From Curt Murff of Mokena, IL: I am working on some interesting projects for customers and myself a town of 20 modular, European buildings in 15mm scale, with ruins and lift off roofs for WWII battles, a AWI/F&IW square modular wooden stockade fort with blockhouse and buildings, 36" on a side, WWI trench modules in 25-28mm scale, a large table corner hill with a road and artillery emplacement in 25mm, 15 and 25mm entrenchments, and the finishing touches on my much too large 25mm Fort Duquesne (F&IW). The Fort Duquesne model is based on two 4' x 8' sheets, and is complete with a surrounding stockade, glacis, and ditch, with river banks on two sides. The structure is a bastioned, foursquare fort walled in combination with two sides earthen filled timber and two sides made of stockadoes. One of the bastions contains tile powder room. There are eight buildings inside the fort and two more on the raveling, and a small settlement of four cabins outside the stockade walls. All have lift off roofs. The fort model follows historical and contemporary drawings. There are also two more 4'x 8' terrain squares that are used as approaches to the fort. They are designed to be used set back from the fort panels for movement access. They have a referencing system along the edge to facilitate movement from these panels to the fort panels. One of these panels has a resin cast, river/stream approximately 5' long, with a small log dam near where it would "empty" into the Allegheny river. That was done to allow me to build a stream with some depth and some submerged logs and rocks, instead of just a babbling brook. Both panels have steep hills along tile outside edge with a rough road and a few paths descending between the cliffs and steep slopes. These were made are to represent the topography of the Western Pennsylvania as it was during the F&l period, and to be also used for other areas. In the future I plan to make two more of these large panels to mate with the current ones, to use for other games in forested, rough terrain. I guess I have been breathing too many pa nt fames, huh? I can explain the depth of my interest (obsession?) only through the fact that I grew up traveled around, and know well, the area where all this history occurred (Fort Duquesne, Fort Pitt, Bushy Run, Fort Necessity, Braddock's ambush, Fort Robedeau, the Ohio River Valley, Fort Ligonier, etc.).
From William L. Hogan of Tampa: HMGS-SOUTH has undertaken an ambitious project designed to bring Military History into the schools. HMGS- South is exploring the possibility of combining efforts with a group of retired West Point Graduates to teach military history and military tactics in our local schools. Our goal would be to prepare teaching packages that include figures, rules, terrain and other playing aids. We would identify perhaps three historical eras to game in, pick simple rules sets, train the volunteers and go out to schools to offer lectures. The eras discussed were the American War of Independence, The Civil War and World War II. Any gamer willing to help with the donation of 15mm figures would be greatly appreciated. We would appreciate receiving any figures from these periods especially painted figures. Barring that we would get local painters to paint the figures and construct the play kits. Thank you for forwarding our request. We will keep MWAN posted on our efforts and outcome. If anyone would like to offer painting services, painted figures, financial resources or just plain advice, just contact me at the above address.
I also read your comments on using 1/40th scale models with the new ranges of 25mm WWII figures. There are still some collectors kits out there of Revell and Renwal manufacturer. However these are few and far between and the WWII issues are severely limited. The Revell Company made an American cargo truck that may be useful but it is actually more appropriate for the Korean War. Only purists may balk at this. However I found they do not scale well with the figures and with the more commercially available Fuman 1/48, now going on sale in many places. Scrounging up a 1/40 scale model may be very difficult. Many modelers may remember the 1/40 scale lines as most of the figures looked like they just had open heart surgery. Generally the men were cast with a huge sink hole in their chest. Usually the fit of the kit parts was bad on most of these kits. Appropriately, this scale was considered an orphan in the industry, although there were several very interesting kits made which are now really worth money on the collectors circuit.
