The Old Guard and the New, 1977

I couldn't help sharing this...

It's from May 1977 editorial of Donald Featherstone's Wargamer's Newsletter (which rather marvelously is online at http://fourcats.co.uk).

It actually ties in with some discussions I've been having recently which touched on the influence of wargaming on early RPGs.  I was pointing to the debt that Gygaz et al owed to Tony Bath.  It's interesting to read Featherstone pontificate* on the subject.

*I suspect that this is an 'Editorial Voice' and not necessarily reflective of his own view.

I particularly like the last sentance.  To paraphrase: 'this D&D stuff is rubbish, but at least it's brining youths to proper wargaming'.  It's a sentiment I hear today about 5e.

But there's also a rather sensible letter in the following issue  (which is every editor's hope in writing a provoking editorial). 

I was interested to see your, and Mr. Griffith's remarks on the direction in which wargames are going. I hope however that rather than looking back we can go forward to new and better developments, rather than indulge in a rather pointless debate about whether Fantasy games are "wargames" or not. 

All this is doing is defining wargaming, when we could be pursuing studies of strategy and tactics rather thant Just as we are all free to devise our own rules, based on personal interpretation of the facts, so I hope this hobby will never become ravaged by a debate as to whether a particular activity belongs to it or not. 

Rather than criticise Fantasy and/or Boardgames, which after all must entertain their respective adherents, unless they are masoehits!, we should strive to improve "standard" wargaiming so as to lure these heretics baek to the true faith! 

Long may Wargamer's Newsletter continue. 

A. Harman of Walsall.

Actually, there's quite a lot of interesting stuff in the magazines even if you fall on the D&D side of the table.  The Minifigs' advert for pig-faced orcs alone... And it is very well put-together, given that it was the age of typewriters and rotorary duplications.  I see many zines today that can't match it's production qualities.

The History of Wargaming Project

Earlier in the week John Curry put an interesting post on the History of Wargaming Blog outlining various options for the future of the Project.

It seems that there are no shortage of interesting options, and John has thrown them out for comment.  I'm rather surprised therefore that there haven't been any comments so far.  I urge my wargaming readers to go across there and chip in (knowing my readership I suspect you'll all clamour for more from the Paddy Griffiths ouvre rather than NHS emergency planning!).

A declaration of interest - Diplomatist Books sells publications of the History of Wargaming Project in our Modeling and Wargaming category.

This Week's Interesting Obits

Donald Featherstone (d. 4 Sep 2013)
Wargaming pioneer
Daily Telegraph 4 Dec 2013

I'm not going to bother linking to Mandela obits.  They're everywhere...

Click here to visit the obits page

Wednesday Welcomes and the Postman Doesn't Deliver

Well giving away prizes is having the desired effect, bringing in new followers - no doubt all big hairy wargamers attracted by the prospect of winning a postcard of Princess Mary's wedding party.  [It's a post for another day on why, when the stats show that the great majority of visits here are to the royalty pages, most of the people who 'follow' are wargamers.  I have my own theories: it's about community spirit.]

Anyway, by the power of alliteration I can give a Wednesday Welcome to:

• Ray - from Don't Throw a 1, Battleaxe Painting Service and Ray's Music Emporium

• Francis - from The Angry Lurker

• Lee - from BigLee's Miniature Adventures

• Mike - from Mike's Wargaming Blog

Welcome all!

Well, with these and my existing followers, I seem to have attracted the Big Beasts of wargaming blogs - a daunting prospect!  I almost feel I must apologise for my lack of gaming content...  Hopefully there's something here of interest though.

I had hoped to post today about additions to the lead pile, as I've got two orders I'm waiting for.  One, no doubt, was the parcel that wasn't delivered on Saturday due to inadequate postage - grrrr!

The Wife actually complained this morning that I had no figures for her to paint.  I pointed her to the pile, but she'll only paint figures for the Pulp Alley league she's creating.  Apparently she's got a list, but she hadn't communicated it to me or ordered them for herself.  I did go to Modelzone this afternoon and got her some bits and pieces for her airship project.  I also got a model kit for my nephew's birthday which she thinks is too complicated for him and I really got for myself (a check with my sister confirms that he and his dad will have quality time over it).

The postman did bring me a free book though - one I've agreed to do a review of for a journal.  Like everyone else I love a free book, but sadly my dog choose to attack it betwixt the postbox and doormat and it's now worse for the experience.

Moley and I had a discussion this morning...

I Like It When a Plan Works Out...

I'm sorry for not blogging much this week - I've been a little busy with the research services and The Wife has had to visit her mother, whose had a new knee.  This has impacted on my leisure time...

But there has been opportunity for some fun.

Before The Wife went away I'd bought Pulp Alley as part of my master plan to get her interested in wargaming.

As I've explained before, a prerequisite for this is to remove the 'war' aspect.  She's not keen on squidgy monsters (which rules out most of the Cthulhu Mythos) and, sadly, won't harbour killer robots.  However, back in the day we did share a thing for Intrepid Explorers and she is, among other things, a Lady Archeologist and a Bogart fan, so Pulp Alley seemed just right to get her attention.  And it has.  And oddly, she doesn't seem to mind squiddy (as opposed to squidgy) monsters, so they might very well be making an appearance (as might killer robots....)  [She doesn't read this blog.]

