Ancient Weapons "I found an interesting book in the local library - "Weapons of the Ancient World" by Rivka Gonen in the Cassellts Introducing Archaeology Series Book 8 - price £ 1.50P - which could act as a "primer" to anyone interested in ancients. It is a small book, well illustrated with photographs of actual weapons or archaeological reconstructions. Part One deals with short range weapons starting with the mace and progressing through the axe; sword and dagger; spear and javelin the last two being treated separately. Part Two treats with long range weapons - sling and bow; and goes into some detail on the various types of bow - the simple bow; the reinforced bow; composite bow and Scythian bow. It goes on to talk about the Gastraphetes or "belly bow" invented for Dionysius I of Syracuse. Part two continues with arrows then catapult and ballista and their operation. Part Three deals with Defensive Armour and Part Four with the Chariot. I think the illustrations show good examples - tho I am no expert - either a photograph (some in colour) of the weapon or showing the weapon in use from a carving, frieze or bowl decoration. There is a list of illustration sources in the back which proves quite international. There is not a great deal of detail and perhaps some members of the Society of Ancients would consider it elementary from their standpoint of considerable knowledge. I think it a more than adequate introduction, well set out and reasonably priced. The authoress is at present curator of the Jerusalem City Museum." David Barnes of Basingstoke Infantry Drill "I was reading parts of Infantry Drill Regulations for the U.S.Army 1911 (corrected to April 15 1917) and it made me realise that the British Army was not the only one to be beset by Colonel Blimps!! On page 127, No. 537 states "Machine Guns must be considered as weapons of emergency. Their effectiveness combined with their mobility renders them of great value at critical, though infrequent, periods of an engagement." No. 583 states ".... but they are quickly rendered powerless by efficient field artillery and will promptly draw artillery fire whenever they open." I wonder what the survivors from the Battle of the Somme would have said to that!! I suppose it is a little unfair to criticise regulations drawn up by a staff unprepared (as I suppose all staffs were) for warfare on the scale of the 1914-18 struggle. No. 536 which is a summary Df "COMBAT" has on the other hand an axiom, which would have been of great help in the Vietnam War. 1) Avoid combats that carry no chance of victory or other valuable results" Though there is an ominous warning in 13) Do not hesitate to sacrifice the command if the result is worth the cost." Peter Laing of Hereford Good Reads "There are three interesting articles in the July "History Today" - "Horatio Gates: Washington's Rival"; "Baron von Steuben: Washington's Drillmaster" (both bicentennial) and "The Albanians: Sixteenth Century Mercenaries" (on the Stradiots). I have recently read two good books by John Ellis: - "A Short History of Guerilla Warfare" covering rural guerillas from biblical times to the present, which should be of interest to skirmish wargamers, and "The Social History of the Machine Gun", mainly covering the period from the American Civil War to the Great War. This is, as it's title suggests, more a study of the effect of the machine gun on society, it's use and misuse in colonising undeveloped countries, and the failure of military thought to grasp it's potential; whether Custer's failure to take his Gatlings to the Little Big Horn, he French in 1870 to realise it was an infantry weapon, or the allied leaders to grasp it's power in defence, e.g. The Somme; than an account of technique and tactics. This morning I found in our local Library "Command of the Sea", a history of the strategy and Tactics of maritime empire. The author is Clark G. Reynolds, Director of a department in military and aritime history at the University of Maine. It is a hefty volume published by Robert Hale at £ 6.50p covers the period from the earliest river civilisation to the present day. I think I am in for me heavy reading, since I have also borrowed a new edition of Burn's "Persia and the Greeks". I have been on a coach tour of the West country again, and this time fulfilled my ambition to Plymouth Hoe. Looking at Drake's statue I could not help feeling it is a pity we have not got Drake nowadays to deal with the Amins and Angolans." W.T.Thurbon of Cambridge Armchair Club? "The letter from Mr..Tippetts published in the very interesting July Newsletter has given me an idea. Who would like to join me in founding an Elder Wargamers' Armchair Club? Condition of membership, to be over 60 (I myself am 75). Object - to run a very gentle postal campaign, suitable to our age. With my commiserations to Mr. Tippetts on his failing health and my best hopes for its improvement." A.H.S.Cocks, West Wittering, Sussex Society Recruitment The Victorian Military Society is growing steadily in membership although numbers are small as yet. Stuart Asquith and I