FOREWORD
In the January 1990 HMGS Newsletter I commented on the considerable increase in membership over the past year or so. We had gone from less than 100 members in 1987 to 350 in 1989. By the January 1990 Newsletter I was facing the prospect of sending out 450 copies! All this prompted me to the following reflections:
4.7" Naval Gun
"I got to wondering about the sudden increase-do you guys know what you have gotten yourselves into? We old timers are fond of dropping terms like TGWAG-the Wally's Basement Gang, etc. and we make knowing references to ATLANTICON, TSR (The Evil Empire of Yore), to historical miniatures being stuffed into broom closets at conventions and other legendary stuff. You must have seen stuff like that in the Newsletter (if this isn't your first) and heard it at conventions and especially (membership) meetings. Do all of you know what we are babbling about? Sometimes we seem to forget that not all 450 of you were in Wally's Basement on that fateful November weekend in 1981. Or were you? Dick Bryant keeps complaining that at least that many have told him they were there.
"For all of you who weren't in Wally's Basement, we should probably publish a history of the organization. In fact, I have already been digging through old newsletters to come up with the exciting events which have shaped our times. But we will have to deal with that off line. "
In fact, I did make a start on the project. Back in 1991 during my first exile from the halls of HMGS power, I put together a short account of the first ten years. This project got bogged down after my (rather brief) return. Hard and electronic copies were bounced off Bill Gray (who became editor and secretary of the order.) Between sending them back and forth and my own moves from Alexandria to Crisfield, to Crystal River and back, all traces have disappeared.
Fortunately the membership seems to have retired me from all decision making distractions. Thus, in my salt marshes, like Macchiavelli in his swamp cottage, I have the leisure to renew the effort. And since an even smaller part of the HMGS membership let alone leadership, has the institutional memory of Wally's Basement, there may be even more need for this effort.
In doing so I have drawn heavily on old newsletters, notes, and related documents. I have also made every effort to contact other participants for verification, correction, or additional information. All the same, when it comes to responsibility for offensive and possibly libelous statements, the decision to include them or not has been mine alone. I have made every effort to achieve accuracy, but, as usual, very little to achieve political correctness.
THE GREAT 4.7" NAVAL GUN AND ALL THAT PLAYING WITH TOY SOLDIERS
H.G. Wells never claimed to be the inventor of wargaming. Nor was he even the first great Victorian Englishman of letters to so indulge. We have Osborne's memoirs of Robert Louis Stevenson's more sophisticated wargame to verify that fact. But H.G. Wells wrote more openly of his wargame adventures. And there is something instructive about his account of how he got started.
"The present writer had been lunching with a friend-let me veil his identity under the initials J.K.J.-in a room littered with the irrepressible debris of a small boy's pleasures. On a table near our own stood four or five soldiers and one of these (the famous 4.7"naval) guns. Mr. J.K.J., his more urgent needs satisfied, and the coffee imminent, drew a chair to this little table, sat down, examined the gun discreetly, loaded it warily, aimed, and hit his man. Thereupon he boasted of the deed, and issued challenges that were accepted with avidity..." (Wells, LITTLE WARS 1931 edition p. 6)
Mr. J.K.J. quickly backed off when his challenges were accepted. We can imagine him, as he departed the scene, mumbling to himself "Good Lord, that Wells fellow almost had me playing with toy soldiers! What can I have been thinking of?"
What indeed! He was playing with toy soldiers. And that's what H.G. Wells proceeded to get involved in with less inhibited friends. It wasn't historical miniatures gaming, though it was wargaming of a sort. The game was thus a derivative of the play potential inherent in a kind of children's toys. By almost automatic progression, the end of the book was taken up with a more elaborate "Kriegspiel" by Colonel Mark Sykes. Of it, Wells commented that the "Kriegspiel as it is played by the British Army is a very dull and unsatisfactory exercise, lacking in realism, in stir, and the unexpected, obsessed by the umpire at every turn " The toy soldier version was urged to stimulate the imagination-perhaps the natural function of the toy soldier.
