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