From Thomas Shydler of 804 Chabot Dr.. Las Vegas, NV 89107: WOW! Having last subscribed to MWAN just after you changed from stone tablets to papyrus, I was stunned to find that MWAN has nearly reached the 2001 Black Monolith level of sophistication. KUDOS to you! I do really think that your contribution-especially as a nexus- is indeed a significant one for the entire hobby. Please keep up the "chatting " style that has always been an earmark of MWAN and contributes so much to the "sense of belonging" that subscribers enjoy. For those of us who are not really in the mainstream of the hobby (I play with 54mm collector's toy soldiers on a strictly "for pleasure" basis while constantly searching for the ideal one page rule set), MWAN provides something of a "center" to relate to, as well as a means of following what aRer all is an extremely fascinating hobby. I am looking forward to the coming year of MWAN reading! (Editor's Note: Good to have you back with MWAN, Tom! Glad you enjoy it; would you consider doing an article on 54mm figures.?)

From Michael Pierce of 7001 NE 137th St.. Kirkland, WA 98034: I have been busy painting 15mm WW II figures and vehicles. They are very popular around here --- we're playtesting Rich Hasenauer's new rules and some local AH SQUAD LEADER conversion to miniatures. Also been playing at the local hobby shop in Lynnwood, a shop called Fantastic Games and Toys. Scott Wenson and John Fisher(who's doing the SQUAD LEADER conversion) have done a great job of adding miniatures to the shop and providing a place to play. We have picked up several new members just from people stopping by and watching. They have games every Saturday --- I've played or watched ACW ironclads, ECW, WW I dogfights (Blue Max), 20mm Spanish Civil War, 15mm and 20mm WW II, and WW II aerial duels (AH Mustangs converted to miniatures). Truly an eclectic group! A new miniatures convention is also coming to town. Ed Texeira is putting on BREAKTHROUGH in Everett (just north of Seattle). He's advertising it for miniatures of all kinds --- fantasy, sci-fi and historical. NHMGS is planing to have quite a few members in attendance perhaps we can grab some converts away from the 'Dark Side" and get them into historicals! Anyway, it's nice to see another venue open to host and showcase historical miniature gaming. The Pacific Northwest is still growing! From editorials in MWAN, your gaming and painting seems to be going along as usual. I hope MWAN stays around for a long time! (Editor 's Note: Good to hear from you again, Michael; how about an article on Rich's WWII rules? What figures and vehicles are you using for this period?)

Kenneth M. Van Pelt of Lion's Den Wargames. 1205 Allendale Drive. Greenwood! Missouri, 64034: Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ken Van Pelt and I have been a wargamer since 1976. In ascending order of size I belong to the following gaming societies or clubs: Lion's Den Wargamers (Local), Heart of America HMGS (Regional), Solo Wargamers Association (I am the North American Free Loan Librarian.), and now Midwest Wargames Association Subscriber (Global!!) Please allow me to express my sincere appreciation for such an incredible resource like MWAN!! I became a real fan of the MWAN as part of a project I am working on for the SWA. As the North American Librarian I started to gather periodicals for our growing archives I owned at the time perhaps 2 issues of MWAN#72 & #73. I liked the magazine and thought it would make a valuable resource for the library. At a local Kansas City gaming convention I bought issues 53-80! BOOM!! Talk about jumping on the band wagon. I sat down and read them all over the next couple of weeks. I really enjoyed discovering a friendly gaming community within the pages of MWAN. We have something very special here gentlemen and ladies. Hats off to Hal &: Co. for fantastic work! Please accept my check for subscription. I have also enclosed a figure review for a new line of 20mm figures from Raventhorpe Miniatures. (Editor's Note: Thanks for the kind words; also thank you for being part of Solo Wargamer's Association via doing the Library Loan. I might add that the SWA has had this service available to members for years in the UK and I always thought it was a very good idea. Glad to see it starting in the US under Rich Barbuto's leadership).

From Mike Reese of 40726 Regency Drive. Sterling Heights. M148313-3974: I read my letter in MWAN 83, and thought I should bring you up to date. I missed MIGSCON due to a death in the family. WINTERCON isn't until January. I am still looking at running a Spear Head game at that convention. I ran one at the last MICHICON in June of this year and it didn't go well. Too big a game or not experienced enough players. No one was familiar with the rules, but that wasn't the problem. Both sides picked up the rules fairly quickly, but had trouble handling their battalion sized units. The main problem was all of my German players didn't know the difference between a Tiger tank and a 25 1 /1 APC. They never deployed, used their artillery, etc when they ran into the Soviets, and were deploying the wrong units in the wrong locations. The Soviets picked up what they had to do quickly, close in and destroy. I will use a scenario from the East Front scenario book out for SH. I asked if anyone knew of any changes effecting the "Munchenberg" panzer division? I found some myself. I purchased two excellent books by the same author, Thomas L. Jentz. They are Germany's Tiger Tanks, Vol. 3, Tiger I & II: Combat Tactics and Germany's Panther Tank. The only complaint I have is he used the same resource for the American combat experience against the Tiger and the Panther, so the two books duplicate some of that information. However, it is a short chapter in both books. They are published by Shiffer Military History, Atglen, PA 19310 phone 610-593-1777. Price is $50. Anyway, the Munchenburg Panze division is mentioned in both books. In the Tiger book 3rd Company Panzer Abteilung (battalion) Kummersdorf became 3 Company I Battalion Panzer- Regiment 29, which was Panzer Division "Muencheberg"'s Panzer Regiment. In the Panther book, it shows 29th Panzer Regiment received 2 I Panthers in March/April 45. On 5 April IO added Panthers were sent to 29th Pz Regt for a total of 3 1. The interesting point about these I 0 is the they had infra-red night fighting equipment. Assuming 29th Regiment was a standard bet understrength panzer division (it may also have been a 45 Kampfgruppe Panze- Division) it would have had 31 Panthers anti 14 Tigers (most likely Tiger 1) in I battalion. 3 Panther in BN HQ and 2 companies of 14 Panther each (14 tank companies had 2 tanks in Coy HQ, and 3 platoons each of 4 tanks). I I battalion would be 3 Mark IV/H-J talks in battalion HQ, and 3-4 companies of either Mark IV/H-J or SGIII/G assault guns This could have been a mixed battalion with2 companies of tanks and 2 of SGIII. However, if this was a KG 45 Panzer division (or 45 Pz Division) it would have had an armored infantry (Panzergrenadier) battalion as the second armored battalion inthe panzer regiment. It is more likely this we. the case and there were no Mark IV's in the unit. (The antitank battalion may have lad SGIII or Panzerjager IV's). Isn't historic research wonderful. For example, the highest number of operational Panthers on the Easiern front was reported as 522 tanks. The Soviets were producing 20 some thousand T34's a year. Two other interesting points. First, the Tiger I and Tiger Il both had an availability percentage just over 50% which matched the Mark IV tank and was slightly better then the Panther. What this means is after a week of combat out of a Tiger Battalion's 45 Tigers only about 6-15 would still be available. They lost only a few. Most were out due to mechanical failure which was caused by the pace of combat preventing proper and normal maintenance, by the strain of going through bad terrain, and many times by combat damage. One Tiger was hit 250 times in one engagement. How does one game this? (Please note that the TRACTICS rule set had an optional rule for determining, allocating, and repair of mechanical failures). We had a Games Day here the 30 Dec over Christmas Vacation. Fred Bultman ran a WWI German/British naval engagement, Dogger Banks. German battle cruisers vs. British ones. The Tiger fired two salvos which badly damaged the German's two biggest ships, and their gunnery (bad die rolls) never allowed them to hurt us before our fire took them out. Score a major victory for the British. Rules used were GENERAL QUARTERS. The other two games were Spear Head WW2 games from their Eastern Front scenario book. Two Soviet losses, although both were close - the Soviets broke through in the second game but failed to meet their time limit. Rules were new to the players as well as to me, so we had some major problems. The biggest was when a German tank battalion flank marched (under rules you can attempt to come in on sides of table) behind a Soviet tank brigade and came at them from behind. Soviet player turned his tanks around to stop the Germans without new orders. This took a while to figure out. The solution turned out the Soviet player could do this, but without new orders he could only turn 45 degrees at a time (not 180 as he did), so the Germans would have come up behind him and smashed his armor before they could react. Rules worked pretty good. You need to remember to lead with your heavy tanks, not light tanks. Soviets did this backwards and found themselves having to take morale checks when their light tanks were knocked out. If they had led with the T34's instead of the T-60's the Italian MI 4/40's wouldn't have been able to kill them and the Italian tank battalion would have been driven off the hill with few Soviet losses. As it was, the Italians stopped the lead Soviet tank brigade but were overrun by a Soviet infantry battalion and wiped out. Another rule problem, as the rules would have allowed them to bug-out. They pulled back too late and were knocked out. By the way, withdrawing units, ie. retreating, in a WW2 game (and other eras), is a good way to mess an opponent's attack up. They will either stop in confusion, or try to pile in and ignore reconnaissance, usually to their regret. See everyone at WINTERCON the 18th and at MICHICON in June.

