FROM THE WINNER OF THE COURIER'S FIRST $100 BIRTHDAY PRESENT I would like to thank all of you for the $100 gift I won for the Courier's 25th Birthday. Believe me, with my father's shoul der operation and Mom's bad cold, this picked up the family's spirits. All four of my brothers asked "What the heck is Geo- Hex?". That's what I chose to buy. I ordered Battlescape (the $90 one - naturally), plus $10 worth of trees, all desert. I don't even have a table up yet, but I have one in mind that The Courier showed in their Supertable Contest.(The Cadillac Wargame Contest - ED) It's the one with layers of drawers down below and extension sides that pull out and lock. That's my idea of a wargaming table!

I am handicapped; I have one eye, but I'd put my Colonial figures up against anyone elses. I did have polio at a very young age, but now I can walk. I lost 150 lbs. so far, I gave up beer, but yet I have my magazines, books on military history, and my father's legacy of being on Pelileu Island in WWII as a Staff Sargent.

Yes, I have Bonzaii! I am however, a romantic on war. I have between 500 British soldiers marines, and sailors. Also, I have 700 Dervish infantry, 200 Fuzzy-Wuzzies, 72 Camels, 50 Cavalry, and many Guns (Maxim, Krupp, French 75's, pom-poms).

I have a platoon each of pathans, U.S. Marines, Japanese, Russian, German Sailors, but I have 85 French Sailors and Marines as well as 20 Falcon Legionnaires. I need more Austrian-Hungarians if I can come up with them.

I game at "Games, Crafts, Hobbies, Stuff", a shop run by my very good friend Kevin Fitzpatrick. At Kevin's shop my Sudanese usually do battle, but one year I did a Boxer Rebellion battle with 9 gamers. They all commented on my paint jobs.

A lot of history, campaigns, and uniform information came out of The Courier which I of course took credit for - HA! HA!

Thank you Mr. Bryant. Take care! Keep up the good work. - MICHAEL BLATTEL

We, at The Courier, enjoy spreading the enjoyment that can be had from the hobby, but it is especially rewarding to brighten someone's day when he needs the lift. - enjoy! DICK BRYANT

A VERY GOOD DAY

I have been continually active in organized wargaming since 1957 when I was a charter member of Jack Scruby's "War Game Digest", and have even achieved some limited notoriety with a couple sets of rules - "The Sword And The Flame", and "Chassepot And Needle gun" (TSATF won the H.G.Wells award for Best Miniature Rules at Origins XI in 1985 in Baltimore).

I also got a purple heart, two unit citations, and 4 battle stars serving as a rifle squad leader with the 5th Marines in Korea (Pusan Perimeter, Inchon Landing, Han River Crossing, and the Battle For Seoul). Even with all these episodes in my life though, I was still totally unprepared for Issue #64 of The Courier. What a complete shock!!

The article on page 11, "Three Roads to Paris", by my old comrade-in-arms, Pat Condray, contained the finest tribute to me that I have ever received in all these fun-filled years of gaming and I will be forever grateful. In this methodical, erudite, scholarly, precise and well-documented approach, which we have all come to expect - Pat, above all others, has touched the essence of my approach to rules writing and gaming with this succinct, never to be forgotten - at least by me, almost terse declaration. In critiquing weapon ranges and unit frontages, he summed up my 37 years in the hobby by stating that I was, "...absolutely impervious to such criticisms.."

Thank you, Patrick, old comrade, you have made my day...LARRY BROM, A.O.W.G. (An Old War Gamer)

A NOTE TO MR. T. COVENEY ON KNIGHTLY AND MERCENARY WARFARE

Publishing contract deadlines preclude a lengthy rebuttal. I don't think it would serve much of a purpose anyway. Instead I would like to make a couple of non-critical observations regarding your rebuttal in The Courier No. 64. First of all, however, let me say that your writing on this subject is very well crafted and the historical insights you have offered are well taken.

1. I agree that the borderline between Knightly and Mercenary warfare is uneasy to define. It is much like two interlocking hands with attributes of each existing at times next to the other. It is plain that our perceptions of how long "pure feudal" (knight based) military forces in Europe existed differ. The only way this debate can be settled is for a quantitative study to be conducted of battles which took place in Medieval Europe. A colleague of mine once attempted to conduct such a study, but it was only a frequency count of battles themselves and nothing more. I think you will agree the verdict is out until such a study is conducted.

