MISREPRESENTED RESPONSE TO
"THEY DIED FOR GLORY" REBUTTAL

I wanted to thank you for publishing my response to Pat Condray's review of They Died For Glory (The Courier, #66). I was disappointed that the last four paragrahps of my response were omitted, but I understand that you might have to edit it down for space limitations.

However, what was more disturbing to me was that a sentence in the last paragraph was cut off in the middle and that the last three sentences in the last paragraph, as printed were not written by me and contained sentiments that I do not necessarily agree with.

Anyone having questions about They Died For Glory can reach me at my new address: 4752 Appaloosa Court, Antioch, CA 94509 - ROBERT BURKE

The Courier apologizes for misrepresenting your response. The last three sentences were part of Jan Spoor's response in the article. The correct paragraphs are pnnted below. - DICK BRYANT

French Artillery: Major James E. Hicks, in his book, "French Military Weapons," stated that the French 12pdr gun was originally a smoothbore gun, but was modified in 1858 by rifling. That is why the 12pdr has a longer range than a 4pdr gun in TDFG. Michael Howard, in his book "The Franco-Prussian War" states on page 5 that the French Army, by 1866, was the first army to be totally equipped with rifled cannon.

All artillerymen melee as per French line infantry (i.e., 1 die for every 2 figures). I'm not sure I would describe that as a "hefty" melee value. However, players are free to reduce that ratio if they think it is appropriate (eg., 1 die for every 3 figures). Guns do such little damage in melee that I'm not sure of 3 the difference in melee dice is worth mentioning.

Skirmisher Frontage: Pat stated that skirmishers in TDFG take up only an extra 10% of frontage as compared to a double or triple line. However, in TDFG, a French skirmish line takes up 6-3/8" versus 3" for a double line. That seems more than 10% to me, or perhaps I misunderstood the point Pat was trying to make.

Dismounted Cavalry: I know of at least one instance in the Franco-Prussian war where French Dragoons fought on foot and then mounted their horses. However, just because it happened once doesn't mean that it was the norm. For example, we are all familiar with the famous charge of the Scots Greys at Waterloo. Yet I have never heard of a Napoleonic rules set that allows Heavy Dragoons to jump over hedge rows, with Highlanders hanging from the saddle and firing their muskets. Yet very few of us would criticize a set of rules because they did not allow a player to recreate this event. In my opinion, a good set of wargame rules should force players to use historical tactics. If the rules allow players to do something that happened only once or twice historically, that will become the norm in the wargame, and not the exception.

Cavalry vs. Infantry Movement: I found Pat's discussion of cavalry vs. infantry speed very informative. However, in comparing the time it would take cavalry and infantry to close against the enemy, Pat did not seem to take into account infantry stopping to fire their rifles at some point during their advance. Since cavalry would not be inclined to stop, I think that this might affect the time it would take the respective units to close against the enemy.

For purposes of illustration, assume that a French battalion (in Deep Column) and a French Hussar regiment are both 20" away from a Prussian Line. The French battalion (moving at 4-1/2" per operation) would take 5 operations (or 2-1/2 turns) to close if it did not stop to fire. The Hussars (moving at 10" per operation) would take 2 operations, or 1 turn to close . The French battalion would take even longer to close if it stops to fire it's Chassepots (which it should do once it is within 18" of the enemy). Assuming that the French battalion stops to fire once, it will take 3 turns (6 operations) for it to close against the enemy, as compared to 1 turn for the Hussars. Therefore, we have infantry taking three times as long as cavalry to close against the enemy, which is exactly the 3:1 ratio that Pat was arguing for. There may be several different ways of achieving the same result on the wargaming table, but it is the end result which is important.

Pat did observe that the results of a game using THEY DIED FOR GLORY were historically believable. I would suggest that this is the ultimate test for any set of wargame rules. - Robert Burke, Daly City, CA.

