact that I had read H.G. Wells whilst at school - The Time Machine, The History of Mr. Polly, etc., but when I stumbled across copies of Floor Games and Little Wars, I was well and truly hooked.
Suffice to say, I moved over to using H.G. Wells' rules and re-creating his style of play as closely as possible - great fun! (Well, I think so!),
But a curious thing happened in parallel with this, which for me just underlines what a crazy, fun hobby war gaming can be. From somewhere, and once again I truly can not recall where, came the urge to try kriegsspiel using troop blocks. Bill Leeson of Hemel Hempstead has done some stirling work in this area, making books, maps and rules available in English. It was great fim and tremendously stimulating, but the little metal troop blocks did not excite me.
The thought of 6mm appealed to me and I sent off sample orders to three companies: Irregular Miniatures and two others. The package from Irregular arrived in two days, and from the others in two weeks and two months respectively. Needless to say, Irregular Miniatures got my custom and I now have about a dozen huge 6mm armies, all using Irregular Miniatures' figures, in a variety of periods.
I banged on about my Waterloo 6mm project in one of my talks at Fall In! Last year, so I shall not tire the present reader with the details of recreating every unit which fought in the battle, Suffice to say that I have never enjoyed my war gaming so much.
I'm not sure what I have proved by all the foregoing or what point I have made, or indeed if I intended to, but it is perhaps interesting to reflect on a hobby which I have enjoyed for over 30 years now.
The hobby is ever changing, as fashions in rules, historical periods and figure sizes come and go.
The publishers of some commercial rule sets for example would have us believe that their product dominates the hobby, when in truth this is rarely the case. The three most consistently popular periods in war gaming are (in popularity order) first Napoleonics, second WWII and thirdly Ancients. Only the fourth slot is ever "up for grabs". Historical periods such as the American Civil War, FrancoGerman War or the Sikh Wars become "in" either due to a film, a book or a particular range of figures and enjoy a time in the spotlight before being replaced (What I find most amusing is the hurried discarding of armies in the almost frantic search for a match winning army under the latest edition of a set of rules or the research stultifying army lists).
One aspect I do applaud is the erosion of the "snob barrier" between metal and plastic figures. As metal figures spiral in price (and we are told we are still "getting them cheap"), plastic figures at around three pounds a box for (say) 17 mountedin6 scale figures provide an alternative worth considering. The range on offer is considerable these days with a number of manufacturers producing good quality figures.
Enough! and off the soap box. I have made some great friends through the hobby, but I have no intention of name dropping here. Yes, there are the whiners and "anoraks" (does that translate across the Atlantic?) Who do not have real lives, but they are in the minority. In my experience, the average war gamer is a pleasant fellow, well read and with a positive approach to the hobby, a hobby which is surely great fan and all things to all war gamers. It matters not what period you play, what size or make of figures, what rules you use, or if you're a club member or a solo war gamer. If you're enjoying it, then that's what it's all about.
It's just that after 30 years or more, I still have umpteen figures to paint, battles to research and fight, scenery to build and I really fancy having a try at this period .....
Good luck to everyone in the hobby and my regards to you all!
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© Copyright 1999 Hal Thinglum
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