From Brian R Carroll of 1801 Eckard Ave.. Abington Pa 19001: Enclosed please find a floppy disk with an article. The article is written in Word Perfect. It concerns my Marlborough project. I thought other lunatics might enjoy reading about an another insane Wargame army project. Let me know if you need any further information. I've also encloses some extra photos of my troops so you (and if necessary, readers) can see how I mounted the figures, and how we use them in action. Thanks for putting the pictures of my toys on your back cover of the last issue. I felt so important. Impressed my wife too; now she almost believes I didn't spend too much money on the project. I've enjoyed the recent spate of WWII articles you've published. I particularly like the rules comparisons we've been seeing (new one in the most recent Courier too). Some of my friends have been dabbling in 15mm WWII for several years, but we can't get to a set of rules we really like. We are not die-hard modern gamers so too much detail is turn off. We tried Clash of Armor. It has a great command control system. However it is not the easiest thing for the non-WWII types in our group to master. We tried Command decision. CD has fun and easy weapons and tank to tank rules, but the command control and spotting was cumbersome (for my group). Also, CD really did not get the players to think on a higher plane. They were stuck on the "if my tank can get this range on your tank..." line of thought.We wanted multi-battalion/regimental games if possible. We looked at Spearhead too. Lots of great ideas, especially the easy command control and turn sequence. We also tried Rapid Fire. These last are super easy beer and pretzel rules which have no command control at all! Well, turns out we had a great time with Rapid Fire. Its quick and dirty enough to handle 4 or 5 battalions per side. Not to mention it's got that touch of fun (the artillery rules border on the ridiculous - but it's a hoot when you get a barrage on target). Our last experiment was marrying the command control and turn sequence from Spearhead with the other mechanics from Rapid Fire. So far so good. I rather enjoyed it when one of my British battalions followed its orders and pressed on through a mine field simultaneously exposing its flank to a previously unspotted German battalion. Messy, but interesting. Anyway, I really look forward to hearing what the more sophisticated and informed WWII gamers think of these new higher command level games. I know they'll hate Rapid Fire (way too simplistic) but are there other rules out there that will do the trick. On another note, has anyone out there tried to do a "bathtub" France 1940 campaign? I know Frank Chadwick referred to starting one in his Barbarossa supplement to CD. I'm very interested in what other people have done to scale down the armies, which armor types they choose etc. I'm really curious about the Allies. If anyone would like to share their experience with me, I'd be grateful. (Editor's Note: Really enjoyed your article on your Malburian War Project, Brian! Thanks for pictures; love to see those "large" battalions on the tabletop!).

From Robert Piepenbrink of 5589-1 Large St., Fort Hood. TX 76544: Normally I'd probably have sat on these a while, but you said you were hurting for rules articles. Have you any interest in scenarios? I could turn out map, order of battle & narrative for a horse & musket battle until we both got tired of reading them. I do try to pay back the hobby, besides loving to see my name in print. Issue #84 was another splendid effort, as always. Yes, I'd be interested in a collection of MWAN rules or a "Best of MWAN", especially the rules. Some of us would probably help with the typing. I keep a few short sets of MWAN rules on disk now for the better tweaking thereof Current projects: The 15mm armies are nearing completion. Of course, no army ever really gets there, but they're all about playable. I'm celebrating this by running a series of eight Seven Weeks' War battles: same scenario, but four different rules sets (all modified from FPW) and changing sides so the Prussians and the Bavarians each get to attack once with each set. I'm finding a few things, but that will (I hope) be a future letter & article. Also getting together information & castings on America's "Woodland Wars" from Braddock at the Monongehelia to Techumseh at the Thames. Seems to me they should all be playable with one rules set, and I've been scrounging through back issues for something suitable. Several candidates so far, but I'm open to suggestions. Looks to be even more than most battles dependent on the cohesion of the regular units and the morale of the militia. The results of most battles are pretty lopsided, but that doesn't mean the battles themselves were hopeless for one side. Evidently St Clair, for instance, had more men against as few or fewer Indians than Wayne would have at Fallen Timbers--and indeed many of the same men on both sides. Yet St Clair lost well over half his command for trifling loss, and Wayne won a decisive victory with losses under 100/0. I'm buying 25mm castings for this from OLD GLORY and WARGAMES FOUNDRY, but FRYING PAN & BLANKET can produce any army in the period in 20mm, and things are just about as good in I Smm except for Wayne's American Legion. (I do hope OLD GLORY completes their American Legion soon. I hate being stranded for lack of castings!)(Editor's Note: Would like to see more scenarios, Robert! Re update concerning my plans to do "Best of MEAN" or "Rules " issue; I did scan over a hundred pages of thef rstfour issues of MEAN, but they turned out very poorly. Will have to give this more thought.)

From Paddy Griffith of 22 Callendar Close. Nuneaton. CV11 6LU England: At present I'm writing a book about the art of war of the French Revolution, which is full of interest and excitement. Basically the French seemed to fight two or three battles per week, worldwide, iii the years around 1792-5. That provides absolutely MASSES of scenarios and 'what ifs?' upon which the wargamer can feed - although it is, admittedly, all rather hard to keep track of But as far as I'm concerned, it's all far more interesting than those well known 'classic' campaigns of Napoleon. However, a word of warning needs to be sounded for the table-top gamer, in that quite a lot of the interest is 'strategic' or 'political' in nature, which are elements that are notoriously not best suited to table-top representation. But if I could put this another way, what we find is that the 'average' Revolutionary War battle does not consist of two masses of 100,000 men lining up within a square mile and knocking five types of bells out of each other for twelve hours before they find a winner (= the 'classic tabletop scenario, inspired by Borodino and Waterloo, even if the most generous toy soldier rules really permit only something like 10,000 men per side to be represented). On the contrary, the 'average' Revolutionary war battle consisted of more like 5,000 men skirmishing with each Qther in a rather desultory way, every day for a week - supported by the same sort of skirmish happening simultaneously five miles down the road to the eight - and yet another of the same five miles down the road to the left. Theoretically, all this ought to provide far more scenarios for miniatures garners than the classic Napoleonic slugfest - but for some reason table-top garners do not seem to be willing to persevere with the 'dispersed battle' type of format. Perhaps I should remind them that many of their favorite Emperor's early 'battles' (ie in Italy 1796-7) were fought on this basis. It was by no means a rare or exceptional format for a battle, But of course, the final result was not discovered within a single day or in a single place, whereas the wargamer wants to get a decisive outcome within three short hours of play...

