From Harry Jarosak A previous MWAN contained more discussion regarding plastic figures, specifically 54mm. Such are widely available (32nd scale) and becoming more so from a variety of sources. I enjoy collecting them and setting them up, but I don't use them for Wargmaing. They can be very cheap or run to one dollar plus for each. That's the price of 25mm.. Some odd Napoleonic figures are being produced: Austrian, etc., but at $4.00 each. But Waterloo Brunswick riflemen are 16/$8.95. These are available from Stad's, 815 N. 12th Street, Allentown, PA 181802 -610- 770-1140 - and from other dealers. There is an interesting trend using metal figures. We have the "Plastic People" using metal figures "Classic Toy Soldiers" German gun crew to complement their plastic 88mm gun are now in metal! Anyone undertaking the production of 54mm plastic for wargaming should do some serious research into costs, technology and technique. On more of a note commanding wider interest, the October 2nd, 1998 ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY said that Director Stanley Kubrick (Spartacus, Dr. Strange love, Barry Lyndon) is "obsessed" with making a gigantic movie on Napoleon as a wind-up to his career. Wow!
From Scott Hansen I finally got my Russo-Japanese War painted up after a year. I didn't paint for six months. I'm currently working on some rules. I hope to have an article on it for you with rules and a few scenarios in a few months. Each army as thirty 12-figure battalions, six cavalry regiments, eight artillery batteries and some machine guns. One advantage is I can game the Boxer Rebellion with the addition of a Chinese Army and some Allied troops (Italians, US) or the Russian Civil War.
After reading Michael Huskey's article on Chinese War Lords, I'm so tempted to game it. I bought my friend's Russian and Polish Napoleonics and am working on the 1831 Polish Rebellion. I purchased a book published in 1833 on the rebellion. It even has battle maps. After that, I have the Richard Houston Moros set to paint up. Finally, I'll probably do the Swiss Civil War of the 1840's. I agree with Steve Dake that we need to recruit new people but it's very hard. I've known three people from work that have sounded interested but I was never able to show them my place no matter how hard I tried.
Let's face it, our hobby is not for everyone. It involves a lot of work and research. Most people do not have quiet hobbies and say sports is one. Also history is looked down in this country as "why team about stuff in the past". Compared to board wargaming, miniature wargaming has remained stable. HISTORICON attendance has grown when other conventions are dying. But that can't stop us from trying to recruit new people.
From Michael Brown I have started an article concerning Black Soldiers - the War of 1812. Delays have pushed the article to the back burner. The biggest delay has been the birth of my third child. For the past ten weeks, I have not been able to get into my wargaming room to do anything - painting, etc. Ah, the lovely demands of Fatherhood! About all I've been doing is reading and engaging in a wargames favorite pastime creating and organizing my collection. I have finally began to explore my other interests such as Dark Ages Spain, War of 1812, French Revolution and War of Spanish Succession/Great Northern War. I am looking to do these periods - 25mm vs 15mm I usually game in. Since the armies are smaller, this will be not be a financial strain on the purse strings. Also, my group has less time as we are all family men with growing families. We are lucky to get one night a month.
Therefore, we decided to shift from large armies - I have the 1805 army of Northern Italy and opposing Austrians and am switching to smaller armies but larger battalions of one or two hours setups for a large l5mm Napoleonic game that is hardly ever finished. Setups take thirty minutes. Case in point - last night we fought a 25mm AWI with seven units per side. Setup began at 6pm and everything was put away by I Opm. The game was fought to completion. I have decided to sell my 15mm Napolconics to finance purchases in my other periods. I am not getting out of Napoleonics, just going back to my primary interest - the French Revolution. I went to 1809 because everyone else in the area was gaming late-mid -years Napoleonics.
I am tired of this era due to the fact everyone wants nothing but Guards and the Elite troops. Easy troops to game with, I prefer using low quality troops - i.e. conscripts/militia as they open more facets to gaming and command control.
From Greg Seefeldt I have two great gainers in Belle Frourche and two in Rapid City. They have a great attitude toward gaming and are very easy to get along with. Thus, there is no nitpicking on rules. This makes for some very enjoyable gaining. Currently I'm painting up a New Kingdom Egyptian Army for DBU. This is going along very quickly. One of the gentlemen that I have met in Rapid City is an Ancients player and luckily for me, has several DBM Ancient armies. He is also a fountain of great painting information. Looking forward to another great year of MWAN!
From Bill Widrick Just got back from a trip to California. My son, Jonathan, and I were able to take a trip to Brookhurst Hobbies, the MWAN advertiser. Wow, do they ever have a lot of stuff. Lots of periodicals, books, Osprey books, and rules sets. About half of the store has boardgames, war, historical and some kind of thing called Fantasy(?) And model kits and detail parts for those kits and wargame terrain and accessories. Then there were the miniatures. Lots and lots of miniatures. In cases and rotating racks and boxes stacked on the floor. There was also a gaming area with lots of tables and boxes of terrain and buildings to use. Great shop, nice service, and I heartily recommend a visit for anyone in the area. It's only about a ten minute drive from Disneyland!
From Chris Engle I've started a new newsletter - THE MATRIX GAMER - which I do via e-mail. It's remarkably inexpensive to do this way! I anticipate that this is where amateur magazines will go. One can print almost anything and mail it anywhere in the world for effectively nothing. Cool!
From John LaCroix I agree with you about Peter Gilder's old line of Napoleonics it is still wonderful! Small works of art! One of my favorites is the charging Line Chasseur! A remarkable pose for a toy soldier!
From Dennis Hines Is it possible to print more historical ACW and Napoleonic battles in MWAN? Thanks very much!
(Editor's Note: Thanks for note, Dennis; MWAN is, of course, at the mercy of the many writers who pen articles and everything received is printed I enjoy the two period you mentioned as well and hope that MWANers will read this and put something together. How about you doing something, Dennis, on these periods? MWAN articles do not have to be professionally written, nor do they have to expound any great new thoughts on the subject. We just write about things that we enjoy doing in this great hobby of ours!)
From David North I have a few different projects that I am working on. I've become interested in the Chinese contribution to WWII. Why is it that most history books - not to mention most wargamers - tend to gloss over the War in China? Seems to me it would make a very interesting subject for wargames. The Chinese were poorly trained and equipped, but they weren't as incompetent as generally believed. Besides, it's a good chance to put some Japanese tanks into action where they can be effective.
I'm also writing "Power and Freedom II", a new and improved version of my African Skirmish rules that were first printed in MWAN #75. I'm rewriting it from the ground up, trying to make it simpler and more user friendly. I've also decided to increase the scale a bit, from squad level to platoon level. With Peter Pig Miniatures having a line of African War figures available, it seems like a good time to redo the rules. I'm also thinking of modifying Fr. Aelred Glidden's rules concept, which he has used for Napoleonics, 18th Century and the Boer War, for the American Civil War. I have a big pile of plastic ACW figures lying around and am looking for something to do with them.
(Editor's Note: Would like to print your new version of the rules when you have them ready, David!)
