Letters from members on any solo wargaming topic are more then welcome in the Forum. Jon Laughlin: I look forward to another year of Lone warrior. I prize my membership in the Solo Wargamers Association. Work continues on my next campaign but it is slow going. In part I feel lazy, but again finding sources of information and as of yet the lack of good maps hinders my efforts. But then, it's nice not having to worry if player turns are on time or trying to fit all the necessary book work and wargaming into my work schedule. I'm also concentrating more effort into painting, getting figures done that have been sitting around for years waiting to get painted. I've just finished all my T'ang Dynasty Chinese (but need more), working on Persians and Egyptians, and preparing my samurai army for priming and then painting. Then there is my Aztec project that hasn't' even been started yet. There are enough figures there to take me a full year and I still don't have enough. Happy Wargaming! [Jon, always great to hear of your impending projects. Sounds like many of us – so many figures and so little time, Rich] Marvin Scott: Rich, you are doing a fine job with the North American Lone Warrior. My old eyes like the neat layout with nice big type. The computer graphics are a little stiff but the artwork by David Barnes and, lately, Jon Laughlin add character. You are keeping a little humor in there too. Your articles in MWAN are helping make SWA more visible in the U.S. Thanks for all your work on these things. I'll try to get you some more articles. [Marvin, thank you for the good words and thanks for the articles, they are most appreciated. I make a conscious effort to keep the font size large for just the reason you cite, it is easier on the eyes. Rich] Duncan Macleay: I have enjoyed renewing my acquaintance with Lone Warrior. My membership of the Solo Wargamers Association lapsed about ten years ago after a serious illness. Although still affected and unable to participate in a 5 or 6 hours around full size games table I am able to play. I have become a genuine solo wargamer with some nice 6mm armies and a 4' x 2' playing area. I was interested in Steve Turner's method of storing his 6mm figures. My first army was a New Empire Assyrian in 25mm which is kept in a metal tool box. However I began to store my 25mm French Napoleonic in file boxes laid on their side. They take up four boxes. My 15mm Napoleonic British takes up one file box by inserting a tray with 30mm clearance and taking care over positioning of the standard-bearers. The units are divided by 10 x 10mm or 10 x 5mm beading. However, with 6mm, two armies go in the same box. My most recent armies are British and French Marlburian from Irregular Miniatures new 10mm range and painted by their highly reliable painting service. I am very impressed by the 10mm scale and shall be interested to hear from anyone who has built up Napoleonic armies in this scale. Being limited by illness has its drawbacks but I have had lots of pleasure from devising mechanisms to move control of the game from me to the opposing general. [If anyone wishes to contact Duncan, his address is 92 Munro Rd, Jordanhill, Glasgow G13 1SG.] Carl Henrickson: I'm just dropping you a line to say that its great to be back and the Lone Warrior seems to be better than ever. I found Chris Grice's letter to be very interesting and I'm sure that our game would be enhanced if an 'outsider' was to control the overall strategy of one side in a solo campaign. The prospect of having to let someone else know the results of battles etc would certainly give me the incentive to play out the games I often put to one side. I think as a solo gamer campaigns can often lose their momentum when played out in complete isolation. George Arnold's article was very interesting and had some useful information in it - I've now dug out my 6mm Arabs and Israelis, hopefully in the future I'll have enough information to start a campaign. Thanks for running an excellent magazine, it has certainly given a new life to my wargaming! [Carl, check out Steve Turner's 'Aide de Camp' system which is in its infancy but should be a bonus to any member who wishes to use it. Kenn] Andrew Freeman: Another Lone Warrior, and a damn fine one too. Have I submitted anything. No! All the usual pathetic excuses apply. Perhaps I should apply for lottery funding. Back last summer Peter Pig held an open day. Actually since he works out of some sheds in his back garden it was a day long barbecue with wargaming under canvas with twenty like minded idiots. It was a great opportunity to see what is involved in producing wargames models, buy goodies at bargain prices, see some new things and actually try out some new rules and figure ranges. As well as additions to established ranges two new ranges and supporting rule sets were in evidence. First was the 15mm WW1 range. The range first appeared a little while back but has been considerably extended. In the word of Mr Pig "it covers the early part of WW1 when armies were quite pretty and warfare more mobile". The rules in use were a prototype of a set due to be released soon. These are very fast play, use groups of troops rather than individual figures. The playing surface is divided into squares of about 1 foot for movement, firing etc. Since it eliminates all sorts of tedious measuring it looks as if it should be easy to convert to solo use. If you have seen the "land supplement to Hammerin' Iron" you should get the general idea. If you haven't - why not ? The other new range of 15mm figures is for "Post colonial warfare in Africa" with a set of rules called "AK47 Republic". Now I realise as a subject this may be unacceptable to some people and I don't intend to enter the great ethics arena. But I would say have a look at the rules. There are a lot of good ideas in them with much wider applications. The game is at a company/battalion level. The combat/movement side of things is simple, too much so for some tastes, no doubt. For instant there is only one sort of tank. Its called "a tank". This assumes they all have tracks, armour and a cannon. They are also probably casts offs from some superpower of doubtful age, reliability, and minus functioning high tech bits. (A colleague of mine who worked in several African countries told me unless electronic units are sealed the innards, including coloured wires, are