Hello my friends. Well, summer has hit and my painting has slowed to a crawl. I spent two weeks visiting family in California recently and took a short cruise to Mexico to celebrate my inlaws 50th wedding anniversary. Reading has shifted to non-wargame topics, though still some historical. I just finished Bernard Lewis' What Went Wrong? The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East (ISBN 0-06-051605-4). It's a well-written book with many historical examples and explanations for the course of Muslim society over the past 1000 years leading to the conflicts of today. Highly recommended if you seek an understanding of the roots of the recent conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Israel.
Mike Askins of Minneapolis dropped me a line to update his contact information. He leads a group of called Mike's Basement Gang, and they are looking for new recruits in the Minneapolis/St Paul area. Mike just retired from Civil Service and wants to devote more time to gaming. Lately they've enjoyed Johnny Reb III, Sword and the Flame, and Guns of Liberty (Rev War). They actively support Little Wars and Historicon.
I received a first time contact from Robert Freeman of the North Florida Garners and Tallahassee Militia. He included a lengthy story of the garners in Tallahassee that I felt ought to be passed on verbatim-please forgive the length: The Tallahassee Militia-Mere Old Men and Boys
Tallahassee has been called the desert of modern war gaming. Isolated by 150 miles or more of North Florida or South Georgia in every direction. HaHee is the only town of population 250,000 or more in the region. Is there a historical war gaming store here? Nope. In fact, you can't buy an over the counter psiloi or panzer grenadier anywhere within 150 miles or within the last 200 years. We mail order. Many of the locals think that Waterloo is a cologne, and cataphractus is a sound you make when you sneeze.
Even for the hard-core players in town, war games scheduled on fall Saturday afternoons are cancelled when the Seminole football team is in action. The whole town, except for a few damn Gators and miscreant Yankees are either at the game or glued to the television or radio to hear and see the latest in Seminole football victories.
Is Tallahassee a war gaming desert? You be the Judge. Here is the story of the Tallahassee militia-mere old men and boys.
In Tallahassee many dedicated souls have come and gone over the years. We call this group the "gypsy garners." Cory Ring, a gypsy gamer, ran a war game every Tuesday night for 5 years and inspired a practice of painting of miniatures for one hour each night. Unfortunately Cory was recruited by a girl's school to teach French or some other silly subject. He moved to Atlanta. Also, there was the Romeo War Gainer who never did play any games or roll any dice, but he did cheat on his wife with another woman every Tuesday night for 2 years. Funny, once his wife caught Romeo we never saw him again.
Mark Wilkerson and his son Joe had the distinction of bringing the first organized miniature war games to Tallahassee. In the early 1980's the Wilkerson garage was the scene of many; many "War in the Pacific" sessions. The Wilkerson group played this monster game through to conclusion two times and each game took two years at two or three sessions a week to conclude. To recruit players to this SPI monster game, Joe Wilkerson introduced 15mm civil war miniatures and the Johnny Reb rule set to Tallahassee. Unfortunately Joe married a Doctor and moved to Hong Kong while Mark, Joe's daddy, retired and faded away.
Many "gypsy" gamers passing through Tallahassee were involved in the Johnny Reb Civil War games during the 1980s and 1990s. David Glenn, a Johnny Rebber, purchased all the Prussians in town, established an IRS approved gaming club with Moses Williams, and moved to Tampa. Moses moved to Orlando. We wish Moses and David the best with their new wives. May they reap what they sow.
Brilliant strategist "Big" John Curly, a Johnny Rebber, known for his victory cigars and the "three fence rule" that you couldn't fire over three fences and hit his troops, left Tallahassee to be a tank commander in the US Army. Rebber Aubrey Hawkins was one of the most under appreciated gypsy gainers ever to hit Tallahassee. Aubrey bought up a huge collection of the town's civil war miniatures to include terrain and immediately left town. In Aubrey, we thought we had a permanent addition to the Townees who play. I still hear from Aubrey. He is stationed at Fort Hood Texas, and is doing well.
