Old Glory -Wars of Marlborough.

As a period I've looked at Marburian on and off for the last 25or so years. I once had a small mixed force of 20mm Higgins and Douglas Miniatures I bought second hand- sold 'em about 15 years ago. I had a load of Minifigs Marburians and painted about 6. Thought about Foundry but never really liked 'em- too stiff and samey.
Dave Allsop was sculpting the Old Glory 25mm range when he died. As a range they are a good bit smaller than most OG stuff and closer to "true" 25mm- wahtever that means. The Infantry are covered in depth with 28 different packs . Cavalry less so since Dave died before these were completedand what we had was finished by another sculptor. Artillery represented by 1 pack of crew and a couple of different guns though other useful guns are available in the ECW and Jacobite ranges- including Mortars and Gallopers.
On the OSW Yahoo group the moderator opined that these had big heads. I don't agree- especially compared to Front Rank or Dixons BUT having said that one or twop do have small bodies. The heads were sculpted separately to be added one all the body variants were done and a couple of the bodies do look a bit small. Still not bad for a range that is getting on for 20 years old.
Ilove the 40mm Drabant Marburian range and am very very slowly painting up several of those without any clear idea of what I'll do with them but I've fallen for the little Bluemoon 18mm range and now have 4 units done and another on the way- I don't paint these little fellas .
This means that on the whole I'm not sure what I'll do with the Saxon artillery in the picture- There are about 80 infantry too- needing basing same painting style no longer to my taste I'd need to "Bring 'em up" before I used them. They date from a few years back when I part owned Reiver castings and we did a GNW range. The Saxons were to be opposition for the Swedes I painted which I think are in the current owners collection but as so often happens other stuff got in the way. They have been in their box since then until this morning... when I was remined of their existance.

Getting into a period. Part 1

Of late - when I read various blogs and magazine articles I wonder how todays wargamers get into a period- especially as the history is now at the back of the queue in these "enlightened" or perhaps benighted times. It a given that ex "president" Tone and his rich mates didn't like history -except insofar as it was cool Britannia and Dave and HIS rich mates are no better(except insofar as they can get punters into the stately pile perhaps). Yet history is still popular- witness the number of "heritage" shows on the box. Nevertheless in olden tymes when ye worlde was a different place players of ye warre gaymes usually got into a particular period because of the history- at least all the ones I knew did. This didn't stop us doing fictional campaigns but we read our history books- how else were you to find out how they did stuff?.
For myself its almost always been the history that has provided the trigger for a new period. In one sense - for me at least there are no "new periods" been there, done that but, having said that there are many nuances and of course it depends on what you mean by "period". To take the "Pre-gunpowder period" for instance in my time I've had Roman Republican and Cathaginian armies. Late Byzantines and Fuedal French(both competiton armies these way way back) several Viking and Norman armies over the years as well as Crusaders, English Feudals and Ayyubid - these are the ones I can remember some at least I've done more than once. I've been through more armies than Genghis Khan
Currently the collection is much more modest and in pre gunpowder terms almost non-existant. Tastes change. I no longer compete so "killer armies" no longer exist, if they ever did.
My main periods now are the 17th century and the 18th century but with a respectable look at the Peninsular War and the ACW - both in 40mm. The ACw is one of the few periods where a figure line got me interested as I saw the origonal Dave Allsop greens for the Old Glory 25mmACW range back in 1990- some of these still survive in the OG WBS range but in their day they were simply streets ahead of all the others but the ACW was really Bruce Catton's fault. His Army of the Potomac trilogy is still my favourite ACW reading. I'm one of those chaps who has to "read himself in" to a period before I do it. The depth I read may change but yes I read myself in whatever period it is.
I suppose I've really mostly been a gunpowder man. Though there was a time when I considered that nothing of much interest has happened after 1485. Knights and longbows wwre the thing - with a few "smokie gunners" for colour. Most of my Medieval armies are gone now barring a few units but I still have the texts ... just in case and a 40mm Wars of the Roses collection which I add to a bit at a time.
Modern- that is post WW2 has always been a minor interest - currently buzzing around in my head- bushfire wars post colonial wars call 'em what you will they have a contining interest. I'm re-vamping my collection here- it use to be 20mm - Cubans Angolans etc but now will be 15mm and consist of a collection of "Battle Groups" - Mostly British but with some Danish who will fight various enemies- Pseudo Iraquis and Afghans. I bought 3 LeopardII for the Danes from QRF . They are not bad but I was just a tad dismayed by the casting quality compared to my Challengersand Warriors- which are of course OG . Mind you they'll paint up OK- better than OK but it will take effort.

