John Stiton: As a new member of the Solo Wargamers Association I'd like to thank you and your Team for producing an interesting and informative magazine - future issues of Lone Warrior are eagerly awaited! I would like to commend to the members the Library facilities. I've borrowed books through Steve Foster and Michael Buttle with minimal trouble and gained a lot of information and help - I reckon it's great! Has anyone pontificated on the form of ORDERS? I've read nowt on the subject - it seems to be 'glossed over'.

[John, welcome aboard and thanks for your kind comments, the lads deserve them. Orders? Need to go to Back Copies for those! Got confirmation of the Uni place and in September the mature student becomes the Ancient student, who is known at the university as "Old Man with Black Hair" - fact, not my Indian name. Never thought of myself as being old before. Where's that zimmer frame? Thanks for your kind wishes! Kenn]

Marvin Scott (Iowa, USA)[To Rich]: Congratulations! The North American version of SWA is off and running. You are building a duplicate SWA on this side of the pond. We have a budding postal game movement (PBM). I am playing in two of the games - Volci and Shenandoah. They are both excellent. So often people complain that games lack a "fog of war." Believe me, these games have a fog of war. They also have a period flavor, player character development, and enough surprises to keep players guessing. Both Jon Laughlin and George Arnold are doing an excellent job. I would encourage SWA members who have not tried postal play to give these games a try.

[Real good news]

Gary Haines: I have just received Lone Warriors' 115 - 117 plus the Beginners Pack and due to this have now been converted to starting miniature wargaming. I have played boardgames but found something lacking and I was surprised to find out you can run actual campaigns using miniatures. Nearly everything is playable solo, including the excellent looking Games Workshop games like Warhammer etc. The only limits to soloing I have learnt so far from Lone Warrior are posed by your imagination.

[They make it and we will solo play it! Enjoy your Napoleonics and note there is a lot more behind the pages of Lone Warrior that can assist you in your hobby. Kenn]

Paul Oxberry: I would be grateful if you could give me some pointer in the hope of running a Play By E-Mail [PBEM] game, by suggesting someone who could help me. [I put Paul in touch with Graham but if there is any other member interested contact him on "poxberry@nescot.ac.uk". Kenn] Also do you konw where I can get a copy of Aces High (plus Blue Max) the board game?

[Godfrey Bailey is the man or any other member may have the information]

Jonathan Aird: Thanks, as ever, for the last couple of issues of Lone Warrior. Well, I've got my solo challenge for the month - I was playing Tyranid Attack (a GW science fiction game from a couple of years back) at the weekend. It's a fairly simple game about exploring a living (hostile) spaceship in an attempt to find vital organs and destroy them (an thereby the ship).

After a couple of games I came to the conclusion that it was "rigged" in favour of the alien defenders - but it's too nice a looking game to give up on altogether ! So, I'm on the hunt for fixes (which don't unbalance it the other way). Should be fun (although, I'm already thinking about making it a bigger and tougher ship, and having more Space Marines to do the exploration). My other task - should I choose to accept it - is get on with painting some of the hundreds of figures I've gathered over the last year or so.

Fortunately they're mostly plastic Napoleonics (I have a dream of one day having enormous cavalry forces, and I couldn't face 15mm and couldn't afford 25mm) so at least I haven't tied up too much Hobby Resource in them. Sadly, I get castigated for fielding unpainted troops even when I play solo.

[Jonathan, The mind boggles! When I wanted Mongol and Hun cavalry armies I chose 6mm from Irregular Miniatures because, apart from the cost, I could not face having to attack with my 2" paintbrush all those horses! Good luck and Thanks for the articles. Kenn]

Martin Hogg: I have only just joined the Solo Wargamers Association and enjoyed (indeed still am enjoying) reading the three back issues of Lone Warrior which I received. I felt inspired to send something in, "A Fresh Start" and "Siege of Gudanbad". I hope they are of use. I would be interested to learn how keen you are to receive contributions, as I have a few ideas but certainly don't want to waste your time! If I do send other bits in, would you prefer them on disk? I use a Mac but can save to most text formats. (I think... how many are there?)

[Welcome Martin. Thanks for the articles and I am always very keen to receive more in then it allows me to give a breadth of subjects within Lone Warrior. I know of a fellow editor who has piles of articles he informed me last year, unfortunately I do not have that problem and run a very much "Hand to Mouth" system at present.

TO ALL MEMBERS: All articles will be gratefully received, in ANY format. I can accept articles and/or letters either hand-written, typed (no faint ink please), by email or on disk. The hand-written ones are typed up by The Team, headed by Ian Duncan (an unsung hero), or myself. Typed articles are scanned into the computer then tweaked by me but it is essential that the type is clear and the font is of the Times New Roman, Courier New or similar because the scanner has problems with the "script" type fonts. Had trouble with Mac in the past but if you send an ASCII file and a hard copy there should be no problem. Articles on disk or email are the ideal, from an idle Editor's point of view, because they just need tweaking prior to publication but please put your name and address on the disk if you want them returned. My hit rate is not 100% in this area but I am to get better.