You mentioned a concern regarding the casualty categories in skirmish gaming. You stated that you didn't like the wide range of consequences which could occur if a figure was "Hit. This is cumbersome on a per figure basis, especially when one is used to pushing hundreds of figures around a table and removing entire stands. However if you only have about 50 figures on the board you need something to fill up the time. All games do this somehow. otherwise just flip a coin to see who wins. The difference is, how much detail do you think is fun? Even in Buck Surduls very simplified Skirmish Rules "Beer and Pretzel Skirmish" (BAPS) he has three categories, light wound (1 wound) Heavy wound (2 wounds) and Killed, this can still be considered cumbersome to some. If you figure that after a person is wounded the second time he is probably combat ineffective you could just remove him from the board. If, as an important part of the scenario, you want wounded men to contribute to the process of disrupting the squad and further removing combat effective men from the game, leave them on the table. Because now somebody has to take care of the wounded, which leaves wounded men staggering around the battle field looking for help or the way out. The sight of wounded men may also affect tnoral.
In some scenarios I have medic figures. I added a red cross smock to appropriate figures and they tend the wounded. Each turn a wounded figure has contact with a medic you subtract one wound. These sub actions are some of the things which make skirmish game much more fun. It's just a different level of play.
The range of casualty consequences makes the gamer think more about the value of each figure. If you only have one team of say six figures you start to think in terms of protecting each figure not each stand. The game becomes more than just bringing everyone up to a firing line and banging away. When you add in a lot of hidden movement, weapons variety and multiple morale categories the game gets much more complicated, and fun. Like any game once you learn it, it either becomes more fun as the pace quickens or you decide you don't like the (pick one) game, scale, period, game master, or level of play.
From Kevin Killian of Bloomington. MN: Just received MWAN 88. What a blessing to have it in my hands one day before my vacation. I shall be making my Historicon shopping list from it. Of all the periodicals I receive, MWAN is the best, for it has the right balance of ads, letters, rules and reviews without all the Fluff. On the figure horizon I plan on purchasing and working on Franco-Prussian 6mm for Johnny Reb. By going with a 15 to I ratio instead of the 30 to 1 should provide a scenic effect. Has any MWANer developed a modification of Johnny Reb for Crimean or Franco- Prussian? If they have drop me a line. The other purchase will be 1/285 and 1/700 scale for WWII Air. Since I cannot decide which scale is more playable, I will have to do both. Our ACW group is still going strong with Johnny Reb 3 and doing a prototype Eastern Theater campaign game from June 15. 1863 Through July 10. Robert E Lee split his forces sent A P Hill south to dig in at Richmond and the rest of the army just took Harrisburg PA. Although this great strategic success was greatly reduced due to the death of Robert E Lee. The best quote last week was from Dave Page who stated "Scott for $ 10, I won't kick your ass tonight" Unfortunately for Dave, he didn't get the money, and his troops died on the road to Richmond.
My own 25mm ACW, 15mm ACW and 25mm Amazon projects are slowly coming along. Have just received some of the new
Ral Partha 25mm mounted Amazons and they are the best Babes I have seen from a figure manufacture. The 25mm ACW are based using a miniature hot glue gun onto a washer. If you ever need to rebase; it is very easy to pry off the figure that has been hot glued. The ACW 25mm uses a mixture of Old Glory, Wargame Foundry, and Dixon-, while the ACW 15mm uses Old Glory, Battle Honors, Mining, Musket, and Frontier figures. Now all I need is a few years to paint the 10,000 or so figures in my basement.
From Jerry Lannigan of Calverton! NY: Congratulations on several fine issues in a row. Two jobs and a rising number of elder care issues arising with my parents have constricted my hobby time drastically but I did want to write and let other fellow MWAN readers know that even when a gamer is not terribly active in the hobby there are always sources of joy that seem to make everything look just a little better. Here are some things that have given. me a great deal of pleasure since the last time I wrote. They're in no particular order.
First, letters from Chris. This may sound strange but as a result of something you published for me last year, I now have a great pen-pal. This has allowed us to share a myriad of ideas, points of view, books we've read, and even to allow me to share in a wonderful campaign he's running. We've never met personally but ours is a friendship that is truly something to be valued. His is a voice of reasonableness and good fun and it never ceases to amaze how a hobby can bring people of diverse backgrounds together.