From Charles C Sharp of 127-D View Road, Stellacoom. WA 98388: Just got your letter of 3 November today concerning our 'Fire and Fury" rules. I cant even find a copy of a cover letter in my files from when I sent those to you, so it must have been some years ago. We started playing with them just about two years ago, so it couldn't have been any earlier than that. On the other hand, we changed them just about every other time we played, and used them for a yearlong campaign game that ended this last spring, so they've been through a lot of variations. I have the last played set of rules on file, and a bunch of notes on a 'final' rewrite. What I'd like to do is do the rewrite and get a copy off to you by early December, hopefully in time to make the deadline for the MWAN number 86 (15 December). I must confess that the Germ of the rules came from two infecting: (1) To combine the Fire & Fury rules mechanism, which shows the uncertainty of getting units to do what you want in battle and uses stands or elements so that individual details of figure ratios and mountings aren't that important, with the Age of Reason modifiers that so neatly show the results and relative importance of 1 8th century tactics. (2) To redo my entire Marlborough 15mm force with larger 2-rank units that I've always thought looked better than the 12-15 man single rank units I started with. I originally painted the entire force to use Pat Condray's or Dennis Shorthouse's Marlborough-era rules, and later my Marlborough modifications for Age of Reason. Are painting and mounting about 2000 15mm figures, I realized that I really liked the look of a larger 2-rank unit, but never could get up the moral fiber to try to remount all those units and paint the extra figures/battalion. I combined writing a new set of rules with selling my entire collection of 1 5mm Marlborough figures, which gave me an excuse to start over painting the larger units! - not madness, just typical wargarning. One of the first things that happened with those rules, back when I started with them two years ago, was that by going to a Fire & Fury type combat resolution, only the stand had to be considered, not individual figures. Therefore, in theory, almost any kind of mounting and unit size could be acconunodated, as long as the average unit could be divided into 4-8"stands" or elements. Playing in 15mm, I ran games both in the campaign at the local club and at ENFILADE using both Ut of Reason 1 2 - 15 man units and larger units using 2-rank stands with 20 - 30 figures per battalion (5 to 7 stands plus bn guns). Both worked very well, and I consider that flexibility to be one of the real virtues of using a stand or element instead of figure- counting for combat calculations. Being a decimal sort of fellow, I settled on a ratio of 1infantry stand = 100 men. Since I mount 4 foot figures on a stand in two ranks, this makes the figure scale 25: 1, but that's not really important: I just happen to think the two-rank formation looks better and more "18th century' than a single rank of figures. For 1 5mm figures, I use 3/4" wide by 1" deep stands, and for 25mm figures, 30mrn x 40mm. One advantage of these sizes is that a single very light gun and two cannoneers will also fit on the same size stand, which allows me to show the battalion or regimental guns with the units (the rules regard a battalion gun stand as equivalent to another troop stand, so the models mounted on them are just for show - sure look good. though!) While it wasn't a consideration at the time, I've noticed that these mountings are not that much different from what Jim Purkey uses for his 25mm SYW units, in which his battalions of foot are mostly 20 - 24 figures in two ranks, so I assume that they could be used with his Alte Fritz rules or the RUsty~s Rules that they were derived from. Another advantage, that I just discovered this year when I painted up a few battalions of Old Cilory's I Smm SYW Prussians, is that a single Grenadier company equals one stand, so by painting up one stand of grenadiers per battalion I automatically ended up with the converged Grenadier Battalions when I was done with a couple of regular foot regiments! I dorit consider figure ratios for the cavalry or artillery. From my research, all the cavalry in the early to middle 1 8th century ended up fighting in squadrons with a battlefield strength of around 120-150 men, regardless of the "paper' or official strength of the unit. Therefore, for 15mm figures I use a single 'squadron stand" 1" deep by 1- 1/2" wide. 25mm figures I mount on 3" wide stands as deep as necessary for the models. In both cases 1 figures fit on a stand. For artillery I use the Age of Reason convention of I model equals about 4 guns. All my 15mm artillery s mounted on 1- 1/ 2" wide stands, as deep as necessary. I like to use the number of gunners to show at a glance the size of the artillery, so the figures/gun are as follows:
3 figures = light artillery(3-4 lbers)
4 figures = medium artillery (6-8 lbers)
5 figures = heavy artillery (12 lbers)
6 figures = siege artillery(18 lbers)
Anybody that could skirmish, like Croats, Jagers, Freikorps, and such riff-raff, I mount 2 figures to a 1/2" deep x 1" wide base in 15mm, and as single figures in 25mm or 1 5mm mounted (Cossacks, early Hussars, etc). This means that the 15mm foot can theoretically be put into a regular 2-rank formation by putting one stand behind the other, but when spread out in a line they occupy about 4+ times the frontage of a regular 34 rank deep firing line, which I think is a good minimum for troops in skrimish order. Anyway, sum it all up, for the Seven Year's War most battalions will be 5 - 7 stands plus a single stand of battalion/regimental artillery where appropriate. The Prussians that I've painted ended up as regiments of 2 battalions, each 6 stands (4 figures each) plus 2 stands of grenadiers and 2 stands of battalion guns. Total figures in the regiment comes to 60 plus 2 gun models. At 3 figures/squadron, Prussian dragoon or cuirassier regiments are 15 figures on 5 stands, or 30 figures on 10 stands for the Bayreuth Dragoons. Brigades are pretty much dependent on the order of Battle being used, but the average infantry brigade ranged from 4 - 7 battalions, while cavalry brigades could be as few as 3 squadrons to a maximum of around 20 squadrons in as many regiments as required to make up the numbers. George Nafziger's Orders of Battle have a lot of specific examples from 1702 to 1780 from almost every army in Europe, and I've found them to be a good starting point for making up your own 'fictional' army organizations. (Editor's Note: Thanks very much, Charles, for your letter and rules set which is included in this issue. I find these projects to be fascinating, especially, when they are outlined as Charles did, where you know number of figures, stand sizes, etc. Good stull; Charles.)

From Bill Hogan of 14707 Carnation Dr. Tampa. Fl. 33613-1807: I can tell by your editorial in MWAN #83 you've been bitten by the Sgt. Steiner bug. So have I and the 1st Corps figures just make it worse. I've painted up a few (see picture). They are great figures, well nobody's perfect. I've just finished the Sgt. Steiner group and am preparing a scenario for the upcoming Hurricon (see flyer), the convention for the new HMGSSouth. I have begun collecting the Bandai, now fuman tanks for my scenario. the 1/48 kits are high priced averaging about 520.00 per kit even for the small ones. They have not re-issued the whole line. the Soviet stuff and trucks are very rare. I could write another article on how to acquire these kits from around the world. Remember putting tanks in a skirmish game really changes the focus. I use Buck Surdu's new Beer and Pretzel BAPS rules and find they work well. I would be happy to do an after action report for MWAN. I have built a government building that looks good in 25mm scale. R has four floors with rooms. The floors are removable and I have floor plans I use when we fight in this house. this building was used as the Reichstag for a monster berlin game. I also have the Brandenburg Gate in this scale. That's another article. I would be happy to send in some articles, I have managed my club's newsletter for 15 years and am a regular contributor to HMGS Mid-South dispatch and now the HMGSsouth rebel Yell.
P.S. If you liked reading about the assualt on the tractor factory, get a copy of the new Stalingrad and watch a really fine movie which included an assualt on the tractor factory in Stalingrad.(Thanks for letter and article, Bill; it's in this issue. You are very correct about the appeal of these great 25mm figures; would love to see more from you on this interesting period.)

