Ted Haskell's Wargamer's Profile Worksheet (The Courier, 1971)

    I have been thinking about the spectrum of our Hobby, which is to say specifically (mostly) Historical Miniature Wargaming. One of the great (and sometimes frustrating) things about it is that it has so many potential facets to it. I plan to ramble on some more about this, but as I was contemplating the subject, I recalled a one page article on the subject by Ted Haskell, titled as above, from the original NEWA Courier. So I decided to check out the basement files (yep, I still have ALL of those great issues , and rather easily found it in Volume III, No 5. I perhaps remembered it so well because that was just my second issue, and I devoured it, cover to cover - the whole offset printed, spine stapled 30 pages of it.

Teds article was almost more of a drawing - all handwritten! It was in tabular form, as seen below. In the original, each box contained a description of that level,. I tried, but I couldn't reproduce it in a legible fashion, so I'll present it in list form. The idea was that you would then take the grid and place a mark in one box for each of the 5 categories (thus allowing for a 4.5, say)

	HISTORIAN	CRAFTSMAN	COLLECTOR	RULESMITH	GAMESMAN
5
4
3
2
1

HISTORIAN

5: Well versed in 5+ Armies, 5+ periods, 5+ battles, or combination;

     Large Private Library, files

     Some original sources

     Loves History!

     Professional Historian

4: Well versed in 4+ Armies, 4+ periods, 4+ battles, or combination;

    Small Private Library

    Public Library

    Secondary Sources

    Personal Files

    Semi-Pro Historian

3: Well versed in 3+ Armies, 3+ periods, 3+ battles, or combination;

    Public Library

    Personal Files

    Professional Magazines

    Amateur Historian

2: Well versed in 2+ Armies, 2+ periods, 2+ battles, or combination;

    Public Library

    Magazines

    Files

1: Well versed in 1+ Armies, 1+ periods, `1+ battles, or combination;

    Reading only

CRAFTSMAN

5: Troops - Original Designs, Casts, Converts, Paints very well

     Terrain - Original Designs, Builds, Paints very well

4: Troops - Casts, Converts, Paints with shading

     Terrain - Builds, Paints with shading

3: Troops - Converts, Paints details "finished"

     Terrain - 3-D Topography with purchased materials

2: Troops - Paints with many colors; "semi-finished"

     Terrain - Maps as game boards (re; Shambattle); Avalon Hill

1: Troops - Spray Paint; "rough detail"

     Terrain - Chalk, Blocks, books in piles

COLLECTOR

5: Troops in 5+ Periods, 5+ scales, or combination

    Accurate and artistic pieces

     Made to Order

    Superlative Painting

    1000+ figures

4: Troops in 4+ Periods, 4+ scales, or combination

    Accurate castings

    Excellent painting

3: Troops in 3+ Periods, 3+ scales, or combination

    Good castings

    Good painting

2: Troops in 2+ Periods, 2+ scales, or combination

    Production castings

    Average painting

    Cardboard stands

1: Troops in 1+ Periods, 1+ scales, or combination

    Toy style castings

    Passable painting

    Production painting

    1 to 100 figures

RULESMITH

5: Complex: books

    Games 8 hrs +

    High Skill %

    Low Chance %

    Multi-level, large team play

4: Complex: book

    Games 6-8 hrs

    Medium Skill %

    Medium Chance %

    Multi-level, small team play

3: Complex: Pamphlet

    Games 3-6 hrs

    Medium Skill %

    Medium Chance %

    Multi-level, 2-4 players

    

2: Simple: 2-5 pages

    Games 3-6 hrs

    Medium Skill %

    High Chance %

    Two-level, 2-4 players

    

1: Simple: "Back of a Postcard"

    Games 1-3 hrs

    Low Skill %

    High Chance %

    Single level, 2 player

GAMESMAN

5: Plays Often

    2 games/week+

    Legalistic and Statistical

    Plays for blood@!

    Loves Math  ?@#!

4: Plays Often    

    1 game/week

    Legalistic

    Plays for fun... with sharp weapons

    Slide rules, logarithmic tables, etc.

3: Plays Regularly

    1 game/month

    Negotiator

    Plays for fun with buttoned foils

2: Plays Infrequently

    2-3 games/year

    Agreeable

    Plays for fun with slapsticks

3: Plays Seldom

    1 game/year

    Doormat

    Plays for fun

Ted further elaborated:

SCALES:

54mm Rounds

40mm Rounds

30mm Rounds and Flats

25mm Rounds

20mm Rounds and Flats

Avalon Hill et al.

MODES:

Land

Sea

Air

Space

MAJOR PERIODS:

Ancient

Medieval

Pike and Shot

18th Century

Napoleonic

Crimean

Colonial

America Civil War

Kaiser's War

Hitler and Tojo's War

Modern and beyond

LEVELS:
Tactical

Grand Tactical

Strategic

Diplomatic

    Of course Ted was writing more than a little bit tongue in cheek, and a rating of "5" might be less than desirable in  some areas. I don't think this is exactly how I'd look at our involvement in our hobby (more on that another time), but it's a fun exercise to at least try some self rating a la Haskell... although he proposed it be used for others to rate us!