From Len Brewer I won a six-issue subscription to MWAN from Greg Novak and the Central Illinois Tabletop Warriors starting with issue # 12. At our meeting nobody knew much about MWAN. All that Greg told us was that this was a good little hobby magazine. The early issue was about 24 pages in length that you typed at home and then ran on the copiers at work. Very simple and a good little magazine. Throughout the years, MWAN has kept up with the hobby in various way and like a fine wine, MWAN improves with age. The basic nature of MWAN is still alive and well. By this, I mean that gainers are still giving advice and hints of how to improve our hobby. Also about 90% of the gainers that you meet are gentlemen. They will help the young kids and give them help on how to play and they will go out of their way to help people.
One of the things that MWAN has always done is the way they will help fellow gainers by giving figures and other accessories to people that need various stuff. At this time, I would like to congratulate you on the 100th issue of MWAN and wish you the best of luck in the future. I will support you for as long as you decide to work on MWAN.
From Andrew Doyle In addition to my 3-D Contours work, I have been working on a very interesting wargame project for myself. Ever since I was a young child I was interested in WWII but as a wargarner I became bored long ago of gaming the "big battles". Several years ago I began researching the 1939 Polish campaign as part of my undergraduate (and later graduate) European history studies at the University of Southern Mississippi. I am now gaming this campaign and on a crusade to dispel the many myths surrounding the 1939 invasion of Poland,
Myth # 1. POLISH CAVALRY UNITS LAUNCHED LARGE SCALE MOUNTED CHARGES AGAINST GERMAN ARMORED UNITS. The Polish Army was in the process of mechanizing the 10 cavalry brigades in 1939. One brigade had completed the mechanization process, and a second was partially mechanized by September 1939. Polish cavalry brigades not yet mechanized fought primarily as mounted infantry in 1939. I was only able to find two episodes where Polish cavalry units launched large scale mounted charges against German units. Once against units of the German Ist Cavalry brigade, and once against a German infantry battalion. The Poles were victorious both times. Several people have said to me that they have seen film footage of Poles charging tanks on horseback. This footage is part of a German propaganda film entitled Kamplgeshwader Lutzow(1941) Hardly a reliable source!
Myth # 2. THE POLISH AIR FORCE WAS DESTROYED ON THE FIRSTDAYOFTHEWAR. TheLotnzctwo Wojkowe (Polish Air Force) continued to launch combat sorties until Sept. 17. On Sept. 4, the German 4th Panzer division lost 28% of its strength to Polish air strikes.
Myth # 3. THE POLES WERE INCAPABLE OF PRODUCING MODERN MILITARY EQUIPMENT. Prototypes of modern aircraft existed in 1939, but due to limited military budgets, the only modern aircraft available in significant numbers were the P-37 Los medium bombers. Some Polish armored units were equipped with the excellent 7TPjw light tank, but less than one hundred were in service at the outbreak of war. Polish engineers had also developed a formidable tank based on the famous Walter Christie (of T-34 fame) chassis. but again due to a severely limited budget only a few prototypes existed at the beginning of the war.
Myth # 4. THE POLES WERE COMPLETELY SURPRISED BY THE GERMAN ATTACK. In 1935 Marshal Edward Rydz-Smigley ordered the Polish general staff to prepare a plan for war with Germany. In March 1939, six months before the German invasion, Plan Zachod (West) was revised. Judging from the revised plan of deployment several points of German attack were anticipated. One might ask- "If the Poles knew the Germans were coming why didn't the Poles fortify the border?" The Polish general staff had plans to fortify the border after the harvest season so as not to destroy crops in western Poland. Erecting fortifications would have destroyed thousands of acres of farmland, causing the loss of vital tax revenue needed to modernize the army.
Myth # 5. POLISH SOLDIERS AND THEIR COMMANDERS WERE INCOMPETENT. Polish soldiers, when properly equipped would play a vital role in several battles later in the war. In 1940 Polish exile Pilots comprised 5% of allied pilots during the Battle of Britain, yet accounted for 15% of all German planes shot down. At Monte Cassino in Italy in 1944 U.S., British, and Free French forces attempted six times to take the monastery. Free Poles were sent in and succeeded on their first attempt. Free Poles also played a vital role in the battle at Falaise in France later in 1944. In 1939 the Poles were not idiots, they were broke!
(Editor's Note: The following two letters are "tongue-in-cheek')
From Vince "The Mad Englishman" I just thought I would drop you a line to tell you about "The Foundry" and their figures. It appears that they are committing piracy in a big way. Unfortunately their figures cannot fight and next to useless for gaming. They are very popular but it is my belief that this is because of the evil Mr. Ansell's use of Voodoo learned when he was in the West Indies, the side effect being that they perform very poorly on the table.
To give an example of this we recently played a game of assault on Portabello. First the Foundry Pirates made so much noise that the guard boat was alerted and the Spanish garrison was called out. Thus 1/3 of the pirate force lead by Capt Blind Pew landed outside of the city walls and attempted to breach the walls with a volley gun fired by a one legged old boy resulting in his wooden leg snapping from the recoil. Steed Bonnet leading another 1/3 of the force withdrew after he was splashed by a near miss. This left Teach's men to surrender to my Spanish Militia who had surrounded them. My Spanish range of figures have enough to do defending North Africa from Moors, Northern Mexico from Comanche and Apache raids, the Phillippines from natives and the British trying to get a bit more of Italy from the Austrians. I have to stretch my resources by buying Dixon and Redoubt Pirates to use as sailors for a Spanish Naval Force. I do have Foundry Pirates pressed into service but I find they are only suitable to man merchant vessels because they roll dice so poorly!
A Brief Review of Foundry Pirates, by Vince " The London War Room." It seems that the fantasy background of Foundry Sculptors has come out in the Treasure Island pack. I can find no island so named on any map of any reference to the characters in any history references. And when fighting we have formulated 18th Century medicine so the rightly wounded pirates seem to die under treatment (bad dice rolls). We have also found Blind One Legged figures do not fare well. I received 12 packs of pirates and they are well sculpted and posed and may be used from about 1600-1780 with some looking very ECW like and three wonderful Moorish/Barbary types. I have not done much research but I do know Henry Morgan was Governor of Jamaica so why is he in a Pirate pack? Surely no people in their right minds would elect a man to office who had a hint of scandal let alone background in Piracy. So I await the lawsuit by his family against Foundry for creating his likeness (very good that it is) without permission and blackening his name. So having said all if Foundry has the guts, which I doubt, to come to Cartahagna I will show how bad their figures are. I will not tolerate any more incursions on the Spanish Main - come and I will give them a drubbing they will not soon forget.
From Eddie "The Seahawk" Privatee Squadron, The Americas I have read with mild amusement the letter and review by "Vince the Mad Englishman' (of the London War Room) concerning our new Pirate/Cutthroat range. Mad Vince's slanderous statements will be fed back to him at the tip of a cutlass! Mad Vince has unwisely sided with his weak Spanish Allies. (A true traitor to his own mother England and currently living in exile in the Americas!). Mad Vince's pitiful attempt to besmirch the good name of "The Foundry" will be settled once and for all on the field and high seas of honour during Historicon '99.
