Bounce Sticks and All-Fred Vietmeyer would be pleased! A battalion of French Line and what appears to be the 3rd (Bercheny) Hussars Column Line and Square, known by the above title for its ferocious casualty rates, defined Napoleonic Gaming in the 60s. Its 20 to 1 level of representation seemed quite abstract at first. In those days many chose to ignore the fact that one figure represented more than one soldier. But today a 50 to 1 representation is often regarded as “too tactical.” In that context it is refreshing to see the “Big Battalions” exercised from time to time, and not surprising that Chris Sherman of the St. Pete Times took notice of the Jax Garrison’s BATTLE OF ECKMUHL when he reported on our storm battered convention. Austrians defend beautiful downtown Eckmuhl at HURRICON 04 Many of the “Old Guard” learned wargaming on CLS. Dick Bryant of THE COURIER was known in the late 60s for his first Napoleonic Army, the Black Brunswickers, whose predilection for bad morale rules became known as The Black Racers.” There developed a cult like following for CLS, and even after Fred Vietmeyer’s death a few years back there were evolutions based on umpire’s decisions and efforts to simplify the resulting complications, the rules changed much. In COURIER 88 an anonymous CLS ancient explained the evolution of 3 editions: “The good news is that there was a fair area of agreement on certain matters. I’d expected ferocious fights over the layout of the rulebook, and in fact there were none at all.. No one argued over the end of the guerilla rules, the demise of sieges, the introduction of alternate movement (in the abstract) and stickless artillery.” The Corsican Ogre’s Hordes Approach! Shocking! I was relieved to see that the Jax Garrison folks kept the bounce sticks, which have in any rate survived in DEVIL’S WIND. CLS without bounce sticks is like Communists who don’t believe in dialectical materialism! Back to Rebel Yell No. 29 Table of Contents Back to Rebel Yell List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2005 by HMGS South 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