This and the next post are going to be a brief revisit to the "Featherstonia" theme - extracts and publications from Donald Featherstone's Wargamer's Newsletter. Today's example was kindly sent by Goya, and is from the April 1974 WN. A useful selection of names and faces from the hobby's past.
To be pernickety, Tony Bath was Napoleon at Waterloo 1965, not Wellington, which is a simple enough mistake to make, but I am also intrigued by the caption for Terry Wise, which seems just a little barbed!
My next effort (I hope) will be the Wargamer's Newsletter publication on Terrain...
A galaxy of luminaries.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. A pantheon of splendiferosity.
DeleteAll of those names contributed to my enthusiasm for the hobby in one way or another, I met Phil Barker a couple of times at SOA events and Don Featherstone once when he came to a launch weekend for a Wargames Holiday centre that never really lasted that long. We were refighting Talavera using the Battle Honours computer rules! Don’t think Don was too enamoured at the lack of dice. He was good company but I can imagine he didn’t suffer fools gladly.
ReplyDeleteI had some brief interaction with DFF, but I regret to say I was involved with the Napoleonic Association at the time, and the NA made a specific point of antagonising all the "older" wargaming supremos - this I got pretty short shrift, and it probably served me right. I suspect that Don's (porous) rule systems worked OK at his sessions because he told everyone what to do. I've seen some interviews with him in later years on Youtube, but they are not great, sadly. One of the messages that comes along with the banter and the private jokes in WN is that, for example, Hull and Morpeth were a long way from Southampton.
DeleteThanks for this bit of lore, Tony. How I wish there was an oral history project that would have captured their voices and thoughts of this "Greatest Generation" of our hobby. I note the sartorial elegance on display, and wish there was a jacket and tie requirement for more games and clubs!
ReplyDeleteHi Michael - greetings. I agree - in fact, I intend to wear a jacket and tie for my solo wargaming sessions henceforth. It feels like the right thing to do. Respect.
DeleteI'll join you in the solo wargaming attire. I still have my old Army mess kit, tuxedo shirt and black tie, worn with brilliantined hair and a casually held cigarette, as per Tunes of Glory. One should maintain the standards.
DeleteI too admired the sartorial splendour. Appropriate for you Brits, me thinks. As an Aussie and republican, I'll stick to über-casual attire as a rebellion against the (fallen) Empire! :)
DeleteJames - rebellion against the Empire is fine, but - please - no shorts...
DeleteThose are great photos Tony, and well done Goya too!
ReplyDeleteI may get a rocket from the current copyright owners - in which case I shall grovel appropriately. I think I can claim with some justification that I grovel well.
DeleteYou may very well be interested in this, if you haven't already got it. http://fourcats.co.uk/mags/ They are very close to getting the complete collection of Wargamers Newsletter online.
ReplyDeleteBenjamin - many thanks for this, I've heard of this project, but never had the link before (not knowingly, anyway!) - take care - these are tricky times...
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