While away from home attending the Origins National Convention this past June, a variety of subjects related to wargaming crossed my mind which perhaps will interest the readership of MWAN. Each topic will be discussed in brief form and perhaps will generate comment from ethers. Let me begin with: Flying With Toy Soldiers: Packing the little fellows is possible so that they are not jumbled onto each other with consequent disaster. First let me say that I personally can not imagine giving a case of toy soldiers (military miniatures to us, but toy soldiers to those unwashed masses at the X-ray booth!) to the luggage handlers. We have all seen the television commercial of the gorilla tossing about Samsonite suitcases without damaging them. However, what about the contents inside? So I went along with an idea, reader Ken Bunger gave me, to buy a case that attorneys usually carry, the name of which escapes me. It's dimensions are 7.5 X 19" X 12" and it closely resembles cases that salesmen carry but of a smaller size. It can fit sideways under an airplane seat and so can be closely guarded by it's owner. Inside the case all is not a shambles when resting on the side because the soldiers are packed into convenient sized cigar boxes. To prevent the little warriors from tossing about, I placed washcloths in the boxes and around the units to prevent movement. The spongy stuff that is sometimes found in boxes of newly purchased soldiers works good too. The fit should be snug. Ken and I both used this method without any damage flying out to Origins and back. All of my soldiers were based individually while most of Ken's were on the usual multiple figure 2" X 2" bases so many use. Transportation of terrain aboard an airplane presents other problems which can be solved to some extent. Many of us use the old green felt cloths to cover a wargames table. Well, mine fit nicely into a rather large suitcase and inside of the felt, I placed some 1" thick wooden hills of various dimensions. I was also able to fit in two shoe boxes of trees, lichen, and a building. Another possibility is to pack up some terrain and send it to a fellow gamer at your destination and let the UPS company get it to where you may want it to go. One of my concerns has been the luggage investigations booth with the X-ray machine. Have you ever seen what our miniatures look like? They look pretty strange, like jumbled black bones in undescribable shapes that are indistinguishable as anything at all. So far, I have never had a problem. At my point of departure, the attendant, I swear, was looking elsewhere in a sleepy trance as if his body was there but his mind was on the planet, Pluto. So much for him! I had to change planes at the next stop and so had to go through the machines again. This time there were two young ladies present. The operator immediately halted the machine conveyor belt when she eyed the disembodied black bones on the screen and said rather too loudly in my view, "What's that?!" I was hovering nearby in case of just such an emergency and amongst the bedlam of hundreds of folks passing by and standing near, I stated rather loudly in the friendliest way I could and in an octave higher than usual and with a big smile that, "Those are toy soldiers." She laughed. I kept smiling. She asked her partner if an open box inspection was needed. I kept smiling. Her partner looked agog and said, "No." I kept smiling, grabbed my troops and disappeared into the crowd. The return home inspections were uneventful and so my boys got through without any further problems. In fact, on other occasions in years gone by, the X-ray people have been very polite and on an open case inspection or two, were quite delighted to view the very appealling thing that is a toy soldier. Gettysburg: Ken Bunger and I planned to meet in Baltimore to attend Origins together and to help each other with our respective wargames that we were to host. After a very entertaining wargame at reader Wally Simon's home the previous evening, we had nothing to no on Thursday except move tables around for the miniaturist at the invitation of Wally, well, we decided to drive to Gettsyburg instead. This famous American Civil War battlefield is near an hour's drive from the Baltimore area and so, off we sped, deciding to use back country roads to get the feel of the land, and to, I suppose, imagine ourselves as trudging soldiers of the Army of the Potomac marching wearily northwards to who knew what. Well, three hours later, after lunch in Taneytown; remember the Taneytown Road on the Avalon Hill boardgame GETTSYBURG, we arrived at the battlefield. We oriented ourselves to the visitor's center and I bought some books to be shipped home. Afterwards we drove onto Cemetary Ridge to view the Union lines there. We spent probably an hour in a very small part of the ridge imagining the whole thing as if we could conjure up Images of what it was like back on those few days in July in 1863. Surely we enjoyed the battlefield in only the special way that a wargamer or historian can while the rest of humanity was content to photograph themselves astride a 12 pound Napoleon. Before us was the "angle", the area of Pickett's Charge and everywhere were stone markers identifying the positions of all Union regiments, their left and right flanks clearly marked. Some surprises: 1. The space alloted to each Union regiment was tiny and I mean TINY! Ken paced off one of about only thirty paces!! How was that possible when Union regiments were composed of 200-5OO men on average? They must have been stacked along the ridge in a veritable mass of humanity similar to the proverbial quantities of fish in a sardine can! Wargame rules designers, take note. 2. We stood on Cemetary Ridge and looked across to the Confederate position on Seminary Ridge. To call these heights ridges is inaccurate in my view. To be sure, they were long and each was higher than the ground nearby. However, the gradient was shallow and long. I always think of ridges as being much higher. Cemetary Ridge reminded me of a glacis and perhaps this is why is was so important. 3. The Rebel guns bombarded Cemetary Ridge without mercy and Union General Meade's HQ was on the reverse slope. Ken tells me that his HQ was constantly hit by Confederate overshooting. However, we as wargamers, never allow an overshot of a hill to do damage on the reverse slope. We always think of the reverse slope as being a haven from cannon balls, etc. Perhaps, the Duke of Wellington could tell us something of this, yet can remember nothing of such a matter from my readings. 4. Did you know that Pickett's Charge required a forward movement of a little over one mile in the open? The fact that any of his men were able to get into the Union defenses is remarkable to me. 5. The Union line was strengthened by a stone wall. That was nice if all one wanted to protect was a foot, ankle and a little of the shinbone. The stone wall was pretty low. The rocks were near dark brown and mostly black. 