"Miniature Wargaming, 1956" Topic

Salutations !

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Note that _Little Wars_ is available at gutenberg.org

There is also a Pathe film about him collecting and painting his miniatures.

But still Little Wars. Somewhere very close to this time, someone has to have written the first rules for HISTORICAL miniature wargaming--only applicable to ancients, is my guess, or only horse and musket. But I've never been able to find who, when and what, and pretty much all the people who might have known are dead.

Robert,

Here is what you are looking for:

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Kim

Thank you Kim. I've read it before and no it's not. Shambattle and--going from memory--Sachs are both in the "Little Wars" style--not intended for a historical era. All we can say based on that timeline is that a period-specific set of rules presumably existed prior to that 1957 Napoleonics game. It simply does not say what the rules were, who wrote them or when.

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Is this any help?

Thank you Nick. That doesn't nail it, but it narrows the range a bit. Clearly by 1957, the concept of historical miniatures wargaming was out there. Charles Sweet has his AWI game and Duke his Napoleonic one. So earlier than 1957, and later than--when?

It's hard to prove a negative, but I can't find any reference to period-specific rules in the English-speaking world prior to WWII. (The French appear to be working on something during the war, though I don't think anything was published until later.) The Pattel 1952 Kriegspiel still appears to be non-historical, much on the "Little Wars" line.

If I had to guess, I'd say post-WWII and possibly post-1952 is the break-out period. Possibly some familiar name like Peter Young, Tony Bath or Charlie Sweet was the first. But maybe it was someone few of us have ever heard of, like Gerard de Gre, who taught Joe Morschauser, and slowly percolated through that very small miniature wargaming world of the late 1940's and early 1950's. Doesn't make any difference, but I'd still like to know.

According to the History of Wargaming Project, Lionel Tarr drafted his rules in 1947. I did read that Bish Iwasko was using screws or bolts to play games in WW2 but can't remember where. Both I believe influenced Featherstone.

Brigadier Benoy was fighting Peninsular War games in 1946. We know about the figures he used but know noting about the rules

Here is the Pathe you tube site for Peter Cushing: YouTube link

And here is a you tube site for Spike Mulligan and his toy soldiers: YouTube link