Editorial

First of all, I would like to welcome Jamie Fish to the SAGA staff. Jamie will be doing the physical layout of SAGA to make it more consistent and easily readable. He will also be serving as Associate Editor and will be giving me a lot of help insofar as article generation and E-mail go (subscription info and sample article for Saga area available at http://www.magweb.com, in the "Read Sample Articles" area--RL). I have not felt the need or desire to get involved with the internet. As it is there is not enough time to handle my writing commitments without becoming involved with another time-consuming situation (ask Gareth Simon, I still owe him a booklet on the Wars of the Roses) Perhaps we can set up a SAGA E-mail page, although I'd better clear this with Jamie first.

Secondly, Russ Lockwood's new magazine web-site (http://www.magweb.com --RL), from Coalition Web, will be featuring several hobby magazines and newsletters including SAGA. Russ expects this to be up and running in less than a year, so I will keep you posted.

HISTORICON is coming up in just three short weeks. Bruce Taylor, Mitch Abrams and I are eager to head south for the gentle climes of Pennsylvania. As always, it will be a real pleasure to get reacquainted with many of you and see what's new on the market. Hopefully, we will have a turnout on par with last year, though it seems many are not going this year because of either family commitments or monetary considerations. In any case, I am looking forward to the WRG 7th tourney. The old Pre-Feudal Scots are once again being given the nod. They had their Falkirk two weeks ago at the hands of Bruce's Burgundians, dropping like flies to yet another knight army. Okay, so we go back and draw up an anti-knight variant. Last Saturday they proved their valor and beat the Burgundians convincingly. If only those plus fours keep coming up....

I've been toying with the idea of a new army. I think the Later Hungarians in 25mm would be fun, they are pretty good in 15mm, anyway. This, of course, is the army of Vlad the Impaler, the basis for the Dracula legends because of his propensity to dissuade invaders with thousands of tortured and hideously impaled prisoners lining his roadways. I don't know what kind of example this sets for generalship, but the army is colorful and deadly.

MILITARY HISTORY magazine has accepted two more of my articles for publication. The first deals with the Britons vrs. the Saxons at Mont Badon in 517(?) A.D. This is a conjectural battle, based upon what literature is extent, including the Welsh writings of Taliesan and the Mabinogian. The second article deals with the Irish battle of Knockdoe, a more scientific study as there is much more reliable information available.

The beauty of dealing with 'conjectural history', like the first article, is the detective work involved and the fact that you can come to your own conclusions and, if your thesis is sound, your opinion holds as much weight as any other. The fun of the study of history, to me, is the unearthing of previously unexplored information and the synthesis of that information into a coherent article. Whether I succeeded in that endeavor or not, only the feedback from readers will tell. Until next issue....

Read Comments From The Press Gang by new Asso. Editor Jamie Fish.

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