Tag: railways at war

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wargaming

“On track” with Wargames Illustrated

The October edition of Wargames Illustrated is a fantasy special. So you might miss the article on railways in war, specifically the Franco Prussian war. As part of my wars of the Italian independence I have been considering railways – something that really marks out post napoleonic warfare.

WI have a good introductory article on the subject with images of models available as well period art.

Is it me or does the Amercian Civil War wargame hobby tend to cover railways more than their european counterparts even though a railway often ran through or near the european battle fields?

The magazine is mainly about fantasy and I am pleased that again the message is that at the start of the fantasy era of gaming miniatures it was simply another theme that players did – the historical gamer was a fantasy gamer. The divergence came later on with phenomenal growth in the hobby.

One article shows 1970’s era D&D figures so here are two of mine – some layering with only fleshtone shading. And note plain grey bases with the dungeoner having both shoulder bag (for storing loot) and a rope. At the beginning there was a bit of “what you see is what you get” – WYSIWYG or wizziwig.

Ral Partha Elf Warrior – circa 1977
some shading facially but otherwise layering was the order of the day.
Ral Partha Thief – These figures were just awash with detail that the historical wargames makers of the day did not offer – they soon followed though and started the journey to 28mm even back then.
The chunkier style was completely new but with such great detail no one complained as I recall, base detailing gives away that these were figures bought singularly and were for the dungeon
No self respecting dungeoner in the 1970’s sent their characters into a game without equipment and baggage – very WYSIWYG!
Despite a few chips this is still one of my favorite character figures and is now a mature 45 years old!

I have posted previously about Grognardia who has some excellent posts on 1970’s D&D. This link shows the first? full colour White Dwarf Magazine edition No7.