It took me some time to write the next post in this series. A close relative is spending some time (weeks by now ...) in hospital (which eats away at one's free time), and the start of the academic year at my university also didn't make things easier. But anyway, on to wargaming!
We have arrived in Autumn 1988, the 5th issue of Practical Wargamer. The cover again shows miniatures (which is good!), a 16th century battle showing Spanish soldiers attacking English earthworks. I'm always very much interested in the "look and feel" of the games of yesteryear to study how our hobby has changed over the years, and I do look the visuals of this game.
No editorial next to the Table of Contents in this issue, but instead Stuart Asquith has folded his editorial in his column Points to Ponder, again with a plea to subscribe to the magazine. But he also discusses some considerations on the movement of formed columns, having a tendency to deviate to the left (or right), or to converge towards each other, and how to include that in the rules. It's something I never have included in my own rules, although Black Powder (a ruleset we often use for Napoleonics and the Great Northern War) has a blunder table, that forces some units to move left or right against the original intention of the players. Nevertheless, I'm in favour of including a chance for unexpected movement effects, but I mostly them as random movement distances.
Horse and Musket (Robert Wills) describes how wargames (or part of wargames) can be run on an 80s hobby computer. The author describes some of the design choices he made, about what feature to include and whatnot. Near the end of an article, there's an invitation to buy the game directly from the author on two floppy discs :-) The times have changed indeed. Although such an articles is of course hopelessly outdated, It still brings back memories. Being a teenager in the 80s, I was fascinated by hobby computers at the time, and it eventually led to me becoming a proefssor in computer science so many years later. My good old ZX Spectrum still is an object of intellectual curiosity in my office :-)
Pekin 1900 offers an historical account of the siege of the Legations in Peking (now usually written as Beijing) in 1900 during the Boxer War. I've always had an interest in this conflict, even bought quite some books about it, and staging a convention game showing the Siege of the Legations is still something on my to-do list. The article has a nice graphical overiew of the British Legation quarter.
See How They Run (Andy Callan) gives a number of ideas how to setup scenarios that deal with an already defeated army. A "Last Stand" or "Rearguard Action"-type of scenario is of course the obvious choice. The "Dunkirk Spirit" is even mentioned as an example of why such actions can remain in the national memory for a long time. More interesting is the idea of playing individuals that surrender, using a roleplaying game. Players could play the character of the defeated general, the old soldier, the gallant young officer, ... all having different objections of how to get out of situation in which their army has surrendered, and the individual has to make the most of it. Historical examples on which games might be based are given as well: The battles of Culloden and Maiwand.
The double spread of painted miniatures (which seems to become a feature in the magazine) is dedicated to the work of Tom McMillan. His technique? Black undercoat, Humbrol, oils over white for the horses, and flags made from paper.
Raid on Bomarsund (Stephen Allen) describes the historical events in the Baltic Sea in the context of the Crimean War. A good read, but a bit difficult to produce a good wargame out of it, since we are dealing with naval actions, a landing operations, and a siege on a fort. Some vague wargaming suggestions are given, but it's more an inspirational article rather than "here's something ready to play".
Britannia '88 on the other hand is almost pure wargaming, and offers a mini-campaign putting Rome vs Gaul. Various tribes have rolled-for Temperament and Strength characteristics, as well as intertribal relations (friendly, neutral, hostile). Combined with some simple map-movement rules, and a good dose of freeform kriegsspieling (or so it seems), and enjoyable campaign was the result.
In Heroic Leadership on the Tabletop, Arthur Harman describes a subgame within a wargame to keep track of the actions of the general. Every actions leads to fatigue, fatigue leads to lesser movement and other side-effects. A nice approach, very inspirational, put perhaps a but too cumbersome. In the last paragraph the author states "I must conclude by emphasizing that these rules have not been playtested ... ". That is very believable! :-) The tables below only show a little of the detail to keep track of for the commanding officer of an army ...
Cap'n Thou Art Sleepin' Below (Keith Benson) is a what-of article dealing with what would have happened had the Spanish landed with the Armada in 1588. It's a very extensive article, with various forces listed both for the Spanish as the English, but relatively little wargaming information, apart from some general suggestions on how to play this as a campaign. My favourite sugegstion: "Spanish forces fight at half effect for 24 hours following landing, and move at three quarter rate suffering seasickness." The photo of the battle shows some old cardboard Games WOrkshop buildings, and I do recognize them because these still are in my collection today!
The Battle of Freidlingen (Peter Wilson) takes a look at this battle from the Marlburian period. Lots of historical information, but again relatively little suggestions on how to turn this battle into a wargame.
Personalities (Charles Grant) is the kind of article I love. A whole system for generating charcater for one's wargaming campaigns is given, very much in the style of Tony Bath's Hyboria (which is also reference din the article). The colour plates even show some of the figures I seem to recognize from later publications by Charles Grant. I was convinced the mounted lady in green was Tutzi, the Markgräfin of Wolfenbüttel, but apparantly it's a different figure (photo included from Charles Grant's "Wargaming Retrospective, published in 2023).
The Melee (Chris Peers) descries various types of melees and the chance of "winning" them. Melees are subdivided in 3 types: 1/ one side is almost sure of winnng due to psychology; 2/ the melee is decided by differences in formation and or weaponry and 3/ a fight to the death. The author claims only the 2nd type is represented well in most wargaming rules.
In Solo Play (Peter Cox) a few mechanisms for playing solo wargames are explained, but it comes down to having some reaction tables (which are quite undecipherable to me :-)). It shows that having something in one's mind is actually quite different from communicating it to someone else, also in the sphere of wargaming :-)
Seperate Tables by James Oliver explains how to setup naval games using multiple tables, with the purpose of keeping both sides in doubt of where the other side is located. An umpire is recommended, and the whole article reads very much like how to set up a kriegsspiel-type naval game.
Overpowered by Numbers (Rod Rodenburg) gives us an historical account of an action fought between the US Army and Indians in 1791. Not much information about how to to turn such an action into a good wargame is given ...
Wargaming on a Budget (Stephen Ryan) is the article whose content is re-iterated every so many years in the wargaming magazines. The advantages of using 1/72 plastics toy soldiers are given in great detail, with an extensive review of the various ranges available.
Again a pretty decent issue, and that leaves us with showing an advert of my choice. It's coloured one (the first one in the issues so far), and shows two games which I remember fondly from my early gaming years: Axis & Allies and Shogun. It must have been 30 years - if not longer - since I've played an Axis & Allies game, but I do remember the excitement of setting up the game with all its little plastic playing pieces. I've never played it again since, and I don't have any plans to do so. I'm a firm believer that one must not try to relive the memories from one's youth, the danger being the good memories will disappear forever, since the game might turn out not to be that exciting by today's standards. Moreover, good memories are also strongly dependent on that particular period in one's life, and it's impossible to recreate that. So, we can indulge ourselves in nostalgia by looking at an advert, but let's not take it any further :-)
All issues so far:
