The War Gamers staging Mollwitz at Partizan 2007. From left to right, Phil Olley, John Preece, me, Stuart Asquith, Charles S Grant and Steve Gill.
I first became acquainted with Phil Olley back in 2005 thanks to the Old School Wargaming Yahoo! group. This became, for a time, the primary focus for a section of the wargaming community keen to pay homage to the contribution made by the pioneers of the modern hobby, including Donald Featherstone, Brigadier Peter Young and the late Charles Grant, who between them wrote some of the most iconic books about the hobby that appeared in our youth.
It also, of course, led to me launching Battlegames magazine in 2006.
The online acquaintance quickly became a real friendship when we, together with Steve Gill and John Preece, coalesced into a group calling ourselves “The War Gamers” in order to stage the famous battle of Sittangbad from Charge! and then Mollwitz from The War Game, the latter also involving Charles S Grant and Stuart Asquith as participants.
But Phil already had a reputation, often in partnership with Barry Hilton, as someone who had an amazing ability to organise and stage beautiful display games at shows, and also as someone who had a single-minded determination to to paint miniatures and create scenery to an extremely high standard, something which he continues to do. Indeed, part of our discussion centres around the blurring of the line between the number of ‘craft’ aspects of the hobby and three-dimensional art.
Having contributed to Wargames illustrated and my own Battlegames, Phil went on to launch his own Classic Wargaming Journal in 2010 which enjoyed a brief, but much-appreciated season in the sunlight, exceeding all his expectations in terms of take-up. But even more than magazine appearances, Phil is well known for his long-running and highly attractive blogs, two of which are still running today (see below).
We talk a lot about how Phil manages to stay focus on long-term projects that have spanned many historical eras and genres, whilst the horse and musket and ancient eras remain his firm favourites. We also delve into the mindset that has allowed him to remain sufficiently practical about many of the projects that he has completed, shown to the public, and then parted with – mostly without regret!
But perhaps our conversation becomes most animated when the subject of imagi-nations campaigns comes up, an aspect of the hobby for which we share a passion. We explore the reasons for this and the particular thrill we get from, in essence, making everything up as we go along – of particular relevance because Phil has joined in my own ancient Bathelas campaign, bringing a mighty, terrifying and very pointy army with him!
We crammed far more into two hours than I can flag up here so, as ever, pull up a chair, get a mug of your favourite beverage, sit down at the painting table and pick up your brush –v just as Phil would advise!
Henry
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