As a husband, father, part-time graduate student and full-time engineer in the high tech industry, I find my gaming opportunities limited. In addition to the time problem, there is the issue of space. My wonderful wife (i.e. the garrison commander) purchased a 12 by 10 foot, insulated, and air conditioned shed for me a few years ago, on the condition that all of my hobby stuff lives there. It is a good shed, but I find myself periodically running out of room in the cabinets I use for troop storage. Both the time and space constraints are exacerbated by two common wargaming afflictions. "THOSE LOOK PRETTY, THINK I'LL BUY A FEW PACKS." This tends to strike in the dealer's room of a convention. Generally it is a novel scale or period that you do not currently play and leads (in my case) to boxes of unpainted lead that I may never get around to. This symptom is driven by what drew me to the hobby in the first place, a love of history and the pageantry of soldiers. Nice looking castings in a period I have read about frequently jump, on their own, into my hands. "I MUST HAVE ONE OF EVERYTHING!" This first struck me when I started in the hobby playing DBM. For some reason (and much to the delight of my lead pimp at the time), I was determined to have every option available for my 15mm Marian Romans, even though I have never used many of them over the last 10 years. The latest incarnation of this malady has manifested itself for my 15mm WW2 Germans. I find myself slowly accumulating at least a platoon of every kind of armored vehicle made from 1942 - 1945. Who ever said the Germans were efficient? Why do they have to have a zillion variations on the basic concept of an assault gun? Why do I have to have them all? The "plethora" bug is driven by the idea that having lots of cool options at my disposal will somehow overcome my tactical ineptitude and poor die rolling. A MODEST PROPOSAL: THE ONE DRAWER PERIOD I was struck with a brilliant idea to solve all of my wargaming problems a couple of years ago. The next morning, after sobering up, I had forgotten it, but instead, had this idea. What if I could indulge my interest in different periods, and keep it within reason and budget, by stipulating that all of the figures must fit into a single drawer? (I use several brands of the plastic drawer systems available at most fine discount stores.) Terrain doesn't have to fit in the drawer, but every trooper has to. This approach has many things to recommend it: 1) Limited numbers of figures are cheaper 2) Faster to paint 3) More time spent actually playing wargames So, I decided to embark on a grand experiment. I would limit my "major" periods to 15mm WW2, 15mm AK-47 Republic, and 15mm & 6mm Ancients (I'm in the middle of converting and scaling down, perhaps a detailed confession submitted to this fine magazine in the future?) Everything else would have to meet the One Drawer Criteria. WHAT MAKES A GOOD ONE DRAWER PERIOD? FIGURES Obviously, one drawer periods work best for eras that require few figures for a good game. Any period that can generate a good 1:1 skirmish is an obvious candidate and 28(ish)mm figures the obvious scale. But, there can be a trap, terrain (more later) for 28mm needs to be big and I find it takes up more space than figures. 15mm skirmish is not unreasonable, and radically cheap to get into. Also, do not forget going up or off shore. Air and naval games are very similar to skirmish games in the amount of models / figures they require. The argument can be made from a game design standpoint that they actually are skirmish games. Just remember how big your drawers are (NOT those drawers) when deciding on scale. Limit yourself to the minimum for a fun game, i.e. one squad / squadron / flotilla, etc. per side. TERRAIN As mentioned above, storing terrain can be a hassle. The great advantage to air and naval games is that they require no terrain at all beyond an air or sea cloth. For land games simple is better than complex. Anything that you can leverage from your "main" periods is also very useful and will save storage space. Adobe buildings are perhaps the most useful terrain items in the universe and can do duty in North Africa with the Foreign Legion, The Old West, Napoleonic Spain, WW2 Italy, or post-Apocalypse New Mexico. RULES Simple is better than complex. I find that fun fast moving rules are critical as I will not be playing them all the time. Frequently I have to teach them to some one on the fly as well, either playing with a non-wargaming buddy or down at the club. Opinions on what makes for good rules