There have been a number of requests posted to the various Yahoo! Groups, which discuss the Saga Publishing rulebooks. These concern the development of supplements to the rulebooks. The ones that apply to VW and LW are of most interest to me. Just look at the rest of the content in this issue.

To date, Saga has focussed on books that provide both historical and fictional scenarios. This format can be expanded or supplemented by publications covering arms, armour and equipment of the contending armies. My aim is to produce a more comprehensive format that will include orders of battle, uniform and equipment information, and scenarios.

To this end, I have collected material on both the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War. For both conflicts I am confident that I have enough for detailed publications; however, the main challenge is fitting them onto my “to do” list. It is one thing to collate material, and another to transcribe the information into a single reference. My current list will take up to two years to complete or longer as most are being done in cooperation with others. In addition to the research and writing, LW will require playtesting through 2005. Bruce and I shall be aiming for Historicon 2004 at which to host demonstration games of LW. Hopefully others will provide feedback on their experience with the rules so that we can amend them.

So what is on my “to do” list?

Ancient Warfare Army Lists (Far Eastern Armies)
Lace Warfare (1660-1783)
Guide to Byzantine Armies (395 to 1453 AD)
Mechanised Warfare (1930 to 1960)
Armoured Warfare (1960 to 2000+)
Guide to the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71)
Guide to the American Civil War (1861-65)
Guide to the Crimean War (1853-56)
Guide to the Seven Years War (1756-1763)

The “Guide” books will cover three major topics except for the first book on the Byzantines. The topics are as follows:

Orders of Battle
• This will cover the main armies of the conflict both in terms of the organisation of the combatants and the strength of the formations (corps, division, brigade) and units (regiments and battalions). Typical unit strengths will be added as a guide to fielding gaming units.

Uniform information

• This will include painting guides and descriptions of the weapons and equipment.

Scenarios

• Historical and fictional scenarios for the tabletop.

So there is a lot to do over the next few years in terms of writing and playtesting.