I read EGG 10 with great interest -- particularly the piece on "System Shifts" in wargames, and the piece which followed, on wargame design. These articles reminded me of a recent dilemma I have experienced in my own game- designing exploits... I have written a set of Napoleonic rules called "A'la Baionette!" It is a simple and fast-moving set which emphasizes lots of player Interaction, but with precious little chart-reading. I wrote about it in RANT, Vol 2, no. 1. The idea was to dispense with virtually all charts and tables, and the ubiquitous modifiers which accompany them, and use instead large amounts of dice, the number of which would be dependent upon the situation. I cannot claim complete originality for this Idea - Steve Dake has used it in his Franco-Prussian rules, and I used a modified version of it in my *Spirit of '76" American Revolution rules (appeared In MWAN 47). "A'la Baionette" plays very well, and the playtesters have generally been pleased. There is, however, a major flaw: my rules for Opportunity Fire with artillery are too devastating -- to the point that it's almost impossible to assault a battery. If matrix games and traditional miniatures rules can be married, then I think that I have at least set them up for their first date. We'll see how the relationship develops -- these things take time. Back to Experimental Games Group # 11 Table of Contents Back to Experimental Games Group List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1991 by Chris Engle 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