As a few of you might know I have been hunting down original material on
the Fletcher Pratt naval wargame. Over the years, I had enough to
publish a book on the subject.
I reckoned there were only three
more sources of unpublished Pratt material in the world. Two collections
the size of a small shoe box and a large box worth.
Well, at
last after a period of tense negotiations and help from some random
American wargamers who I have never met, I am now confident the large
box of Pratt stuff being dispatched to me
from a cellar in the US. It apparently includes an original model ship
or two.
I was sent a random page by email and by chance it had
the formula Pratt used for his armour penetration. It was in a letter
from Doc Clarke (Pratt's umpire). This alone would be good, but I am
hopeful of more. Of course, it may just be a duplicate of what I have
already found.
Is it going to contain the other half of the
Fletcher Pratt Napoleonic Ship game (I have half), will it have the
missing optional rules for individual ships (I know they had the rules, I
just do not have them)? Will it have new material I had no idea existed? I live in hopes.
One of the really nice
things about the project has been ordinary wargamers from around the
planet who put pen to paper and send me interesting bits which add to
the project.
Hello John,
ReplyDeleteI hope all is well with you. Looking forward to any and all updates regarding the Fletcher Pratt Naval War-game project ... Jeff
Phil Dunn (author Sea Battles) has just finished some chapters for a new book on early naval wargaming. I just need to get DBA 2.2, Operation Warboard and Napoleonic Campaigns in Miniature to print.
DeleteI am now an old man. In my youth a group based in Chicago used to play a game every 1st Saturday of the month, using the Fletcher Pratt rules. There would be as many as 45 guys show up to play. They always played on a church basketball court. They used 1/1200 scale ships. It was great fun. They used to publish a quarterly journal called 'Splashmarks'. Many of the members of the club are no longer with us. They would create historical as well as what if scenarios.
ReplyDelete