(Editor's Note: Before you leap to your computer to write a letter to MWAN regarding Charles' "article ", keep in mind that Charles wrote a brief note attached to his piece and stated that it was a "humor piece')

I finally caught up with Charles James Elsden, Lord Commander of Ten Thousand, in his cozy apartment in the historic Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn, New York City on April 19, 1998. Only a few blocks from here in August of 1776 George Washington peered out of his fortified lines from Fort Cobble Hill and, holding his breath, conducted his famous retreat from the largest battle of the American Revolution, The Battle of Brooklyn, covered by Colonel Hand's First Pennsylvania Continentals, frontier riflemen who were the first in and the last out. Several blocks in other directions you can view such sites as the harbor defense forts designed by young engineer officer Robert E. Lee; the church of Henry Ward Beecher--abolitionist and brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe (author of Uncle Tom's Cabin) --where Abraham Lincoln once spoke; the Statue of Liberty out in the harbor next to Ellis Island; and the brownstone birthplace of famous beauty Jenny Jerome, mother to be of one Winston Spencer Churchill.

Comfortably seated in his bachelor apartment--which inside felt like a cross between the digs of a mad toy collector and the operations staff headquarters of a large army corps--he finally consented to answer some of my burning questions. Here, on a quiet rainy spring Sunday afternoon, the usually reclusive hobbyist gave me his eclectic opinions on everything from rules design to being in a wargames club, the love of history, and the hobby in general, while sipping tea on his battered old orange couch.

Note: The interviewer is abbreviated below as CE (a Regular Guy), and the Much Revered Celebrity as LC (Lord Commander). Is it hard to split yourself in two? Not at all; we wargamers do it every time we solitaire a battle!

CE: Good afternoon, sir. Thank you for consenting to see me.

LC: Come in; have a seat. I have always wanted to be interviewed by an urbane, sophisticated, and intelligent fellow. But you'll do instead.

CE: Hmmm... yes,well. Why have you spent so much time as awargamer? What is your hobby philosophy?

LC: I suppose you'd call me a frustrated producer, rather than a demon competitor. I'm Cecil B. DeMille, creating a dramatic event. That's why I'm more interested in a good time than in what side wins. I love designing a balanced but diabolical scenario. I usually help out a less experienced opponent, rather than try to trick a win because I've spent an extra hour reading rules or know more about the battle historically than the other person. if I win, I like it to be only if I play really well against a tough opponent. Many players I've met are like that. I've also played team games, like role playing or others where players work together to solve a strategic problem set by the game master.

CE: But aren't those first and second place competition ribbons hanging there by your mythology books?

LC: Sure, but from a small convention. They are reminders of good sportsmanship and warin memories of good games, where competition was not the main point--in that case from Crusades '98, up in New Haven, Connecticut. At my own club we do have members who are significant competitors at large affairs like Avalon Con. The plaques are on the wall to prove it.

CE: You're in The Metropolitan Wargamers Club now. What's that like, after so many years of solitaire playing?

LC: Lots of fun. Its an informal organization, but well run, so you can use the 1600 square foot clubhouse in Williamsburg, Brooklyn as a base for any kind of gaming activity you like. Sometimes members come over here to the apartment to try out one of my scenarios. This year we wore our new T-shirts down to Cold Wars 198 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. They're a symbol of good fellowship in a hobby that is all to often a lonely pursuit by isolated individuals who feel that they're out of the mainstream. Wargamers are often misunderstood, because it seems to others like an elitist activity. After all, you have to be interested in history, in a day and age when it seems that nobody even reads anymore, let alone actually make the effort required to research, set up, and play a complex game. But standing up for your own "unusual" interests in today's homogenized mass society can be an important sign of mental health. We are bonded by our love of history, storytelling, gaming, and having opinions on things.

CE: What kind of people are you meeting there?