Even as I speak, our forces are embarking from our base on Guernsey Island and setting out for our staging point at Tortola, Virgin Islands. I challenge Mad Vince and his ragtag and unreliable force of Spaniards to a show of arms in July. (doubtful he will even show the coward!). I am confident that once the smoke from our devastating broadsides has cleared that Mad Vince and his puny force will succumb to our vastly superior figures, to be swept away like insignificant sand fleas!
Acting with full authority from Admiral Ansell, St Peter Port, Guernsey under royal commission from the Crown of England. Given under my hand this day, May 22,1999 Eddie "The Seahawk" Privateer Squadron, The Americas.
From Donald Wolff Just having too much fun. The local gang has kept the gaming interesting. As MWAN's dedicated chronicler John Stafford reports, I've been consistent in getting the Camino Real Post out, letting gainers know of when and where to find the hobby in our area. We have a core of O'Reliables who keep it social rather than competitive. So far this year its been numerous games of Armati, Napoleonic and AWI Age of Sail Naval, and the Seven Years War to include Clive in India. Last year saw a lot of painting, getting my 20mm Napoleonic Russian corps done. Had been dragging most of the lead around for over 10 years.
Finally! Then the gang called for more efforts in our Armati bashes, so I added an Italian City State army which with a little shuffling of additional units also plays as Spanish and Maxillian Imperialists. The census of Armati armies continues to grow in our area. Anyone interested out there is cordially invited to join in, no army necessary, as we have more than enough to share. Right now, most of the painting in the group is focused on the Trojan Wars. We're brain storming a set of rules. Don't worry, you'll of course get them when (if!) we're done with them. The Reader's Digest version - Gang Warfare in the Age of Bronze is intended as a playable game system which employs miniature replicas of heroes and villains of cultural lore. Through their actions with the miniatures the players paint a new story line of the accomplishments and feats of Homeric, Biblical, and folk tales.
Concurrent with the physical play of the miniature pieces on the table, the players will engage in group dynamic interaction to assist or frustrate the goals of their own and those of their fellow players in the ultimate accumulation of 'honor' or 'glory' points. The play of GWBA is intended to occur within a group of players over a number of meetings or engagements. The number of figures in a clan is about 15 and a chariot, with players owning a clan on both sides. Obviously, we're aiming at playability not a simulation. Assembling materials has been like an archaeological dig. First stop was Michael Wood's In Search of the Trojan Wars, both the printed book and the multi-part television program. Since then some of the gang have obtain books on the serious aspects of the Bronze Age at Hisarlik (Troy. Illios) and the related but less than serious rendered folk tales. The internet is being scoured as source of additional information with some interesting tangents, as we go down the classical 'rabbit hole'.
From Michael Huska Congratulations on your 100th issue! That's areal compliment to your love of the hobby and own work ethic to put out such a fine effort for all these years. I sincerely hope you continue it into the far future!!! MWAN is hands down the best miniatures mag out there. I was not sure what kind of articles you wanted for the 100th but I hoped it didn't have to be commemorative type articles. I am sending you the background to an imaginary continent that our group plays AK47 rules games.
I named it after Scruby's old Africa type continent, in his honor. I guess he was quite the gentleman. I couldn't figure out how to send you a copy of the map as it is very large and elongated but think of the Island of Madagascar in shape because that is how I designed its continental shape by simply tracing the outline of that island. Then I also included a battle report from one of our earliest games. Maybe in the future I will send some more. Recently we concluded a three weekend battle in a large city with lots of infantry, tanks, helicopters, etc. as two sides battled over an airfield and radio station in a provincial capital of the MFR. Lots of fun - all our players love AK47 and the modern Peter Pig African figures.
By the way, Hal, I am now doing 25mm French Foreign Legion in early 20th century Morocco. I was always intrigued by your articles and projects some years back but what pushed me over the edge was a wonderful site on the Internet by Ian Croxall called the "Red shadow' - if your computer can do searches then just type WARFLAG and it will take you to his color flags site and from there check out the Red shadow. And what great pictures and battle reports! Loved it. In closing, let me express my appreciation for all the many hours of pleasurable reading you have given me and other readers with your mag!
(Editor's Note. Thanks very much for your most kind and thoughtful comments, Michael; I appreciate yourfine articles for MWAN!)
From Charlie Elsden: Congratulations on your 100th Issue Anniversary--I've worked up something special for you for those pages (see article attached). Enjoyed Issue #98, and was glad to see that people are starting to talk about their 54mm experiences in the letters column. Here's my old limerick lament, sung to the tune of the old "Car 54 Where Are You?" TV show, about looking for the rare 54mm game during the days before I joined the Metropolitan Wargamers Club, who have at least some tolerance for my Big Scale madness:
GAME 54 WHERE ARE YOU?
- There's a shakeup on the
Marne
Europe's broken out in fights
There's a Continental Army
That's backed up to Brooklyn Heights
There's a scout troop short a car
Patton's due at El Guettar
Game 54 where are you?
What I've been doing lately breaks down into several areas. I'm now on the net at celsden.com--so anyone who wants more detail on 54mm stuff or etc. can contact me easily. I'm fascinated that the people who are launching into 54mm are doing it so differently than I am--variety is the spice of life. Here are all the related projects anyone can discuss with me if they wish. A) Rules: My list of rules sets (54mm-15mm) now looks like this. The WWII rules may be ordered through the Toy Soldier Company (James Delson, toysoldierco.com) at $19.95. They are not yet available, but will be soon (possibly when you read this) .
We've had some simple technical delays in our first publication, but other sets should be ready much faster in the future. They include, at various stages of development:
- Medieval Rules 1: 1
English Civil War 1:20
The Rifles Trilogy: (all 1:20) Volume 1 1755-1859
Volume 2 1860-1865, Volume 2 Advanced, Volume 2 Naval
Volume 3 1866-1913 & Colonial Warfare
World War II 1:4
World War II 1:4 B.
Gaming: Besides playing two of the three Chinese games sketched out in the article, I've practiced my late WWII scenario "A Canal Too Far?" for Cold Wars at Metropolitan Wargamers Club, and made some changes. The fellows had such fun with the newly available large scale vehicles that nobody cared who won- -everyone just had fun playing with the toys!!! We played for seven hours. The club held a multigame Open House and I "produced" Turtle Creek, aka Braddock's Defeat. Braddock was still defeated, but not as badly as he was in the real French and Indian War. Thanks to Bruce McFarlane and Canadian Wargamers for the scenario from the first of their excellent set of booklets.
I'm just now looking at their newest ECW booklet. Also tried out my WWI rules for the first time with a 1918 trenchline defense. It went very well, with an emphasis on preprogrammed artillery and hidden trench shelters. Then I tried Verdun 1916 to work out rules for Underground Works. At the club I also participated in a hypothetical Mexican American war scenario (we Mexicans won with an aggressive counterattack) and a Canadian Front 1812 battle: the brilliantly planned American attack was wasted by incredibly bad die rolls--the troops panicked and fell back. No wonder Canada is still a separate country from the USP!
