Hard to believe that the next MWAN will be #100; didn't expect to publish that many when I first started out some eighteen years ago! Hope that it will be a good issue! What have I been up to in the hobby? Have been doing quite a bit of reading about the Thirty Years' War as well as the Marlburian period, both of which I've found to be very interesting. I had never had the chance to read about neither of them very much and I really didn't know anything about the Marlburian period except for John Churchill. My reading on this period did get me going over the edge as regards starting to put together armies in 15mm for the period from Essex, Roundway, Irregular and Dixon, all of which have nice offerings. I have grown, I guess, to really like the Essex 15mm figure lines. This all started with the English Civil War as they have an extensive line for this period. I also liked their Seven Years War line and if I didn't have such a huge collection in 25mm for the SYW, I would do it in 15mm with Essex as a base with lots of OLD GLORY figures as well. Have also been mounting painted 15mm ECW/TYW figures on metal bases (from Wargames Accessories). My friend, Len Brewer tells me that he uses a hot glue gun to glue figures to metal bases; however, whenever I try to do this, they pop off easily! What am I doing wrong, I wonder? I have been using superglue to adhere them, but this is rather messy and hard on my fingers! I do spray paint the metal bases black first so as to give them a surface to adhere to. Should I not be doing this? I also find myself sorely tempted by 6mm! I knew this would come eventually. The Irregular Miniatures range of 6mm figures is amazing as it covers so many different periods in a very extensive manner. I am currently thinking about either 6mm Seven Years War or Napoleonics in the Peninsula' although I am definitely leaning toward the 18th Century. I am going to obtain some of the SYW 6mm figures from Irregular Miniatures to determine how I will carry out my organization and basing. I don't think I have ever seen them before, so I am looking forward to seeing what they look like, especially how they would look based. I already picked up some 6nun Hovels buildings from THE EMPEROR'S HEADQUARTERS; beautiful little structures! I'm going to go over to my local train hobby shop and check out trees for this scale. Will send them off to Andrew Doyle of 3-D CONTOURS to have him base them for me as I've done with all of my 15mm trees. I've always been attracted to the "big" battles and have recreated them in both 15mm and 25mm scales. However, the appeal to the 6mm is that one can have "flanks" on a tabletop. My table can measure 6'X 16' and with 6min troops, that's a lot of territory, isn't it! Has anyone run across any rules for the SYW concerned with 6mm? I remember years ago Peter Dennis published a sets of 6mm ACW and Napoleonics, but I've since gotten rid of them, I think. Isn't that the way it works? You "thin" out your collection to save space and you always regret getting rid of certain things, don't you. The VOLLEY FIRE rules certainly do appeal to me, however, the one concern I have is that they can be only in one formation all of the time and I don't like the way that "looks" on the tabletop. However one thing in favor of this approach is that it certainly would "speed" up a game; especially a "big" game and that is what I am aiming for. I daydream about setting up a large battle on my tabletop and "soloing" it; doesn't that sound like fan? I've long thought it would be great fan to write up a battle report like that. I don't have the IRREGULAR MINIATURES (IM) catalog with me right now, however, they do list a lot of 6mm terrain items from houses to roads, trees, villages, and hills; all in metal, I believe. They also offer a 2mm(!!!) line which I believe I saw at a SYW convention many years ago; at least I think I saw it was so small! Now if you really wanted to do large battles, that would be the way to go. I would think the painting time would be minimal. IM offers a wide range of items besides terrain and troops in 6mm. There are wagons, limbers, etc., and troops come in different types of formations. Line troops are in close order as are regular cavalry, while light troops, such as the Croats, are in open order and from the illustrations in the catalog, look quite good. I'm going to have to dig out some back issues of MWAN and look up the various articles on 6mm gaming; I know there have been quite a few over the years. I'd like to hear from anyone who is into 6mm gaming as to what they have used for terrain, etc for this interesting scale and how they have tackled the rules. Let me know! Congratulations to Tod Kershener and Dale Wood on the release of the second edition of AGE OF REASON and to Bruce McFarlane for his English Civil War rules FOR GOD, KING AND COUNTRY. I think this is Bruce's seventh set of wargames rules(!) which certainly is an accomplishment and I suspect Bruce's work is rather underestimated, or at least less well known than is deserved. Many years ago at a Seven Years War convention, I sat down and played a French- Indian War game run by Tod and Dale using a set of "home-grown" rules which became AOR. I even purchased a set of photocopied rules from Tod as I liked the rules so