Wells' game represented a new phase of the hobby. Stevenson, like Wells, had been playing with toy soldiers. But his were flats and half rounds of the types familiar in Europe for generations. Wells proudly employed the Wm. Britains hollow cast figures which were to be the Cadillac, or more properly Rolls Royce, of wargaming in English speaking countries from 1893 through the mid-1950s. The scale, 54mm, is said to have been dictated by the model railroad scale in late Victorian England. It was so pervasive that it influenced the dime store and gift shop painted metal figures in the U.S. as well as England. And as particularly after WWII, the specialized collector's figures emerged on the market, for a long time they too were mainly 54mm figures (though even then, not all millimeters were equal.)
Continental games as well as collections often ran to 30mm flats (the classic Nuremberg Scale) on the continent (for example, ELOGE SUR LES SOLDATS FINS in France) It was the painted 54mm toy soldiers that staffed the armies of Captain Sachs' "Official British Model Soldier Society Wargame".
My own serious introduction to miniature wargaming came in 1949. A friend named Gary Carper invited me to his house on the way home from our fourth grade class. Lifting the bed cover he invited me to peek under his bed where rank on rank of toy soldiers were massed. These were poor cousins of the Britains figures. Hollow cast, probably zinc, commercially painted and more or less 54mm figures depicting WWII U.S or allied soldiers. I was hooked! For some years his neighborhood and mine were engaged in "Big Army" and "Little Army" struggles. Gradually more and more of us outgrew these childish things, but others were recruited. Some of us never got over it. Gary did. He pursued other, more dangerous hobbies, and was shot by a jealous husband in 1972.
Until the mid-1950s Britains held pride of place among the emerging plastic figures, which were originally mainly WWII types. Together, along with a smattering of other scales, these "conflict simulation artifacts" were typically "Little Army." "Big Army" was a somewhat militarized (WWII was the "Good War" fought by our fathers) cowboys and Indians. Many things change. But last year as I saw a gaming hobby shop operating on one end of a building and a paintball shop at the other, I couldn't help but think of the famous French saying "Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose."
EMERGENCE OF HISTORICAL MINIATURES GAMING
To a great extent historical didn't apply to the early Britains. The company added figures for each war that came along through WWI and beyond. As Garrett (ENCYCLOPEDIA, p.20) commented, "Britains' excursions into the past were few." However, a fairly complete line of pre-WWI home service uniformed figures was the mainstay of the firm's offerings. When it became obvious between wars that these colorful uniforms would not be worn even on home service, and in fact would not be available for full dress outside the guards, things changed. The distinctive Victorian dress was too pretty to abandon. Pre1914 cavalry, guards, and county regiments as well as French Foreign Legion, Zouaves, and Cuirassiers and Belgian 1914 troops came to represent the 19th century of musket and saber. A vestige of historical miniatures gaming crept into "playing with toy soldiers" English style.
As model railroad scales changed, and continental influences seeped in around the edges, smaller figures came into being. But Britains held true until after World War II. The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 was almost their last hurrah. The late 40's and early 50's saw not only the onset of plastics, but labor unrest in socialist England. When a neighbor's mother circa 1950 commented on the rouged cheeks of my French Cuirassiers I dismissed it as artistic license. I have since learned that it was job action on the part of the ill paid British housewives doing piecework for Britain's Limited.
When Wm. Britain stopped producing the famous painted hollow cast lead figures during my high school years Anglo-Saxon miniature wargaming seemed bereft of its industrial base. The traditional account has been that gamers deserted by Britains fell back on Holger Erickson's companies, chiefly Swedish African Engineers (S.A.E.) which produced painted round figures for market in both the English classic 54mm and the continental "Nuremberg" scale of 30mm. The latter ran the gamut of historical periods. But they too soon dried up. Then Scruby saved the hobby by making his own figures.
That isn't exactly what happened. But there is enough truth in it to make Jack Scruby a folk hero among historical miniatures gamers. In 1957 Bob Bard's book MAKING AND COLLECTING MILITARY MINIATURES had what was becoming an obligatory chapter on adult collectors who actually played with the things. Jack Scruby was featured playing a primitive game with Britains figures modified into Napoleonics by the inclusion of accessories designed for collectors. Charlie Sweet, not yet famous through Mike Wallace's Sixty Minutes or Sports Illustrated, was shown using cotton swab shooting canons on SAE American Revolution 30mm figures. But these sources were already becoming extinct.
