During the first weekend of this month, a group from the St. John's University Wargaming Organisation, the Military Strategy Confederation, went up to West Point (the U.S. Military Academy) to compete with wargame groups from there and from Annapolis, the U.S. Naval Academy. This is the first time we had a conference with two of the Service academies, and there are few better places to play wargames than West Point indeed the building we played in had its doorway flanked by the cannons that fired the first and last shots of the American Civil War. We arrived early Saturday, and we were escorted, along with the Midshipmen from Annapolis who had also arrived, to the parade ground to watch a parade by the Corps of Cadets. After a rather grand luncheon we started to wargame. As well as numerous boardgames, there were naval miniatures as well as two Napoleonic era miniatures battles. In the miniatures battle I was involved in, our Cadet opponents were minus two of their more experienced commanders, who were busy on exercises, but the British who was commanded by a team from the MSC still had a very tough fight. Several of our battalions were badly mauled taking a village well fortified by the French (the scale was tactical, there being ten or so battalions on each side, with supporting artillery and cavalry). The French, commanded by the Cadets, were holding a defensive position based on the aforesaid village and a long ridge. While the fighting was going on in the village, the Cadets re-deployed their artillery on the advice of a Captain of the Marines, whose advice, unfortunately for them, was faulty and the French lost heavily to counter-battery fire. The town was finally outflanked by some of my troops, the Gordons and Connaught Rangers, but then the French Reserves stopped us from ending it right then and there. Some French Dragoons forced back the Scots Greys, who had just ridden down a Rhinebund battalion, while the Polish Lancers gave the 7th Royal Fusiliers a bad timeg but the French were too weak to follow up their success and we were quickly able to reform and British arms carried the day. During this battle we had broken for dinner, and the people attending had also listened to a talk by James Dunnigan, editor of Strategy and Tactics on designing boardgames. After dinner, there was a shake-up in the French command, and several Midshipmen came to the aid of the Cadets, but to no avail. There was another Napoleonic game in which two teams, both mostly from MSC fighting it out- It was a reconnaisance, with lots of cavalry on both sides. At one time in that game the French commander cannistered his own troops! He had mistaken his retreating lancers for attacking enemy Uhlans and fired. Only after the die had been rolled did he learn of his mistake, but despite that setback, the French eventually pushed back the Austrians. One of the big events was a naval miniatures games for there are a good many naval enthusiasts in MSC. Naturally enough, the Midshipmen were eager to try their hand in command of a battle fleet. Several airstrikes and a pitched surface battle later, it came out that the Midshipmen's American fleet had scattered the Japanese! This was the first time MSC has been beaten by a Service academy at a miniatures battle, so the Navy knows it's stuff, although it must be said they had an MSC "adviser" on their side. There had also been many Avalon Hilltype wargames going on throughout the day and a good many members of the "brass" observed the proceedings. Indeed, every time I looked up I caught sight of somebody's oak leaves! On Sunday, we all filtered back to New York after lunch, after a most pleasant weekend. I hoped, as did all the other participants, that our group, together with the Service academies, can get together more often, in sort of an informal "league". It is a shame Colorado Springs is so far away, or else we could get the Air Force in on this. We think that the involvement of these institutions does give quite a good deal of good publicity for wargaming: and in the Fall we hope to go down to Annapolis to meet the Midshipmen again. I think that our Conference was a most enjoyable experience. Could you get such a thing going in England, I wonder? The West Point team is subsidised by the Academy, and visiting wargamers are accorded the same treatment as visiting ball players when they come up to play West Point teams. So we believed we did our part for the advancement of the hobby/art/science (or whatever you please) of wargaming. Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter # 117 To Wargamer's Newsletter List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1971 by Donald Featherstone. 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