Over the last couple of years I have been subscribing to MWAN through Dave Ryan of Caliver Books in the United Kingdom. It is an excellent read, all the copies remain on my shelf and are frequently thumbed through to find one article or another that I have enjoyed or an idea which I would like to look at again. Over this period I have occasionally exchanged letters with Hal. Recently he mentioned the influence of my late father's writings, in particular "The War Game" published in 1971. Hal also said that if I ever felt like doing an article for MWAN etc. Well, as Hal had mentioned "The War Game" I thought I would take that as the subject for an article and indulge myself in a trip down memory lane so here it is.

The book Hal refers to, "The War Game", was published in 1971 and is now out of print. Whilst the book does describe the mechanics of the game and building up the rules (explaining the historical logic behind them), it is actually not a general book about wargaming but is firmly set in the mideighteenth century. It set out the basis behind two fictitious countries, the Grand Duchy of Lorraine (which was my country) and the Vereinigte Freie Stadte (which was my fathers). These two countries and their armies provided the basis for much the wargaming my late father and I carried out from the late 60's to the late 70's. Over ten years or so we fought several campaigns, refought a good many historical battles, numerous scenarios and individual engagements. I still have the two armies that, by today's standards, are pretty enormous. They are all plastic 30mm figures made by Spencer Smith. Infantry units are 48 strong plus five officers, cavalry 24 plus three and each gun has a team plus five gunners. With more than 20 infantry, 6 light infantry, 12 cavalry and assorted militia, engineers and others on either side this was pretty awesome force. Apart from a good many individual battles, and refighting Fontenoy, Molwitz, Minden, Dettingen and other actions of the period, our main love was campaigning. This started as a two sided home based campaign but on occasion it involved a third party, Brigadier Peter Young, DSO MC. Peter Young was a retired soldier of considerable distinction, head of military history at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and a prolific military historian. His book "Charge - or how to play wargames" also covers the mideighteenth century. It is an excellent read and facsimile reprints can still be obtained. "The Brigadier" brought with him not only his own country and army, from Teutoberg-Althaufen, but an enormous sense of fun. Peter Young would send written orders to me and I would then carry them out going through the moves with my father. We fought the battles at home with me as Peter Young's general apart from the odd exception when he came down for a weekend and took personal command.

The campaign year usually started in April with both sides distributed in garrisons as they saw fit. The maps were home made using graph paper with each I inch square subdivide into 10. This meant that our 7 x 9 foot wargame table equated to 7/10 of an inch by 9/10 inch on the campaign map. We used four moves to a day or rather 24 hours. Movement was simultaneous and at the end of each move the grid squares with any troops in them were declared to each other but not the detailed grid reference or what was in the square. This created a good deal of fog of war and any square with troops in it could be anything from a patrol to a brigade. When troops of each side were in adjacent squares then they were "declared" and the outcome would be resolved. Frequently a weaker force would give way to a stronger, having of course gained vital information about the enemy. However if neither side would give then there would be a "set down", that is to say the appropriate terrain would be put on the table and the opposing sides set down. Battle would then commence. Eight table top moves equaled a campaign move so after eight moves another map move would happen. This could result in reinforcements arriving onto the table from one or both sides at the appropriate time. All this was done, perhaps surprisingly to some these days, without an umpire.

Having explained the basic mechanics let me say a bit about some other aspects of our campaign. The rules were are own, my father's actually, and while relatively simple they involved a number of fairly new ideas for that time. These included the notion of morale, the additional effect of the first volley, special devices for canister and howitzer, to name but a few. There were no tables and combat was resolved on a figure for figure basis grate fun with several regiments of around fifty strong battling it out.

As far as the mechanics of the campaign were concerned there were also a number of systems. Firstly there were the long term implications of casualties which, depending on the time it took to get them to the appropriate hospital would come back into line after 5, 10 or 15 campaign days. Over and above this there were reinforcements which were raised and recruited and were introduced periodically, normally after every 20 days. The number of reinforcements would be adversely effected by the number of population centre that you had lost to the enemy. The new regiments were always raised in the capital city. We also had prisoners of war, usually but not always wounded left behind on the battlefield by the vanquished party. This in itself created problems and there is a vivid description in "The War Game" of a particular Lorraine raid which, quite fortuitously, liberated over a 100 Lorraine prisoners of war held captive in small town with only a militia unit to guard them. These and other basic systems all added spice and realism, not to mention a degree of unpredictability to the campaign.

While we had no great hankering for a naval war game we did include in one campaign a small piece of coast. Both forces had a couple of light craft, Xebecs in fact, each with a couple of light canon. These craft had a wilful disobedience, perhaps reflecting the lack of maritime expertise in the two countries concerned. Nevertheless some small naval operations and even an amphibious landing were a byproduct. Of more significance were some flat bottomed river barges. These proved to have real tactical value especially when they enabled one side or the other to bypass demolished bridges or move forces rapidly along the main rivers. Talking of bridges these took some time to build in the campaign, depending of course on the width and speed of the river. Construction and the protection of it was a perilous if rather exciting business. One could see ones bridge progressing across the river on the one hand and watch the enemy net closing in, never quite sure what was in the various grid squares on the other. One also learned all to quickly that the absence of a crossing point where a bridge had been destroyed by you might be as damaging in the long term to you as it was to the enemy.

