THE NEW THEME YEAR Over 500 ballots were received with readers' choices for the next theme year. Many sent them in without bothering to fill in the rest of Volley Fire... folks, Volley Fire is just as important to the contents you will see in The Courier as is the vote for the theme year. I weighted the vote as follows: if a theme received a first place vote it rated a 3, a second place vote a 2, and a third place vote a 1. The highest sum was the winner. The winning theme is The French and Indian War with 620 "points"; second was (surprise) The WWI colonial period with 462 points; third was The Dark Ages with 381. Bill Protz has agreed to be Theme Editor and has already lined up a very impressive list of authors and articles for the series. Of course we will continue to cover all the main periods and have some very interesting rule sets to present later on... such as a set of Ancient Rules based on On to Richmond! Let me take this opportunity to thank Pat Condray for the fine job he did in opening our eyes to the Franco-Prussian War as an interesting gaming period. HERE WE GO AGAIN! It has come to my attention that a major US Miniature Wargame distributor is in the process of suing a major US Miniature Manufacturer for alleged restraint of trade and slander to the tune of $1.6 million! Yup! MILLION! I suppose a counter suit will come about as well. I would not be surprised if, before it's over, other manufacturers, distributors, and perhaps even gaming personalities will be drawn into the vortex. Whatever the facts, whoever the wronged party, wherever lies the justice in the case, the sure losers will be the Hobby and the average miniature wargamer. Two major suppliers to the hobby will now expend most of their energies in trying to gut one another rather than getting out that new line or importing the latest reference book. Their suppliers will probably experience a slowdown in payments as the economies of the warring powers are geared to the battle. The ripple effect in such a small hobby can be tremendous. I remember the hurt experienced in the FRP hobby when TSR and GAMA fell out (a schism thankfully repaired with TSR sponsoring Origins 88) and I am afraid of what can happen here. I ask these parties to consider whether the righting of the wrong they felt was done to them is worth the damage that will be done to the hobby that is both their livelihood and their avocation. QUOTABLE WARGAME QUOTES "Can my WRG Ancient Army unit field part of its men with right-handed shields so that they always count shielded?" -- Noel Conley Jr. quoted by Chris Parker. "The rules can't be accurate - I just lost." -- Bruce Miller quoted by Paul Koch "I'll roll first; Guards never rout." -- Dick Bryant, Quatre Bras 1969 Back to Table of Contents -- Courier Vol. VII #6 To Courier List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1987 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