(Editor's Note: Long-time MTYANers will remember Steve Dake who did the "Bits & Pieces" and "Wargame Clubs of America" columns for many years. Steve has decided to return to writing - glad to have you back Steve - and will be doing a regular column for AdWAN again).

Greetings, Wargaming Bruthas. What you see before you is the birth of still another wargaming column in MWAN. Many new readers of MWAN do not know me - and many old readers probably want to forget - I'll start out with a bit of general l information on myself and what you can expect. I'm Steve Dake and I've been playing with Toy Soldiers as long as I can remember. I'm a 25mm nut with thousands of painted figures in all eras, with my three biggest periods being the Franco-Prussian War, the American Civil War, and Napoleonics. I'd rather paint then play, and normally turn out 100-200 25mm figures a month. Hal let me write two columns for MWAN a few years ago, and I've been fortumate to have some articles published by other hobby publications. I usually put on about four convention games per year, and lately have been lucky enough to get in at least one game a month, which is pretty good. I've met many, many good people through our hobby, and, er, some very interesting ones, and a lot of the people who write or have written for MWAN I've been blessed to know.

I stopped writing for MWAN about five years ago and pretty much removed myself from socializing in the hobby at the same time. Two events caused this: the birth of my daughter, and a work promotion. The promotion brought with it the added perk of an hour's commute, along with extra hours at the shop. I thought I would also take the time to get to know my daughter. All this coupled with the continued bonding with my son/friend, Mike, led quickly to a need to re-assess the budgeting of time. Alas, after prioritizing activities, wargaming came in distant to even mundane acts like eating and sleeping, or getting cleaned up.

But Lo - a new day dawns, and the sun crests the horizon. (I've always wanted to write a sentence like that) My daughter Dana is now five and spends extensive hours with her immense Barbie collection. My son perfects his combat technique with the Nintendo game, Killer Instinct. We still spend mega hangout time together (all their teachers pat me on the head and call me "good dad" for all our quality activities.

Gym class, dancing, cub scouts, jeez.... ) but now I find I actually have some moments for myself Along with the painting and gaming,I find I'd like to start writing again, which brings us to here.

In the past Hal graciously offered the opportunity to do a different column, giving the license to cover whatever topics popped into my head. Scary as it soumds, I think the time has come to give it a try. What I want to do is take a look at different hobby "issues" each time, not in a witch-hunting sort of way, mind you, but in the friendly, non- confrontational manner readers have come to expect from MWAN. The reflections will be light-hearted as I occasionally try to be funny and will be far too important to be taken very seriously. They will probably be more subjective then objective, as I'll have a hard time remaining unbiased once I get warmed up. Only you readers will be able to tell me if this is working so I encourage you - No, beg you - to respond with opinions, critiques, hate mail. I'm the only human on the planet yet without a computer, so you'll have to contact me by writing the address at the start of the column. Enough about this and that. What kind of things are we going to talk about? How about:

HOW CUM NOBODY MAKES ANY GOOD SPEARS, LANCES OR FLAG STAFFS?

Yes, Wargaming Bruthas, think about it. It could be said we are living in the Golden Age of our hobby Right Blinking Now. Little soldiers are available in any scale or any period from Ancient Egypt to modern times. Sculpting and the manufacture of the figures has risen to state-of-the-art, while our collective painting skills has gained a standard probably not expected to be possible 20 years ago. When you think of accessories, it's Wot you Want: Top quality buildings can be bought or custom made. When it comes to trees, trees can be bought that really look like trees, and grass can be bought - oh, you get the picture. Yep, it's all out there for the asking - except for lances, spears, pikes and flagstaffs. Don't you wonder how this got passed by? From ancient times to the English Civil War armies were mostly armed with spears or pikes, and up until the 20th Century all armies carried banners, fer cripesake. It's not like the hobby manufacturers have missed this, either. How many times have you seen the ads "figures designed openhanded to accept brass or wire...." or "Pikes/flag poles not provided. Use brass or wire...."

I don't know about you, but I don't like the obligatory diversion from an army's creation to use brass or wire. I take myself to the basement and feel like the mad blacksmith, hammering the head flat, careful, don't bend it, sawing the points, filing the sharpies - it goes on. One can deal with a few flagstaffs for command stands, but what's up if one is building a mass of English Civil War pike blocks? Besides, I've found both brass and 175 wire mediums to be unsatisfactory. The brass, while workable, comes in two inconvenient sizes for 25mm. one size is telephone pole status, while the other is so thin it bends from the weight of the standards. Looks too thin, too. Now the wire comes in the right size, but just go ahead and try to beat the head of that flat, John Henry. You can give yourself a hernia and raise your blood pressure trying this, Wargaming Bruthas. As for other mediums - plastic, you say? Forget it, it breaks, especially if it's thin enough for our purposes. As far as commercially - supplied spears, lances, and flagstaffs, made of the same white metal as their respective figure ranges straight they never are when you get them, straight they never remain when you use them, why the manufacturers make them I do not understand. I've a medieval army and a 30 Year's War force with soft metal standards and spears. They look as if they've wilted in the sun or been hit with a ray gun blast.

Now there are good lances and flag poles out there, we've all seen them. They're in hobby magazines or are in the armies busy taking first place at painting contests. Only the elite seem to know where or how to come by them. I've heard whispered rumors that Bill Brewer, a popular English painter, makes top-quality hard-metal spears and pikes, but I've never seen an ad for such.

What we need is for one of our more progressive companies to come to the fore and market lances, spears, pikes and flagstaffs of a hardened metal, with the tip of our choice. Think how much nicer your Civil War forces will look if you could have flagstaffs adorned with round balls, molded eagles, or little spikey points. Think how you'll never again suck air through your teeth when some other gamer picks up your command stand by the flag. Think how happy you'll be that all your Uhlans of Hans look like they're carring lances, and not clipped pieces of hobby wire with silver painted on the end in a futile attempt to make it l look like a spear.

Yes, this is an idea whose time has come. We have the means, we have the technology. It remains for us to raise our voice and demand this of the hobby giant, like old glory, or it may come from the same kind if nameless soul who first gave us sheet metal bases and magnetic tape. It will happen, but we must maintain a constant refrain so they will not forget. Until next time, Wargamming Bruthas.