By Hal Thinglum - GUERNSEY FOUNDRY 25MM SYW - Guernsey Foundry Ltd., La Guelle, Mont Arrive, St Peter Port, Guernsey, GY1 2AA, Channel Islands, G.B. (Phone 01481714241; FAX 01481-714905) has released additional figures to their 25mm Seven Years War line. Included are Prussian Musketeers, Grenadiers and Officers, all in "Pristine Order" (no labels & Prussian Cuffs). There are nine poses for the Musketeers and Grenadiers although the "attack march" pose has five variants. In addition to the attack march pose, there are the following: waving hat, shouting, bandaged eye, firing, NCO attack march & standing, drummer, and fifer. There are eight officers: attack march, doffing hat, colonel, standard bearer, attack march w/head wound, fatality, mounted colonel, and preacher. Other interesting releases include seven mounted Cossacks (with narnes such as "Red Renko") with dismounts, and Freikorps figures in campaign order (five variants of attack march, firing, and advancing; drinking, muffled hat, two NCO's and drummer. They also offer six officers appropriate either for Freikorps or Prussian units and three horses. These are excellent figures measuring 28mm tall (as stated in the advertisement - how's that for truth in advertising?) With very good detail and except for a small bulb at the end of the bayonet - no flash. The lone horse included was very good and I really like all of the figures. The Cossacks are most interesting and would lend themselves to skirmish games quite well. The foot officers are also good; listen to this: Villainous officer w/two pistols; Idealistic young officer waving hat; Cynical officer w/sword; Boy officer. Sounds interesting, don't they! They will soon be coming out with mounted and dismounted Prussian Cuirassiers and Prussian Fusiliers. Prices are .60 pence ($1 in US) with horse at .90 pence ($1.50 in US). For ten of the same model, prices drop to 5.50 pounds or $9. They now have a US distributor: Guernsey Foundry Ltd., 1549 Marview Dr., Westlake, Ohio 44145 (216-871-4587; FAX 216-892-5887). I continue to be impressed with this line. The officer pikes are much better cast than other companies. Impressive stuff and very reasonable prices! Highly recommended!

By Hal Thinglum - ELITE 25MM AMERICAN CIVIL WAR & ACW SKIRMISH RULES H.G. Walls at the Griffon, 121 W. Colfax St., South Bend, Indiana 46601 (219-287-5533) is now carrying the ELITE 25mm ACW line which has been recently released. Available at this time are 16 poses (6 infantry advancing, 2 CSA and 2 USA officers, 2 drummers, 2 NCO's, and 2 standard bearers. These are very good figures being a little tall with some slender poses which I find most attractive. I have four infantry poses advancing in kepis and hats with and w/o blanket rolls, a drummer at the trot, and a standard bearer w/o staff. No flash and nicely posed! Prices are $1.25 each. In total, there are 113 planned releases along with two guns. Listing looks interesting. Drop them a letter with $ 1.00 to cover the cost of a catalogue. Nice stuff indeed! They also offer BROTHER AGAINST BROTHER, an interesting set of ACW skirmish rules ($15.00) written by MWANer Ivor Janci and modified by Lance Kizer and Herb Gundt. Herb reports "Lance and I have been running BROTHER AGAINST BROTHER at conventions for over six years. The rules and games have been so popular that we contacted Ivor Janci about the possibility of having the rules published." They have been written for small skirmishes between company sized units in three to four hours time. 25mm figures are mounted on washers and a company consists of 4-5 squads (one leader with 9 or 10 figures). D 10 dice are used as well as a deck of standard playing cards(to determine movement for individual groups of figures). The rules are short (8 pages) and attractively presented/well-written. There are two pages of laminated morale cards included. A nicely presented product and ideal for 25mm skirmish games for individually mounted figures!

By Hal Thinglum - PIQUET - PIQUET is finally here; multitudes of MWANers can breathe a sigh of relief, judging from the many letters I've received concerning how to obtain a copy of this fascinating rules set by MWANer Bob Jones. Available from PIQUET, INC., 165 Charles St., Vestal, NY, 13850, it takes a path not well, if ever, traveled previously by wargames rules. The system comes in sections: a "How To Play Piquet" 37 minute video tape ($9.95) narrated by Bob Jones, which I found very helpful in understanding the rules concepts; "Les Grognards" - the Napoleonic Supplement covering 1790-1820 ($39.95 for game w/master rules; $19.95 for supplement alone); "Cartouche" - SYW, AWI & Marlborough (1690-1790) supplement ($19.95); "Hallowed Ground" - ACW (1861 -71) supplement ($ 19.95); and "Din of Battle" - 19th C. Colonial Supplement (1850-1914) for $19.95.

