Sunday 1 August 2010

Wargamer's Newsletter Rules




Following the comment on the previous post, I dug out my copy of Athena's 1987's publication of the Wargamer's Newsletter Rules.

In my response to the comment, I relied on the contents given on Vintage 20mil, but once I dug out my copy I realised this was not comprehensive.

The rule sets included are:

1. Rules for Ancient Wargames 1000 BC - AD 900 by Tony Bath
2. Medieval Rules by Tony Bath
3. God for Harry! England and St George! Wargame Rules for the Medieval Period by Donald Featherstone
4. Rules for the English Civil War by Donald Featherstone
5. Rules for the 1750 period in Europe by Tony Bath
6. Napoleonic Rules by Donald Featherstone
7. American Civil War Rules by Donald Featherstone
8. Rules for late 19th Century wargames by Donald Featherstone
9. Rules for 1917 period wargames in German S.W. Africa (including rules for early tanks, armoured cars etc) by Donald Featherstone
10. Rules for 1944 (Normandy) Wargames by Phil Barker.

The Athena publication is a 124 page A4 perfect bound booklet with an orange colour.

The second two images are of the original issues of the Tony Bath ancient and Medieval Rules, as Wargamer's Newsletter Handbooks. These were available to order from Donald Featherstone. 8 of them (excluding the Don's medieval and English Civil War rules) are listed in a notice in Wargamer's Newsletter from December 1967 at 3s 6d each or the set of 8 for a guinea, including postage. Also listed is Wargames Terrain for 10s 6d, an illustrated booklet describing how to construct realistic battlefields. I'm not sure when the original sets were first made available, or the order they came out in.

5 comments:

Uncle Jim said...

Fascinating. Do you know if anybody has republished this e.g. John Curry? I would love to get hold of a copy.

Vintage Wargaming said...

I don't think they have been republished since the Athena edition. I would try Caliver, put a watch on e-bay and check out Abebooks. bI think I got mine from Terry Wise.

Steve-the-Wargamer said...

I scanned the entire set of my version of the Athena compendium (mine has a pink cover by the way) and sent them to John last year...

I think he may have included some of them in the book "Unfinished Tales" that he's just published - not sure if he has plans for any of the others though....

Uncle Jim said...

Steve,

Thanks for the information, really helpful. The 19th century rules are indeed in the 'unfinished Tales' book as well as others. I am trying to gather together all that Don F said about the Franco Prussian war to support our new range of 'traditional' figures. I know he used the ACW rules in 'Wargames' 'with a few modifications' - because he told me so in 1970 when I visited him in Southampton, but exactly what these modifications were, I don't know. However he has quite a bit to say on this subject in his 'Wargames Through the Age' covering this period. In the 19th century rules, however it is not clear whether he used 'simultaneous' or 'alternate' moves - again, I think he was more 'alternative' moves, but I could be wrong - any thoughts.

Peter

Steve-the-Wargamer said...

Hi Peter - no, none further I'm afraid... having communicated just last year with Don on a different subject though, why not drop him a letter?? I know for a fact that he likes to hear from wargamers who used his early books a lot... :o)