From John Laing of Cambridge, Ontario: Your repeated calls to your readership to take pen to paper have inspired me to finally do something in this direction. The particular point that brings this one is Bill Protz's interesting comments on the battlefield at Gettysburg. It happens that my partner, Colin McClelland and I had occasion to do just as Bill and Ken did. In a hot (we're Canadians), hot day a couple of years ago, in between HMMC#2 and Eastcon (groan!) we walked the battlefield. We too were struck by the vivid "history lesson" one gets when you physically examine the terrain of a great battle. One thing that struck us was the degree to which tactic that look odd on a map become very logical when one sees the relevant ground. Particularly impressive here are some apparently illogical actions in a cornfield down near Little Round Top. The patterns of forest and field in that area quickly make these actions seem not only reasonable but as the only possible tactic. On the subject of the woods on Culp's Hill and other places, it would seem that the trees have grown back in the intervening 120 odd years and that the battlefield is in fact much more heavily forested today than formerly. I think there are pictures in the museum that show this. I suggest that the reason that Little Round Top was a tactically vital point and not the higher Big Round Top was that the former had been cleared while the latter had not. A trip to Culp's Hill demonstrates the uselessness of trying to battle in a heavily forested area, as Bill noted. There is apparently a local debate between historians and environmentalists as to whether to restore the battlefield to its 1863 appearance, or leave it as a woodland park. I hop the above may shed a little light on what quite rightly seemed to Bill a strange situation.
From Charlie Prosek of Winfield, Illinois: I picked up a very good book on the Mexican War called THE MEXICAN WAR IN BAJA CALIFORNIA by Doyce B. Nunis Jr., 1977, 208 pages. This book is a gem, it has everything about the battles that took place in Baja, California - I never heard of them - Battles of Mulege, LaPaz, San Vicente, Todos Santos, and the sieges at San Jose Del Calbo and Marine landings at Loreto. The naval people I think would also like this book. The naval operations in this area included the ships Congress, Crane, Dale, Erie, Independence, Lexington, Ohio, Portsmouth, and Southhampton. I am building a 15mm Mexican War Army at the present time and have a little over 500 done. I hope to do around 1200 and have both sides but no early period figures.
From Tom Wirsing of Mason City, Illinois: For quite some time I have intended to write MWAN. Be aware that all the effort and time is appreciated. Many of us in central Illinois look forward to its coming and talk about the contents when it does arrive (Editor's Note: Thanks very much, Tom). The main issue of this epistle is to respond to a reference made in the last issue about the Alamo. It was suggested that building it would make a fine project. It did. A young man from Mason City, an engineer named Bob Lowe designed the entire facility in 15mm from some specs listed in a book on the subject. He was assisted by Brian Ingersoll, also of Mason City, who did quite a bit of the trim work and painted all the Texican figures. It is a beautiful job of engineering and portrays well the problems experienced by the defenders. The did an excellent job of construction. To complete the scenario, Frank Chadwick of Bloomington and Greg Novak of Champaign worked out the rules and we played the first game at our monthly CITW gathering October 12th and all seemed to go well. The bad news is that the Mexicans won again. I know this game will be at Winter Wars in Champaign in January of 86. If you would like details about the construction and specs (Editor's Note: Sure would), I would be more than happy to forward the same to you.
From Leonard Brewer of Decatur, Illinois: Would like to inform you about some good books. Alexander Kent (pseudonym of Douglas Reeman) is an acknowledged master of military fiction. The exploits of men in fictitious battles are more colorful and rousing than those found in history. Mr. Kent's novels center around Richard Bolitho. The series starts in 1774 with Bolitho as a fourth lieutenant in the Royal Navy. During this time he moves up in rank till his present rank of Vice Admiral in 1802. The books are published by Jove Publications and there are 13 of them in the series with more coming. I would highly recommend them to anyone interested in sailing ships and hope this is of use in MWAN.
From Doug Carroccio of Zion, Illinois: After reading your editorial about D&D I thought I would drop you a line expressing my views on the subject. I am an assistant minister at Christian Assembly of God in Zion, Illinois. One of my hobbies is wargaming which I have been doing now about ten years. I have a room in my house which I use strictly for gaming. Occasionally I have kids from my church come over and game, some of whom are former D&D players. I see a clear distinction between wargaming and D&D. The human race has a natural tendency to fight, struggle, strive and resist, built into it. When this tendency is used in the right way it benefits mankind. We have seen nations rise up against tyrants and dictators who had plotted the conquest of the world, rooted out and overthrown because of a desire to fight against, and resist this kind of evil. We have seen breakthroughs in the medical field, science, industry, etc., because of this drive within man to conquer, advance, struggle, sometimes against overwhelming odds. We all recognize the battles that take place in our own lives in order to maintain self-control, decency and self-respect. And who wouldn't acknowledge the fact that they are willing to fight to protect their family and friends against those who would try to do them harm. We even see this strong tendency expressing itself in our leisure activities and sports, whether on the Olympic field or in the sports stadium. It is in this classification that I place wargaming. It is another means of enjoying an area of our life that is a part of us in a wholesome, clean way. D&D, however, is on another level. What people ignore, overlook, try to excuse to just plain don't want to face is that D&D does have occult leanings and principles involved in it. You can't discuss D&D without bringing this factor into it. This taps into the spiritual dimension. They are just now beginning to prove and document that D&D, along with some hard core rock music, which also has its roots in the occult is producing suicide, a loss of self-esteem, a changing of the personality, etc. It is not just a harmless pastime. It definitely has a detrimental influence upon the mental and spiritual dimension of the person involved. Most of the time this influence subtly drives the person's thought patterns into the same kind of deception that overtakes the individual involved in occult practices, producing the same results and damage in the personality. I am against D&D because of the damage it does to the people involved. I am not just out to convert people over from D&D to wargaming but just to get them out of D&D period! There are many wholesome pastime activities including wargaming that do not expose the individual to the occult and the damage it inflicts upon people.