Second, the Magweb. This is an outstanding resource for those fortunate enough to have a computer or computer access. For those readers not familiar with this resource, it is a web-site which for a relatively little amount of money allows a gamer to view magazines and articles from literally dozens of sources. MWAN, The Zouave, The Courier, and Age of Napoleon are but a few of the magazines available. My only concern is that the Magweb might actually bring magazines into conflict with themselves. Why would I want to subscribe to journals available for a nominal price on the web?
Third, the Internet. Despite its detractors, AOL has become an almost indispensable resource for my wargarning. There are several cyber-zines with an exclusive wargaming focus and any number of news groups such as Histoire Napoleonique which are a conduit for discussion news, opinion, and even occasionally, a stray fact or two. During the past few weeks I have greatly enjoyed E-mail contacts with people out in the many places where garners dwell - Australia, the UK & Italy. Sometimes I'm simply replying to questions from young guys who need information - uniform details, references, painting techniques, or opinions about game systems. The neat thing is that most of them reply with a word of thanks. Who says the age of civility is over?
Fourth, gaming at the hobby shop. Every two or three weeks this summer I run a different historical game at the local hobby shop. Long a haven for Warhammer 40K, many of the players have never actually seen an historical game. So sure, Robin Hood never really protected Maid Marion from Vikings, but what the heck? I made sure I had good looking terrain, enough commands with differing objectives, plenty of figures and simple rules. The gang played with a set taken from the Net entitled A Bad End. I kept a neutral position and acted as the gamesmaster to sort out some unanticipated questions. No one complained of being bored and there were lots of laughs - isn't this what the hobby is supposed to be about? We've run The Raid on Bir el-Boobi as a play test for Historicon '97 and will be running a Battalions in Crisis demo in two weeks.
Fifth, developing a demo game for Historicon. This has been going on since Cold Wars. A friend of mine, Marty Baber, asked if I would work with him in developing a game concerning the activities of the Long Range Desert Group for Historicon. Long distance phone calls and three play tests later, we think we constructed something worth playing by people traveling a distance to a gaming convention. The beautiful figure painting and scenery design Marty is capable of made this truly a no-brainer for me. I hope some MWAN readers visit our game.
Sixth, reading MWAN. This has the virtue of being the best magazine currently in the hobby as well as being a forum for two of my favorite writers, Fr. Glidden and Rich Barbuto. Father Glidden's work always serves to remind me that the focus of our hobby should be the pleasure we find in being with people while we play. Rich Barbuto has helped me look at the other side of our hobby - the pleasure to be derived by the intellectual exercises we associate with solo-gaming. And lest I forget our editor, Hal, I just want you to know that your editorials have always been the first thing I read when I open MWAN
Seventh, Lancashire Games. The company has managed to do what all the other WWII companies haven't done to date - offer figure ranges for some of the other countries such as Greece, Hungary, Bulgaria and China which everyone else has eschewed. The amazing thing is their volume, literally hundreds of different figures in about a year. No, the sculpting quality is not quite up to FAA or SHQ standards but there is one great advantage. The figures advertised are always available. I learned to deal direct with the Manufacturer in the UK using a credit card. Amazingly, his turn around time is better than any US company with which I've dealt in the past year. During the spring, as an example, I ordered about a hundred or so figures on Monday from a certain large firm in California and the following day ordered a similar quantity from Lancashire. Yes, you guessed it. The foreign airmail order arrived the following Monday, California on Tuesday.
Eighth, painting. Learning how to use black priming and dry brushing has noticeably improved the quality of what I do. After twenty years or so of painting figures, I'm still at it still learning.
Ninth, fighting Pickett's Charge with my miniatures at school with the eighth graders I teach. Girls and boys, my colleagues, even the Principal got involved. The refight was played on a twelve foot long table with about a thousand 25mm figures. Great fun and I think the kids actually understood what happened to ole George Pickett that day.
Tenth, dealing with Hap Jordan. Hap is a friend who happens to own BataillenFeuer Games and is producing a magnificent range of 20mm 7YW figures. If you have any interest at all in the period, these figures are well worth investigating. Hap is a true gentleman, veteran gamer, and retired teacher who has given nothing but the most professional and considerate treatment to me when providing service. I hope to play in or at least see his massive demo game at Historicon. (Editor's Note: Thanks for your kind remarks, Jerry; enjoyed your letter!)
