Greeting worldwide MWANers! I'm writing this from my field headquarters in southwest Oklahoma (Altus-ever heard of it?) where the Air Force has exiled me for four months. However, I have been paroled from the Pentagon, and even promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, so fife isn't too bad. Actually I'm learning to fly the C-17 cargo aircraft so I can once again roam the airways and come visit all you fine gentlefolk and play games with you. Huzzah! As you will note at the end of this article, I have also been forced to leave the wargame Mecca of the East Coast and have moved to Washington state (McChord AFB). So I shall be reporting on the wargame scene there more directly in upcoming issues. Enough chat ... on with the show.
P.S. Almost forgot The Post Office does not forward bulk mail. So those of you who send me your newsletters, please update your mailing lists with my new address. Thankst
Our first now group is the West Texas Wargamers Association. They meet every other Saturday in addition to periodic Special Events. Their coordinator Tom McBrayer extends an invitation to those in the West Texas area to play historical miniatures of Napoleonic (NB), ACW (F&F) and WWII (SH). They have been known to dabble in science fiction such as SF`B, ancients (DBM), WWII aircraft and Medieval (DoK) from time to tune. Folks with miniatures and rule sets coming to play are always welcome! They are active members of HMGS Tornado Alley. Contact Tom at (915) 683-5964 or Faron Bell at (915) 522-2548.
Next up is Die Alt Blau Legion (The Old Blue Legion or DABL) from the plains of Kansas.
Bill Boyle wrote me a note telling me they deliot in dabbling in obscure periods, however, the main interest is from War of the Roses to Thirty Years War. Other periods include Samurai, Russian Civil War, WWI non-Western front and colonial. The players use mostly home rules and 15mm figures. They are located in Johnson, Miami, and Franklin Counties in Kansas, playing once a month in Southern Johnson County. Contact Bill at (913) 856-8143 or BGJO@msn.com or his associate. Troy Pricc at (913) 782-7899 or MIJJIT@msn.com.
Last of the newbees are the Omaha Historical Miniature Wargamers' Group under Ken Bunger. He can be reached at kbunger@neonramp.com 5016 N. 103d Ave, Omaha NE 68193 (402) 493-5473.
Bob Cordery from Wargames Development sent a quick note to say "hello" and advise all of you that they have a website at http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~warden/index.htm for your reading pleasure. In Addition, he also runs a website in support of the forthcoming World War 2 MEGABLITZ wargames rules at http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~warden/ww2/index.htm.
Rob Dean, President of the Harford Area Weekly Kriegspielers (HAWKS), sent me a nice update on their activities. They recently hold their local Barragecon, 60+ attendees for over 20 scheduled events. The one fantasy exception was Star Wars pod racing as the terrain could be fantastic for that. So many different periods, and scales are played that Rob could not identify any strong trends--all ideas welcome. They've gotten away from the hardcopy newsletter, and have begun using the Onelist server with great success, much as JodieCon and others have done. They also have a website now at http://members.aol.com/Legre5/index.html. So check it out and enjoy.
HMGS Great Lakes continues it's fine contributions to the hobby by supporting the HMGS Origins Team HOT '99. Pete Panzeri says they improved historical gaming by 20% and received great support from the Onging staff Some other useful stuff in the latest newsletter included Ray Garbee's suggested ideas for fighting the Sikh Wars with Volley & Bayonet and a review for an interesting set of fighting sail rules by club member Phil Fry called "Fire as She Bears" Another nice feature as 12 hobby shops supporting GL, the 14 clubs that encompass their membership, and 6 reenactment events coming up. Also, a preview of 26 of their games featured at the September flagship convention Advance the Colors. Bon chance!
Big Muddy Historical Gaming Alliance held their flagship convention August Spearhead in Collinsville IL. Reports of outstanding success are circulating. These game-hungry folks also supported Nashcon, Castlecon, CommandOon and Archon conventions. President Earl Hodgen had some great thoughts on how to make game days and conventions more "friendly" for new members or players. I have experienced some of the "new guy/outsider" treatment he is trying to prevent in his club, and I applaud his efforts, and encourage other clubs to exantine how they interact with folks dropping by for the first time to play.
Wilbur Gray penned a very complete article on the 1799 Russian uniforms for the Ba%4GS East newsletter. Victor "Otto" Schmidt added a thought-ptovoking "Wargame Ethics" article, offering 10 ideas on how to make your games more enjoyable for yourself and others. Tim Tilson added some spice with his suggested "A Year in Napoleonics"
And for humor, David Helber wrote a pithy poem called "Advice to a British Lead Soldier"-- quite good. Finally, Bob Liebl, half of the new editing duo joined by the talented Cleo, of course), used Marlborough to point out wine solid tactical. ideas for gunpowder generals. Amazing talent.
