by Wally Simon
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1. In mid-January, I visited Bob Hurst, who has retired to the quiet town of Kerrville, Texas. I flew in to San Antonio, Bob picked me up, and the very first thing we did was to visit the Alamo. The site is in the heart of down-town San Antonio, and there's really not much left of the original fort, which covered a huge area. What's left is a church and a gift shop, and a diorama with 20mm Airfix figures. I don't think the gffl shop was there at the same time Davy Crockett fought for Texas... perhaps the Airfix figures were. Looking at the scaled diorama, it was apparent - to me, at least - that all those who signed up to defend the Alamo, were out of their minds. They entered into a suicide pact, pure and simple: First, the outer walls of the fort were so extensive, that there was no way that the less-than-200-man force could defend the perimeter. Second, the walls weren't that high, lending themselves to be easily scaled by the attacking troops. Third, the defenders were outnumbered (over 20-to-1 ?) by the Mexicans. I know that all staunch Texans will take umbrage at the above. 2. A couple of weeks ago, I completed the mailing of the September, October, November and December issues of the REVIEW. I had received quite a number of inquiries as to where the late and missing issues were. And I received a number of messages expressing 'thanks' when the packages arrived. I appreciate the patience of the subsuibers. 3. My dereliction of duty has caused the subscription list to go askew. And so all subscribers will have their subscription periods extended until I can sort out the mess. The subsuiption rate is $18 for one year mailing. 4. In Hal Thinglum's MWAN, No. 91 (Jan/Fete 98), Jim Getz has an article which discusses the EMPIRE and PIQUET rules... and, with a great deal of circular reasoning, finally says: .... we have now shown that both EMPIRE and PIQUET are games, are not games, and are simulations.. I have to admit I didn't understand the content of the article, nor why it was written, and toward the end of the piece, when Getz says: .... Borrowing from Jung's concepts of the collective unconscious and the archetype...., I was thoroughly lost. I didn't want to borrow anything from anybody. 5.One interesting note concems the bulletin published by HMGS Mid-South. It contains an advertisement of the EMPEROR'S HEADQUARTERS, which publishes EMPIRE. The advertisement says: "With any $25 purchase, get a free set of EMPIRE V rules..." Perhaps that gives an indication of how well the EMPIRE simulation is selling. ![]() Back to PW Review January 1998 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 |