Jesper Ohlsson (Sweden) - I would like to give my compliments for an excellent wargaming magazine George Heath - I must say that I am pleased with the content of LW of late. You seem to be hitting a good balance in the content and the Forum is once again, an important part of the content. Keep up the good work and give my regards to all. Ian Hall, - Thanks for the last two Lone Warriors, both excellent as usual, I wish I could match the contributors' work. I particularly enjoyed Douglas Shand's Sci-Fi offering and I will be popping to the model shop to get some balsa wood and glue. Simple space ship rules - remarkable! I can't wait to try them. Steve Foster's "Maps" article... again excellent. Finally Godfrey Bailey's "1776" solo campaign amendments. As you know I am very keen on the AWI (and the War of 1812 and FI Wars). Can I put in a request for anyone who has a copy of the Avalon Hill 1776 game they would like to sell to please get in touch. I'd love to try it. Keep up the good work it is much appreciated. [Ian, nice to hear from you and good luck in the new pad. Seems you got your money's worth out of 112, which is always nice to know. Kenn] Michael Gray - Just received LW 112, much of it of great interest. The highlights were Bill Orr, flowchart and Steve Fosters map rules. The only thing missing was the worlds best kept secret, where do you get HEX paper. I have been trying for sometime and have yet to discover who's the secret stationer. Does anybody know out there. The only article I felt that left itself to criticism was the boardgame rules for the AWI. This is a period I have played and read about a good deal, but by the time I got to the third page it became totally unreadable. I have no idea the meaning of the abbreviation as I do not play board-games and few are explained, so the rules are meaningless. I hope in future articles such thing can be better explained. I take no pleasure in criticizing other peoples writing, although I feel it must be of use to you. I could not agree more with Mike Buttle, when he said that solo wargamers do not describe how armies they are fighting operate, I look forward to see what he comes up with in his next report. [I think you must read Godfrey's intro again and remember he is aiming his article specifically at boardgamers! Perhaps when you read Part 2 and see the other maps things may come clearer, or do like Ian Hall and try and get the game! Feedback is essential in an organization like ours and the more I get the better I like it! I am also keen to see Mike's battle report and judging from previous correspondence it should be extremely interesting. Kenn] Andrew Turner. I must say how impressed I was by 'Lone Warriors' 109 - 111. Not only were they very professionally produced, but they also provided exactly what I hoped to find in the publication of a Society dedicated to Solo Wargaming - any articles specifically related to Solo Wargaming. It is without hesitation that I decided to rejoin for the coming year. I am now considering writing a short article based on ideas I have had for solving dilemmas in my own solo campaign in the hope that they may be as useful to other members as their article's have been to me. Keep up the good work. [Nice to have you back with us Andrew and look forward to your article. Kenn] Nick Bell - I am an enthusiastic and experienced role player and would like to share some of my enthusiasm and experience with other members. Although I am particularly keen to advise members on folk-lore (and in particular Celtic and Norse history and mythology) from a role-play perspective I would be happy to be listed as a general 'Role-play' adviser. As I'm not in contact with other members, I can only guess at how popular this service will be. However, I could say for sure that any members who want some ideas to bring a campaign to life or to populate an adventure with interesting characters and adversaries would benefit from contacting me. [Now that sounds like an offer you solo campaigners can't refuse! Nick's address is in the Advisers Column. Kenn] Graham Empson - I have enclosed the first issue of 'Battlefields' for you to have a look at (please return at some point - no rush). I have to say that I found it very refreshing and highly thought provoking, with the editorial aims and viewpoints showing some good common sense stuff. In fact I am so taken with the ideas put forward I shall be subscribing for a year just to see whether they remain true to their ideals. One of the main reasons that I went solo in the first instance was my disgust at the way various members of clubs became rule manipulators, an obsession, which in most cases caused a total departure from actual battle conditions of the historical period. The 'all seeing eye' can of course manipulate units, to face problems, win tactical actions that the commander on the ground, at the time, would have had absolutely no chance of doing, or even, had any knowledge of it occurring. At least when I play solo I can attempt to introduce 'fog of war', delay in order transmission, none arrival of messages, place limits on the generals at respective levels on how much they could see, how they influence events, even how much influence the C-in-C had over events once battle commenced. Lee always adopted the attitude of 'I have made my plans, issued general orders so now let my subordinates get on with it since I cannot possibly know what is happening on the field currently'. I like to follow as far as possible the formation set ups and general tactics of the time and prove that even with all that you could still have changed the result. Now this may mean I lose quite a lot, something the rules buffs find difficult, but at least I learn something about how hard it was at the time, and more important I enjoy it. Its like the Gettysburg battle, that took me a number of attempts to prove that Lee could have won the battle, staying inside the period. Fog of war etc. - it basically came down to onward, onward and disregard the casualties - but having won the battle you haven't got a lot of infantry left, come to that you aint got much of an army. The experiment I just carried out in D-Day, at strategic level only, of 'How quickly can I defeat Germany' - answer is 70 days, but the cost is horrendous, 387,000 casualties - the people at home would probably have assas-sinated the C-in-C on his return! I have also taken till May 3rd 1945, but my casualties were only 147,000 - less in fact than the actual losses in Normandy alone. Any way I shall now put my soap box back in the garage till another day. David Heading: Please find enclosed an article for consideration in Lone Warrior. Yes, your appeals have finally moved another of the silent majority to put keyboard to word-processor. Actually, I'm not all that silent, as I once had two articles published in this august Journal many moons ago. I doubt if Opera-tions Archive will ever catch up with