The editor has lamented that this newsletter is becoming a mouthpiece for his rules and not by his choice. The fault is the lack of material on other rules and gaming activities. There are indeed plenty of other rulebooks and related matter upon which to develop a profusion of diverse themes apart from those based upon the editor's rules.
While the time periods covered by this newsletter encompass most of recorded human history and many years before that, it is not the most popular. I am not sure where Ancient and Medieval periods fall within the range of popular periods. It must be of interest to enough gamers to have spawned so many products over the years. There is definitely enough interest to sustain NASAMW, SOA, and more recently the Longbow and Lance Society. The timeframe also encompasses the early years covered by the Pike and Shot Societies (US and UK).
All of these organisations have their own newsletters, and then there is the one you are currently reading. So without doing a lot of research, I count six newsletters of specific interest to anyone, who plays games up to the end of the Medieval period. In addition, we can supplement these with the more general gaming magazines. The Internet repository of gaming magazines, Magweb, makes it easy by indexing articles by time period. For those who only want to read about a specific period, this is a benefit as it reduces the time needed to check each of its magazines. I am not working on behalf of this company, but I do want to draw examples from it later in this column, so it is only appropriate to mention it now.
I am not aware of any statistics that illuminate my comments, if there is someone with such information, please let us all know. The only figures that I have seen in recently published material are of the Warhammer Ancient Battles rulebooks (10,000 WAB and several thousands for the supplements). The editor can probably add his known sales figures plus the number of draft copies provided to playtesters, thus giving us an idea of how many can (rather than are) use his rules. WRG sales of the various DBx rules and army lists have been brisk on a global scale. Armati and the Hack series have carved out their niches, as both are regulars at the major conventions. Archon, Might of Arms, Day of Battle, and others currently being produced, have attracted interest.
In addition, there are many more rulebooks no longer published, which remain popular. NASAMW continues to support WRG 7th Edition and has sought the rights to publish amended versions. Many conventions host tournaments using older WRG rulebooks as well as products from other publishers, which are equally dated.
If I have not mentioned others, it is probably because I am not aware of their status, either in production or out of production. I hope that I have not offended anyone by my oversights. If I have, well then, may be it is time that they received more attention from their support base or author in these pages.
Beyond tabletop products, there are many boardgames and computer games that could share space in these pages. One that comes to mind is the Great Battles Series (Alexander, Hannibal and Caesar) from I-Magic. It has developed a good support base from which a number of additional scenarios have come. I have used it as a filler for those times that I want a game and there is no human opponent. I prefer not to play with myself. Nonetheless, these computer games do permit the playing of tactical games.
Age of Empires, Caesar (I, II and III) and similar games cover strategic aspects of military operations, albeit within the larger scope of a political game. Real time strategy (RTS) games are quite popular and cover the entire spectrum of human history and beyond as well as fantasy and science fiction. There has been little written about any of these computer games, and yet it is quite likely that many of us have copies or have played these games.
I have previously discussed the role of the Internet in our hobby and again there has been little written about what information can be gleaned from this source. Recently, a friend sent me a list of sites to check for information on Mongols, particularly their military equipment and operations. I also bookmarked some sites pertaining to the Roman army. My bookmarks include many non-historical sites listed under wargaming. I have this directory sub-divided into painting, shops and general. I have found some very useful painting guides, an excellent listing of figure manufacturers and shops, and most of the major gaming organisations' websites. Most of my magazine reading is done through Magweb; either by period or by magazine. This certainly reduces the need of space to store magazines.
I have kept most of my gaming magazines because I like to go back and read articles. The SOA CD-ROM index was a great aid for locating articles by subject and I have many Slingshots dating back to the late 1960s. My Spearpoint and Saga collections date back to the 1980s. If nothing else, I can trace the changes in the community's understanding of history. It is fun to review how the composition of tabletop armies has changed because of new theories and archaeological discoveries.
There have been some battle reports of late and a few articles about tabletop employment of armies. Figure, book, magazine and other reviews are of interest as well. It is nice to know what is available and how it compares to other products before buying. I would certainly like to see more of these.
There are no new or amazing revelations in this column, just a few reminders of what could be submitted to the editor. Hopefully, more will be inspired to write so that the editor does not have to fill the pages or impose upon friends.
So what are you the readers of this newsletter going to do to change the status quo?
Back to Saga #74 Table of Contents
Back to Saga List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 2000 by Terry Gore
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