From Pat Condray Craig: You sent me a complimentary copy of the GOSTELOWE flags, and you've mentioned what sounded like scholarly speculation on which of the flags if any had actually been carried during the First War of Independence. Although the AWI is not a period of interest for me, I would be interested in a short article on the provenance of the Gostelowe flags-where they were found, how, what information or speculation is available about the flags themselves and their service history. Overall, I think, many people would be curious. It would probably be of more general interest than the 1904 Confederate Flag regulations. Probably of almost as much interest as a brief history of the Richmond flags that wound up in the attic of the State And War Department Building in Washington, recaptured Yankee flags being returned in 1877 or so and and Confederate flags around the time of the Official Announcement in the latest Rebel Yell. Your article on flag mounting is right on the money. I would, however, add a couple of notes. First, I'd recommend doing the matte acrylic glaze on the flag before shaping its folds(but after firmly gluing it to the shaft.) Unprotected, color xerox flags may lose color on the folds. This may not be a problem with REGIMENTAL COLORS products, but most of those I've used I had to xerox down because they were cavalry or dragoon standards and guidons, and the former historically tended to be no more than 2 feet square, the latter the same height but with tails extending out often to three feet. I think the ones on Bryan's Prussian horsemen were probably slightly overscale even after reduction, but in 15mm you have to make some allowances to be able to see them at all. The matte acrylic is very flexible and essentially makes a paper flag a plastic one. It seems to protect the color on the folds. For 15mm flagstaffs and lances I recommend ordinary straight pins with the point placed on ferrous metal and whanged with a hammer. With skill and luck that gives you a nice spearpoint. Unfortunately I haven't figured out a way to whang it with a hammer so that it produces a believable eagle or halbard head. Second, I've found that the best thing to curl the flags with is a round toothpick (brush handles may work as well for 25mm and up.) For flags slanted forward in motion or erect at the halt I usually put the point at the upper staff corner and do the primary folds from there. I suppose that if the standard bearer has the colors back over his shoulder in motion the lower staff corner would serve. Russian GNW units halted (front rank pikes braced on the ground) I drop the colors from the front of the staff, still rolling from the upper staff corner but usually with the top edge of the flag almost straight down. You can have the flag blowing back over the guys shoulder, but on halted units I sometimes just let it hang. Your pictures of Tinian in Number 7 were quite good. I'd hoped there would be something of Zorndorf. The NAPOLEON'S/FREDERICK'S BATTLES mounting (actually Barry Gray's old KOENIGSKRIEG mounting) is too deep for gaming groundscale, but photogenic. Frankly the shot of Henri's GNW was badly arranged and too far away from the subject. -ed note. this is completely my fault, Pat. I didn't ensure the photographer took pictures from the right angles and at the right distances. This problem will be alleviated at Recon since you'll be one of our convention photographers! By the way, if you do have Austro-Hungarian colors, standards, and guidons (I know the colors are montonous) slip me a sheet when you get a chance. I'm hoping to field some Austrians to help the Gainesville Guys do an Austro-Prussian scenario by RECON if not sooner. If you have any painters lined up for Prussians I'll try to come up with a Prussian starter army to replace either your Austrians or Russians. -ed note: Pat replaced my Austrians with a superb Prussian army and also dropped them off with Wulf's HQ in Ocala for painting (352-622-3226). In less than a month (of which Christmas was a part), more than half of the figures have been painted. I am quite impressed because when you buy an army from Editions Brokaw/Historical Products Company, you get an army. I didn't count the figures but there seems to be more than 300 of the little fellas and that includes cavalry and artillery. For RECON we will break 300 if we have to press gang them in off the streets! From Bob Jones (Piquet) The Band of Brothers Medieval-Renaissance set is nearing completion. It shares many rule facets with Archon, but will include rules for the Swiss Phalanx, Landsknechts, the longbow, Scots shiltrons, Hussite wagon forts, arquebus and muskets, the Spanish tercio, and early artillery. Armies will range from Scots, English, French, Ottoman Empire, Aztecs, Spain, The French armies of the Wars of Religion, Mongols, Samurai, and special consideration for leaders such as Henry V and Joan of Arc! It will be released at Cold Wars, it will be followed within a month with Scramasax (Sorry,Troy!) the Medieval-renaissance fantasy rules. Historicon will see the release of Piquet II core rules with all present purchasers being provided this Glossy-four color update at cost. Also, Cap & Ball (1820-1860) will be released at this time. Anchor of faith will be released at