1. A phone call from Arty Conliffe, author of TACTICA, produced the news that Arty is soliciting manuscripts for wargame ideas and rules... based on the sell-out success of TACTICA, he wants to go into the publishing business. There appears to be no risk to anyone answering his call ... all bills will be footed by Arty, and the would-be author's only expenditure is one of time and effort. 2. A second TACTICA fallout ... PW member Rich Hasenauer indicated that Dave Waxtel -- TACTICA's publisher -- intends to publish Rich's 15mm American Civil War rules, FIRE AND FURY. Rich is a commercial artist who spares no effort in turning out a superior product - witness his detailed ALAMO model at recent HMGS conventions, plus several other award-winning scenarios he's presented. The FIRE AND THE FURY rules book should be just as-glitzy as that of TACTICA ... large, slick, glossy pages, beautiful layout, huge, easy-to-read charts, colored photos ... 3. The Hard-To-Believee Department. In a recent conversation with Dick Sossi, the current President of HMGS, Dick indicated that the HMGS treasury contains over $21,000!!! The March COLD WARS convention will probably add to this. My suggestion to Dick was a repeat of one originally tendered by Bob Wiltrout way back in the days when the HMGS assets totaled only a measly $8,000: host a "free" convention with HMGS to charge no admission fee whatsoever. Any other clever thoughts out there? 4. I've been following - trying to follow - Chris Engle's Matrix Game adventures for some time. In this "talky", pen-and-paper type of gaming scenario, Chris first provides a huge listing of background facts ... which he terms a "matrix". The facts are diverse; for a Viking-raid game, for example, they might contain items such as (a) Vikings strike at dawn, (b) churches are never well defended, (c) Saxons sleep soundly, (d) church alters have gold chalices, (e) Vikings excel in battle, and so on and so on and so on ... A player then sets forth an action, and chooseq three of the listings as justification. For example, one fella could say the Vikings might try a night landing and use facts (a), (c), (e) to back up his contentions. Other participants now get a shot at their own intended actions ... each one can be entirely different from that of the first fella's, or it can be the same, or it may simply follow the first fella's and agree with him partway, and then say:" Yes, but..." All these inputs are somehow evaluated (I'm still not clear on the mechanics) and one action is finally chosen. Chris seems to have interested a number of people in this endeavor ... the newsletter he puts out contains comments from a variety of readers. Not quite being able to follow what Chris was doing, I tried my own version of a Matrix Game. I listed in the background "matrix" the good and bad attributes of opposing forces. Each list of attributes (about 50 per side) had several categories ... for example. under "MILITARY" for Side A, I might have (a) Palace Guard is elite, 7 pts, (b) Heavy cavalry is overwhelming, 5 pts, (c) Bowmen are not well trained, 3 pts, etc. Under LEADERS for Side A, I could have (a) Leaders have exceptionally commanding personalities, 5 pts, or (b) Leaders are rash, 4 pts, etc., etc. Side B would have the same categories; the facts and point values might or might not be different. I presented the "matrix" to Brian Dewitt and Fred Hubig and we tried to puzzle out a game. My thought was that Side A, for example, could propose an attack and use as one of his backup reasons: "Palace guard is elite". Note that the "Palace Guard" had 7 points attached to it. Using it once brought the point value down to 6 ... hence the Palace Guards could be tossed into the game seven times before they ran out of steam. Similarly, Side A's not-too-well-trained bowmen could only he used three times. And so on. The categories would also play a part: one could counter a MILITARY reason only with another MILITARY reason, etc., and a LEADER reason with a LEADER reason. Brian and Fred and I traded clever thoughts and brilliant ideas and ingenious notions and inventive concepts ... you name it ... for some time before we gave up the ghost. We just couldn't derive a simple, logical, playable system that made sense... that is, not to US ... "It needs work!", was the consensus of all present. And so now, not only do I not understand what Chris is doing, I don't even understand what I'm doing. 5. COMPUTER GAMING WORLD (CGW) recently reviewed the computer version of HARPOON, a set of naval wargaming rules; I devoted an article, several issues ago, to the miniatures version. Bob Wiltrout, in a fit of pique, stated that I "ripped" HARPOON. I reread my comments and found not a single "rip", unless one defines a ..rip" to be the statement that the rules, incorporating every weapon, every sensor, every platform, and every ship class currently in use, were way too detailed and complicated for my tastes. The CGW reviewer apparently agrees with my assessment of complication. He states: ...there is no question that HARPOON is the most detailed simulation to appear in the civilian market place. This reviewer learned more from his first six hours of playing HARPOON than he did in a one-year seminar of 'Maritime Operation' in the Naval War College. And his article finishes with the statement: For the person whose naval desires do not extend beyond sinking an occasional destroyer with his 'rubber duckie' in the bathtub, HARPOON may prove a stone best left unturned. 5. Lynn Bodin passed away in late January. Lynn was an active wargamer in the northwest area, his home was in the state of Washington. He specialized in British colonial miniatures wargaming, he published SAVAGE & SOLDIER for over a decade, and he was quite interested in establishing a branch of HMGS in the northwest. The HMGS COLD WARS convention - next month in mid March had slated Lynn as a special guest ... it was planned to honor him for the contributions he had made to the hobby. I understand that a "commemorative edition" of British colonial 25mm figures will be designed by Dave Alsop and manufactured by OLD GLORY MINIATURES. The figures will be those of a naval brigade... a generic, universal type that will fit well in anyone's British colonial collection. The proceeds of the sales will be donated to the Rodin family. The figures will be available in the spring, and will he on sale at the HMGS summer convention, HISTORICON, at Harrisburg, in July. In addition, HMGS will actively assist in raising additional funds for the Rodin's. Back to PW Review February 1990 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1990 Wally Simon This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com