From Dillon Its about 14 months since you sent me the package of back numbers of MWAN and I haven't got through them all yet. Great reading that they are, decorating the house, earning a living and playing wargames have priority. I have found it easy enough to keep up with the latest issues as they arrive, always looked forward to as MWAN is the only wargame magazine that I can read right the way through. There are always some good articles. I find that I look up those by Sam Mustafa to read first as I find that his are always stimulating and start me thinking as to how his ideas can be applied to my games. In the latest issue of MWAN you asked if anybody produced models of ships for the ECW period. Navwar (11 Electric Parade, Seven Kings Road, Ilford, Essex, England. IG3 8BY, Tel: 020-8590-6731) produce 17th Century ships at 1/1200 and 1/3000 scale, costing 2.5 pounds and 80 pence per ship respectively. The models are quite good enough for wargaming. The 1/3000 ships are really small and reasonably well detailed for their size though I have decided to go with 1/1200. The advantage of 1/3000 is that you could have a go at the massive battles of the Anglo-Dutch Wars battles at a 1:1 scale. In return I would like to ask if you know if the 1/2400 scale Pre-Dreadnought ships that were produced by Viking Forge a few years ago are still available anywhere. I bought some from Caliver Books but they never had the whole range. I think that's a good scale for this period when fighting ranges were still fairly short and speeds slower than they would be during WW1. In the last year it has been 15mm WW2 that has attracted my attention. Several others at the Oxford Wargames Society have taken up this period and I have been tasked with writing the rules. It has been an interesting experience. To start off I had quite a few novel ideas which I wanted to try out. Some got ditched quite early on but some have succeeded and now I have reached the point of polishing them up and making some areas slicker. Certainly in the last couple of games I have been able to wander around looking at other games taking place while the players can get on with the game. The rules are aimed at playing what might be called 'grand skirmish' level with several squads per side with support weapons. Figures represent single men but without characterization and no leaders represented below platoon commander. I did start off with squad leaders but experience showed that the rules worked better without them (one of the ditched ideas). The other players seem to like the rules and went and bought more figures at the local wargames show in March (Overlord at Abingdon). The other gaming that I got into in the last two months has been on my new PC. I had been putting off buying one because I knew that I wouldn't be able to resist playing aircraft simulation games and wasting a lot of time. I was right. Within a week of getting the PC I went and bought 'IL-2 Sturmovik'. Boy is it good. I don't think I will need to buy another game for quite a while yet. I haven't played on the internet because I find the computer controlled aircraft hard enough to beat and that AAA fire defending the ground targets can be fearsome. Some of those Russian aircraft are dogs to fly. Anyway, the game gets banished to the spare bedroom upstairs during the week to remove the temptation from me, though as I type this I am sure I can hear a whisper saying 'Just a quick game - it won't take long'. Now I have this PC I will probably send you some articles for printing -rule writing and computer game permitting. Thanks again for doing MWAN. It's reassuring to know that I am not alone in my enthusiasm for wargaming. (Editor's Note: Thanks for the information on the ships, Dillon! I don't know what has happened with Viking Forge; they haven't answered my letters or e-mails for over a year.) From Antonio Portilla Cold Wars 2002 has concluded and it has left me with great enjoyment and exciting memories. I was GM for an Alamo game which was full and all enjoy to the last man. I had 360 Mexicans against 67 Texans with 13 cannon. I scratch built my second Alamo, a smaller version, which is easier to transport. It is three by four, made out of ply and the roofs lift off. The Mexicans attacked in three waves. The Texans stood defiantly and fought to the last man with no reinforcements arriving. Finally, the defenders were put to the sword just as Santa Anna had promised but the memory of their valor shall never perish. One snag was that I had left the rules behind and had to have them faxed to me from FL at the hotel minutes before the game began. Thankfully I got them just in time. There were many great games at Cold Wars. I saw a Lord of the Rings game which had some impressive terrain including a two part six foot mountain with a long bridge which was fought across. The game was crowded and very popular. It seemed to have more cameras around it than Britney Spears. Also, there were Gladiatorial bouts in a magnificent arena surrounded by 300 Roman civilians and Roman soldiers standing at the gates which Russel Crowe would have been proud of and he isn't easy to please. A huge Black Hawk Down game which was packed and impossible to approach once it began. Movies are quite influential in the popularity of games. A Normandy D-day game with a three foot rocky cliff which the invading force had to scale to reach the Germans. A great demo game by OLDW hosted by Jim using the Battleline rules system. I played AWI