HORSE-AND-MUSKET WARFARE

I bought this book, or one very similar in the early 1970’s, have still got it and now note that it was first printed in 1962 and mine was probably a 1972 reprint. It must have been the gateway for many into the world of wargaming, the transition from lining up toy soldiers and knocking them down with marbles or firing toy artillery projectiles at them into a more considered approach where the hours of careful painting of the ‘troops’ would not be risked!

My brother and friends spent happy hours considering the correct distances for movement and firing, the title of the Blog was the chapter we started on as our passion for Napoleonic battles was included by the rules.

It is very reassuring when rereading the pages that Line Infantry move 6 inches but Light Infantry 9 inches but all arms gain a 3-inch bonus when moving on roads! Good old feet and inches! We created our own battlefields, turning Subbuteo pitches over for green fields, built polystyrene hills, constructed buildings, walls and fences from a variety of kits but the troops were always Airfix Waterloo range. We might have moved onto other makers that allowed for a greater range of troops made in metal, but we converted the plastic figures into Lancers, Riflemen and all sorts of nationalities. Simple rules that allowed infantry to fire up to 24 inches with every 5 figures of Line Infantry throwing a die: at 12-24 inches you took 3 from each dice rolled and the number left was the casualties to the enemy. However, the enemy would roll as many dice as casualties caused and any roll of 5 or 6 allowed the soldier to fight on!

We were hooked! We tried fighting battles from the World Wars, we tried US Cavalry against Indian tribes, we tried American Civil War and even slipped back into the era of Robin Hood or even Roman Britain, but we always favoured the Napoleonic battles.

What started as toy soldiers being knocked down, developed into a desire for greater accuracy in fighting old battles and the discovery of so much more than just battles. How the armies marched, camped, ate, slept, repaired kit, used their weapons, created formations… and ultimately inspired my challenge to write adventures of the Horse Artillery which I note “may move half their normal distance and still fire. A gun takes 3 inches to limber or unlimber.” We had so much fun and still have the ‘troops’ but never did I think that it would lead to stories that take Fin and Thomo across Europe battling to survive against whatever is thrown in their path!

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