have done a series of demonstrations at exhibitions to try and promote interest in Colonial wargaming, but it is a slow process! The last game we did was a re-enactment of Camerone at the Osprey weekend held in Belvoir Castle, where we used the "Colonial Skirmish Rules" and 54mm Britains and Timpo French and Mexicans. After six hours solid work, we had managed to recruit one new member!" Ted Herbert Rules and Attitudes "There has been much said lately about both complicated rules and the attitudes of wargamers to their game. I am in full agreement with the need to have simplified rules which are not a drag on the game, yet at the same time I have seen games using simple rules come to a grinding halt because someone has found a loophole (a 'tactic' increasingly used by some wargamers today) or a situation has not been explained in the rules. You may be interested to learn that NWC (No 1 Wargames Command) is offering 'Modern' wargamers a new service from July. A department is being created known as the 20th Century Research Section. This body will help wargamers in their research into the battles, armies, equipment, etc., of the 20t Century by answering telephone queries on Tuesday evenings between 7.30 and 9.00 or written queries sent with a S.A.E." John Traynor, Hounslow, Middlesex Not One of Us "I was very tempted to write you following Mr. Cordery's letter in the June Newsletter, and your July Editorial has set the seal on my determination! As secretary of the local wargaming club (the Chase Militaria Society), I am happy to report that, once weekly, I get together with a group of people that contains not one of the type that you and Mr. Cordery - complain about. Of course, we all do our best, but I am sure I speak for all of us when I say that, at least at CMS, tthe game's the thing!' Just one example - a few weeks back, in a naval engagement, the 'Prinz Eugen' was lost following a magazine explosion after a lucky hit by a small-calibre shell from a British destroyer; afterwards, the British players were the first to admit that their victory was due, in no small part, to this one lucky shot (e.g. lucky dice roll). We get round the problem of unbalanced forces in the following manner; at our weekly meetings, we will at a given meet decide the game to be played two weeks hence, and a member with know experience of that period is given the job of setting it up. The week before the game, we select the two opposing C-n-Cs, who are given maps, OBs, appraisals and so forth, and have a week to think about things until 'Der Nacht. On 'Der Nacht', the setting-up member will act as umpire, and if he has not done his job properly in setting up a balanced scenario (lucky dice, etc., apart) he is usually told in no uncertain terms by both sets of players! Of course, it can be unbalanced in the sense of a large attacking force versus a small defending force, but then the victory conditions must be tailored accordingly. I wonder if most clubs get as campaign-orientated as we seem to have? Certainly, it can be one way of getting a supply of ready-made scenarios for club games. At the moment, besides the inevitable Diplomacy, we have a Western Front microtanks ongoing, Cedar County in New Mexico (it actually abuts Pima, by kind permission of Mike Blake, and I once had to 'spring' him from a Cedar Count jailhouse), 'Jasta' (with a club trophy at the end, if anyone survives that long, which begins to look less and less likely), 'Dungeons and Dragons' (me: In desperation, Flangius throws umpire at Jar'. Umpire: 'You miss. Umpire rules ceiling falls in on Flangius') with, on the stocks for imminent commencement, 'En Garde!, 'Battle of the Atlantic' and a World War 2 aerial one!" John Withers of Walsall Scale Sizes "To return once more to the much worn subject of the various scale sizes of figures made by the different manufacturers. You know my preference and prejudices, but I have recently "discovered" Rose Miniatures - but the thin- which has moved me to write is the disparity of scale between 20mm figures made by them and Hinton Hunt. I have not seen the "Rose" 30mms but I suspect that they might well fit in with Hinton Hunt's 25mm. With this in mind, might I suggest a possible way in which this whole business might be sorted once and for all. The major point in its favour is it's enormous value to the ever increasing population of wargaming enthusiasts. It involves collecting together one sample wargame figure, preferably in the same or similar position, from each firm willing to participate. It would be necessary to present both the smallest and the largest usable figures - perhaps from 5mm to 54mm would suffice. (Assuming anything larger is probably used for display only). Placing them in a line and then either drawing or photographing them - thus providing an immediate visual clue as to there comparative heights:- Thus -" G.F. Hutton of Paignton Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter # 174 To Wargamer's Newsletter List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1976 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