From Norris Hazelton of 19004 53rd NE. Lake Forest Parley WA 98155: Just a quick note from the Northwest. As November ends three things happen for me. First, I get ayear older. Second) the regular soccerseason ends. Third, my daughter gets a year older. The results of each are as follows,First, with each additional birthday, I'm less tolerant of fools, scoundrels) and especially rules-lawyers. Second, when soccer ends,my Saturdays and Sundays (after fourmonths) are once again mine all mine, and only mine. Because I can begin gaming and painting again, all is right in the world again. Third, and most important, for my daughter's birthday we take her and some of her friends to the coast for four days. While they playin the ocean, swim in the pool) and catch up on their news (five teenage girls from four different schools), I get to do what I want. Among my clothes are at least threeMWANS, one or two Couriers, half a dozen various military/history magazines, one or two sets of rules and Horatio Hornblower. I catch up on all the reading I couldn't do during soccer season and then I'm ready for the gaming season. And I'm really looking forward to this gaming season. This year has been a year of major changes for gaming in the Seattle area, all for the best. There is a new (early 1996) and very active historical miniatures club in the Northwest. This organization is the Northwest Wargamer's Association (information regarding this club has been sent to John Stafford). The Northwest Wargamer's Association started about March 1996 with one table and now has three historical miniatures tables that are active every Saturday. The games begin at I 1,00 am and continue to completion or about 10 pm. There is a wide variety of historical periods played. As of this letter, no dominant period has emerged. The tables are different sizes and the largest is big enough to comfortably play the "Fire and Fury" Shiloh Scenario. The Northwest Wargamer's Association has one raison d'etre, and that is to play historical miniatures every Saturday. The hobby store (American Eagles) that used to stock historical miniatures materials has moved and while moving the owner decided to eliminate historical miniatures from the inventory. However) another store (Fantastic Games and Hobbies) has occupied that market niche and has increased and diversified their historical miniatures inventory. A very positive change for historical miniaturists in the Puget Sound Area. There is a new miniatures convention in the Northwest called ''Breakthrough" and it occurs in November. In the Northwest we now have three excellent historical miniatures oriented contentions Salute 1" in Burnaby, B.C. during March, menfilade" in Fife, WA during May, and "Breakthrough" in Marysville, WA during November. A truly great time to be an historical gamer in the Northwest. At "Enfilade 96" Toby Barrett was our guest of honor. Another triumph for our guest selection committee. This was the Sixth 'Enfilade" and all the guests have been just great and Toby carried on the fine tradition. I'm looking forward to next year's guest, because I'm sure he/she will also be great. Just a quick observation. I've also met boardgame guests and roleplaying guests, and I think the historical miniatures guests I've met haye been more accessible, more humorous, and much less intense than their counterparts in other aspects of TGWAG. They smile more, laugh more, and are more inclined to "have a drink With the ladsm in the pub. With the start of the Northwest Wargamer's Association, I have begun hostina aames again and have tried a couple things that have worked out just fine. First, whenever I host an ACW game I keep all the messages sent between the commanders (something I picked-up from John Hill while playing in his large JR games at Historicon). I enjoy comparing the notes from different games of the same scenario. How different people react to the same circumstances is always quite interesting and sometimes humorous. Second, a great use for the ACW collectable cards is for hidden movement on the tabletop. They are grey and blue on the back and add some uncertainty to defensive dispositions and offensive intentions. The cards add enough fog of war to increase the tension leyel and the uncertainty prevents a statistical analysis of the opposing forces for a perfect strategy. Add a couple dummy cards and the talent to bluff and bluster becomes an asset. No complaints about the cards yet. I haye this time to write because I teach driver's ed and we have snow in Seattle. Snow in Seattle invariably means schools are closed. When schools are closed for snow I don't teach. Thanks for the time and good work you put into MWAN. Regarding the new format, "Looks Great and More Filling." I look forward to reading my backlog of MWANS. Good gaming. From Paul Petri of 1012 Dartmouth Dr.. Bartlett. IL 60103: I have enclosed two short articles on plastic figures for the Napoleonic era. I decided it was time to start contributing to the newsletter since I have been getting it for ten years and have yet to submit a singlearticle! The newsletter looks great. I loved the letter by John Bertolini in MWAN 84. l especially loved his little story about Peter Laing and his visit with him. Since we are all interested in history I think it's really cool to read about wargame history. I guess I'm just into nostalgia. If you can could you plug the Seven Years War Association Convention, it will be April 11- 12, 1997 at the South Bend Holiday Inn. Dr. Christopher Duffy will be talking again, on both Friday and Saturday nights. Try and come if you can Hal. For details people can contact me: Tel 630-2892182. E-Mail Ziethen@AOL.COM

From David A. Smith of 536 Whipple St.. Ft. Bragg. CA 95437-3329: It's time for the annual letterl MM has really grown in the last few years. It still is the best value on the hobby magazine market. I thought I might address the growing 'hate mongering" (I perceive) among some hobbyist. Let me state that I believe our hobby is much too small for such strong, negative, passions. In the last couple of years I have noticed that these passions seems to directed at two . objects in particular: the rules known as "DBA' and a company celled 'Old Glory.' Dealing with the former, let us face up to the fact that we ought to be thankful ANYONE is willing to sacrifice their time, work and capital to create something for gamers. This company has produced such a variety of miniatures at such a low cost as to make gaming with metal miniatures affordable to almost anyone. This is especially true for the scale of 25mm.. Okay, so they may not make the best mounted figures in the world or there my be some mold lines, but compared to the period when I entered the hobby (late 1 970s) they alone have hold inexpensive pricing for reasonable quality. What is it with the DBIL bashing? Okay, it's understood that these rules are not suppose to be the last word in realism, nor were they meant to be. All they claim to be is an innovative and cleaver sort of rules demonstrating ancient and medieval warfare on an abstract level; it's a Game. I don't know why this seems to threaten people. The major claim against these rules seems to be that they are not a simulation of ancient and medieval warfare (something it as never claimed to be..). By the same token, these very people ought to be 'bashing' the efforts of Donald Featherstone, Jack Scruby and Charles Wesencraft. For many of us, the simple sets of rules provided by these three men opened the doorway into the hobby. Can we not let DBA place itself in that fine tradition (as a set of introductory rules)? When I arn not working 65-70 hours/vook (which is rare), I am working on an article for MWAN about the 'West Sudanese.' Those vho play DBM might be familiar vith the name, but I have found hobbyist unfamiliar vith tho history of the Middle Ages of West Africa. One of the things I hope to do is provide some artist drawings of West Sudanese costumes. The article is very high on my New Year's Resolutions' list, but might take some time to finish as resources are rare.

From Dave Burba, 591 Clearmont. Elk Grove Village. IL 60007: I think your magazine is easily the best value around-it's great! I would like to see more scenarios for battles as I think your mag alone has more than enough rules, even for obscure periods. Also I would like to hear more about conventions people attend, mostly the smaller ones, as they don't get much coverage. For instance. there are, I believe, 3 cons in Michigan I have never heard a report of. thank you very much.

From Orv Banasik of 3165 26th Ave.. Marion. Iowa 52302: It has been ages since I have written to update you on my different projects. I can remember when MWAN came on mimeograph paper stapled together. You sure have come a long ways over the years. Well I did not do very well in finishing my projects this year. Last year I painted 6 brigades of ACW infantry while this year I didn't qet any done. To make things worse I picked up two new ACW figure lines which adds to the work to be completed. I see where there is a new 25rmn line from England called Valiant Miniatures. Guess I'll have to pick some of these figure up to keep the collection going. I have been working on my Papa Tango rules, scenery and miniatures. This is a game of PT boats in the Pacific operating in the slot around Guasalcanal. It takes a lot of time to develop everything from scratch. I decided to do the game in 1/300 scale and seeing as no one makes any miniatures in this scale I have had to scratch build all the models. I do believe this will be my last new game that I develop. Will just start playing with what I already have. I only had a couple of games this year as I seem to be extra busy with family affairs. I should try to do more as both Kevin and Megan, (who are thirteen now) love to game with me. I always give them some reading to do before they can play and they do get into the different periods with some knowledge and enthusiasm. This summer we took the family out East on a weeks vacation. Went to Washington DC and saw the Air & Space Museum. After that we went to Antietam and to Gettysburg. I had never been to any Civil War battlefields before. Standing at the "angle" and the "Sunken" Road brings a special feeling to the history that happened at these locations. Picked up a lot of information that I will use for future games. My long range goal has always been to do Gettysburg in a grand playable game. The rules have been done for quite a while and I have all the figures I need plus some. I think afler I finish Papa tango I'll start on the Gettysburg terrain. I plan to build an exact model using terrain boards instead of my "sawdust" terrain. I have a lot of techniques that I want to try on this project. Then I'll have some big games here after I will let the terrain travel around the county so other garners can get a chance to play on it. I have always thought that we as wargarners waste a lot of money and especially time by not sharing our terrain. If we could start building terrain to a very high standard and start sharing it there would be so many more high quality games for garners to experience and enjoy. Should be a fun project that others will be interested in.While out East I made it to Historicon for the first time. The dealer area and flea market was really neat. At least now when I read about the event I have a better idea of how big it is. I particularly enjoyed the article by Jim Getz on generalship in issue #82. I was surprised that there were no comments on it in the latest issue. Jim hit the nail on the head about the current wargarne rules and how most garners play their wargarnes. I do believe that if generalship became the main emphasis for writing wargarne rules and playing wargarnes there would be a marked improvement in the games and the enjoyment that comes from them. I'll have to sit down and write an article on this topic to see if some interest can be sparked.