The "Master Rules" contains the booklet "Master Rules for Wargaming", a 39-page effort covering a synopsis of play, basic game conventions, creating an army, army characterizations, card generated army characteristics, command, movement, combat, morale, adjustment tables, stratagems, appendixes, and designer notes; six special dice of various values; three sets of well done cards for game play; a caliper for measuring distances (I like this!); cardboard accessories for time measurement; metal chits; and one "Piquet" player aid (cardstock) for the game. The different sized dice are used depending upon the situation a unit finds itself in. For example, a unit may start out with a regularly assigned eight sided die by which it may perform actions, but dependent upon the situation or morale factors, it may use larger or smaller sized dice to perform the action it wishes to carry out. 

The card system is very interesting and holds much potential, I believe. The number of type of cards a player holds is key to this game apparently as is the "initiative" and "impetus" factors. The opposing players each roll a D20 and the difference between the two dice is your "impetus" or the number of cards you can turn over and actions you can take with your units. In 25mm, the scale the rules were written for(though instructions are given for using 15mm figures), 1 " = 25 yards while in 1 Smm 1 " = 40 yards. One figure equals 40-60 men while one gun equals a section of artillery. A 3-figure stand equals 120-180 foot while one turn equals 30 minutes. Armies do not need to be mounted to the Piquet mounting system. Definitely worth a long look and I'll be very interested to see what MWANers think of this system after trying it! Good luck, Robert!

By Hal Thinglum - WARGAMES FOUNDRY NEW RELEASES - WARGAMES FOUNDRY, "The Foundry", Mount Street, New Basford, Nottingham, NG7 7HX, UK (0602792002; FAX 0602-792209) has released a number of new items. First of all, Dacians AD85-106 for frontier fighting on the Danube in the 80's to the two Dacian wars against Rome in AD101102 and AD105-106. There are 24 Dacian infantry including Chiefs, standard bearers, warriors, and archers, including a wounded and dead figure (great for morale markers in wargames!) as well as 10 cavalry, four horses, a Dacian bolt thrower and a wounded warrior being aided by a comrade. The bolt thrower features two crew.

The figures themselves, of course, are outstanding - what else would we expect from WARGAMES FOUNDRY? One of the cavalry is two piece split at the waist to allow for some variation in pose. Although some figures have cast-on shields, many require shields which are available separately(FRS l l code). They offer a set of Dacian figures comprising 24 foot, 10 cavalry, four Kontos, 7 Roman Auxillary spears, 13 cavalry shields, five light horses, five heavy horses, the bolt thrower, and the wounded warrior assisted by comrade for 35 poundsUK/38 pounds US (both postpaid). Also newly available are Austrian Uhlans - officer, standard bearer, trumpeter, and two lancers, one with assorted head positions along with three differently posed horses. I guess I have to say I like the Napoleonic figures best but then this period always appeals to me! Beautiful figures! I often think how nice it would be to have some of these painted up for my of fice at work - will have to do that someday. Lastly, there are 20mm Arab/Israeli War Arabs which can be used as Syrians and Egyptians. There are ten Arabs including an NCO and nine troopers with AK47's, MG's SMG's, and RPG7 rocket launcher as well as two Egyptian Assault Troops with AK47's. Figures are .60p each and nicely done! An interesting period - has anyone done any gaming in this period or planning to do so?

Also new from THE FOUNDRY are additions to the China 1839-1900 line consisting oftwo Taiping infantry, two Miaou tribesmen, a Nein cavalryman, and civilian, as well as two British Kings Dragoon Guards (officer and trooper) and a Canton Coolie Corps consisting of two bearers walking with bagge on bamboo pole (2.25 pounds). Also newly released are Canaanite and Nubian civilians with men, women, farmer/miner digging, tribute bearer, policeman w/baboon (.70 pence each). Brand new is THE SEA PEOPLE 1200BC-lOOOBC line which covers various Mediterranean tribes including Sherden(9), Peleset(l l), Tjeckker, Denyen, Ekwesh(6), Weshwesh, Lukka, Shekdesh(3), and Teresh(3) in 25mm; many need separate shields and spears. These tribes all fought the Egyptians, Hittites and Libyans. All highly recommended - beautiful figures, as usual!

