LIKES NEW LOOK Congratulations on the new effort to spice up the visual appeal of The Courier. With the revolution in desk-top design you should have no problem adding visual spice to the articles. I strongly encourage you to experiment. The same people who don't want any visual appeal in Tle Courier or miniature rule books are the one's who spray paint their Napoleonic French blue and the Austrians white. - Dan Halewood, Alexandria, VA. Thanks Dan, Many wrote in to show their appreciation of the new look. About 10% of respondents didn't feel that the changes were in the area they wanted to see the changes in mostly they wanted more emphasis on their particular period of interest - which is understandable. -DICK BRYANT ON THE OTHER HAND ... The new print type in No. 59 is terrible. It's like trying to read a bad dot matrix computer printout. I also think that the print size is too small. My eyes are not as young as they once were and I don't like having to squint while I'm reading. The italicized print was so thick and blurry as to be almost illegible. If I were a new reader, instead of old Courier fan, I doubt I would buy a magazine that looked like this. I definitely prefer the old type. In terms of articles, the Spanish Civil War is not one of my favorite periods. I would prefer to see more articles on Tactica and Fire and Fury (and I'm hoping to send you an article on They Died for Glory sometime this summer). -BOB BURKE Daly City, CA. No. 60 and following issues have a better typeface and I am actively soliciting articles on Tactica and Fire and Fury. In this issue you will note an article on They Died for Glory - we would like more. -DICK BRYANT GLAD TO SEE THEME YEAR GO I would like to congratulate you on the improved look of the last two Couriers. I was pleased with the changes you have made. I was also glad to see the theme years being dropped, a theme issue is alright, but a theme I wasn't interested in for a whole year just didn't sit well. Most of your articles could afford to go more indepth into their topic. An example was the article on the Spanish Civil War. They just skim the surface. Also some articles lack the finishing touch to become excellent. The article on Hanau (issue #58) would have been perfect with a tabular Order of Battle, the article and map were good, but it was hard to sort out who controlled what units. -CHRIS AUKES, Portage, MI. MORE ON BASING I read Mr. Pieperbrink's letter concerning basing with mixed emotions. As a gamer I realize the trauma rebasing causes. Once a gamer makes a commitment to a set of rules with a different basing his decision is akin to a divorce as he abandons old rules for the uncharted territory of the new set. On the other hand, I think multiple rules sets with different basings is a sign of good health while one or two sets of rules in a period such as ancients using the basing is a sign of stagnation. One need only compare the number of new Napoleonic rules sets over the last 15 years as opposed to those in ancients. It has been only within the last three years that WRG has been challenged and only one set has rehised to define itself by the WRG Ancients basing.For those who haven't given it much thought beyond the inconvenience of rebasing, the size of a stand goes a long way to set the parameters of a set of rules. It would not have made sense for NAPOLEONICS BATTLES which is 1/120 infantry scale to have adopted the Empire mounting any more than it would have made sense that EMPIRE which is 1/60 scale to have adopted the 1/20 scale COLUMN, LINE AND SQUARE mounting. Craig (Taylor) and I didn't just change the stand size for the change's sake. We discussed how the stand and unit size would ease the play of the rules. In NAPOLEON'S BATTLES, the number of figures on a base and the number of bases in a unit is an integral part of the play of the rules. The four figure infantry and cavalry base in NAPOLEON'S BATTLES is linked with combat, morale, fire and movement.In combat, the number of vases, not figures, determines the modifying unit and may increase the die roll depending on the comparative number of bases. The number of bases for fire may either increase or decrease the firepower of a unit by 10%. Unit morale may be increased depending on the number of bases. For movement, the depth of a two rank NAPOLEON'S BATTLES stand is approximately the distance 480 men or 320 cavalry in march column would occupy. The number of figures on an artillery base immediately identifies it as either heavy or horse and the number of figures on a command stand immediately identifies its level of command. Ultimately it depends on what a designer wants to do. Craig and I were creating a new system and were confident in the necessity of a different basing system. Conversely in the case of the many EMPIRE "Clones" which have appeared in the last five years, a new basing system is unnecessary since the rules are essentially derivations of the EMPIRE theme. -BOB COGGINS, Baltimore, MD. IN DEFENSE OF KNIGHTS Robert Bunker's "The Knight in Historical Miniatures, Realism and Playability as Mutually Exclusive Concepts" was interesting and thought provoking. However, while I do not wish to impugn Mr. Bunker's scholarship and realize the piece was excerpted from a larger work, I can't accept the conclusions he presented in the piece. Mr. Bunker's portrayal of the feudal knight is appropriate only as a paradigm found in such works as "Le Morte DArthur" or "The Song of Roland". While the code of