Tallahassee is also a 15mm Napoleonics town. Mark Serafin, a gypsy gamer, who is now living and working in the Pacific Northwest, introduced Napoleonics to Tallahassee in the early 1980s. Mark had Prussians and British and needed an opponent. Now only 20 years later, and even with Mark gone, there are British, French, Russians, Austrians, and Polish available for service. Mark was an excellent miniature painter and had the wonderful manners to be so strapped for cash when he left Tallahassee that he sold some of his meticulously painted troops to some of us Townees who remained behind. Mark's paint jobs would set the standard for just about anybody.
Over the years Tallahassee has been the home of many other superb gypsy war garners and life long friends such as Buck Surdu, Kelly Krieble, Steve Patterson and Kevin Stork, all of whom have set up gaming rooms and have hosted games at their home. The beer was cold. We who remain behind in Tallahassee salute you.
A recent "gypsy" who brought life to the city's Napoleonic war games is Paul Miller. Paul steamed into town and hosted games and reintroduced French and Indian War to town and stirred the Napoleonic crowd into monthly games. Last month, Paul moved to Orlando.
There have been numerous war game campaigns held at various sites all over Tallahassee mostly in private game rooms. One memorable campaign involved the Battle of the Bulge in 15mm, which lasted over 6 months. Mike Patterson, a gypsy gamer now form the general Tampa area, was the judge, and according to bystanders, Mike always put the panzer grenadiers on the table in the last hours of each fight. We miss your timing Mike. We also miss the hundreds of "no-name gainers" who have participated in battle after battle. People like Charlie and Smitty and many others. Thanks fellas.
"What are we doing now?" you ask. John Ryan is hosting another campaign in Woodville-Ancient Rome against the Gaul-a DBM multi-month campaign. Simultaneously, we are meeting one Sunday afternoon a month at the "Books-A-Million" store to introduce people to t he DBA system using miniatures from the Biblical era as an attraction. Next month, who knows, maybe ironclads, tall ships, American Revolution, or Pacific Battles from W WII. It all depends on what we locals-Bob Freeman, Ken Jones, John Ohlin, Steve Quintero, John Ryan, pat Schuler, and Pat Treacy-find in our closets and finished on our painting tables.
The history of Tallahassee war gaming would not be complete without mentioning the active Warhammer Fantasy and Science Fiction miniatures group. They meet downtown every Sunday at Tallahassee Comics and Games and hold their own conventions a couple of times a year. We haven't had any crossovers from the Warhammer set into historical wargaming yet, but we keep trying.
Is Tallahassee an historical gainer's desert or a survivor? There is nothing left here but old men and a few boys.
HMGS Great Lakes gamers have been hitting the convention trail since the ice broke in March. Mike Demana, editor extraordinaire of the Herald, reports that he and many others traveled to Cold Wars, Little Wars, Warband, Capcon, and Drums Along the Maumee, with Origins, Warparty, and Historicon ton the horizon. In fact, the current issue is replete with information regarding past and future conventions. Also, GL has organized a group called Historicals at GenCon (HAG), similar to the HOT group at Origins, with the purpose of exposing the "unwashed fantasy masses" to historical gaming. Great idea. Tom Bryant and David van Hoose are the organizers at 231-799-0149 or 317-581-8840 respectively. Terry and Jeff Cabak released three sets of related FREE rules at www.imapineimage.org called Hex Command (Ancient, Gunpowder, Mechanized), and their design philosophy is discussed at length. Dennis Frank offers a very interesting selection of war poetry, mostly from ancient sources. Paul Westermeyer's scholarly article explores the nature of hoplite warfare with excellent references. Mike Demana's I" century BC Roman campaign game continues with the prestige point lead changing hands. Mike has expanded the Clubs section of his newsletter, now including recent club activities-nice job.
Well, it looks like Maj Bill Harting will indeed step down as Patriarch of the Dispatch and HMGS Mid-South due to health reasons, though his name was still on the masthead of the May edition. The latest issues included a lengthy US-wide listing of game shops and manufacturers from Pat Condray, and the membership listings. Bill Gray also penned an entertaining "Short History of Military Wargaming."