From Leo Brewer of Decatur. IL: Sounds like the SYW has really taken off with you. I would like to see a cover picture of this on MWAN at some future date. It also seems that the 20mm ACW figures has a hold on you. Stan and I was thinking of going to 20's, but we are looking at 1 5's now. The range and the way that all of the figures fits together is better.
We did play a WW I I game a couple of weeks ago. Used some new " fast rules " from England. Very different. The unit fired as a whole. This way you could have large games without a lot of rules. This had a lot of holes as far as I'm concerned. The rules has no difference for light, medium or heavy machine guns, no bonus for automatic rifles or hand held machine pistols. The hand held anti-tank was worse yet. They said that the range was 6". Yet the bazooka was allowed to fire up to 8" while the panzerschreck was allowed to fire up to 6". On the tanks rules, you had light and heavy damage besides being destroyed.
I'm glad that Mr. Perry is doing well after his accident. It's great to know that people can change and improve after such a loss.
In regards to the 15mm fences and stone walls for the ECW period, how about checking out the selection from " Musket Miniatures " or " TCS I think that Musket Miniatures makes both of these for there ACW range.
From Charles Elsden of Brooklyn. New York: Hello from a new subscriber (starting with Issue #86; through on Military Matters in New Jersey) but an old gamer. The unusual thing about me is that I game full battles, not skirmishes, with 54mm plastic figures on a 5' x 9' table. In just the last few years the cottage industry producing Big Scale toy soldiers has transformed itself from a few manufacturers reissuing mostly Marx playact figures for collectors into a dynamic new field producing figures, vehicles, terrain, etc. in many periods. The combination of reissue and new production makes this scale available for wargaming for the first time since the 1960s. We are now in the Second Golden Age of Toy Soldiers. Yet, because little of this new product appears in stores, many know nothing about it.
Enclosed is an article covering this new era f or your readers. Feel free to use it. I assume you can't pay for articles, but let me know if you do. Over the years I have placed or am currently placing articles/letters in hobby magazines old and new like CAMPAIGN and THE WARGAMER (gone now), WHITE DWARF, PLASTIC FIGURE AND PLAYSET COLLECTOR and TOY SOLDIERS AND COLLECTIBLES (new) . This piece is offered in return for the pleasure I got out of my first MWAN. I wonder if there is still a "Midwestern Wargames Association" as such--you seem to be the national sounding board for the hobby. The rest of the magazines I've seen appear to be British.
As a relative outsider/newcomer, the article I'd like to see most would be a listing of available rules systems by period and where to get them, with review comments. As it is, I'm learning piecemeal.
You've already given me the phone number of the local club, so I thank you. Hello to the old Atlanta group (see article). I hope my contribution proves informative and entertaining to your readers. (Editor's Note: Actually, Charley, MWAN started out life as a "Midwestern " publication, but over the years, has changed to a "national " scope )
From Preston Buck of Corning. NY: I just wanted to drop you a quick note to say how much I enjoy MWAN. The improvement since I first subscribed just 2 years ago has been tremendous! The covers are arresting. And inside is just as enjoyable.
I have only been playing miniatures for about 5 years now and don't get to play that often, maybe 4 or 5 games a year. So I don't have any brilliant ideas for new games or anything like that to contribute. In fact my only painted units are a pair of DBA armies (Romans & Gauls - but they look good). That doesn't mean I don't have a bunch of lead and pewter laying around, but I am still a beginner.
