Bob:
Sorry, unexpected business came up yesterday. Following is a text scan from the May, 1965 issue of Jack Scruby's "Table Top Talk" newsletter. There may be a few odd punctuation marks, etc., misinterpreted by the scanning software. I did a quick read and caught a few.
I suspect that you will not find much of immediate help to your project, but may find some interesting bits of information about DeGre none the less.
Cheers,
Michael
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GERARD DeGRE, Table Top General
By Muriel DeGre
Gerard DeGre, Secretary-General of the International Model General's Club, was born in 1915 and has been engaged in one form of war game or another since he could walk. By the age of 12 he had accumulated close to 1000 Mignots and Britains – but made the mistake of giving his entire collection to his kid brother. For the next 10 years Gerry was interested only in strategic map games, and during this period developed a few board games of his own; some of them remarkably close to Stratego and L'Attaque others were variants on Chess. He still possesses a remarkable collection of chess sets including one in carved ivory representing Romans vs. Egyptians during the Cleopatra period!
During his early twenties, Gerry developed a keen interest in Naval War Games and soon built up a considerable fleet of 1:2400 scale which he always proud to show visitors. His interest in naval war games continued unabated through his military service as a Naval Lieutenant during WWII.
In 1946 Gerry joined the faculty of Bard College, Annandale -on-Hudson, New York, where he is now Professor of Sociology and Social Philosophy and where he met Joseph Morschauser when the latter was a student there. The Bard College collection of rare books included a copy of H. G. Wells' LITTLE WARS and it was the discovery of this book that set Gerry off and back to military miniatures. The fleets were put in drydock and a considerable outlay was made for Authenticast 20mm WWII tanks and figures. Wells' rules were adapted to the mid-twentieth century and for eral years Britains' 4. 7 guns were trained on the guidons of tanks, armoured cars and heavy infantry!
The turning point away from armor (land or naval) came with Jack Scruby's "War Game Digest" and the new phase of painting 19th century regiments began, and with these a whole new set of rules for melee, rifle fire and related probelms with which we are all concerned.
Gerry now has several French armies and can put into the field full divisions for 1815, 1870 or 1914. In addition he has built up Greenwood and Ball-Scruby forces of the 1870-1890 period: British, German, Italian as well as an Imperial Russian Army of 1812 (Scruby, Hinton and Rose figures). He is presently developing a 1900 WWI Imperial Russian force from hand-painted figures imported from Spain. All of Gerry's figures are 20mm which he maintains are the ideal size for war games. The table top countryside consists of sections of two ping pong tables in a "U" shape, the cities made up of 19th century European buildings, most of them converted from Faller HO kits by his wife, Muriel, whose main passions are trees and cafes.
Gerry has a continuing interest in the Theory of Games, and is always experimenting with new approaches to his hobby, often to the dismay of his opponents (like George Scott of Poughkeepsie) who find the rules changing from week to week. This experimentation runs all the way from complex game theory matrices to the use of tiddly-winks for artillery fire (which has become the rage among some english hobbyists). He is perhaps best known to the fraternity as the originator of the "simultaneity principle" (both players writing their moves on paper ahead of time), the "matrix systems" of melee and rifle adjudication which provided the answer to the dice roll as the "king of battles'', and the "unit system'' of mounting 20mm figures in groups of twos and threes was perhaps first developed by him.
A project which he has devoted considerable time and expense ha been the organization of the MODEL GENERALS' CLUB, the international society of wargamers which now includes impressive lists of inernbers from the USA, England, France, Italy and Mexico. The international society is made up of a number of local Model Generals' Clubs and serves as a focus for communication and consultation. Gerry is Secretary-General of this Club, as well as the director of its research activities at International HQ at Annandale-on-Hudson, NY. His hope is to have an organization which will some day include all active model wargarners throughout the world. Both the WARGAMERS' NEWSLETTER and TTT carry reports on MGC's activities, and WN has already published MGC articles on DUEL THEORY and SQUIDGE AND SQUOP (Tiddlywink artillery fire). The old WAR GAME DIGEST included a number of Gerry's research reports for the Model General's Club.
Last year his daughter, Erica, married Guy Ducornet, a member of the French society of collectors and an avid wargamer – ''beginning. says Gerry with a grin, "a dynasty of wargamers." Since Guy is also on the Bard faculty, there is a family "battle" at least once a week when, for some reason or other "Guy's French Cuirassiers always seem to kill at least three times their number. But," says Gerry, "next time – maybe my newly painted Russian Sumski Hussars will send them reeling back to Paris!"
Table Top Talk, May, 1965, pp 2-3.
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