I was born in East Orange, raised in Bloomfield, and went to school somewhere around Newark until my parents launched an exodus across NJ. I have been lucky enough to travel abroad. I read, play a couple of musical instruments, like movies, and do what I can to improve a rapidly aging body and mind. I currently work in Texas and live in Florida. I have moved over two dozen times in my life. My tiny armies and navies have followed me on my march across the US. Eventually we hope to end our nomadic existence and settle in one place.
10mm Perrin Miniatures, the beginning of a rather massive body of figures representing armies of the American Civil War. The figures have a gray primed surface. White would brighten them up but I chose a dark grey to speed things along.
The Perrin figures are attractively sculpted and nicely detailed without any overkill. The poses are limited but sufficient. They offer a really nice range with a certain daintiness but seem to tower over GHQ while looking a bit like AIM figures on a diet. A nice choice though difficult to locate. The Last Square does offer the full range.
When I look at these, I feel like I owe Tom Meier an apology. Where is all that gorgeous facial detail now buried under a layer of poorly applied acrylic paints? Well, they are not quite done. Leonardo Da Vinci said art is not finished but abandoned. Though not art, it applies here. There is a point where you give up, where you have chased things far enough.
I have always wondered about the motivation for creating this line. It was certainly poorly represented at the time. Even now, the 15th century mercenaries and the wars they fought remain like some remote thing seldom mentioned. When I bought my first packs, I purchased arquebusiers thinking that anyone carrying a gun would hold a significant place in battle. Oops.
Meier had urged Ral Partha refocus on fantasy figures. The market for fantasy was considerable compared to the rather limited number of people who might even have heard of landsknects let alone were eager to buy a package of them. The Condottieri Range was never easy to find in the dark ages when there was no Internet. The Ral Partha booth at Historicon had an enormous box of them for $1 a piece at the time.
Sadly, the range was never expanded though it certainly cried out for a greater variety. Grenadiers in marching order might be indistinguishable as individuals but landsknects were much more varied.
Now, I look at the large group of figures and see it as a sign of misspent youth. Lots of figures but not enough. Lots of painting but hardly adequate. In fact, the figures remain unused while a set of Hinchliffe English Civil War figures purchased at roughly the same time have seen routine use with additions from Old Glory and Wargames Foundry. In some ways, the incredible detail and the limited variety has kept me away. Now, I am looking again and can hopefully offer something to showcase Meier’s brilliant achievement.
I think I understand why people play golf when they retire, not that it seems anymore meaningful to me but I like to think I understand, the way I think I understand why the blue head wrasse produces a super male. It is not relevant to my life but nice to know why people make these choices.
I reach retirement age shortly and, after years of avoiding staff reductions and hanging on through half a dozen, I will finally be set out to graze. Not that I can look back on a lifetime of work with considerable satisfaction.
My best moments are odd ones and few related to work. I recall an intense period of on-call overtime working through a charity event featuring Nell Carter. I went down to the abandoned service trays of food at 5 in the morning and ate what I pleased. It was not good but satisfying. Not much else stands out in my mind except a long history of working for people who wanted to make programmers superfluous. Moving IT centers to India seemed to be the next best thing.
But of course this is neither here nor there. People get what they expect to get. At one company, a programmer found a discarded printout showing all raises and ratings everyone was to receive at the end of the year. Somehow, we always lived up to their limited expectations.
Ok, so I will retire but I am not going to play golf.
Written by Sid Smith and Ken Smith published in 1974 by London Wargames Section and one of those ubiquitous little spiral bound volumes that seemed to dominate back in the mid 70s. An earlier staples version of the rules exist as well.
The rules cover skirmishes in Japan from 1100- 1500AD. Figure scale is 1 to 1, ground scale 1” = 2 1/2 ‘. One turn equals one minute. The game is designed for 25mm figures.
The game sequence is order writing, fire, move, melee, and morale tests. Hidden movement is simulated using real and dummy makers. There are limits on organization. Each player is represented by a figure on the board. Figures permitted are samurai, ashigaru, chugen, some of the latter two can be designated as missile troops. There are also rules for muskets. Terrain includes roads, houses, walls, marshes, and ‘vegetation’.
Easy to guess that Japanese warfare has a fascination but in 1974 figures would have been scarce. The actions presented here fall midway between chambara films of the time and larger battles but offers limited soldier types. The rules are very much in the style of early English rules. What orders can be given is decidedly ambiguous.
A playtest copy of a set of rules for skirmish level encounters in the American Civil War. The rules cover infantry only. There is no ground scale I can find though figure scale is 1 to 1. Rules are for 54mm figures but usable for 25mm.
Individual figures are provided action points which are used to determine the number of actions up to 4 available to a figure per turn with an asymmetrical sequence of play broken out according to actions. Number of action points is determined by morale level, which also determines actions available, and experience. Wounds impact action points and morale. There are additional rules for morale checks, fire combat, and melee.
