1. Due to a spate of let-us-say "incapacitating illness", I haven't paid too much attention to the REVIEW for the past six months. Fred Haub kindly took over the publishing duties; we're now working together (Fred doing 95% of the work, Unca Wally about 5%). But I'm almost revved up to go again... there are back issues to get out, subscriptions to be brought up to date, articles to write... my cup runneth over. The first thing I want to do is bring the subscription list up-to-date. I believe that August '96 was the last issue mailed to the paid subscribers. Which means that all subscribers' expiration dates must be extended by several months. You can determine the date your subscription expires by glancing at the address label. Write me if there's something that looks fishy. 2. I think it was in September, '96, that I received a letter from Bob O'Brien, who resides in Goring By Sea, England. Bob is one of the founding fathers of the WRG rules sets; he can take partial blame for the dreaded "reaction test", found in just about all WRG rules, until WRG 7th came along. Bob's comment on the rules I generate and describe in the REVIEW is rather interesting... his opinion is probably shared by a number of readers: ... I do like your style and the presentation, but many of the rules... (that are)... thrown at you make me shudder... My own main dislikes are for any rules involving percentages, data sheets and markers all over units... and all those funny dice with 14 1/2 sides or whatever... Bob's preference for the 6-sided die is echoed by most of the British wargamers I've met. The majority of them agree that the 6-sided die does not give the increased gradation of scale provided by either percentage dice or the 10-sided die, but "sixsidedness" is now, apparently, A British tradition, and not to be given up. 3. In my article on the battle of Blenheim, I mentioned Peter Young's THE WARGAME, a very nicely laid out volume describing around a dozen battles, with the text of each battle supplemented by colored photos of miniatures. There's another THE WARGAME... this one is also a hobby classic... Charles Grant's book on his Seven Years War rules, published in 1975. An excellent book, and in the chapter on 'morale', we find the following , as Grant tries to define the concept: ... More succinctly, it has been reterred to (Americanese, this) as intestinal fortitude, just plain 'guts', or in the old Army term 'umpty poo'. Now, where in the world did 'umpty poo' come from? Is it a pre-WW I British expression? Regardless of its origin, I can assure you that my own battlefield troops will display as much - or more - of the old umpty poo as anyone. 4. This issue leads off with an interesting article by Sam Hepford on a campaign he's conducting at PW meetings. Sam has also included his 2-page rules set for the battles in his campaign. Back to PW Review February 1997 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1997 Wally Simon This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com