much. A well written effort which does seem to have been received well by gainers across the world. Have you been impressed by the growing number of "scenario" booklets available? I always pick these up even if they aren't in a period of interest as they always make good reading and one never knows if one will enter that period in the future. Even if you don't, you can "modify" the scenarios for your period of interest. Dean West and Jim Mitcheii were doing some for the SYW to accompany Dean's SYW rules though I only saw one scenario; hope they release some more as it was well done. The best scenario booklets I've seen are the FIRE AND FURY booklets by Rich Hasenbauer; Gettysburg, Eastern and Western Front ACW battles. They really do set the standard for others to aim for. The GUERNSEY FOUNDRY "Darkest Africa" 25mm. figure line seems to be drawing a lot of attention over the last year or so. It is growing to be a very extensive line and I must express surprise at how well it is being received. This only goes to show you that you never know what is going to catch on with people. If someone had asked my advice as to whether or not they should produce a huge line of 25mm Africa figures, I'd have told them it was a terrible idea. You can't sell enough figures from a highly specialized period such as this to make any money, I would have said. I'd still say the same thing now, if asked, but obviously, what do I know. From the list of figures I have seen, they possess a great deal of applicability to other related periods, which may account for some of their popularity. Had a phone conversation with one of my favorite people, Vince Clyant of THE LONDON WAR ROOM, today. Vince has made sotme new releases to his 25mm War of Spanish Succession including Spanish Grenadiers; I'm looking forward to adding them to my 25mm. SYW collection. I've got six battalions (37 figures each including mounted officer) of his Spanish line infantry. We discussed the GUERNSEY FOUNDRY releases including their Pirates line. Makes it seem as though they are taking more of a "skirmish" wargaming approach to their new releases. One could also include their "In Darkest Africa" line in this category. Is this a trend? There have been those over the last five or so years who have felt that 25mm. would, because of their cost, become the "skirmish" line, while smaller scales would be utilized to build "armies". I personally haven't seen this to be case as it would seem that quite a few MWANers are staying with, or returning to 25mm for creation of their armies. It has also been said that because of our advancing age I suspect the majority of us within this hobby are over forty years and probably closer to fifty - it is much more difficult to paint anything smaller than 25mm! I know personally that I can not even paint 25mm any longer; can't see them well enough to do so. I wouldn't even think of painting a 15mm figure at this stage of my hobby career! I'm in the process of finishing off my 15mm. ECW/TYW collection which has grown far beyond my initial plans - what else is new? I'm waiting for some TYW figures from Jeff Valent of New York. I saw some of their figure packs in THE EMPEROR'S HEADQUARTERS several years ago and was sorry that I didn't pick them up as they were quite unusual. They seemed to be based on masters from the MATCHLOCK MINIATURES ECW line, though I could be incorrect. I recall there was a "personality" pack which looked very interesting. I do have a pack of their cavalry command which included officers, standard bearers, trumpeters, and dragoon drummers. The MATCHLOCK MINIATURES line is still one of the best 15mm ECW lines. It is not, to my knowledge, available anymore from PARTIZAN PRESS, who released it. Due to their heavy emphasis upon the ECW period, they had perhaps the most realistic ECW line available. If someone knows who is currently producing it, please let me know. My 25mm Northwest Frontier project is completed. It consists of the Sikh War, the NWF in the 1850's through the 1890's, including the Second Afghan War and is composed of mainly WARGAMES FOUNDRY with some Richard Houston figures/items. Ijust wish I would take the time to set them out on the table and play a few games. The figures and equipment are quite impressive, as you would expect from WF and Richard's equipment. The Battle of Maiwand served as inspiration for part of this project and the release of the Sikh War figures by WF set me off on a reading jag of the Sikh War. This was the first 25mm period that I based on metal bases and I must admit that I am fairly well pleased with the results. I used "Lake Michigan" sand - sort of a fine sand- as a terraining material having painted the figure base and metal base a GEO-HEX desert tan and then dipped the stand into the fine sand and let it dry. I then applied spots of Elmer's White Glue on the dried sand and dropped on different shades of green grass. This was a very simple, yet effective, approach and didn't take a lot of time or talent. Speaking of my 15mm ECW/TYW project, I am very pleased with the "look" of the units. All foot are 27 figures with "formed" units in three ranks on three stands while all horse are mounted four to a stand again with three stands for each unit. Light troops such as Croats (TYW) and dismounted