A couple months ago I was about to read the editorial (The Vanguard) in the Courier (#69) when my eyes were immediately drawn to something of compelling interest. In large bold type I saw "Reprints of Articles" in the middle of the editorial. The paragraph briefly explained the Courier's intent to reprint articles in booklets grouped by period. Thinking to myself "this is a terrific idea" I turned to the referenced page (53) for the advertisement.

The advertisement listed six periods. Ancients; Seven Years War; French And Indian War; American Civil War; European Wars, 18501890; and World War II. The advertisement also listed the number of articles and the total number of pages per booklet. Each booklet is $12.00 including priority mail. I definitely wanted the Seven Years War booklet and as an afterthought I also ordered the French & Indian War booklet. I got them in about three to four weeks, maybe five. I'd forgotten when I placed the order and was pleasantly surprised when they arrived.

I started with the Seven Years War booklet because I was hoping to find some interesting information. The TOC listed the articles by name, their page number in the booklet, and their original Volume/Issue. As I read the TOC I was a bit miffed to find that five of the nineteen (25%) articles were about the Swedish Army. For gamers who are building a Swedish Army that's good news. I'm not and it wasn't. However, I did read all nineteen articles.

Like all Courier articles some were better than others and some were "right on point" for me, while others were not. All articles are worth your time if you are a SYW gamer. Don't expect much from the graphics and you won't be disappointed. These booklets are photocopies and halftones just don't reproduce well. The only physical snafu is a mix-up of pages 9, 10, and 11. No data is lost, the pages are just out of order. Was this booklet worth my $12.00? Most assuredly - YES!

Next was the French and Indian War. This booklet was purchased as -a supplement to the other and, again, I was hoping to find some interesting information. I started with the TOC. This time the TOC only listed the articles by name and their page number in the booklet. There was no reference to their original Volume/issue, a singular error, I thought. As I read the TOC I thought a lot of the article names sounded familiar. They should have, because I'd read 18 of the 24 in Volume Vill of the Courier I pulled out my incomplete set of back issues of the Courier and found all but five articles in Volumes Vill and IX I was a little disappointed, but at least all the articles were consolidated and I had some new ones as well. I began to read and almost immediately ran into some problems.

This booklet had two articles not listed in the TOC and some articles were copied so poorly that they were unreadable. The lack of a complete TOC is just poor workmanship. The unreadable articles is another matter.

By returning to the original articles, I discovered the problem. In Volume Vill of the Courier, the publisher was experimenting with different grades of paper. In some issues they used a low acid 11newspaper" grade paper. Unfortunately, this type of paper and print does not photocopy well. These articles needed a different photocopy technique and settings. A little managerial oversight and quality control in the initial stages of production would have revealed these problems. Management could have taken action to correct the problem and the quality of this booklet could have been dramatically improved. Unfortunately, this did not happen and the customer once again suffers.

Am I going to return the booklet? Unequivocally - No! I can still use the articles that are readable and the ones that are not, I have in the original issue. Was this booklet worth my $12.00? Most emphatically -NO!

The concept of reprinted Courier articles grouped by period is an outstanding and welcome idea. However, the execution, in my circumstance, has been 50% successful. Therefore, at this time, I would give the Couriees "Article Reprint Program" a cautionary almost thumbs-up.

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