LC: In this particular club there are different types of people who all make a contribution. The physically handy types help make our gaming tables and interior building systems. others keep the club books or clean up, teach boardgames, or help recruit new members. Some paint up armies of figures, others contribute to our military video, book, and game libraries. Right now a few the guys are running an event for the Army cadets at their own convention up at West Point. The club also occasionally participates in smaller local events. We even have cool drinking mugs!

CE: You say its an elitist hobby? Is it some kind of nerd thing, for people who don't deal with real life?

LC: No, not at all. Members include all types--let's see, there's a psychoanalyst, two postal workers ... uh, oh, that sounds bad so far ... a staff trainer (me), a college student, a grocery deliveryman, a building contractor, a movie projectionist, an accountant, a financial analyst, a lawyer, and many other types. We're not militarists, either, which some people think, unfortunately. We do include some actual military veterans. Women are accepted too, although there tend to be fewer of them than in role playing, say, or reenacting. We're all expressing our own creativity, whether its painting up a WWI biplane, interpreting history to design a gaming scenario, or writing our own rules.

CE: What have you done at the club lately?

LC: As a matter of fact, yesterday we tried out my 54mm, rules for the American Civil War, CIVIL WAR DAYS (CWD), and they worked perfectly for the club's 15mm figures, without even changing the ranges or movement distances. This was a big deal, believe me. obviously, they will go for 25mm just as well. So I can sell them to both groups of hobbyists: 54mm collectors and gamers using the smaller scales.

CE: What is special about your rules? I mean, why buy them instead of some other system?

LC: First of all they're simple. You don't need a pocket calculator. They work for any figure scale, for any figure mounting, and eventually will cover any historical period. That is, I'm working on modules that extend them into the rest of the extended nineteenth century, well really from 1755 to 1914. I have different rules for WW II, and the Medieval period, because I use a different representational scales--I figure:20 men for ACW, 1:4 for WW II and 1:1 for Medieval. But eventually you'll be able to buy one series of booklets for all your gaming needs. Ta daa!

CE: Simple eh? So they're the usual 30 pages or so with some charts and tables?

LC: The CWD Basic Rules are, yes. The CWD Advanced rules are another 50 pages, but you don't need them to play. They are for adding more details, as you like. You certainly wouldn't need them all for any one particular game. Some people will want to add certain unusual factors that were unique to the Civil War, and helped make it what it was.

CE: Can you be more specific?

LC: Well, let's see. Cavalry, generals, hidden movement, special units like sharpshooters, Home Guard, Veteran Reserves, European Regulars, Indians, Engineers, Signal Corps, special artillery like mortars and machine guns, heavy artillery, and rockets ...

CE: What else?

LC: Oh, let's see... partisans, spies, restricted recognition, looting, infantry colors, local fanaticism, heroes, variable regimental strengths, crosstrained units, that sort of thing.

CE: C'mon, is that all? Fifty pages worth?

LC: All right. I also have railroad trains, minefields, wagons, zouaves, fire, atrocities, spiking guns, and other fim stuff.

CE: Can we look forward to Civil War naval rules from you?

LC: Already done--naval rules are included in the ADVANCED RULES, too! I love amphibious scenarios, and there are some terrific 54mm ships available. Now they're making ships in what is essentially styrofoam--casement ironclads, the Monitor and Merrimac, and more is coming. You can use toy boats for landing launches or longboats. Then you have your heavy fort artillery, and both side used marines and naval landing parties. Confederate naval personnel off a commerce raider once had a scrap in North Africa against Muslim troops! Then there was the Union Ellet's Mississippi Marine Brigade in the Western theater, an all arms unit who kept the riverbanks clear and manned rains and other ships. They had a distinctive uniform of their own. In what other period do you get to fire big naval guns, but also employ rains, mines, submarines, torpedo boats, and also grapple and board? Its a wild, Jules Verne kind of warfare. one southern ironclad was even blown up in a northern commando raid.

