I went to the opening day of the Model Engineering Exhibition in London yesterday where I met a lot of old friends who proudly showed me the latest figures they are producing or selling. Without exception, they were all of the highest standard and although one naturally has preferences, there is little to choose between them so that none can really be called inferior. This seems to have the effect upon me of dulling my ability to adequately appreciate all that I see as the figures, some painted, some polished, some unpainted, parade before me in a seemingly never ending procession until they literally blur into a sort of military panorama. It would seem that this multiplicity of models rather causes one to lose a sense of appreciation for their very high quality and range as opposed to the early days of the hobby when new figures were so few that their arrival was a talking point for months. Anyway, even with all that I found myself still sufficiently emotionally involved with the hobby to spend quite a lot of money re-equipping my British Colonial force with new figures! I am planning to hand over some of those who have done sterling service for the last fifteen years to my young son who will no doubt immediately lose them. The hobby is getting an amazing amount of public exposure these days and the publicity is bound to cause changes within the hobby itself and in ones attitude towards it. One "exposure" I noted at the exhibition brings me back to a point considered in the past. It consisted of a demonstration wargame played on a perfectly plain white table with a clump of trees and two long groups of Ancient figures - stretching across the table, facing each other. Notwithstanding the lack of terrain, they presented a colourful sight to the four-deep crowd who milled around the table. I say "milled" purposely because few of them stayed still, wrapt in profound interest for the simple reason that, like the majority of demonstration wargames, it was so mystical and incomprehensible as to be about as thrilling as watching a woman knitting. How can one expect complete novices or people without any prior contact with wargaming to understand unexplained movements of troops accompanied by such mystecious expressions as "You must take a reaction test and then fight 1 1/2 ranks of your men"? The fact that 20-sided dice were also being used added to the mysterious and puzzling atmosphere. If demonstration wargames are to be of any value to the hobby then the participants should forego the pleasure of competing against each other and make their moves simply and clearly with a continuous, sparkling and very elementary narrative accompanying them. The game should be planned beforehand, adequately rehearsed and put on with all the care of a stage production. What passes for demonstration games today are going to frighten away rather than attract newcomers to the hobby. Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter # 119 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