A Great Way to spend a Sunday.

Several months ago, I bumped into Charlie Wesencraft at the York Show and I invited him to my home for a SYW game.As things usually pan out, the months dragged on, and things got put back. Anyway, I was finally able to get Charlie over for a game.
 I was also able to get Paul Stevenson along at the same time, I suppose it was the nearest thing to North East war gaming  glitterati one could get. So with John there as well, you are talking of a right group of veteran wargamers.  I wont steal Paul's fire as I know he is writing an article for the Minature Wargames magazine, by describing the battle.
 But it was Charlie's first try of Blackpowder, which proved interesting, and the end result was even more interesting. Instead, I will just publish some of the photographs, with a few dodgy comments.
 Just for the record, John and Paul were in charge of a Hanoverian, Hessian command, while Charlie and I were in charge of the French.

              John looking askance as his entire command failed subsequent command rolls.

A view from the French side, notice the well ordered ranks.

A view from the Hessian side, as one can see, the Hessians had taken a bit of a thumping. 

Charlie, advances the French Gendarmerie and dragoons.

Paul, taking photographs for his article.

Not one of my better ideas, sending unsupported hussars up a road in the face of Hanoverian grenadiers.

Paul opted for a sledgehammer type of move, with little room for maneuver, no doubt he will write something different in his account.

My heavy cavalry command, the photograph actually is deceptive, I never charged the infantry.

Arqubusiers de Grassin, attempting to help my attack, by taking the village.

Charlie, pondering whether it was a good idea to come. At the edge of the table are the French reserve, looking resplendent.

John did actually get his commands to move, and get amongst it.

A view from the Royal Italians.

 Another view from the Royal Italians, perhaps not their best.

Never wargame against an ex Royal Artillaryman.

A staged photograph of Charlie's successful cavalry command.

 A regular sight for my command, retiring from the table in disorder.

I must admit this was a really enjoyable game. Fighting with wargamers who really know their stuff. 

It was a pleasure to chat with Charlie about wargaming, especially when we got him to talk about his first meeting with Donald Featherstone and Charles Grant. The stuff of legends.

Charlie has very kindly agreed to do a sort of interview with Paul and me about his story and also his views on wargaming.

For the Last Time!

I promise I wont touch on this subject again, well unless someone presses my buttons in the wrong order.
 But I was laid the other night in bed reading my latest Wargames Soldiers and Strategy. The article concerned Lt Leach, winner of a Victoria Cross in the first world war.The article was by a chap called Mark Backhouse, and although not a period I game, I always like to read about different periods.
 As an aside he mentioned that he had recovered from a school skip a series of books titled The Times History of the Great war, which I found quite spooky as many years ago I salvaged from the side of a beck in my village,the self same books. I loved the pictures in the volumes, but being very young, I soon became bored by the text. The books eventually ended up in a school skip! [ I'm only joking] they actually ended up in the local landfill.
 Anyway I will return to my point, in Mark's final paragraph he wrote those words, ''I always worry about glorifying war''.
 A simple throwaway phrase.........
From there I returned to the latest Miniature Wargames editorial by Henry Hyde, where he talks of the latest Bolt Action dice bag displaying the motif of the Africa Corps.
  Henry goes on from there to say that ' some people ' would be offended by this display of a contentious badge. He goes on to counsel wargamers that we should bear in mind that our hobby might be seen in a very different light by some people' [ my words]

The Offending Badge.

So whats my beef,one may ask?
 Well its quite simple really. Has there been a diversity/on message conference recently that some wargamers have attended, and in order to show that they are on message they have decided to become hyper sensitive to ' some people'
 I emphasize 'some people' because this is a group one hears and reads about that are offended by everything. They must be a majority of persons because they can get legislation introduced, and actually get people who are not on message imprisoned.
  Mark Backhouse is worried about glorifying war, so he wargames! Surely if he is that worried, become a monk, or other worthwhile activity.

 Henry Hyde is worried that 'some people' will be offended by a dice bag displaying the badge of the Africa Corps. When my father bought me the Airfix boxes containing the Eighth army and the Africa corps, I'm certain it never entered his head that he was disrespecting his fallen comrades and he had actually fought in the Eighth army against Rommel.

 I'm not saying run around dressed as a guard from Auschwitz, but lets get a bit of balance here. We paint and play with toy soldiers. We read military history books. If 'some people' are offended, give them a voice, let them explain their offense, perhaps then I wont feel like the hobby is starting to be infiltrated by an insidious creeping political correctness which has created an atmosphere of fear and paranoia.  

