I'm back on the internet at home and have e-mail again. I can be reached at halmwan@hotmail.com. If you have letters or articles/reviews, you can send them to me via e-mail and use an attachment. If I have trouble accessing it, I'll let you know. If you don't know how to use an attachment (I don't know how to send one but think I know how to access them), send it via email or send me a hard copy along with a disk. If you have a letter, use e-mail. Thanks very much for your recent submissions!
Well, my wargaming activities are going to be heating up. This Saturday, we are going to the Seven Years War Association Convention and looking forward to it. I haven't been there in many years and I always enjoyed it. It has always been a relatively small group, though now I think it has grown to over one hundred attendees, and very friendly! The following weekend, I think, is LITTLE WARS, and I will be attending that as well. Russ Lockwood of MAGWEB is stopping in the Thursday prior to the convention for the evening. That promises to be an interesting evening of hobby chat! I met Russ at HISTORICON last summer and enjoyed meeting the "Man behind MAGWEB".
Some of my favorite things to do at conventions are to (1) see old friends; (2) walk around the gaming area and admire other people's work with terrain, figures, and games; and (3) visit the dealer's area and see what's new. I always end up finding something I've wanted for some time, or finding something that I didn't know I wanted, but now I've got to have it! Although I've reduced my "impulse" buying, I can still come close sometimes to going overboard again!
At the SYWA meet, I want to pick up some 20mm SYW guns from Hap Jordan for my 20mm, SYW project. I want battalion guns (with two gunners) for each battalion as well as six batteries of artillery (two guns/battery) per side (Austria-Prussia). Hap has three guns available: a three-pounder, which I will use for a battalion gun; six and nine pounders. I am anxious for him to bring out a "generic" limber and horse team.
Something else I've wanted to do for years was to add a few units of RSM units to my 25mm SYW collection. When these figures came out many years ago, Rich Black and I were deep into collecting 25mm SYW - mostly MINIFIGS, HINCHLIFFE, some SCRUBIES, and an English company whose name escapes ME now ("oh, oh" CAMPAIGN). Let me assure you, they were really "state of the aft" figures at the time - little beauties, which made some of my collection look pretty bad! This was a really fun time of collecting in my hobby career. Rich Black had pretty sizeable SYW armies and I was most impressed with them. He helped me order my first unit - SCRUBIES - and showed me how to paint them. I can still remember trying to paint the crossbelts where I thought they "may" be and doing what I would now term a "lousy" job; however, I thought they looked pretty good after I finished them. Austrians with green facings!
Then we heard of CAMPAIGN from the UK and got together and ordered a large number of them. It was very exciting when they arrived. Rich got the Austrians and I got the Prussians and Russians. I liked the infantry but wasn't crazy about the cavalry, I remember. I still have three units of Russian line and one of Russian Grenadiers in my SYW collection; the only figures from that time I still have. The rest were sold to Ken Bunger, who, I am sure, owns over half of the figures I ever painted! Anyway, the RSM figures! I remember drooling over them when we first saw them. Slender little devils, they were, with so much detail I couldn't believe it.
My first order was for French line infantry advancing. Unfortunately, I made the wrong decision as they came with separate weapons! I hate separate weaponsl We didn't have superglue at the time and I can't recall what the hell I glued, or attempted to glue, them with but it wasn't successful. Over the years, as my present SYW collection grew and grew to it's present size of perhaps 4500 figures, I thought it was strange I didn't have RSM's represented as they are still a good figure! I hope to make up for that this weekend.
Back then, we were really into Bill Protz's SYV rules. Rich knew them well and I must admit that I never really understood them - no reflection on Bill's ability to write rules as I never have fully understood a set of rules in my life. However, we made several trips to Milwaukee, Rich and 1, with our growing collections of figures, and spent a number of enjoyable Saturdays on our hands and knees in a gym surrounded by thousands of 25mm armies!