READER COMPARES THE OVERSEAS COMPETITION

I recently purchased several back issues of one of the British wargame magazines (they were half price). By and large the articles were not as well written as those in The Courier. How to put this tactfully? When I subscribe to The Courier, I am subscribing to a wargames magazine, not a literary or scholarly publication. Yet your standards are rather high in these areas. I guess color photos are nice, but there's an awful lot to be said for good writing and research too

Finally, when I read The Courier Dispatch, I always wonder whether nothing happens out here in the West, or if we just don't tell you about it. DAVID EDINGTON, Layton, UT

Well Dave, YOU told us about something and we appreciate your comments very much. Quite a few readers have expressed your sentiment on the competition, saying they buy the Brit magazines for the pictures and The Courier for the articles. I would certainly like to have more correspondence from our readers in the West. I would like to expand Dispatches From The Field to two pages if I get enough material. - DICK BRYANT

OLDER FIGURE LINES STILL AVAILABLE

I've been a subscriber since the first issue and have always enjoyed your magazine. The figure reviews are a real point of interest for me, helping me keep up w/ all the new lines. Ive been gaming w/metal 25mm figurines for 20 years and am aware of most of the available figurines in my favorite periods. However, those wargamers newer to the hobby may not know about figures that have been available for some time. For example, all Duke Siefrieds Der Kreigspieler figures were VERY good, and many are still available from various sources. The 25mm Continentals line are well-sculpted, and are all CORRECTLY posed (from a Revolutionary War re-enactors point of view, beautifully sculpted figures in crazy poses are really irritating), and the cavalry are some of the most charming figures ever done. This range, along w/25mm Civil War and 25mm Greeks and Persians (Thermopholytes) are still available from Iron Brigade Miniatures (PO Box 5125, Warren MI 48090 -ED). I believe Dukes 15mm Napoleonettes were available from someone in the Mid West, and I dont know about the 15mm Confederals. Many of us that started gaming in the early 70s built our armies on these fine figures, along with MiniFigs and the defunct Grenadier historic line. A review of the older figures still available might be a help to newer gamers, especially since they are usually very competitively priced.

I really enjoyed #66, since the AMR is my favorite period and look forward to more articles. I really enjoyed the thematic approach to issues youve done in the past. How about lists of figure lines available for particular periods? BOB CAIRNS, Canton OH.

If any reader knows the details of who is still carrying these line, please let usknow the particulars and we will publish them as well as solicit review copies. I still have a lot of Uncle Duke's figures, but would want to see how they are produced today to offer an oplnion as to todays quality. We try to review figure lines available for the periods we cover and I am working on such an overview for the AMR to appear later. - DICK BRYANT

ATTORNEY SPEAKS TO PLAGIARISM EDITORIAL

I disagree with the paragraph on plagiarism in your editorial in issue #67. It emphatically IS possible to plagiarize wargame rules. Whether a particular instance of similarity is plagiarism or not is a matter to be determined by the facts of the particular case. Every now and then someone has a new idea and copyrights it.

I should add that merely because the borrower can mount a successful defense based upon the passage of a particular technique into public domain does not mean that the act is not plagiarism, only that the courts will not force the borrower to pay damages. Plagiarism is passing off of intellectual property either as your own work, or, even with attribution without paying royalties. Among the literary, it is considered the moral equivalent of theft to print a work in public domain without offering royalties to the estate of the author. Perhaps you remember the flap that occurred in the mid 1960s when Ace Books published a paperback edition of The Lord of the Rings which was in public domain without paying royalties to the Tolkien estate. The resulting authors boycott took a substantial chunk of Aces income for a year or so until Ace agreed not to sell the unauthorized set anymore. Ballentine made considerable money with the authorized version.

How much are you willing to spend in attorneys fees for the chance of trying to prove that a particular technique is in public domain7 I have written a rule set I consider unpublishable because of this problem.

While I do not do copyright litigation as a general part of my practice, I have sat second chair in the trial of a copyright infringement action, so I am not completely ignorant on the subject. JAMES P. ATWOOD, Atlanta, GA.

Do I read this to mean that if I use Dl0 in my morale rules I am open to defending against a previous author who uses them in his? I think not. If the new rules use the D10 AND a copy of the chart then it would be plagerism. I was addressing the use of well-known long-used techniques that have been used in wargame nules of one kind or another since H G. Wells! - DICK BRYANT

WANTS A PERSONAL MAGAZINE?

I strongly disagree with the premise that if one is interested in Historical Miniatures Gaming (HMG) one must also be interested in painting modeling. For me, the painting/modeling was/is the bigest "turn off' for HMG. I was buying HMG rulebooks as early as 1967, but I did not purchase any figures until they were available already painted in the early 1980's.

Therefore I would like to see mostly rules related articles in The Courier especially in my period of interest (roughly from the Fall of Rome to the War of the Spanish Succession). - NO NAME GIVEN.

