"Donald Featherstone's Influence" Topic

On a scale from 0 (no influence) to 10 (he was my mentor), how much were you influenced in miniature wargaming by Donald Featherstone?

0

9

I read most of his books in my formative wargaming years

5

2

4

6. Gaming was supposed to be fun. He meant it!

0
Maybe indirectly through the rules I played, where their authors were influenced by him.
But I never heard of him until a few years into my gaming career. Also, I never read any of his books.
Sorry.

9

9 I did not even realize you could make a game out of playing with miniatures until I encountered him. I moved on from his rules, but kept his enthusiasm. His gentlemanly qualities were also important and still are.

8

6

8
I had never heard of wargaming until I found a couple of his books at the library.

Grelber

9 – Donald Featherstone and Airfix got me started all those years ago, and I don't regret a thing.

1 very little, for some reason he passed me by back in the 70s. I went straight from Charles Grant to Bruce Quarrie and WRG.

6

I think it's an Age Thing. If you are old enough to remember the 1960's DF was one of the few wargamers who had books in circulation…… you had what you could get and they were a great inspiration , helping the hobby to spread.
Younger folk by contrast are spoiled these days with a plethora of new books and professionally printed magazines not to mention online material.

8 … I read all the books back in the 1970s and it is impossible to see the early days without his name and voice.

Then again, a bit like Martin Rapier, my own wargaming was more guided by Peter Young, Tony Bath and Charles Grant, through whom I discovered WRG and The Society of Ancients.

The rest is, as they say, history …

Phil

0

And I have been wargaming since about 1960 and was aware of his books as they were published. I did buy a few, but I cannot say that I was ever influenced and quit buying them. Just a matter of taste I guess. I do appreciate all he did for the hobby.

Tom

6

I only met him once at Historicon. A real and true gentleman and a pleasure to talk with.

8
His books and a few random copies of Wargamer's Newsletter stoked the flames.

6 there were more influential people than him for gaming but I really enjoyed spending time with him. Great man .
so kind and caring.

6

2 or 3. I remember checking a couple of his books out of the library as a kid.

5.

9 of course

I had the same experience as Big Red but would rate him an 8 for general essence.

9

8.

10. I wouldn't be wargaming without the Don.

10 Me neither – it was an article by him that introduced me to the concept of wargaming, when previously I had been involved only in modelling and painting. I then read some of his other books, Young and Wise. Whilst I don't remember ever playing a wargame with hi rules, I was inspired by many of his ideas, especially those in Wargame Campaigns.

8. I met him briefly at Historicon years ago. As someone else said, I think it is an age thing. He had more influence on we older gamers.

7

0. In hobby since 1980. No idea who he is or what he did.

8

Loved his books

As one of the older rats in this miniatures gaming
barn, I was influenced by Don (and Tony B., Brigadier Young
and Charles Grant) by what was possible beyond
Wells.

So 8

9

3

0

I started miniature gaming in 1968. My early influences came from Fletcher Pratt and Fred Vietmeyer.

Rick

7

Direct – nil
Indirect – probably significant, but hard to quantify

8 an important figure in stoking my enthusiasm – his rules may not always have been how I would do it but they always gave good fun games and fun is why I play.

9

9 Met him at Salute once

3, I owned a couple of his books from my 20s to my 40s. Not as big an influence as say, "Charles Grant".

9 or 10. His book War Games freed me from playing with rules a la Older Brother into something more objective. The same book introduced me to the Tony Bath rules that got me into Ancient wargaming something I've been doing for over 50 years now. So, thanks to both Don and Tony!