are varied and frequently discussed in this august publication. See any article over the past three or four years by Sam Mustafa, Bill Haggard, et al. Cheap is also good as well, you probably do not want to drop $50 for rules and more for expansions. Many great free rules are available on the web. Home made is also about a free as you can get, as long as you do not count the time you spend thinking about them. NOW, LOOK INTO MY DRAWERS... As the proof of the pudding is in its chocolaty goodness, er, I mean in the eating, here are some of the results of my experiment. GLADIATORS An impulse buy at the annual Millennium gaming convention here in Austin a few years ago led to the acquisition of twelve 28mm gladiators. It turns out to have been brilliant; a few bucks later to one of our outstanding local painters and BAM, I was into a new period. Best of all, I can use no terrain at all and be historically accurate. The figures only take up ? of a drawer at most. For rules, I have been using "Red Sand, Blue Sky" from Two Hour Wargames, and they are great. There are at least a dozen other sets floating around out there, many free on the Internet. ACW IRONCLADS This period can easily fall prey to the "one of everything" bug, so being a native of South Carolina I chose to limit myself to the blockade and siege of Charleston. I went with 1/600 scale Peter Pig and Thoroughbred ships, although in retrospect it could be done in 1/1200 scale cheaper. It only required 3 Confederate casemate ironclads (CSS Chicora, CSS Palmetto State, and CSS Charleston) and (currently) 4 Union Ironclads (USS Keokuk, USS New Ironsides, and 2 Passaic class monitors.) Now this does not represent the full Union fleet, but to be honest, they would have made quick work of the meager Confederate force if it ever ventured beyond the protection of Ft. Sumter and the batteries covering the harbor. I use a home baked set of rules, based somewhat on "Smoke on the Water," but once again, there are many to choose from. Terrain is simple (a blue mottled cloth) and the slow speeds and short gun ranges means you can play on a reasonably sized table. I ran this as a convention game one year and it was nice to not have to lug around boxes of terrain and still have a nice looking table. THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN 1/300 scale aircraft. They're inexpensive, fast to paint, and once again, no terrain required. The number of basic aircraft types involved was not huge, so my drawer holds a selection of He-Ill's, a squadron (12 aircraft) of Me- 109's to escort them, then a squadron each of Spitfires and Hurricanes. Rules will be "Bag the Hun" from Too Fat Lardies (www.toofatlardies.co.uk). I have not actually played them yet beyond a brief dog fight I did solo, but it looks like it will be a smashing club game. By limiting myself to this particular campaign, I can avoid "scope creep" as we call it at work. No B-17's or wacky ultra late war jets for me (yet...) RESIST TEMPTATION! (UNLESS You DON'T WANT To) The physical limitation of a single drawer is a great limiter if you can exercise the will power to stay within its confines. So far, I have succeeded, but it has not been easy. You may find one of your one drawer periods so engrossing that you make it one of your main gaming periods. But, you will have had an opportunity to try before you buy and will not plunk down hundreds of dollars on troops that may never see the table. I find it refreshing to travel off the beaten path occasionally and this system allows me to clean my palate periodically without breaking the bank. Good luck if you wish to try it out and either way, may you roll high and live!  ABOUT THE AUTHOR Patrick Smyrl is a member in somewhat disreputable standing of the Lone Star Historical Miniatures chapter in Austin, Texas. (www.lshm.org), and can be reached via the club mailing list at http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/LSHMAustin/. On the occasional Sunday afternoon he can be found at the weekly club day hosted by the fine folks at Great Hall Games (www.greathallgames.com), losing horribly. (He once won a gift certificate at a tournament for having the worst die rolls...) Besides one drawer periods, he is currently working on a shrink ray to turn his 15mm ancients into 6mm. In his spare time he is writing a rule set that combines aspects of Piquet, Crossfire, Matrix Games, Grande Armee, and 43-man Squamish. Back to MWAN # 132 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2004 Legio X This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com