Wargaming in Brazil
"How do you do? We are a small wargames club, and would be very interested in renewing our wargaming with new ideas from other wargamers. As far as we know, we are the only such group in Rio, although I would not go as far as to say we are the one group in the State.
About two weeks ago, one of ours chanced upon your book "Wargame Campaigns" and brought it to our attention in the following meeting. It hardly needs saying that it was the one topic discussed that meeting. We found the majority of your ideas very good, mainly the ones on morale and also the "matchbox" method for secret movements (it had always been one of our main difficulties, because rarely, if ever, one of us is willing to be the umpire). We. of course, immediately wrote to Stanley Paul, asking about your remaining books. Before the reply could arrive (in fact it has not arrived as yet) the same one of us that had found your "Wargames Campaigns" found your "Wargames Through the Ages" (which also took the place of all topics in our last meeting) in which we found with great pleasure your address and also found out that there were magazines dedicated to wargaming.
Although it has been already more than a year since we first started meeting for wargaming, when you pointed out the inherent advantages of forming a club, did this subject of formalising our status as a group arise. At the same time, a long delayed plan of expansion gained new life, in view of so many available magazines and the seemingly big number of companies involved in the manufacturing and selling of both miniature soldiers and wargames (board).
We now have about 500 miniature soldier of the Napoleonic period, roughly half of them French and the remaining shared by the Scots and British. We have hand-made about five 'forests', many gun carriages, wagon trains, etc. All our soldiers are Airfix, which are not very good for wargaming because of their too varied positions. We are thinking of raising our Napoleonic strength to about 1,500 soldiers, if possible including some Allied units such as Dutch, Austrian, Prussian, Russian or Spanish (guerrilla) units, as well as equipment. It would be ideal if this new acquisition could be of one only position--bayonet forward advancing. So we would trouble you to the extent of asking you to send us the addresses of companies that could fulfil this order for us, as well as being able to send us spare supplementary material such as plasticine for rivers and roads, 'rocks', wagon trains for supply trains, houses, etc.
Some of us do not agree that all table-top battles should be fought in miniatures. They defend that boardgames with paper counters are better, at least as far as field strategy is concerned. In their name, we would very much appreciate if you could send us information upon these, such as the main companies that deal with them, etc."
President Clube dos Jogos de Guerra
48 Hour Pass
"I always used to think that stories of wargamers temporarily giving up the hobby with the of family responsibilities were just "old husbands tales", but I have found this year that babies leave one with neither the time nor the mental energy required to get absorbed in regular wargaming.
However, I recently managed to get a full '48 hour pass' from domestic duties and the enclosed offering is the result. Oh, for bachelor days again! (or failing that, retirement).
National Army Museum
"Two pieces about the National Army Museum in your July issue! Thank you so very much. I was delighted that you were able to give so much information about the Summer Club and you are one of the few people to have been interested in the L'Eveque watercolours.
Research and Information Officer, National Army Museum
Colonial Period
"What is the appeal of the Colonial period? It is asymetrical. The troops have firepower, discipline and steadiness, the tribesmen have numbers, mobility and endurance. Troops win in open country, or in sieges, but tribesmen win in rough country. Whereas a battle between similar armies (Greeks/Romans or Napoleonics) becomes a complex chess-game, a Colonial war involves more generalship - not 'how can I fight him' but "how can I fight him on my ground'.
The troops' win eventually - but not always. Often the two sides so feared or underestimated each other that a crushing defeat could be inflicted on either side. After Prestonpans comes Cullodeny; after Little Big Horn, Wounded Knee; after Isandhlwana, Rorke's Drift.
In short, the regular symetrical wargamer with his troops in squares and lines, jackets of proper facing for the regiment, etc., likes a tidy, orderly world of calculated probabilities, The Colonial wargamer likes chance and unpredictability, the double or broke gamble. In Dungeon and Dragon terms, one is lawful, one is chaotic."
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© Copyright 1979 by Donald Featherstone.
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