AS many of you doubtless know, Jack Scruby had a major role in the development of miniature wargaming as it stands today, both as a designer and manufacturer of wargames figures (the first armies that replaced my original flats were Scruby miniatures, augmented by a few Hinton Hunts for specialty figures), and as the publisher of the first wargames magazine, The Wargame Digest, beginning in 1957. By 1960, there were 2 US editions per year edited by Jack, and 2 British editions edited by Don Featherstone and Tony Bath. By the end of 1962, as Jack says, "editorial differences" between the American and British edition ended The Wargames Digest, and lead to birth of Don's great Wargamer's Newsletter. The above was an attempt to restart WGD on a cash per issue basis, with no subscriptions. There was never another volume after this one, though. The articles, several of them reprints from earlier Scruby "House Organs" were all very interesting: Editorial, The Story of Wargame Digest, The Doublecross!, Lead Soldiers in the News, The Senegal Revolt, 1878, Part 1 *from a fictional campaign set in Scruby's "Mafrica"), From Out of the Past, All About Wargames: The Thirty Years War (rules set), Ancient Armies in Miniature, The Civil War - Men, Weapons and Tactics, Table Top Talk - Captain Sachs' Wargame, Last Minute Miscellanea, and Suggested Reading (other wargames periodicals).
The final article was this one, written by Charlie Sweet. Indeed, the entire issue was dedicated to Charlie!
Little did I know at the time that in about2 years I would be meeting Charlie and playing in wargames at his house! As previously related, when I started at The University of Connecticut as a Freshman in 1973, that lead to meeting a UConn senior and fellow wargamer. Joe Fish. Joe was also from Bristol, CT; indeed Charlie's son, David, was a High School classmate of Joe's. Thus, through Joe, I met David, and then a group of us from UConn were invited to several games at Charlie's home. Those games kindled my interest in wargaming with first Renaissance and then Ancient armies!
If there is interest in other articles from this magazine, I can probably post them as well.
Peter, this is fascinating look at Charlie’s Wargaming evolution. I wonder if the CBS TV segments is still around for viewing? Thanks for sharing this bit of Wargaming history.
ReplyDeleteThat would be some pretty old TV footage!
DeleteI love the comment he makes in the article about his last act before heading off to war was to look at his model soldiers. I can relate to that.
ReplyDeleteYes, that's a great observation!
DeleteMost interesting read, thanks for sharing it.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome!
DeleteI would be interested in the TYW rules especially.
ReplyDeleteI'll see ifI can scan and post the two TYW articles.
DeleteFascinating stuff on how the hobby was on your side of the pond in the '60's. Thanks for sharing:)
ReplyDeleteThe late 1960's is when I became involved in the hobby!
DeleteVery interesting from one of the pioneers of the hobby.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I already had well over 1,000 painted figures by the time I met Charlie when I was all of age 18, the collection he had on display in his basement was awe inspiring, especially for the huge breadth of history it covered. Of course, my collection is now likely considerably larger than his at the same age!
DeleteMine too!
DeleteBeyond doubt! :-)
DeleteInteresting post, design, cast and paint an army, gosh! Plus the opposite of scale creep, from 54mm to 30mm!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
We got to see the AMR figures he designed and cast himself... certainly not on a par with modern high detail 54's, but pretty much at least as good as Brittains.
DeletePeter,
ReplyDeleteGreat story. Coincidentally, my daughter-in-law is a professor at UCONN and my Honorable Son #1 used to be one of the librarians but transferred to one of the other state colleges. Again, great story.
Neil
Glad you enjoyed it, Neil! In addition to 2 degrees from UCONN (BS - Chemistry, MD)and playing in the Marching Band there for 4 years, my wife and sister in law are both UConn graduates, and I held an appointment as a clinical professor of Medicine at UConn for 30 years (until I left private practice a few years ago; now I have appointments at 3 other Medical schools!).
DeleteNeat find! I remember going into the basement at the Sweets' for the games. Deadly artillery shots by the patriarch, if I remember correctly. The ancient rules were wonderfully thought out.
ReplyDeleteBoth Charlie and Dave were deadly shots with the cannon and the catapults/howitzers... myself, not so much. I agree, their Ancient rules were the most fun to play, in part because the armies were each different.
DeleteI actually found the actual rules in an old NEWA Courier:
https://blundersonthedanube.blogspot.com/2013/03/updated-ancient-rules-charlie-sweet.html
Ive been lucky enough to purchase a few digests, the later digests and some Tabletop Talk. What impressed me was how professional the digest was and basically just how packed with information it was given its age. Jack Scruby was very kind to say it was editorial differences that split the magazine which led to the Wargamers Newsletter. Im afraid Don Featherstone could be very forthright in his views and basically complained about Jack Scruby allowing one of the subscribers to write an article about his early life and war experiences he had. Clearly for Feathersone it had to be wargaming and nothing else, still it did create the Newsletter so it wasnt all bad.I havent got this issue of the later digest so I am very envious of your good fortune.
ReplyDeleteThis is actually my original copy, purchased when I was 16 (!); at that time I was subscribed to the original NEWA Courier, and The Wargamer's Newsletter. I can see where that would be in the realm of "editorial differences", but I think Jack was right to allow such an article, as certainly not irrelevant, especially given that the world wide circle of wargamers was still very small at that time. I never met Jack, but I did have the pleasure of meeting Don in person at Historicon circa 2007, IIRC. He was almost age 90 at the time, and said it would be his last trip to the US. The introduction was via Jim Getz.
DeleteI'll see about posting some ore content from this edition.
Here is Don's actual editorial about differences and Jack's reply
Deletehttp://www-personal.umich.edu/~beattie/timeline/milex.html
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~beattie/timeline/jsdf.html
That was interesting and perhaps a bit sad. While I have the greatest respect for both men and their massive contributions to the hobby, I have to say that overall I'd be closer to Jack's position than Don's.
DeleteThanks for posting that Peter. I thoroughly enjoyed the read. For folks who do History it's nice to be reminded of our own.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed it. I couldn't agree more!
DeleteI agree with all those above Peter, that's a most interesting article.
ReplyDeleteI seem to recall that you have previously posted the piece from Sports Illustrated, or did I see it somewhere else? Is the CBs video extant?
I was saddened to read the part in your intro. that 'editorial differences' had lead to the break-up of the original digest. How often does wargaming suffer from Oscar Wilde's 'great contests over the smallest things'? I wondered whether the first two items in the contents of one and only volume of the 'second series', "The Story of Wargame Digest, The Doublecross!" were in fact the title and subtitle of the same article about that sad event?!
I think that you have your answer in all of the comments above; more reprints will be much appreciated.
Regards, James
I'm glad you enjoyed the article, James. Charlie was a true gentleman as well! I'll see if I can scan better versions of some of the other articles in for future posts.
DeleteI suspect the differences about content of the magazine probably was just the last straw that made Jack ready to get out of the magazine business; cutting the number of issues he had to do was one of the benefits of the "British Edition", after all.
"The Doublecross" article is about the first International Wargame, a PBM campaign run by Tony Bath.
Belatedly again, great post and memories!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ross. As noted, although I hadn't heard of Charlie at the time I bought this in 1971, I was privileged to meet he and David both circa early 1974, and I musty have played in at least a half dozen games at his home over the next 4 - 5 years.
Delete