Sunday 26 April 2020

People that influenced your wargaming 1.

 During the lock-down there have been various lists compiled on social media platforms listing such things as best albums, paintings etc. Best lists are very subjective and personal but sometimes its found that a lot of people are influenced by the same choices.
  So I got to thinking about the wargamers and wargaming personalities [hate that word] that made a huge impression on me and my early wargaming days and basically helped me to make progress in the hobby.
 These people could have written a book that changed ones life and put you on the road to wargaming madness.They could have sculpted a range of figures or wrote some articles for a magazine that fired up you enthusiasm or they could have simply done something that triggered you to join the hobby.
 For me I have considered the people or events that steered me in wargaming and my pursuit of wargaming nirvana.
 So in no particular order I would like to start with George Gush who in the 1970's and 1980's was very active, especially if one was interested in the Renaissance period. Gush was also an active Ancient wargames exponent and member of the Society of Ancients.
 During the 1980's and 1990's I was deeply interested in wargaming the renaissance period but like so many others I had little information to help with my interest.
 Luckily I discovered George Gush.
 For me his Renaissance Armies book was and still is the go to book for getting some basic information regarding armies and periods in Renaissance warfare. When the book was first published I was desperate to own it but couldnt afford the expense.
  In the end I was lucky enough to negotiate a hire purchase deal? to buy the book from my local wargames and model shop. Imagine that happening nowadays, a shop owner taking pity on some poor guy and allowing them to buy a book in installments.
 Gush regularly produced articles for the various modelling and wargames magazines but in 1979?? he authored the wargames rules for Wargames Reasearch Groups Renaissance period.
 John and I played these for many years and my copy is a well thumbed battered mess. I loved the rules even though they contained the dreaded tables for firing, melees and morale.Eventually we stopped using them simply because we tired of the endless tables. They are still a great set of rules and of their time.

Naturally there were army lists produced by WRG for the rule-book but Gush clearly attempted to produce no super competition winning armies but historical ones instead.I still have and re-read my copy looking for inspiration.



   George Gush wrote a lot of articles about renaissance wargaming in the Airfix Magazine and it was logical that he should contribute to their series of booklets for wargamers and modelers. This is still an informative read after all these years and another book I return to frequently.

During the 1970's and 1980's quite a few books were published regarding wargaming. It was a period of rapid expansion of the hobby and I assume George Gush was approached to produce one.
 A Guide to Wargaming was just such a book. For me its a  lovely generic wargaming book with a cracking image of a Hinchliffe heavy gun on the front. What was not to like. One should remember at the time we wargamers struggled for information and books like this and articles by Gush were simply gold dust. He never disappointed in his concise and informative accounts of the Renaissance period.


One  such article and one of my favourite wargaming features was written by Gush for the Battle magazine and concerned his re fight of the Battle of Pavia. John and I pawed over the account and naturally used it as the basis for our refight.
 I seem to remember that George Gush spoke of publishing a book regarding the Eastern nations during the renaissance period but sadly it never surfaced and sometime in the 1990's George Gush disappeared from the wargaming firmament and never contributed anymore great articles about the period that he had so actively promoted or about a hobby he clearly enjoyed.
 I would like to think he is still wargaming his beloved renaissance period and finally editing his next wargaming book.




18 comments:

  1. The airfix guide with it's grainy black and white photos and army lists is what dragged me into the hobby, great book ,I'm on my second copy having loaned the first one out in the hope of finding someone to give me a game! Nice concise history of the conflict too!
    Best Iain

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    1. It is a lovely book.They were filled with information which I struggled to source.

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  2. I am always surprised that given the importance of George Gush, I missed him and I can only imagine that is due to him not covering any of my prime Periods.

    My top 6 influences are;

    1. Airfix - the first thing in my life that took my money off me and gave me a passion for opening boxes and pulling out sprues and just doing the whole playing with soldiers thing as a kid.

    2. early 70's picking up 4 books, by Featherstone (plus his newsletters), Grant, Quarrie and importantly, Discovering Wargames, by J. Tunstill. These took the figures off the floor and had them manoeuvre around a table, a magical time.

    3. The sizzling summer of 1976, a by chance discovery of the magazine 'Battle'. I can't remember the editor's name.

    4. 1977 Discovering a shop that was rammed with boardgames and I picked up my first military boardgame ... Cobra in the S&T by Brad Hesell. I have been captivated by boardgames ever since.

    5. 1979 John Hill (my favourite designer) Squad Leader 4th edition 1977 - gave a life long passion for structured WWII tactical games and even today I fight (with) ASL!

    6. 1986, in the same rammed shop mentioned above, a chance meeting with fellow shopper Mike, who has been my regular Friday night opposite number ever since, fighting every campaigns and battle imaginable.

    Good stuff!

