1. At each PW meeting, two small groups of attendees immediately
isolate themselves from the rest of the crowd. Each group files into
its own backroom, sets up a table on which the members array their
forces and, after about five minutes, we hear comments similar to:
- "Five up one, down two, is
twelve."
"Seven up two is sixteen."
Now, to me, "five up one, down two" is 4, and "seven up two" is 9... however, I am but a simple fellow and see only the obvious.
These conversations, it turns outs take place in a different universe than yours and mine, the universe of WRG, for what we are overhearing is "WRG TALK". a unique method of communication understood by only a relatively few inhabitants of Sol III.
In addition to comments such as the above, WRG TALK is a patois of mouth watering terms such as "Scutari" and "Velites" and "Hypaspists and "Prodromoiu." I always thought a Scutari was a hard- shelled creature with claws that scuttled over the ocean floor. It is evident that I have much to learn.
All this is by way of a foreword that in this issue we have an article on a WRG Ancients battle. Not only are Scutari present, but we have a Bondi or two... not to mention several Caetrati. Have I whetted your appetite?
2. HISTORICON '88 is reported upon, or, rather, rambled upon in my usual reportorial style... nothing too coherent, but enough to let you know there was one helluvalotta wargamers under one roof.
3. And I had a very interesting input from Lynn Bodin of the state of Washington, who tried out the set of ECW rules, in a morale game format, that I outlined in the January REVIEW. I get the impression that Lynn's group of rugged individualists from the Great North West were so disenchanted with the results that they ran outside and, to vent their anger, since they couldn't find me, began hacking at and felling some 1000-year-old redwoods.
I hate to think that the Great North West will be deforested solely because of the concept of the morale game. It appears that Lynn's boys, born and bred to the "normal" modes of wargaming, advocate - no, perhaps a better word is demand - the use of casualty caps and "011 rings and casualty rosters and figure removal and such. I'll publish Lynn's article next month so we can all examine the trouble-spots.
4. Dick Bryant, COURIER's editor, and I discussed my last month's review of Rudy Nelson's Napoleonic rules GARDE DU CORPS. Dick's comment was to the effect that by harping on the spelling mistakes in the text of the rules, i.e., the "typos" I cut the ground out from under my own arguments.
In other words, by focusing on the spelling, I took some of the vim and vigor out of the remainder of my critique.
I don't fully agree with Dick. True, pecking away at someone's spelling atrocities might, in some instances, seem a wee bit picayunish, but not when the author wishes to charge you 9 or 10 dollars for his efforts. In such case, I expect a coherent, well written explanation of just what it is he is doing, and if the text itself is full of errors, then I can expect the rest of his procedures and thoughts on how to run a game to be just as shoddily done.
I mentioned, some time ago, a set of American Civil War rules In which the author continually stated time after time, throughout the rules book, regarding the need for a unit to test its morale, that the unit "was libel for a morale check." Not only did he misuse the term he was seeking, but in his ignorance, he substituted yet another term which bears no relationship to the one he sought.
I, for one, can't ignore such goings-on. I don't think it too much to ask of an author that he speaks English. Even if we play down the spelling and typos - which may only reflect a hurried decision to get to the publisher as quickly as possible, with little emphasis on text editing - at the least, let's have the author speak English. Am I too demanding?
Let's hear from anyone out there on the Select Committee On Matters Pertaining To The Use Of Correct English In Wargames Rules (SCOMPTTUOCEIWR) ...
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