Traditional collectors give Jack Scruby short shrift. John G. Garratt (Encyclopedia p. 151) says of him "One of the earliest of the post-war makers of solids, 20,30, 40, 54 and 90mm models. A prolific producer, in 1953 he and Frank Conley formed Historical Miniature Figures, with 54mm figures of no particular quality. The partnership was dissolved in 1958 and Scruby began producing wargame models. He had already been making these for his own collection, and has since issued vast numbers of Napoleonic and American Civil War figures."
Of another pioneer (doubtless Spencer-Smith) who produced wargame figures in the post Britains drought, Garratt (Op. Cit. p. 133) comments: " One flagrant example, that of an English collector issuing plastic copies of Eriksson's tiny models, has now ceased." Don Featherstone would later speak of Spencer - Smith looking over his shoulder a lot. But last I heard the firm is still in business.
The material side of the hobby was thus struggling as "playing with toy soldiers," or "historical miniatures gaming" came to the end of the 1950s. The situation is pretty clearly shown in two books on the subject, which emerged shortly after the 1960s began. These were Don Featherstone's WAR GAMES and Joe Morschauser's HOW TO PLAY WARGAMES IN MINIATURE, both published in 1962. In each case it was assumed that all wargames were divided into three eras. Essentially Ancient ("shock" period for Morschauser-no effective firearms) Musket (anything in pretty uniforms with, preferably muzzle loading weapons) and Modern (WWII.)
In Don Featherstone's book "Ancient" is represented by German flats, or Zinnfiguren, some pirated by Tony Bath due to the lack of availability of these classic figures in England. "Musket" was covered by the newly emerging Airfix ACW stuff. "Modern" was again Airfix, WWII German infantry versus 1950s British infantry.
Joe Morschauser devoted a lengthy chapter to figure availability. It ranged from the emerging handful of Airfix offerings through a massive offering of flats (to which I became addicted) to left over Britains and a smattering of 54mm collectors lines.
The only white metal figures then offered specifically by and for adult historical gamers were Jack Scruby's. His efforts to replace the industrial base of the hobby may have been limited. But in the context of the times, they were heroic.
It is perhaps worth noting that Don's book was among the last to promote regular gaming (before the so-called "skirmish" genre emerged) with individually mounted figures in the manner of Wells and Stevenson. Joe's book was the first most of us had seen which featured multiple figures attached to a base. By the mid-60s this novelty had become almost universal. At a Military Figure Collector's of America (MFCA) convention of the mid1960s a painting Judge almost disqualified an army entered by one of Charlie Sweet's sons because the figures weren't mounted on bases like proper wargame figures. I had to explain to him that you couldn't knock down figures glued to a base with cotton swabs from a shooting canon. I'm not sure the man believed me, but he gave Sweet's troops the benefit of the doubt.
Jack not only played a key role in rebuilding our industrial base. He also played a part in another emerging aspect of the hobby. The communication between and among gamers about military history, gaming, and iconography was developing.
In the late 1950s Jack Scruby initiated the WAR GAMES DIGEST jointly for a time with Don Featherstone (alternate issues) until editorial differences led to a split. Don favored a purely gaming emphasis, while Jack was more tolerant of articles on history and military science. This led to Jack's TABLETOP TALK and Don's WARGAMER'S NEWSLETTER. Having subscribed to both while they lasted (Don's from 1963 until the end of 1979, years, Jack's for less than 10 years) I found that the editorial difference of opinion was overstated. Don paid more attention to military science and history than he cared to admit. He even ran articles by some of the authors whose "Staff and Command" style he objected to. But his was by far the more interesting and entertaining publication.
In any case, as the 1960s arrived, both the intellectual and material underpinnings of the current hobby were developing. As yet they were in their infancy. But the processes were well begun.
It should be mentioned that the 1950s also saw the introduction of commercial board wargames. These fascinating products had a natural appeal to many of us. All those neat counters with historically accurate (?) orders of arrival, unit identification, etc. My first reaction, which I have not entirely abandoned, was that they offered a great opportunity for people who wanted to wargame but were afraid their neighbors would laugh at them if they played with toy soldiers. More practically, they came complete, and could be played without toy soldiers. This was important to some. Those of us who understood that wargame rules were primarily to animate toy soldiers were not impressed.
