Friday 19 January 2018

A blast from the past!

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In the very early days of University more years ago tan I care to admit, I came across the idea of a club newsletter for the wonderful Napoleonic Wargaming Society, of which I was a very proud member.


Thinking that I would be able to put something together on a semi-regular basis, I enlisted a few friends to see what we could do.


My old High School chum Paul Young, a wonderful artist put his talents to the test by designing the wonderful cover.  I still have the original artwork and it really looks the part.  Paul wanted to ensure that all genres were covered from fantasy to historical, ancients to modern and I think you would all concur that he did a damned fine job.  If memory serves me correctly, this also may well have been whilst we were both having to complete our respective end of semester assignments, however time has faded some details.


No modern day desk top software to rely on in those days. 
All hand drawn, obviously without the assistance of a ruler!

The lead article from Rod, a very good British Empire III player

Quotable quotes always did provide the chance to have a dig at certain
members "Martial ability" on the table top.

Gosh ...the arguments, debates and discussions we used to have about the clubs trophies!

They now sit in a box in our shed at the club...such wonderful history with so many
names from the timbers and fibre of our great clubs past but with no place to display
them which is an enormous pity but a fact of life when hiring halls.

Perhaps I should have sued Steve at the time...surely not.


Alas, after a very successful launch this publication ran out of steam, content and finances ( well I was having to work a few jobs at the time to supplement my university days).  Like so many other aspects of the hobby, the newsletter is now a defunct and ancient relic.  Facebook, blogs and websites communicate ideas, photos and projects so much quicker and efficiently.  However it is with some fondness that I look back and see what we used to do for love of the hobby.

5 comments:

  1. Great and very nostalgic stuff, Carlo. I recall being thrilled when my parents found me an old portable typewriter to use which I used from High School through college and Medical school. So much better than my handwriting (which, sad to say, is well above average.... for a physician!)

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    1. Thank you Peter and you’ve hit the nail absolutely on the head. It’s funny looking at these old newsletters or written scenarios from my youthful days of wargaming and realising the amount free time you had that you simply didn’t realise. Your typewriter story is a classic!

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    2. Gosh yes, if I think of how much time I spent gaming in HS and even in college, way more than I could ever spend now. We also played a lot of D&D as well back then, with our own modified rules for the actual fighting.

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  2. I didn’t wargame when I was younger but roleplayed and was usually the GM. It’s amazing how much time character and world creation took and yet I had so much of it....I once found not 1 but 3 notebooks full carefully flushed out details. 😀

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    1. I loved AD&D as a teen and still have my character books gilled with my characters, henchmen etc. Lots and lots of hilarity!

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