Dear Mark Thank you for your interesting letter including a flyer for 'The Gauntlet I hope you enjoyed your sojourn to Normandy. We had a good trip (weather notwithstanding). It isn't primarily a history or battlefields trip, but I did manage to arrange visits to St. Mere-Egllse, Point Du Hoc, Arromanches and Pegasus Bridge. I was shocked to see the complete pigs ear that the French have managed to make out of the Pegasus site, so dose to the anniversary too. The bridge had been up for 100 years - couldn't they have left it for another 9 month's ? Let's hopeit's either brought back to Britain or put on proper display in Francs (as the idea now seems to be). My use of wargaming at 6th Form level comes as port of our 'General Studies' syllabus. The official title is 'History of Warfare' but it's ready wargaming with a historical background. However, the scenarios are chosen to illustrate facets of military history e.g. ritual combat, motivation, fog of war, etc. My difficulty is that I am a victim of my own success! I'm regularly saddled with around 20 participants when Ideally I'd like about 6-8. Also, I only have an hour of a time, so I tend to rely on multi-player 'one-shot' type games beloved of Wargames Developments. The game I have used successfully are: Papua New Guinea Tribal Warfare, (Andy Callon, Conference of Wargaming, COW 1983) Men Against Fire, (Paddy Griffith) Thousand Bomber Raid, (Tim Price, COW 93) Seastrike, (WRO - the favourite among participants) Vietnam, (own scenario & combination of rules) Samurai skirmish, (as above) Roman Gladiators, (currently in development) I am constantly on the lookout for new scenarios. My participants are CCF types who favour modern conflict. Long term I want to develop a near future Strategic/Tactical game, a 'Rorkes Drift' role-playing game and an American Civil War scenario. My visit to Normandy has inspired ideas to do a spin-off course called 'Six Armies in Normandy', based upon the book by John Keegan, which will look at the same campaign from different angles. The July 'Gauntlet' may well help. Mark Hone, Bury, Lancs. Latest news on Pegasus Bridge is that a larger 'Identical' copy is being installed by the French before June's commemorations .. Dear Mark I enjoy Modern naval games or rather, I'd like to enjoy Modern naval games. The rules for these actions seem to fall into two camps, the ultra realistic (read complicated) such as Naval Commander or Harpoon, and the fast, furious and terribly simple like those by M.O.D.. The Harpoon site rules cover every aspect of fighting an action at sea today, but in doing so takes far too long to come to a result. My favourite type of scenario is having say 3-4 Norwegian small missile boats appearing from a Fjord to take on a Soviet Moskva cruiser and its attending Kirov support in a modern version of the battle of the River Plate. However, playing this small naval skirmish can frustratingly take all day. Attempting to fight a squadron or fleet action is quite simply out of a question without without assigning a player per ship and a whole day to do it in. So, why not use M.O.D.? Well these rules certainly give a faster and therefore more satisfying game. A decision is reached long before the boredom threshold is reached, larger forces can be played and the speed of the action unfolding on the tabletop adds to the excitement. Unfortunately, the simplicity of the rules encourages the 'experts' who have probably never even been on a boat before to argue with both the play and the results saying "of course It would never happen like that really". Again, this means a frustrating game. The birth of little Rebecca was a blessing in disguise. Finding the time or opportunity to go to the wargames dub become almost Impossible, but getting in a couple of hours on the Amigo even if it was here and there is easy. Harpoon is available for the Amiga and gives a far superior simulation, allowing you the luxury of COMMAND, you are now the driver not the mechanic. Beet of all, win or lose there's no-one to argue with the results, unless you've forgotten to bath the baby before the wife returns from her mother's. Phil Palmer, Aberdeen Dear Mark 'It's a funny old game'...wargaming and it can Interest or at least Intrigue all kinds of people. Standing one day at the wargames tableI was introducing my new neighbour & friend Eric Mamer to wargaming. We were fighting the Battle of the Pass of Brander which took place 8 or so miles from where we both live, in 1308. Eric was Robert the Bruce and I was John MacDougall Bachach (the Lame). We'd just got started when a knock came at the door downstairs. I left Eric reading the rules and went to see who it was. It was two Jehova's Witnesses who wanted to talk to me. I explained I was in the middle of a wargame amd couldn't spend time with them then. I outlined the historical background of the battle. Being two local people they were very interested. I had borrowed the only copy of O.W.S. Barrow's 'Robert the Bruce & the Kingdom of Scotland' that Argyll Library Service owned and been allowed to keep it for several weeks to study the account of the battle. I'd also read the pertinent part of Nigel Tronter's trilogy of The Bruce - so I was 'well genned up'. They left, I went back to Eric and we played half the game & he came back the next day and beat me - or 'John Booach' rather. His wife told me a week or two later how much he'd enjoyed it and how he'd told all kinds of people about It. When the Jehova's Witnesses turned up again, they wanted to know who'd won the wargame too. So I hod to outline what happened on the table, and in history, which was pretty much the same, except in the wargame (1) John Booach and the remnants of the forces surrendered at the bridge over the River Awe, sandwiched between Bruce and his army and Angus Og (Bruce's ally) and his Islemen. in history John retreated to Dunstaffnage Castle on the coast; about 3 miles above where Oban now stands and, besieged by Bruce, surrendered after a short time. Wargaming which reflects historic events, it seems to me, can be widely interesting to all kinds of people. I'm so glad that another journal is being created to keep sobers and other wargamers in touch. I hope you get lots of letter and articles in the future. Wargaming is a co-operative sport and wargames magazines should be the same. Don't think about writing --do it! Best wishes David Barnes, Oban, Argyll Back to The Gauntlet No. 1 Table of Contents Back to The Gauntlet List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1994 by Craig Martelle Publications 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