It's been a busy spring and summer, but I am pleased to announce that the Seven Years War Association is alive and well, as evidenced by the copy of the Journal that you now hold in your hands. The coming year holds much promise for SYW enthusiasts, what with the SYWA Journal expanding from a semi-annual publication to one published quarterly, every March, June, September and December. In addition, a number of SYW-related events are already established and ready to go, including Christopher Duffy's visit to GENCON in August 1992, the Fourth Annual Leuthen Day Wargame on December 5, 1992, and the Tenth Annual Midwest SYWA Convention in Harvey, Illinois on March 19 and 20 in 1993. Finally, we can expect to see Terry Wise's reprint of Duffy's book, Russia's Military Way to the West within the next twelve months.

Volume 6 of the SYWA Journal is a milestone in several ways; aside from the changes in format and appearance, it marks the first issue in nearly ten years that will not be published by editor and founder Bill Protz. Bill founded the SYWA in June 1982 and over the next ten years published five volumes, or twenty-one issues, and helped to organize nearly a dozen different regional and annual SYW conventions. In between, he managed to find the time to publish his own set of rules, "Drums of War Along the Mohawk", and organized a SYW re-enactment unit known as "Les Troups de Levis a Ste Foy."

Man On Horseback: Bill Protz

Bill Protz exemplified the term "A Man on Horseback" in everything that he did and his contribution to the hobby will be missed. I personally want to thank Bill for all the time and effort that he put into the SYWA and for providing a source of information and a forum for ideas in the newsletter and journal. Above all, I want to thank Bill for instilling in all of us, by his own example, a sense of comraderie, fellowship, fair play and fun in all of our wargames and conventions. It's as if each of us is a sort of Lieutenant-Colonel Lord Charles Hay of the British Guards at Fontenoy, saluting our opponent and inviting him to fire first. Afterall, it is the sporting thing too do.

The editorial "changing of the guard" should not have much effect on the tone and style of the association and its journal; however, in terms of content, look for a primary focus on the European theatre of the various conflicts that occurred between 1733 and 1766. This undoubtedly reflects my own personal interests, i.e. the AustrianPrussian conflict, closely followed by the Anglo-French operations in Flanders and western Germany. Chalk it up to my Euro-centric point of view, i.e. that the fate of the Eighteenth Century world was largely determined by the political and military events in Europe. Besides, a proper gentleman wears a bright red uniform into battle, stands in linear formation in an open field, and blazes away at his opponent who is a mere fifty yards away. In an "Age of Reason"one might wonder what is so reasonable about that...

The early feedback from readers indicates that most people favor an emphasis on the European theater, however, this does not mean that we will ignore the French & Indian Wars in North America. I need your help if we are going to provide respectable coverage of the SYW in North America because my knowledge of this theater of operations is limited. Here is a wonderful opportunity for a "Man On Horseback" to ride forth and volunteer to be our F & I War editor. Interested parties should contact me as soon as possible so that this subject can be covered in the journal on a regular basis. Nor will we ignore other remote theatres of operations. Tod Kershner is developing some articles on the SYW in India and Brian Vizek is searching high and low for information on the Ottoman Turk army in the Eighteenth century. A special Jacobite Rebellion issue is planned for Issue No. 4 in June 1993. So you can see that our coverage of events will extend beyond the European mainstream at times.

Typical Issue

A typical issue of the new SYWA Journal will revolve around a central theme that changes from issue to issue. These themes will occur in a sort of chronological order, beginning with the First Silesian War in 1740 and continuing on through each year of the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War. One subscriber told me that there seemed to be an "assumed" level of knowledge that every member of the SYWA had, and as someone with a recent interest in the period, did not know who the major players were, what motivated them,etc. and he felt too embarassed to ask what he felt were simple questions. I suspect that there are a number of individuals in the same position as this reader--they are fairly new to the period and want to know where to find information and discover how to get started in period wargaming. Accordingly, I thought that as long as there was a new beginning in this publication, that we should go back to the origins of the SYW and follow the development of the events prior to and on through the end of the SYW. This provides a framework for those who are new to the period and provide those who are "savants" and "old hands" in the period the opportunity to refresh our memory of events.

For example, in writing articles about the battles of Mollwitz and Chotusitz, I began to realize how little I knew about the Austro-Prussian conflicts prior to 1756. It was quite a learning experience for me to realize how "green" Frederick was as a general, how poor the Prussian cavalry was, and how effective the Austrian irregular troops were. It will be interesting to follow the development of Frederick the Great as a general in future issues, and to compare the effectiveness of the Prussian cavalry in 1756 to that of 1740, etc.

Each theme will feature some "core articles" that include at least two historical battle accounts, a regimental history of one of the units involved, order of battle information, maps, and suggestions on wargaming these battles. Related articles might include uniform and flag information and a wargame battle report. A fair number of subscribers have told me that they want to see more wargame battle reports, so if you have played in an interesting scenario, why not submit an article and become famous? Ideally, all articles would have some relation to the issue's theme, but this is not a hard and fast rule. Article submissions of all sorts are encouraged and will be greatfully received by your editor. Note that each issue contains a list of "Coming Attractions" covering the next three issues. This is provided to give authors some guidance as to the coming themes. If you see a topic that interests you, then feel free to write and submit an article. In some instances you will even have a year's lead time, as with the Jacobite issue. If you don't see your favorite theme, go ahead and write anyway. I will find a way to include non-theme articles in each issue.

I think that one of my favorite parts of all wargame publications is the "Letters" section that Hal Thinglum includes in his MWAN publication. As soon as I receive my copy, I first read Hal's editorial and then skip over to the Letters section. Why? Because I enjoy reading about the types of things that other wargamers are interested in and working on. I would like to include a Letters section in each issue of the SYWA Journal and ask that everyone scribble out a few lines that describes what you are doing in your SYW era wargaming. What kinds of armies do you own, what scale, rules, etc. Believe me, everyone is interested in what you are doing. I know that I learn something new about wargaming each time I meet or talk to a new gamer.

After awhile, names become familiar and it is great fun to actually bump into letter writers at conventions such as Historicon, Little Wars or the SYWA Convention. If you are reluctant to write an article, then why not get your feet wet by writing a letter or two?

I would like to compile a "Guide to SYW Wargaming Products" and include it with one of the next several issues. The idea, developed by Bill Biles in Historical Gamer magazine, is to list the name, address, telephone number and product listings of every figure manufacturer, terrain maker and hook seller who has SYW-related products. This would be a great source of information for all of us and would be updated on a periodic basis. I would like to encourage all product vendors to contact me as soon as possible so that we can begin this project and be assured that nobody is inadvertantly left off the list.

And finally, I would like to thank all of our subscribers and advertisers for their support, which makes this publication possible. I hope that all former subscribers will re-enlist as soon as possible so that we can continue to produce a quality publication during the next year. I would also like to thank the Emperor's Headquarters for bringing Professor Duffy to GENCON at their expense and also for providing the venue for our annual Leuthen Day game.

Special mention should also go to Brian Vizek and Paul Petri for their efforts in organizing the next SYWA convention in March 1993 as well as to Tim O'Connor for his patience and assistance in helping me learn the production and graphics end of the publication business. Tim also designed the advertisement that appears in some of the wargame magazines as well as the news bulletin that we mailed to everyone in May. Last, but not least, thanks go to Hal Thinglum, Bill Biles and Bill Protz for their advice on publication procedures and to Rich Black, who serves as our honored keeper of the membership roster and mailing labels. The SYWA Journal really is a team effort.

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