My present, nearly completed, project is A Seven Years Wargame Campaign, which has been fought using 15mm figures and conducted as a solo campaign. The project has been running for longer than the actual war!
One of the reasons for the event being conducted solo is historic. As a small boy at the end of World War II, I was given toy soldiers for birthday and Christmas presents. None of my friends or classmates were remotely interested in "playing with soldiers," which was viewed as a childish pastime, so solo gaming became the order of the day. My first rules were handmade and juvenile, and, while these basic rules became more refined as the years went by, I was still blissfully unaware that anyone else in the world shared my passion for toy soldiers.
Imagine, then, my delight on discovering that there was an official wargames hobby, peopled by adults and with `proper' rule sets. This discovery came about in 1967, when I spotted "Charge! Or How to Play Wargames" by Brig. P. Young and Lt. Col. J.P. Lawford in a bookshop, and within two days it was read three times. This excellent publication gave me access to Donald Featherstone and, from there, the whole hobby opened out.
The following random thoughts came about during the writing-up of my `Seven Years Wargame Campaign.'
There is often a popular misconception that the solo wargamer has, somehow, at his disposal an infinite amount of time. Whilst this is patently untrue, it is fair to say that he has probably a more efficient mechanism for the application of available time, since he only has to consider his own set of pressing family and business commitments, whereas the social wargamer has to liaise with others, and the club wargamer has to build into his schedule a regular slot for his hobby. While a group of friends who form a social wargaming circle may well all belong to the same club, one or more of them may also be solo wargamers, since the conditions are not mutually exclusive. Probably, while most people within the hobby get the maximum satisfaction from wargaming in a social environment, there are others who, either for reasons of geography and a shortage of opponents, or not wishing to be involved in interminable discussions on interpretation of obscure rules, or not wanting to have to use a micrometer for distance measurement, have been forced to, or elected to, become solo wargamers.
We can safely assume then that, while it may vary wildly in quantity, each wargamer has a finite amount of time to spend on his hobby. Again, how much of this time is spent on research and record keeping is largely a matter for the individual. The 'factors of production' in wargaming terms are taken to be time, location, and finance.
Time is generally a fmite amount of a precious commodity which has to be split between foreground, the actual miniatures and terrain in action, and background, which includes such areas as general subject reading, detailed research, figure and terrain supply, and campaign journal upkeep.
Location is defined, for our purposes, as where the actual table is set up and where the equipment is stored. For club wargamers, the table and terrain may be kept at the club and the players are responsible for the supply and storage of their own models. Their problems of location are, therefore, of a different scale than social gainers, where a group of like-minded enthusiasts meet at an agreed schedule at either one fixed house or other location, or the venue is rotated among the participants. This poses problems of its own since, if the location is fixed, one individual has to store the bulk of the terrain as well as his own figures. If this is not possible, or if the venue is a moveable feast, then terrain has to be transported on a regular basis, with the expected risk of damage and inconvenience. The solo player has to store everything himself and, if a suitable household table cannot be utilised, has to find alternative solutions, like the surface of the bed. There are also the fortunate wargamers who are lucky enough to be able to dedicate a room to the hobby, and to these, of course, much of the foregoing does not apply.
Just as some of us have access to all the space we could conceivably need, there are some for whom finance presents absolutely no difficulty, but the following remarks are aimed at the rest of us for whom money availability can represent a difficulty ranging from problematical to desperate. It is, unfortunately, a fact that for most of us a portion of the pleasure and satisfaction derived from our hobby comes from the visual aspect of uniformed models on the battlefield, otherwise we would be board garners, which is a related, though separate, activity.
Lack of funds will have the most obvious effect in two areas. Firstly, terrain quality will be affected, and this is taken to include the playing surface, not just commercially obtainable buildings and hills, etc. Secondly, the quality and quantity of the figures used will need to be part of the economy drive, and we must strive to minimise the effect of these factors on the total project.
Beginning with terrain, then, the first item under financial threat may be the squares or hexes which form the playing surface. If these have to go, the next level of playing surface may be the base boards covered by a 6' x 4' green baize sheet. Failing that, the boards themselves may be used, since they are already covered in green baize. If even the boards are beyond the budget, then we are back to the baize sheet, which will allow savings on hills, etc., by simply spreading the sheet over suitably shaped mounds of books or other objects to represent contours. This means of creating hills is rooted in the history of the hobby and works very well, as long as it is remembered that figures need to ascend these objects and a 4"-high hill should not be built from one very thick book! Blue coloured ribbon or paper can be pressed into service as rivers and streams, and bridges can be readily made from oddments of balsa wood.
Going on to the question of minimising outlay on figures, this is clearly best accomplished by purchasing second-hand unpainted figures, but finding these in the scale and period needed ranges from difficult to impossible, and the unit cost of figures from commercial sources is such that the time spent on trying to obtain these may well make the exercise counterproductive. On the subject of painting, it is a truism that unbounded enthusiasm is no substitute for talent! Ready-painted second-hand figures are much more readily available, and not only are they less expensive than the commercially painted variety, but they also have the advantage of instant availability. The factors in the equation include time, cost, availability, and painting skill. The other method, which is, most decidedly, not recommended, is to double use the same figures. This means that, for example, all Austrian regiments with red facings can be represented by the most figures on the table at one time.
For instance, if there were 25 regiments with red facings, but only 3 were in any one army, then only 3 need be purchased and the names changed for use in other armies. One of the many disadvantages inherent in this course of action is the monumental amount of extra record keeping this practice makes imperative. The previous remarks also apply in the case of artillery where, say, the maximum number in use of Prussian howitzers is the purchased amount, and the artillery bases are just allocated to other armies as and when required. Since there are usually no identifiers on artillery other than nationality of crew, and size and type of gun, the extra record keeping caused by double use of other troop types is minimised, but the actual location of the piece in the storage system quickly gets out of hand.
The table size for this campaign is either 6' x 4' or 4' x 3', depending on the terrain and numbers involved. The 6' x 4' tabletop can accommodate about 500 figures and still be meaningful, so the armies are approximately 240-250 figures apiece, which allows an army to be stored in a box file.
The table used consists of two commercially available green baize-covered notice-boards, which can be stored vertically behind furniture or horizontally beneath a bed, either one of which can be used on its own for smaller actions, or where there are severe terrain restrictions, having the effect of funnelling the action into a space accommodated by a 4'x 3' board.
With regard to research and, paying due notice to the dictum that time spent on reconnaissance is never wasted, the finite time available for the subject, the individual must decide on when to stop and get on with the main object of the exercise, which is tabletop action with model figures. There are several areas where contradictory evidence can be produced from different sources. A couple of examples will serve to illustrate this:
- Were Austrian Hussars and Russian Cossacks ever used as brigaded battlefield cavalry? Were light infantry ever used in the Napoleonic skirmisher role?
All of the above represents my personal opinion, and I would like to thank Hal for the opportunity of airing my views on these subjects.
No Drums, No Trumpets
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© Copyright 2003 Hal Thinglum
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