Flash and Polish Old Glory Napoleonics has produced the new Fantasy Austrian Commanders. Yes, Austrians doing everything they never did. Waving swords, hats, and flags, pointing with swords, urging soldiers on, pointing to the herds of sheep, the fleeing peasants, lootable buildings, oppressible yeomen, waving Schlivovitz schnapps bottles, reeling in the saddle--hmmmmm these are fun. They represent everything you would say if you were Austrian nobility and your son asked, "What did you do in the Napoleonic Wars, Daddy?" Truth in packaging. Boy, Austrians leading-whoops sorry, Marc. Old Glory figures are available from The Emperor's Headquarters, 5744 W. Irving Park Rd., Chicago, Illinois 60634, and other worthwhile game stores. GHQ has produced videos on terrain and scenery construction and their neat packs of terrain-making hexes. To see these guys in person at a convention and watch them turn out great terrain and trees in seconds will inspire the most jaded scenery fan and the video is the next best thing to being there. Available from GHQ, 28100 Woodside Rd., Shorewood, MN 55331 and most game stores. For questions, call: 612-374-2693, and to spend your money, call 800-BUY-1945. Ya gotta love it! Just after I spent all that time painting little flags on everything from paper to lead foil from wine bottles (this is when [despite Jean] I learned to like some wines), they came along with 25mm and then 15mm flags. They kept getting better and better and usually released a new set as soon as I finished an army (no matter what period). Enuff of my whining. After all, I don't have any spare time anymore, so: THANK YOU, SIGNIFIER. Thanks for the flags. Mostly ACW and Napoleonic at the moment, but they have lots, and all the ones I've seen are beautifully done with a lot of crisp detail. So don't be a fool, don't paint stupid flags anymore. Send an SASE to Signifier, 3419 Westminister, Suite 243, Dallas, TX 75205. They also carry figures and as sorted goodies--like Old Glory, etc. A nice firm of gentleman gamers. Wargames in Review Many years ago I recommended a rule system called Houserules Napoleonics by Brian Stokes. It was good then and is even better now in its new version. (June '93 $25 from Brian Stokes, 865 Temple Terrace, Los Angeles, CA 90042). Now I always liked the first version of HR because it combined playability with historical reality and shared the spirit of what we try to do with EEL. I was also very jealous because Brian was able to get his rules out, which is a feat in itself, hold tournaments, and publish an informative newsletter. A handsomely done 100-page, spiral-bound set includes not only the rules but all kinds of army information right down to commander ratings. One of the best parts of the rules is the attention paid to the fine points of realistic command control and to the inability of someone to react to something they really wouldn't have been able to in an actual situation (the hairy bugaboo that divides most gainers). Brian has also streamlined calculations and speeded up this time- consuming task. The complexity is there, lurking just under the surface. But instead of using this space as a forum for delving into every aspect of the rules, let me just say that HR is a set of rules that are fairly quick to learn, a lot of fun, and create a historic feel. Any quibbles I have are small ones. I don't like the purchase points system as I feel that even a Napoleonic "fantasy" scenario should use formations based on true units-but you have to start somewhere. The appendixes alone are worth the price for all the reference material they provide. Back to Empire, Eagles, & Lions Table of Contents Vol. 2 No. 3 Back to EEL List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1993 by Emperor's Headquarters This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com