Craig Ambler: What is this? It's the Royal George 1st Rate 104 guns sinking (yes sinking) 4 French ships of 18, 2 x 16 and a 12 gunner in 17 minutes game time and about 4 minutes real time and only firing 5 times. I got one 54% first and then 4 100%, great fun.

[Briefest review you will ever read! The game was "Age of Sail" by Empire Interactive, full review in Lone Warrior 118. Good shooting Craig. Kenn]

John Wilson: I read your review of Age of Sail in LW 118, and particularly noted your gripe with Stern Chase situations. I can tell you the historical method of dealing with such encounters. Whether or not it works on Age of Sail, I cannot tell you. However, if the program uses an accurate weather simulation (like the weather cells in Harpoon II) as opposed to blanket wind speed and direction variables, it should work.

The tactic is known as "Taking the Wind from His Sails" (and is the actual origin of the phrase). In the heydays of the clippers, captains would frequently race each other back to port with their cargoes. Whoever got there first would get the higher price for their cargo, But, the temptation to carry more cargo (and earn more money) used to slow clippers down.

In these "races" the slower clipper captain would try to get upwind of his rival. The theory was that if the clipper had enough sail it would be possible for the sails to block the wind from his rival sufficiently to slow him down. If a captain was skilful enough to plot just such a course (taking into account tacking and other manoeuvres) this tactic would work. It was particularly effective in conditions of light wind. The exact range of the "wind" shadow would depend on wind speed and direction, but the closer you got, the more effective it was.

The usual counter to this tactic was violent manoeuvring. However, this could also reduce speed sufficiently to give a rival an advantage. It is possible that this technique was employed before the days of the clippers, but it is definitely used today. And I can vouch for its effectiveness after being becalmed in a number of club yacht races by people performing this manoeuvre.

Try it. The software may not be able to cope with it, but if Stern Chases occur that often, the programmers must have thought of a way round it. And I have seen it in a very old yacht simulator for the ZX Spectrum - so it is not totally unknown. I must get hold of a copy of Age of Sail and find out.

[Thanks John, but they are too far away and too fast - an excuse for another cuppa! I think you will enjoy the game and I am informed that there is an Ancient one in the pipeline so "Stand By to Ram!"]

Michael Gray (Publicity Secretary): I have made a major breakthrough regarding how to get hold of clear plastic hexed overlays. After Mike Buttle kindly sent me some of his own hex paper. I enlarge a sheet on a photocopier and then had them printed on plastic sheets at my local Office World. They are size A4 and cost 35p each. I sent a sample to Henry Mclaughlan who made an enquiry in Lone Warrior 118, so he will be able to manufacture this own map overlays. Anyone with a similar problem can contact me and I can put them on the right track.

[This is what the Solo Wargamers Association is all about - from my point of view. Members helping each other. Kenn]

Nic Birt: It was good of you to re-print my article from all those years ago! I've been out of the Association for a few years (I've just been recruited back). Thanks for all your editorial work. Your article "A Very Level Playing Field" [Lone Warrior 118] has stimulated a few ideas in me which I'm looking forward to trying out.

[Nic, welcome back. Thanks for the follow-up article and it's good to know that you have gotten something out of my article. At the end of a game my table can be covered in "Fallen Heroes".]

Peter Helm (Redoubt Enterprises). All the best for the next 21 years! [Thanks Peter].

John Wilson, 28 Bligh St, Liverpool, L15 OHF. E-mail: John @wilsonclan.prestel.co.uk. An Appeal FOR HELP! I recently purchased Harpoon II Admiral's Edition for the PC as it had the long awaited data base for Harpoon II. However, the instruction manual was worse than useless - as was the "online help". If anyone has clear instructions on using the database editor for Harpoon II (including how to import pictures) I would be very grateful.

[John hope this works and welcome as our latest Adviser. John produces a solo SFSFW mag and a SASE will secure. Kenn]

Letters to Graham Empson (with his ACW Adviser kepi on)

Carl Hendrickson.: Thanks for your ACW campaign rules - they are excellent! I had intended to just fight one off battles working my way through the war, but now, using your rules, I'm going into much more detail. I've purchased one of the set of rules that you suggested, Volley and Bayonet, and I am pleased with them. I have already used them with 6mm Napoleonics and they wotk well. As for figures I have just bought some 10mm from Irregular Miniatures at the York show.* It was a great surprise to receive your package, I wasn't expecting so much information, thanks once again.

[*Carl, we were there! Both Graham and I had our Solo Wargamers Association T-Shirts on plus our label badges! Surprised you didn't spot us. Kenn]

Michael Nethercot. Many thanks for your letter with ORBAT and details of the solo campaign system. You have certainly given me food for thought and I will definitely use some of your ideas in my own campaign. I have managed to get my PC working and have tried Gettysburg and Civil War games by Empire. My first impressions are pro Gettysburg but I have some reservations about the other. Again many thanks.