From Tom Harris of Naperville, Illinois: I think I have to emphatically disagree that the 60 Minutes segment was in any way objective. In fact, I don't think a show like 60 Minutes can be objective. While I don't play D&D type games either, I think you have hit the mark when you say that to the outside we are one and the same hobby. I also don't think we can or want to be considered separate. Just as there are historic wargamers who won't play games dealing with the 20th century, I consider the D&D crowd as just not interested in gaming in history. They simulate events on paper and with figures just as we do, so they know that what we do with history is the same thing they do with fantasy. This is why they are easier to convert than the man in the street. We are the same hobby and we have to stand united, because any attack on D&D can easily be turned on wargaming. 60 Minutes is out to generate high ratings and that requires controversy. They always approach an issue from the most controversial angle. They always try to break even the most complex issues down into black and white cases. This helps their listeners to understand their point and more importantly reinforces their image as champions of the underdogs. They use their prestige to bully whom they consider the bad guys (and they always choose sides). Finally they always use a slick and authoritative presentation rhetoric that allows them to present one side of the story as fact and ignore the other side. This hardly constitutes objectivity. In the D&D story their angle was D&D took normal teens and drove them to suicide. The other side of the question is whether potentially suicidal teems actively seek and escape into fantasy via D&D or whether there is any provable connection between D&D and the teenager's deaths. Would you consider it objective if 60 Minutes attacked historic wargaming for producing murderers, because one or two murderers happened to be wargamers? Especially is wargaming had nothing to do with the crimes? Further, I don't think that the show provided any concrete proof that D&D was linked to teen suicide at all. This was especially true with the case they concentrated on. The only concrete evidence was the word of the mother (who may well have been looking for someplace besides herself to place the guilt). With teenage suicide at "epidemic" levels it is not unreasonable that some teenage D&D players will kill themselves. This hardly constitutes a direct link. My own experience is that gaming (of any kind) provided a release from the frustration s that can lead to violence. I think 60 Minutes D&D episode shows how desperate that show has become for issues and how little credibility television journalism in general deserves.
From Tom Shydler of Las Vegas, Nevada: Just received MWAN and would like to say it was great! I read it cover to cover. I suppose it is the unique gamer to gamer style of MWAN (as well as some excellent ideas and insights) that make it so interesting. Someday I hope to produce something for MWAN equal to the very high level of article currently carried (Editor's Note: Thanks, Tom, for your kind comments. MWAN contributors should give themselves a pat on the back!) The D&D suicide "problem" is an excellent example of confusing symptom with causation. The correct relationship is the involvement of certain personality types prone to suicide among the group of persons playing D&D. There might be a higher percentage of these individuals in D&D because of its offer of escape into fantasy, but the acting out of a suicidal impulse would occur whether or not D&D existed. This question also relates to the larger issue of what personality types are attracted to wargaming or fantasy gaming in general. I would like to thank Howard Whitehouse for the info about 19th Century Battles. This is exactly the kind of useful info in MWAN. A bookstore I use for out-of-print military titles is the Military Bookman. I have had excellent service from this firm. I have enclosed a couple of catalogues for your perusal. These contain mostly modern and American subjects. However, the catalogues rotate subject matter and the previous listings have covered Ancients, Napoleonics, 19th C, etc., I believe it costs $10.00 for a one year subscription but I think this is waived with a purchase. There are four catalogues per year. (Address: Military Bookman, 29 East 93rd Street, New York, NY 10128 212-348-1280 Editor's Note: Appreciate the catalogues; they look very good indeed!) Thanks to Bill Protz for his very interesting article on Gettysburg & Origins. Amen to his "Enjoyable Wargaming". I think the primary award in wargaming would be for "Best Sportsmanship" or "Most Friendly Player" followed by "Best Painted Army" and "Best Terrain". Lastly, the winners of the WRG tournaments should receive "Best Rules Lawyer" or "Doctor of WRG" (I'm almost serious about this!). Let's see more of the short or one-page rules system. This is the most refreshing development in miniatures since the 1st edition WRG (Yes, WRG served a very useful purpose for gaming a few years ago) rules. Now if I could only get my five page 19thC rules down to two I could say that with rather less hypocrisy (Editor's Note: Please consider submitting your rules for publication in MWAN, Tom).