6. I don't understand how anyone could fight in the dense woods of Culp's Hill or near Little Round Top for that matter, yet thousnads of soldiers of both sided did. How? 7. The Union lines are not as long as one tends to think. It was easy to see the end of Cemetary Ridge from Little Round Top as well as the ground between. Even the cavalry battlefield where Stuart and Custer et al clashed is a hop skip and a jump from the back of the Union lines. Enjoyable Wargaming: It seems to me that the most enjoyable wargames where people are seen to be laughing, smiling, patting each other on the back, are those where the rules are fairly simple, yet historical in nature. The Alamo wargame rules at Origins were on one sheet of paper. In addition, those wargames where many are pitted against a few or when there is an attack on a compound seem to offer a lot of enjoyment. When I observed the players in my DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK game in their attacks on Fort Hal, there is more enjoyment in their faces than in other games which I have run. This phenomenon seems present in wargames about Rorke's Drift where a handful of redcoats hold out versus thousands of Zulus. There is something appealing also, when wargames have Indians and/or natives pitted against the white man; wargamers usually want to support the side of the native and do so quite enthustiastically. Then, too, those games where there is a Hollywood atmosphere seem to be the most pleasant as well. I hope this is true as I gather my Sioux Indians and Custer's Seventh Cavalry for my future project to fight skirmish wargames out on the Great Plains in pursuit of perhaps a John Wayne cavalry motion picture. In these types of games there seems less pressure to win or to perform with the greatest skill. What matters is camraderie, bravery, and a kind of Hollywood mentality in playing. I look forward to more of this sort of thing as the hobby develops. A New Historical Miniatures Wargamers: At the conclusion of the Tricorne game at Origins, a fellow came up to me and asked, "How do you do that?" I wondered what he meant and had to search my memory banks for an answer as well as for the key to unlock the meaning behind the question posed to me. I fumbled a bit and then gently launched into a sales pitch and gentle explanations about what Ken Bunger and I were indeed doing. You see, the young fellah beside me asking the question represented a very rare thing, a possible new recruit into the historical miniatures wargame end of the hobby. His name was Mario Ramierez of Brookline, Massacuhusetts, and he was/is a boardgamer. I started the same way back in the 1960's asking almost the same question and I remembered the confusion I had trying to figure out just what the heck one did with toy soldiers. Ken and I both gave him lots of explanations ideas and suggestions that evening and on Saturday too. Mario was a lot quicker to comprehend than I was twenty years ago and he remained to talk with us for a long time and were very pleased to help him. I invited him to play In DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK the next morning, but he was tied up in his VICTORY AT SEA boardgame tournament and was able to break away only near the end. Even so, he remained to watch, asked lots of good questions and helped pick up troops and terrain. He was genuinely interested and our discussions continued and later Ken and I took him to the vendor area to see all the sights therein and invited him to play CHARGE later that evening. The CHARGE game got underway and Mario was there to command my Raschstein gun batteries In addition to two redcoat companies. I gave him a few tactical hints and he took to it all very well. At one point I knew he was going to be charged in the flank by cavalry and I let it happen solely so that he would learn, not only from the very good things he was doing, but also from a mistake as well. He was unruffled and that was good. Later, when I advised ah, a small movement, he comically referred to one his units as "yah mean those yellow pants over there" to say in a few words that my Raschsteiners were cowardly. Well! I politely countered with, "Do you mean the 44th Foot?" Then we all broke up laughing. At game's end, he remained to help pick up and to talk some more. I gave his name to three friends in Massachusetts, some of whom are readers of MWAN. Please call Mario and take him along. He will be an asset. If any readers of MWAN in Massachusetts want to call him, I'll be happy to supply Mario's address at his request. Computer Wargaming: There were a variety of computer wargame vendors at Origins and I looked them all over. Many had monitors with games running themselves on the screens without any human control. It was interesting to see some of the very good and poor graphic designs. The best pictures seemed to be from the SSI company. On the bus ride to the airport Sunday morning I sat with two other strangers both of whom turned out to be wargamers. One was a boardgamer from Chicago, while the other was a computer wargame designer from California. The three of us spent an enjoyable 45 minutes talking about our likes and dislikes in computerized warfare. There is apparently a world of difference between the various makers of computer wargames, mostly it seemed to me in the number of things to do as the human element in a computer wargame setting. The designer is associated with SSI. He works out of his home and is sort of a free spirit without a boss or a work schedule to adhere to, other than the one he imposes upon himself. He mentioned that if a copy of a particular wargame sells 4,000-5,000 copies, a designer can make $40,000. He also said that his designs are creatively inspired by miniatures rules. He gave the example of a tank warfare game called KAMPFGRUPPE where one must be concerned about slope of Armour plate, distance, penetration power of the round and fourteen other things that I do not know about. All these factors go into his game but without the tedium of endless chart calculations of a miniatures wargame. Both of my fellow bus riders agreed that computerized wargaming is the thing of the future so as to take the tedium out of play. All one must do is enter the data such as unit, range, target - press a button and bango - one gets a result. I kept my unconvinced thoughts to myself. I like to toss dice, heck, it's a basic fun thing and I tend to think that entering the data as mentioned isn't that much of a time saver. I am not convinced that computers will assist the historical miniatures wargamer all that much. However what I wish a computer could do is run a wargame campaign and take all the tedium out of assessments for loss of supplies, sickness, desertion, and I don't know what else. Some company in England apparently has such a thing now, but alas, it will not work on an Apple Computer. Back to MWAN #18 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1985 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com