The 15mm Mamluk and Ayyubid cavalry are done, and now I am working my way through 40+ more Pict warband Ax (X) while a large contingent of Carthaginians flew off to the painter. Not only that, my local group, the Birmingham Wargaming Association is revving up for it's annual Henry Brewer-Gus Sailors Memorial DBM Tournament April 26-7, 2003. Did I mention Vincent Solfronk, our club President, is also painting more Picts (more spear carriers and some light cavalry) for me too? The rest of the gang went down to the International Wargaming Federation DBM Tournament in New Orleans without me last month and did fairly well. In a field of 97, Scott Allen place 3rd among Americans, 19th overall, and Vince was 8th for Americans, 26th overall. Brits or Aussies took the top seven spots.
Globetrotting Mike Demana, editor extraordinaire of the HMGS Great Lakes Herald advised me that he recently joined the ranks of Les Grognards as he passed his 40th birthday. Happy Birthday Mike! As usual the Herald is top quality, with this month's cover photo a nice closeup of a WW2 skirmish battle in action. Inside the usual nice assortment of information is offered. Dough Johnson announced that Ohio will celebrate its statehood this year by, among other things, opening a museum and visitor center at Ft Meigs, a display at Wolcott House Museum. Lots of battle reports from half a dozen conventions. Tom Bryant tells a moving story about talking to his uncle who fought in WW2, and suggest we all do the same to capture what they did for our families. John Meunier wrote an interesting and fairly positive review of Piquet for ancient s9Archon) and how his game played out. Doug Rogers describes a river making technique I've used before very successfully. Their big con, Advance the Colors, will debut in mid-Sept in Springfield OH-look for details on the web.
Maj Bill Harting faithfully sends me my Dispatch every month from HMGS Mid-South. I imagine he's even happier to now since I pay for it after moving to his region. That is one big benefit of writing this column-most clubs send me free copies of their club newsletter which I get to read and comment about-great fun! The Feb issue opens with a discussion on recruiting on growing the hobby, followed by Victor Schmidt's discourse on how GM's should research their games and periods. Jim Arnold adds a discussion on convention games and the unexpected actions of plyers. Arnold teams with Dick Bryant to discuss scenrio design and presentation. Pete Panzeri jumps in with a GM preparation checklist-very handy! Marc Rebhun and Charlie Elsden offer some additional techniques too. Good stuff. The March issue announced that Maj Bill has suffered a his 4th stroke in past three years in Feb--he is on the mend but will probably pass the torch of the Dispatch to someone else. Bill's contributions have been great and his hand on the helm will be missed. Howard "the Completely Unpredictable" Whitehouse has written yet another set of crazy rules included here--this time for 1920's era B-movie weird horror and mayhem games. Don Featherstone concludes by contributing a few pages of thoughts he's written over the years on a couple different subjects.
Historicon looms on the horizon for HMGS East--I can't wait! The latest newsletters included the strategic plan for East-aggressive and hobby-centric-looks good. Also, Fred Hubig describes the new convention center in Baltimore where Fall In will move and it sounds terrific. Dr. Skip Knox delivers a lengthy but fascinating theme lecture on the First Crusade. More segments to follow.
The Fifth Column from Big Muddy Historical Gaming Association arrives each month offering insights into St. Louis area gaming. According to the regular article called the "Transmorastian Times," the Napoleonic campaign continues apace with the French and Confederation allies pushing on Vienna, only to be counterattacked by the Austrians who held the field at the end of the day at Aspern. Unfortunately, their luck did not hold and the Bavarians drove the Austrians from the field at Essling. Harold Wones ahs kicked off his B-17 campaign flying formations of bombers against the relentless German Luftwaffe-52 missions and updates are posted on Yahoo. Tom Sparhawk has taken to writing fictitious "letters to home" from his crew describing the action-he and others post these to read on the web too. Neat idea.