So if I was to rate myself in High School I'd have been

Historian 2

Craftsman 2

Collector 2

Rulesmith 5

Gamesman 4

In my 20's I'd have been

Historian 3

Crafstman 3

Collector 3

Rulesmith 3

Gamesman 3

And the last 10 years I'd be

Historian 4

Craftsman 3

Collector 5

Rulesmith 3

Gamesman 2.5

Ted's article, read 45 years later, is also interesting from a historical standpoint: no 15/18mm. 10mm, N Gauge, 6mm, or God forbid, 2 mm troops existed, and both 54mm and Flats are included. Now days we'd have to include paper armies, too!  Note also the heavy emphasis on design and casting of your own troops - common up to that time, but fast becoming very much the exception rather than the rule even by the early 1970's. Ted also pretty much assumes that EVERYONE writes at least some of their own rules. Finally, the omission of Science fiction and Fantasy genres is striking. 

Peter

Henry Hyde, Haiku and Hobby Hubris

Last month, Jonathan Freitag ran his second anniversary blog contest, and as part of that several generous prizes were offered. The contestants were asked to submit one or more haiku addressing two themes put for by Jon, as out lined in in the preceding link. The "grand prize" was a hard copy of Henry Hyde's recently published tome, The Wargaming Compendium.

Image from http://thewargamingcompendium.com/

As it turned out, in a hard fought, amiable contest of words, my offering came in first by a broken bayonet. This is actually the second time I have been a beneficiary of Jon's largess, receiving a copy of  the excellent"Eagles over the Alps" in last year's contest.  Thanks again, Jon! My copy arrived on time direct form Amazon a few days ago. I had considered purchasing this book several times in the past on my own, but concluded that the needs of the lead arms race took priority! The was good timing as my wife was away for a few days to assist my daughter. I have thus read the first 3 chapters already, which form a very agreeable introduction to wargaming as a hobby. Nothing too much I didn't know already, which is hardly surprising nor indeed a flaw in any way. This is a massive, beautifully and heavily illustrated book, that is obviously a true labor of love!

My only minor quibble thus far is with the chapter on the history of wargaming. As Mr. Hyde himself points out, it is far from exhaustive, and limited by the space available. Still, I found the degree to which it was focused on the British scene, while entirely understandable, becoming mildly annoying by the end of the chapter. Only Jack Scruby and Joe Morschauser come in for brief mention among Americans. Even Gary Gygax is referred to in passing with regard to Dungeons and Dragons (only), and many other major American contributors and contributions to the field such as Bob Coggins, Jim Getz, Scotty Bowden, Duke Siegfried, Bob Jones, Arty Conliffe, Sam Mustafa, Terry Gore, Buck Surdu, Frank Chadwick, Old Glory (among manufacturers),  Napoleon's Battles, Tactica, Fire and Fury, The Courier (hands down my vote for the best wargames magazine of all time - thanks, Dick Bryant!), The Midwest Wargamer's Association Newsletter (MWAN - thanks likewise to Hal Thinglum)), and so on. Of course, our European friends come off even worse, with Impetus, Dadi e Piombo, and Vae Victus being rather glaring omissions. In fairness to the author once again, he acknowledges that there are as many omissions as inclusions, and that some are bound to be annoyed by same, for which he offers an apology in advance.

All this does raise a rather intriguing question, which I am certainly not the first to ask. Why is it that the United Kingdom seems to have a much higher number of Historical wargamers (and manufacturers) per capita than any other country (recognizing that our perceptions of non English speaking countries are inevitably skewed downward)?  The US has 5 times as many citizens, but I'd estimate roughly the same total number of historical wargamers, and those are spread out over a vastly greater area. We in the U.S. are also unable to support even  a single Historical Wargames magazine in the modern era, and yet the UK supports two or three! Certainly the much higher population density makes access to other nearby wargamers much more likely, but the population of France is similar, and her population density of the same general order of magnitude, and yet Historical Miniature Wargaming certainly seems  is a far less popular hobby there. Similarly, from the standpoint of exposure to history, while the UK has been the scene of recorded battles back to at least Roman times, the same can be said even more so of France.  The US leads the world in per capita income (admittedly, increasingly unevenly distributed), so lack of funds is an unlikely rationale. Discussion?

Some comparative national statistics, from Wikipedia:
Total Population, Population Density, and GDP (purchasing power adjusted) per capita::

United Kingdom:  64 Million  255/km2    $38,711

France:  66 Million, 116/km2    $36,537

United States of America:  320 Million, 34/km2   $53,000

Canada:  35.5 Million, 3.4/km2   $44,656

Australia:  23.6 Million  2.8/km2   $44,346

New Zealand:  4.5 Million, 16.5/km2 , ,  $30,493

India:   1,210 Million, 380/km2  $5,777

India would seem to be one good long term market for the growth of our hobby...

Peter