From: Jac C Zonderland Dear Chris, Thank your very much for your letter and words of sympathy with my cause. I am sorry I have kept you waiting for some time, partly because I am a rather busy man, but more so because I wanted to spend some thought on your Matrix Wargaming before answering your letter. I have read your publication several times - doesn't it have a name?- and your recent article in Lone Warrior: Nelson's Defeat, based on the same ideas, but I must confess that there are still some dark spots in my mind as to what Matrix Wargaming really is! From mathematics, I know that a matrix is an ordered group of elements with the function of an operator to transform another matrix or a vector. Although the idea that a matrix is an operator is firmly established in mathematics, I have got the idea that your definition of it is simply an inventory of basic facts about both sides of a wargame. As far as I understand matrix wargaming involves both parties giving reasons (why only three?) for actions they intend to perform. These reasons are then compared and examined on their validity by both parties (or by an umpire?). Success for one or the other party then still involves dice throwing (why?). Why should these reasons be based on the matrix? After all the matrix could be incompletely drawn up! My greatest problem however resides in the fact that if I want to play solo, I do not know how I could be impartial in comparing the reasons. Anyhow, what attracts me in your ideas is that they break away from the much trodden paths of existing wargame rules and . to me at least, represent a new approach. For this reason alone the system deserves close scrutiny. By inclination I am, as you would say, an historical miniatures player. I am taken by massed units of nicely attired soldiers and horses, on the table as well as in the real world! My main periods of interest are: Napoleonic , WWII, the Colonial wars in South Africa and the ACW. Naval wargaming in the Napoleonic period and WWI also have my sympathy. Having spent a lot of time painting my figures to the best of my abilities, I want them to do sensible things. I have read nearly all the well-known authors on the subject and it has struck me that they continually copy their own rule books and those of others to make new ores, very unsatisfactory! In the first place, those rules are extremely complicated in their application and moreover not very realistic. In particular do they violate the laws of probability. This really is my pet subject. Probability theory deals in an exact way with uncertainties and is therefore admirably suited to describe the actions of soldiers in a battle where certainties do not exist. I therefore started introducing it at first for the caluculations of casualties and movements of soldiers, though particular games depend on the situation and the historical period. Although they can be deduced from historical records, they will always leave room for different interpretations and thus for discussion. Anyhow the system does away with indiscriminate dice throwing, an unsatisfactory aspect in most wargame rules. If you think my participation in your circle could be useful and if I could get a chance to exchange ideas, I would be pleased, although after all the denigrating remarks I have had to swallow I had already come to the conclusion that it would be better to keep the whole thing to myself and let the rest stew in their own juice. I am afraid I cannot provide you with a lot of information on the state of the art in the Netherlands. It is certainly not that highly developed as in Britain or the U.S. with lots of clubs and publications. From contributors in Lone Warrior I know there are some Britons living in the Netherlands, who apply a computer to their game or simply collect figures. I know of an ex-colleague of mine who started wargaming on the advice of his doctor after he had suffered a heart attack. As far as I know there is one shop selling wargame figures (mainly Hinchliffe) in the whole country (The Hague). This retailer organizes demonstration games in his backroom and once a year a national wargames demonstration in a large hall near The Hague with participants from all over the country. The dealer in question also told once that some people had bought his whole existing stock of 1/3000 WWI warships in order to refight Jutland. So you see there is some activity but not organized. There is a model soldier society, closely related to the national army museum which also sells figures, large and small, but it concerns mere figure painters and collectors, not wargamers, The conclusion must be that wargaming is not a very popular passtime in the Netherlands. Please, Chris, let me know the financial consequences of entry into your circle. Best wishes. I am a retired mathematical economist, still doing some lecturing in statistics. Back to Experimental Games Group # 4 Table of Contents Back to Experimental Games Group List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1989 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