The passing of a giant.

DONALD FEATHERSTONE; 1918- 2013.

I think by now most of the wargaming world will be aware that Donald Featherstone passed away after some type of fall at home.
 I cannot write as a friend of the great man, and therefore can only write as a wargamer inspired by Donald Featherstone.
 When I was just starting out in wargaming as a teenager, I would often envy the talk of the meetings in Southampton where some of the great figures of wargaming met to do battle.
 Without Donald Featherstone, Charles Grant, Tony Bath, Peter Young, Charlie Wesencraft and a small band of enthusiasts wargaming would not have taken off the way it did.
 I dont think one can give the total credit to Donald Featherstone, but without his drive, enthusiasm and knowledge I believe that it would have been harder for wargaming to take hold.
 One of my regrets was that I discovered his magazine Wargames Newsletter just as it was going out of business, it has taken me years to collect some of the issues. I still read them and I still find them worthy of interest.
 So 2013 is very significant for two reasons for wargamers', the anniversary of the release of Little wars and the passing of a giant of wargaming.
 Personally I think it would be wonderful if all the wargaming publications could come together and create some sort of award to honour the work done by Donald Featherstone which could be awarded each year to an individual who has done a lot to further the hobby. Just an idea but it would be nice.

A thank you....

I think it is very gratifying that so many wargamers have taken the time to reply to my musings, ie last nights post.
 Its also nice that while we have different views, we [ I mean wargamers] know that playing with soldiers, is really a wonderful but harmless hobby.
Thinking about it more deeply, I have to admit I am attracted by the ' glamour' of war.
What male wouldnt like to don the uniform of Napoleon's Chasseur a Cheval of the Garde.
 Bugger the fact he tried to take over Europe, he knew how to dress his men to look good. It still doesnt make my love of military history and playing with toy soldiers somehow wrong. Far from it really.
 Anyway thanks for all the comments, and yes Andy I will be at Gateshead, hopefully buying more soldiers.
 Which leads my indirectly on to a Kevin Bacon moment, ie favourite uniforms throughout history.
 In Achtung Schweinhund, Harry Pearson [ where is he by the way?] talked of Blandfords military uniforms of the world book and his top ten of uniforms in the book.
 Well, in third place, I have to admit I have a huge soft spot for the uniform of the Grenadiers of the 7th regiment from the kingdom of Naples, ie the regiment Africa, 1812. The white bearskin, and yellow facings always looked the dogs bollocks, ignoring the fact they weren't very good troops.
 In second place is the attire of any Polish winged hussar, especially if they are resplendent in a tiger skin, not really a uniform per se, but its my list.
 In number one spot, and still there after twenty plus years, the Lancer de Berg, original uniform, of white and deep crimson. My definite babe magnet attire.

Miniature Wargames September 2013.

  I must confess that I have always enjoyed the column written by Mike Siggens in the wargames popular press. Love him or dislike him, he always brought up some topic that piqued my interest.      Additionally being a bit of an anorak like him, his tips on paint and brushes were always of great interest to me. Hence the hundreds of jars of paint that I own.
 Anyway and here is the but,....in his latest 'Thoughts from an Armchair'  Miniature Wargames September 2013, he mentions that he is recovering from an operation, and this has led him to re appraise his wargaming.
 I don't know Mike Siggens personally, but I would suspect that he is of mature years, ie, over 50.
 Add to that having just had an operation, I would think he now realises that he is mortal, hence his look at life.
 That seems fair enough, in fact, I have gradually been rationalising my wargaming, and selling off things I don't really require anymore. Mind I seem to be replacing them with bigger and heavier toy soldiers.
 Anyway the crux of this post is where Mike Siggens states that, ''he now has some ethical concerns about what he is doing.''
 I assume he means collecting and playing with toy soldiers. [ I assume he thinks this is glorifying war]

For me ethical concerns are for things like , starting an unjust war, telling lies in parliament, and cheating generally, ie Tony Blair.

 This ethical concern about wargaming raised its head many years ago, when CND and the other loons saw wargamers as an easy target, hence the banners outside of some wargames shows and the change of name for the Reading show. Then of course we had the brief arguments about colonial/imperialist wars where the native population got a hammering by those terrible Europeans.
 In some ways its a bit like the fracking protests, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Research something thoroughly before you become appalled and protest.

