Hello fellow LAF Colonialists,
Some of you may already know that Larry Brom, the author of the 1979 Colonial rules set THE SWORD AND THE FLAME, Grand Old Man of Colonial Gaming here in the USA, and also a combat rifleman in the US Marine Corps during the Korean War, is in need of assistance.
Larry is 84 years old and suffered a pair of unfortunate injuries over the last year. His daughters, Lori and Christy, both of whom are active in the miniature wargaming hobby, have set up a fund raising effort in an attempt to help them pay for additional medical care and physical therapy which will hopefully help Larry make as full a recovery from his injuries as possible.
I learned of this effort on the Colonial Wars Yahoo Group and The Miniatures Page. I made a donation and put up a post about it on my humble Maiwand Day blog. Later I got the idea of putting up a post here on the Lead Adventure Forum and asked the moderators if that would be all right, and I'm very thankful that they gave their approval. Of course there is some overlap in readership on all wargaming sites but I think there are a decent number of gamers who frequent this site and don't visit or belong to those other forums.
Ever since reading TSATF as a 14 year-old boy back in 1979, I've felt like I owed Larry Brom. Those rules have brought me and many others a tremendous amount of fun and excitement, glorious triumph and devastating defeat, and most all, indelible memories. If by somem chance you are able to donate something, even the smallest amount, to help Larry out in this his hour of need, it will be greatly appreciated. Having posted this here on LAF, I'm now going to go and make a second donation of my own. I wish I were able to do more. For the past four years Larry and his daughters have held an "all TSATF" convention each November in New Orleans called "Colonial Barracks." I attended the very first one, back in 2011, and plan to attend the fifth one later this year. My hope is that with some help from the wargaming community -- not just here in the US but around the world -- Larry will make a strong enough recovery to be able to visit, even if only for a short time, the fifth convention dedicated to celebrating his wonderful rules. I know he wants to be there. For anyone who is able to help Larry out, or even to send him their prayers or positive thoughts, you have very sincere thanks from Larry, Lori, Christy, myself and many others.
Here's a link to the Go Fund Me page dedicated to raising money to help Larry out:
http://www.gofundme.com/larrybromTSATFAnd finally, because it would feel wrong to put up a post here without any colonial wargaming eye candy at all, here's a bunch of pics from the Maiwand Day game I ran at that first ever Colonial Barracks back in 2011: