1. Hank Martin's battle description of RATISBON, a Napoleonic affair, is in this issue. Along with the text, Hank handed in two maps... one supposedly good, the other, bad... which had been used by the participants. Hank's idea was to furnish one side with good data and the other with poor. This can only be done, of course, if you have good and poor data. And, looking at the maps, such was not the case.
The "bad" map was drawn by Chris Hyland, one of our younger PW members, and, in truth, it's not that bad. Roads are where roads should be, woods are shown correctly.... except for being a little more squiggly than the other map, Chris' effort is Just fine. Chris gets my vote as squiggly cartographer of the year.
2. UPDATE ON THE CHARGE CAMPAIGN. Last month's article on the
Bill Protz CHARGE CAMPAIGN indicated that south of Ostlandt,
Ardoberg's forces were gathering in great numbers. If you didn't
read the article, you have absolutely no idea of what I'm talking
about, but I will go on, regardless.
Ardoberg has since launched an attack, not on Ostlandt, but at Fred Hubig's Pomerania. Obviously, Ardoberg's military staff saw the futility of engaging the Lion of Ostlandt on his own turf. Instead, the head of the Evil Empire of Ardoberg chose to probe the soft underbelly of Hubig (nothing personal, Fred). The plot thickens...
The interesting item in this affair is that the umpire, Hap Jordan, wrote General Hubig, telling him that he had lost an encounter to Ardobergistanian forces, that he had suffered lottsa casualties, and that his forces were in retreat. We're all wondering now... what happened to the battles we're supposed to be fighting in this miniatures campaign? Hopefully, Umpire Hap will get us involved in a few table-top encounters.
3. We had a flea market at our June 17 meeting; PW took in about $40. This was the first attempt at holding the flea market during the regular wargaming session and the success we had indicates that it's worth a second try.
Our usual flea market mode is to lease the facilities in the fall for a half-day affair. The rent of $45, however, would eat up about half of what we normally take in... that's why we tried the current configuration.
Many thanks to Hal Thinglum, who donated four subscriptions to his Midwest Wargamers Association Newsletter (MWAN), which we sold rather rapidly. Indeed, the MWAN subscriptions were oversubscribed and I was harassed by several unhappy citizens for not being able to to reserve a subscription for them.
4. MEA CULPA. I make so much noise about correct usage of the King's English, it's only fair that it be revealed that in the last issue, I, me, myself, this very person, flubbed de dub. Ed Raley pointed out that I had written "If I was given the task of ginning up a campaign background..." which, of course, should have been "If I were given the task..."
I, of course, accepted this criticism from Ed Smartypants Raley with no rancor whatsoever, with a smile on my face, and a heart full of love and forgiveness for this brash young brave who takes such delight in finding fault in the elders of the tribe. Bless you, Ed Raley.
5. THE KLUNKIES ARE COMING! THE KLUNKIES ARE COMING! A year ago, at the '87 HISTORICON, I purchased a set of overgrown, distorted ACW figures from Dan Beattie of the STANDARD BEARER. It's hard to tell what size the figures are... they could be bloated 25's, or squat 30's, or even dwarf 40's. In any case, they are the KLUNKIES, and they remained in their box for about a year.
Recently, Fred Hubig looked at 'em, and was as taken as I was with the character of the figures. They are, in effect, three- dimensional cartoons, with each li'l fella quite personable. There are approximately 30 Rebs and 30 Yanks; about half of each side are mounted.
As usual with any set of figures, a number of them were "useless", i.e., lots of standard bearers and buglers and drummers, etc. After several soldering sessions, I converted most of the useless folk into infantrymen, giving each a musket. Some weird poses resulted, but this only added to the charm of the KLUNKIES, and, in the main, the little guys are fairly presentable and just about ready for battle.
Fred's got the southern troops; I've got the Yanks. We're each working on a set of individual figure ski mish rules... each mounted man has his dismounted counterpart, provision for wounds, loading and firing weapons, status, etc. Our intent is to conduct a campaign of sorts; a series of related battles between the two 30-man "companies", with each encounter involving some ten men or so.
More later on the KLUNKIES!
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© Copyright 1988 Wally Simon
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