Kruse Smith began wargaming in 1969 when a friend introduced him to boardgames. His early favorites, Midway and Stalingrad, began a collection of boardgames that now numbers over 150. In 1975, while attending Troy State University, he purchased a book by Charles Grant which sparked his interest in miniatures. Upon graduating in 1977 with a B.A. degree in European History and a minor in Classical History, he moved to Montgomery, Alabama, and joined an established ancient miniatures group. As his first army, he built the Roman Army of Trajan and began gaming using the 5th edition of WRG Ancient rules. in addition to 5th and 6th edition WRG, he has played other rules including Newbury's Medieval and Tabletop's Shock of Impact. After moving to Abilene, Texas, in 1978, he involved some friends in ancients and established a club that now sponsors an annual ancient tournament. He is presently the coordinator for the Abilene Ancient Wargaming Club. Since 1980, when he purchased a home computer, he has been involved in the computer wargaming hobby. Even though he finds boardgames and computer games interesting and challenging, his first love remains ancient miniatures. He has won several tournaments including Origins 83. He spends several weeks each year in England, and has traveled extensively in that country, and is familiar with the British wargaming scene. He recently attended the Salute 83 convention held in London. Kruse currently owns nine 25mm armies including Later Hoplite Greek, Seleucid, Early Imperial Roman, Palmyran, Late Roman, Arab Empire, Thematic Byzantine, Ghaznavid, and Swiss. He is simultaneously building three additional armies; Thracian, Bactrian Greek, and Sassanid Persian. One or more of these armies are usually on loan to the newer gamers in the Abilene area. This allows them to play while they are buying and painting their own troops. Kruse is the rules coordinator for the SOUTHWEST SOCIETY OF ANCIENTS, one of the largest ancient wargaming societies in the country, as well as the Abilene city representative for the Society. The Society publishes a newsletter, coordinates tournaments in Texas and Louisiana, and seeks to further ancient wargaming in the Southwest U.S. A short time ago Kruse was asked to join a six man committee in order to coordinate Wargames Research Group's 6th edition ancient rules in the United States. This committee has the sanction of Phil Barker and has the potential to do great things for Ancients in the U.S. Kruse's primary concern is to promote the hobby and we welcome him to the Courier staff. Back to Table of Contents -- Courier Vol. V #2 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