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December, 2012
Item: "Good Night, Nurse! Now He's Sellin' T-Shirts!"
Well, the new First Link on the new Navigation
Bar is for real, and ready to rock 'n roll! Not only will you find some
one-of-a-kind T-shirts that may appeal to eclectic tastes, but there are a
number of other items I think will be practical additions to any war gamer's
field kit for game night, at home or on the convention trail. Please give
'em a look, and know that more original designs are going to be added whenever
my medication wears off and the ideas just... come....
Item: A New Navigation Bar!
And you don't even need any photo ID! Just take a leftward look and you'll see that most everything currently
offered by TVAG is now specifically listed with direct links to those pages.
Previously, the "Flags" Link took guests to the page which listed all the different lines available, and directed
them to those they wanted to see. Now, all the currently available lines (more are coming!) are now directly visible from the Home Page. At last,
guests may see what there is without having to go exploring.
Similarly, the growing ranges of figures, card buildings, and additional ship sources are now in plain sight. Please take
a look if you've never done so before.
Item: Pulp Action Library Acquires Titles From TVAG
Pulp Action Library--the team of Howard Whitehouse and Roderick Robertson--has bought the rights to five titles previously published
and sold by The (Virtual) Armchair General (TVAG).
Game designer, novelist and model-maker, Howard wrote Science vs Pluck, Astounding Tales!, and contributed to all three numbers of
Astounding Adventures Magazine, a series of Scenario Supplements.
The full rights to all five titles revert to Howard and PAL as of this public announcement.
As part of the terms of our agreement, TVAG is permitted until May 1, 2013, to continue to sell all remaining print copies of these titles to
extinction, as well as PDF versions until that date. Further, TVAG is permitted to continue selling the "Astounding Whizzo Game Deck" accessory for Astounding
Tales!, as well as produce other, similar items that might relate to the other titles.
Pulp Action Library indicate it will be many months before new editions of these titles will emerge in a revamped format.
Consequently, as no immediate printing of these five titles will occur, parties interested in buying any of the remaining titles may wish
take advantage of the remaining copies while still possible.
Science vs Pluck has sold out of Print Editions, but will remain available at the current PDF price until May 1, 2013.
Of the other titles with remaining Print Editions, there are of Astounding Tales, 2nd Edition--4 copies; Astounding Adventures #1--
2 copies; AA #2 --2 Copies; AA#3--10 copies.
These titles, and others, may be bought from TVAG via this link.
Pulp Action Library is the publisher of Mad Dogs With Guns
and Eat Hitler: The Nazi Taste Treat .
Both are currently available in PDF Editions, and "Mad Dogs" in a print edition, from Wargames Vault at the above link.
Pulp Action Library has better than tripled its catalog with these acquisitions, and with more of Howard's older titles, and new ones in
collaboration with Roderick, the hobby fraternity now may look forward to a unique and highly original publisher for years to come.
Best of Luck to all concerned!
Item: Work Continues on Cordite And Steel II
Now that "Houston's Naval Guns & Ship Fittings" are back, the exhaustive and accurate Naval Gun Data of The World for the
period of roughly 1890-1945 will start being offered here at TVAG with gun collections being offered by national navy. There will be more background info on
that new page when I can finish building it, but my colleague, Chris Ferree, has been able to make more up-to-date computer runs of gun data from all Navies from
programs originally developed by the late Eric Just as part designing the miniatures naval game Cordite And Steel (C&S) published back in the
70's by TSR.
Newly improved computer programs now provide all the gun data any game player or naval history buff would want. Using
muzzle velocity, angle of fire, shell weight and shape (from ogival radii), and height of platform above the water, the program provides danger spaces against
all targets in 5' increments up to 50' above the waterline, penetration values of Krupp Cemented Armor in 100' increments all the way out to maximum range, and
the percentile chances to hit with the first shot, with extra chances of subsequent hits in the same solution.
Only very limited amounts of this data were provided with the original printing of Cordite And Steel , but
now we have decided to release it all as a service to any and all anywhere who can appreciate the data.
Not surprisingly, C&S is slated to return with some rules changes, the most significant of which being the means of
determining hits without requiring the use of the traditional 4-Umpire Team. The game can still be played in any scale (with appropriate
adjustments to ranges), but now even lends itself to the table top for the larger scales (1:2400 up to 1:6000).
Last remaining bottleneck involved with C&S returning lies in the transcription of the several hundred Ship Record
Cards. These provided the personalized Hit Tables (percentage chances of hitting any one part of the ship), and the Armor equivalents for use with the
Penetration Table for any AP shot that might strike. These cannot be calculated by a single formula by players alone, so the original Cards must be
brought back in a new graphic format befitting the 21st Century.
We have a cunning plan to address this, and that, too, will come along in due course!
Item: "Little Warriors" Latest Developments
The Japanese Army is finished, and all of the 54mm original sculpts are in the capable hands of the "Rodmen," Jeff and
Ben, of Fortress Figures. The metal Master molds for Infantry and Artillery have been made, and
all but one or two of the special resin Production molds have been made.
Only the first sample spins have to be made and sent to sculptor Chris Ferree
and myself for photography and painting. A set of figures will be going
out to Mr. Len Cooksey of Ivanhoe Figures in the UK as soon as possible as he
expressed interest in being our retail source Over There.