chivalry may have been a goal for the knight to strive for, it shouldn't be construed as the actual behavior of an aristocrat struggling for survival for survival in the complex militaristic societies that were feudal Europe. Mr. Bunker failed to take into account such fundamental considerations as the effect of the human psyche or the dynamics of power which operates in all societies, past and present. In addition, the notion that fuedal warfare was conducted solely along the lines of the code of chivalry fails to take into consideration the behaviour of some notable historic figures. Consider the actions of Robert Bruce, one of the foremost knights of his time and a favorite in the court of Edward I. The Bruce's struggle to grasp the crown of Scotland falls squarely in the middle of the time frame detailed in the article and hiding out in caves, taking heart from the determination of a spider doesn't meet the high standards of chivalry Mr. Bunker describes. Consider also the actions of the Black Prince at Poitiers. He ordered his knights to dismount and meet the French while standing in a bog. He made the correct tactical decision, but he certainly did not follow the code of chivalry. The code of chivalry would have dictated a mounted charge no matter what the odds. In both cases, these superior leaders made the expedient decision while keeping in mind their ultimate goal, the acquisition and maintenance of power. How then does the code of chivalry affect the accurate simulation of feudal military engagements? Not a whit! While the code of chivalry may have influenced the actions of feudal warriors, Agincourt is a good example, it usually did not dominate them to the exclusion of more expedient alternatives. And after all, while the mounted knight may have been the preeminent soldier of his age, he was only one of a number of arrows feudal warlords had in their quiver with which to prosecute the multitude of battles and skirmishes that occurred in feudal Europe. - CHRIS ARMSTRONG, Oxnard, CA. OUT OF PERIOD ANCIENTS I'd like to furnish some feedback on the issues of out of period Ancients. First, I was drawn into Ancients wargaming as part of my overall interest in historical miniatures. That was at the end of WRG 5th edition. It occurred to me that something was wrong with Romans vz. Aztecs, but since everyone else was doing it I never said anything When 7th edition was first published there was a flat refusal by my friends in the D/FW area to play it. They even voted at the yearly meeting of the state-wide wargaming club not to even discuss it for a year. I would travel 200 miles to Austin every other weekend to play, and learned that if you ran your troops historically the game felt realistic. You couldn't do that with WRG 6th edition. With little exception (i.e., tournaments) I always play in period and rarely with an equal amount of WRG points, either. The games are run like any other scenario, and are a great deal of fun under 7th edition. Just remember to use lights to screen in front, cavalry on the wings, and keep the phalanx together. You don't see that in a tournament. In one tournament my ancient Indians faced an Alexander Imperial army, and although it was an historical matchup, my opponent's army was all light, skirmishing troops. My elephants were lined up with the infantry behind, the chariots were on the wings supported by cavalry. This was the setup I always use. It was a torturous three hour draw. My next opponent pulled 100 or so light cavalry out of the box for his Parthians, so I left. My favorite rides are: 1-easy to REMEMBER, and 2- give an accurate feel to the game. - CIAY SMITH, Plano, TX ENJOYED SPANISH CIVIL WAR ARTICLES I really liked the latest edition of The Courier (No. 59). I felt that the Spanish Civil War was very well presented. The articles were informative covering not only the War itself and some of its convoluted ins and outs, but useful info for people new to the period such as rules and figures availability. Nice touch putting the ad for Historical Products Company's SCW figures right at the end of onearticle! 1, at any rate, was enthused. I dug up notes I'd made on the SCW when we studied it in Modern European History nearly twenty years ago, bought the Osprey book, investigated figures, and read several books. It is an extremely interesting period. I haven't decided yet whether or not to try to build up an army for the period, but the presentation made me want to go out and start buying and painting figures right awayl. I hope you have more of this sort of thing planned (well, sort of, since I lack the time and moeny to get involved in every possible period!). One thing I like about the Spanish Civil War is that its unit organization provides a sort of built-in prote~:tion against the tendency I've seen in WWII scenarios to match up fidl strength, elite units with the most up to date equipment in fights with each other. It is, I suppose, more fun to command such units, since they aren't likely to fail you, but this does not particularly reflect "reality". All too often sub-units are detailed or lost, equipment is a hodge-podge (one brand new tank per platoon, or new AT guns with older tanks), and the battalion cooks are pressed into service as infantry. -DAVE EDINGTON, Layton, UT Back to Table of Contents -- Courier # 61 To Courier List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1993 by The Courier Publishing Company. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com