There are a number of people that I owe a debt of gratitude to in the hobby and Rich Black is certainly one of them. Rich took the time to teach me various aspects of the hobby and I was an eager learner. We always need people like that with newcomers, Another was Dean West who invited me to his home on a Sunday afternoon and showed me his 15mm ACW collection and helped me with the JOHNNY REB rules - I had somehow obtained a prepublication copy and was overwhelmed by it. Dean ran through a few moves on his table which he had set up for a game and answered all my questions. I hope I have done the same for others since that time.
I will also be attending BAYOU WARS outside of New Orleans in June at the kind invitation of the organizers who are having Pat Condray and myself as "Guests".
I am hoping to bring the family along; they've never been to a convention with as a group. They're already talking about shopping trips while I am having a good time! They've asked me to run several games so I have to do some serious thinking about what to do. I haven't held a game in many years so this won't be easy. Some years ago when I was invited to ENFLILADE in Seattle, I brought my French Foreign collection in 25mm along with all of the terrain and had it shipped in two huge boxes via UPS. Don't think I want to do this again as packing and repacking was very time consuming. The periods I have ready for a game are the SYW in 25mm, ECW/TYW in 15mm, WWII Eastern Front in 25mm, and NWF in 25mm. I don't have rules for any of them, except for a set I wrote for the SYW years ago and never went back and worked on them. I wrote them the week of a LITTLE WARS convention in which I held a large game. One of the benefits which will come out of this is that I shall be "forced" to write a set of rules, or learn one, and run a game! Perhaps this will serve as an impetus to get me running games again!
Something else that is fun at conventions is that I have always made it a practice to pick up buildings and terrain items from different time periods which I am interested in. They end being stored away in a box labeled "15mm Peninsular War" or whatever. Then some years from the purchase date when I decide to do 15mm Peninsular, I dig out that box and have a head start on purchases for the period. Buildings are something which many times have to be seen to know if they are useful or not. It is possible to select buildings from a different time period, or fantasy stuff for that matter, which can apply to your period of interest, but, you have to see them first to know that.
I also love to browse through the "flea market" section, though it seems as though this is a much less frequent event at conventions than in years past,
No wonder that we travel sometimes hundreds of miles to attend conventions and shiver in excitement upon entering the convention doors! What a hobby, uh!!!!!!!
State of the Hobby
In #151 of Duncan Macfarlane's excellent WARGAMES ILLUSTRATED, Bob Coggins has an article entitled "The Development and Current State of U.S. Wargaming" which is quite interesting. It may be a bit slated, in my view, toward the 11 east" and HMGS, but is well done. In discussing the future of the hobby, Bob states that he feels "the hobby is in for a period of entrenchment" and uses as one indication of this that attendance at HISTORICON was down in 1999. Other factors mentioned include "poor education" and "the death of socializing".
As usual, Bob expresses his opinions extremely well and takes, what is to me, the logical view that although we, as a hobby, may experience peaks and valleys, we shall survive because the tabletop "brings something to the gaming experience which cardboard counters or a monitor cannot". Perhaps it is because Bob and I are in the same age bracket that I find myself agreeing with him as to what shall keep our hobby going (what the tabletop offers to us). I am not sure what he means "poor education" is it poor education about the hobby or just plain poor education in the schools? - but his premise as to "death of socialization" is an interesting one and may hold some promise.
Do you think our hobby is in for a period of "entrenchment?" I guess to me Bob's term means that things are slowing down (sales) and perhaps we will not have as many new releases. We used to think that this meant many manufacturers would go out of business leaving us "high and dry", however, I don't think this would be the case. Many of the manufacturers are doing this as "an extension of their hobby", as I do MWAN, and a reduction in sales doesn't necessarily "wipe them out."
I haven't seen many computer wargames so I can't really speak with authority about this, however, on the back of some magazine I noted a beautiful color battle with tanks on a monitor which far surpassed anything we do on the tabletop in a visual sense. However, I agree with Bob that for most of us, we love to see our toy soldiers on our tabletop more than we enjoy seeing beautiful computer screens filled with unbelievable battle scenes. As a child I used to dream about what if I could see my toy soldiers actually marching across my floor wouldn't that be something! Computers allow that to happen, though not with our toy soldiers. I suspect that for the vast majority of individuals under 30, they are going to opt for the computer, rather than the tabletop. However, after having been to HISTORICON in 1999 and having seen the large number of "young" (under 30) wargamers, our hobby may be safe in their hands in another ten years or so.
