From Ned Zuparko: Sorry to take so long to respond. I more or less a semi-retired wargamer (almost entirely) since I have become obsessively involved with my daughter's soccer league. Wargame correspondance ends up on the bottom of the pile on the "catch up at "day time" section. Actually though, I can't really figure out whether or not the Dark Ages game is over or not. As I understood the original conditions, the Vikings were to try to land and plunder. Is the game over? Or are we still playing to see if they get away? In the last issue I assumed the battle was over and didn't send in a new turn. I reexamine things as I see them...I may be wrong, so here's new stuff just in case I goofed up. I am assuming that the NEW, LATEST, Presenting argument we must now use is with us. All who bear arms against them are killed but all others are rounded up", meaning that this has indeed occured. This is a bit confusing. It would help in EGG if when listing the turns. include a summary paragraph with the entire turn as we know it. Reasons can be left to summarize any of the facts/results of each turn. Currently, when reading EGG, I get confused between what was proposed by the different players and what actually ended up happening. Therefore, I would say to the presenting argument, YES. AND. . . I would now REPEAT the turn I sent in last time! If I understand it correctly, I did too much last turn, not only "attacking" Alton, but ALSO plundering and ALSO leaving unscathed. Since the Vikings have apparently won the field, it is now time to plunder. or "carry off the moveable wealth" as you put it in your last offering. Therefore, the only threat left is the Puddleby folk (because didn't the Thanes and the armed guys get killed in the fight? I may have misunderstood the last actions (again?). So my last turn gave reasons why the Puddleby people wouldn't effectively interfere: by repeating that I can ensure VIKING victory and plunder, PLUS giving us time to escape this turn or next. Another modification to matrix then needs to be some kind of time frame parameters within which players can operate. That is, what is "too much"? Is it a player trying to do too many things in a specified period of time? Is it because those things can't occur that soon, or because they can't occur effectively that soon? FYI, enclosed is a clipping from a book catalogue I just received, about "AD 1000". Coincidence, yes? The Duke S. comment comes because he and Jim Getz collaborate, and Jim and I had been bouncing some ideas around together. Actually Jim is the prime mover there, not me. I might write an article for you on some of my ideas In between soccer seasons (if that ever happens!). Actual miniatures gaming went down the tubes because George Jeffrey's ideas were so good that they spoiled the othher games for me; even though George's stuff became unplayable, the other games were still flawed! Add in a healthy dose of Paddy Griffith, and you find me out in left field not to make a total jump out of miniatures games. but unwilling to play them. Thus stuff like EGG and WD I still read and theorize about, but I don't actually play games anymore. Anyway, this youth soccer somehow seems more like a community service ... Back to Experimental Games Group # 5 Table of Contents Back to Experimental Games Group List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1990 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