and MAW one on one and had a great time. The rules worked well for that period. A 10 mm ACW scenario using the Fire and Fury rules system and run by my FL neighbor Bill Moreno with beautiful Gamescape four inch hex terrain. A Charge of the Light Brigade scenario which had one page of rules and lasted less than an hour. My old friend and MWAN contributor Charlie Eldsen was sighted in a huge Borodino game Hosted by Pete Panzeri. Charlie was gracious enough to translate a European Risk card from French for me. Thanks Charlie. The flea market had many great deals. Minis, paints, brushes, flies, terrain, books, videos and boardgames were all available at great savings many up to fifty percent off. I was close to purchasing six hundred 15 mm ACW for twenty-five dollars! One observation though, there seemed to be fewer items per individual than at previous flea markets. It looked like fewer items available per seller. I am guessing that access to Bartertown has unloaded many unwanted items from seller's inventory. I myself was down to about three armies when I usually have five or six. I sold them at a great price for the purchaser. The room was large and well ventilated allowing for ease of movement and comfortable climate. The dealer area had an immense and extensive array of products. All dealers were well stocked and had many new items. Twenty-five mm ACW minis by Mark Fenlon from Australia and GB based Renegade minis both have outstanding ACW figures and are working on more as we speak. These figures are comparable to Foundry quality but half the price. I believe the sculpting was done by former Foundry sculptors of which there are many. The con had seminars for painting and rules marketing. The painting seminars was crowded and many were taking notes including some women. It was reminiscent of a college class. The Hotel accommodations were pleasant and convenient with snacks and beverages throughout. I was lucky enough to meet an old Metropolitan Wargamers pal who allowed me to share his room. Young and old gamers were friendly and spirited about the affair. I was able to game Battlecry with some old friends until two am. All in all it was quite an enjoyable experience at Cold Wars 2002 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I am eagerly looking forward to Historicon in July. I highly recommend this event. All should attend. I myself plan to run a game or two possibly an Alamo and Colonial Affair using BFE. I will have my Battlecry in 15mm to play late at night. I may have it in Twenty five's with AWI minis which is sure to be fun with all the different troop types. I hope this will be an encouragement to visit and make it an even better con next time. (Editor's Note: The Alamo game sounds great, Antonio; always had an "itching" to do it!) From Duane Blocker I never resubscribed last year and almost decided to write off the hobby, but then I ran across some old issues of MWAN and I'm hooked again. So here is my letter and check to subscribe. Are issues 111 through current available ? Why was I so despondent you ask ? Finding time to paint is impossible and that goes for gaming as well. I have two teenage daughters, each very active, does this sound familiar? One, the older (Heidi) plays soccer competitively so that ties up a day or two a week and one day on the weekend, the high school team takes even more time. We are now starting to look for colleges. Heidi is 16 and a junior, she is also a very good student. Wendy is 14 a High School freshman, and competes in Horse Trials (3 day event). We needed to purchase a new horse in order for her to continue in competition. Let me assure you this may be the most expensive hobby there is. Wendy is very active and this keeps her out of trouble. She is also a very good student not that she puts in the effort her sister does. OK, now for gaming, well I haven't done much, between horse shows and soccer games there just isn't much time. I have gotten together with Chuck Lemons here in Austin. We knew each other from the club in Denver (Colorado Military Historians). We have played some Piquet and some Wooden Ship and Iron Men miniatures. I just got back in contact with Chuck this week and we are planning to get together soon. One of the things I have been doing is playing some of the European style family board games with people from work. I have introduced them to miniatures with Chuck and they have been asking to do them again recently. I also am buying some DBA armies (painted) and hope to introduce these folks to them. There is an active club here in the Austin area but they meet every Sunday around noon. I would love to attend with them but with the above schedule you can see that this is impossible. Unfortunately I only have an odd collection of miniatures that I have acquired that are painted and don't really have two opposing forces. That's why I'm trying to buy used DBA armies and I am having a couple painted. I don't have a great deal of extra money at this time to devote to the hobby with the above obligations and college coming up so this will have to do. I hope with simple games, DBA and maybe some Fire and Fury to bring some new folks into the hobby. A couple of the people are Civil War buffs hence the Fire and Fury. I have some troops I have bought used and a few I have painted but will have to acquire more to put on a decent game. This group of friends from work is a lot of fun to get together with and if I can get them more interested in miniatures, which I