Hi guys and gals. I hope your fall weather is nice. This article is being written while I'm on my summer vacation in California and I'm feeling pretty laid back right now, so don't get your expectations up too high. I've spent some time brainstorming a modern warfare boardgame and I feel pretty good about the results so far. Lots of great ideas on rules and units, now to start putting pen to paper and playtesting. Fun!
Well, I have a new friend in Italy. Mr. Lorenzo Sartori sent me an extensive expansion to our Italian club listing (51 clubs), and has enlisted me to wrote an American perspective column for his magazine Dice & Lead (Dadi & Piombo). He personally plays with the Signifer Club in Vicenza and the I Condottieri in Milan and Monza. The first has 10 members, the second 25, and the third is just a small group of friends. Over there, DBM/A/R are very popular, as are Fire & fury, Armati, WAB, rapid fire, and Battlefront in both 15mm and 25mm. Check out pictures of some of their projects including a 3000 figure 25myn Solferino game on a 25 square meter board at either http//g.to/dadi&piombo or http://members.xoom.com/signifer.
Matt Irsik of the Wahsatch Front Historical Gaming Society dropped me a line. The are an offshoot of NUTS in Utah that plays a large variety of periods and scales, unlike the NUTS who only play 25mm. Recent rules in use are command Decision 3, Katana, and Age of Reason. Their six members are always looking for company though, and Matt distributes a pretty color journal called the Warning Order bimonthly. It's full of maodeling ideas, campaign updates, scenarios, book, movie and game reviews, and a short piece on the naval history of Portsmouth england. Very nice. They also threw in a sopy of their campaign system for Zulu Africa called Assegai. I haven't played it out yet, but it's nicely layed out in color with counters, event cards, a strategic map with lots of info on it, and clear rules. Well done. The website also shows what they played the weekend beforepretty neat.
Mike Mays of HMGS Midwest dropped me a line to tell me about their new website-check it out below. Little Wars went well for them in April with 500 attendees and a 50% increase in dealer participation and 13% growth in attendance (584). Members hip has passed 250 and they are cooking on next years Little Wars already (Marriott in Lincolnshire, IL on 15 -17 March). Their theme will be Wars in the Colonies. In the Feb newsletter Bill Krieg wrote an interesting article on how to paint troops and vehicles for winter i.e. mud and snow all over.
HMGS West seems to be having its difficulties and is reorganizing under founder Ray Jackson, You can reach him at Mahdi_Ray@hotmail.com for more info.
The Messenger of HMGS Pacific South West was forwarded from Hal to me recently. Robert Guyton concluded his two-part article on the Sherman tank from WWII-fascinating detailed information on weapons, upgrades, performance, etc. Continuing the WWIT theme, John Lawitzke gave a "two thumbs up" review of the Battlefront Rules from fire & Fury Games. Bill Heizer describes a Johnny Reb III battle in detail that he has run several times. The 100+ members of PSW would love to have you join them, and they've amassed over $5000 in their treasury to support gannng efforts. Ride on boys!
Bill Harting's latest HMGS Mid-South Dispatch continues to give lots of excellent local gaming information. Of course, since it's the April issue it is also the humor issue, and this fills about 80% of the issue. Most of it is pretty funny, and will be familiar to those who are regulars on the email humor circuit. Of course the usual excellent convention listing is present.
Bob Liebl, editor of the HMGS East newsletter, kicks off the Jan/Feb issue by throwing down the gauntlet to rules writers challenging them to produce non-tournament, historically oriented rules that favor historical tactics. Interesting. Bob Giglio gave a convention report from fall In 2000, including awards like Best Presentation, Most Entertaining and Best Theme and Non-Theme. Bob Liebl followed with a fine article describing the battle of Ravenna in 1512, and another on the American Revolution entitled "For Want of a Nail"-very good. Otto Schmidt added some humorous fiction about a woman husband-hunting at a gaming convention-very funny. In the April issue, bob continues to stir the pot by relating some of the leadership irregularities going on in HMGS East-however, I think the members are oblivious to A of it and will continue to be thus as long as the excellent conventions continue to occur. Del Stover has created the HMGS Recon Team. Their goal is to be the HMGS outreach, aggressively promoting military miniatures at public events through demonstration, exhibits, speeches, etc. Finally, Dr. Norbert Brunhuber wrote an excellent article describing his preparation for a post-Alexandrian campaign and how he used convention games to establish the event trail for his campaign. Fascinating.
HMGS South Rebel Yell showed up in my mail pouch from Hal, too. Jon Laughlin penned a very interesting random army generator for solo or quick set up using ancient Greek, Italian, Carthaginian, Thracians, etc. Pat Condray contributed a cerebral, well-researched expose' called "See Here Von Moltke" looking into what the Europeans really thought of the American Civil War. Good club and game store info too.
The Big Muddy continues to promote weekly gaming events throughout area stores. Blake Walker confesses he has blatantly played Warhammer 40,000, and then borrowed their rule systems to make homebrew versions of rules for historical periods. Command Con is now going to furnish a painted figure lottery ala. Nashcon. The deal is, you sign up and are given 5 figures from the army to paint and bring to the con. All the figures are put together and one of the painter's names is drawn from a hat and he gets to take home the 200+ painted figure army-and all it cost him was the time to paint 5 figs. Sounds like a great deal to me.
Battlegroup Boston held their signature con Havoc in April at Fort Devens, Massachusetts. An amazing 94 events were planned, as well as five tournaments in boardgames or miniatures.
I like what the Communique has done for Heart of America HMGS lately. They are running features on the major game clubs in the area, including photos of the shops and owners-great idea! Troy Price wrote a nice piece about the Sengoku period of Japan 1477-1576, and Brian Beal wrote a positive review of bob Vetter's revolutionary War rules "The Times that Try Men's Souls." Todd Carter offered some excellent ideas on how to do some home casting of accessories for your models. Greg McCall added a nice threepage summary of the Bavarian armies from the Napoleonic Wars, including uniform and organizational info. By the way, I love their new byline: "Dedicated to the fact that we can't all just get along."
The Herald from HMGS Great Lakes continues to set the standard for newsletters. Editor Mike Demana starts off with ideas for making Medieval camps. He later continues to lay out his excellent First Man in Rome campaign. President Tom Bryant added some good guidelines for running events at conventions. Eric Adamazek related that the Knob Creek Shooting Range in West Point, KY holds a machine gun shoot twice a year in April and October. Besides the shooting of a variety of weapons (which you can rent for the day!), there are lots of vehicles and larger weapons to see like recoilless rifles and mortars. Targets are cars, buses, refrigerators, and other cool "stuff', some filled with gasoline and dynamite for those spectacular explosions. Sounds great doesn't it? See their website at www.machinegunshoot.com. Paul Westermeyer concluded his book review of Gulf War literature, and Jim Williams wrote a brilliant piece analyzing the effectiveness of DBAS armies. Dennis frank did a nice job describing the origins of wargaming circa 1962. And of course there are event lists, 17 game stores and 21 game clubs allunder their banner. Awesome.
Things are heating up for the Camino Real Post followers. Campaigns are beginning for the American War of Independence using Age of Reason rules, gang Warfare in the Age of Bronze for a Trojan War, and Warharnmer Ancients for an Age of Arthur series-all 25mm. And another Western Roman Empire campaign is planned for next year. Cool.
Historical Gamers of Indianapolis are doing great following their Tuesday/Saturday gaming schedule at 19 & 1. Fire & Fury, Close Action, Desperado, and Napoleon's Battles continue to be favorites.
Keep it coming folks!!!
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© Copyright 2001 Hal Thinglum
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