First off let me introduce myself My name is Leonard Brewer. I've been married to Dana for 25 years, and have two great daughters and a great son-in-law. I have been gaming for 23 years. At one time or another, I have gamed about every era. At the present time my main areas of play are 15mm ACW; 15mm Napoleonic; 20mm WW-2 and 1/1200 ACW ships. Fmjust now getting back into playing games on a regular basics since, I'm back on days now. I'm a supervisor at Interstate Brands Corporation in Decatur, Ill. I have subscribed to MWAN starting with issue # 13. Over the years Hal and I have had numerous phone calls, letters and visits with each other.
I would like to start out on a serious note. Recently, we lost a very good friend and war gamer here. David Petrowsky was an avid gamer and collector. Dave was the one who introduced me into this wonderful hobby. He was involved in the hobby for close to 30 years. At the time of his death, he had over 30,000 figures in his collection. Before it became the thing to do, by having young kids to play games, Dave had us put on games at the local library, conservation area and exhibit our figures at schools. Dave, would give young kids some old figures some paint and a brush and the kids was in heaven. The games was simple and bloody. The kids ate this up. Dave always had time to talk with anybody about this hobby. He stressed the history part and never did stress awful things that happen in war.
The main thing that I would like to say is that we are in this hobby as a choice. Remember to have fun and enjoy it. If you play in a game tell the game master thanks, don't go wild and try to win at all cost. This is a game and everybody should be adults. Most people use the games as a form of relaxation and friendship. I enjoy the friendship of the people more. This is a hobby by choice. Let's give everybody the choice to enjoy it the hobby in there own way. Remember that when we put a game on, we are show casing our hobby. Let put out good figures and terrain. We need to impress the people who stops and watch our games. Answer the kids questions and let them play. Let the general public see us as we are. A group of adults who have a real love of history, who can have a good time fighting a war. The best thing that we can do is to stress the lessons that we learn from the past wars.
On a last note, I would like to tell the readers that Hal can play a war game. Recently he came down to my place and three of us played a small Napoleonic game. Believe it or not Hal won while playing with Spanish troops. More on this in the next battle report.
Listed below are some Internet sites that will help those of you with computers or gamers with computer access:
http://www.magweb.com - One of the best sites available. This site contains over sixty different historical and wargaming magazines. Some of these have ceased publication and many back issues are available. There are free sample articles available. Subscriptions for one, three, six or twelve months. Very worthwhile to look into this site!
http://www.brookhursthobbies.com - The one-stop hobby store online. At this site you can find close to everything that you need for gaming. Very fast and efficient service!
http://www.zeitcom.com/majgen/. - Major General Tremorden Rederring's colonial era wargame page. This site focuses on the Victorian era Colonial gaming. It contains loads of information, very good pictures and is very easy to get around in. If you are interested in colonials, this is a necessary stop site.
http://www.tetrad.stanford.edu/frederickhtml. - This is Frederick the Great's Military instructions to his generals. Included in this is Frederick's basic idea of how a battle and the war should be fought. The major emphasis is on logistics
http://www.garrison-clubs.org/gauntlet. - This is the site of the Gauntlet Publications in the U.S. It contains information on miniatures, rules, terrain and everything else you need. Lots of rules updates, helpful information and announcements of new releases plus over 100 links to other sites. A very good site that should be studied in detail!
http://www.warflag.com/ - This is a free flag site. A person can choose from eleven different wars and can download flags from the various armies. Flags are available in several sizes. A top notch site for the gamer.
http://tetrad.standford.edu/hm/HorseNMusket.html. This is a site full of information from the horse and musket period. Many maps are available.
http://www.geocities.com/Timessquare/Baftlefields/5. - Free rules; what more needs to be said!
http://www.altdort.com/terragensis/ - Terrain tips.
http://www.histoflig.com - The miniature wargame website.
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Battlefields/6. - An interesting website concerning the armies and battles of the Napoleonic wars.
http://www.fortunecity.com/underworld/fifa/47/ - Napoleon's Battles webpage.
http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/wooton/152/ - A Victorian uniform website.
http://www.fireandfuryhistoricalgame. - Detailed description of the game; 22 scenarios, online resources, rules changes and more. If you play Fire & Fury ACW, then you should check this site out for yourself!
http://www.theminiaturepage. - A website for the miniature gamer. Included are focus groups, features and directories.
http://www.highergroundco.com - Custom made wargames terrain from 6mm to 25mm scale. They have a very nice visual catalog available.
http://www.napoleonicwars.com. - This site has twenty other sites available. Included are battles, campaigns, books, history and more. This is a very good site for the Napoleonic wargamer.
http://www.uwm.edu/People/jpipes/disclaimer.html. - The history, studies and research of the Gennan Military from 1933-1945. An excellent site.
http://cqi.britishwargame.force9.co.uk/pages/ - This is a wargame and military history search engine with 219 links.
That's all I have for now. If you have a favorite site that you'd like to share, please send an e-mail to LBREWER51@aol.com and I will include it in a future article.
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© Copyright 1999 Hal Thinglum
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