From Michael Parker of 11. Fennel Close.Cove, Farnborough. Hampshire GU14 9XI UK: For convenience, I now subscribe through Caliver Books and MWAN 82 has recently landed, as usual of the highest quality and full of interesting articles. So many of the corurnercial magazines now seem to consist of little more that lots of colour photographs the quality of content of MWAN stand out clearly. It was good to see so many Colonial period articles. Regarding 15mm Afghan War/NW Frontier figures, the widest range is Mini-figs, although with no Afghan regulars. The great virtue of Minifigs is that you can be pretty sure what you are getting as to poses, accuracy etc. This range is enough to give a first rate army for both sides although the British troops should be avoided as they are definitely meant for the Sudan and the helmets really are huge - but then British regiments generally didn't do too well on the Frontier. Having said that I do find the figures a little "dull". For my tastes the best figures of tribesmen are from Freikorps in their Moghul range, and one or two other sets can be added for variety, such as the Ghazis. I especially like the cavalry, which are mounted on shaggy ponies It is a pet irritation of mine to see tribal horsemen mounted of models of sleek thoroughbred hunters standing about 17 hands. Sadly Freikorps seem to have lost interest in the History of India range and they make no BRitish or Indian figures for the period and as they are small figures they don't mix well with other manufactures. Irregular produce a few figures which would add a little more variety to Minifigs but that, as far as I know, is about the lot. It is tempting to use British figures from other Colonial ranges, but the uniforms are wrong, often wildly out. With so many ranges available for the 100 days or so of the Zulu War it really is strange that there are so few for the well over 100 years of incessant fighting on the NW Frontier, and it is even worse if one is interested in the postWWI eriod. I am looking round for model railway manufacturers of suitable vehicles for the 1 920's, but they are expensive. I still have thoughts of a 20mm game using B&B Miniatures (37 The Queensway, Hall Road, Hull HU6 9BH) set in southern Russia based on the events described in Peter Hopkirk's book "On Secret Service East of Constantinople", with the new Men at Arms book on Russian Revolutionary forces for uniform details. B&B also produce some good Pacific War figures. Good to see Bryan Ansell's skirmish rules brought to wider attention, and there is now a Seven Years War version along with superb range of figures, Prussians and Cossacks with Hungarians (and I don't doubt a lot more) to come. I'm just sending off for some more figures from his Western range icluding the Cheyennes. I would like to set a game arouns 1840, something I tried a few years back with 25rnrn Minifigs. The weaponry of the two sides is better balanced. Can anyone suggest suitable figures for Frontiersmen of that period? I wonder whether any of the Wargarnes Foundry War of 1812 range would be suitable? Certainly the scale would be correct for the figures. Regarding gunboats (Randall Weiss's intersting article) a society has been formed of river gunboat enthusiasts who hope to restore the last of the Sudan river gunboats - The Melik Society, 202 Larnbeth Road, London SKI 7JW.

From Joel Gregory of H.C. 83 Box 15. Pequot Lakes. Mn. 56472: It has been a long time since I have written to MWAN, or read the newsletter, since I had to let my subscription lapse (with #58) - Oh! foolish fellow that I am. But, I am back at it again, since I pick up one of the new issues at Little Wars this last March, and just recently purchased some back issues from Rick Cates, a gentleman for whom I paint figures. Hal, the new look is great and it is time to subscribe again. But, despite the faux pas of lening my subscription lapse, I have been able to experience some good things in the wargaming hobby. First, I was able to anend several different conventions over the last few years: Origins, Histdricon, and Little Wars. I really enjoyed the latter two, but all three did generate painting for my painting service, which is what keeps me wargaming and able to anend the conventions. The real plus of attending the conventions is the meeting of new people from all over the United States who share the same interest, meeting the different vendors from whom we mail order those wonderful figures, and seeing all those various products that put us into a tail spin of a new time period or enlarging the one we already have too much but greatly enjoy. The last Little Wars convention was something to remember. I did not get much of a chance to game, (having a dealers' table) but there were many other things to remember. First, my middle son really enjoyed participating in the Battletech games. Now, he and his younger brother play Battletech with their friends, with the younger having a growing interest in historical games. Second was meeting a gentleman for whom I have painted figures in the past. We renewed acquaintance and I am again seeing his figures in the my mail. Plus, it was nice to talk to some individuals who said, "I played in your game last year and ;eally enjoyed it!", after which we talked and got to know one another better. Basically, I agree with Featherstone and others who state that "Wargaming is.more about camaraderie between gamers than winning or losing." This last year our American Civil War gaming group has almost vanished, due to three fellows that believe winning at all cost - which means our opponents figures must die while ours march across the table - is all that really matters. Those who made my trip to Minneapolis worth the time to participate in this monthly event have left the group, thus it has been a several long months since I have participated in a ACW game. But, not to fear, another gamer from the group and I have started to play War Paint and other skirmish level Old West games in 25mm. The other fellows just march on arguing with each other over the same rules, wondering why is the group getting smaller and we're not there to game with them. Oh, well! The third thing that took place at Little Wars this year was my meeting those fine two Steves' firom 1 9th Century Miniatures. Their booth was behind my table. We talked some during the weekend, but on Sunday I showed them a series of ACWships that I did for 1 5mm gaming. They asked me If I could make some masters for production and resale since they have had many request for ships in that time period and scale. The ships went on sale at Historicon in July. Right now there are nine ships available: Monitor, Double turreted Monitor, Osage, Union gunboat, James River Gunboat, Double Ender, Large Confederate Gunboat/Ram (Side wheel), Smaller Gunboat/Ram (side wheel), Six gun casemate Ironclad. Plus there will be several more released this late fall. (P.S. - If they do not sent you any ships for review, let me know and I will make sure that you get some). The most interesting part of Little Wars was the trip home. My son and I left Chicago about Ipm headed back to North Central Minnesota. We had heard that they had experienced Ice and Snow the night before and that predictions were for more on Sunday night with the storm headed for the Chicago area. We booked it on out of there and by late that afternoon were almost to the western edge of Wisconsin when we ran into the storm and were forced to a snails pace with several short delays. Then, about 4 miles from the Wisconsin/Minnesota boarder, we came to a dead stop for about an hour, watching small icy snow drifts turn into large icy snow drifts. It was a long trip from the boarder to the Twin Cities, but there we found shelter at my mother's place. The next day was sunny, but we still had about 50 miles of icy roads to pass over going north before we would be out of what was the storm center. I hope to go again next year, but hopefully there will no snow - a chance we take. The other project that I have been working on lately is a card system via Featherstones' idea for solo wargaming, (due in part to the distance that I have to travel to game) with the option of also using it to create an element of chance (the unknown) into a game. The idea is to create two types of cards: (1) Major happenings and (2) Minor things. A major happening might be something like a flank commander falling to carry out attack/retreat orders for so many turns. A minor thing might be something like a wheel breaking on a limber via a random die roll. Now that broken limber wheel could become a more major item if it is at the front of a column, thus hindering a more rapid movement of the troops behind. But, than that is the nature of war. The major cards are only drawn once every three or four turns. The minor cards are drawn every turn. In multiple player games, the minor cards are drawn by all, whereas the major card is only drawn one per side, either on the same game turn. What I am still working on is more ideas to put on the cards, especially the minor cards, related to ACW.

