Way back in August of 1982, Dick Bryant first informed me of his desire to expand THE COURIER's coverage in the field of historical miniatures skirmish gaming and role playing. For years, I have been an avid "skirmisher", avoiding grand tactical battles like the plague, wondering who else out there in the gaming world tended to "think small". The idea, therefore, of a skirmish effort sounded too good to be true, especially so when Dick offered me the opportunity to become the editor. If we're going to solicit and publish articles specifically oriented towards skirmish gaming, we should, of course, define just what it is we want ... what do we mean by the term "skirmish game" and what are its limits? Any definition we give is purely subjective ... we'd be very interested in hearing as to how our readers view the subject. According to our lights, a skirmish encounter is one in which one figure represents one man. The game thus focuses on the actions of the individual. Each man, or figure, may or may not fire his weapon or melee on an individual basis-the rules may allow for a calculation en masse of combat effects-nor is it necessary that each man be tracked for individual wounds or morale, but, in the main, the decisions concerning the action of each man on the field combine to form the background needed to determine the outcome of the battle. This is obviously so in a one-on-one encounter wherein every man's wounds, morale status, ammunition supply, etc., is recorded. It is less so in a game using, say, THE SWORD AND THE FLAME (TSATF), Larry Brom's British colonial rules, which employs 20 man units. TSATF is the "high end" of skirmish gaming ... although, on the surface, it is a unit-on-unit game, a closer look reveals that individual action is prime: wounded figures are tracked; individuals are assigned to "carry" the wounded, when a charge is declared, certain figures are held back as stragglers; the presence of particular "leader" figures and their capabilities in firing, melee, and morale, are of extreme importance. Our one-figure-equals-one-man definition, therefore, places TSA TF, despite the number of figures and units involved in a game, in the skirmish encounter category. It may be that, as we receive other ideas, other inputs from our readers, we'll broaden the definition to include slightly higher order games . . . but until we received that input, we'll work within the parameters just given. As far as the submittal of articles, send in anything you think might be worthy of publication. You might have doubts about its content or relevancy ... let us decide. Aside from "readability", and, within bounds, the use of acceptable English, the main criterion we'll be looking for in the skirmish section will be "playability ". The description of a skirmish battle should contain sufficient information so that, using the article as a guide, the reader could replay the skirmish himself. This means that the rules must be described either as an aside to the action within the text itself, or as an introduction, or, perhaps, as a separate appendage to the battle description. Whichever way is chosen, we're looking for completeness concerning the gaming aspect. Sequence, movement, hand-to-hand, morale, firing, record keeping and data requirements . . . all these should be touched on by the author. We'll be looking, therefore, for detail: gaming techniques, playing procedures, rules ploys ... ideas that can be used in setting up and gaming either your skirmish action or a similar one. The emphasis should be on a write-up of the game ... not dramatical descriptions such as: Sergeante La Gnutte took a swipe at Smythe with his bayonet, missed, and was rewarded with a breath-taking musket stock in the solar plexus ... La Gnutte doubled over. . . This would be fine if it was accompanied by a description of how the actions were resolved. What we want are the gaming details: what was the mechanism by which La Gnutte swung his bayonet? Was the same table used for both bayonet swiping and for whumping La Gnutte in the belly with the musket stock? And if La Gnutte did double up, what decided the length of time he'd be out of action? And soon ... The primary goal is to keep the reader entertained and informed ... all else is secondary. If we fail either to entertain you, or to inform you, then we fail completely, and we find out about it by a resultant falling off in circulation. That's why, incidentally, the feedback requests included in each issue are invaluable. THE COURIER cannot afford to learn about readership likes and dislikes by watching circulation rise and fall. We've got to respond rapidly, and the only way we can do so is via "instant feedback". Rest assured that every feedback card is reviewed and the information on it we// digested. The same consideration is given to letters to the editor. We'd like to print all of them; obviously we can't, and so each month we select those few that appear most timely or most relevant to a current issue. Walter Simon: Skirmish Game Editor Bio Back to Table of Contents -- Courier Vol. V #1 To Courier List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1984 by The Courier Publishing Company. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com