C. Painting: My ECW troops are about half done. I've readied 6 regiments of 25 figures each in infantry. I prepared eight four figure gun crews (four for each side) from the newly available Call To Arms artillery figure line. Still to be done: cavalry, three more infantry regiments, and one regiment each from three other Metro Club gainers (who paint better, but slower, than I do) . I'm working now on my Black color regiment, by using gloss black--not on the clothing, but on the armor itself--I've made the blackened armor (a process treatment to keep it from rusting; it also looks cool), with orange shirts, and gray pants and hats (with black feathers) . Each regiment features two five figure pike companies, two five figure musket companies, and one five figure officer/swordsman company. I've painted up the new WWI US and German 54mm troops into 50 figure companies . One German company is early war with light brown leather equipment and boots, one middle with black equipment, and one of 1918 sturnitroopers with camouflaged helmets. WWI French are due out in April in horizon blue and brown, the latter a colonial uniform which can also pass for Belgians. I'll also be looking at some WWI tank model kits.
Two final updates to my article's Chinese theme: (1) Toys Are Everywhere, or A Vision of The Perfect Cloud Boats My next planned Chinese game will feature British and French fighting pirates during the Taiping Rebellion. A few months ago I was trying out a new restaurant's suchi and sashimi combo. After the piles of food were about half gone, I finally noticed that the pretty plastic boat (pseudo wooden lacquerware look) which the food was served on was just right for 54mm. There was a hole in the deck where the food lay, which made me wonder.
So after the food was gone (sob), I lifted off the deck, and sure enough--undemeath was a large hollow hull bottom--easily big enough to hold a large unit plus guns and crews. Inquiries led me to a Japanese restaurant supply company and well, I now have a fleet of Asian/Muslim watercraft suitable for such games in two sizes. Their first appearance was as Syrian dhows, with simple fisherfolk (from a Spanish nativity set) on the top deck, while below lurked the Prince's elite guards! So the French marines ... but that' s another story.
2) Media Gossip: Rumor has it of a movie project about Frederick Townsend Ward, the American mercenary who commanded the Ever Victorious Army before British General Gordon during the Taiping Rebellion. Perhaps Caleb Carr is involved, that wargamer turned writer whose excellent book on Ward is recommended: The Devil Soldier .
From John Costea Noticed in last MWAN that you were thinking about using Volley and Bayonet. The first time I played a game using these rules, I didn't like it at all. It was a British vs Afghans and it just didn't seem to play right. The more I played them, the more I liked the rules though. I've always tried to keep my games simple and V&B allows me to do that.
I usually make up a one page cheat sheet for the players and spend less than 30 minutes explaining the rules. At the conventions and game nights, I have run games using V&B the players are usually playing the game with little help from me by turn two and the game is over with a clear winner in three hours. As long as I keep the game moving I can get the players to do 3-4 moves an hour. After every game I've run at a convention using V&B I have had players ask where they can get the rules. I've only had one player complain about the rules; he wanted something with more detail.
I've never really liked rules that have you decide the formation for every unit under your command; shouldn't your brigade or regt. commanders know want to do? I've only played in one game where we used the road column rule and it was a waste of time. V&B are my rules of choice. I use them for everything from ECW up to 1900 and from 6mm up to 30mm. With 6mmi troops it works very well with the 3"x 3" bases because you can put a lot of troops on the base and it looks very nice, like a brigade of troops. I currently have based for V&B 6mm ECW, Crimean, Franco-Prussian, Austro-Prussian, 15mm Clive in India, 20min Nap., and 30 mm Brit Col- 1900. If you have any questions about the rules or whatever please feel free to let me know. And keep up the good work.
From Rob Lusk I've gotten correspondence from a couple of fellow MWANers about my last article. One (Bob Burke) was kind enough to send me a set of Old West rules that I was not familiar with. I am now getting inspired to write another article. I don't know if the Old West is that popular among MWAN readers, but if vou are interested, I could continue to submit articles about this period.
(Editor's Note: Would appreciate continued submissions, Rob - I think there's a great many MWANers with Wild West figures!
From Dave Deroucher Your publication is a true delight to get every other month. It serves to keep me fired up about the hobby in general and is very informative. Has it already been a year'? My projects moved so slowly this year that I don't feel that I have that much done. I finished my 15mm OG armies for the SYW Prussians and Austrians. I have enough to play almost any battle between these two in Volley and Bayonet. The nice thing about these rules is that is less than 1000 total figures. The down side is now I want to paint Saxons, Hanoverians, French and British! Another 1000+ figures? I tell you, it never ends! I also am rebasing/redoing all of my 6mm WW2 infantry to a better standard. I'm using ROS Heroics and putting 4 figures on a 3/4" x 3/4" stand. They look very nice and actually have some detail.
The problem is, that as my standards go up, I want to repaint all of my 2000+ vehicles. OUCH! This has been a very active year for the rules I use with the redesign of Command Decision (CD3, VERY good rewrite of these rules) and the impending rewrite of Volley and Bayonet. Both of these rules have a dedicated Internet mailgroup that really keeps you in the know on problems and interpretations of the rules. They both feature members from all over the world and the input is terrific.
Frank Chadwick is a very active contributor to both lists, so it is a very nice pipeline to the designer. I also am bringing my son into the hobby. I have been helping him paint up Warhammer 40K figures and getting him into the armor battles.
Our group, Metro Detroit Gainers, is suffering from a lull right now with member energy at a low point. We may not even have our summer convention, Michicon, which would be the first time this has happened since 1973. If anyone wants to check out the status of this convention, or next years Wintercon in January, they can contact me at (734) 261-7928 or my e-mail of DurochD@BASF.COM. I look forward to another year of this wonderful hobby and your publication!
From Dave Smith I thought I would re-respond to your inquiry regarding hiring out someone to design and cast miniatures. (I fear that the original letter was lost in the flood.) Last year I had figures made for me while writing an article on the Mexican War in California (for Wargames Illustrated I realized after I had started the article that no one made the appropriate figures for this period. (Frontier had made a California Lancer, but recently dropped it from their line.) I approached John McEwan at Riversco knowing that he already had an interest in this period, and I knew that he already had an incomplete line of Mex. War figures. (Those of you in the hobby for a while will recognize his name; John has been making figures since the 70s.) John charged me $50/figure and also charged me $40 for the spin cast mold. John produces the figures (he adds them to his line). John also gave me a discount because it was a subject he had wanted to do anyway. For an additional cost I suppose he would sell me the mold. Frankly, I wasn't interested in casting the minis myself, just seeing them available. (By the way, you can see this line at his web site if you're "on line." )
I found John easy to work with and he approached the task with considerable energy. I was (mostly) pleased with the results. Some of the figures produced were 1/72 and some were more "larger 25mm." I was a bit surprised by the lack of constancy in sizing figures, but let's face it - people are not all the same size anyway! In the end, I did feel like I got my money's worth. I have two beautiful California/ Mexican War armies. John's currently working on an early California line featuring a masked swordsman The figures he made for me should complement these new ones quite well. (John also just completed a beautiful British narrow gauge train for 25mm and some 20mm. German East Africa WWI figures (30 for $20).) This year I will turn 40 and I'm starting to think about what I will be able to accomplish in terms of painting miniatures.