With the shipment to Fortress Figures of these
"last" basic arm-pairs and other bits, the Japanese Army--and all
subsequent 54mm Armies--will include figures with Semaphore, Carrier Pigeons,
Engineers with tools and petards, Stretcher Bearers, Litter Cases, a variety of
Staff Officer poses, wagon and automobile drivers and passengers, and more.
The hope is to launch a new Subscription--supported by photos of all figures and
accessories--early next year now, so please watch for
details here and among the usual suspects.
And a major head start on Balkanoids is already underway with a dozen or more Foot and Cavalry figures for the
Serbians, Montenegrins, Rumanians, Bulgarians, Greeks and Turks already in hand!
Most recent sculpts include Alpini and Bersaglieri for the
Italians, as well as a spectacular figure of a mounted "Hohenzollern Hottie"
that must be seen to be believed!
Work is also moving towards finalizing the three basic artillery
models, plus Machine Guns. The Spandau and Hotchkiss MG's are ready, with a Vickers/Maxim
type in the offing. US Army figures in Montana Peaks have been started,
and there may even be a line of Spanish Army figures for post-War of 1898 in the
works.
Indeed, we ought to be able to triple, if not quadruple, our total line of these figures almost literally overnight, or
certainly as soon as the already completed figures can go into their molds.
As I'm pressed for time as I compose this page, please forgive me for quoting this background data from back last
December.
This has been a project that has taken up a great deal of my time and energy over the last couple of years, but if it
plays out as it looks now that it will, TVAG will be a real Toy Soldier Maker/Seller.
Specifically, the 54mm original sculpts by my old friend and colleague, Chris Ferree, have really become The Big Thing,
and we hope to have them in full production by the end of the year. It will be possible to price these excellent resin casts so that they can be bought
in whole units and made available through as many of the traditional Toy Soldier shops and sellers we can get them into.
Watch not only for the 54mm (1:32) Japanese Army for the period of 1900--1914, complete with Infantry, Cavalry (mounted and
dismounted), Artillery Crews, Command Figures, on foot and horseback, Naval Landing Troops and Officers, and an odd-or-end, too, but for a large range of
"Balkanoids" for the era of 1912. These will also join the first round of European Civilians, more military personality/character figures, and so much more.
Little Campaigns--Finally Back on
Track!
After far too many months of other diversions,
I've blown the dust of Padre Paul Wright's ms for the Campaign Rules to
accompany his Funny Little Wars for 54mm garden war games.
Final size of the ms is still uncertain, but it will be substantial, providing a
range of systems and ideas for taking any war games interest to the logical end
by putting miniatures battles in a context, vastly improving their excitement
and challenge.
The new schedule demands that Little
Campaigns be published in the Winter of 2013 and in hand well in time
for the long planned HG Wells Centennial Little Wars Convention now set
at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, April 27-28, 2013.
Item: Old News Reprised
Other books on the cusp of falling on my Editor's Desk include the long awaited master work--and that's not just
hype--by Andrew Preziosi as he moves towards completion of what is being called the Sikh Wars Resource Book. An earlier, more modest
publication, was still the Last Word on OB's for the First Sikh War, but in the intervening years, more data has finally be found (some really
old, rare books here), and the new edition will be just as exhaustive for the Second Sikh War, but also for the entire history of the Khalsa from 1799
to last muster in 1849. I won't try to sell you one this here, but I PROMISE there is no other book ever written that has this
much data. It's one for the College Libraries, and that's where some issues will definitely be going.
Current buzz is a Spring 20l3 publication, in time for the new Convention Season.
The other titles include a history of every US Army Officer killed fighting Native Americans from 1865 to the last
to fall in 1898(!). This has been a 20+ years long project by a local Gentleman Scholar and it's nearing readiness for printing even now. Should be out Winter
to Spring of 2013.
Another book is really going to be welcomes by fans of the Great Northern War and the Era of the Marlburian
Campaigns. It will be an illustrated history of the Brandenburg Navy and Army, with details on ships and units that will go a long way to throw
some bright light on a comparatively obscure subject--even for War Gamers! This one is the baby of one of the Curators at the US Army Artillery Museum
at Fort Sill, OK, and, Brother, does he have some neat resources there!
For months I've been expecting to begin the "Big Push" on the final edit of the long overdue Gone To See The Elephant rules
for the Mexican War. But I have repeatedly had to postpone it in order to crank out products which, frankly, sell faster and bring in income NOW, rather than
maybe six months from now. I hope to start again after the New Year as some of the above projects should be coming to me "shovel ready" (a wonderfully abused
term of late) and which may be able to come to press quicker than usual. Maybe.
I'll make a formal announcement when the glacier starts sliding.
Other (working) titles in the queue still include "Usuthu!": Battles of the Zulu War, 1879, a complete set
of rules with topographic maps and full OB's for re-fighting the historical battles in 1:10 (sic!) scale in short, sharp games with HORDES of figures--unless you
wear a Redcoat! Originally developed years ago by Chris Ferree using another original and unique gaming system specifically designed to represent the peculiar
circumstances of campaigning in Zululand, the new edition will be expanded in several ways, and will make battles like Isandlwana and Ulundi actually possible,
practical, and exciting as the original articles on the table top.
And if the above paragraph sounds familiar, it ought to: It's the same one from Spring, 2012. This is still very much a
"goer," but there's just so much out front....
I promise this will see publication--and it will be well worth the wait!
And now, we return you to the dance portion of our broadcast....
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