The Pictures.
Top
40mm ACW Confederates. I fight regimental level battles using Featherstonian style rules.
Middle. Jose de Henradia Catellan of Ampaosta. One of my few medieval left. I ALWAYS tried to get the Heraldry right. That was the point.
Bottom.
Jim Mains 10mm Seven Years War Austrians. I love the period but won't paint this scale myself. See Jims pont though they look fine indeed en masse.

A day in the life....

That splendid blogger Wargaming for Grown ups often seems to have to fit his wargaming in around his life. It's not like that here - and yet curiously it very much is. Merely because I run a wargaming miniatures company does not mean I do a lot of actual wargaming. Now don't get me wrong here - its my choice, I've tried other lines of work and mostly hated 'em all more or less so there is nothing I'd rather do- at least in the terms of the actually possible, so all of the following is rather simply to illustrate what the hell I spend my working life actually doing - as its not all playing with soldiers.
One of the MAJOR advantages or working from home is the total lack of commuting thank God !! Man when I did it was the biggest pain- waiting for buses standing in the pissing rain or freezing cold- sometimes both or standing in a bus shelter that had been used as a urinal - frequently. No I don't miss it . The Civil service can do without me and good riddance says I.
So I can rise at 7.30 and be at my dest working well before 8.30 should that be needful- which it mostly is- sometimes earlier but no sweat.
Check the overnight emails- anything from Half a dozen to 50 or so depending upon what time of the year- or week it is- always more on a Monday AFTER the weekend.
Its a pretty fair bet that the phone will ring a few times too. I'm a tad old fashioned so am still happy to take Telephone orders. If you are planning to buy a fairly sized army its worth using the phone to take advantage of the "6 for5" deal. We can't do this on the website as the possible variants are simply too numerous(4500 to the power 4500 so my tame tekkie says ) . Our Sagepay payment system isn't able to deal with that. .
So sorted the emails - printed the order out - next job pull the orders from the stock bins and make out the order dockets. I still do this by hand as its the most reliable way of knowing the state of play on any given order- less chance of a cock -up - mind you those can still happen Not often though!.
If the order is Old Glory Sash and Saber or Bluemoon any missing stuff will be added to the next order to be sent to the USA(if it hasn't already). If its from a range I make here- Aircraft ,Romanoff Fireforce etc etc then If I don't have it to hand it goes on the casting list for the next casting day..
At this point my wife Carole enters the fray as packer and posting supremo. She's the other half of Old Glory UK . There are just the 2 of us here. My show crew only help me out at shows for the rest it's myself and Carole. Gophers I have none- don't want 'em.
By now its around lunchtime so usually a quick buttie and cuppa- often interrupted by phone calls - some from customers some from cold calling time wasters - " do you a website " "sell you some phones " " waste your time " - I've had up to 20 of these in a day and can get a tad testy- sometime **** off !!as you slam the phone down is really the only way to get rid of 'em . I've tried polite it does not work .
Afternoons can vary a bit. I may have photographs to take for the website or for a magazine article. I may have a bundle of paperwork to do - the bane of my life- or maybe its casting ., I have 4 or 5 orders to cast for tomorrow assuming I can fit it in and it doesn't have to wait until Tuesday.
Perhaps its a posting day so I'll walk the half- mile or so to our local post office with the smaller orders(larger ones may go by courier). We keep it local. We had a Post Office contract but they cancelled it - apparently the 5 grand a year I spent with them was beneath their notice. My local postmaster was more than pleased to take over. He and his girls do an good job.
The point here is that all of this stuff takes time. Some computer dudes forget that the web isn't real they are only pictures - someone has to make this stuff, pack and ship it and it takes time.
For instance photographs. The number of times I've been asked
"Why are there no photographs on your site"-
Give it a rest man there are over 2500 and still growing.
What they usually means is
"Why isn't there a picture or preferebly 27 of the pack I want to look at THIS MINUTE but have no intention of buying"
Now I fully understand but man a French Infatryman is a French Infantryman.
I have currently a bundle of about 100 pics from several chaps who have kind enough to give me permission to use their work. So I have to go through these - decide which I can use - re-size and sometimes otherwise fiddle about with them. Say an average of 10 minutes per photo 100 photos thats just over 16 hours work. Extrapolating this for roughly 4500 products thats 750 hours- doing nothing else - no wee wee or tea breaks no stopping to answer the phone almost 94 working 8 hour shifts doing nothing else to get 1 photo per code. And that assumes that I don't take the pics myself so
its pretty unlikely that I'll ever get everything photographed before I snuff it ! .
Especially as we keep bringing stuff out on both sides of the pond .
Nevertheless photos are added to the OGUK site pretty regularly As of this morning there were 2181 photos on the site not counting the homepage which has a changeing pic everytime you log on . By the end of the week that figure should have risen.
By now in my "normal" working day its pushing 5 O'clock and I've had enough. I needed to get some painting done but that didn't happen. Perhaps I'll do a bit later in the evening but frankly some days I'm sick of the little lead gits by 5 O'clock and want to think about something else. Fast Cars ... maybe... though that is my petrolhead wifes province Jane Austen... possibly A pie and a Pint very possibly indeed. Perhaps I'll cook. A little Penne al Tonno or maybe a Bruchetta or maybe something a little more substantial say a Chargrilled surloin with an Onion and Mustard dressing with a Green Salad and a bottle of Gamay ... . That will depend upon the seasonbor maybe I'll go to the Hoss or the Mary....
Andy