Being a beginner, MWAN has been the most useful source of wargaming information that I have found. The letters section is a treasure trove of useful ideas. Brother Glidden is always interesting. By golly, I just like the whole thing. Of the issues I have, my favorite issue is the terrain issue you did several years ago. I think the issue was #8 that I got as a back issue. Wow. Terrain was one of the more difficult things for me to figure out but not after reading that issue. Tons of ideas there. My next difficulty to overcome is scenario generation. I haven't quite figured out how to convert a chapter in a history book into a fun game, so for now I stick with published scenarios. Eventually somebody will write an article about scenario design and you will publish it. Then my problems will be finding some opponents. I am working on my daughters. Anyway, I wanted you to know that I appreciate the time, money and energy you spend on publishing MWAN. Thank you. (Editor's Note: Thanks very much, Preston, for your remarks re MWAN; I'm glad you enjoy itl)
From Ed Allen of Berkely. CA: I have been pretty busy with gaming stuff lately. Playtesting with Guy Alcala Tony Valle's new Birds of Prey boardgame, which should be the "real physics" successor to The Speed of Heat and Air Superiority. In the last game, I already had some 1/285 Vietnam era jets out for depicting the situation with bigger hexes than the counters use. Tony's playtest versions are up on the web, but unfortunately, my browser is balky tonight, so I don't have the address ready to type in. On my own website, Ed's Hobby Hovel at http://tetrad.stanford.edul my latest projects have been putting up my own version of clay monster combat rules, Monster Mash, and scanning in a lot of Zulu War and Second Afghan War pictures from the Illustrated London News and The Graphic for the Horse and Musket Page. I also scanned in a bunch of the news dispatches from the wars, and will have those uploaded pretty soon. The Wargame opponent Finder database on my site continues to grow, with about 3700 people signed up, and email rolling in every so often, usually with update requests, with people telling me they are finding new people local to them via the Opp Finder. I'm also slowly revising and expanding my Rencounter skirmish rules to be found at the site. When they are done, I'll send you a copy for MWAN. In the meantime people can look at them on the web. Elsewhere on the web, I've been spending a lot of time reading Magweb, getting good use from my subscription, the only thing I actually pay money for on the web.
We have been playing a fair amount of Rencounter in among other games in Berkeley in the past few months. Some in the Saturday night sessions at Eric Rauscher's or my house, some at The Art of War, Fritz Gerring's store in Oakland, one year old now, devoted to miniatures gaming. Fritz stocks about half Games Workshop and such to keep the doors open and about half Old Glory, Essex, and various other lines of historicals. He's moved into a bigger space and now has three tables for gaming every Saturday and Sunday afternoon and many weekdays. I had a really good time playing in Stan Kubiak's Aerodrome game the last time I was there for a full Saturday, dying once and then getting in two kills, my victories reported between games with great glee by my own little propaganda minister, David, age 6. Anyone gaming in or visiting the San Francisco Bay Area will find it a worthwhile visit.
The Saturday night group is getting into 15mm WWII, mostly using the Old Glory stuff, and 15mm Napoleonics lately. The rules are Kerry's Hanscom's Halfast, a descendent of the Fast Rules set for the WWII, that Kerry used to play with the Guidon Games group way back when, and Rusty's Rules for our first Napoleonics game with more than a skirmish game's worth of figures on the table. We'll probably try out Shako pretty soon too. Kerry also ran us through a 1/700 game of MTBs vs Japanese sub chasers that was a lot of fun.
I'm doing my usual scattershot painting, Foundry Old West, Prussians and Cossacks (just finished the first batch of 28 of the latter, matched pairs of mounted and foot for skirmishing) predominate, with a regiment of Old Glory 1 5mm Austrians getting final touches in between and various odds and sods of ancients, SF, fantasy, ACW ships and whatnot all getting some attention in the past few months. Unless I'm working up a batch for a convention or a tournament, I don't stay too focused in my painting. It's a good thing I like skirmish games where you don't need too many of the same thing.
My bigger project lately has been constructing terrain, some Styrofoam SF ruins and desert hills and mesas carved out of blueboard foam and plastered with the sheetrock compound leftover from my mammoth Spring project, insulating and sheetrocking my gaming space to make it more habitable year round. I've been using a lot of the Woodland Scenics scenery stain paint in the squirt bottles over white latex, plain plaster, or plain white
Styrofoam for both the desert and the ruins. I'm very happy with the results, especially with the last couple pieces where I've learned to really carve out the rocks. I'm also slowly building up a western town, making scratchbuilt buildings to supplement a start with the ERTL Cowtown set, one of the great buys for 25mm gainers. The scratchbuilt adobes are doing double duty with the Mexicans and the Afghans/Pathans.
