The moment of decision had arrived. My twenty-five year old typewriter was to be consigned to the back of the under stairs cupboard. Our Editor wanted all future contributions to PW to be in Near Letter Quality. I had to spit on the ribbon to get even the faintest impression on the paper, so clearly my old faithful friend was no longer man enough for the task! It was over to the new family word processor. This came up with the computer aided title that you see above. A combination of American drawing package and a North Korean assembled machine. Between them they produced the font called "Old English". I found it almost illegible and "Robin Peck" came out as "Robin Pirk". I decided to blame this on the Korean Peasants who assembled the computer. Still the choice of Old English seemed appropriate for the old English wargamer who sits and jots this for you. Is it really possible to "jot" on a word processor? I seem to feel that it needs a stub of pencil and a dog eared pad of feint ruled paper. What ever the answer to this question I've decided to stick to the title, which should allow me to write a few words from time to time on various aspects of our hobby that interest me, and, I very much hope, some of you. The Lion is soon to visit us again, an event that always inspires me to write a few battle reports. Sadly, I find that I have still not written up all my notes from his last trip to see us. With my family now having a brand new word processor, mainly used for school work, I have no excuses. A recently read quotation in a wargaming magazine brings me to my first topic concerning Wally's last visit to my home. "Uncertainty is in the very air which a battle breathes" This has always seemed to me to be particularly true in real life, but very often not so true at all in the wargame. I realise that our overall view of the table, and the move, counter move sequences does make it difficult to re-create the real life confusion. We've always got our random dice throws to fall back on, but, just as an experiment, we hit upon a little idea for our "The Sword and the Flame" sequencing for movement and firing that certainly added doubt and uncertainty in our minds, without being too extreme in its effect. If, like us, you play and enjoy this game you will know that a normal pack of cards controls movement and firing for both sides. Firstly, for movement, side A moves one unit when a red card is drawn and side B will likewise move a unit whenever a black card is turned over and he still hap a unit that he wishes to move. This drawing of cards normally continues until all units of both sides which wish to move have moved once. Then the firing sequence commences and again this is controlled by the drawing of red and black cards from the shuffled pack, continuing once again until all eligible units that wish to fire have done. Our modification was to shuffle into the deck the two Jokers that come with every new pack of cards. Later we tried adding three and four Jokers to vary the effect we were seeking. These acted as arbitrary 1. stop" cards. Whenever one was turned over the sequence stopped and the next sequence began. Immediately one could not be sure that all the units you wanted to move would be able to move before a Joker appeared. Similar doubts were always in your mind when it came to choosing who would fire first, it no longer being certain that every eligible unit would be able to. The pack with four jokers worked very well and produced some dramatic moments of intense frustration, and so too did the trial packs with two or three Jokers. If, like us, you enjoy the pressures and doubts that a system modification such as this can bring, maybe You'll give it a try. Wargames Foundry I have always shared The Lion's love of skirmish wargaming. Lack of space has forced me to concentrate on 25mm figures and, over the last twenty years or so, I have collected several hundred, in a wide range of periods. I was inspired to skirmish game by the book on skirmishing by Don Featherstone, and by the excellent rules, published by "Skirmish Wargames" in England, and still, I think, available at this time. Now The Lion and I have developed our own skirmish rules, although we would readily confess to having been influenced by what has been written before - but isn't that true about most sets of rules that one reads. When Wally visits this year I shall try to persuade him to print our skirmish rules on a serial basis in the pages of PW magazine. I have recently been adding to my collection by buying figures from Wargames Foundry. I can really recommend to You those that I have tried so far. They seem to me to have the happy knack of being able to produce a 25mm figure which is & real little character in its own right. The sort of detail and imagination that one could once have only hoped for in 54mm. Their latest release is ten pirates and buccaneers from the 1670 - 1700 period. Amongst this is a Captain with hook holding a sword, a bearded dwarf with club in hand, a skinny pirate with dagger, a large negro in pantaloons and a female pirate waving cutlass above head. All the figures have excellent detail and make painting an enjoyable process even for one of my limited talent. Other periods that I have acquired, or seen, include the Indian Mutiny, the English Civil War, the Franco-Prussian war and the French Revolution. Many more periods are covered but I cannot say from my own experience if all have been designed by Wargames Foundry or if some are ranges of figures they have purchased from others. All in all I can really recommend that you get a copy of their catalogue and the address is as follows: Wargames Foundry 4a Parkyn Road Daybrook Nottingham NG5 6BG England. A stockist in the United States is given as follows: Pendragon Miniatures 1549 Marview Drive Westlake, Ohio 44145 USA One further snippet of news on the skirmish front. Athena Books tell me that they hope to re-publish "Skirmish Wargames" by Donald Featherstone later this year. Well worth watching their advertisements if you don't have a copy of this excellent little book. Back to PW Review March 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