At my current rate of painted figures per year, I will finish what I have on hand by the year 2050. For the first time I've employed a painting service to finish some of my projects. I've also tried to be realistic about how many periods and scales I can paint. In addition to the 1/72 scale Mexican American War armies, I've got several 15mm DBA armies for the ancient and late medieval period, and I have a 15mm LPE army for Napoleonic. I'd like to construct two scales of armies for each of the following periods: Ancient/medieval, Renaissance, horse and musket, colonial. One set (25mm) to be for small tactical/skirmish and one (15mm) for grand tactical. This seems like a reasonable goal as long as I don't spend too much time looking at Gripping Beast/ Foundry ads.
I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your books. By the way, I last summer I experienced a similar fate at work, losing years of research and work. You have my sympathy. As always, I greatly enjoy MWAN and look forward to every issue.
From Charles Duggie Jr. I want to thank everyone who replied to my ad for l5mm FFL figures for sale in the Sutler's Wagon. Unfortunately, as I have told so many of you, there was a small error in my ad. The figures are UNPAINTED. Sorry to disappoint you. Where in the world would you get that many painted figures for that low a price? Tell me, I will buy some.
Finally got my hands on the 1:6000 ships by Figurehead. Got 480+ packs and backordered 120+ packs. Wow, the detail is great considering the size. Minimum flash and sprue and ships are easily recognizable. Even with a 3x magnifier on my glasses they look good.
I have moved 3 other projects to the back of the desk to work on these. They have about 95% of ship classes from 1900-1945, only seem to need a few minor navies such as Scandinavian, Siamese, and such. I understand that they will be doing POST 1945 ships in the future. They have a lot of "what if' ships. The Z plan Germans are nice. American MONTANA and LEXINGTON for 1920's and their Japanese equivalents are there. The British FURIOUS is there in 3 separate versions. They even have the Iceberg carrier HABBAKUK!!
Anyone out there with naval miniatures to dispose of, please contact me. I'm looking for mainly pre 1900, but let me know what else you have. I will consider any scale, any era. My main interests are; Figurehead 1:6000 1900-45; Figurehead 1:2400 Armada, Lepanto, Napoleonic, Crimean, or Ironclads Valient 1:1200 Spanish Main; Any 1:1200 Napoleonic; Any Panzerschiffe 1:2400 A C W ; Any 15mm Ancient/Renaissance/Napoleonic ships and crew- any make. I have the following trade goods beside some cash 15mm Painted ACW; 15mm UNPAINTED ACW, Franco-Prussian, FFL, Ancients, and Renaissance WWII and modern microarmor.
From Tera Hangy Finally decided to send a letter to MWAN. Having recently celebrated my 50th birthday, I've notice some changes in my wargaming habits. No longer do I paint hordes of figures, preferring now to buy them painted or have them painted by others. I guess those drug store eyeglasses aren't conducive to large painting projects. I wanted to share some of my experiences with MWAN advertisers who provide painted figures or painting services. For painted figures and buildings Mr GAJO, Royal Oak Miniatures and Tommy Gunners are the best, and painting services - Dave Reynolds/The Command Post.
I've contacted other painting services in MWAN but most either specialize in certain periods or size, are too busy, or not taking any new customers. I did connect with J & T Miniatures and found their painting excellent and prices very reasonable, but the turnaround times average 5-6 months. One painting service that advertised its cost for samples cashed my check and sent no samples. My worst experience involves a service that accepted my order of 140+ figures and full payment 2 years ago. As I write this I have received about 30 painted figures from this order.
One more comment, I really enjoy What's In Hals Mailbox. Thanks for introducing me to Outpost Wargame Services, they are very professional and their Franco-Prussian line is amazing. Do you realize how hard it is to find painters who will do Franco-Prussian figures.
(Editor's Note: Happy Birthday, Terry; I should mention that if any MWANer is experiencing a situation with an MWAN advertiser, please write to me and I shall forward it on to the advertiser with a request to look into the situation. I hope your difficulties have been resolved)
From Peter Michels The SYW 15mm army has been growing. We had a campaign game recently spanning a couple of months of real time, any one of the motivations was to complete our various armies. The campaign was fictitious, sort of in the "Charge" genre. We used Warfare in the Age of Reason - First Edition. The map was a dot to dot type using some modifications to the Bohemian Blitzkrieg in the AOR Supplement. Eventually, we wound up using the maps from AOR Second Edition.
We added a much more robust road network to the campaign map' separated it into different fiefdoms, and used the basic campaign rules minus the reinforcements. The OBs were composed of whatever figures the players could field, rather than the stylized point system from AOR. We included the "Deployment' rules from Konig Krieg instead of the normal AOR fixed setups. It generated some interesting battles.
Eventually we quit because the battles were too large, due to a lack of fore thought on the road network, so everyone wound up funneled down certain roads. The result was that we fought some big battles, lots of units. We actually had the opportunity a number of times to mimic my understanding of historical events, like having the first battle line of 2 battalions deep, disintegrate, then move the second battle line forward to plug the whole. In one battle, the first line of infantry destroyed the first line of attacking cavalry, only to be hit by the second line of cavalry and routed through the infantry behind them.
While the cavalry was hacking the second line, the third line formed squares with the fourth line of infantry assuming line behind and between the squares. When the second and third waves of cavalry charged the squares, the fourth line of infantry fired supporting fires and the cavalry broke themselves on the squares in melee. It reminded me of the French cavalry being destroyed by waves against the British infantry at Minden. Very cool. In one game, both sides had significant amounts of artillery, although not out of proportion to the infantry.
The first two tactical turns were spend almost entirely in counter battery fire. Both commanders figured whoever had the artillery edge was going to win the battle. Turned out to be true. Late in that game, a French Horse Grenadier regiment was able to turn the flank of the Russian line (it was a fictitious campaign) and charge 4 or 5 batteries. The earlier counter battery had so weakened them, they were unable to adequately defend themselves and the single cavalry regiment captured all they came in contact with. Although the larger games are more difficult to manage and play, I have found that they generate many more interesting events. I have continued to collect plastic 1/72 HO Napoleonics. Hat Industries has been kind enough to provide some additional, previously uncommon troop types. I just bought 5 boxes of their French Guard Horse Grenadiers. In addition to Hat's release of French Dragoons, Italieri also has released a box of Dragoons.
From Jonathan Aird I've recently resubscribed to MWAN via Caliver Books, so I thought I should drop you a line as well. It's been another good year of reading, I'm enjoying Rich Barbuto's solo articles and the Jack Scruby reprints (these are new to me!), particularly enjoyed The battle of Wexford 1629. Industry (or should that be "industry" ?) comment such as the Brian Ansell piece in #96 is always interesting to read.
There's been a number of comments on British conventions by American visitors which have rather confirmed my suspicions: American conventions sound like they have more games, fewer traders and are generally more relaxed. British conventions often seem to be hot and sweaty trawls around the large number of traders (so much to buy, so little time, and so many people in the queue already!), with a quick half hour game if you're lucky!