CE: Wow! But its starting to sound complicated.

LC: I call my design philosophy "detailed simplicity." You can add as many simple rules to each other as you want. Everything still runs with a ten sided die, and the ten page chart section is all you really need to get started. There is a one page "Command Roster Sheet" that you use to track all bookkeeping like the morale of your units, ammo of your artillery guns, and command boosts of your generals. I'm just a "rules vampire," like everyone else. I suck out good concepts from other rules I've seen but express them in a simple way that's organic to my own system. For example, how do you recreate the Battle of Bladensburg in 1814 ("Is Washington Burning?") between a rifle and regular augmented militia army and a professional force of Wellington's Peninsula veterans? After the British failed twice to even penetrate the first American blocking position, we adjusted the rules for European Professional Regulars. I add to my personal taste whatever makes sense to me and the playtesters! They say that books are written by people who first can't find them as would be readers. My rules are like that. Just what I need to play, and no more.

CE: What about World War II--what are the hot issues there in rules design?

LC: Combined arms. Some systems are either basically tank games by armor aficionados or infantry games. In my system, both are important and they interact easily. Of course you can design scenarios for the proportions you prefer. Or if you want to add artillery, an airplane, or a naval patrol boat unit, that's simple too. Remember when you were a kid and games were simple? The fun should be in the playing, not in debating the rules mechanics.

CE: What if I came up with something you forgot to include?

LC: Then it should be easy to add with a table rule of your own. The rules as written should indicate to you how to do it, based on their own 'feel.' An extra bonus of +2 may be indicated rather than two paragraphs of rules. I don't like tables where you ad up dozens of pluses and minuses only to end up with the same +2 die roll anyhow.

CE: When are your rules going to be published?

LC: The first will probably be CIVIL WAR DAYS. Right now I'm waiting for a publisher playtest date. Jamie Delson just finished moving his whole business, The Toy Soldier Company, to a larger warehouse. That means more playing space for his private games. I'm sure he'll have some good suggestions, as have my own personal friends and the members of The Metropolitan Wargamers Club. I hope these rules will be out in 1998, but we'll have to see ...

CE: Who were your own sources for rules?

LC: In the 1970's books began to become available on basic miniatures concepts, especially in England, where I spent a college term on an overseas seminar. I'm happy to credit Featherstone, Grant, Tunstill, and Morschauser. Since then however, I was pretty cut off from the hobby miniatures rules coming out. For one thing, I was busy playtesting and playing board games at a company called Rand, run by the late Jim Cumbo, where I worked with well known designers like Al Nofi and John Prados. I also worked with Scott Bizarft of what was then Fantasy Games Unlimited.

CE: When did you begin to look at the more sophisticated miniatures rules?

LC: Only recently, after my rules were pretty well formed up, have I begun to check out contemporary rules systems. Frankly, I like mine best. To put it another way, the ones I like best are closest to mine. 'Once mine are committed to print (they're never "finished") I might be able to work with the more "strange" visions of other designers. Maybe.

CE: Do playtesters notice your board game background in your rules?

LC: Definitely. What's in or out of the rules depends on whether its fan to do or not. Jumping into a building to discover if the enemy is in there or not is fun. Worrying about exactly how many bullets are left in your clip before reloading is not. Firing at a heavier enemy tank is suspenseful. Working out complicated formulas for your gun penetrating the enemy armor in the right rear turret through an armor skirt on a rainy day is not.

CE: You said your rules for each period are different. Can players tell that they are all your rules? Is there a certain continuity among them all?

LC: The players say so, but they know who the author is. Of course, I am intentionally linking them all up so that when you learn one it becomes easier to learn another. Eventually each war will have its own set or module with simple summary rules to play the particular period or war, but if you stick to the general rules and care to modify them yourself you won't go wrong. As I playtest new conflicts I come up with more modules which are specific to them. Each period has its defining points. In the medieval rules, you have to worry especially about the fate of your leaders. In the American Revolution, there are different rules for light infantry, and grenadiers. In the Civil War, there is a lot of morale checking by unit. In the late nineteenth century, you have to worry about infantry ammo supply. And in WW II you have to use your vehicles very carefully or the balance can suddenly swing against you.