WARGAMERS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE COLLECTING HOBBY
The hobby of military figure collecting grew steadily in the 1950's. A majority, it seemed, of the collectors, were uninterested in actually playing with their toys. But it was generally recognized that chronological adults who played with toy soldiers were socially a subset of those who collected them. It is true that in Southern California, where people were known to be eccentric, and increasingly among the 30mm (Scruby Napoleonic) gamers of the MIDWEST, there were strong gaming cliques not closely tied to collecting societies. These were artistically immortalized by Ted Haskell's cartoons (The Haskell Archives) in both TTT and my later publication The Armchair General (TAG). But on the East Coast from which the HMGS convention traditions emerged, the ties were strong, and the general collectors were dominant.
My own experience was probably not unusual. Having retained my interest in "Little Army" through my teens, I found that adult collectors were centered on my old favorite Hobby Shop (Corr's in Washington DC). On my return from a year of teaching on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, I offered some rule books for sale at Corr's, and heard that a collector's group was meeting there on one night a month. By the time I got around to contacting it, the meetings had been moved to private homes. The group was called the "National Capital Military Figure Collectors" (NCMFC) and was local chapter of the "Military Figure Collectors of America" based in Philadelphia. There was a more prestigious group called, I believe, the Company of Military Collectors and Historians. I joined the Washington DC area group in 1963 not long before it seceded from the MFCA and shortened its name to the National Capital Military Collectors (NCMC).
In the early 1960s there was a certain commonality of interest among the military figure collectors. In a sense the non-gamers saw wargame figures as simply smaller or more numerous collections of toy soldiers. Those of us who played with them, and I still tried to game occasionally with the larger Britains and Marx figures, always nourished the secret hope that the others would come to their senses. It seemed inconceivable that anyone would collect lots of toy soldiers and not play with them. Military miniatures, that is, superbly detailed single figures to be painstakingly painted by the collector or on commission were still, by inertia, lingering near the Victorian model railroad scale of 54mm. I mention this to contrast with the present era. Now, for the most part, not only don't collectors talk to wargamers, but "toy soldier" collectors (Britains and imitations thereof) and military miniature painters often don't talk to each other. But in ancient times, the Britains' Guardsman was not only a toy soldier, but also a military miniature and a wargame figure.
I wanted to keep things that way. In the early 60s I actually gamed with the 54mm figures once in a while. They were prominent in a campaign fought by proxy against Keith Hubbard (Colonel and founder of the HEARTS CONTENT HOME GUARD). In 1965 we fought at his house near Philadelphia using 54mm troops (including Britains Household Cavalry with lances) in honor of Sir Winston Churchill, a recently deceased 54mm gamer of some renown. However, the tides were against us, and the smaller scales were already well entrenched.
Customarily each toy soldier collector's group would have monthly meetings in private homes. There would be a business meeting of sorts. It was usually greeted with the enthusiasm manifest among HMGS members for the Membership Meetings (i.e. 3% attendance.) This was followed by show and tell, and we would put out on display what we had been painting or collecting since last meeting. That was the fun part. Many of us met people at these gatherings who would become our regular wargame opponents and friends for years to come.
There were also annual exhibits followed by dinners at hotels, Officers Clubs, or whatever. These were gala affairs and there were painting competitions in a variety of categories. One of these was "Wargame Armies," and the format would not have been unfamiliar to HMGS convention attendees. The interaction was, I think, beneficial. Those of us raised on Britains' cavalry with rouged cheeks, or Marx plastics unsuccessfully attacked with model airplane dope were given an artistic education. Some highly skilled miniatures painters became attracted to wargames figures as gamers or at least as wargame army painters. And many a gamer became a skilled figure painter.
In November of 1967 a writer and a photographer from the Washington Star visited my house and sat in on my weekly Napoleonic Game with Dave Geisz. Several others were on hand including Joe Burgess (currently a partner in Editions Brokaw and Old North State figure companies) and his wife Sheila. Sheila aptly described the relationship of wargamers to figure collectors in a statement which would appear in the Star article. "They are.." she explained "the lunatic fringe of the lunatic fringe."
In the early 1960s the MFCA started something which would be prove crucial. A group of wargamers within the MFCA launched a one-day wargame convention under club auspices. The first were held in the Essex Hotel in Philadelphia in 1964. 1 attended the last Essex convention. Thereafter for several years the conventions moved to the Masonic Hall on Womrath Street, alternating with MFCA regular conventions which moved about from Valley Forge Military Academy to Pennsylvania Military College (Widener College in the wake of Vietnam War protests.)