Several discussions on league rosters followed in order to prepare shopping and to-do lists.  'We must have a league with Queen Victoria in it' and 'So I can have a Viking as a side-kick, right?'  [This prompted a discussion of the possibility of having Doctor Who and Companions.  It's not going to happen.]  I agreed that it was perfectly possible to have the Viking, as he is likely to be one of the survivors of a Lost Colony found in the Far North who joined the league due to the debt of honour he owes the leader.

I had planned to spend this week-end ignoring any work or household tasks and to work on the Aeronef, but I had a bit of a rush job come in yesterday.  In the end, I only found this afternoon available for such 'mucking about'. So, thinking of the wise man who said that you can never have too much terrain, I knocked up some crude fencing, an even cruder outhouse and a couple of ponds.  You never know when you might need a fence, a pond or an outhouse...

Anyone know who does 28mm ducks?

I even resurrected my pyramid scheme.  Sadly though, an attempt to give it a sandstone look is more akin to apricot!  [Was it John Hurt or Jeremy Irons who got into trouble with the Irish authorities for painting his castle pink?]

Part of the master plan of getting The Wife involved is that she will then teach me crafty techniques...

Some Housekeeping and Bloggers for Charity

It seems that over the last couple of weeks I've attracted some public followers (anyone else thinks this is all a little cultish?).  I've been remiss in not welcoming you to the party, so here goes....  Welcome!

Before we play a little game of 'Pimp Your Blog!', I feel I should mention the old hands.  Special mention should go to the First Called, Mike Beedenbender; next came Michael Awdrey and JP  - those of you who read the 'comments' sections of posts will know that Michael and Jon make welcome and interesting contributions there.

The newer recruits are TasminP, Sean, Andrew Saunders and Christopher.  I hope you find things of interest here, despite the lack of focus on figures and wargaming.

I and know from the stats that there are others who follow, but prefer to hide their lights under bushels. I've used this picture before, but I like it and it says what I feel.

So, the blogs...

• Mike Beedenbender - Sorry Mike, do you have a blog?  I can't see it.
• Michael Awdrey - 28mm Victorian Warfare
• JP - Herefordshire 1938 and A Very British Civil War Miniatures Guide
• TasminP - Wargaming Girl
• Sean - again my fu has failed me.  You came via the BMF didn't you?
• Andrew Saunders - Loki's Great Hall
• Christopher - Dispatches from the Rim

Andrew is also one of the Minds behind Bloggers For Charity.  

This is a collaborative project, bringing together wargamers and painters to raise money for Help for Heroes and Men Matter (a testicular cancer charity).  They aim to do this by running a large skirmish game and re-fighting the Battle of La Belle-Famille at Triples 2014.

The battle took place on 24 Jul 1759, along the Niagara River portage trail during the French and Indian War.  A French relief force for the besieged garrison at Fort Niagara fell into Eyre Massey's British and Iroquois ambush.  Originally a British victory, what will happen in May 2014?

For more details about the project, how to contribute and how to donate, go along to the Bloggers for Charity website.

Pimping the Wargaming Girl

I've spoken before about the generous custom among wargamers of having great milestone giveaways on their blogs.  Well, the Wargaming Girl is celebrating 100,000 visits with no less than five days of prizes.

Here they are:-

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

On Give-aways, Gaming and the British Civil War of 1938

Lately I've been following several historical war-gaming and miniatures blogs in my copious spare time.

One thing that strikes me is the generosity and community feeling that some of these blogs engender. Not only do they share work-in-progress, experience and painting guides, but there's also a strong tradition of marking milestones by having give-away competitions.  These can range from physical prizes to services such as painting.

The latest competition is over at the Herfordshire 1938 Blog which is celebrating its 20,000th pageview - congratulations to JP, who has constructed a very interesting and entertaining website!  JP is offering to write a background (or 'fluff') for factions in the game he plays.

Now, I know that because of the scatter-gun approach of this blog, many people reading this won't have the slightest interest in war-gaming or miniature figures.  I think, however, it's worth bringing attention to this blog because it's concerned with a game/period which might be of interest to those who come here for royalty and odd historical miscellanea.

"Abdicate be damn'd!"

That's because the game is one called A Very British Civil War (VBCW) .  It's an alternative-history senario based in the late 1930s.  The premise is that Edward VIII refuses to bow to pressure to abdicate in 1936, forcing a greater constitutional crisis than that in reality.  The Baldwin government feels obliged to resign, and Edward appoints Oswald Mosley (leader of the British Union of Fascists) as Prime Minister.  This abandonment of the democratic principle leads to civil war.

As Jon says in his blog 'one of the most attractive facets of VBCW is being able to research the history of your own area and interweave elements of this into a fictional narrative'.  As is obvious from his title, Jon's area is Herefordshire, but I've also seen examples for Shetland, the Midlands, Essex and others.

All sort of fun can be had with historical and pseudo-historical figures and movements.  Factions proposed by the game's creators include the Edwardian Loyalists, the moderate Anglican League ('Middle England at War'), the Albertines (the Government in Exile elects Prince Albert, the Duke of York, Lord Protector), right-wing extremists, left-wing extremists (including the Liverpool Free State and the Glasgow Reds) and various nationalists (Scotland declares independence and there are movements to do so in Wales and Cornwall).  But gamers are encouraged to create their own - sometimes (very) irregular and humorous - factions.

Basically it's a question of 'old maids bicycling to Holy Communion through the morning mist' but with Lee Enfields over their shoulders and hand grenades in their panniers.