don't think will be hard, I would love to run a small campaign. (Editor's Note: Glad you are back with us, Duane! Continued success to your daughters in their efforts as well!) From Larry Freeman I threw a quick battle report together for the May 11 fight and posted it on the web. I will still put out the write-ups Kevin and Mike are working on once they are complete as well. Harold, if you want to add your two cents worth for the German point of view, I'll gladly add it to the pile. The island is also out there for the campaign game starting in mid to late June. For right now, I have Dan, Mike Cooper and Tom as the Japanese on the island. Everyone else seems to have read their history and volunteered for the US! Regardless, I have already revised the Japanese OOB based on who is playing and am working on a revised US OOB based on the last names I received for the US side. Kevin, if you could drop me a line again, we'll start discussing the particulars of the US force. It will be scaled back from where we were, but still pretty potent. Later this week, I will e-mail all of the Japanese commander their forces available plus their victory condition. The same will go for the US once Kevin and I have had a chance to discuss it. I still would like to get our first moves in by June 16th and our first games by the end of June or early July. I do not think we'll have a problem with getting a table. I think we will leave all small fights up to me (if that sounds fair), then spend our time gaming the situations that look the best, so we always will have one good match up to look forward to. Lastly, if you know anyone who would want to get involved, have them email in and we'll add them to the list. Troops are not an issue, although we could do with some more Japanese and Marines. I have 13 squads of Army and Mike has another whole company to boot, so the dogfaces are well represented! We had a great time at Kursk this year. I was so busy that I could not get a proper battle report together. However, I asked for the major combatants from each side to write up what they saw. Once that happens, I'll forward it to you. I don't expect it until after Memorial Day weekend, so perhaps the first week in June. I will definitely get one together for the St. Lo refight I will be putting on at Command Con. Years ago in the late 80 / early 90s, I wrote several magazine articles for Miniature Wargames. They centered on the Civil War and Revolutionary war as I used to game both periods in 15mm. It felt great to write those articles and even better to see that with my research, there were no comments back in the letters sections about how I missed something. At that point, I knew that I enjoyed writing history. In a way, I feel the same thing about these rules. It gave me a chance to use my history degree and practice what I was taught in school. I program computers for a living how so I really don't use the History side that much. I had always thought of writing a book, but I notice every time I think of a subject, someone had already written a great or complete work on it. I guess it must be true about humans being driven by need because once I realized that I did not find any rules to my liking, that need to write just came out. I think that is one reason why I had to add some history to the rules. Not only for the understanding it would bring, but for myself as well. (Editor's Note: I really like the way your rules look, Larry; congratulations on putting out such a quality product! If anyone is interested in a set of rules for 25/28mm WWII gaming, you should check out Larry'siules!) From Darrvl Smith Our local convention season is in full swing! I just got back from Drums Along the Maumee in Toledo, a very nice convention hosted by the Colby Street Irregulars in conjunction with HMGS Great Lakes. This is one of my favorite conventions. Why? Not because I am overwhelmed by the number of events and dealers like some of the larger shows out East, but because the size allows gamers to get to know each other and share in this hobby. Bigger is definitely not always better. Game for game, this convention, as well as the flagship convention of Great Lakes, Advance the Colors, is as good as anything I've seen at the big shows. The Wayne's Legion Historical Garners got their act together hosted eight events ranging from Ancients to World War I naval in the "Wayne's World" corner, and we are already thinking about what to run next year! Want more info on HMGS Great Lakes and their conventions? Go to www.hmgsgl.org. And I keep forgetting to mention this in my updates: Lhe Great Lakes newsletter, edited by Mike Demana, is one of the most read publications on Magweb. No politics, no BS, just gaming stuff! Matt Davidson and I are talking about doing some German colonial gaming in 25(28)mm. Something set in East Africa, circa 1880s, with the Arabs revolting against their new German overseers. We are probably going to use Volley and Bayonet for rules. We were inspired by Ray Garbee's Sikh War events he has been hosting lately; simple rules, big pretty figures, obscure period. I think there are enough figures on the market now that will do a good job of representing both sides. The Foundry's Darkest Africa line has Zanzibaris, Copplestone is making Zanzibar iregulars, and the Germans have a bunch of Sudanese in their force, with German officers and NCOs. I am thinking about using Pulp Figures for the Germans. I'll have to keep you updated on this venture. Also, along