The prime movers of these conventions were Bob Wall and Ed Miller. Bob was a personable young man who always reminded me of a young Danny Kaye. At the time he was working his way through college. Along with Ray Mowery, who had bought one of my early rules sets from Corr's years before, Bob Wall and I played Scruby's FIRE AND CHARGE with 30mm flats before taking our wives dancing on the occasion of my 25th birthday. Ed Miller was a local high school teacher who hosted the occasional day after affair in his back yard. Bob grew up to become a Philadelphia Lawyer, and died round 1990. Ed is now comfortably retired and often attends HMGS EAST conventions.
The MFCA conventions were an inspiration to East Coast gamers. They were the high point for the wargame army painting competitions and a great showplace for all manners of interesting periods. In fact, it was at these conventions that Leo Cronin introduced his famous IRISH REBELLION skirmish game. And, with the rest of the New England Wargamers' Association (NEWA) sponsored, in October of 1970, the battle of Pellanor's Fields-implementing a proposal of his from two years earlier, fantasy miniature gaming based on J.R.R. Tolkien's popular novels.
I played little part in the NCMC organization. There was a brief attempt by the leadership to have us run a wargame convention like that of the MFCA. I made some inquiries and then got back to the club officers. When I asked how much support they would be willing to give us, they seemed to take a mental step back. Nothing came of it.
OTHER TRENDS AND CONSIDERATIONS
In the last few years I've read references to the 60s as a golden age of historical miniatures gaming. Actually they weren't. Aside from the eventual reaction to the Vietnam War which led to annoyance with all things military, wargaming was never the Fad Hobby of the 60s. Not even if you count board gaming, which, indeed, was growing rapidly. The Fad Hobby of the 1960s was "Slot Car Racing."
I must confess that I knew little of the slot car hobby. I was dimly aware that slot car hobby shops were springing up in shopping centers and all over. The cars ran electrically on slotted tracks. The object of the game was to get your car to go around the track faster than the other guys' cars. Apparently there was a great art to souping the silly things up. If the mainly useless front wheels lost contact with the track surface you were disqualified. Much to my surprise, a review of Florida hobby shops recently turned up two slot carshops.
Early in 1967 there were signs and portents that the slot car boom was headed for a crash. This led some hobby entrepreneurs to look for a substitute fad hobby. All this would be irrelevant except that some of these people thought military modeling and wargaming would be it. They were wrong. But they had involved my regular wargame opponent Dave Geisz and myself in a scheme to create a prozine for the next fad hobby. It was to be called AUTHENTIC BATTLE MINIATURES, and it was to be published by a company so foolish that it brought out a new Slot Car magazine weeks before that hobby definitively crashed.
In spite of the Six Day War, which momentarily made war popular, and writings by Louis Polk (POLK'S HOBBY SHOP of New York) in a trade journal which told glowing tales of the military modeling market, no fad hobby developed. Dave and I were left with a pile of material and no magazine. I proposed a fanzine. Aside from the two of us, I enrolled my high school wargame opponent James Hinds, a friend of ours from the NCMC named Bob Black, and a devotee of 18th century gaming and Republican politics named Aram Bakshian.
Our "fanzine" was THE ARMCHAIR GENERAL (TAG), which ran from 1968 through 1972 in 18 issues, 17 of which were distributed.
TAG played a useful role in that it filled the gap between Jack Scruby's TTT and the emergence of the "OLD" COURIER. We picked up some lively material from Ted Haskell's "Archives" of the MIDWEST Column Line and Square (CLS) groups. Dave Giesz's fascination with the Desert War of 1940-43 led us to run his musings on the subject as well as the ARNOVITZ FILES, which contained a mass of materials collected by a group of Philadelphia area gamers (met at the MFCA affairs.) Mike Amovitz headed this group, and they alternated between the AH "AFRIKA KORPS" game and tactical table top actions. There were also musings about everything from ancient warfare supported by James Hinds, the "Age of Reason" by Aram Bakshian, and a number of eccentric periods which struck my fancy.
Probably the main impact on HMGS of the TAG era was our influence on Dick Bryant and others. Years later, after a sabbatical on my part, and the emergence of the "NEW COURIER" Dick would remember us when he set about, with Walter Simon, Leo Cronin, Ed Mohrmann and others to rally historical miniature gamers and get the hobby back on track. Mainly on the strength of my editorship of TAG, I was to be invited to participate in WALLY'S BASEMENT almost a decade later.