them, however. Anyway, three articles over the last ten years is not a great output. Having returned to the fold after a number of years, it was great to find SWA still operational (albeit just), and the journal is still of the same high quality, and full of good ideas. So good, in fact that I have used some of them in my article, hence the title. Thank you for your hard work, and keep it up! [David, welcome back and thanks for the article, most interesting. I'm sure that when members put forward articles for publication in LW it is for the use of others and you have certainly done that. If any member has a review about DBR I would be willing to run it because it just might get me to blow the dust of my Renaissance armies. Looking forward to finding out how you progress with you new project. Oh! we are more than just operational, perhaps my constant bleating for more articles appears we are in trouble - not so. See Committee page for latest update. Kenn] Alastair Roy: It was good to meet you at the SKELP show and have the opportunity for a chat. I hope this short note in response to the interesting articles on Maps by Steve Foster is in time for the next edition of Lone Warrior. Despite the problems you are having with your graphics software (no squares, hexes or blobs), I found the article useful in getting me thinking again about how best to tackle campaign movement. As I prefer to use commercial maps I thought it might be helpful to advise readers who not aware of it that a very useful gadget is available commercially for taking fairly accurate measurements of winding roads. It is like a pen, with a serrated edged wheel and can be adjusted to the scale of the map. As it is moved carefully along the route of the road on the map a red line (like the mercury in a thermometer) moves up the scale. The distance moved can then be read off in miles or kilometers. If a section of the movement is over difficult terrain then the scale can be adjusted to allow for less daily movement. I bought mine in Halfords some years ago but have also seen them this year in charity Christmas catalogues as a gift for motorists. Keep up the good work. [Alastair, I to enjoyed our chat at SKELP and I trust you got some fun out of those old Lone Warriors you bought. It was not the graphics to blame, how I wish I had a program that read all types of graphics, but myself who failed to put in the Blobs etc. Thanks for the tip and see you on 2 Nov 96 in Kirrie. Kenn] Jervis Johnson of Games Workshop. Thanks for your letter, and I'm most pleased you have agreed to swop mags. Reading through Lone Warrior reminded me of the hugely enjoyable solo battles I fought in my youth, when opponents were hard to come by and I had more time than I knew what to do with. Ah, those were the days; life was so much simpler then, and so on. Seriously though, your magazine did make me realize that one area of gaming we've been very lax in addressing is solo wargaming. So in order to put the record straight I've volunteered to write an article and do a battle report based on a solo game. It should be in White Dwarf in 4 or 5 months time... Thanks, once again, for agreeing to swap mag's and, more importantly, for reminding me of the joys of being a Lone Warrior. [Jervis, if one copy of Lone Warrior does that to you beware the next edition! I'm sure your subscribers and our members will benefit from the exchange. Should you need any tips on how to solo in the Fantasy World just get in touch because the mechanisms I use for my Samurai could easily be used for Wood Elves, having used that army once and spent most of the time hiding in a wood using spells to drop mountains on the enemy, perhaps that's not such a good comparison but you know what I mean. We have quite a few keen Fantasy solo gamers as members who would willing assist. Kenn] George Arnold, El Dorado, Arkansas. I very much like the suggestion by Ray Letkiewicz in LW112 that the North American soloists begin a sell and swap column for their extraneous "stuff." I'm sure others are like me in that I've accumulated figures, rule sets and other items over the years that now are simply gathering dust while my interests have turned to other periods. if our esteemed editor could set up a format for such information to be included in Lone Warrior, I'm sure many would contribute. Another suggestion I'd like to toss out would be that we establish some contacts for play by mail campaigns here in the States. I'm not sure of the mechanics, but would be most interested in getting involved in such a campaign. A long-distance wargaming buddy and I recently concluded an ACW Shenandoah campaign that was quite exciting and enjoyable. In that case, we exchanged moves and orders by mail, then I did all the gaming when we had contacts. It was a good two-way campaign, but there are probably other ways to go about this. I'd be interested in something larger, with the logistics worked out beforehand so that the campaign could be kept on track. Anyone else interested? [As always, George, good suggestions. The European edition features a swap column which I have chosen not to print in order to print other things. However, I am pleased to start a North American swap/sell column. No format required. Just send your text including address and/or phone. Keep it somewhat succinct. We'll see what happens. Rich.] Brock Harring, Peotone, Illinois. The magazine is great! The only question I have is why publish the Games Service Check? Most of the games seem to be European located. Perhaps a specific North American listing would be more worthwhile. [As for PBM. All of us here in good ol' North America are certainly invited to play a PBM game monitored by a European. Yes, mail is slower. As more of us go on-line, that will cease to be a problem. Of course, I'd be most pleased if one of our North American members would step forward and volunteer to design and run a PBM campaign. I have only the foggiest idea what this would entail but maybe we can get some help from other SWA members who have tried it. I am glad you and George Arnold asked about PBM. My goal for Lone Warrior is to provide ideas and to inspire soloists. Inspiration includes exposure to new areas of the hobby such as computer gaming, PBM, and good reading etc. Rich] To our North American members. Two members have commented that they would like to see a membership directory, perhaps including e-mail addresses. As a general rule, the SWA respects the privacy of members who request it. And since LW is available to non-members, I have been careful not to include addresses in LW except for PBM folks. The rest of you out there ... any interest in a membership directory for folks who wish to be included? There would be a nominal cost for preparation and mailing. Rich. Back to Table of Contents -- Lone Warrior #113 Back to Lone Warrior List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1996 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