CE: Do you think rules have gotten too complicated in general?

LC: There's a great book on the hobby called The Art of Wargaming (Naval Institute Press, 1990) by Peter Peria, who is a professional defense analyst as well as a gamer. In his fascinating volume, he combines a history of the hobby of board wargarning with a history of actual military wargaming in the West. He says, and I agree with him, that the hobby went through a crisis in the late nineteenseventies and early eighties when the games got too complicated. Its true for board and miniatures gaming. You could say that we were saved from the impossible task of playing "monster" sized games by the computer. But despite the advantages of computers, some people don't like to play with them. For one thing, gamers like to know the 'why' of what is happening in front of them--hence our many interesting rules discussions. In computer games this is often buried in a programmer's decision that is kept hidden from the player. With some of the computer games, you can learn to play better without really knowing why when A happens it results in B. In effect, the game design you're playing is not being fully shared with you as the player.

CE: And miniatures players want their three dimensional toys.

LC: Yes, they do. But they also want modern innovations. Rules systems are finally being published with graphics and professional level editing and writing skill. This was not always the case. To quote Perla back in 1990: "Although it is difficult to document, the likelihood is that the majority of rules in use today have never been published. They have been written and used by hundreds of local miniatures clubs and informal groups. Despite advances in technique and improvements in publicity, especially the boost it received from its link to the popular science fiction and fantasy role-playing games that developed in the 1970's, American miniatures wargaming never broke out of its Vietnam-era period of limited, relatively low-key appeal" (p. 128).

CE: What is he, some kind of anti-toy soldier freak?

LC: No, he wasn't glad about the restricted level of the miniatures hobby, he was just reporting what he unfortunately saw. Let's face it, what he said then is still mostly true today. Figure production is still a cottage industry. There are no player's associations to represent the consumer, and all conventions and hobby policies are set more by the dealers or local gaming societies like HMGS affiliated clubs (God Bless them), than a majority of the national players. The 54mm, collectors are still isolated almost totally from the smaller scale miniatures gamers. Although at Cold Wars - 1988 (this was my first big miniatures convention) I saw the beginning of a 54mm lobby as a subgroup of the hobby. Actually I see myself as one of the few links between the two, a Featherstone of the Fifty-Fours,' if you will.

CE: What do you mean by a 'player's association?'

LC: In the magazine Computer Games Strategy Plus recently there was an item about major corporate sponsors getting together to create big money national computer gaming competitions! Soon fifteen year old computer wise kids will be going professional coast to coast. Well, this country is about money, and you can see the corporate mass appeal of this kind of thing. I've actually earned a few hundred dollars myself writing trivia quizzes for a company that runs contests on the Internet. They have corporate sponsorship, too.

CE: But there are no organizations of miniatures players? No recognition of our contributions to national life, and no corporate sponsorship for tournaments, new product, rules publishing, etc.

LC: Look, we are the popular guardians of U. S. history, military accomplishment, and national pride and honor in a very real sense. We are the equivalent of the old storytellers telling the younger generations what we think is significant about a segment of U.S. and world history. But we don't take ourselves seriously in this role. Fine, we're nice, modest regular guys. But our trust is a sacred one. Not to mention the access to resources and fun we'd have if our hobby wasn't so little known and undervalued. Think of the movies you've seen just because they have a'good wargaming scene' in them. We're that desperate for legitimization. But we don't want to creatively engage with the hostility we meet in public. With names like Robert Louis Stevenson, H, G. Wells, Malcolm Forbes, Charleton Heston, and Robin William who were or are involved (at least in collecting), why are we so willing to be a secret priesthood? Did you know that Carl Jung once spent an afternoon playing with toy soldiers down by the riverbank, to recapture the sense of innocent fun he had as a kid?

