Have just received MWAN 23 and found a few inspiring pieces amongst its pages as usual. Stuart Asquith's views on "designer wargaming", tolerance and "experts" seem similar to my own, and looking at Hal's comments on SLINGSHOT reviews probably similar to the esteemed Editors as well - could he perhaps expand on this topic (Editor's Note: Not sure what you mean, Andy, please explain and I will be glad to do so). "So you want to open a game store" also rang true. It has never been easy to run a specialized wargaming shop, most I have visited are more usually model shops with a wargaming "section". Although I have no figures to work on I would say there are less specialized shops around these days than there were ten years ago. This is surprising in view of the growth of the hobby over the last decade, but I can think of several that have closed in that period locally to the extent that there are now none within 30 miles of where I live. This may seem a small distance to you well-travelled U.S. gamers, but this area probably covers a population of 200,000 plus. The last specialist shop to open in Burton lasted a mere 13 months before the owner decided to cut his losses and call it a day. Specialist wargames shops are very heavily concentrated in and around London and the South-east of England. It must be a nightmare stocking a retail store - its difficult enough in the second hand business, and I don't have to worry about the overheads of rent and rates, etc. Somebody will always want something you haven't got, and when you order it for them, they are never seen again. Things sell really well during a "craze" so you stock up on them and the craze dies leaving a lot of capital tied up. The retail only man is in a sticky situation with only the trade discount to live on, and the future may be more with the manufacturer-retailer where the possible profit margin is higher. If these manufacturers also do mail order, as most of them seem to, then the friendly neighborhood retailer could really be struggling, The letter from Orv Banasik also interested me, especially the bit on getting new gamers into the hobby. My local club is about to launch something similar to the "Junior Programme" he mentions. A D & D club meets at the same premises on the same night as ourselves, and many have expressed an interest in wargaming, so our club chairman is organizing a beginners course for them. If it has any positive results, I'll let you know - it may be useful for the future, Greg Novak's "B" movie Pacific Island battle also interested me - some of you traditional diehards who may have been interested had better watch out - this is close to role-playing. I am thinking of doing a WWI game at our club with a personal aim for each commander to achieve rather than an overall aim for each side. Again, I'll give details if it comes off. Back in the U.K. there seems to have been a rush of 20mm scale WWII and modern releases. Skytrex (via Hinchliffe) have added more WWII guns and equipment to their range; Firefight have released three Soviet MST's in white metal, and Elite forces and Platoon 20 have released several new figures for modern German, Israeli, Arab, Russian and U.S. forces. Several new companies continue to enter the already competitive 15mm market. Irregular Miniatures have brought out a large Renaissance range, but the most talked about range is probably Battle Honours Napoleonics - though this may be because they talk about themselves a lot! They are nice figures though, and cast in pewter rather than white metal., with plenty of variations in poses and lots of back-up equipment. I haven't seen the Knight Design 2mm figures yet -- I just can't imagine what they would look like. I would have thought it would have been just as easy to use thick card, plasti-card, or wooden blocks of battalion, Division or Corps size and paint it to a suitable color or design, just like the old Kriegspiel blocks. In conversation with some of the traders at recent conventions, it seems like times may be getting a bit tight and some of the shows that were goldmines a year or two ago have slumped sales-wise. Apart from a general recession, one suggestion was that there were too many conventions these days, and perhaps it would be better to have just one convention in each region a year? It may be better for the trade, but I would be very wary of some one or some organization telling clubs it would not be advisable to put on a show at such and such a time or place. Similarly it has been suggested that the National Championships be given a permanent home There would be advantages, but is part of tradition that the winner club has the right to stage the next championship, and it is a tradition I wouldn't like to see changed. Back to MWAN # 25 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1987 Hal Thinglum 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