"Charge- your Pike " and comparative pricing.

An ongoing thread on the Old School Yahoo group about converting Young's Charge rules to the ECW got me thinking so there I was searching for appropriate info on what ECW stuff was available in those far off days when I came upon my copy of Military Modelling ISSUE 1 January 1971.
Afew comparative prices are absolutly intrigueing. I quote
Lamming 20/25mm Cavalry 2 per box - with horses- 7/-each Now as Mil-mod was only 3/- per issue at the time this would make1 cavalry figure more expensive than the magazine.
Translate that to today and you'd be paying a fiver for a single 28mm cavalry figure- given that most of todays glossies are 4 quid plus each - current Miniwargs price £4.25 . Around 3/- (15p) seems to have been the norm for mounted figures back then-(Garrison were 3/- each with fpoot at 1/3d each a box of Airfix would cost you about the same. Some outfits were more expensivew some less so but while comparisons are not exact its interesting that the actual models are in real terms cheaper than they were then - 3 bob was a lot of money certainly 2 or 3 pints (I was a bit young to know precisly) Now asingle pint will cost you about the same as a 28mm Cavalryman Hmmmm choices....
For me -despite the nostalgia for the old days - we have a better hobby now with more competititon - more companies and, on the whole, far far better product- at least as regards figures.
Now the photo is a depiction in 40mm - using my own Jacdaw and Romanoff figures a "battalia of foot a la Peter Young as depected in his article in the december 1969 issue of Bayonet. . I have placed the figures as he had them in the diagram- with the exception of the CO who I have placed- dismounted at the head of his regiement as would have been practice in the 17th century.
Andy

In Search of Reality? part 3

The Gentle Art of the Active Umpire

Funny chaps wargamers - at once very broadminded and incredibly narrow in outlook. Now I'm long past the time where I expect my opinions to influence another. Almost 40 years a wargamer has taught me that rarely happens .
The ongoing discussion on the OSW has revealed little except entrenched opinions- at least in the more wordy cases. Its not really a matter of "wood for the Trees" but rather more often - "this is what I want and all others are wrong because they are not me" - these are the more vociferious you understand - by no means everyone
So it once again strikes me that perhaps I'm not a "true" wargamer in that sense at all but rather a historian who plays with toy soldiers in as historical a manner as he feels like at the time.
One of the surprising things has been the way quite a few chaps simply ignore or dismiss the Umpire as either totally unnecessary(because their chosen rules are perfect?) or merely a scorer or if present limit his role to simple adjudication.
By Gum they- and especially the Umpire himself- are really missing a trick there.
Perhaps Umpire is a poor word.
Borrowing from Role players perhaps he should be the "Gamesmaster" In India he would be "Janghi Lat"- the Lord of War .
In our group his job is to organise the game set up the scenario provide the toys- other chaps help of course- and then run the game to his rules his way. We all take turns.