Don Wolff religiously sends me his Camino Real Post bimonthly. This month it shows a Gameday on 26 April in Albuquerque with free admission. Email him at nukday@earthlink.com to se the event website or get more info on club activities and opponents available.
Richard Pinelli, President of HMGS-Midwest just sent me their latest e-newsletter. I love electronic media because you build your address group once and then email your subscribers easily every month-quite convenient. Anyhow, Bob Giglio penned a lengthy, outstanding article on the Irish Rebellion of the 17th century. Detailed history, units, uniforms, rules, pies of people in uniform with weapons, etc-it was all covered-could be the good start of an Osprey Book! Ther est of the publication was deveoted to Little Wars, their outstanding annual convention kicks off 4-6 April, offering 140+ events to choose from. A very cool touch will be a "powder shoot" demonstration and discussion of black powder tactics on the 5`h. Hobby luminatiries who will grace the scene are the legendary Frank Chadwick, Duke Siegfried, and Greg Novak. Mark your calendar if you live near Chicago.
Mike Galbraith at the 19 & 1 Game Club keeps a full calendar for his gamers. March and April gaming includes the usual Advanced Squad Leader, as well as Fire & Fury and Brother Against Brother ACW, Napoleonic naval, 25mm AWL Desperado Wild West shootouts, some Spanish Civil war gaming, and Starmada and Blue Max.
George Phillies, editor of the Strategist, sent me this monthly newsletter of the Strategy Gaming Society. I hadn't heard from George in a while, but he gave me invaluable information updates on nearly two dozen clubs that folded, moved, or new ones-thanks George! The Society itself counts about 150 members who actively game, mostly in the boardgame side of the hobby but some other gaming too including miniatures. They are spread across the country, and have 12 regional directors you can contact for local gaming. The 12-page newsletter contains concise reviews of new games and game support material, info on errata for published games, recommendation on old and new games to pursue, tactics for playing games, and even scenario data. Conventions and local game clubs are also listed. Overall, a nice resource for an active gamer and membership only runs $15 per annum.
HMGS Pacific Southwest publishes their Messenger quarterly. The last issue I received discussed the many events and winners at their fall convention in Burbank CA. David Dandridge described a modern version of a Pig Wars-type scenario involving Iraqis, UN, Israelis, PLO, and lots of Israeli and Palestinian civilians-quite interesting. Dick Zimmerman drafted a nice piece on 12 ponders in the Napoleonic Wars. Robert Runnels finishes the issue with a bang--he visited the Aberdeen proving Grounds and took lots of photos of German armor presented in the article-clear b&w shots with good summaries of the vehicle's capability.
Bob and Cleo Liebl sent me their latest effort for NOVAG, The Gamer's Closet newsletter. There is an amusing back-and-forth article between them and Wally Simon discussing the writing of rules to fit infantry fight situations, and whether troops should hold until broken once and for all, or fall back, reform, and fight again. Wally then offers some rules for AWI gaming with intriguing mechanics. The Civil War Book of Lists is extracted to provide the 10 best and worst generals for both sides (you can guess a good number of them, but might differ with the order), and best brigades. Bob and Cleo recommend you consider reading George Orwell's (of 1984 and Animal Farm fame) book homage to Catalonia where he details his time serving in the Spanish Civil War and forms his views on Nazism, Fascism, and Communism. They also offer some gret quotes and pies from Gen Guderian and WW2. Finally, Brian Dewitt discusses umpiring, the written word versus the spoken word. Some good ideas therein.
Well, I've finally rejoined NASAMW and begun receiving my Spearpoint again. John Shirey gave a thorough listing and review of 13 books covering medieval and renaissance India. Martin Schmidt reasons through a discussion of options for "fixing" the "broken" built up area (BUA) in DBA. Lots of tournament results are included, which makes a nice reference for finding out which armies are doing well in tournaments in the various rule sets.
Well, that's it for this issue folks. I love to hear from you personally so please write an email and tell me what your club is doing. Illigitimi non carborundum!
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© Copyright 2003 Hal Thinglum
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