   So I am going to generalise here, but most wargamers are not warmongers, are usually non violent,
[ unless someone picks up their figures by the pikes, ] and are all round decent people.
 A bit strange sometimes, but there should never be any doubt about the ethics of collecting toy soldiers. It is a hobby that encompasses, reading, painting, learning to lose, model making and numerous other skills.  I know some wargamers who won't wargame modern conflicts, and up until a few years ago, I wouldn't wargame past 1870.
 I think that was more to do with the advent of khaki than any moral reason.
I also remember the brouhaha about the Waffen SS reenactors being at Salute, in bad taste probably, but ethically wrong, I dont think so.

 So is wargaming ethically wrong? For me, no.
 I would have been lost without the hobby.
 Have I ever felt I was glorifying war? Never. Trying to understand it perhaps.
 So for me, carry on playing with toy soldiers, and be proud of what wargamers do.
Here endeth the lesson........................



    

A small addition to my Austrian forces.

I was lucky enough to purchase three units of painted Hinchliffe figures from E Bay.
I may be wrong but I think they may be by Phil Robinson of 1980's fame, or certainly someone copying his wonderful style. Anyway, I've now completed the second of these units, by adding two extra companies and touching up some minor damage.
 I still love [ perhaps too strong a word] Hinchliffe figures, and can't help collecting them whenever I see some well painted figures. My poorer efforts are tucked away at the rear of the unit. I just couldn't replicate the black lining and grey undercuts of the other figures.

If anyone can actually identify the painter I would be very grateful. I also attempted to keep as much of the original basing as possible, as that was also well executed.

By the way, as means of a plug, I have also added a new post to my sister log. Aut Cesar.......

Wargaming Compendium, a review.

Moving on from my last post regarding reading material, I was lucky enough to receive my copy of Henry Hyde's WARGAMING COMPENDIUM from Amazon over a week ago.
 Some people complain about Amazon,but I couldn't fault their service. I have had this book ordered for months, and they kindly sold me it at the original ordered price of £16.00!
 Anyway, I should firstly confess I have only read the first six chapters. It is a very large book of over 500 pages, and I only read when I go to bed, so my time is limited.
 First impressions are very good.
 I must confess, I am a bit biased as I had a run in with Mr Hyde over two years ago, and I wasn't impressed with his rudeness, however I wont let it detract from his efforts.
 The idea is a very good one.
 The majority of wargamers are of an age that they assume everyone knows what wargaming is about, the scales, rule ideas and general concepts including how to collect and paint figures.
 This is a flawed assumption, and if we wargamers want things to carry on and actually grow then we need to be able to point new gamers in the right direction. This book fills that void admirably.

   Mr Hyde, starts with a brief history of the hobby, a good place to start, and then leads the reader through various books etc. that helped shape the hobby. This again is a great idea, as hopefully newer gamers can explore these ideas. I particularly liked his recommendation of Achtung Schwienhund, one of my favourite wargaming books.
 He then leads us methodically through choosing a period, and how to create battlefields. These seem pretty obvious to veteran gamers, but if you are just starting out, this is great.
 From there the book leads us to assembling our forces, scales costs etc, all obvious but a good way to educate a new wargamer.
 I am currently on the chapter regarding campaigns, skirmishes, etc using rules.
 Again basic ideas, but very relevant.
  Amongst the detail in the book is the influences of Games Workshop, fantasy etc, and also the current trend in rules.All very relevant.
 Would I recommend this book, from reading just the first six chapters,with another five still to go?
 Yes I would.
 Although it doesn't have the style of Charles Grant and the Wargame, or the panache of Peter Young and Charge. It definitely has a place in the wargamers library.
 
 If I had obtained this book in the mid 1970's I would have read it to death.
 All you need to start wargaming is there.
 Most importantly for fathers looking to get their children into the hobby, or for a person attempting to interest a friend or neighbour then this book should help a lot.
 The book currently retails for £35.00, but at least it will be relevant for a few years unlike some similarly priced rules.
Any criticisms? Henry Hyde names figure manufacturers, and I know there are a great number.
 However, regularly citing Perry, Warlord, Victrix, Bacchus tends to point new persons naturally in that direction.
 As regards great value for new wargamers, one can not look past Old Glory and Irregular Miniatures.
 Still only a minor gripe.
 Definitely worth a punt, but I still think Mr Hyde was rude.