Tallahassee has been called the desert of modern war gaming. Isolated by 150 miles or more of North Florida or South Georgia in every direction. HaHee is the only town of population 250,000 or more in the region. Is there a historical war gaming store here? Nope. In fact, you can't buy an over the counter psiloi or panzer grenadier anywhere within 150 miles or within the last 200 years. We mail order. Many of the locals think that Waterloo is a cologne, and cataphractus is a sound you make when you sneeze. Even for the hard core players in town, war games scheduled on fall Saturday afternoons are cancelled when the Seminole football team is in action. The whole town, except for a few damn Gators and miscreant Yankees are either at the game or glued to the television or radio to hear and see the latest in Seminole football victories. Is Tallahassee a war gaming desert? You be the Judge. Here is the story of the Tallahassee militia-mere old men and boys. In Tallahassee many dedicated souls have come and gone over the years. We call this group the "gypsy garners." Cory Ring, a gypsy gamer, ran a war game every Tuesday night for 5 years and inspired a practice of painting of miniatures for one hour each night. Unfortunately Cory was recruited by a girl's school to teach French or some other silly subject. He moved to Atlanta. Also, there was the Romeo War Gamer who never did play .any games or roll any dice, but he did cheat on his wife with another woman every Tuesday night for 2 years. Funny, once his wife caught Romeo we never saw him again. Mark Wilkerson and his son Joe had the distinction of bringing the first organized miniature war games to Tallahassee. In the early 1980's the Wilkerson garage was the scene of many; many "War in the Pacific" sessions. The Wilkerson group played this monster game through to conclusion two times and each game took two years at two or three sessions a week to conclude. To recruit players to this SPI monster game, Joe Wilkerson introduced 15mm civil war miniatures and the Johnny Reb rule set to Tallahassee. Unfortunately Joe married a Doctor and moved to Hong Kong while Mark, Joe's daddy, retired and faded away. Many "gypsy" garners passing through Tallahassee were involved in the Johnny Reb Civil War games during the 1980s and 1990s. David Glenn, a Johnny Rebber, purchased all the Prussians in town, established an IRS approved gaming club with Moses Williams, and moved to Tampa. Moses moved to Orlando. We wish Moses and David the best with their new wives. May they reap what they sow. Brilliant strategist "Big" John Curly, a Johnny Rebber, known for his victory cigars and the "three fence rule" that you couldn't fire over three fences and hit his troops, left Tallahassee to be a tank commander in the US Army. Rebber Aubrey Hawkins was one of the most under appreciated gypsy garners ever to hit Tallahassee. Aubrey bought up a huge collection of the town's civil war miniatures to include terrain and immediately left town. In Aubrey, we thought we had a permanent addition to the Townees who play. I still hear from Aubrey. He is stationed at Fort Hood Texas, and is doing well. Tallahassee is also a 15mm Napoleonics town. Mark Serafin, a gypsy gamer, who is now living and working in the Pacific Northwest, introduced Napoleonics to Tallahassee in the early 1980s. Mark had Prussians and British and needed an opponent. Now only 20 years later, and even with Mark gone, there are British, French, Russians, Austrians, and Polish available for service. Mark was an excellent miniature painter and had the wonderful manners to be so strapped for cash when he left Tallahassee that he sold some of his meticulously painted troops to some of us Townees who remained behind. Mark's paint jobs would set the standard for just about anybody. Over the years Tallahassee has been the home of many other superb gypsy war gamers and life long friends such as Buck Surdu, Kelly Krieble, Steve Patterson and Kevin Stork, all of whom have set up gaming rooms and have hosted games at their home. The beer was cold. We who remain behind in Tallahassee salute you. A recent "gypsy" who brought life to the city's Napoleonic war games is Paul Miller. Paul steamed into town and hosted games and reintroduced French and Indian War to town and stirred the Napoleonic crowd into monthly games. Last month, Paul moved to Orlando. There have been numerous war game campaigns held at various sites all over Tallahassee mostly in private game rooms. One memorable campaign involved the Battle of the Bulge in 15mm, which lasted over 6 months. Mike Patterson, a gypsy garner now form the general Tampa area, was the judge, and according to bystanders, Mike always put the panzer grenadiers on the table in the last hours of each fight. We miss your timing Mike. We also miss the hundreds of "no-name gamers" who have participated in battle after battle. People like Charlie and Smitty and many others. Thanks fellas. "What are we doing now?" you ask. John Ryan is hosting another campaign in Woodville-Ancient Rome against the Gauls-a DBM multi-month campaign. Simultaneously, we are meeting one Sunday afternoon a month at the "Books-A-Million" store to introduce people to t he DBA system using miniatures from the Biblical era as an attraction. Next month, who knows, maybe ironclads, tall ships, American Revolution, or Pacific Battles from WWII. It all depends on what we locals-Bob Freeman, Ken Jones, John Ohlin, Steve Quintero, John Ryan, pat Schuler, and Pat Treacy-find in our closets and finished on our painting tables. The history of Tallahassee war gaming would not be complete without mentioning the active Warhammer Fantasy and Science Fiction miniatures group. They meet downtown every Sunday at Tallahassee Comics and Games and hold their own conventions a couple of times a year. We haven't had any crossovers from the Warhammer set into historical war gaming yet, but we keep trying. Is Tallahassee an historical gamer's desert or a survivor? There is nothing left here but old men and a few boys. Historical miniatures war gaming is a hobby much like that of model railroading, except that the purpose of historical war gaming is to recreate and refight battles from history. Those who practice the hobby enjoy the regular meetings with friends. Robert Freeman is the point of contact for North Florida gamers and The Tallahassee Militia. He can be contacted at 123 N. Meridian St., Tallahassee FL 32301. Phone: (850) 222-1773. E-mail: rafree@istal.com. Back to Rebel Yell No. 23 Table of Contents Back to Rebel Yell List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2003 by HMGS South This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com