FROM THE LUNATIC FRINGE OF TOY SOLDIER COLLECTORS TO THE STEPCHILD OF THE GREATER WORLD OF ADVENTURE GAMING
For most of the 1970s I was more or less on sabbatical from wargaming. My first wife threw me out in 1970. My partners in TAG scattered to the four winds. New people coming in were unable to both upgrade the graphics, which cost money, and sell ads, which would have paid for it. TAG went under about half way through 1972. Increasingly I led a dissolute life, drinking, chasing wild women, sailing, and SCUBA diving. In some respects I was pursuing Gary Carper's other hobby, with, on occasion, almost the same results.
While all that was going on two imaginative young wargamers, Gary Gygax and David Arneson came up with something called Dungeons and Dragons based heavily on the J.R.R. Tolkien novels. In spite of the NEWA gang's pioneer work in this area, the OLD COURIER review panned D&D-said it would never catch on. Of course it did, and in catching on, transformed gaming out of all recognition. This was the fad hobby of the 70s.
I would love to read a definitive history of TACTICAL STUDIES RULES (TSR) during its glory days. A few imaginative gamers suddenly riding the crest of a business boom. I suspect that at its height there seemed to be no limits, and the principals could hardly distinguish between cash flow and profit. Alas I am in no position to attempt such a work. Nor is it likely anyone else will undertake it.
The success of D&D caused the TSR convention GENCON to flourish. From its dominant position, TSR seems to have been less than kind to other vendors. While D&D was making its' appearance in whirlwind fashion, the old line community of board game interests, centering on AVALON HILL (AH) was being heard from. Again, I was otherwise occupied. But I understand that around the middle of the decade Interest Group Baltimore emerged and from it ORIGINS.
In the mid 1970s the preponderance of TSR and to a lesser extent Interest Group Baltimore inspired a quasi-revolt among lesser game manufacturers. This led to a meeting during or after a particularly dismal GENCON. It was proposed that a Game Manufacturer's Association (GAMA) should be formed. As originally envisioned it would represent the interests of small companies. However, during the symposium (Greek for drinking party) a counter-proposal was offered. Frank Chadwick, among others, reminded people that if any of them proved successful they would be kicked out. GAMA came into being and was eventually joined by Avalon Hill and TSR. ORIGINS became the GAMA "National Gaming Convention" sanctioned by GAMA but actually run by subcontractors.
Somewhere in the early 1970s, Bob Wall and Ed Miller were getting tired of running the conventions. Jay Hadley (currently a member of HMGS EAST's Board of Director and Dealer Coordinator for COLDWARS and HISTORICON) pitched in. He apparently ran a convention or so as the MFCA Wargame Convention. Philadelphia had become somewhat crime ridden, so the show moved to Widener College in Chester. Hardly had this occurred when the MFCA lost interest. The social schism between wargamer, toy soldier collector, and military miniature painter was developing and the MFCA withdrew its support. Jay Hadley continued to run a convention, but it was known as PENNCON.
I was virtually ignorant of Jay Hadley's first career as a convention manager. I probably attended one or two of his conventions, which included the last MFCA wargame conventions, a few PENNCONS, and subsequently ORIGINS 79 and 80. But, as stated earlier I was otherwise pre-occupied. My brief wargame efforts included raising troops for AFRIKA KORPS games with my sons in the spirit of Mike Arnovitz (KIA in Vietnam circa 1970) as well as attending the odd NCMC event or convention. My history of Jay's first convention career is second hand at best.
The conventions on Womrath Street had grown, by 1970, to an estimated 250-300 gamers. This is remarkable considering that they were one-day affairs and had no sleeping accommodations. When Jay Hadley took over, they continued to grow. And within a year or so non-historical miniature gaming was included. Years later Jay mentioned to me that the impact of incorporating fantasy role playing (whether in PENNCON or after he moved to ORIGINS 79 I'm not sure) increased attendance by a factor of four, but damage payments to the facility by a factor of ten.
