Dear Terry,

In response to Mr. Perry's letter, of course, he is entitled to his opinion, and read those magazines, which focus on the games that he wants to play. But it is equally true that SAGA is much more than a forum for wargaming a particular game or period. As the first SAGA subscriber, dare I say that I never really understood most of the published ancient war game rules, and yet I have always found something of value? (By the way, if you are doing Romans and Carthaginians at Historicon, can you reserve me a place?)

As an enthusiast of the histories of ancient navies and of ancient, medieval and Renaissance Cyprus you are to be complimented for publishing Regina Honan's and Perry Gray's excellent articles. Obviously, both articles by Ms. Honan and Mr. Gray were works of love, and both had to choose what to include or exclude. As to the former, it is still a pity that she was not familiar with Rodger's classic book on Greco-Roman Naval Warfare. As to the latter, his most recent article reminds me of a prior published article on a wargamer's frustration as to his research on El Cid's army in (?) Wargames Illustrated. By the way, authors should be encouraged to publish their addresses for correspondence.

The History Book Club is offering three books of possible interest to the readership: (1) The Histories by Herodotus; (2) Connally's Greece and Rome at War; and (3) Fletcher's The Barbarian Conversion. If anyone is not a member, they can contact me, if interested. They offer free books to new subscribers.

Is anyone out there interested in helping me to design my Punic armies in Spain and 2nd Punic War - Syracusan armies (Later Greek?)? John Laing, of Langston Models, has published a new set of ancient naval rules. They are available in the United States through Campaign Headquarters, 145 E. Little Creek Road, Norfolk, VA 23505 (804-583-9451). They accept all major credit cards. In the near future, I hope to review them. Perhaps, you could encourage Ms. Honan to take this task on? As a historian, her perspective would be most interesting.

Ed. Stuart, you are most certainly welcome to play in any of our three Punic War demonstration games or either of our two Bactrian scenario games. We are running the 25mm Punic War scenarios at 1 p.m. and 7p.m. Friday, and at 1 p.m. on Saturday. The Bactrian games are tentatively scheduled for Thursday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 7 p.m.

I hesitate to publish author's addresses as I have received some rather strange diatribes from articles in Military History. (It is amazing to me that the Cathars are still being persecuted almost 800 years after their virtual eradication during the Albigensian Crusade.) Unless an author specifically states that he or she wishes their address included, I don't include it. I just picked up the Fletcher book--excellent!

Dear Terry,

I noted with great interest that you have produced an interesting and workable set of Medieval rules. A cheque for $30.00 is enclosed.

Your article in Slingshot about the need to develop something else besides DBM was on the mark and I look forward to your rules.

Dear Mr. Gore,

I am writing to you following an article that appeared in the Slingshot, in which your Medieval Warfare rules were reviewed. I have been unable to obtain a copy of these rules and am hoping that you may be able to help me. From the review in Slingshot, they appear to be the rules set myself and wargaming friends have been looking for. Unfortunately, the current rules in favour in the UK at present are either DBA or DBM, both of which I dislike. Currently we are using ARMATI which are okat but lack detail which WRG 6th and 7th have. One of the greatest assets of American rules are their playability without losing a feel for the period. We have been looking for a rules set that is a cross between WRG and ARMATI and from the reivew, Medieval Warfare would appear to fit the bill!

[Ed. Tony has since purchased a copy and is hopefully enjoying the rules. His letter is indicative of several I received after the review.]

Dear Terry,

I am enclosing $20.00 for a copy of Ancient Warfare and look forward to giving it a try. We have been playing ARMATI for a couple of years now and I'm looking for a rules set that brings the feeling of commanding a historical army and not just another enjoyable game. I wish you continued success in your endeavors!

[Ed. Thanks, Jim, and I hope to see you at HISTORICON later this month.]

Dear Terry,

Please find enclosed my check for $25.00. I'm sorry this has taken so long to get back to you but being an older grad student again does not lend itself to having spare cash. [Ed. I can identify with that, having gone back for my M.A. at the ripe old age of forty-two!] But one of the items I look forward to is getting the newest installment of SAGA in the mail. Obviously so does the US mail because the seal is always broken when it arrives.

I would miss your publication, as I have stated before, because it is one of the few publications that is informative without being elitist. I've always found SAGA entertaining because it does present information to different levels of interest. As along time amateur, I've found too many publications don't allow this hobby to be fostered by new entrants. Thanks for allowing this sort of forum and I'm glad I can contribute to its continuation.

[Thanks for the support, Joe. It always makes it worthwhile to continue with SAGA when I get letters like this.]

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your letter. Sorry I have not answered before but I have been a way on holiday. I do read your magazine but most of my wargaming and interest is DBM, DBR and DBA as a friend and I had to teach ourselves. I found 6th and 7th wargame rules a bit slow and hard to understand. I have bought ARMATI but what turned me against them was that any rules that I find that the army lists are not suitable are rules I don't want to use. So I sold them to a friend.

Your new rules seem quite good, but reviews in Slingshot seem to say that these rules are based on 6th/7th Edition. I prefer rules that are easier to understand, such as DBA, DBM and DBR. My main interest is collecting figures more than wargaming as I only have a few friends who like to wargame historically.

At our club, most of the wargaming seems to be Warhammer, which I am not interested in. I only wargame in 25mm scale as I find it is better to stick to one scale, although I am a little interested in 6mm. I usually use this scale for ship elements in DBM.

All my 25mm scale wargaming is before 1660. The two main firms I buy from now which seem to release any new figures in 25mm are Wargames Foundry and Gripping Beast. Gripping Beast's next range are 12th century Byzantines [Ed. Paul Georgian and Steve Phenow take note!] although they have not released any of them yet. Wargames Foundry's new Renaissance Pavia 1525 range is going to have 1,000 figures eventually [Ed. I will be reviewing some of these figures in the next issue of SAGA]. I did have some Landsknechts, mainly Lamming and Essex, but I sold off the foot, keeping the cavalry as the cavalry extends the period to Austrian Imperial 1556-1609, then my 30 Year's War extends the period to 1648.

My main interest is still Ancient and Medieval. As far as I am concerned, Renaissance is a continuation of the Medieval period. I have also been cutting back on the books and magazines I buy. I received your letter and for a while I could not make up my mind if I wanted to buy a new year's subscription as I am cutting back on my spending due to a downturn in business. I have enclosed a money order for another year, but I thought that I would try to explain that Slingshot has more for me as it has more on DBA and DBM.

[Ed. Mr Jacombs has been a longtime subscriber to SAGA. I appreciate the fact that he decided to subscribe for another year. As I explained last issue, the reason I do not have many DB related articles is that people do not send me any. Dave Perry's next letter and article is the exception to the rule this issue. If readers wish to see DB articles, or ARMATI for that matter included, please send them to me. I publish everything I receive. All I ask is for the article to be submitted as typed and single-spaced or as a text (ASCII) file on a 3.5" floppy--preferably both. Within the month, I will be updating my system from this old 286 PC to a new 300MMX Pentium system with 6.4 gig hard drive, 32x cd rom with scanner. I will also be going on-line, though I don't know just when yet, hopefully this month. ]