CE: Um, this is getting heavy. What's this 'Lord Commander of Ten Thousand' title you've given yourself, anyhow?

LC: Consider it a nickname, like a CB handle or a computer tag. Anyone who has collected over 10,000 54mm figures plus equipment and terrain is a pretty serious gamer. Hey, 'serious gamer'--is that an oxymoron?

CE: Maybe you just need to get a life ...

LC: I'm proud to be a gamer. Its a spiritual and artistic calling. I'll debate that anytime with anyone, anywhere. Its an uplifting, significant part of my life. And if someday we can build a Temple of Wargaming in a square block and have a separate floor for miniatures, board, role playing, reenactment displays, historical study, computer simulations, diorama and display work, government programs liaisons, media projects, and other neat stuff, then good for us. We can put the corporate sponsorship department right near the other administrative offices. I think with all the new TV channels and not enough programming, and with educators exploring new ways of teaching, it could happen that some day we 'go public.' I've had good reactions from many non-gamers when I discuss The Hobby. I think that an activity that combines historical knowledge with physical craft, negotiation skills, good healthy competition and a recognition of good gamesmanship is a worthwhile activity. And to those who have insisted over the years that I surrender my right to game I said, and continue to say: "Nuts."

CE: So people can learn from participating in wargaming?

LC: You can learn more about history in six hours of gaming than in sixty hours of reading or instruction. Not to mention learning about human psychological interaction and your own ego strengths and weakness. Painting figures is like Zen meditation. Research is like detective work. Its all great. But Corporate America is only interested in a venture if they can sell 75 bazillion. units of something. I have friends who make a living in the hobby as dealers, and the small runs of figures, rules and other hobby related product don't begin to interest even the toy and gaming companies, let alone the banks who you have to see to get a business loan for expansion. Economically, we don't count. But socially, we're pretty important.

CE: It seems as if it would take a lot of knowledge to design these battle scenarios. what are you reading these days?

LC: Winston Churchill's The River War, about the Soudan--that young lieutenant could write! Soviet Infantry Tactics in World War Two and German Panzer Tactics In Worl War Two, in the George Nafziger reprint series--I've used information from them in my recent mini-Stalingrad games. The Civil War Military Machine: Weapons.and Tactics of the Union and Confederate Armed Forces by Ian Drury and Ian Gibbons--it has great cross sectional deck plans of the ironclads. Wargaming Pike and Shot, by Featherstone--I'm starting to look at the English Civil War. The Bell and Blade Home Video Catalogue (1-973-328-8488 or 1-800-365-2104) --this guy has practically every military adventure/documentary/historicaI film ever made in stock. Right now What If: Strategical Alternatives of WW II (Emperors Press, 1997) --it examines 17 areas where things could have been different, such as what if Rommel was on the spot in Normandy with control of the panzer reserves? What if the Japanese had made a second strike at Pearl Harbor? What if Hitler had appealed to the national aspirations of the non-Russian peoples of the Soviet Union during his 1941 invasion? Great stuff. Also a magazine called "The Games Annual: The Definitive Digest of the World of Games." This year, a Second Edition covers every aspect of the hobby from conventions to paint ball, from European produced new games to miniatures and virtual reality.

CE: whew--at least some people are still reading. I see shelves full of board games behind you. What new board games have you been looking at?

LC: Well, new to me, anyway. I'll only mention the ones I'd recommend. DAMN THE TORPEDOES: CIVIL WAR NAVAL BATTLES CARD GAME (Winsome Games, 1995), HANNIBAL: ROME VS. CARTHAGE (Avalon Hill 1996), HONOR OF THE SAMURAI: THE CARD GAME OF INTRIGUE, HONOR, AND SHAME (Gamewright 1996), THE SUN NEVER SETS: THREE CAMPAIGNS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE (Decision Games 1997), and BABYLON 5 COMPONENT GAME SYSTEM: THE 2258/4 PLAYER CORE SET (Component Game Systems, Inc. 1997).