colonial lines, I have started an e-group on the small wars of the United States, 18701940. Inspired by Paul Hinson's Banana Wars rules that first appeared in MWAN 29 (and resubmitted here for publication again), I have started collecting figures from Monday Knight Productions (see my review on this line).If anyone wants to join this e-group, simply send an email to smallwarssubscribe@smartgroups.com. Speaking of e-groups, the Our Moccasins Trickled Blood e-group has nearly 80 members on it now! I really never expected such an interest, and I am fortunate to have a great bunch of gamers participating on the site. (Editor's Note: I enjoyed your excitement about the "Banana Wars" figures, Darryl! I remember thinking the same thing about the old FRONTIER figure line which I always liked. I wonder what happened to Atley Turner, who brought out the line? I had lots of the French Foreign Legion and Arabs and really liked the figures; that was an enjoyable period to build! The 'Colonial Period" sure can be an interesting and varied period, can't it!) From Peter Michels I recently got totally immersed in RAPID FIRE! And was looking for a "solo" testcase and I remembered an article I liked from years ago, so I dug it out of garage boxes and 'lo and behold', it's written by one of the RAPID FIRE! Authors. A couple of weeks later, MWAN #116 (amazing how many of these you've put together, huh? My compliments) arrives and there's e-mails between you and other MWANers about WWII and RAPID FIRE! Couple of notes: * very simple but don't like the artillery template US supplier, RLBPS (Ann and Bob) are great!! I own 20mm, I like 20mm, I will continue to collect 20mm!!! I have too many 1/72nd and 1/76th scale toys for WWII 9 a given) I think RAPID FIRE! Is a very good, simple set of rules. I really like the scales and movement and figure/men ratios, etc. I would "improve" the tank/antitank complexity and use directional dice instead of the artillery template. Also, RAPID FIRE! TO&E's are "game-ified" for playability. Many of the higher organization equipment is "preaIlocated" to the RAPID FIRE battalion level (AT guns, Mortars, MG's, etc). I use COMMAND DECISION "Armies of the 2nd World War" for my order of battle. (Editor's Note: I have to agree with you re RAPID FIRE from what I've seen; it's a very good set of WWII rules.!) From David Sweet Thank you for your kind words in MWAN #115 on my father's death. Balkan uniforms - for those interested, while looking up something else in the University of Virginia Library, I noted Cristian M. Vladescu, UNIFORME E ARMATI ROMANE, Bucuresti (Bucharest), 1977. This was in Romanian, which I do not read, but included numerous illustrations, many in color, and some dates in Arabic numerals. From what I could tell, this work covered the Romanian Army and it's uniforms from the beginning in the 19th century through 1945. From Bob Burke After reading your editorial in MWAN #115, I went searching for the Nicolas Carter ECW books. I couldn't find them until I stumbled across a reference to the books of Nicholas (not Nicolas) Carter. Here's a list of his Shadow on the Crown series in published order, along with two other historical novels set in the early 16th century: Turncoat's Drum (#1) Storming Party (#2) And the King's Men Crow (#3) Harvest of Swords (#4) Stand by the Colors (#5) The other two are: Knave of Swords (16th C) King of Coins (16th C) I'm going to do my best to buy them all. (Editor's Note: Thanks, Bob! They are very good books on the ECW period!) From Phil Wood I was able to purchase some figures from Ian Hinds in the UK last summer. He was very nice to deal with. He found what I was looking for and was very fast with service. The only drawback I found was in sending funds to the UK. There is not a good way to do it unless you own a credit card, and Ian does not offer this. Overall it was very good and if you should need some figures, I think that you should give him a try via internet. I bought several thousand painted 1:300 H&R ACW figures from Ian and I have been busy rebasing them. I'm almost done; I don't know if you have tried rebasing 1/3 00th figures before, but it is very tedious work. You have to be so careful with the small figures to keep losses down from breakage. I am going with FIRE AND FURY rules to start out with and I am using the 1:300 figures with 15mm bases. I can get 10-15 infantry, 2 guns and crew, and six to eight cavalry per base. I got some 15mm flags and had them reduced to 6mm at Mail Boxes, Etc. I also found that I can use the black plastic bristles from my car snowbrush/ice scraper as flag poles. They bend and don't break. I'm also thinking of using them for pikes and spears to convert some of my 1:300 H&R Ancients. This brings me to a subject that has been on my mind for several years now and also in your editorials, I think, wargaming scale. I think wargamers can be Historians, wargamers, and figure collectors and the percentage that you are of each type will determine how you collection figures, wargame and study history. The great thing about our hobby is that there is room for all types. The type that is 50% historian, 50% wargamers and 0% collector, would rather board game. The type that is 10% historian, 20% wargamer and 70% collector would go for the larger figures that are well painted. Do you find this to be true? I think that we all fall into these categories but at different percentages, and you know what - that's great! I have been collecting in 