Tony Adams

Five months ago, the creator of The Woodscrew Miniatures Army and the world of Tian passed away after a brief illness. Yesterday (13 October) would have been Tony's 71st birthday.

I had discovered his blog some time before and discovered his whole different approach to war gaming. As one who, as a child, fought battles with bits of straw, crude paper cut-outs and small building bricks (Betta-Bilda), I found it easy to comprehend an army of woodscrews.  On to my reading list went his blog.

And what an army! Tony's interest was less in the battles than in the recruitment and building of a huge army of around 1890 in technology, right down to transports, bridging trains, couriers, field kitchens, logistic support, commissariat and medical services. Scaled down as it was, nevertheless it was a vast undertaking. Rather than a description from me, check out these links:

• Infantry
• Cavalry
• Field artillery

Unfortunately he never quite got the chance fully to realise his ambitious vision. But consider: his cavalry arm alone comprised something over 4000 'figures' together with over 300 regimental vehicles, all organised into 24 regiments of 5 squadrons each.  

Tony never actually fought out table, floor or lawn battles with these troops. Rather he played out his wars in his head, his Union Army forming the protagonists in the conflict narratives being played out.  He created a map of the world of Tian, an alternate Earth, comprising countries familiar to us in entirely imaginary settings. So it was that the Union, at some time, had a common land border with China, with, of course, the resulting frictions. In 1888 (Tian's time), the Union had just fought a victorious, but exhausting, war against Russia and Germany both. 

The climactic battle in the Second Sino-Union War

For mine, this world cried out for a campaign - a short war. Running it by Tony, I got the go-ahead, and so the narrative of the Second Sino-Union War began, just on two years ago. I like to think Tony found the thing entertaining, although I had to persuade him to permit the Chinese a mounted arm, however exiguous. He was aghast at the battlefield knocks his own Union cavalry took - being ambushed at the outset of the campaign, and later suffering an unexpected defeat. But they survived to contribute to the final outcome. The whole thing was fun, even unto writing up 'newspaper articles' by way of furthering the narrative. It ended, much to Tony's relief, in a decisive Union victory, and the defeat of Emperor of China's attempt to recover vast territories lost twenty years before.  

There were no plans for a second tabletop Woodscrew campaign - Tony probably would not have permitted it, even were I to have asked. But I miss our occasional exchanges, the way his armies were developing, and his reviews of a wide range of books on military matters. 

Happy Birthday, Tony...