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    1. Although George Gush was clearly deeply interested in the renaissance he actually wrote some scenarios re the Second World War. In the 1980's he was very active and then later simply disappeared. Bruce Quarrie was the editor of the Airfix Magazine and Ian Heath the illustrator in the Renaissance Armies book also worked for Airfix.It was a small world. As for the Battle, I love this magazine and am lucky enough to have the whole collection. It was a real shame it closed.As for Tunstill, he was another enthusiast who pushed the hobby towards where it is now. There were some great wargamers out there.

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  3. Robbie, this is an interesting post that requires some thought and contemplation. It will be interesting to see if others are influenced by a similar core of firestarters. Responses will likely be age dependent but for those of a certain age, "influencers" may hold much in common.

    Gush is a good choice and one whose works I enjoy. "Renaissance Armies" is a classic on the period. Somehow, I collected three copies... His line drawings and illustrations are inspiring. "A Guide to Wargaming" is still a good read and applicable in modern times. While I have yet to try a game using "Wargame Rules," I enjoy reading through it.

    I may put together my own thoughts on early wargaming "influencers."

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    1. Great Johnathan. In these troubled times its nice to take one back to when we were all struggling with the hobby. The rules were played to death by me and my long suffering opponent John. I really loved these rules but looking back one realises its actually the period that made it enjoyable and the rules were secondary.

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  4. Those books bring back so many memories. I still use The Renaissance book for reference and inspiration ( mine is red) and we had just restarted using his Renaissance rules and army lists for gaming prior to lockdown. They are still great fun and give a good game in my opinion. I really enjoy the ecw game in the guide and it inspired me when painting old Minifigs ecw figures recently, not to mention the Airfix cottage.

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    1. The red book was a first edition. I had to wait until the green one was released, I dont think there was that much difference. It is still a book I read when I want some inspiration even after all these years.

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  5. A very interesting post. He also wrote a series of articles on ECW wargaming in Miniature Warfare magazine (late 60s, early 70s) which got me hooked on ECW at the time and another book "Discovering English Civil Wargames" which I still have.

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    1. I forgot about the Discovering book and actually have the book. Sorry I omitted that. I did only buy it last year as part of my mania to collect old wargames books.The Miniature Warfare was a cracking read, sadly I only have the first three volumes.

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  6. My older brother and I played 'wargames', Airfix ACW flicking marbles actually from about 7yrs old but the first tickle as it were was from the book The Wargame by Brigadier Peter Young £3 in 1972 and brought in by one of my mates to school. I was fascinated and got the book for Xmas.
    Shortly after Charlie Wesencraft did a talk on the battle of Otterburn in Morpeth town hall using his medieval figure collection to show the manoeuvres, I was the only kid in the place. I have met Charlie a great many times since then and what a lovely man, he even helped me with my own Otterburn collection.
    Happy days.
    Dave.

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    1. You lucky so and so, Charlie is a great speaker and always entertaining. When I went to interview him what should have been an hour ended up an all day affair.The man is a gent.

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  7. Renaissance wargaming is perhaps my second favorite after the Napoleonic era, so of course Gush was a big influence, although I never cared for any of the WRG style rules. My introduction to Renaissance gaming, though, was via one of my big influencers, Charlie Sweet. Chalie hosted a number of games at his home in Bristol, CT, for a group of Wargamers from the University of Connecticut, featuring different periods each time. The Renaissance game really caught the imagination of myself and my friend Joe Fish. My early wargames experiences and influencers are covered in my series "Of Dice and Tin Men" https://blundersonthedanube.blogspot.com/search/label/Dice%20and%20Tin%20Men

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    1. I was always envious of the wargaming scene in the USA especially of the big conventions. I have very little information re Charlie Sweet but am lucky enough to have some of the excellent Wargames Digest and Tabletop Talk. Jack Scruby was a great exponent of wargaming.

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  8. A most thought provoking post Robbie. It will be more than interesting to see your subsequent choices. For me it would have to start with Featherstone and Grant as wargames giants, but top of my list would be Wilf, whose surname I have long forgotten, and who first pointed me to Alumwell Wargames Society when I was buying Hinchliffe figures for something different to Airfix from the long gone model shop he worked in then.

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    1. I think we all have a Wilf David. Mine was a chap who posted an ad in the local pet shop? He would probably be locked up now.

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  9. Robbie,
    I still have all those books. You need to put your skills to work and find out what happened to him I would be interested to see what you find out

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    1. It is a strange one Graham. Gush seemed to simply disappear from the scene, I hope he is still kicking about writing his opus re the Renaissance.

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My 6mm Napoleonic set up.

My 6mm Napoleonic set up.
Austria 1809.

Austrian Hussars

Austrian Hussars
Hinchliffe figures

Austrian Grenzer

Austrian Grenzer
Austrian Grenzer

Smoggycon 2013

Smoggycon 2013
Smoggycon 2013

Smoggycon 2012

Smoggycon 2012
Smoggycon 2012

Smoogycon 2009

Smoogycon 2009
My French getting another beating