Greeting gaming grognards, practitioners, and newbies, and welcome to another round of worldwide club news. I hope Saint Nick was good to you all over the winter celebrations-he certainly treated me right. My wife must have told him I wanted that Alexandrian Imperial army! Please note that I have a new mailing address for all correspondence, but my email has remained the same. izmud@aol.com.
I'd also like to note that, although I fully support the new editor of MWAN, Mr. Perrin, I will miss the gentle hand of Hal Thinglum, though I suspect he will continue to contribute to its pages for a long time. I joined MWAN because I really believed in Hal's principlesgaming should be fun, and if you don't have something nice to say about someone, don't say anything; and there's no room for petty politics in our beloved hobby- and I try to follow that motto.
It's been pretty dry on news from you folks for a while but I have received some club news. The Pharaoh's Guard in Oklahoma closed its doors, and the owner Alexander Dietrich dropped me a line to tell me. I appreciate this kind of news because it helps keep the database up to date, so please, if your club or shop folds and you are listed here, please advise me. Thank you.
Terry Callahan of Metro East Gaming Association (MEGA) wrote to say that he and several of the gang drove from St Louis to Historicon this past summer. They detoured a bit to tour Antietam battlefield along the way, and had an excellent time overall. One of their regulars Warren Peterson moved off to Michigan on them, but they continue a strong gaming presence on Saturday nights in Shiloh, IL, with regular games of Johnny Reb, Blue Sky air combat, and Foreign Legion or colonials in China battles. Board games also crop up occasionally with current interest in World in Flames. Terry is now their point of contact, and can be reached at 618-632-7186 or tpcalla@apci.net, or the website at http://homepages.apci.net/-tpcalla/mweb/index.htm.
The HMGS PSW Messenger is improving in content and format. The last couple have had pretty color covers and improved content-congrats to the multiple editors. One of them, Marc Canu, put together a nice scenario for liberating Liberia with UN Peacekeepers using AK-47 rules. Robert June, Don Jeppson, and Joe Chinnici created an interesting set of rules extending DBA into the Renaissance. Interesting additions including pistol toting cavalry, close order gun firing infantry, and Dragoons, as well as a complete army listing useful for anyone interested in the period to get a quick game going. New officers have been elected for PSW, including a new treasurer, my old friend Kevin Rounsaville from the Secret Society of Miniature Wargamers. They should have held their Winter Quarters convention last month (January as I write this) but I haven't heard how it went. Richard Crawley penned an eye-opening article on British snipers in WW2 that covered equipment, training an organization. Stephen Hart also wrote two articles-one covering Brit Armored Carrier ACV-IP (India Pattern) Mk 1-4, and another on the Lee/grant tanks. Shane Evans rounded things out describing the Franco-Prussian campaign background info he is using.
The HMGS Great Lakes Herald is always a good read-nice job Mike Demana (editor). Recent editions cover a wide variety of useful information including plenty of convention and battle reports, club news, product reviews and dates to watch. Dennis Frank continues his tradition of unusual articles, this one concerning music about toy soldiers, as well as some music to play while gaming. Scott Mingus Sr. instructs readers on ways to make your own cornfields. Gordon Andrews has begun a regular column covering colonial gaming-his pithy wit will be a good addition to these pages. David Van Hoose narrates an engaging old west campaign that he is running based on the new Piquet Wild West Skirmish rules. Hank Lubbers adds his own rules for fighting Russian Civil War battles. Mike Reese wrote at length about German Pak 37mm anti-tank guns and how to convert figures. Mike Demana's Roman campaign has ended after three game years, with his general placing second in the field of four. The campaign system Mike used was interesting and bit more complicated than the standard DBA campaign, with variable army sizes, revolts, and other random events, and a goal of maximum prestige points to win. A good read.
HMGS East newsletters show up regularly in my mailbox (thanks Scott Holder). Besides the usual club activity info and reports, there are some nuggets of interesting content. Richard Jarosz describes his playtest of the Medieval Warfare Siege rules-sounds like a lot of fun. The new theme for this year is the Age of Transformation 1850-1906 (Of Steam, Iron and Blood) focusing on all the technological innovation. Cold Wars is March 12-14will we see you there?
The Fifth Column is the newsletter of the Big Muddy Historical Gaming Association. These mostly St Louis area garners keep a regular attendance at four or more area shops playing a variety of games and hosting at least three annual conventions. The Transmorastian Times is a regular article chronicling in period language the exploits of the current Napoleonics campaign. Since the Austrian campaign is now over, Mark is now recruiting for a 25mm Spanish Peninsular campaign with battles fought at conventions and other stated intervals. Other items of interest included several battle recaps, one of which was a favorable Hammer of the Scots boardgame recounting. Barracks Battles arrives 14-16 March and sounds like it is shaping up to be a good convention with a theme as "Last Stands"-interesting. Harold Morgan offered up a simple set of galley warfare rules to fight those naval battles you've always loved in old movies.
The "High & Mighty Potentate, the Grand Vizier of Warrior, The Magnificent Derekcus (Derek Downs) is my regional coordinator for NASAMW (Deep South region). Recently he's been advising us of upcoming Dereckcon this month in Jacksonville FL, and extolling the virtues of the Siege of Augusta convention which hosted a large Warrior tournament (run by Chris Damour) and DBM tournament (run by Larry Essick, 32 players-team format). Members get 30% of Essex figures which is a benefit that has paid off my membership costs every year.
Hal sent me a couple issues of the Nugget, Journal of Wargame Developments in London, UK. The journals are standard 5"x8" folded newsletters of 36 pages covering ideas about warfare, forces, and some gaming. Contributors include Phil Baker, and a number of others I didn't know. They hold an annual Conference of Wargamers (COW) in July each year (attendance 40+) to discuss a variety of ideas, and hold a couple games. Articles are usually fairly short, but cover wide areas of interest from Stamford Bridge to Cavalry Vs Modern Firepower many others. The chat is very "inside" if you know what I mean, but some nuggets can be found. I kept a copy of rules for large scale campaigns like the Wilderness called Terrible Swift Rules by Richard Brooks and Martin Rapier. Matthew
Hartley penned a very thought-provoking idea for modeling a commander's "regret" over losing unit ( a feeling few wargamers feel as their lead legions die in droves)-sort of a cumulative, randomized amount of loss that when it breaches a certain customized thresh old causes withdrawal of the army, or perhaps reduced activity in stages. Mike Elliott created a multi-page set of Pirate rules with some interesting chrome. And John Curry throws around some juicy ideas about future weapons and technology, then lays out a modern wargame he planned and executed covering a Soviet attack into Brit forces in Europe, and all the psychological factors they tried to implement in the game to make it less game like and more real. Very interesting. You can contact these interesting fellows through the editor John Armatys at 82 Westbourne Rd, Sheffield S10 2QT or john@armatys.fsnet.co.uk, and membership runs 16.50 pounds per annum.
That's all for today, my friends. Keep those email coming as I truly enjoy hearing about what your club is up to. Thanks for all your support.
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© Copyright 2004 Hal Thinglum
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