dragoons are mounted on larger stands in open order. By the way, if anyone is looking for dismounted horseholders for a number of periods, check out DONNINGTON MINIATURES. This idea was taken from Howard Whitehouse's ECW IRONSIDES organization and represents a return to the "roster" system which appeals to me in spite of the fact that I am greatly impressed with the FIRE AND FURY whole stand removal approach. Anyway, I am thinking of using the same approach for my 15mm Malburian Project - that is to say three stands for a " unit" although I plan on increasing the number of horse figures from four to five for each base. That would give me 15 horse figures per unit. I am seriously considering the three rank approach for infantry as well as it just has the right "look" to it! That's as good of a reason as any, isn't it? There are some periods which still "pull" me in their direction as I've mentioned over the years within this column. The Peninsular War, most likely in 15mm; the Franco-Prussian War, again in 15mm and probably with the new ESSEX figures for this period; and the Russian Civil War in 25mm, 20mm or 15mm (how's that for indecision?). I was looking over the Peter Pig 15mm Russian Civil War line, which includes, by the way, an armored train(!) as well as a number of vehicles, and it looks very interesting. The OSPREY books on the Russian Civil War show some very interesting and colorful urtiforms. I'm not sure how this period would work out on the tabletop, but it sure has some appeal to me. How can you pass up armored trains? I'd like to add some items, especially vehicles, to my 25mm WWII Eastern Front project - the BATTLE HONORS vehicles. Every time I watch CROSS OF IRON, I get the bug for this period! I'm tempted to add some NWF 25mm OLD GLORY new releases to my NWF project, but I really have too many figures for this period at present. I also seriously entertain the notion of doing a 25nim ECW project based upon the rules EDGEHILL 1644 by WARGAMES FOUNDRY, because the rules sound so interesting and there are so many fine 25mm ECW manufacturers such as REDOUBT, DIXON, and now, OLD GLORY! My approach for the 25mm ECW project would be to build large units (36 to 54 foot figures per regiment and perhaps "troops" of twelve mounted figures) with perhaps no more than six or eight foot and the same number of mounted units per side. This would be perfect because the majority of battles in the English Civil War did not employ many troops. I recently noted that I had far too many figures for my 15mm ECW/TYW armies and on a whim, I checked over the units to determine if I could "double up" units to create one "larger" unit (54 foot/24 horse or so) and I have enough units painted in the "common" ECW foot regiment colors (red, yellow, purple, blue, etc) that I could easily do this. I took the time to put a unit of 54 foot (six stands of nine figures each) out on the tabletop and they looked quite good with two stands of pike and four of musketeers. This struck me as a good idea given the excessive number of figures I have for this period. The horse could even be increased to thirty-six figures per regiment or I could have different sized units and get away from the "roster" system approach I have planned for this period. I'll have to set some of these units out on the table with some terrain and take some pictures to run in MWAN. One wouldn't even have to be concerned with having the same color uniform for a unit as from what I understand, many ECW regiments of horse and foot were so small that they were "brigaded" together with a number of smaller units. As far as "campaigns", I would think the Russian Civil War would offer a lot of possibilities. Units switched sides often which lends itself well to role playing campaigns. The Allied powers intervened with smallish type forces who weren't anxious to enter into combat situations because they had "made it" through WWI - could you blame them? I really enjoyed Michael Huskey's "Chinese Warlords" project in MWAN a few issues ago as it used this type of approach. I'm not sure where the "appeal" of the Franco-Prussian War comes from for me. It tended to be rather "one-sided", though a wargames approach could rectify this. One doesn't always have to be historical afterall. One factor which interests me about this period is the difference in the weaponry for each side. The French with far superior rifles and the Prussians with superior artillery. Would seem to lend itself to some interesting wargames tactics. As for the Peninsular War, I think it appeals Lo me because I enjoy reading about the Napoleonic period. However, when I think about doing it on the tabletop, it is so massive of a period that one has to think twice about building armies for it. However, if you take only one theatre (i.e, the Peninsular War), it becomes a much more likely possibility. I like the idea of relatively ineffective Spanish armies; well trained, though small British forces; and large, though fairly inexperienced, at times, French forces. Is it any wonder that this hobby can still hold my interest even though I have not played nor held a wargame for at least five years? Back to MWAN #99 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1999 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com