2. In the concluding paragraph of your rebuttal you mentioned that "Thus we see that from a very early period, at least of the 1066 campaign, mercenaries were a major part of western and central European warfare, and that rulers, both local and national would expect to have very strong control over their troops, both in command systems and internal organization". Your statement and my article on "The Age of Mercenaries in Historical Miniatures: Simulating War as Business" which appeared in the same issue are diametrically opposed on the "strong control over the troops" view point. My perception, and that of many other military scholars, is that such strong control did not fully exist until the Age of Absolutism. You apparently think otherwise but did not, understandably, support this viewpoint in your rebuttal since it was only a closing comment. I sense another debate just began where the Knightly one left off. - DR. ROBERT J. BUNKER, Claremont, CA.

CELTS VS ROMANS

With regard to Bob Beattie's comments in #65 about Celts v Romans in DBM, I should first make the point that historically republican Romans were distinctly nervous about fighting Gauls. True, Caeser won all his battles against these, but he is conventionally rated as the second best general of antiquity, yielding precendence only to Alexander the Great! The recurring pattern that we see around the world with DBM is first the Gauls win all the games, then the Romans win all the games, then it settles down. In a recent British competition in which players rotated through a series of 4 historical battles with figures provided by the organizers, that pitting Marian Romans against Gauls saw 16 wins by Romans to 15 by Gauls, with no draws.

What is important, is not what happens when a single warband element meets a legionary element, but what happens when a group of warband elements charges into a group of legionary elements. The first bound may result in a few legionary elements being destroyed, but more will draw and most will recoil their opponents. In the second bound, the warband elements that drew will be overlapped with a good chance of being destroyed, and those that pursued after destroying opponents will be similarly contacted by legionaries moving up from the second line with overlapping friends.

This of course assumes that the players are equally competent. If the Roman isn't, he will not have a second line. If the celt isn't, his troops will have become prematurely impetuous and piled up several deep to be slaughtered in heaps or he will choose the wrong order to resolve combats in his own bound - PHIL BARKER

VOLLEY FIRE COMMENTS

A lot of your correspondence to us is through the Volley fire Response Cards. From time to time I intend to pass these comments on so that you may see what your fellow readers are thinking - ED.

What is Pat Condray's favorite set of Franco-Prussian Rules?

Pat can be most often caught playing Napoleon The Little Rules though lately he has been mostly gaming The Spanish Civil War. - ED.

I would like to see less articles on subjects that only a handful of people are interested in. The space could be better utilized to cover more popular eras (ACW, Ancients, etc.)

I have always felt that one of the major attractions of this hobby is it's diversity. I would never had tried colonials, franco-Prussian War or Naval, all periods I enjoy tremendously, if some magazine had not run an article about them or I had not seen it at a convention. There are many hundreds if not thousands of gamers who enjoy a new period now and then and we plan to continue to support that interest. There are magazines that specialize in one period (see the magazines recieved list in The Courier dispatch) for those who want to stay with only one period - though I really think you are missing out! - ED.

Suggestion for a Sapper's Report: How do you make good, tough flags and standards that will stand up to tabletop use? The periods/geographical regions I game do not have commercially produced flags available to buy.

Readers! Any suggestions? I would be glad to print it or a collection of ideas as a Sapper's report.- ED

Why not let readers rate the advertisements as well? That way the advertisers would also know how they stand. Maybe the readers could get better, more informing ads as well.

Good Idea! I just have to come up with a method that will not seem to rate the advertiser's product rather than his ad. - ED

Advertisers often do not indicate the scale of the figure that they are advertising.

I try to catch these, but do not always succeed. I have found some manufacturers that don't even mentionthe figure scale in their catalogues. One wonders how many sales they lose therby. - ED

VOLLEY FIRE RESPONSE #65
Responses 598(5.3%); The Cover 7.690; Entire Issue 6.724
ARTICLE/DEPARTMENT	RATING	NIQ
Sapper's Report (Painting Table)	7.368	0%
The Courier Dispatch	6.914	0%
The Reviewing Stand	6.776	0%
Grand Gestures	6.690	3%
Vanguard	6.397	0%
The Abermarle in Action	6.394	2%
Dispatches From The Field	6.328	0%
Old Trousers (Napoleonic Rules)	6.138	9%
Cartoons	5.845	3%
Along The Smolensk Road	5.483	7%
Tellisue	5.172	14%
DBA Tournament Formats	5.121	12%
Dutch Colors & Standards Part II	4.190	24%