We sent the Cossacks to their first brooding last Saturday, a victory (always a good omen for newly painted figures) in a Rencounter game against Foundry Afghans standing in for Uzbeks. Eric got his Cossacks stuck in to us Uzbeks fighting in village buildings while John Carnahan's bunch stuck to business and made off with a loaded cart of plunder, three camels, and three of the Uzbek folk, burning down the Hetman's house for good measure. Kerry, Britt, and I played the home team.
From Kenn Hart of Ripon. North Yorkshire. UK: Quite a while back, I received a parcel from the USA in which was the master set plus supplementary sets of PIQUET. There was not a covering letter, note or any communication so I was somewhat baffled! After some thought I decided to use the Solo Wargamers Association Advisers as guinea pigs for this new set of rules because I was up to my eyes in college work. So I sent them off to our Napoleonic Adviser who found them "interesting" but decided to stick to his home made rules - well that's soloists for you. I next moved the rules on to the ACW Adviser who up until then had been a Fire & Fury man. No more, he has turned his coat and now is well into Piquet and I am waiting for a review from him plus another member who has tried them out for me. With only one set of main rules it is difficult and slow to get a measured response from the guys but we will plod on. I am trying to get details of how to purchase the rules, supplements etc in the LTK because to purchase direct from the States only makes the money changers richer. We believe we have tracked Bob Jones down via the Internet and if so will probably get the information I need before publishing details in Lone Warrior 120.
On the same subject please inform Ed Meyers, jr. (MWAN 87, p 110) that PIQUET is a card game for two persons even in England and I for one had thought that Bob Jones had used for his title the forward troops or sentries of an army, which is PICKET.
SCOOP! Was in York yesterday and dropped into Village Green to see Steve Weeks. He was up to the rafters in work and casually mentioned he was selling the business and moving onto pastures new! Could have been tempted myself but the timing is wrong as I start a degree course at university in September. If anyone is interested Steve's address is in most copies of MWAN or Lone Warrior-
My Samurai army(s) have grown from 1 5mm into 25mm with the introduction of Village Greens "Bush)" (early samurai) and the Road to Osaka skirmish rules by Nick Walker. Does not mean the 15mm guys have been neglected, well they have for a while, but I am making a determined effort to at least paint the ones I've got before I get more at Edinburgh or Harrogate in early August. So better get on with it.
From Christopher Salander of Santa Clara. CA Re: New HMGS Chapter in California. I am pleased to announce the formation of the 12th chapter of the Historical Miniatures Gaming Society, called HMGS West. We will cover central and northern California. We have two conventions a year. Wargarnes West on Memorial Day weekend in the east Bay Area, and Western Front in early November in Modesto. Our newsletter, Battlefield, comes out four times a year. If you want more information about our organization, please contact me.
From Christopher Roberts of Los Gates, CA: My friend Jay Viacava and I have been playing DBA for about 2 years now. I, unfortunately for gaming right now, have moved to the Bay Area from Carlsbad but that is another story. We have seen all sorts of suggestions in this and other magazines for modifying DBA. All these suggestions were very worthwhile and many we adopted. Out of all these suggestions, we have never seen this one. This modification centers around the concept of recoil. For those unfamiliar with these rules, a recoil is when a unit suffers a combat loss which is great enough to push the unit back but not destroy the unit.
In a contest between a Roman Blade unit and one unit (two stands) of Greek Pikes (phalanx) the most likely result is a recoil. In DBA as written' penalty is described for a recoil. We believe that a recoil represents a combat loss for the unit that was pushed back. A recoil represents some combat losses as well as a level of disorganization. To this end, we feel that a the pushed back unit should be minus one during the next phase of combat.
THE ONE PARAGRAPH THAT MATTERS: DBA is a "your turn my turn" game. If the recoil occurred in your turn then the - I would be in effect during my turn. If the unit that recoiled is not in combat or wins the combat in that turn then the minus goes away. If the unit is forced to recoil again, the minus remains (no cumulative - minus one is pretty devastating in this game). This minus Is cumulative with all the other DBA pluses and minuses.