Unfortunately I've had to bid adieu to the NOVAG folks as I've moved across the country. However, their gaming moves on without me, They've been developing a rather complete, list of "house rules" for Napoleon's Battles that have reduced some of the acrimony time rules can generate, and have led to some excellent on-line discussions of tactics and playability. Dave Luff also reports that the website has been expanded and updated, and that they have a "Flea Market" section now to rid yourself of those unwanted items or acquire new toys.
Bill Harting reports for MIGS Mid-South that Nashcon drew 210 players and cleared over $2000 profit for the organization. Outstanding! Other interesting tidbits in the Dispatch included Theron Kuntz's erudite and detailed explanation of changing scales and mathematical conversions. Chris Engle summarized the Kosovo war and offered that it would make a great matrix game (realty Chris?? [grin]).
Our own Russ Lockwood sent in the results of his latest member survey of Magweb.com The best military commander: Alex the Great, most pivotal battle: Waterloo; battle to be seen by time travel: Waterloo again; where will the next war be: Middle East; what's your favorite free-time activity-wargaming (duh). Great group.
The Last Dispatch from the Lost Square Gainers was full of Historicon storie&--sounds like lots of folks, went and had a great time. There was a brief but excellent thought ptecc on Using figures to represent morale changes and other changes rather than "garbaging up" the field with pipecleaners at al. Twenty-four members and growing.
George Phillies sent along the latest issue of the Strategist, newsletter for The Strategy Gaming Society. The focus is on historical boardgaming, but several miniatures-related or over- arching military gaming topics are included to make it worthwhile reading for most. My favorite was a discussion of computerizing logistics for wargaming to allow for the complexities of warfare without slowing down the game, as well as possible uses of new technology like digital cameras, scantiers, and encode/decode algorithms. Fascinating. Articles also covered F&F, Picquet for ancients, and a Little Wars after-action report.
Tornado Alley HMGS is on a recruiting drive. As of July 1999 their active membership was down to 30+ members. However, they remain active, sponsoring Castle Con I in August and Fort Worth Wars in November. The new President Orval Darrow is working hard to get the organization moving again.
The latest Citadel from HMGS Northwest included a continuation of a discussion of combined arms, focusing on German lessons learned, insightful, Bill Stewart conducted an interview with Ian Croxall, a regional gamer of some repute and English roots--his thoughts on gaming were interesting and witty
Don Wolf's Camino Real Post is up to three cons, three months of game activities, four web sites, and 27 members to play games with in the greater New Mexico/Texas area.
Squad Leader continues to play twice per week at The Historical Gamers of Indianapolis. However, an amusing assortment of other games are also played, with Russo-Turkish Napoleonics in July, a riverboat desperado gunfight in August WWI airplanes in September, and Warfare in the Age of Reason in October. And those are only a sample of the games. By the way, they've just passed their 5th year, congratulations! Mike Galbraith can clue you in to the latest on Hasbro's acquisition of Avalon Hill and the selling off of some of their games to other publishers.
HMGS Pacific Southwest's Celebrate History convention sounds interesting-lots of real military vehicles, a German U boat commander uniform displays and other crowd pleasers. Mini Wars was also successful. Nine different formal clubs throughout the region supported them.
Duke Robinson, fearless leader of the Confederation of Friends sent Hal and I a newspaper clipping describing how they, in conjunction with the 13th Regiment (both groups from Indiana) are recruiting and promoting numature wargaming in their area. The article features their recreation of Gettysburg at the Princeton Train & Hobby Depot but spends a good deal of time explaining wargaming, and it's focus on camaraderie and history The Princeton Daily Clarion ran the article with several nice photos. The interview was well done, putting gaming in a good light.
HMGS West is staying busy. The last couple Battlefields I received show them holding down a strong conventions schedule with four sponsored by them, but supporting twice that many. I also enjoyed reading Pat Condray's discussion of Napoleonic maneuver rates, as weft as some other enterprising person's DBM Order of Battle to fight Guagemela. Paul Cooper also drafted a good holding action scenario for Kasserine. Please note Chris Salander's new address below.
NASAMW's Spearpoint is full of tournament results from all over the country. Their new emphasis on regional coordinators really seem to work. And ancients, in general seem to be having a renaissance as Scott Holder reports record numbers of players in tournaments at Histoncon and Cold Wars. Articles now cover more than WRG, encompassing DBA/DBM, Classical Hack, Armati, Warhammer Ancients, Medieval Warfare and Ancient Warfare and other more diverse rules. Quite the step up from the squabbling and bleak WRG days of the late 1980's and early 1990's. I particularly enjoyed Ted Grulke's card system to generate battles in a DBM campaign. An ingenious idea seem to be a simple spin off of Magic: The Gathering and Draw Poker, and can easily be modifed for other gaming periods. I've already concocted several additional ideas to modifed for other gaming periods. I've already concocted several additional ideas to expand it and am tinkering with using it for Napoleonics. Nice job all.
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© Copyright 2000 Hal Thinglum
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