From Charles R. Lewis, 607AIS. PSC#3 BOX6612, APO, AP 96266: This is my first imput to your wonderful magazine, or to any magazine for that matter. A lot of people are nervous about writing into magazines because they feel that they really do not have anything valid to say. That is an absolute falacy. When I was still in high school I used to be real embarassed about going out to dance. That is until I took a good long look at what everyone else was doing. I couldn't do any worse! After that it was no longer a problem. The same can be said for writing. Some people will love what you have to say, some people will hate it. Oh well! Right now I am plowing through about a score of old back issues Hal just sent me. Some of my comments might be more appropriate to things that were being discussed a couple of years ago. I'll give you a little of my history. I started my gaming in 7th grade in 1974. (I was always playing with toy soldiers but this is where I count the beginning). Someone brought 3Ms Feudal game to study hall and we were all hooked. There were about 8 of us and we couldn't put it down. Later someone else showed up with a copy of Panzer Blitz, and that became the new standard. The group broke up eventually but I was hooked. I found numerous Avalon Hill games in many places especially the Four Seasons store on Great Lakes Naval Base (They only cost $7.50. Oh for those days again!). In'77 I bought a copy of the original D&D and again got hooked. We had maybe 20 people playing in hish school. We branched out many other Role playing games as well as Swords and Spells (D&Ds original miniature mass combat system). We used to have huge battles with all sorts of fantasy armies. Sometime in the late 70s I was at a debate tournament at the University of Illinios and saw that a game convention was also going on (Winter Wars?). I went down to check it out. I saw my first Napoleonics game. Someone was fighting Prussians and bavarians against the french. (French cuirassiers charged into a woods to get closer to the prussian front lines only to find out that the felt used for terrain actually reprsented a swamp, the bogged down horsemen were mercilessly bombarded by several 12# batteries). From that point on Miniatures was the only way to wargame for me. I joined the air force after high school and am now getting close to retirement. In the intervening years I have been stationed, worked in and gained at Cahfornia,Colorado, Texas, Northem 111, Southern Wisc, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tidewater Va, the DC area, Oahu Hi, England, Germany, Turkey, Saudi, and now Korea. Consequently I like to stick to regular published rules when possible. It makes it that much more likely that I will be able to find gainers playing something I'm used at my next assignment. (It usually doesn't work out that way though). Once there was a survey asking what period/size people would play if they could have only one. I can't choose, my interests ere much too eclectic. I also find I have very little problem loosing interest with painting. When I get to a point that I just can't get motivated to paint (any where from 2 months to a year), I finish whatever I'm working on and change to something different in a different scale and press on. I presently have large collections of Modern microarmor (ground, air, Naval), WWII Nficroarmor(ground, naval), Colonial sudan 15mm, ACW 15mm, Napoleonic 15/6mm AWI 15mm, SYW 15mm, Rennaissance 15/25mm, Medievals 15/25mm, Ancients 15mm. I also have huge collections in both fantasy and Sci-Fi. I never really understood the snobish attitude that historical gainers have for these type of games. Its no more fantastic than the fictions relating to "historical" rule systems and what if battles. I was first appraised of this attitude at Genghis Con back in 1981. It put me off to HMGS for years (I've only been a member for about 6 months). I'll play anything at least once and would be completely bored traped in only one period/war for all my life, I would probably dropped out of the hobby ages ago if I did that. The moral of the story is that if you enjoy the type of gaming you do then it is the right type of gaming. It doesn't matter wether you play games that are Black, white, grey, puce or anything else. I have a complete (I think) collection of the Funken books in german. There is a volume on medieval, one on the rennaissance, 2 on the lace wars, 2 on the napoleonics, and 2 on the 1800s. They are insanely hard to find in any language. The few copies I've seen in enghsb usually only cover half of one of my napoleonic volumes. they do have some errors and mistakes but are just thing if you were working on some obscure formation say the house regiment of Oldenburgfor instance. When I leave Korea, I'll be going back to Ramstein for three more years and will be trying to find more copies of these books. If I do find them, I will be sure to pass on the info. Lastly, I want to get some info or help if I can. First off is there any rumors of Old Glory doing ECW/TYW in the near or even far future. This is a period I have wanted to do for a while but I wanted to wait for Old Glory to put out the figures, they are always so good. I built much of my Napoleonic collection with minifigs and am kind of squeamish of starting over with Old glory but the figures are so good. Nextly, I have a Swedish Nap army I bought several years ago from minifigs but have yet to paint. The Osprey: Scandinavian Armies of the Naopleonic wars has been out of print longer than I've been painting napoleonics. I'd kill for a copy. I was hoping that it would be re-released like they have done with many others but no joy, so far. If anyone has a cow they can part with or a photo copy, please let me know (and what you'd want for it). Finally, I would like to find some company that makes 25mm WWII Australians with Slouch hat. I really like that uniform style ever since I first saw the light horsemen. I intend to use these figures for playing Sci-Fi (Gasp! Shock!). Could someone point me in the right direction? Any readers out there living in Korea or central Germany? I haven't played a game since Origins this year and I'm going into withdrawals. Someone said there mobs of gamers in Korea. They must have all PCS'd because I can't find anyone. I will be in Germany come September'97 and will like to hear from anyone out there who wants to do some gaming when I arrive. I love the layout of the magazine and am shocked that the first time I saw Hal's magazine was a mere six months ago at Friend's Hobbies in Waukegan, llinois. It must have been the Professional layout and full color cover that finally caught my eye. Only one thing I miss is there is not seeing enough battle reports in MWAN. Thats always one of my favorite parts of any magazine. I really like reading about other peoples games. I guess I will just have to send in some of my own.

From Jim Harsney of 1469 Alphada Ave.. Apt G-8! Akron. OH 44310: liked MWAN #84, but cutting the margins in the crease of the magazine makes it difficult to read and I don't really want to break the binding either. A friend of mine is looking for a "Pike & Shot" rules set; do you happen to know of a fairly simple, yet "historical" set? (Editor 's Note; Yeh, James; my attempt to better use the "white " space in MWAN really did not work out well. I'm going back to the "old " format in this issue).

From Michael Becher of 4858 Battery Lane. Apt 302. Bethesda, MD 20814: Haven't managed to get much painting or wargaming in lately; however, I have just started painting some 25mm figures - the first ones I've done in many years, being mostly a 15mm man. Guernsey Foundry figures are what have got me back to 25mm figures - first, their Wild West figures, then their outstanding SYW line. I'd forgotten what a joy 25mm figures are to paint, compared to 15mm figures. Some Old Glory SYW figures have also come into play!

From Terry Tellin of S4231 Counts Road A, Baraboo. WI 53913: I hope you can get more campaign stories in the future or ideas for campaign/battle gnerators. I also enjoyed the report on the ancient campaign on the internet.

From John C. Ford of 3549 Janie Ct.. Atlanta. GA: After obtaining a copy of MWAN#84 at the Siege of Augusta, I was enthralled by the quality and the quantity of the articles. I look forward to receiving your fine publication on a regular basis. In addition, let me tell you about what a fine job Jim Birdseye has accomplished at Siege of Augusta. As a veteran wargamer with more than a couple of decades in the hobby, this was one of the finest gamer's weekends I have ever seen. There were more than two dozen tables with fantastic opportunities for whatever period seems of interest or that one might fancy. Jim and all of the HMGS people who helped out did a great job and were tremendous ambassadors for our hobby. Also, let me put in a plug for Warfair '97 in Atlanta coming up in late March. Charlie Traylor and his crew have moved the location to a bigger venue and it looks like we will have another great event here in Georgia. At least this one won't have quite so many street closures as that thing we had here last July.