To mark the unit that recoiled, we put a small piece of pea gravel, agate, non neon aquarium gravel behind the unit. That unit has been "rocked".
This is a lot of writing for a simple modification but I wanted to make it as dear as possible.
For such a small modification, this change has brought a lot more realism into our games. For example, take a line of legionnaires (5 stands of Blades) versus a Greek phalanx (6 stands of Pikes, two ranks deep so a frontage of 3 stands). The phalanx plows into the legionnaires (to avoid the flanking bonus the Romans would get in their turn-Hey it Is a game). While it is possible for the pikes to destroy a blade unit, the most likely result is recoil. For demonstration purposes, lets go win, draw, lose down the Greek line resulting in an arrangement that looks something like this:
| Blade-1 | ||||
| Blade | Blade | Blade | Blade | |
| . | Pike | Pike | ||
| Pike | Pike | Pike- 1 | ||
| Pike |
Using our modification, the Roman must choose whether or not to throw the "rocked" Blade back into the line or fall back and regroup on the shaken unit(needing 4 PIP's for that) and whether of not to follow up on the victory on their (Roman) left.. This adds a flavor to the battle beyond pushing figures. Many is the time I should have regrouped instead of seeing red and chasing down an enemy and breaking my line into pieces.
As another note (and our interpretation of UK English), a unit that is hit in the flank and forced to turn to face this attack is at a minus one. We also "rock" this unit to show that it has suffered a level of disorganization.
The only other modifications we have taken from "Wargames Illustrated" were to halve the command control range to 6 inches and to double bow range to for inches. We had started to look at allowing horse archers to shoot ( I am building a Parthian army) when I moved.
This has really added to our games. The outcomes of the battles are plausible and have a better "feel" or tactics that should work, do and those that shouldn't, don't. We hope you will try this and find it as enjoyable and frustrating as we did.
As another note, I am writing up a report for MWAN of a campaign based on an article in "Wargames Illustrated" called "Hannibal Ad Portas (Hannibal at the Gates) using the DBA rules to adjudicate the battles.
From Robert M. Epstein of Shawnee. KS: I have a pet peeve that I wish to discuss. This is not about MWAN at all, but about the packaging of commercial military miniatures. The bulk of my painted Napoleonic armies consists of 15 mm. figures made by Minifigs (50%), Battle Honors (45%), Imperial (4%), Old Glory and Essex (1%). I consider the figures cast by Battle Honors and Imperial to be the best cast figures. The horses for Old Glory and Essex are poor. Riders don't sit well on Old Glory horses, and the bases for the figures are usually too small.
Among the reasons that most of my collection consists of Battle Honors and Minifigs is because of the packaging and its relative price. Minifigs have 24 infantry figures and 8 cavalry figures to a pack, all with command figures. My armies have 24 figure infantry regiments and 8 figure cavalry regiments, so they match very well with Minifigs. Battle Honors are harder to match because they often do not include infantry command figures, or horses with their cavalry packs. Therefore my Allied armies, which are mostly Battle Honors, are a bit more eclectic than my predominately French Minifigs army. I am pleased that Battle Honors is starting to include command and horses in their packs, however Battle Honors has erred by trying to follow Old Glory in their packaging, and I think Minifigs may be doing the same.
Among the major reasons I don't like Old Glory is the packaging and corresponding pricing. The log figure infantry packs and 30 figure cavalry packs at $18.50 a pop are too much both numerically and financially. I don't know about other war gainers, but I built my army unit by unit, creating mixed divisions of infantry, cavalry, and artillery, each of which could be had for an investment of $30-$40. The problem with Old Glory is that I have bags of left over figures. I have bought a total of 7 bags of Old Glory over the last two years and it was money ill spent. I bought those bags because I wanted some specific commanders or types of units, such as Lancers or Austrian artillery, and could not find any alternative brands at the local game stores. So I have the few figures that I needed, but I have bags of figures that I will never use. I really wish that Battle Honors, Imperial, and even Old Glory would copy the Minifigs method of packaging. I hope that Minifigs do not abandon their packaging system to copy Old Glory.