The hobby of course has room for all tastes. The great preponderance of HMGers enjoyr modeling and painting. Quite a few enjoy more than one period. So The Courier will continiue to cater to all tastes in Historical Miniature Gaming. We won't reduce our coverage to just a small area of periods or rules. Sorry - DICK BRYANT

BATTLES OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR REVIEW

I would like to thank you for taking the time to review my scenario book, Battles Of The American Civil War, Volume I Glory Enough For All" in the latest issue of The Courier (#67 - ED). Letting the public know something is worth buying is at least as important as letting them know it exists. I would now like to clear up a mistake you made in the review. Part of the last sentence reads "....Provide data that allows ALL the scenarios to be played with ALL the popular rule sets." This has, in fact, been done. Pages 2-5 of the book entitled "Reading the Scenarios'' sets out in a step-by-step manner how to read the scenario information and convert the scenarios over to any rule set.

I also note that you felt I should have done more scenarios for Fire & Fury and less for the regimental game systems. The design philosophy followed in deciding which rule sets to write for was simple, write so that scenarios given could be easily converted to the rules of the player. In doing this I felt, and still feel, that it is far easier to convert from regimental scale to brigade scale than the other way around. Thus players of Fire & Fury or Johnny Reb can use the sceanrios given, where if theyhad all beenwritten for Fire & Fury , Johnny Reb players would have been unable to play them. As to your advice about improving the maps. The first set was done by myself, a multi-thumbed individual with no artistic talent. The second set being worked on by someone with far more ability and talent so should prove to be a vast improvement. -DANIEL JACKSON, Somerville, MA.

We received only the Scenario booklet for review so had no idea about how you had approached the transition from one rule set to another. I suggest that the two books be combined into one and that each of the follow-on volumes have the "Reading the scenarios" booklet incorporated in them so as to leave no question for those who may select one particular volume over another because of their particular interest.- DICK BRYANT.

POUR LE MERITE

Pour Le Merite was kinda (sic) hard to follow. The authors should have started with an overall, philisophical this-is-how-the-rules-work discussion. Maybe they did, but I sure couldn't figure them out. there were some good ideas in the rules, though, which I'll happily mooch. - NO NAME GIVEN

Mooch away, the sincerest form of flattery. DICK BRYANT

GRAND GESTURES

Unfortunately everyone's issue had that sentence missing . You will find it somewhere on this page in the "errata box" - DICK BRYANT

ERRATA BOX

In issue #65 we ran a set of optional rules for American Civil War rules, called Grand Gestures. Inadvertently, the result for a die roll of "99" was left out. The 99 result is:

99: Recognizing the troops and officers as men he as fought side-by-side with before, the Leader goes among the soldiers, calling out names and joking with them. After several minutes, the Leader smiles and says: "Its good to see you boys. I'm grateful its you goin' ta be fightin' with. We've gotten our orders and if anyone can git the job done, it's you men. What da ya say? Shall we let them folks over there know what this war's all about?" The unit answers with a deafening cheer. (NW) (+2) (+2)

ARTICLES YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE

The rules should come out in a booklet. - A good idea but difficult in practice because of ads, etc. We'll look into it.

Please no more computer game articles!

I 'm sorry we have to live with the impact that the computer is making on the hobby. I don't believe that computers will replace miniatures (perhaps until virtual reality machines are available for low cost) but they will definitely affect rules and game playing so I feel that the subject is a legitimate area for The Courier to explore.

VOTES OF CONFIDENCE

Please renew my subscription at the new discounted 3 year rate. Consider it my vote of confidence. As mentioned in the last issue, I too would be happy to see more WWII. My other favorite periods are ACW, Colonial, WWI, French & Indian, AMR, Cavalry vs Indians - well and a couple more. You can see why I'm never disappointed in The Courier. There's always something I'm interested in.

I'd also like to see more articles on solo-wargaming and regiment/company-sized actions. I like scenarios too... - W. CAMBELL

A man with similar tastes in wargaming as mine. This is a good list of subjects I would like to see authors submit articles on. We received many letters of support and multiple year renewals such as this from readers who have dismissed rumors of The Courier's demise. Thanks!- DICK BRYANT

I am pleased to read that "The Courier" is not nearing its demise as rumor had it, but is "Hale & Hearty." Please find enclosed my subscription for $19.

I have passed on (the information) to the person from whom I heard the rumor. He was pleased to hear that the rumor was false as he had just recently renewed. We both hope that it will be many years before they blow taps over you and that all such potentially damaging rumors in the future will be laid to rest before they can spread. - STEVEN ASKINS, Norman, OK

AMEN TO THAT and thanks! -DICK BRYANT