Having said that, this year's Salute seemed better laid out than before - more room to move around in the Main hall. There was still quite a crush around the traders but I avoided that by the rather sneaky method of not going with the intention of buying anything. Still picked up a few odds and ends of course. The rather exciting news was that next years show will be at Olympia - where they hold large events like boat shows. I only managed to get into one participation game - Into the Dark Side - which was put on by the Maidstone Wargames Society. This was a SF game based on groups of marines ("us") raiding a rebel ("umpire controlled") held asteroid on which the marines had to locate and neutratise a comm's station and airlock into a hidden base. What made it fun was that the asteroid was assumed to be a cube, the 6 sides of which had been folded out to make a cross shaped playing surface, with movement being from face to face as if the cube were a 3-D solid. I hope that makes sense - the game was based on an article in Practical Wargamer Jan/Feb 1997 so, if you have that it'll be a bit clearer ! Anyway, it was good fun (i.e. "we won").
Most issues I read a comment in an article, the editorial or a letter. and think "I know the answer to that", unfortunately at one letter per year my responses probably aren't too timely! Anyway, in MWAN #95's editorial you were asking about HO plastic kits suitable for the Franco-Prussian war. I'm sure someone must already have suggested the Waterloo Farmhouse from Airfix, which is back in their catalogue again. As well as making up a suitably large country farm, it can also be broken down to make 3 smaller buildings. The old Airfix lineside range is still available from railway hobby stores through a company called Dalpol. Although not all of these buildings are of obvious use, they are quite widely convertible there was a series a long time ago in Airfix magazine in which Terry Wise showed how items such as the railway shed could be converted to be a Spanish Church for Peninsular war games and the Petrol Station could be converted into several different buildings to make up a Wild West town. I kid you not.
My pile of Airfix magazines is currently on loan to a friend, I'll have a look when I get them back to see if there was anything more directly useful. The only other idea I have is to look at the trackside ranges of Falter and other German model railway producers - they have a very extensive range of track side buildings, but they aren't cheap. In the same editorial you were discussing the merits of 20mm figures, I recently found myself thinking that, if I was starting from scratch now I might very well do everything in 20mm. I'm quite keen on plastic figures as it is, but I was recently looking at the HaT figures Internet site (www.hat.com) - and they seem to be the plastic figure manufacturer of my dreams! Whole ranges of figures, not just the foot and no cavalry - for their Carthaginians they are even putting out War Elephants ! And they aren't alone - just last week I picked up a new set from Italeri of Napoleon's field staff, including the great man himself. Now this is a box that isn't going to sell well : I might get several boxes of foot figures, but I'll only ever need one box of generals! Presumably, though, the market is big enough to support it.
When you add in the huge number of 20mm figure manufacturers that the last few years have seen, it seems like its time has come (although, 10mm seems to be doing quite well too). I've suffered a bit of a painting slump in the last year or so - my DBA medievals are languishing in their undercoats. It was, more or less, brought on by being just too busy for a few months, and I think that now I've fallen out of the habit a bit. So, I've been looking around for something that'll get me fired up again - currently I'm hopeful that it's Warhammer Ancient Battles - at least I've been looking over my unpainted figures and the army lists to see how they could be brought together, which must be a hopeful sign. I've had years when I've painted 5-600 figures, but I can't sustain that rate. Any hints ?
I guess that a real "deadline" would help - this must be finished for convention X, or for when Y comes to stay for a weekend. Over the last couple of months I've also managed to get in a few extra games by playing with a group atwork in our lunch hours when enough of us can manage to all be available in the same lunchtime ! There's been the odd game of DBA and Hordes of The Things (Fantasy DBA), several games from the Miniature Wargames Pub Games Booklet, and a couple of games of Chariot Racing using the Skytrex Rules put out in 1973 ! It's certainly an improvement on reading the paper.
I've enclosed a couple of articles which I hope you'll find useful for MWAN. There are a couple of reviews (including the Pub Games booklet), and a short piece on 25-30mm figures (all the ones I could think of) prompted again by #95's editorial !).
PS : Just received Issue 98 - sorry to hear about your flood, The idea of bumper collections of old MWANs sounds good to me - I only joined in at Issue 61 and I'd be interested in seeing the earlier issues. Thinking about it, if you decided to go for compendiums covering 10 or 20 issues, it would mean that my starting at Issue 61 was a good move !!
From Michael Pierce Just got MWAN 98-another great issue --- how do you keep doing it??!! I look forward to getting many more! Sorry to hear about the basement disaster --- that is a gainer's worst nightmare! I'm located in the Norfolk area these days --- the Coast Guard keeps me on the move. Haven't got involved in any gaming here, although I know there is some going on --- too busy at work. Did make it to COLD WARS a few weeks ago. Another great convention --- although I think numbers were down. It was held very late this year, and I think that had an effect on some people. But quality was still very high and I had a great time --saw and talked to a great many old friends. Hosted a BattleFront game --- Rich Hasenauer's new rules that he swears will be out at HISTORICON (if not, there are a couple of large Italians named Guido and Rocko that will have to talk to him about his kneecaps!).
Also hosted a playtest for regimental Fire and Fury --- still very rough, but has promise --- Rich has no date for these rules yet. Also had the opportunity to attend one of Major Pete Panzeri's Campaign weekends at the Military Academy Prep School at Fort Monmouth, NJ. Are you aware of these little wargaming gems? Pete runs several a year --this year, he held Crete (WWII), Monmouth (AWI), Gettysburg (ACW), and Waterloo (NAP). The format is a semi-campaign setting, with the battles fought using miniatures --- various rules (Command Decision, Fire & Fury, etc.).
I had the honor of playing General Longstreet in the Gettysburg campaign. What a great experience. We had at least 20 players involved, including several MWANers --- Stu Schoenberger, Charlie Elsden, John Stafford, and Fred Hubig that I can recall (all valiant Pebs, I might add!) The campaign was started via email a week or so before the game, with some pre-battle maneuver, and some neat variant decisions worked out by Pete --- also helping with this was Rick Barber, a game designer (recent game is Summer Storm on the Gettysburg campaign) and Gettysburg expert. The weekend started on Friday afternoon with a weekend started on Friday afternoon with a briefing by the MAPS cadets on intell and courses of action, followed by Pete laying out the schedule and various modifications to FIRE & FURY. After dinner we moved to the game rooms and the battle started. To make a long story short, the Rebs moved sharply on the first day, but did hot do as well as history. On the second day, with a brilliant plan developed by Gen'l Lee (Fred Hubig) and Gen'l Hill (Joe Brecher), we teased them with Hill attacking in the Devil's Den/Pound Tops are, while my boys (McClaws (Matt Towers) and Hood (Bert Carney) slashed out of the Gettysburg town area and cleared Cemetery Hill. It was a glorious victory, and a whole lot of fun! Most people finished off the weekend with a trip to Gettysburg on Sunday (alas, I had to hustle back to Norfolk). I highly recommend it to anyone who likes a campaign/battle type of weekend. Pete and Jodie (the womanly force behind the man in this affair) put on a great wargame experience. You can find out more at the JodieCon website: http://planet.net/pitsavo/JodieCon99.html.
From Tom Dye I heard you were interested in Marlburian 15 and 6's (well, alright, I read your editorials!). 1, also, do both scales (as well as I O's and 2 5's). I have enclosed some samples of the Minifigs 15's for the period. As of the time of writing, I am deeply engaged in mold making to bring the whole line out. The previous owners never got around to releasing the whole range.