The rules seem never to have been published. Though the author Greg Novak is listed in both Boardgamegeek and Wikipedia, these rules do not show up under his list of publications. An interesting old set.
Wargames Rules for Fifteenth through Seventeenth Century
Wargames Research Group dips into a period for gamers with a zeal for the esoteric. Phil Barker is nowhere in evidence. The author is George Gush founder of the Tunbridge Wells Wargaming Society and former head of history at West Kent College.
The rules follow the format of the old WRG Ancients Rules with of course more emphasis on the tactics peculiar to the period. Personnel range from infantry to elephants with everything from javelins to rockets with of course muskets and pikes. One figure represents 20 except for field pieces and elephants which represent 5. For 20-25mm, 1” equals 10 paces, 20 paces for 15mm, and 40 paces for 1:300.
I recall an interesting game set in Eastern Europe complete with winged hussars and other odd troop types. I do not recall the war being represented but was fascinated by the constant consultation of charts. Yes, it was a long time ago.
And of course there is a set of army lists available for use with the rules. The years do not match those of the rules and appear to cut off at the introduction of the plug bayonet.
15mm SF left to right, Laserburn scout, Martian Metals EVA suit, RAFM/Citadel Tech 3 military, Laserburn spacesuit with rifle
There is a nasty bit of fault finding in me. When browsing that dark pool of overpriced miniatures known as E-Bay, I sometimes come upon something obviously mislabeled (a figure from the Ral Partha’s Condottieri line labeled as an AD&D figure, for example) or something equally misguided. Oftentimes, a dealer has something rare but receiving no bids because of a poor guess at the product line (almost everything is Warhammer or Ral Partha) or overpricing something that is still in production and can be purchased for a reasonable price elsewhere (RAFM Traveller figures are a good example).
It may be worth knowing to anyone interested in following my self-righteous need to correct sellers with little interest or knowledge in the figures they sell that most of the time my e-mails are ignored or perhaps given half-hearted attention. The seller who insists that a Ral Partha Battletech Flea is actually a 15mm Traveller Walker for Striker rules from GDW will not be dissuaded.
But, on a happier note, the largest collection of Heritage Napoleonettes I have got a hold of was listed on E-Bay under Revolutionary War Militaria. So, if you are patient and have the time, a bargain is still to be found though probably not as often as in the past. At least you can have the joy of finding 25mm Space Aphids listed as 15mm frog people for whatever pleasure that may bring.
I suppose it is no surprise that someone with a sedentary hobby and a job that compels him to sit in a chair all day and who commutes several hundred miles each week and cannot recall where he is when he wakes up in the morning should find themselves held in a hospital for a few days. Now, I am hearing about my terrible lifestyle that has driven me to this awful fate. It is a twin difficulty with being found to have a physical ailment that it is also seen as a personal failing. I finally reached a limit when a doctor told me that my days of ‘hiding from doctors’ were through. I pointed out to him that I had been to a doctor as recently as the summer and had a test for the exact same condition they are treating me for just a year ago with no results. He in turn listened to my concerns that I cannot jump into his office at a moment’s notice by summoning me to his office one business day after our meeting about my lab results to discuss further details about the results. I declined.
OK, that is irrelevant. Circumstances have limited my additions to the site though I feel I am reaching a point where I can return to it. I dug out an old Jack Scruby catalog I knew I had but had been unable to find. The catalog shows that unlike his contemporaries, Scruby was quite happy to match his figures to existing scales including model railroad scales. I am hopeful that I will also ferret out a group of his American Civil War figures I purchased at that time. I felt they did not stand up to the attractive 25mm figures from Custom Cast so placed no additional orders but sometimes wish I did.
I also found some old Task Force Games figures for their game Musketeer. I will post the photos when I have the opportunity.
Hard to believe but there was a range of SF miniatures in 15mm that were not designed for use with Traveller. Instead, they were designed for use with with a set of rules called Laserburn written by Bryan Ansell. There was also a 25mm range which I have not seen.
The 15mm figures are interesting and well detailed with a nice unique quality. They provide an effective range that works well with the RAFM Traveller range. The set includes a variety of figure types and vehicles. The entire range is still available either through the Alternative Armies website in England or the Noble Knights E-bay store in the US. Another instance where an attractive set of 15mm figures has remained available years after their initial release. If only all miniatures were handled in this manner.
Martian Metals for a time had the license for Traveller miniatures which, in contrast to most RPGs, required 15mm figures. Martian metals are well detailed with a flat appearance likely due to the two-piece molds used. The range offered was fairly comprehensive and interesting but the license for 15mm Traveller ultimately went to Citadel. The figures shown above closely mirror illustrations used in GDW Traveller literature.
The figures above show the standard EVA set plus a few spacesuited figures from other sets in the background. All figures were painted with a primer coat of white enamel. EVA figures were then brushed with a wash of black enamel followed by cleanup with white enamel.