By Hal Thinglum - NEW RELEASES FROM SIMTAC - SIMTAC, 15-G Colton Rd., East Lyme, CT 06333 (860-739-3609) sent three packs of 1/300th scale aircraft from COLLECTAIR. First of all, there are two Boomerang ($5.50) aircraft; two Makajim Ki-84's ($5.50); and a "huge" B- 176 Flying Fortress ($11.00). Very well done models and I can see why so many gamers are interested in 1/300th aircraft! They also sent a copy of RED SUN/BLUE SKY - Aerial Combat in the Pacific and South East Asia 1938-42 by MWANer John Stanoch who states "Red Sun, Blue Sky introduces a number of new rules and refinements to the core set of rules as seen in the previous Battle of Britain rules set." They are intended for use with 1/285th, 1/300th and 1/432 scale aircraft; planes move on a hex grid (30mm); each model equals one aircraft and one turn equals 1.7 seconds. In addition to the rules, John offers many scenarios as well as ship charts. Looks very interesting. John has reported he will be sending MWAN some scenarios and I'll be looking forward to seeing them! How about some articles on wargaming with aircraft?

By Hal Thinglum - BROOKHURST HOBBIES NEW RELEASES - From our friends at BROOKHURST HOBBIES, 12188 Brookhurst St., Garden Grove, CA 92840 (714-636-3580; FAX 714-636-9150) come a number of interesting new releases from the UK! Firstly, from 1ST CORPS~ come 25mm ACW workmen (6 figures for $6.75), an interesting set with one figure drinking from canteen, one wiping brow, carrying boxes, and holding tools. Very helpful to more periods than the ACW, I would think! Now, my favorites from 1ST CORPS - WWII 25mm figures! Listen to this - ST1 Cross of Iron, Steiner & Squad in attack on mortar position (6 figures for $13.50)! Outstanding! All of the movie characters are here and beautifully done! German aiming sniper rifle; Steiner w/cap and SMG; radioman w/SMG; the German in woolen cap who never washed - outstanding stuff, my good friends! Wait, there's more! ST2 Cross of Iron Steiner in smock w/Russian SMG ($2.25) - fantastic figure! Rus1 Russian infantry standing (3 for $4.50) two with rifles, one with SMG; one in cap, two in helmets and rolled blanket rolls. For you British players, there's PBT12 British paratrooper command (3 for $4.50) with three great officer figures - one pointing with umbrella! This 25mm WWII line continues to grow and tempts me greatly, as you can tell! Highly recommended! From OUTPOST WARGAMES SERVICES come 15mm pewter Franco-Prussian War French Line infantry, Zephirs, Foreign Legion, and Regiments de Marche at $11.98 per pack of 50 figures. These are nicely done figures and I like the fact that they are done in pewter.

The proposed line for the FPW period is extremely extensive! I look forward to seeing more of their releases for this period in the future. Also from OUTPOST is 20mm Korean War figures USA2 - US riflemen moving and CC2 Communist Chinese riflemen moving (five figures per pack for $3.75) in different poses. Thus far there are eight US packs and an additional eight Chinese packs. Now, this could be a real interesting period - can you picture Pork Chop Hill being done in 20mm with these figures? Very nicely done stuff! OUTPOST has also released an extensive line of 15mm, 20mm and 25mm flags (6-15mm flags for $5) encompassing 15mm and 25mm Napoleonics in Russia, Austrians, and Peninsular British and French; 15mm & 25mm ACW; and 20mm WWII and Russian Revolution. Nicely done color! Glue must be used with the flags. Lastly, there are 20mm DREW'S MILITIA - RUS1 Early Russian infantry 1939-40 (five figures for $4.25) and POAI Russian Liberation Army, German Allies all excellently done! Also from Daisho Publications, they are offering The Ii ($15.98), a book of Samurai heros by Martin Jones, a 44-page MWANsized publication offering a history of the Ii Clan complete with color illustrations of flags and uniforms!

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