HMGS East successfully pulled off another Cold Wars, and now Historicon kicks off next month. I hope to see you all there. In this months newsletter Rick Egtvedt and Mark Robinson pitched their National History Day competition which has targeted kids grades 6-12 and expects to reach over 3000 Maryland and Pennsylvania students. So far regional winners have received $50 prizes, state winners will get $150 more, with grand prizes of $1000, the Osprey modeling supplement, and free entry to Historicon. Pretty cool, and they need your help as a volunteer - HMGSeastsec@juno.com. Reprints of two of Don Featherstone's articles, "Realistic Wargaming with Tanks" and "House-to-House and Street Fighting" also grace the pages.
Big Muddy Historical Gaming Association's Fifth Column announced the formation of Flying Columns-an attempt to encourage members to explore outside the St Louis area and represent Big Muddy at other locations-reimbursement and rewards are the major inducements. Harold Wones continues his WW2 bombing campaign enlisting the 93rd Bomb Group to support his 50mission blitz event. He also continues to post snapshots of the campaign through "letters home" from "participants"-pretty cool. Harold Morgan offered up a stirring account of his refight of Mobile Bay. The Transmorastian Times reports that the Austrians fought a losing draw at Wagram while the Tyrol Rebels were crushed by Bavaria in the ongoing convention-game campaign, with both sides badly bloodied.
Don Wolff's Camino Real Post shows two scheduled events per month in Albuquerque. Thirteen individual gainers are listed with preferences, availability, and location throughout the southwest.
While Mike Demana's Herald at HMGS Great Lakes has been the standard by which I measure newsletters, I want to applaud the efforts of Richard Pinelli, President of HMGS-Midwest. His 36-page newsletter is well laid out, pretty to look at, and very informative. They also offer a discount ($10/yr vice $15) if you take the Journal electronically. Dr. Steve Fratt and his 19th Illinois Volunteer Company ran a black powder demo at Little Wars.
The HMGS Pacific Southwest Messenger kicks off discussing their mini-con, which was well attended, but sported more naval games than land games-interesting. Marc Canu tells readers how to prepare and paint miniature vehicles. Robert Runnels followed that with a capsule summary of the North Korean situation for all you politico-military affairs folks, then tells you more about the MBTs he saw at Aberdeen Proving Grounds. Robert Burnett finishes things off with a discussion on realism vs. playability and how the argument is "bunk!" Nice pics in this one too.
It was a pleasure to read the recent NASAMW Spearpoint with articles by some of my old friends. Kevin Donovan opens the issue with a detailed historical and DBM-oriented army listing for early Mesoamerican armies. Rich Wright (old friend #1) added a nice terrain building piece for rivers/fords and marking rivers for DBM, but applicable to nearly any rules. Finally, Darrell Smith (old friend #2) wrote yet another scholarly historical review-this time covering the Ephthalites or White Huns, including painting and figure manufacturer suggestions. Great read!
The mailman brought me a copy of the HMGS Heart of America Communique. Looks like Call to Arms last month covered a Pacific and Islands theme, with discounted entry for game sponsors. Bill Boyle included his complete rules for K.I.S.S. Balkan Wars, a "what if"campaign scenario of the late 1930's where the German Anschluss fails and region deteriorates into feuding over historical bad blood. Looks really interesting-can't wait to try it. [Hey Bill, will you send this to Hal to include in MWAN?] Two nice pieces of humor were included also. The first discusses the B-36 and it's history, comparing it to the B-52 and B-2 for cost and usefulness. The second is a one-page rules and boardgame for German occupation of the Rhineland by Dennis O'Leary. Funny.
I received the Citadel, quarterly news from the Northwest HMGS, from my mailman too. Michael Hiemstra opened the issue with one-page Knight vs. Knights rules suitable for quick skirmish level gaming. The PEL for last month's Enfilade convention looked very promisingwish I'd have been able to attend. David Sullivan praises his conversion to DBx ancient gaming and tells you why you should too.
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© Copyright 2003 Hal Thinglum
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