From Steve Dake of 6060 Riverside. Jackson. MI 49201: I've enjoyed the last couple of MWANs. Your writing seems like the MWAN of old! Its plain you're enthused I appreciated Brent Oman's mention in his last letter and kinda agree that I miss some of the old stuff, like Chuck Vadun's column, or J.P. Daub. (Just kidding, you remember J.P. Daub, don't cha? Lately though there's been some good stuff. I've really enjoyed Chris Engle's recent articles. His piece in #83 about gaming with children should be a primer for all on how to interact with kids, period. If only I was man enough to be as patient as Chris described all the time. Thanks much on the info on Battlegroup, although I must admit I groaned when I first got your letter. I'd just finished painting all my First Corps figures ar d was busy patting myself on the back for actually finishing a project when I got your letter. I think these have got to be some of my fastest work as I got 30 at the start of December and had them painted before the end of the month. You're right, this is a really cool period with a lot of future.

From Brent Oman of 8995 S. Edgewood Ln.. Highlands Ranch. CO 80126: The cover photo of the Guernsey Foundry figure painted by Kevin Dallimore is just fabulous. Made me want to start painting Cossacks! Am hard at work on my 25mm SYW Austrians. We're planning on a campaign based on the SYW period and armies (hopefully to start in June). I'm about halfway through my collection so far. Still to come are 2 battalions of Hungarian infantry, one mixed battalion of Hungarian grenadiers, 2 Croat battalions, maybe some more German infantry, 2 Hussar regiments, a Dragoon regiment, a Cuirassier regiment and a couple more artillery batteries. I'm shooting for about 12-14 foot units, 6 horse units, and 3-4 artillery batteries. I've been busy working on terrain items. I spent a lot more time than I anticipated on making a LOT of tree hex pieces. Basically the trees are mounted on hexes and hex pieces (similar to Geohex) that I cut from 1/8" hardboard. Since the pieces can be put together in an almost endless variety, I can now have woods of any shape or size. The outer edges of the contour pieces are sanded smooth to provide a smooth transition from the tabletop surface. I finished off the pieces in a darker mixture of shades than my tabletop squares are finished in. I also added a lot of rocks, brush, fallen trees, etc. for a more rugged look. I'm please with how they turned out, but it sure was a lot of work!

From Michael Wong of 45-636 Kapunahala Rd.. Kaneohe. H196744: In looking back at wargaming in 1996, the small band of garners I know (2-4 gamers at any given time) and I managed to play a couple games of WRG 7th Ed. with Crusaders and Saracens, some Armati with medievals and Tactica with Romans vs. Germans. Throw in a couple Star Fleet Battles games along with a Spearhead micro armor U.S. vs. Germans and a 1/700 scale destroyer action with Command at Sea and that about sums up the wargaming year except for the Sword and the Flame. We managed to play the Sword and the Flame at least half a dozen times if not more. A big surprise for me since I have been playing Sword and the Flame since 1982 and this is probably the most times in one year I have played. Most of our battles have been Zulus and British, but we did throw in a British attack on a Pathan hill fort. Why the sudden surge? A number of reasons: haven't played in a while, fun and easy system, watched Zulu again and wanted to try Bob Beattie's article on continuous actions in the Courier magazine (#55). With continuous action, when a card for your side is turned up any basic unit can move, shoot, or charge. Morale, pin, and rally checks are taken as they occur or when you wish to activate that basic unit. You therefore ignore the sequence of play in the rules. It makes the Sword and the Flame much more exciting and much more punishing of bad generalship then before. In one game a Zulu he gained a good flanking position on the British and came smashing into the Redcoats before he could react, routing all his infantry. Had the British player used better troop placement he could have prevented the loss. We have played with various modifications to the continuous action system Mr. Beattie has proposed. The one we like the best uses two numbered cards per basic unit, one face card per higher level of command, i.e. for a captain or induna, and one ace for the C-in-C. These cards constitute, the action deck while another standard deck of cards is used to resolve fire combat as per the rules. Whenever a numbered card is turned up a basic unit can do one action, either move, shoot, or charge. A face card is the same, except it can be used as a hold card if one chooses. If held, a hold card allows the player to do one action anytime during the turn, including during the opposing players action. For example, use the hold card to shoot at a charging unit or change formation or counter charge before the opposing players resolves his charge. The ace card allows for two actions to be taken, it can also be held. A good use for this card is to shoot twice or shoot then charge. We also throw in a joker to the action deck. When the joker appears, the turn ends. Held cards not used by this time are discarded and a new turn is then started. We have used the joker previously in playing the normal way, with the joker ending each phase, move or shoot, when it appeared. I believe this idea was proposed by Lynn Bodin in Savage and Soldier. When a officer or native leader of a basic unit is wounded or killed, then one numbered card is removed from the deck at the end of the turn. Lose a captain or induna and then a face card is removed, lose your C- in-C then the ace is removed. Leaders are now even more important. We have had man, fun games using this continuous action sequence, try it.

From Jeff Mathes of 1096 Kerry Pl. Kingsland. GA: This year my wife Michele and I attended our first ever wargame convention, NASHCON. It was great for me because I met a lot of people I'd only read about and saw some diverse wargames. It was great for my wife because she got away for the weekend and could go shopping in Nashville (not good for me). I hope to be able to attend NASHCON 97, work permitting. I shifted from Napoleonics to 15MM ACW this year and really enjoy the change. They are so much easier to paint. I purchased both Fire and Fury and Johnny Reb III rule sets and each set seems to accept the mounting criteria of the other so that figures can be used for either rule set. I have to admit that Old Glory ACW figures are my favorites but I also have a lot of Battle Honors figures as well. They mix well together. Plus they both sell their figures in the 100 figure bags which is especially economical. Just ordered five more bags of Old Glory figures today from Modelers Mart. They paint up quickly. The article in MWAN #84 by John Retzer on arts and crafts store material available for wargarning was excellent. I started buying the acrylic paints 56 years ago and they're still usable (they don't dry up like the model paints). I also purchased some Musket Miniatures paints at NASHCON which are comparable in price and require no mixing for the exact color. The best paints for painting horses in my book are Liquitex (browns) because they have a sheen to them like a sweating horse would have. A coat of raw sienna followed by a wash of burnt umber gives the desired effect every time. One last plug is that Winsor & Newton brushes are the best I've found. A little pricey but you get what you pay for. Wish I could send a free Sutler's Wagon ad but I just packed up all my Napoleonics in preparation for changing duty stations in July. We're going back to Guam for two years. I'll be sending a forwarding address in the not too distant future.

