Mike Buttle has had another go at tackling the problem of motivating players to adopt active policies, in the wake of scant response to his Westlands scenario. He doesn't give the new scenario a name, so I have named it "The Texicans", to fit its location and time. It seems that in 1812, the Spanish garrison of Texas really did rout a force of pro-independence Mexicans and American adventurers. With a British expeditionary force, allied to Spain, in American waters and French pirates (sorry, privateers) helping the Americans defend New Orleans (itself bought from the French only ten years previously) almost anything was possible at that date. Mike puts the players to defend their settlements in Texas against the enemy [whoever that may turn out to be], and to gain advancement in their own national government. Successful generals can get to be president and unsuccessful generals get kicked out. Success is measured by the electors in fairly simple terms like stopping cattle raids and making the electors rich. There are all sorts of complications such agrarian reform and wealthy local landowners. The players are organised in teams and have to co-operate with each other to defeat the foreign enemy, whilst competing with each other for resources and glory. Mike has also done a scan of PBM games advertised in Lone Warrior during the period 1990-98. Of the 25 he spotted, there were 3 x Ancients, 2 x Medieval, 1 x English Civil War, 2 x 18th Century, 2 x Revolutionary/Napoleonic, 1 x Colonial, 1 x 19th Century Latin America, 1 x Great War, 7 x World War II and 5 x Fantasy. Collapsing that together gives 10 pre-gunpowder (including the Fantasy), 7 horse and musket and 8 modern. Mike comments on the sparcity of Napoleonic games, but that may relate to the fact that without a Napoleon to lead France, France hasn't a hope of defeating the rest of Europe. It is also interesting that modern games are as popular as horse and musket, given the much greater complexity of the period. Anyone prepared to do a scan of general articles, and see whether the PBM split matches the general split? Back to Table of Contents -- Lone Warrior #133 Back to Lone Warrior List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2001 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