As to "the death of socialization", I'm not sure. It seems quite probable, at least on the surface, that the age of computers may have given birth to a generation whose leisure activities are far more solitary than in the past. However, many hobbies I can think of (model railroading, wargaming, stamp collecting, etc) are primarily solitary activities with probably less than 5% of total hobby time being spent in a "social" situation. Boardgames may entirely reverse this ratio with perhaps 95% of their total hobby time being spent in a "social" setting (defined as more than one person). I mean my reading, painting, organizing, daydreaming, terrain construction, etc., has always been a one-person situation probably more than 95% of the time. If we look at the "computer person", I have a hard time thinking of when they may leave the solitary situation of being on their computer and enter some sort of "social" setting. We may indeed be looking at 100% solitary time in this instance.
We are basically what we were exposed to in our youth--you and I played with toy soldiers; this generation plays with computer games. We grew up to love toy soldiers and luckily found an outlet, chances are, at least to me, this generation's future outlet will be centered around computers. Although, as stated previously in this editorial, there were an awful lot of people under 30 at the 1999 HISTORICON convention. I don't pretend to be able to explain that - can you?
Product News
IRREGULAR MINIATURES, 3 4 Apollo St., Heslington Rd., York, YOI 5AP, UK has made additional releases to their 54mm metal line consisting of Medievals, Renaissance, Marlburian, AWI and FIW. In 25mm they are adding 7 1h C. Neo-Assyrians, modern "emergency services" (fireman and policeman) and in 20mm, they are adding a Malburian and Jacobite line.
PIQUET is available in the US from Piquet, Inc., 165 Charles St., Vestal, NY 13850 (e-mail: piquetsalesgpiquet.con websiw www.piquet.com). I understand the latest copy of their publication, which I have never seen, is over 100 pages long.
FRONTLINE WARGAMING, Gibraltar Farm, Ham Lane, Gillingham, Kent, ME7 3JJ UK has released more WWII 20mm items including a GAZ 67 jeep, studebaker lorry, Bedford OYD 3 ton truck, M3 A I half track, GMC 2 1/2 ton truck, Carro Armato M11/19, and an Anderson air raid shelter. In 25mm they offer an explorer's camp and they sell the tents separately.
GRIPPING BEAST, 15 Field View, Bucldesham, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP10 OEE, UK has branched off into Sassanid Persians in 25mm offering Late Romans in addition.
NEWLINE DESIGNS, 6 Ardley Close, Ruislip, Middlesex, HA4 7PL UK, who I thought offered only 20mm figures, now has a 25mm Ancients line which appears quite extensive.
MATTHEW IRSIK, 960S. 1480W., Clearfield, Utah 84015 (e-mail: mirski1@juno.com) sent along a copy of his SYW campaign and would be glad to send a copy of it to anyone who sent him $1 to cover postage and printing. This is a four page color "newspaper" of sorts giving campaign news - these are always of interest! Nice job, Matthew!
Vince and Sharron Clyant of THE LONDON WAR ROOM have a new email: tlwr@thelondonwarroom.com They offer 25mm Vietnam figures, Newline Designs in 20mm, and quality hand-made terrain.
OSPREY BOOKS have released MARENGO 1800 in their CAMPAIGN series.
A new set of Napoleonic rules IN THE NAME OF GLORY - 3rd Edition is available from Mr. D. Marks, 11, Foxhunter Walk, Billericay, Essex, CM 11, 1DZ, UK (8 pds).
Join THE VICTORIAN MILITARY SOCIETY, which I've always thought of doing but haven't. $35/15 pds to Membership Secretary, VMS, 43 Hastings Rd., Maidstone, Kent, ME15 7SH, UK.
