About Peter Anderson

On Peter

In this section of the site Peter writes about himself - about his love for wargaming, Piquet and what he does to pay for the miniatures and conventions.

The following citation is from a 2007 event at Peter's hospital where he was the Physician Honoree.

Dr. Peter Anderson, Family Doctor - Hero

Dr. Anderson could have pursued any high-profile medical career. He is a hero because, instead, he does a spectacular job in the least spectacular arena. For 25 years, he has been a local family doctor, maintaining a small, often solo practice that fosters old-fashioned, personal, one-on-one care. His vast knowledge coupled with close ties to every patient make him not only an exceptional diagnostician but a reassuring presence.

Other doctors remark that Peter always seems to have the oldest patient because he's so good at keeping people alive. Though his hours are exhausting, he is also a teacher who takes UConn medical residents into his home and practice, and he can routinely be found in nursing homes and half-way houses on weekends. Dr. Anderson is a silent warrior who never seeks the limelight. But to his patients he is a beacon.

Wargames History

I have enjoyed games and history for as long as I can remember. My introduction to wargaming came almost 30 years ago when I discovered a copy of Joe Morschauser's book "How to Play Wargames in Miniature", followed by David Chandler's "The Campaigns of Napoleon" in the public library. Art not being one of my strong suits, my first Napoleonic were the painted flats of Aloys Ochel of Kiel, Germany (inexpensive at the time). I subscribed to the NEWA Courier, and taught myself to read basic French and German so that I could use the Funken books and Knotel, the best uniform sources available at the time but not yet translated into English. I wanted to be able to select the regiments in my Napoleonic armies, so I graduated to 25mm figures by Jack Scruby, which served me well for more than 25 years before I gave them away to a friend who had no armies. I formed a group of wargamers in my hometown and we had many great games and campaigns during the years I was in High School and college. I attended my first wargames convention at that time, the original MFCA wargames convention held in the armory in Chester, PA. My group attended the ever growing MFCA cons for many years thereafter.

I had written an article for the old NEWA Courier when I was a senior in High School, and this lead to contact with a group of wargamers there, most notably my longtime wargames friend, Joe Fish. Along with many fun games that year, we made a trek to Pine Plains, NY to visit Minifigs USA. That was an eye opener as well as a fun time, and Minifigs became my dominant supplier for many years. Joe had grown up in Bristol, and one of his classmates was David Sweet, who I met through Joe. This lead to the first of several games we played over the years at the Sweet household.

Dave's dad, Charlie, was one of the Old Guard of wargaming in the US, being an original subscriber to Jack Scruby's wargames Digest. Charlie, a bank president, also had an illustrated article written about him and his games in Esquire magazine back in the 50's, which gave the hobby much needed exposure. Charlie's basement was like a museum of wargames figures from all of history (much like mine is now!), and was a tremendous inspiration to a group of young wargamers with lots of enthusiasm, but limited funds. Charlie himself was a true gentleman, and a joy to share a game with. Sadly, Charlie passed away in his 80's a few years ago - David tells me he still had units on his painting table in progress at the time.

One of the first games we played in the Sweet basement was a 1600's game, with Pikes, Reiters, Musketeers, shooting canons, and the Polish Winged Hussars. Joe and I were both fascinated, and we both started to collect Renaissance armies along with our Napoleonics. Our collections grew slowly over the years, but we both had a hard time finding a set of rules for Renaissance/TYW games that we liked. I have always enjoyed reading and writing wargames rules, and have penned more sets of house rules than I can count for Napoleonic and Ancient games. I tried my hand at adapting some of the Ancient rules for the Renaissance, but I was never really satisfied with them.

Education and Occupation

BS, Chemistry, the University of Connecticut

MD, the University of Connecticut

I am a Family physician, in (mostly) solo practice in New Milford, CT since 1984. I was the President of the Medical Staff at my local hospital - New Milford Hospital during 2005 - 2006.

Personal

I live in Bridgewater, CT with my wife, Jan, 2 daughters, Kate and Kristin, 2 Golden Retrievers, and 2 cats (One thing about cats as a pet for wargamers - one of ours is murder on Geohex!). My wife, a physical therapist and also my office manager, is a saint to put up with a husband who's both a doctor and a wargamer. Thanks, Jan!

Piquet and Band of Brothers

In 1998, I discovered Bob Jones' Piquet rules . What a breath of fresh air! Of course, I initially wrote my own house rules grafting most of the Piquet concepts onto my own combat system, and introduced Joe to them - and he was hooked too. I became an active participant in the Piquet mailing list, enough to have a credit in the much improved second edition of the Piquet master Rules. Around the same time, BJ published the first edition of the Piquet supplement for 1200 to 1600 AD, Band of Brothers. Another Piquet list member, Ken Baggaley, inspired me and the rest of the group with his marvelously witty and entertaining battle reports based upon his BoB games. Discussion by Ken, myself, and some others, guided by BJ's insight, lead to added unofficial House rules (at Piquet.org) that developed Band of Brothers to a fine set of rules for this era. It is these rules that were used for the battle reports from 2004 and before found on this site. It was Ken's reports that were the inspiration for them.

Work on a second edition of Band of Brothers began in early 2002, with Ken directing and inspiring the project. Unable to continue to give the project the time he wanted, Ken allowed me to take over the coordination of the project. I had already participated in the development groups for the 2nd editions of Piquet's Archon (3000 BC to 1200 AD) and Les Grognards (Napoleonic) supplements, and that experience was tremendously helpful. With the permission of Archon2 author Eric Burgess, BoB2 was based upon the structure and concepts of that excellent rules set. I had a great development group for BoB2, without whom I could never have completed the rules or the army lists. Thanks, guys!