As I am sure many of you already know, John Hill passed away on January 12th.
He may have been best known for authoring Squad Leader and Johnny Reb. I have to say that, although I played quite a bit of Squad Leader as a teen and twenty something, I never paid attention to who the game designers were of the various games I played. Reading through Mr. Hill's titles is like reading through a history of Wargaming in the US.
Through my interest in ACW history and gaming, which has suffered greatly from my short attention span, I was made aware of this tribute issue of "Charge!" magazine. It's free, by the way.
I had already decided that I wanted to push Squad Leader, and Squad Leader in Miniature (SLiM) to the head of the gaming queue. After skimming the tribute issue I also ordered Across a Deadly Field and received it the next day.
So far it looks pretty good. Impressive photos and illustrations that one comes to expect from Osprey. Another feature of these rules is that they try to give you tables for scales from 6mm - 28mm and ways to play with either rectangular or square based troops, taking two or three bases as a regiment.
Anyway, I hope that you will find the tribute magazine interesting and perhaps rekindle your interest in one of Mr. Hill's classic games, or even try out his latest.
I'll have more about the painting challenge, and maybe my review of 2014 and plans for 2015, coming up.
Another blog by a guy who came up in the 80's playing RPG's, Wargames and some miniatures.
Only played Johnny Reb once, but I did enjoy the game, RIP John.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ray. I never played Johnny Reb but thought that it might be wise to buy a copy of this one before the price got driven up.
ReplyDeleteI always associated John with Johhny Reb and never twigged that he was the author of Squad Leader too; both games have given me countelss hours of entertainment (and headaches). It's good to know he has a fitting tribute accorded him.
ReplyDeleteThanks Joe. Yeah, I never realized how many games he designed.
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