I have already said that Brigadier Young brought with him a sense of fun - mischief might on occasion be in more appropriate. A number of personalities began to take on a mantle that made them a little larger than life. There was the Elector Petrus, Generals Fritz von Tarlenheim, General Graf von Grunt and The Lord Clare to name a few. Each developed his own character. It was at about this point that a new regiment Of Kurassiere were raised for the Vereinigte Freie Stadte (VFS) by the Markgrafin von Wolfenbuttel, "Tutzie", as the Markgrafin was know a affectionately became a source of intrigue plot and counter plot. On one occasion Peter Young tried to bribe my mother to kidnap the figure and send it to him. Having failed in this attempt to bribe Mum an assassin was captured and the FVS chief executioner, MacAbre, a gentlemen of dubious Scottish ancestry, appeared complete with a mobile gibbet and field execution cart. All these individual characters were made, displayed and just occasionally appeared on the wargame table. I well remember that there was a vile calumny, written up in "The War Game", that the Graf von Grunt had been killed by falling masonry while cowering in a cellar as his troops were under fire. When he appeared some months later rumor spread like wild fire that he had been stuffed by expert taxidermists and was being paraded to improve morale!! Of course what is expert taxi written in a sentence or two belies the outrageous proclamations, correspondence and reports of several months that were a part of this incident. However these rather frivolous but very amusing fictions were not overdone and never distracted from the wargame itself.

One of the necessities of wargame campaigning is record keeping. This is not the chore it may sound. The campaign diaries became a fascinating record of battles, plans, intelligence and planning. Sadly only one of my late father's has survived but it still makes good reading after all these years. You can read how the fog of war and uncertainty, is gradually replaced by a clearer picture, read the intelligence assessment. the battle plans and of course the outcomes. I have not yet said how long a years campaigning actually took. It varied of course and, for obvious reasons took longer when we involved written orders coming to me and reports going back to Peter Young. Our own availability was also a factor. Generally however a campaign took about a year from start to finish. At the conclusion of the campaign season we were left with two options. The first was to draw up new borders, depending on how the war had gone and start the next campaign from those positions in the spring. Alternatively one could start from scratch with another section of the boarder, a brand new map and campaign. One aspect I have not yet mentioned is the period. It is an entirely personal view but I think the mid- eighteenth century as a wargame period takes some beating. There is something about the echeloned columns of Prussian infantry, the gleaming squadrons of heavy cavalry, the roguish hussars and the wide variety of light infantry. Our armies combined the fictional with the real. One light unit in the Lorraine Army was the Arquebussiers de Grassin of Fontenoy fame while the Garde Francalse and the Lanciers de Saxe could also be found on secondment. On the other side the VFS boasted the Bosniak Ulanen Korps and the Schotse Grenadiere Van Lauder. Of course there were many other units that you would be hard pressed to find in even the most obscure histories of the period such as Grenadier Garde Der Sammlung and the Garde de Lorraine. All of these and many others combined in a rich panoply that added colour and style to our campaigns. Ali - we were spoilt for choice.

Well, I have rambled on for more than enough space. If I have failed to impart the immense enjoyment, the excitement and fun that our campaigns, indeed our battles to imparted then it is a fault of the author rather than the subject. There is little that I have said that is new and indeed wargame campaigns have become more and more sophisticated over the years. However, if I have touched a cord and you feet like getting involved in a wargame campaign I fully commend it.

In closing, if the Editor will let me make plug, if you want to know more about the mechanics of campaigning of the type described in "The War Game" then "Wargame Campaigns" by C S Grant is available from Brookhurst Hobbles, 12188 Brookhurst Street, Garden Grove, CA 92840, USA or from CSG Publications, Fairmount House, Fairmount Road, Perth, Scotland, PH2 7AW.

(Editor's Note: Thank you Charles, for the enjoyable article! In my wargames room - well, my basement - I have a small three shelved bookcase. The top two shelves contain all of the MWAN issues while the bottom one contains books for the period I am currently involved in as well as my very wargames books: The War Game by Charles' father, War Games by Donald Featherstone, and Charge, by Peter Young. If I wish to spend an enjoyable hour or so, I pull any of them off the shelf settle down with a good cup of coffee, and I am lost to the world! In chapter XVII of The War Game, Charles Grant Sr. begins his description of the wargame replay of the Battle of Mollwitz. His two opponents were Brigadier General Peter Young, DSO, MC, Reader in Military History at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, and Charles Stewart Grant, Senior Cadet Corporal, Sandhurst. It will please MWANers to learn that Charles Stewart Grant is now a serving Brigadier General a Brigade in Scotland! Its always nice, I think, when we see the world turning out the way we'd like it to. Congratulations, Charles and thanks again!)