HELION & COMPANY, 26 Willow Rd., Solihull, West Midlands, B91 1UE, UK (e-mail: books@he1ion.co.uk website: http://www.helion.co.uk) sent a book catalog including Christopher Duffy's new book INSTRUMENT OF WAR THE AUSTRIAN ARMY IN THE SYW.
MWAN #102 featured a rules set by Tom Barkalow and Rick Stoffel entitled: ON TO PHILADELPHIA - AN AWI VARIANT OF'ON TO RICHMOND'- I failed to mention that the 'ON TO RICHMOND' rules system is a published set of rules with copyright belonging to THE COURIER.
CLASH OF ARMS (e-mail! clashofarms@aol.com website: www.clashofarms.com) has released THE DEVIL'S TO PAY! - The Battle of the Yellow Breeches Creek, July 3, 1863, a board game ($15) which is an add-on for SUMMER STORM.
MWAN #102 (page 166) mentioned CANNON FODDER MINIATURES and I made an error: they are actually CASTAWAY ARTS figures. How did I do that? By the way, there is a new address for CONNON FODDER MINIATURES (http: //members.zoom.com/canfodmins/canf odmins/home.htm).
I found the address and phone number for LEMAX INC., 25 Pequot Way, Canton, MA 0201 (781-821-4555), the company producing the "Christmas" terrain I picked up cheaply just prior to and after the holiday season. Their catalog is $4.00.
You might have noted the name change in John Stafford's column WARGAME CLUBS OF THE WORLD! John has done an excellent job with this column - I can't believe how many clubs are listed. Great work, John! Thanks very much!
THE FOUNDRY has their official website up and running: www.wargamesfoundry.com - the site contains many pictures of their figures both painted and unpainted as well as historical, modelling and wargaming articles. One can also order via this site.
I made an error in MWAN #104 in the review column - pages 146 and 147 are switched around. Sorry for the error!
We need to issue our best congratulations to Russ Lockwood of MAGWEB whose company was amongst the top 40 companies in New Jersey for whom big things were expected in the new year. This was in a recent article entitled "40 under 40." MAGWEB was ranked as number 20! Congratulations, Russ! I believe Russ now offers more than 75 historical magazines online for a subscription fee. Contact Russ for details re MAGWEB at magweb@magweb.comortake a free look at what he has to offer http//www.magweb, com
This brings something to mind which I have been thinking of from time to time but never get around to mentioning it in the editorial. It is clear we are in a phase in which technology is just growing and growing. Five years ago I didn't know what a fax machine was; just a year ago I didn't see a need to have e-mail, ten years ago I didn't think I needed a computer; it goes on and on! When I visited with Russ Lockwood at HISTORICON in 1999, he related to me how it wouldn't be too long before we had "books" on the computer. The image on screen would resemble the pages of a book and as you turn to the next page, you could actually see the page turning as if you were turning it yourself Even I could see this as a possibility because our generation, and perhaps the next generation, would require a "transition" of sorts from books to computer screen. We aren't going to want to give up our "books" which we can actually feel and see up on a shelf It won't take more than two generations, thought 1, before they won't have to use this approach any longer; they'll just be able to skip the book "look" and use only the printed text. Well, just several weeks ago, I heard this type of "book" was available on computer!
I rather suspect this means something for publications such as MWAN, SAGA, SYWA JOURNAL, JOURNAL OF 20 TH CENTURY WARFARE, ZOUAVE, and dozens more within our hobby. Already our creative wizard, Chris Engle, who used to publish THE MATRIX GAMER in magazine form, has been publishing it online (matrixgamer@juno.com) - Russ Lockwood refers to it as an "e-mail magazine" - My congratulations to Chris for being ahead of his time. We can also add Henry Hyde's excellent online historical miniatures magazine http:/www.battlegames.co.uk to that list.
Then if you consider that Russ Lockwood's MAGWEB can offer you over 75 magazines at a yearly subscription price of what perhaps two of those magazines would cost you, it becomes an even more telling factor that something is happening out there ("and you don't know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones? - Bob Dylan).
