Hello again fellow Survivors! Yes, my regular submission of letters to Hal for publication under the inauspicious tide of "Letters from the Gulag" took a serious blow when I found out that I was one of the 50 U.S. diplomats to be expelled from Russia. Needless to say, this came as quite a shock. I had two years remaining on post. All that aside, I'd like to report that historical miniature gaming is alive and well in Russia. In fact, it is so good, that the miniature figure realm has expanded!
The Russian game & model company Zvezda has released three new lines of historical miniature games. The first is a hex-based board game that uses 20mm figures as the playing counters. The series planned is quite broad and covers a wide range of topics from Ancient Greek to Medieval Russia.
The Age of Battles is their second series and it is a superb system. It has a core set of rules based around a Regimental formation. The exact relation of how man figures portrays how many real-life warriors is unique for each scenario. The scenario rules only expand the core rules, which work very well for the main gaming functions.
The Age of Battles game system, like the hex-based games, encompasses the broad range of eras from Ancient Greeks to Medieval Russia.
The final gaming system is a skirmish system for use with 1:35th scale models and figures. This equates to a 54mm WWII unique skirmish game. Unfortunately, by 29 June, when I had to leave Russia, this series still had not hit the street. I will get a copy as soon as it becomes available and give you a better review at that time.
The bad news about Zvezda games is that they are not exported in quantity. I was able to get quite a few copies of each game and have arranged to get more, but they will come in in a trickle. Hopefully it all works out as I've planned and arranged.
In any case, by the time this article makes it to print, Historicon will have come and gone. The good thing about getting expelled is that I will be able to make all the big East shows. I was 'rewarded' with a job in Washington D.C. - all kidding aside, the U.S. Government took good care of me in my untimely reassignment.
Consequently, I will write a review of Historicon for MWAN. It is the least I can do. So many y ears away from the gaining community in the U.S. One of things I've seen from world wide wargainers - Russian gainers tend to be very thin and in their 20's - 30's (whole new generation following the fall of the Soviet Union ten years ago). In the U.S., they tend to be older, although the 20-soniethings transition from fantasy/sci fi to historical gaining on occasion In the UK and Australia, the gainers seem to me to be pretty much the same as those in the U.S. They run the gamut from 20's to 60's.
Current project status: During my last week in Moscow, I was able to pick up the Complete History of the RussoJapanese War, published in 1907 for Tsar Nicholas II. This is an original copy and is in incredible condition, I will do some select translations from this for MWAN. I've already translated the Japanese Order of Battle as they entered the war. Next will be the Russian OOB. Keep in mind that this four-volume series was published in 1907. It is only partially tainted by the Russian perspective, but is still an incredible work. There are maps showing the force lay down for every major battle, along with significant text notes accompanying. It is amazing that these books exist because the Soviets had a tendency to burn books on history where the Russians lost the war. See the first part of the translation following this letter.
Final notes for this letter from the Gulag (actually written on the plane as I flew from Moscow to New York), The historical miniature gaming creed is to study and learn history by other means. I published the Gauntlet U.S. magazine for a while, just until I could not provide fluit service of historical study in preparation for a miniatures based refight. I hope I can renew the faith with continued articles to Hal, MWAN, and the world's historical miniature gamers.
Back to MWAN #114 Table of Contents
Back to MWAN List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Magazine List
© Copyright 2001 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