Last summer, my wife, Mary, and I decided that 25 years of living and working in the Far East was enough! So we just packed up and left. Admittedly it was a bit of a shock to assorted friends, colleagues and employers, but our desire to enjoy our homeland was just too powerful for any other consideration.

Because Mary landed a good job in the northern Virginia area, we domiciled in a charmingly wooded place called Burke in Virginia's Fairfax County. It is located about two hours by car away from our summer place on the Chesapeake Eastern Shore, and about 3 to 4 hours away from most of our relatives who are scattered throughout southeastern Pennsylvania. Also, we're close enough to D.C. to enjoy its cultural offerings, but still outside the political insanity that is circumscribed by our capitol's famous "beltway."

Arriving home in late September 1998, I naturally started looking around for wargaming connections - a high priority item amidst the plethora of problems associated with starting life anew after 25 years on the other side of the world. My first gaming contact informed me about the Nov. 98 "Fall In" convention being organized by HMGS in Gettysburg. Having an indulgent life-mate, who regards her spouse as one who is slightly "touched" but always good for a few laughs, she readily agreed to accompany me in attending what would be my very first wargaming convention. We also decided to bring along my 86-yrs-old dad, who is always ready to try something new.

Having been a SAGA subscriber for a number of years now, I contacted Terry Gore and Jeff Ball to see if they were going to stage a game. Being a welcoming lot, they kindly offered to save me a space at their table at the FALL IN convention where they were staging a public demonstration of Terry's new Ancient Warfare rules. I looked forward to this experience with great anticipation primarily because I had never played these rules before, but from what I had read about them, I suspected they were a great improvement over the tactic level 'ancients' rules which I and a few friends in the Hong Kong Society of Wargamers had tried to create a number of years ago -- our goal being to find a rule system less cumbersome than WRG 7th Ed., and less boring than DBM. . . . I was not disappointed.

It was easy to find the SAGA mob – I just headed for the gaming table with the most people standing around it. Meeting them was a very special pleasure for me. Why? What you have to realize is that the members of my old gaming club back in Hong Kong had the habit of sharing books, magazines, articles & web sites that dealt with our hobby. My main contribution was to circulate SAGA, which proved to be popular.

As a result, names like Terry Gore, Jamie Fish, Bruce Taylor and many other SAGA contributors are well known to wargamers from such diverse places as Singapore, Thailand, U.K., France, Mauritius, Australia, &c -- all people who had met in Hong Kong through a common interest in strategy, tactics, military history and howling at bad dice rolls.

It was especially enjoyable to sit opposite the "Famous Fish" over a Romans vs. Carthaginians scenario. Jamie proved to be a crafty and aggressive general with a great sense of humor. Of course, I won't mention that 12-year-old who commanded our left flank and how he dealt with Jamie's generalship. (I believe this was covered in an earlier issue of SAGA.)

This first exposure to AW made me an immediate convert. In fact, I suspect it will stimulate me to do something I have never done before – publish questions & commentary on a specific gaming rule system. For example: Hey, Terry!, where'd you get the data indicating that the crossbow's "effective" range is greater than that of a regular bow? I shoot both, and for "effective" range I'll take my composite recurve over a crossbow any day.

Also, may I take issue with your Late Hebrews' Order of Battle? Specifically, I've got some historical references indicating that the listed ""Mercenary HI Ave," i.e., the Philistine mercenaries that were Regulars in the Hebrew army from the time of King David through to the fall of the Kingdom of Judea, were veterans, and that the "Gibborim LAI Vet (T)" were really "HI."

My proposal for adding "Chariot Circles" to AW as a special formation for Elite LCh will be submitted at a later date -- along with some interesting textual substantiation for the suggestion. [Ed. Okay, I get the hint! Since Bruce and I will be starting our substantial rewrite of AW for the Foundry very shortly, any of you who have criticisms, concerns, suggestions or army list changes, get them to us now!]

I guess all of this is to say that I could not be happier with my wargamer's homecoming – with special thanks to the facilities of HMGS, and the hospitality and conviviality of the SAGA crew.

Now, all I need to do is find time (from such mundane activities as earning a living) to indulge myself in painting, basing, and setting up some games.