I have included the UK listing to show what will be available. We will be packaging them in 50 fig packs (which will include 4 sets of command) $11.95, 12 fig cav packs (with one set of command) $8.95 and 4 guns with 12 crew for $8.95. Attactix has carried Roundway Marlburians for the last 2 years! I insisted we carry the entire range, in depth. We also have Dixon and Essex in stock for this period. Attactix also has some/can always get the Irregular line; stocks (in depth) Ros- Heroics figures as well. I have enclosed a jpeg of some of my 6mm. units from Irregular. I mount them 3 strips per 3/4 by 3/4 in base; 4 bases to the battalion. British are 2 strips on a 1/2 by 3/4 in base, 6 bases/btn. Cav is 4 Irregular "blocks"
From Randy Elliott This letter is a response to your request from readers of MWAN that are involved with 6mm gaming. I was quite excited by your interest in the scale and heartily recommend it! I have rather sizeable (multi-corp) British/Portuguese and French as well as a moderately sized Spanish Peninsular armies and a corp sized Austrian force and finally a Bavarian division. All of my minis are Adlers except the Spanish which are Heroics/Ros. I also have a Russian force from Irregular Miniatures, but haven't fielded these yet. I would suggest you go for the Adlers. The details are amazing and the units look good on the table!. This range is also quite extensive. In fact I'm looking at what I need for a 181315 Prussian army. The Heroics/Ros are my second choice. They are a little cheaper and have an extensive range as well. I use their wagons, pontoon bridges, etc. I have all of my units based to Empire V specs.
The friend that got me into this period was using that system at the time and we have since stuck with it. As we have never come upon anyone else that uses this scale we've never had a compatibility problem. We took the 15mm base sizes and cut them in half for our 6's. It's worked very well for us. This system's basing seems to be rather popular and most other rule sets I've tried have been able to accommodate this system. For terrain I use geo- hex with Heki trees. The geo-hex is great for this scale as the elevation changes are significant as opposed to using the geo-hex. hills with my 25's...
I have a ton of TCS buildings. They are cheap and good enough for what they're for! I use cut cloth for the roads. I just picked up some Scenic Effects wheatfields that I have yet to use, but they look great! Finally, for rules... As I mentioned, I started with Empire V. I found the musket counting to be very difficult at this scale. This criticism also applies to other systems such as LOG& HR 11.
I've enjoyed all three of these games, but they didn't really give me what I was looking for. I've played Valmy to Waterloo at this scale as well and didn't mind that quite as much as the others. If I go back to a hard-core set of rules, it would be Valmy. I'm currently using Shako and enjoy that quite a bit. I like Conliffe's approach to gaming and enjoy his other systems as well. With Shako, I just use the 15mm measurements for moving etc... This gets the little guys going pretty quickly! I believe that we cut the 15mm moves in half with the other systems. This works, but when you're down to '/2" or 1 " musket ranges, it can get a little tough if you're playing a "rules lawyer". If I go back to the other systems, I'll probably do the same.
I'm currently engaged in re-basing everything I have in this scale. I'm sticking all the bases on to magnetic sheeting., and then placing them on painted metal movement stands. In the past I'd Elmer's glue all the minis to the balsa or styrene bases. For any future endeavors, I plan to glue the minis directly to the sheet magnet bases . I got a sheet, 1'x 2" for $9.99 at Wal-mart! I'll then paint this and flock it and put them onto the metal stands. I'm using a semi-gloss moss green enamel spray paint for the movement bases.
At this scale, I'm not going to landscape the metal stands. As part of the rebasing I'm also standardizing the unit sizes and the number of minis on the base. For instance, my Brits and Ports are all 2 figs to a base and 5 stands to the unit This gives me a column of '/2" x 11/4". 'This looks very nice. I'm still debating on whether or not to go from 3 man/base stands with the French down to a 2 man/base standard. This would save me one man per unit and give me a few extra battalions. It would also allow me to more easily increase the bn size for specific scenarios. I'll figure that out when I need to.
I plan on trying out Napoleon's Battles once I get the minis re- based. I'd be able to stick on the number of figures that will fit onto the 15mm bases. That should actually give a better feel for the scale of the game. I know a lot of people don't like the system, but I played it once and found it to be a fun game. Not necessarily the best simulation, but a lot of ftin! Well, I've taken enough of your time and I need to get some work- done. I hope you get some helpful ideas from this letter. If you have any questions please feel free to mail me or phone. Finally, thanks for the terrific magazine. P. S: Take a little time to push some lead, man! Prolonged absence from the gaming table has been shown to shorten your life expectancy! Happy Gaming!
(Editor's Note: Thanks for info re 6mm gaming, Randy, found it very interesting. I've been picking up 6mm buildings and terrain items and still deciding what to do re the matter. It's great to get information from MWANers in advance to assist with making a decision. Would love to hear ftom you re this fascinating scale! I am very interested in any articles MWANers would like to do re the rules set Volley and Bayonet. )
From Duncan Rogers I've always fancied SYW but never quite started collecting. I think I'm waiting for Foundry to bring out more figs. Actually, the Silesian Wars sound quite interesting. I'm pondering using computer-" managed" rules. I use a set called "Rebel Yell" which is about ten years old for my 25mm ACW, and it's very good. Since then I've discovered Computer Strategies in Australia. I'm pondering ordering their Medieval and C19th sets. The unpredictability is very good about the computer rules, even down to commanders being killed at the worst moment. Last year my dad and I refought Kernstown with our 600-odd ACW figures. A great game but in desperation Jackson was killed leading his men in a bayonet charge and the Rebs routed!
I do have quite a lot of work to get the St Albans (War of the Roses) battle ready. I have all the terrain boards, but need 2 bridges and about 20 buildings incl. 2 churches to represent St Albans itself I also need my trees professionally basing. Then I need to buy about 200-odd Foundry figures and ask my painter to get them done up in time. Oh, and the rules! Oh, and also the books! That's why I'm in the process of selling off unwanted dinky toy cars, subbutec, table football games, old plastic soldiers etc.!
From Ed Youngstrom
I took your email address off of the Battlegames site. Welcome to the Internet!
I have recently become engrossed with the Seven Years War. Brian Carroll's outstanding "Birth of a Notion" article (which, by the way, may be my favorite all time wargame article) and your follow-up, along with assorted other articles on how people became involved in periods, are not only excellent reading, but have helped me decide on 25mm "big battalion" SYW. Now I just have to assemble the patience, time, and funds to make it a reality. Have you any photos of your SYW collection, either individual units or en masse? How about an Order of Battle--that sounds like something you either already have or would enjoy creating. You recently mentioned having Battalions of London War Room Spanish.