Fall-In '98! Barrage (WWI) may be released at that time, but may slide to Cold Wars '99. Vauban Siege rules will be released at Cold Wars '99. So will the Campaign rules. Regretably there have been delays caused by some serious problems with our printer. Thank you all for your understanding. From Eric Burgess: I attended the Siege of Augusta convention this weekend and I had a great time. I played in one POA game and two Cartouche SYW games. I also met Craig and Rhett from Regimental Colours. Both are great gentlemen and I hope to see them every year at Augusta. Attendence couldn't have been more than 100 gamers so there were plenty of room to get into any game you desire. The dealer area was nice, with plenty of discounted figures and buildings. Emperor's HQ was selling Minifigs and Battle Honors for $2 a pack. Not a lot of selection, but I was able to flesh out pirates and AWI collection. EHQ was also selling Scenic Effects for half price. There were some real bargains there. Another dealer had discounted all his 15mm Old Glory by 20%!!! This included Civil War, Napoleonics, SYW, and Command Desicions WWII. He is still discounting them even after the show so if you need his telephone number please e-mail me directly. Some interesting games that I saw were the Mexican-American War battle. Chris Hughes did this one. Anyone familiar with Chris's work knows that it was a spectacular sight. Unfortunely, the scenario was poorly designed with the Mexicans winning their first battle of the Mexican American War! Chris fell into the trap that many scenario designers fall into. Troops deployed for board edge to board edge. 4 Mexican battalions deployed behind a village making them useless. I didn't get any feedback from the players so I don't know if they enjoyed playing the game or not. They used rules called "So far from God". For those not familiar with the period, this is a direct quote from Mexican President Diaz. "So far from God, so close to the United States". I watched a Stalingrad factory game, put on by Robert Brown using Squad Leader rules. All the players were Germans while the Russians were run by Robert. It was a "cake walk" for the Germans, but the players said they had fun. One of the more interesting games was done by Howard Whitehouse. It was a campaign game (matrix system) for the conquest of British Isles. When a battle occurred they fought the battle using DBM rules. My friend was one of the Viking commanders based out of Dublin. He ended up winning the Siege of Augusta game metal for his underhandedness, backstabbing, and complete disregard for alliances. A *perfect* Viking. Because the game started 2 hours behind schedule they had to call it quits about 12:30am. They fought two battles during that time period and one was a battle for a fortified town. I ran two SYW Cartouche games. The first game was a simple get to know PK game. I had a RED vs BLUE army setup with equal forces and equal qualities. This is *extremely* boring for PK veterans, but easier for beginners. Both sides used the basic sequence deck instead of any particular country. They also had the same amount of moral chips. The BLUE side (Commanded by the Atlanta crew - Don, Derrik, and Matt) attacked the RED side (commanded by the Charlotte crew - Mark, Joe, and Bob). The BLUE side, dispite losing both of their batteries to cannon fire, were about to smash the RED center and drive them from the field. We had several see-saw cavalry battles on the flank with units routing then rallying to fight again. Good fun. The Atlanta guys really got a feel for the system. When to skip cards, when to buy down impetus, when to go for the throat! The second battle was using the real sequence decks. Prussians vs. Austrians. This was a nail biter all the way through. Early Austrian impetus wins were steadily erruded by Prussian volley fire and tactics. The Prussians finally reduced the Austrians to no moral chips an the game was called. If the Austrians could have won several big impetus rolls they may have been able to turn the game around. As the Austiran commander I was fired twice as the impetus roller! Unfortunately, my compatriot was little better at winning impetus. The Prussians commanders were extremely confident in their abilities, while the Austrians seemed a tad-bit nervous about their troops. The worst situation for me was when my two Austrian line units fired at advancing Prussian cavalry. I rolled *2* ones for there first volley fire. The Prussian cavalry the out maneuvered the hapless Austrians and one of their Cuirassier regiments smashed into my Grenadier unit on the flank sending them screaming to the rear! Anyway, it was a fun game. Craig ran at least one POA game that I participated in. I had a good time gunning down American GIs, but there were several rules questions that came up. The scenario he used is published in THE GAUNTLET. -ed note: the final rules answer is that the gamemaster is always right! Although, in future iterations he may do things differently... In summation, it was a wonderful convention where I got to see old friends and make new ones. Back to Rebel Yell No. 8 Table of Contents Back to Rebel Yell List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 by HMGS South 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