1:300th Ancients, Medieval, Renaissance, ECW, TYW, and most recently, ACW, for several years now. That's not to say that everyone should do it this way. It just feels right to me, and that's what is important. I have gone through most scales, or at least had the opportunity, to game in most scales, and find that 1:300th is best suitable to my idea of wargaming. Last year, I played in a WWII game in 15mm. The figures and vehicles were excellent. You could not have asked for better. And yet, the "scale" of the whole game was way off for me. That's just me. Almost everyone else had a great time with the game but I kept thinking how ridiculous the "scale" was. We agreed that the scale needed to increase by at least 50%. When I suggest that they should try the 2mm figures and vehicles, I was almost run out of town. I can understand this. They like the figures and the rules. They put all of themselves into what they were trying to do and it was very personal to them. It just was not right for me. I guess what I am trying to say is that we all take parts from our hobby that fit what we need. We all don't have to agree with each other or like our many approaches to the hobby, but we should respect each other as wargamers and historians. Once we reach this point, we can finally accept each other's views and take what we need. To accept that no one "idea" or "system" is perfect or right for ourselves should be accepted as natural to us as wargamers. I think that most wargamers would accept this view and I find this theme in your editorials. (Editor's Note: Nicely expressed views, Phil; your percentages concept fits nicely. By the way, your 1:300 projects sound fascinating. How are you terraining the bases?) From Dan Foley As for the question from #115, Where do you see yourself in the hobby?, here's my reply. I guess  a wishy washy collector of unpainted lead would be most accurate. I'd like to think of myself as a painter but too much of my collection is left bare. Certainly I enjoy painting the most. Gaming comes in a far second. Modeling is something that I have little patience for although I do enjoy making buildings I tend to make the kind that are simple but effective. With lives other pursuits I don't have a lot of opportunity for gaming and when I do I tend to try different rule sets. I think that the more you play a set of rules the better you get at it, the less time you have to look things up and the faster the game plays. Momentum is important to a good game in my opinion. Also the players must always be engaged in the turn. I prefer simple rules. At the moment Crossfire and Brother against Brother are my favorites. Another set of rules I've tried was Piquet. These certainly keep both players involved. However I found that the risk of a lopsided battle was too great particularly when I only get five to seven games a year played. I've tried Principles of War but not enough to really test it. I think to be fair to any set of rules they must be played three to four times. I've been trying to consolidate my collections by selling off the unneeded /unused lead, magazines and rule books. My first attempts on bartertown resulted in my buying more things or at best trading for others I didn't really need. Now I've turned to eBay and at least it's a one way sale. I enjoyed Sam Mustafa's article in #116. He brought up some interesting points. Basing has always been a challenge for wargamers. For many rules the base is an important part of the accounting side of the game. Base removal affects morale and combat values. JR2 and Piquet come to mind. In other rules bases simply assist movement and the individual figure is used to decide morale and combat factors. Then there are the rules where nothing is removed from the table and a roster is used to keep track of morale and combat values. Now let's add in the visual aspect of gaming to the basing challenge. Of course this is a personal matter. One player likes units in two ranks another is fine with a single rank and still one other wants his British in two ranks and French in three. For myself I find it depends on the period as to what's OK. For eighteenth century and ACW I prefer two ranks for FPW one rank is fine and for modern I like three figures scattered on a base. This is of course for 15mm. My 25mm I base individually. I like how they look. Maybe this comes from years of rereading Charge or How to Play Wargames. I also like my bases to blend in to the table top. All mine are flocked to match the Geo-hex matt that I use. I had intended to have my AWI figures do double duty in skirmish games and larger scale games another reason for single bases but last week we played a game where they were mounted on magnetic bases for ease of movement and I didn't like the look. The bases did not blend well with the ground cloth. One more personal prejudice about basing. I like odd numbers. This may come from first playing Koening Krieg and JR2. Three or five stands per unit are fine four or six just doesn't work. There isn't any logic for this although if pressed I could make something up. I just like the look. John Hill's system of changing base size and the number of figures is much better IMHO than adding more stands to increase the size of the unit. This paradigm of mine also goes back to Brigadier Youngs' book. (Editor's Note: really enjoyed your thoughts, Dan!) Back to MWAN #118 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2002 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