1) Larry Brom, creator of THE SWORD AND THE FLAME, has published CHESSEPOT & NEEDLEGUN, a set of rules for the Franco-Prussian War through Frontier Miniatures. Congratulations to Larry on another fine job! Rules writers could learn something by reviewing his work as regards organization of a rules set!
2) Bob Beattie has been appointed the Colonial Editor for the COURIER. For those who don't know, Bob was the founder of the "old" COURIER when it was the NEW ENGLAND WARGAMING CLUB. Bob will be soon be publishing a solo wargaming format for THE SWORD AND THE FLAME soon in the COURIER. This should make many gamers happy as there have been a lot of requests sent to me regarding how .u solo game this rules set. Will be looking forward to it and congratulations to Bob on his appointment to the COURIER!
3) Todd Fisher, treasurer of HMGS-MID WEST deserves a great deal of credit for arranging to have HMGSMIDWEST run the miniatures games at this year's GENCON. He also arranged for ORIGINS 1988 to be held in the midwest. This promises to be quite an event/undertaking and of the people I know, Todd is the one who can bring it off.
4) Congratulations to Dick Bryant, editor of THE COURIER which was nominated for Best Professional Miniature Magazine at Origins, 1986. I don't know the winner (MILITARY DIGEST, MILITARY MODELING, and MINIATURE WARGAMES were also nominated. THE COURIER has won this award every year it has been offered, I believe.
5) MWAN subscribers Rich Smethurst of Ral Partha, and John Laing of RAFM serve some recognition as well as their wargaming figures were nominated for the Best Historical Figure Series, 1985 at the 1986 Origins convention. Rafm had Armies of the Ceasars, Flintlock & Feather, Jack Tarr, and Samurai lines nominated while Ral Partha had their Colonial line up for the award. Both of these fine companies have done a lot for the hobby. I was surprised not to see Frontier or Falcon nominated though it may be due to the fact that the awards are for 1985 productions.
6) MWAN subscribers Loren Wiseman and Frank Chadwick had their publication JOURNAL OF TRAVELLER'S AID SOCIETY (Game Designer's Workshop) nominated by Origins for the Best Professional Role-Playing Magazine, 1985.
7) Rich Black of University Park, Illinois, is currently working on a Norman fortress to be used in a dark ages game. He is constructing most of it out of styrofoam and I am quite anxious to see the outcome. This should make for a most interesting game.
8) I have decided that my next big project will be to reconstruct Hougomont in 25mn scale for a convention game. I have already started painting 25nm Napoloenics and have started on the research for the buildings. If anyone has any information regarding size, troops involved, etc., I'd be very interested in seeing it!
9) Lynn Bodin has published A WARGAMER'S GUIDE TO THE BOXER REBELLION through Frontier Miniatures and Tony Adams published MEXICO, 1861-1867 through the same company. I feel such publications, as Frontier is turning out, serve a real need to the wargaming community and MWAN subscriber Atley Turner of Frontier, deserves our thanks for doing so! Frontier Miniatures, 7343 Branding Iron, Canutillo, Texas, 79835.
10) MWAN members who have published elsewhere recently: Tony Adams, "Solving Some Problems With Colonials", HELIOGRAPH, #35. Wally Simon, "Brits N' Chips", "A Presentation at Historicon", PW REVIEW, July, 86; "A Set of Rules for the Seven Years War", "Some Thoughts on a Seven Years War Set of Rules" PW Review, June, 86. Terry Gore, "The Use of the Standard in Dark Ages Warfare", & "A Dark Ages English Army List 600 A.D.-950 A.D." SAGA, June-July, 86. Hal Thinglum, "Single Figure Based Dark Ages Wargaming", SAGA, June-July,86. Howard Whitehouse, "Sabugal", MINIATURE WARGAMES, #37. "Meanwhile, At the Camel Market", SAVAGE & SOLDIER, AprilJune, 1986. Paul Hinson,"Guantanamo", SAVAGE S SOLDIER, April-June, 1986. Andy Dumelow, "Dark Age SkirmishingIn Larger Numbers", THE MAGAZINE FOR WARGAMERS, #15; "Ghosts in the Machine", #16.
(Editor's Note: MWAN NEWS is intended to highlight the activities of subscribers to MWAN, i.e., wargaming, writing, etc. as well as to mention activities of wargaming clubs. If you wish to have something about your gaming activities mentioned in this column, please send me the information, as I don't have access to everything everyone is doing. It is also to recognize special efforts made by MWAN members so if you are aware of any such efforts on the part of others, please let me know.)
11) I have not mentioned the VEDETTE, publication of the Central Illinois Tabletop Warriors (Greg Novak, 618 West Union, Champaign, Illinois, 61820) for a long time although I know they still meet on a monthly basis around central Illinois. Club dues are $10.00 per year and provide members with the right to attend games and also receive THE VEDETTE which in my opinion, contains some quality writing and is edited ably by Greg. Complete rules sets are published at times which are very useful. Greg is not crazy about people subscribing to THE VEDETTE who join only for the newsletter as he feels it is not worth $10.00 to such individuals though I don't agree entirely with him. If possible, it would be good if he could have a separate price for those who only wish to receive the publication. If you live around central Illinois, this is the group to join; active, innovative, and always interesting off-beat periods as well as the standard periods of wargaming!
12) The schedule for the Hospital games (Oak Forest Hospital, 15900 S. Cicero Ave. Oak Forest, Illinois) is as follows: September 12th: Rich Black (Assault on a Norman Keep-25mm) & Pat Kurivial. October 10th: George Miller and Steve Lawrence. (games unknown) and Mike Adams (The Wall). Mike's game will feature his 25mm Romans and should be something to see! He has thousands! November 14th: Jim Torello; John Duffy (25mn Zulus) December 12th: John Hendron (modern armour) I have noted that at our last two hospital games, June & July, the problem of immaturity arose again. I was under the impression we had handled that situation previously but I guess not. It would seem as though there are those amongst us who think they should win every game they play and who are extremely displeased if the dice should go against them. I myself do not attend wargames to listen to cursing and expressed anger, nor do other members. I am sure that other groups have one or two such members in their midst and I guess the best thing to do is to ask them to find another club where their behavior is more acceptable. Hopefully this will take care of the problem as I get no pleasure out of confronting someone on issues such as this.
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© Copyright 1986 Hal Thinglum
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