"The Umpire is ALWAYS right - especially when he's wrong"

is the only rule we have in the T.W.A.T.S. We find we work better that way. Any printed rulebooks is almost always secondary to the Umpires knowledge. In essence the rules provide the mere statistics the Umpire provided the "reality" - period colour, fog of War - general military Friction basically all the stuff that a mere rulebook just can't do the stuff you can't legislate for unless you want a rule set that's like Britannica.
A computer can't do it its too impersonal and it won;'t work with "win at all costs" or "gamey" players.
However we find it does work with chaps who have a sense of period and who would rather play to period than to rulebook.
We've been doing this for years- certainly since the mid 90s if not before ands=d see no reason to change though there are fellas out there who find our approach a bit odd.
What it means is that we tend not to be stuck in a rut. We'll play lots of different games in many different ways- depending upon who is running the show .
For instance - our last game was the Durham show game.- see the earlier post. Our next will be a WW2 Naval affair run by Floating Jeff most likely in the Pacific. Jim the painter wants to do a FOG based ancients game - we haven't tried these yet so the first few games will probably be "by the book" . But we'll see - thank God we are not predictable.
As for the pictures- they simply show that I've dug out my Indian collection and am adding to it. The white background shot shows a recently completed unit of Matchlockmen- from the Old Glory Muting range . Then another shot of my small Dikh wars group and also a shot of WSR Hodson - Rugby school boy - cavalryman and possible purloiner of Mess funds - setting about the mutinerrs with some of his troopers.

It takes all sorts...

The Search for Reality- part 2

THE RESISTANCE LIVES ON ....


The ongoing debate on the Old School wargames Yahoo group which started as my poor first impressions of "Black Powder" has expanded beyond all recognition into dicussions of scale, battlefield Casualties and weapons effectivness. Some of it is pretty esoteric and basically boils down to the differences each of us has when we examine what we do. As an debate it's interesting but unlikly to change opinions. I've learnt a few things so its not been a complete waste but as ever I'm mildly surprised by - in what is a history based hobby - how many apparent "history haters" there are out there. Now that's deliberatly a bit strong and its probably truer to say that its the "empiricists" vs the "gamers" with perhaps a third faction - a small one- the "humanists" - having a bash at both sides as occaision serves .
For myself I'd say I'm a humanist with a shot of empiricism on the side- for me both are important. The "numbers racket" of the empiricists is a foundation and helps us quantify the quantifyable- weapon range movement speed etc. But the human element - mewmoirs battle reports history books prints and paintings put the flessh on the bare skeleton of the number crunchers.
Were our hobby a mere "gaming excercise" for "FUN" I'd be doing something else - watching paint dry perhaps or reading Paradise lost .
There are - contrary to the "Funsters" (another faction perhaps) many kinds of enjoyment and while I find some of them peurile that does not make them wrong in any way. Live like you wanna live Dude but that works both ways surely?
Now to be honest there is no such thing as a perfect set of rules - various systems do various jobs at various times. I shudder to think how many rulesets I've tried in 40 years but that doesn't stop me trying, maybe I'll get a bit of insight into how this or that worked.
In 40 years I've solved the odd problem- at least to my satisfaction latterly I've found most problems can be sorted by an Umpire who knows hisa stuff.
Quite why so many wargamers are anti- umpire I can't fathom. Its seems to be based around the fear that they may end up being one. Twaddle !.It's fun - in the broadest sense- espeially with adult players who also know the period. Its the normal way we run games at the T.W.A.T.S.. The idea of 2 player "head to head lead" no longer has appeal- I've done my shareand want a different experience one that - in an ideal world is intellectually stimulating , socially diverting and yes even that overused word !fun" - oh and preferably with beer in it ! .
What I don't want is to be patronised by over glossy rulesets with buckets of eye candy and comparatively thin content . Told that they are the best thing since sliced bread (to be fair NOT by the publisher) and if I don't like 'em I don't like fun - well not that kind I prefer to use my own brain thanks You can continue to plumb the shallows if you like
I'll not be dumbed down ...
The Resistance Lives on....
Andy

