"We all enjoyed a great trip to California last summer. I managed to cover a few places of military interest although this was mostly to National Parks. Did get to see the following - Civil War Battlefield at Lexington, Mo.; U.S.Air Force Museum at Dayton, Ohio; Fort Point, San Francisco, Calif; Fort Tejon, Calif. (pre C.W.); San Diego Naval Base where we toured the LSD USS Thornaston as guests of the captain. However, from a wargamers view I should say the high point was having a cup of coffee with Jack Scruby at his plant in Visalia. I took along my 10 year old son Michael who was suitably impressed. Very pleasant although Jack was at the time in the midst of moving and so very busy. Bought a set of Jeff Davis Mississippi Rifles to commemorate the event. My N6 outfit will be training at a Virginia site this summer so should see some Civil War stuff." --Terry McGurk of Connecticut, U.S.A. "My academic interests are with Early American (and parallel British) history and accounts for some of my fervour. I have started a listing of wargamers of this era either as primary or secondary periods. I request name, address, description of collection, information for exchange and anything else of note, plus about 40 cents US to cover postage and reproduction of lists. This covers all supplementary lists also. If there is any particular subject you would like covered in "Wargamer's Newsletter" I have access to a large University library plus an extensive one of my own. I will gladly do such an article, without duplication in another periodical. I am really interested in making hard to find information available." --Stephen E. Haller "I very much enjoyed Don Houghton's article. If he is worried about the Inniskillings, he should see the troubles I have had with the Buffs! I agree with Stephen Reed's remarks on playability. It is only too bad that those who come forward with new ideas on rules are so often regarded as upstarts. A case in point is the article by Gary Gygax discussing an article by Robert W.Jones. I am familiar with Mr. Jones' set of rules, Le Jeu de Is Guerra, and I find them very well thought out and very logical. I align myself with Mr. Jones on this question of national differences-prejudice. If the British infantry of 1812 were supermen, what does that make Andrew Jackson and his sons of the pioneers?" --Justin M. Nicholson of Louisville This last year I have been more interested in board games - Avalon Hill type than with table games. I constructed a large board with a hex grid on a map of Spain, and re-fought (with myself) the whole of the Peninsular War, using pieces of Brigade strength. I had a great deal of trouble devising rules to handle the peculiarities of the Spanish armies -- the fact that they could scarcely be wiped out, but only dispersed for a moderate period of time. Of course, this took only a fraction of my time - for I had to read the whole of 'Oman'. I have recently played the Avalon Hill game FRANCE 1940 and the corresponding Guidon game DUNKIRK. If anyone you meet wants to know which is the better, I can say definitely that DUNKIRK is unplayable -- too many pieces, too many moves required -- whereas FRANCE 1940 is quite fascinating, and provided some of the optional rules are omitted, can be played in about 4 hours. Not your cup of ten, I know." --Robin Merson of Farnham "I would like to say how much I enjoy your magazine. Strangely enough I do not now wargame with miniatures, nor have I ever. Even so, I find every issue fascinating, and usually useful. My main interests have been 54mm miniatures and boardgames, but it looks like you will soon have me into miniatures, once I get back to the U.S. in September (which will be bad news for my bank account)." --Robert E. Culbertson Jr. "Considering that I am virtually a layman when it comes to wargaming, having delved thrice into bare table-top battles, with the board covered in confusing chalk marks denoting roads, river, etc., and a copy of "Wargames" for Spion Kop, that has to be thumbed through briskly on the point of an argument, upsetting a cavalry division of eight dashing hussars, who were just about to go careering down it's 'slopes', I find that learning the rules is, of course, no use unless I can really understand them!!! With this in mind, I would like to draw your attention to the fine display of facts and figures in Appendix I of Philip Barker's Rules for World War II (Normandy) wargames. This, to me, is certainly the most intriguing and mentally demanding of all the "Wargames Eras" and as I have no working knowledge of tanks or Cuns, calibres or muzzle velocity, it is qul-te hard to appreciate which tank gun is better than the next, and so on, even after going carefully through the Appendix, helped by a score of library books, each it seems, telling a different story. So, I appeal to any kind wargamer, if possible, for a list of guns in order of merit, or perhaps the name of a book that would give me this, along with maximum ranges, etc. As far as the Appendix is concerned, I find it hard to believe that the 6-pdr Sabot was better than the U.S. 90mm, German L.70 and L-56 and what is more important the British 75mm, which later Churchill tanks were equipped with, after scrapping the 6-pdr, on the earlier marks. It certainly seems most confusing. Where does the short 75mm (L24) come in comparison with the 50mm (L60)? and shouldn't the 88mm on the Tiger I be more than a match for the Soviet 85mm? I would like to mention the Armour Protection lists, and please ask why the turrets of Tiger I and Panther have not been mentioned, what about armour on the rear of the tanks, and why is there no mention of the hull sides of the Churchill 7 and Centurian tanks, and in fact most important, how do the Crusaders and Lee/Grants compare with others for armour protection? Lastly, after reading scores of books and still not findinf', answers to the above questions, I am finally stumped by the term "Hull Down" - Please, Please tell me what it means, everyone seems to use it, but with no explanation. Well, thanks for being patient, sorry the letter is so long arid drawn out - I hope you