From Nick Nascati of 24 Cranford Rd.. Turnersville. NJ 08012: Now that I have finally subscribed to MWAN, I feel obligated to join in on the discussions onthe letters pages, so here goes, forgive me right off the bat, if I start to ramble. Afler nearly 25 years in the hobby, I find myself returning to my roots, Plastic Figures. Any one who knows me, has seen me go through more armies, periods and scales on my own, than most clubs do during their entire existence. Part of the reason for this, is that I have a bad habit of making impulse purchases, spurred by nice figures or a good book. The end result of this, is that I have had to accept my share of losses, selling off hastily purchased figures for far less than they are worth. Now, I feel like I have regained my sanity. Before I forget, I have to air a pet peeve of mine. That is, people who do not respond to letters ! it seems to me, simple, common courtesy, to respond when someone takes the time to write to you, especially 6 R is in response to a request. If you bother to ask for a list of items for sale, then bother to write back whether you decide to take the figures or not! Encouraged by the excellent Principles of War rules, I have started to explore a variety of 19th century conflicts using plastic figures. Having grown up on a steady diet of Colonial films, such as "Four Feathers", "Beau Geste" and "Gunga Din", and actually seeing "Khartoum", 'Zulu" and "The Sand Pebbles" on the bog screens, Colonials have always been my first love. Its no surprise therefore, that the bulk of my Po W. armies are for the Colonial era, based around the excellent Esci British, Foreign Legion, Zulu and Muslim Warrior sets. I've managed without too much hassle, to produce all the needed types, from cavalry and artillery, to galling Guns with Naval Brigade crews. As far as cost goes, I figured out that by using only 18 figures out of the British or Foreign Legion sets, the figures cost me .20 each, and if you look at the native sets, the coast is less than .10 each !! I doubt that anybody can beat that for a quality figure. Best of all, the hobby shop I frequent, has a discount program, where in one holds onto receipts, and then turns them in when they pass $40.00, getting 10% of that total off on your purchase. Needless to say, I have gotten a lot of'free" boxes of figures. Currently, I am working on the following periods, all in plastic - British Colonial, 1878 -1882, with Boers, Afghans, Pathans, Dervishes and Zulus to oppose them. British Colonial 1800 - 1805 and 1820 - 1845, using Napoleonic British and French to make up the armies. The Peninsular War, The Russian campaigns in Turkestan and the Caucasus, using Esci Russian Napoleonics and Muslim Warriors. Various mid - 19th century armies, using the Russians as a basis for conversion. A diverse lot to say the least. I confess to being old fashioned, in that I prefer to see my units composed of figures that look alike rather than the multi - posed sets that have become the hobby norm. They are after all, TOYS, not real people, so why not make them pretty and orderly. I'll hold the figures up to the best in the hobby, and they will stand up well detail wise. Just look at the new Napoleonic Cavalry sets from Revell, Prussian Heavies and French Hussars, spectacular figures, for about .30 each. How about starting a regular column to look at whets new in Plastics, so that garners have a real alternative, and maybe even a feature like the old Bob O'Brien "Plastic Warrior" column, giving ideas for using plastics to represent different eras than they are made for ? It is my opinion, that garners are really missing out on something good, ignoring the great work being done in plastic, maybe some competition, would force some of the metal manufacturers to reduce the astronomical prices of their figures. While on the topic of metal figures, am I the only one who is getting tired of reading reviews of the Guernsy Foundry Western range, and Wargames Foundry's innumerable releases ?? Ok, they are nice, figures, but how many times can we read the same reviews ? There seems to be no end to companies all producing the same ranges lately, how can the hobby support a brand new company that comes out with yet another range of American Civil War or Napoleonic Figures, when there is already such a huge variety available ? There are so many other topics crying for figure ranges, the various small wars of the 19th century for instance. Does anybody make models of Turkestani tribesmen or Persians ? I doubt it, but how many dozen Napoleonic ranges are there ? It is nice to see that people are discovering the smaller campaigns and exotic locales of the early Napoleonic period. I think that I've rambled on long enough for my first "official" letter, I'd love to hear from other gamers who have been using or just started using plastics, to compare notes. One last note, that I might expand in a later letter. When I started in the hobby, there were 3 scales of figures, ( 4 if you count Elastolin's 40mm figures ), 30mm, 20mm, and Micro. What happened !!? Check your local hobby shop; either Lindberg or Monogram proudced a boxed set of four WWII era tanks called "Battlefront Four". The models are a Tiger, Stalin, Centurion and either a bad Sherman or an M-47 Patton. They will work for 25mm, inf act I've used some of them with Sci-Fi ground troops in 25mm. Cost is under $25.00 for the set of four - not a bad deal. (Editor's Note: Thanks for letter, Nick; hope you continue to enjoy MEAN. Re your comments on WARGAMES FOUNDRY and GUERNSEY FOUNDRY, I would mention that these two companies are amongst the few manufacturers of wargames f gures who consistently send updated listings and samples of their figures to wargames publications. Due to this, it is not surprising that publications mention their products. In addition, WARGAMES FOUNDRYwas the leader, in my opinion, in making quality figures, not to mention extensive ranges, for the lesser known periods of history. It is amazing as to the number of different scales in our hobby.)

From Timothy Boyd of 208 The Great Rd.. Stow. MA 01775: It seems to have become a tradition that, when my subscription is due, I write you a report of my hobby activities for the last year. Owing to the press of time, I've already sent you my resubscription check, but I do want to spend a moment letting you know what the Outpost in Stow has been up to since January, 1996. When I last wrote, I had been working on 15mm Maoris, I think. Well, those were Put on hold and suddenly I had batches of Redoubt's "Wellington in India" on the painting table and Production was coming along--and then I happened to be poking among the cardboard boxes where the Unpainted Hordes are squatting (I was looking for some old paint bottles) and I came across a little cache of Connoisseur Sudan Period British gunners and a pair of 12 Pdrs. They were such lively little guys and wouldn't take long to paint, being mostly khaki--but I bet that this has happened to you! That was in August. Now, in the middle of January, I've just about finished some 250 infantry and 75 cavalry, 4 guns, I Nordenfeldt, and 6 camels! The strangest thing about it was that I had absolutely intention of embarking on the Sudan at the time. I suspect that what came over me was an attack of the guilts. Those figures had been amassed about 1991 and had just sat there for 5 years while I invested in lots of other periods and painted other times and wars. When I stumbled across them, it made me think about the "I've -got to have it! Now!" which seems to plague our culture and I realized that 1, too, was a sufferer from that disease. I had seen those figures in color photos in Wargames Illustrated and Wargames World and had desperately wanted them and, well, there they were, bagged and boxed and forgotten. And so, instead of painting something else, or buying something new, I sat myself down and painted and painted and painted and, by the end of this January, I should have finally finished them. This doesn't mean that I'm cured of the Wargamer's Lust for New Toys--l suspect that's genetic! In fact, for Xmas, I asked for, and received the beginnings of an "Egypt, 1882" layout from Redoubt, as well as a very large (and very satisfying) box of Roundway 15mm Great Northern War figures. (Navwar, by the way, in the UK is a great company to deal with--very nice folks and lightning service, even at Xmastime. Their figures, I think, are little masterpieces, too--little burly people who just cry out to be painted.) I d want to spend more time thinking about the "I've got to have it! Now!" syndrome, however, and how I might better match my interests, my acquisitions, my budget, and my time. Perhaps the trick is to bury these new figures under the heap and schedule their rediscovery in 2002? After the Sudan, it's on to a very quick project--Wayne's Legion vs. the Native Americans, with figures mainly from Old Glory--then back to the Maoris and to Wellington in India, with plans to rediscover the Plains Wars 15s, complete with a dozen-tip) village, which I know lies somewhere among all of those boxes. In between, there is a book manuscript to work on, 5 courses to teach, a trip to Turkey in June. and the yardwork to do. Speaking of Turkey. my wife, Carolyn and I were in Istanbul last June and spent a too-brief afternoon at the Military Museum there. It was a very rich place, including a room full of late 19th-centuly Turkish uniforms, guns of all descriptions (including one or more thought to have been cast for the siege of 1453 and the surviving Krupp coastal defence gun used against the Franco- British fleet at the Dardanelles), and a wonderful Turkish military band, who gave a concert of the fiercest music I've ever heard. I hope to return there this June and a lot more time for a second visit. Unlike past years, Carolyn and I didn't do so much military touring in the US as usual. We did manage two trips to Ticonderoga, though, (including the new museum across the lake, at Mt. Independence--the fort seen iiom the Park there was worm the trip by itself) and, we were lucky enough, at Xmas, to be in northern Virginia and to be taken on a wonderful allday tour of the Fredericksburg battlefield by a local enthusiast. I wish that I knew a local at every site I visit--what a difference it makes! I'll close now, having, I hope, fulfilled tradition for another year. 1996 was a good year, including not only the military things (we live in such a privileged time--so many books, figures, places to visit, good people to know!), but also the meeting of a new friend through MWAN, Michael Parker, who is very patient with this slow correspondent.