I see from looking through the archives that no one felt qualified to venture an opinion as to why PBM gamers are incapable of combining their efforts in a committee game, why they won't co-operate or even write letters to their fellows. No interesting articles proving that psychologically, gamers are sublimating their "rogue male" tendencies or perhaps they are suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. Nothing implying that they are bone idle or terminally disorganised. In fact - nothing. Well, the postbag is empty, so I will just enter a plea for articles, letters, diatribes, even game reports (we do seem to have fallen into the idea that no-one is interested in game reports, and I don't think that it is true. How can the outsider form an idea of the flavour of PBM games if no-one ever gives a hint of what goes on inside them. I have been asked for a write-up of Excalibur by one of the players, and since I am quite as lazy as any other PBMer, I think you can guess what is going to appear in this column in the near future if nothing appears from the public to push it aside). My Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite has got off to an interesting start. Players have been making input since February 1792, with the formal start in March. We have now reached July, and Poland has been gobbled up by Austria, Prussia and Russia (there is a quite noticeable hostility between the three, but it didn't stop them putting the Poles down). The French have invaded Piedmont, while the Austrians have just about got round to besieging Strasbourg and the Prussians are dawdling westward to join in. The internal politics of France are quite interesting, with the leftists making all the running. They have introduced a mass of legislation which the government is now expected to administer. The Turks were harassing Tuscan and Neapolitan shipping to the point where these two states asked for Spanish convoys and received them. Britain has bought Louisiana and Florida from Spain, a purchase which has virtually guaranteed US hostility for the rest of the game. Maybe a US player will be needed. The computer program that I wrote to do the donkey work of battles and sieges is working well, though there have been five sieges and only one battle so far. Stuart Garforth of SG Games (128, Womersley Road, Knottingley, West Yorkshire WF11 0DQ) writes to advertise "La Gloire du Roi", a commercial PBM game run under licence from Agema Publications (£ 8-99 set up, £ 4-00 per turn and £ 1-00 every 12 turns for an "End of year" supplement). The startup material includes over 15 maps, 39 page "rulebook" (really more guidelines, for this is a free format game) and state information plus a list of personalities for one of the eighteenth century states of Europe and the Near East. You can choose your state. It's likely to be a good game if Agema designed it. Back to Table of Contents -- Lone Warrior #106 Back to Lone Warrior List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by Solo Wargamers Association. 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