While you are on the Internet, please check out the Volley and Bayonet site (http://members.xoom.com/wargaming/vnb. htrn), but particularly the "Duke, Elector, K i n g " c a m p a i g n (httn)://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Ga laxy/41810. Very fun reading--maybe you could print them in MWAN for a larger audience. I have my first 25mm troops ready to go, and I'm trying to base them. Looking at your rules from MWAN #87, you say your line troops, are 1.5 inches wide and 2 inches deep, correct? Just curious, because I cut some bases and just naturally plonked the figures down on them the other way, 2 inches wide by 1.5 inches deep! I've looked over several rules sets, and they all seem to say .5 inch frontage per 25mm figure. It just seems awfully tight too me. As to metal stands, I'm a little concerned that with six man stands of 25mm, that sooner rather than later, someone will pick up a base by a figure and be left holding one figure while the other five crash to the ground. I was thinking of thicker bases so that there is something to grab.
Two of our group have written a fast-play set of SYW rules for 15nim. One guy has 4 or 5 thousand 15mm painted, the other a mere few hundred. Of course, even though I am doing the 25's, I had to join the fun and currently have a small Prussian force (5 battalions, 10 squadrons, 2 batteries with more on the way) and an order of Austrians due Monday. Limbers? Oh yes, they're on order too.... (Both 15s and 25s).
I'd like to take a moment and mention that my 15mm's are all Essex, so far, with the artillery and hussars painted by Jay Wirth at Renaissance Ink, the 5 foot battalions by John Price, and the cuirassiers and dragoons by Charles VanNorman of Skirmish Line, all advertisers in MWAN.
In my SYW armies the 25mm are Old Glory French and British (4 bus each so far) from Mr. GAJO, with one fusilier regiment and one dragoon regiment of Old Glory Prussians from Dakota Miniatures, artillery by Front Rank and Jay Wirth, plus a mound of Old Glory and Foundry lead yet to be sent off. Organization is as follows: Infantry regiments of 2 battalions and one mounted officer. Each battalion of 24 figures on 4 stands, with an additional stand of a battalion gun if appropriate. Cavalry regiments of an appropriate number of squadrons (5 for most Prussian, 2 for most French. etc). Each squadron of 6 figures. Artillery batteries of 2 guns, 8 figures, plus limbers. Scale works out to roughly 25: 1. And lots of casualty figures too--thanks for the idea! As to an article, I'm keeping notes and ideas and will definitely send you something when I'm closer to a game! I haven't even settled on rules yet, although the club's "billions of dice" rules are ftm. Plus. I intend to use the same figures for Volley and Bayonet as well. Now, all I need is some French and British cavalry, and artillery, and some Prussian FreiKorps, oh, and an Austrian brigade with some Russian support, and a Hanoverian/Hessian brigade to stiffen the Brits, plus some Reichsarmee fodder and on and on. Isn't this just a wonderfully obsessive) hobby!
(Editor's Note: Great to get your e-mails, Ed; I love hearing about other people's organizations on their wargaming projects. No, I haven't taken any pictures but will have to do so. I've gone so far as to set up a hill with Austrian Grenzers defending a long stone wall against waves of Prussian Grenadiers and Musketeers. Looks great to me! Hope to hear more from you re this project; would like to publish your SYW rules when you see fit You are correct; I had the measurements of the foot bases backwards, they should be 2 " long and 1. 5 " deep.)
From: Gerry Webb Eureka Miniatures is run by Nic Robson of Melbourne. Nic has done all my moulding and casting so far. I can't say enough nice things about the man and his business. He casts quite a few products under licence including AB miniatures 15min Napoleonics. I'm sure you'll find the quality and service first class. You can contact Nic by website is at www.eurekamin.com.au and has a text list for the AB 15mm ranges, plus a few photo illustrations. Tell him I sent you. OK you talked me into it, I'll do the article on how I got into the figure making racket. I have an idea for another article, tell me what you think ...
I have a long time gaming buddy who does social work. He's managed to combine his work and hobby by setting up a program for troubled youth using miniature gaming as a conflict resolution and esteem building activity. He has some government funding and real commitment, the results have been impressive. He now has kids learning the benefits and joys of research through their new hobby. I could go on at length, the point is, could you use this kind of good news story? If so, I'll get the details and write it up. Wouldn't it be great if there were more projects like this run by dedicated professionals who happen to be gamer's?
I'll try to keep you posted on the hobby here in Australia. There is a lot happening here and I keep making contact with more folk who are making it happen. Sounds like another article is required. I know some of the relevant history about your fathers time in Australia.
I grew up near Rockhampton where General Eichelberger and his American troops were stationed and trained before they went to New Guinea. We could still see the remains of their camps and just outside town there still stands a bush chapel built by the US servicemen stationed there during the Pacific War. Every year there's a church service of Thanksgiving and memorial on the Sunday nearest the 4th of July. I remember reading the names and home towns of all the camp sports event winners recorded around the walls inside. It also gets used for weddings.
I now live in the Far North of Queensland which was much closer to the action back then. There were B17's and other squadrons stationed around here, flying missions to New Guinea and the islands to the North. The harbor was a base for Catalina flying boats doing long range night missions throughout South East Asia. One of them located the Japanese fleet which led to the Coral Sea Battle, Fortresses from this area were involved in the battle, Coral Sea was not far away. The building where I now work was part of the Catalina Squadrons base and one of the grand old pubs in town was the Officers Mess.
The Pacific Hotel a few blocks from here was General McArthur'sheadquarters. Unfortunately the original building has been tom down and modernized. I could go on and on. If you like I'll get some more specific research done if you can give me details of your father's service. The "Yanks" are still popular around here, Australia was in deep trouble before they arrived. My parents told me about the times. In fact my mother used to go to dances with the US servicemen; they had their own big dance bands and it was really something when they hit our sleepy little bush towns. I think I'll grab some sleep and continue you this later (as long as you're not bored). I'm very weary after a big day at my other job, operating tourist boats to the Great Barrier Reef. I was out there today, on the Coral Sea in fact. It's usually very pleasant but we do have our days, today was all strong winds, rain and rough seas. As I sit typing this I can still feel myself swaying.
(Editor's Note: Good to hear from you, Gerry! Would love to have an article on gaming in Australia,- it really seems to be catching on from what I read Thanks for info re Rockhampton. My Father was stationed there prior to going to New Guinea where he served as a combat infantry sergeant with the 32nd Infantry Dvision. After the war, my parents corresponded with a family he had stayed with in Rockhampton and one of my fondest memories is receiving a Christmas present from them of a book on Koala bears!)
From Chris Engle I've been reading the editorial in MWAN in which you look at what makes a product successful. "Quality Distribution" is primary. It is easy to say but hard to realize. The difficulty is that distributors (being businessmen) don't do this for fun. They look at the bottom line. If a person prints a game (say 1,000 copies), they are not impressed. One game is a lot of work to sell. Three, four, or five games that look commercial with a producer who looks like he will be in business six months from now - that is different. But honestly, that is no fun - I speak from experience. I see another alternative. Mike Schundler takes his games to KINKOS and copies upon demand. Make as you sell - keep low or no inventory. This excludes selling to distributors but it does make publishing available to everyone. The development of an internet game market (it doesn't exist yet, but it will) will make it possible to sell. Distribution - this time open to the amateur and semi- professional.
(Editor's Note: Chris is a very creative individual and has started a "Matrix Game Newsletter" on the internet. You can contact him at his web page: http://www.io.com)
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© Copyright 1999 Hal Thinglum
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