Copyright 2003 T. Sheil & A. Sheil All Rights Reserved
A Medieval Battle Game by Henry Bodenstedt
The Siege of Bodenburg was the brainchild of the late Henry Bodenstedt, who owned Continental Hobbies of Adelphia (and for a while, Freehold) N.J. Henry was one of those rare hobby shop owners who knew every product in his store. He imported some very high-quality products, including Elastolin figures. You could even buy them unpainted from Henry, in either 40 or 75mm size.
Henry used to sell his wares at various shows, conventions and meets. Invariably, he would pack along the Siege of Bodenburg. The game was part of the schedule of wargaming meets. It required the use of specific Elastolin products. and invariably helped promote one of Henry's prime products. The game was fun, easy to learn and good for a nice afternoon's sport. Henry had printed up tens of thousands of copies of the game rules, and gave them out liberally to all and sundry.
While going through books, I found the old rule set. Henry gave it away at every show. He has since passed on, but the rules remain. Here they are, reproduced in their entirety.
You can swap out other troops for the specific pieces which the original rules required. You do not have to be specific, so long as you have the appropriate light, medium and heavy troops and the light and heavy firing weapons. You can substitute a heavy crossbow for the arquebus, for instance.
By the way, Henry sold a lot of Elastolin. Some of us drove all the way from the northern end of the state to buy them. (Alas, my collection of them was lost in a disaster in the 80s....)
Click here to see photos of the Bodenburg Castle