Peter Bull "I was very interested in the ideas of H.G. Wells in 'Little Wars', especially that firing in wargames should always actually take place, and not be calculated etc. This supports my views on the tiddleywink system, of firing - vie have now adopted this to melees, and although the melee rules favour the stronger side, there is always the chance that by really good shooting the smaller side wins. I have been having a series of sieges with equipment made out of balsa sections of walls and towers to make up a fortress ladders, battering rams and siege towers (both working, models). Each tower has a connecting door onto the rampart walks so that when the besiegers reach the walls the garrison can carry out spirited defences at the doors under special rules for door-to-door fighting. It has even happened that the besiegers have entered the fort and by really grim fighting at the doors the defenders have been able to hold them off and finally repulse them, whereas if they make their defence on the rampart, they are usually swamped." John Cook "After reading Tony Bath's article in the May Wargamers' Newsletter, I felt I had to fly to the defence of the 20mm solid. Firstly, I have always understood the essence of wargaming to be (a) originality (b) realism, therefore a ready-made figure and flat at that rules out the se two points. Tony says that even simple conversion takes too long to complete, but in my limited experience, a flat takes twice as long to paint to a reasonable stcnndardl as a 20mm figure. Of course Pt the present flat figures have the m, onopoly of tho ancient market, but I doubt if the quality is, as Tony states, superior to an Airfix 20mm and the point made about 20mm's being looked on from above is ridiculous - the 10mm more of a flat would make little, difference between the two types but the nature of the latter figure would on the other hand detract from its appearance. And lastly, any wargamer who has not the desire to make an original or conversion,, should not have taken up the hobby, time and money may limit people's initiative but surely everybody has the desire. Anyway, enough said, one man's meat is another man's poison. I just hope I have not antagonised too many flat enthusiasts." Barry Edwards "Our interest has swung now from a position mid-way between Ancient and Modern to one almost exclusively Modern,, i.e. Second World War. We use Lionel Tarr's rules together with, naturally, additions of our own on similar lines to cover details not in your book. For example, Engineer Rules by Colin Short which were printed in "Wargamers' Newsletter" some time ago. By a fortunate chance we all have different feelings for the period: Colin is a true-blue Britisher, David Short has Russian sympathies, while I have strong German sympathies. This led us to embark on our present venture -- a fictional though historically-based Modern gone on two fronts. I should explain that I have a lot of time available as I am a Mathematics Undergraduate at London University (which helps my fighting a great deal in the Modern Gerne). Each side, i.e. Allies and Axis,, have a very large map divided into table-squares and used as per Lionel Tarr rules in your book. All the main features of terrain nre marked and the map reproduces, from west to east, approximately the layout of Europe. Thus the Ardennes are represented as the Pripet Marshes, and on my (German) eastern flank there is a 'Poland' and a "Hungary'. Models are no problem since fired by Chris Ellis's conversion articles and von Sengers 'Die Deutscher Panzer.' My Panzer army has, from Airfix parts, has practically all the equipment it needs, from PZKW IV and JAGD 38 HETZERS to JAGDTIGERS and ELEFANTS (thanks to Bellona tank prints, a great new idea). The scratchbuilding bug really got hold of me and my last production was eight T-34s. The only difficult thing about scratch-building is finding suitable Airfix wheels and those from the CENTURION are almost exactly right for the T-34. The campaign is now 4 campaign days old and the Panzers are almost through the enemy lines on each front. It is not unusual for us to have four battles a week, sometimes more. Charles Grant "I was mightily interested in C.S.M. Sargent's contribution to the latest "Newsletter" -- the extract from "Illustrated Naval and Military Magazine" of April 1888 dealing with the interchangevble maps for Kriegspiel. I had the opportunity of using, these maps once, years ago, and they are indeed quite remarkable -- no matter how they are shuffled, moved around or what have you, when put together they form continuous terrain -- road meeting road and contour corresponding with contour, etc. etc. The maps in question were -- and doubtless still are -- owned by Alastair Bantock and his father, at whose home in London I played the maptable home, using the interchangable maps, some years ago. In addition to the maps they -- the Bantocks -- had boxes containing tiny metal blocks, each representing -- on the some scale vs the maps -- a unit in some particular order. For example, one tiny metal block represented "An infantry company in column of route". Another "A field battery in firing position" and so on. When placed on the map, the block occupied exactly the some area as the actual unit would have done on the ground. Marvellous to use. The game we played -- Napoleonic variety, using the Bontocks "flats" -- I remember very well, as it was my introduction to a wargame in which dice decided, within limitations casualties and morale, and I wrote it up -- rather elaborately, I fear in the B.M.S.S. "Bulletin" for February 1954. It the game was something of a milestone in my wargaming career and many of my own rules derive from those used by the Bantocks." Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter # 40 To Wargamer's Newsletter List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1965 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