Dear Mike:

First let me compliment you on the Herald. You have done a good job since becoming editor of the Herald. Keep up the quality work.

I would like to respond to Dennis Frank's article in the last Herald. He reported on the results of his DBA tournament held at Advance the Colors. First let me say that I felt that Dennis ran a fine tournament. ldrovefrom Columbus to Dayton just to participate in this tournament. Itwastheonly gaming event that I took part in during the convention. I enjoyed my time in the tournament. To be honest it would have been good to play everybody in the tournament just to meet and play against everyone.

It pleases me to hear that Dennis will run a second tournament at next year's Advance the Colors convention. Dennis said that he would change some mechanics. I disagree with some of his proposals.

Dennis suggests that additional minutes be added to the last round. disagree. I do not believe that you should place this special emphasis one last round. Each round is weighted equally on victory points and thus all rounds should have an equal time limit. Dennis said that he wishes to adjust tie breakers. However, he does not give details; I cannot comment on these until I see them. Tie breakers are an important aspect of any tournament and should be approached carefully.

I would be careful of a "no Romans" policy. The idea of an open tournament is to allow the participants to choose their armies. Saying, "No Romans allowed," is fine. However, this needs to be communicated well in advance. I would hate for someone to spend weeks practicing with an army only to find out that it is banned from tournament play. Dennis will need to announce any restricted armies in many public ways, such as an article in The Herald and on the web, many months ahead of the tournament. He would aIso need to be ready to supply several tournament quality armies for use by people who bring only "banned" armies.

I look forward to participating in the DBA tournament at the 1999 Advance the Colors tournament.

Mike

Hi! My name is Brad Thurmond and I've been a member of HMGSGL for a little over a year now. I have to tell you I really enjoy The Herald and want to thank you for your service to the hobby as its editor.

The main reason for my writing is to ask if you know of any HMGS publication that could be used to hand out to the general public at a demo. I've never seen anything like this, but wondered if you knew of one.

The reason I ask is on Saturday, Feb. 6, from 10 am to 4 pm, the college where I teach math (Ivy Tech State College - Kokomo, IN) is holding Tech-Know-Fest, a day long event showcasing education and technology. I'll be running a demo game, a simple French and Indian War skirmish scenario, for the public to show off a "non-traditional" way to learn about history (and trying to contact folks who might be interested in what they see with the historical gaming "community"). Any documents or publications you are aware of would be very helpful. Also, if you know of anyone who has done something similar, feel free to forward this e-mail to them or their address to me.

Any Great Lakes members in the area should feel free to stop by! The best route to Kokomo is on US 31. At the north end of Kokomo, US 31 crosses Morgan Street. Turn east and the campus is a few hundred yards on the right. By the way, once its over, I'll try to write a short piece on it for The Herald. Thanks in advance for your help! --Brad Thurmond, Kokomo, IN (e-mail: thurmond@netusa.1.net)