CE: Now these are all games that are not carried by normal retail stores. Games that only folks who can find out about specialist hobby stores or mail order businesses can get. So being a wargamer, you live this kind of secret life, doing things that the average American never even heard of?

LC: Its no secret to me. But these days with the information overload, we all have to choose how we're going to spend our time. I may be untypical in that I I m not married, don't own a car or a CD player, don't care about sports, etc, etc. But that's just me. Its unfortunate that in this so-called information age, the most important things are often hard to f ind out about. But that's always been true, like finding the Secret of Life. But there is no one Secret of Life. There is only how you as an individual choose to live. And if you don't choose, then believe me, someone else will choose for you, and you'll be a Tree, slave to mass values-the paradox of living in modem America today, where you can buy anything, but not be anything. The pressure to conform is tremendous. What a sad world it would be if we all were money grubbing clones of the fake people we see on bad TV shows or, God help us, in politics! Sheesh!

CE: So you can be a normal person and still be very involved in the hobby?

LC: You can at least be a "normal" hobbyist. Wives and girlfriends beware!

CE: You seem to have a very flexible idea of "The Hobby" You're including lots of different activities: board games, role playing, diorama making, computer games, miniatures, reenacting, and so on.

LC: Those that help spread historical awareness. Even most good science fiction and fantasy is a projection of past human history and culture. For example, D-une by Frank Herbert and The Faded Sun trilogy by C.J. Cherryh are based on Muslim cultures. Professor Tolkien's work is based on Celtic, Germanic, and Norse myth. That's not to take anything away from their creative talents.

CE: How is the hobby doing today?

LC: There is a boom in historical hobbyism right now. Boom as in baby boom, the generation who has the time, education, and interest to lead the movement. It may peak out. I hope this doesn't happen--not before we rise to new heights from today, so we can leave a legacy of free thought and action to the next generation, and specifically of our own love of the historical process. History is big right now.

CE: What's brought that about? Why, for example, has interest in the American Civil War suddenly burst upon us like no time since he Centennial of the 1960's, which produced great books and the famous Marx Blue and Gray playset, among other things?

LC: The issues raised in the Civil War remain unsolved in the USA today. They frighten us still, as Jefferson said of the slavery question, "like a fire bell in the night.', While sectional civil disobedience seems over, the crisis of individual civil disobedience was the central issue of the Vietnam Era, and almost tore the country apart. Racial tension is still one of the most serious national fault lines.

CE: Are you saying that The Hobby kicked off this rise of current interest?

LC: No. That was done by historical media projects--Ken Bums, Ted Turner, the Arts and Entertainment, Discovery and History channels, and the movie Glory. Up until very recently the real Civil War was much too hot for Hollywood to handle. Remember that Birth of a Nation set off riots all across the country. From then until now there were very few good Civil War movies--as opposed to movies set in the Civil War--compared to other military topics. But once the public became interested, where did it turn for more information? The colleges, publishing houses, media, the National Park Service (of which I'm a former employee, by the way) , and then yes, to the hobby itself in cases where individuals had strong motivation of their own.

CE: The recent film Gettysburg was a turning point; solidly manned by reenactors. Movie technology was in a hump between using massive numbers of paid extras or employing the new computer graphics, both of which were too expensive for the producer, and sending out a call for hundreds of reenactors who brought their own firearms, uniforms, and knowledge of accurate battlefield tactics.