can help!!!" --Brian Gregory of Yelverton, South Devon "I shall take this opportunity to say what excellent value I find the Newsletter; I, for one, would willingly pay a few more pence per copy which would, I imagine, make a considerable difference in meeting rising production costs. While opinions may differ on the merits of some of the articles in the Newsletter, the great thing about it is that it is a Newsletter for the whole Wargaming world, which is something that no other magazine has succeeded in becoming, though I can think of at least one with such pretensions. On the subject of conventions, the problem seeins to me to be a result of the way the venue is decided. The prime requirements for a convention are good facilities (which are not available everywhere in the wargaming wold), accessibility from the point of those travelling to the convention (which certainly does not apply to the whole wargaming world, e.g, Dundee), and finally a good committee of organisers (there is no reason to believe that wargaming ability is associated with organising talent) with plenty of support (a team only requires a few individuals). The present method of allocating next year's convention to the winning team does not ensure any of these. It seems to me that the only way out of this is to have a National Body (possibly under the auspices of the National Wargames Association, if that ever gets off the ground, possibly not) which would meet at the convention to decide where the next one would be held and who should hold it. Such a body would be in the position to base its decision on the factors that I have mentioned. It should invite applications from clubs or associations of clubs. It would be able to insist that all applicants provided details of their plans if they wished to be considered. These details would include the nature of the accommodation proposed, the events and categories of competition proposed, the sets of rules that it was proposed to use, and some indication of the support the application had amongst the local clubs and their members. Obviously such a system will act against the chances of small clubs in out of the way places, but I think it is open to question whether such can ever hope to organise a successful Convention, be the organisers ever so dedicated and efficient. While the above tend to be counsels of perfection, I do think that it is very important that continuity is maintained in this year's Convention, and that everything possible is done to ensure this is a success. It seems to me that while there is some doubt about the wisdom of holding the Convention again in Leicester, it is not very helpful for Birmingham to have a rival event at the same time. Despite the tone of Mr. Groombridge's reply in the February Newsletter to Phil Barker's article, I hope that it will be possible for the organisers of the rival events to come to a compromise, if only for the sake of those of us who might wish to attend them. Perhaps you would be prepared to offer your own good services to aid such a reconciliation?" --John Norris of University of Warwick "While I am writing may I make one or two observations on points raised in recent copies of the Newsletter? You said some time ago that wargamers were very lucky to have available to them models of the quality of Miniature Figurines, Hinchliffe and those designed by the late Les Higgins and I would like to add a very hearty endorsement to this. There may well be other models on the market (apart from the very, very expensive ones) which are good but my collection is confined to the figures of these three and I think that for imaginative design, variety and good value for money they are unbeatable. The slight discrepancy in relative scales which many of your correspondents have noted can be overcome by confining Hinchliffe models for instance to one particular period. I was recently tempted by an advertisement (not in the Newsletter) to buy a few pounds worth of Ancient figures of a firm that shall be nameless to add to the excellent P.8 range of Minifigs and was horrified at their poor quality. They were indistinct, disfigured by flashing and so badly cast as hardly to be solid models at all. They were so flat as to be classified really as 'half-round'. I had the heart neither to paint them or to put them on the shelves with Minifigs and the rest. One day I shall melt them down and try my hand at some casting! At Christmas I bought "Decline and Fall" the new boardgame and I should like to pay a wholly unsolicited tribute to the designers. Tt is in my opinion a far better game than "Diplomacy" to which in some ways it bears a slight resemblance. It is also far better than the ~onger and more complex (and duller) boardgames available from the States. It reduces the conditions surrounding the crucial years of the Empire before and after the fall of Rome with considerable historical accuracy. It is for four players and does not take more than a couple of hours if played briskly. I played on Boxing Day with two Doctors of Philosphy and a Classics scholar with a particular interest in Ancient history, I took the Roman Empire and the game in fact ended prematurely as I grew over confident after playing the Barbarians off against one another and raised a Hun Federate army in Byzantium, threw the dreaded six and found that they had turned traitor! The Eastern Empire collapsed before the Goths made it to Rome but one and all agreed that it was an excellent and instructive game. I thoroughly commend it to wargamers." A.J. Mitchell of Woldingham, Surrey "Although there are now several "glossy" wargame periodicals, I still prefer the Newsletter for its warm and frienly atmosphere. I may be wrong, but I feel that the hobby has now become far too complicated and lavish; the Newsletter brings back the feel of the "old days" of wargaming memories which shall always cherish. Keep up the good work." --Ronnie James of Ireland Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter # 133 To Wargamer's Newsletter List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1973 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