often gutted, frequently to make personal ornaments). Infantry is in groups equipped with small arms, RPGs or heavy weapons. Infantry groups and individual vehicles are grouped into units which may be of several different qualities. Movement includes a random element. Combat is basically attacker with 2 dice versus defenders 1 dice which results in no effect, pinned or destroyed with a possibility of collateral damage from heavy weapons. If the attacker rolls a double there is a random effect from "Ammo problems whole unit fires at -2 next turn" to "Professional troops may call in air support next turn". Add a simple morale section and that's it. The quick reference sheet is one side of A4 in normal size print. In itself this gives a fast, exciting game, though probably not acceptable to those who favour the "log table" style of rules. I think where these rules really score is in how it allows you to set up an on table situation with uneven forces. Firstly it helps you generate a flag and name for your army, "Oh no its a Red Camel on a Black background, it must be Northern Independent Militia of Z'bote!" More seriously you then chose a type of army e.g. "Colonial Power"; "Popular Front" each of which has restrictions on army composition. Each player has 600 points to spend on an army which must comprise 5 units subject to various rules about composition. Between 25 and 90 points must be reserved on political manoeuvring. Many sorts of political manoeuvres are possible and depending on your army type. Each costs a number of points and the result is subject to a dice roll. The end results include you or your opponents gaining or loosing troops, troops arriving late and ugrades or downgrades to troop quality or equipment. Further simple mechanisms define general terrain type, terrain objectives, variable victory conditions and who attacks/defends. The end result is you end up with an unbalanced scenario where each side has its own problems and advantages. Doesn't that sound a good idea? No I don't have shares in Peter Pig. Martin Goddard who runs it is just an enthusiastic wargamer who believes in fun games, and sensible prices. (Don't forget your SWA discount.) Ref Steve Turner and 6mm on the cheap, and even smaller. Yes I tried match stick armies too. Great fun. I even made artillery and wagons. I experimented with duplicating everything in column/line limbered/unlimbered and even notional skirmish lines/dismounted cavalry. Not entirely successful but let me know if anyone wants to more details. What I was after was some quick ACW armies to allow land actions to tie in with my ironclads. I had visions of fort bombardments, protecting troop landings etc. Actually as Steve says they come out nearly 6mm which is twice the size I need for my 1/600 ships (Someone with initials PP now makes troop blocks of the right scale anyway and Irregular do 2mm figures which will do at a pinch). [Andrew, great to hear from you again. Trust the recent floods have not affected you. Kenn] Thomas Heaney (Thomas@kontos.demon.co.uk): Just received LW, cheered me up after a bad day at work! I was wondering if any members know of any Solo gaming resources on the Internet. All that I know of are a few rules on my own Web page, plus LW on Magweb. Do any other members have their own Web page? On that note, I'm starting to build my own "Universe"(just building a world is not good enough for me!) for a solo Science Fiction campaign, and I will be putting details of it on my Full Thrust Web page at http://www.kontos.demon.co.uk/ft/ftnf.htm as and when things evolve (probably slowly). If any members have any comments, suggestions etc, I'd be glad to hear them. Would it be OK to put some SWA details along with this, such as contact info. A few months ago the subject of solo gaming came up on a mailing list I am on, and on mentioning the SWA, a few people EMailed me for details. Have you thought about using the Usenet newsgroups to publicise the SWA? You might find a few solo gamers out there who don't know about the SWA. [Thomas, we would appreciate any mention you can give the SW A on the Net. Graham Empson is the email contact and actually sends out membership applications via email, when he is not up to his swamp in alligators! If you would like to put our details on the Usenet, of which I have no knowledge, please go for it. Thanks for the support. Kenn]. David Heading (d.j.heading@aston.ac.uk): I received my LW the other day. It is excellent, congratulations to you and the team for keeping up the output. As far as the debate on campaign reports goes, I like them, although some idea of the rules used is usually good. I prefer rules ideas which have a paragraph at the end along the lines of 'this is what happened when I tried these ideas out'. Its fun to read of other peoples games. "1618-something" was originally designed to be run solo, but has drifted into multi-player. I have thus had to redesign it as "1494-something" to fill in the gaps when I don't have battles to fight, moves to co-ordinate etc. And besides, I've just painted Italian Wars condotta. The problem is the scope of the game, covering the whole Eurasian landmass makes things rather unmanageable by one person, so I'm working on chopping it up into little bits and hoping they don't interact. If anyone has any ideas on sorting out what happens if one bit falls behind and then has a big effect on another bit which has already passed that point, I'd be glad to hear of it. Its complex, as my garbled description shows! Anyway, an article on 1494 may be forthcoming before the next millennium, if you are lucky. Keep up the good work. Ian Tucker: Thank you for the latest edition. I think that the new cover is an improvement. Is it permanent or will it change every so often. Anyway, they say you can't judge a book by its covers but in this case the contents are up to your usual high standards. Congratulations. [Ian, you noticed the changed front cover! Drat! I thought I had been cunning and no one would spot it! What I plan to do is have a different cover for every issue, and to all those members with the technology at their finger tips I offer them the chance to design a cover themselves! Thanks to all the contributors because it is their work which fills Lone Warrior's pages. Kenn] Back to Table of Contents -- Lone Warrior #125 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