The search for Reality- part 1

Descending to the Trivial

Now here we go again - while at War Torn last weekend I was given a copy of the latest Wargames Illustrated. I hadn't seen a copy for around a year for which I'm truly grateful. The magazine is bright, colourful and has plenty of very pretty- and some far from pretty pictures in it so style 7/10 - losing a few points for being a bit on the chavtastic side- I kept expecting page borders to be fake Burberry pattern- will succeeding issues arrive in a dayglo Vauxhall Corsa 2.4 with extra chrome?? .
Levity aside however upon perusal the magazine once again appeared to be written by and for the "yoof" market. "Its da gamin' innit" .. This size - in terms of page numbers is impressive but the content other than the pictures is almost nil. The depth of its triviality is spectacular. The distance between advert and articles is to all intents and purposes nil. Its a far far smaller magazine than it was in the Duncan Macfarlane era.
This got me thinking again - dangerous that ! Has our hobby become irredeemably trivial in its own eyes

Think about it most hobbyist in other fields don't view their hobby as trivial insofar as they practice it. It's something they enjoy at whatever level only we- as far as I know have a section of our practitioners who feel so insecure about what they do that they trivialise it perhaps as a defence mechanism. It has to be "easy" or "quick" or "simple" or some other weasel word that makes us less than we should be.
Now don't get me wrong I'm not in favour of permanently sweaty browed calculator wielding accountant-a -likes but neither does it have to bethe "bang you're dead" (with pretty pictures) that seems to be the norm in some quarters.
This - at least for me- ties in with a wider debate about "realism" in our games. Now the current discussion on the OSW group regarding the "Black Powder" rules has highlighted a few points upon what constitues "realism" for most of the debaters it seems to centre around how this games mechanism works or does not, but, in my view there are many layers of "realism" that we can put into the game before we get to mere rules.
Leaving aside the obvious one of model realism- are the toys painted and made up as their historical protoypes would have looked like - or if Fantasy does it have an internal logic of its own ? .
What you might term"organisational reality" - Could the units in your model army (or toy soldier collection) have fought in that time at that place in that manner(in those trousers!)?- This is more of a "does it feel right" question
At its simplist level that for me is "No macedonians fighting bloody Aztecs " but equally it could be no cavalry and infantry in the same brigade at that time in this place. Or perhaps - as it says in Black powder " Baker Rifles in the case of Britsh Napoleonic light infantry" (page 176)- this is twaddle they didn't . Light infantry regiemnts carried muskets Rifle battalions carried Rifles and is a small example of the simplfying to the trivial that seems to be current.
My point here is that - although many do know such statements to be twaddle other either don't or will seek to use it to ganin some trivial little advantge which simply would not occour had they been historically accurate. Another case- a custome recently bought a bundle of BMW motorbike combos for WW2 simply becase a loophole in his chosen rule- which may or may not have been FOW made these supertroops. "It gives me an advantage" he repeated ad nauseam. Being the chaps I am - an not really caring much I took his money and kept my gob shut but I did find it a bit sad nonetheless. However to be fair this chap wasn't claiming any kind of historical justification but simply wanted to score points off his mates - nothing actually wrong there then .
No I suppose my prime objection is that the simplistic lobby have the flooras its diffcult to argue with the "my brain 'urts when I fink" brigade because they trot out the "its only a game " liturgy over and over again like the responses at Mass.
And Finally- for the moment. Visual realism- a couple of pics of my collection King David has his correct Heraldry as does John Scymengour his standard bearer. The pikemen are from Denzil Holles Regiment of Foot in August 1642.A couple of months later and they would be a lot scruffier.