Spending almost $20.00 for more figures than I will ever need is a real turn-off and a problem for gainers, especially kids who have limited funds. For example, a young friend of mine decided to get into the hobby. He loved Scotland and decided he wanted highland units. The only figures available were Old Glory highlanders. The problem was that he had to buy 100 highland infantry $18.50. For practically any game system this represented more highlanders than there were in the British army! My friend has painted a few Highland battalions, but still has a big bag of unpainted highlanders that he will never use, and he still had to spend hard earned money for cavalry and artillery to get a balanced force. He also wanted Scots Greys, of which only one regiment existed. once again he bought Old Glory and he now has more Scots Greys than he knows what to do with.
Some of my war gaming friends and I feel that we have been exploited by the producers of Old Glory. I really don't like having to buy so many figures at so high a cost. I also believe that this sense of being taken will turn offyoung people of limited means to the joys of this hobby. Am I out in left field on this or are there many others who dislike buying these huge bags? I wish that the figure manufacturers package their product the like Minifigs.
(Editor's Note. Packaging of wargames f igures is always a problem, it would seem, in that it is very difficult to make everyone happy in that there are many different approaches to building wargaming units, Robert Your wargames unit system of 24 foot/8 horse fits in very well with Minif as, I can see. For someone, however, who goes with 36 figure units, as I do, I would not benef it f om Minif gs packaging system and would have a number of "wasted" f gures, just as you do f om Old Glory. It all seems relative to the system of unit building that one utilizes. To me, Old Glory offers a truly goodprice at $18.50 for 100 foot/30 cavalry figures. I must admit that if you are building a single unit of Highlanders with for instance, 24 figures, I wouldn't buy Old Glory; same with wanting an 8 figure unit of Scots Greys. In instances such as these, I would purchase f gures Mom another manufacturer, even if the figures were higher priced, which is usually the case. For the majority of units, line infantry and cavalry, we really benefit t from f rms utilizing the Old Glory packaging/price system)
From George Dullaghan of Boca Raton. FL: Enjoyed the last two MWAN's; I read one at a boring meeting and no one even noticed! Especially liked the article about the Marburian project. I'm working on the following projects: Vince of London War Room is making me siege towers for the Fall of Constantinople. I got some Marburians from Royal Oak Miniatures and Civil War fences. Fred Bultman is a superb painter and very intelligent and polite. Got some Napoleonics from GAJO. Everytime you add to one Napoleonic army you have to add to all their allies and opponents. Nothing wrong with that! The most intriguing game at Cold Wars was a massive I Smm Ottoman-Russian Napoleonic clash. My brother sent me MARCH OR DIE that he taped from TV and the battle at the end of the film was very good. Whatever happened to Terence Hill - a good actor! Joel Gregory made me some nice civil war gunboats for Shiloh and the Mississippi Campaign involving Forts Donelson and Henry. He's also a good painter and I have a small Japanese Army from 1904 now. I've been thinking of collecting 54mm figures for skirmisher- type games. There is a museum near my house where a rich guy keeps a collection of many thousands of these. My project just started is 15mm WWIEastern and Italian Front. I've done some reading and Minifigs are there - although the Italians wore French outfits/helmets for the most part. Any MWANer who has information on this era, please send me a quick letter. I'm also still searching for WWI planes on Flying Stands to no avail.
From Bill Widrick of Prescott Valley. AZ: I've got just enough 15mm units for my son, Jonathan, and I to start playing medieval battles. I must admit, I'm enjoying the variety in painting this era. It gives a welcome break in painting Napoleonics, although the 10mm Napoleonics paint up very quickly. I can do a unit (12 figures) every two days. I ended up having to review and re- evaluate the way I build my armies for the Napoleonic era. I have always liked small battles and big units, but that seems to have changed. With the growing availability of the new 10mm figures, my thoughts have turned to recreating the larger baules. I'm working on a set of rules specific to 10mm and large actions, with a campaign supplement. Will send you a copy to put in MWAN as soon as they re finished. May take a few months as I want to play test them a tow times.
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© Copyright 1997 Hal Thinglum
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