Meanwhile ORIGINS, "The National Adventure Gaming Convention" had come on line. I think the 1978 ORIGINS was in Detroit sponsored by Metro Detroit Gamers. Again, recalling a chance remark by Jay Hadley, I think I heard him say that ORIGINS 78 "Defined the modern gaming convention."
By now historical miniature gaming was substantially disconnected from toy soldier collecting and military modeling. And as a stand alone, it was swamped by fantasy role-playing (FRP) and board gaming. MINIFIGS, begun as ALBERKEN in the 1960s, had come on line. But by the late 70s you were more likely to find their "Swan Knights of Dol Amroth" on the hobby shop racks than French Cuirassiers.
I think it would be almost impossible to say whether the rise of board gaming and the phenomenon of FRP actually diminished the volume or intensity of historical miniatures gaming. The Wargames Research Group headed up by Phil Barker launched the ancient rules that would dominate that period into the 90's. The Empire series of Napoleonics by Scott Bowden and Jim Getz as well as other commercial rules arrived on the scene. Thus standard rules, which I had written to Don Featherstone: "..will never catch on because Wargamers are too individualistic" were making headway. The days of locating a possible opponent at a convention and negotiating a set of rules on the spot were fading. WRG even sold their less popular modern rules (as well as tons of GHQ Micro Armor) to the impoverished Post-Vietnam U.S. Army. But historical miniature gaming was eclipsed by board and FRP styles.
The 1970s career of hobby showman and entrepreneur "Duke" Siefried is perhaps symptomatic. Emerging from the Midwest CLS Milieu, in the 70s he went from Napoleoniques and Confederals to Fantastiques (for which he later credited Dick Bryant, Leo Cronin and the Pellanor's Fields game) then through a variety of game companies (some would say like a dose of castor oil) including TSR before returning to the fold.
For all that, Jay Hadley, veteran miniature gamer and convention organizer, took over management of ORIGINS 79 and 80. Moreover, Dick Bryant, Leo Cronin, Joe Miceli, et. al. had resurrected the COURIER (aka THE NEW COURIER) as an alleged "prozine." And they were so heavily committed to ORIGINS that trips to the latter convention were part of the compensation package of the COURIER staff. It was therefore not surprising that in 1979 and 1980 Dick Bryant was running miniatures events for Jay Hadley's ORIGINS.
Although ORIGINS was theoretically "The National Adventure Gaming Convention", TSR, due to the popularity of D&D was still running a GENCON which was often larger than ORIGINS. D&D was virtually eclipsing not only the obscure toy soldier gaming hobby, but the rest of "Adventure Gaming" as well. This had no immediate effect on our story. But seems to have forced ORIGINS away from the Midwest (Chicago to Milwaukee at any rate) between 1978 and 1988. Rightly or wrongly, lingering animosity towards TSR would prove divisive in HMGS MIDWEST a decade later.
To the COURIER's perhaps prejudiced reviewers, ORIGINS 79 and 80 were highly successful. But they were challenging to the management. Bob Coggins later reported seeing Jay Hadley at ORIGINS 80 wearing a three piece suit, sweating profusely, and wearing a fixed smile as malcontents complained to him about one fool thing or another. Jay was so inspired by his ORIGINS career that while he supported HMGS from early on, he firmly refused to become a convention manager. Even after the COLDWARS 97 fiasco all anyone could get him to serve as was vendor coordinator.
ORIGINS 81 was a seminal event in the rising discontent of historical gamers. It moved to the West Coast. The 1980 GAMA awards, announced at ORIGINS 81, named Frank Chadwick's SYSTEM SEVEN NAPOLEONICS cardboard counters (probably designed for the mounting of figures) as "Best New Historical Miniatures Line." It was a bit ironic. The voting had come out of an ORIGINS run by a veteran miniature gamer, and Frank himself (though he earned a living mainly as a board game designer) was an avid historical miniatures gamer. But The Greater World of Adventure Gaming (TGWAG) obviously held historical miniature gamers in substantial contempt.
Following ORIGINS 81, discontent among the miniature gamers who would establish HMGS escalated. A letter writing campaign developed between the principals of the COURIER, who also happened to be ringleaders of Old Colony Wargame Club, and various individuals and clubs on the Atlantic coast. By November this led to the famous meeting at WALLY'S BASEMENT-an event which would rank higher in HMGS history than the Beer Hall Putsch in the history of a less noble movement.
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© Copyright 2004 Hal Thinglum
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