From Howard Whitehouse of Savannah, Georgia: The Sudan game progresses, though I think I'll need to get more figures before I really see the ramifications of certain of the ideas. I'm thinking that I'll eventually put together two "manuals"; an umpire's manual with all the rules, value judgements, etc., and a player's manual with extensive briefings "On Being A British Officer" "One the Soudan", etc - which aren't necessarily correct - and with those few game mechanisms that are open to the players, and rough generalizations of those that aren't! I hate to give the player too much knowledge, but too little is bad.
From John Laing of Cambridge, Ontario: Just read your article of Production Line Painting. We've discussed our respective rates of painting previously and found them to be similar. I was therefore fascinated to learn your method of painting was nearly identical as well. Your principles are exactly those I would myself list. I have recently found an additional wrinkle which I feel both speeds things up and actually improves quality. IT involves taking a page from the notes of the "Battery painters", such as Jay Hadley. In this method, one temporarily glues the figures to be painted on sticks where they are dealt with in groups of six or so. My variation is to simply skip this and glue the figures to the base they will be on when finished. I, like you, paint coats, pants, boots and the lead base of the figure. Then I fix my figures to their base and finish painting. Fortunately, my standard base is 2" x 1" for 3 x 25mm figures so that, I've perhaps got more room than most. I find doing the initial colors prior to basing gets around most of the awkward corner problems. I found that handling each figure, time and again one painted successive coats was both time consuming and hard on the earlier paint especially since I use oil and enamels. Once based, the figures are handled in groups and the base protects the finish and is easier to steady for the fine work. I hope this is of interest to you or your readers. (Editor's Note: Having seen John's work, I must admit to taking a distant second place to his painting ability. I urge others to submit articles on painting figures to MWAN; I especially would like to see something on "stain" painting and "shading".)
From Mark Stevens of Columbia, Mississippi: Really enjoyed the Mexican War issue and continue to enjoy all the various ideas and odd tidbits. Think your idea for a solo wargaming issue has merit. I enjoy playing with other gamers but must travel distances to do so. I've heard PONY WARS rules being combined with SWORD AND THE FLAME for colonial actions. In PONY WARS the Indians are controlled by random tables. I wish someone would write a "how to" on that. If you want Russians for the 1880's through 1900's, use Frontier's Boxer Rebellion Figures. They make gunners, cossacks, dragoons and infantry - all superb. The Russian uniform changed after the Crimean War to certain basic features which are present even today. Most troops wore a peakless, flat topped cap called a burashka. This was similar to the German fatigue cap and had been in use since Napoleonic times. Officers and mounted troops added a peak. The cap was always worn at a rakish angle - the Frontier figures reflect this. It was dark green with different colored cap bands or in summer all white and the black, orange, white Romanov cockade. The loose blouse or gimnastecha was adopted in the 1860's. It was white for summer and dark green for winter. Different color shoulder boards were worn, i.e. crimson for rifles, scarlet for guards, blue for 1st brigade, etc. The pants were again plain white for summer or dark green with red stripe for other seasons. In central Asia, leather pants dyed red were also used. A dark green kepi with corps colored bands was also worn by many units in the 1860's & 7-'s but this French headgear was detested by the Russians. It was worn with a white cover and havelock ala legion. I suppose I need to write a short article on Russian uniforms. The Blandford book on the Imperial Russian army is invaluable.
From Eric Kolber, 1820 Winding Creek, Pearland, TX 77581: If you have any suggestions for ways to have good solo colonial wargames, I'd welcome them. Five years of looking for opponents in the greater Houston area hasn't brought the desired results.
From David Corbett, Hazel Crest, Illinois: A few gleanings from the Benedict Arnold Society: Dan Rakowski hosted a 15mm ON TO RICHMOND game on Veteran's Day, the battle of Franklin (ACW). It was fought as historically as possible and had the same result; the Confederate Army of Tennessee was virtually destroyed assaulting the entrenched Yanks. Rich Borg came up from Springfield for a "Grudge Match" consisting of a Napoleonic Russian-French CLS encounter. Each side had 800 points of troops and the battle was a C.E. game aided by having ten points awarded to the controller of each road exit. The contest was hot and vicious, especially on the part of the game designers who allowed the Russians a road entrance onto the French right flank and informed the French Cavalry Commander that the field over which his multi-hued lancers, cuirassiers, hussars and dragoons were charging over, was a ploughed field, thus reducing distance to one-half! Russians are never easy to deal with, From Kutusov to Kruschev. After a lovely bloodbath, the game ended as a minor Russian victory and we vanquished French had lost again. Pat Kurivial and Rob Davidson are cooking up a 30mm CLS campaign game to be set in portugal and to begin very soon. In regards to having three games at the hospital, perhaps one could be played on the floor, or if a 15mm game could be played on only one table.
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© Copyright 1986 Hal Thinglum
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