LC: The Battle of Gettysburg was the high battle tide of the Confederacy. The movie Gettysburg was the high tide of the hobby's visibility. I was standing in line for one of the first New York theatrical showings of the film, and started talking to the fellow next to me, who turned out to be a reenactor who had been there. He pointed out to me how many of the men in line were wearing bits of reenactment uniform. Inside during the show, an audience full of hobbyists were cheering not only for the movie itself but for their part in the project, and sometimes seeing themselves or their reenactment units on the screen. What a love fest. Ted Turner made it, Ken Bums was in it for a few seconds, there were some actors taking care of the speeches; but the great masses of both armies were played by--us. Wah-hoo! And we showed them how it was done. To paraphrase the most famous line, could a great army move accurately upon the word of an actor? No sir, General Lee! We did it ourselves.

CE: Will there be more media projects in the future of the hobby?

LC: Besides Ted Turner (Andersonville. Rough Riders. The Day Lincoln Was Shot). Civil War Journal, etc.? There are other types of projects becoming feasible. For one, there have been several proposed projects to use stop action animation with miniatures to show how battles were fought. I've only heard of one that was completed, and I haven't seen it. I came close to using my own 54mm collection in such a project, but it hasn't come -off yet. There is a toy collector filming the contents of Marx playsets for nostalgia purposes; the first few are out for sale now.

CE: Anything else?

LC: If a group of non-gamers was interested in the gaming experience as education, I could certainly combine lectures with a game for them. I'd definitely charge them for the service. I did this kind of thing for fantasy role playing with three friends many years ago. We actually went into customer's houses for dinner and a series of evenings of role playing. Unfortunately it was too labor intensive to make a profit. Then there are adventure story or historical related amusement park projects in the works. Disney was going to do that near the Manassas battlefield, but the conservationist ACW lobby kept them away, because they were endangering the scenery itself. But they were going to have a Civil War area in the park! That would have been interesting. Let's hope the parks of the future at least keep the Westworld type androids out!

CE: Why are these things so slow in developing?

LC: The hobby is too fragmented for many of us to either make a living in it, or set standards of play.

CE: Fragmented how?

LC: Just in the miniatures end, no one agrees on which rules to adopt in general for a particular period. So there are only a few regular tournaments held at the larger conventions. Imagine a Pro Miniatures Tournament of Champions, in a period with the finals being videotaped and televised like a masters chess match or the Olympics! well known older gamers are doing color commentary and analysis of tactics and strategy, and comparing the flow of the game to the historical outcome. Huge corporate cash prizes are being awarded with big trophies to nationally and internationally ranked winners. And the beer commercials: "Hi there, I'm this year's Northeastern Winner, Civil War Division. When I'm not out holding off the Yanks at Antietam, I like to relax with a nice cold bottle of Bellybuster Brew!"

CE: You're dreaming.

LC: Yes. But it could happen, if...

CE: If what?

LC: If the educational community, the armed services, the media, community historical organizations, government agencies, the schools, and ... dare I say it ... the corporations ... realized we were here as a resource f or them. Now the reenactors have done it. Computer games are doing it. This would be a job a national organization could promote; as well as running tournaments based on standardized rules and procedures. We could run a national newsletter, and so forth.

CE: So you want to ruin our gloriously anarchic hobby with some fascist association that will force us to play their way?

LC: Not at all. No one can stop a gamer from doing whatever he (or she) wants. But to those of us older gamers who've been playing for years, it appears that there are other steps to be taken to develop the hobby, especially the miniatures aspect. Of course, it would take the combined professional efforts of a number of people. We have no Avalon Hill to set up an "official" corporate sponsored annual convention for us, as the board gamers do.

CE: Sounds like the first thing to get the ball rolling would be to put some of these ideas out there.

LC: Which is why I decided to do this interview.

CE: Whoa. I wonder what will happen in the next ten years of the hobby?

LC: Who knows? Meantime, I'll be checking out somebody's else's rules for a change. There are lots of good ones out there since the last time I checked--in the Seventies. AND I VHANT TO ZUCK THEIR BLOOD!!! BLAH!

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