We can also consider the fact that so many wargaming clubs and companies have their own websites and offer hobby articles in addition to information about their organization or company. Look at what we just read a bit ago about THE FOUNDRY's Website.
Just what it means is a bit unclear to me at present. In the long run (ten years plus), I think it is rather certain that you will see (1) a drastic reduction in the number of amateur hobby publications, and (2) a real increase of hobby publications online ala Chris Engle's efforts. There will be, for awhile at least, those of us who much prefer the "feel" of an actual publication in our hands, but as we become fewer and fewer in number, I don't believe there will be replacements for us.
I guess I don't see this as necessarily negative. When the printing press came along, the story-tellers were aghast at this "modern" technological wonderment and felt, I am sure, the effect of the loss of story telling would be great indeed. A move from the "personal" to the "impersonal." When I started publishing MWAN, they were still using printing presses. I am not bemoaning this change in language, concept, and idea expression, as I believe everything runs it's course. Personally, I will miss my books, though I won't be around to do that! Thus, there really isn't a problem, is there!
I recently signed on the "list server" for the VOLLEY AND BAYONET (VnB) site http://members.xoom.com/wargaming/vnb.htm run very capably by Keith McNelly of Nelson, New Zealand (e-mail: mcnelly@paradise.net.nz) and if anything reinforces what I've just been talking about, it is this site. I have an interest in the VnB rules set and this site offers scenarios, an archive of all messages since they went online, and I get perhaps twenty messages a day from amongst the 175 or so people on the list serve!
These types of "publications" are just going to increase over time and become even better than they are. You have to wait two months between issues of MWAN; there is NO waiting with online publications such as VnB! MWAN might not have articles concerned with periods of your interest; you more than likely, in time, will be able to find an online publication which offers only articles/information about your specific period of interestl MWAN is limited to 192 pages because of cost and effort I wonder how many pages of information VnB pumps out over a two month period?!!!!! MWAN's ability to provide you with an interactive experience with other gamers is extremely limited (there was a time when people used to say MWAN afforded them that ability because it is published on time every two months!); VnB gives you almost instantaneous interactive ability.
This doesn't mean I am throwing in the towel; it does mean that the changes we all thought were light years ahead of us are here now and they will grow at an immeasurable pace over the next five to ten years!
I suspect publications such as MWAN will notice this slowly - the number of new subscriptions will slowly decline as those who would have subscribed years ago, now will opt for the online option(s). Hobby shops will order fewer copies as the demand will slowly decrease over time. Advertisers, without whom MWAN could not function, will find their advertising dollars go further if they advertise with online publications, or sink their advertising dollars into websites (which is happening right now across our hobby) for their company. I will be the first to admit that I find figure manufacturer's websites to be of great value, I can immediately access their figure listings/prices whereas previously, I had to read about their availability in a wargaming publication, write them a letter and wait for their response. I can now order figures via company's e-mail addresses and reduce my waiting time for my precious toy soldiers,
Wait just a minute! Who is going to read my editorials in MWAN as I describe in great detail, for the 182nd time, my latest wargaming "project?" Who is going to read my figure reviews in "What's New in Hal's Mailbox?" as I "highly recommend" every product received? Who is going to be there to read of how I think we are only playing with "toy soldiers" and shouldn't take ourselves too seriously? Who is going to remember that I once painted 166 25mm Zulus in a single 24-hour period? Who is going to read my "run-on" sentences, which if grammatically and syntactically analyzed, would qualify for the world's longest paragraphs (though Charles Grant would have given me a run for my money in this area)? Now I DO feel depressed! You bunch of ungrateful technological nerds! I work my butt off doing MWAN and you go running off to online hobby sites! I sloshed through water one inch deep in my family room risking electrocution while collating MWAN 13 and you flit from one website to another in a quest for instant gratification!
I hope the ink runs right through your plastic pocket protective pen holder and stains the hell out of your white shirt!
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© Copyright 2000 Hal Thinglum
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