Ken Van Mechelen Derwood, Md.

Gentlemen:

A check is enclosed for another year of The Armchair General, plus Wargame II.

For easily changed army organizations, removing casualties, and painting figures, I use magnetic rubber strip attached to Airfix figures. The magnets are 3M Company Plastiform permanent magnets. I use 1/4 by 3/8 pieces, cut from a roll 1/2 inch by 10 feet by .060 thick, locally available at Read Plastics in Rockville, Md., for $3.50. This material (No. MGO-1017) comes with adhesive on one side, sticks to Airfix figures, and cuts with a razor blade. Bases are sheet metal, with balsa or cardboard underneath to prevent scratching. Individual figures use steel washers which adds weight and makes them more stable. With sheet metal or even nails in field works, forts, trucks, etc., figures can be attached.

With this system, figures can be attached to a nail for painting. Figures can be removed from bases to record casualties or to change formation. They can also be turned to face any direction. Different game rules, requiring more or less figures per base, can use the same figures, with different size bases. Special markers, indicating base status (disordered, etc.), can also be attached to the base magnetically.

This system has greatly increased the flexibility of my games, and solved the problem of how to attach Airfix figures to bases. Other magnetic plastic can be used, with double-sided sticky tape, but this' material seems to be stronger, magnetically, than others. Bases with 3 or 4 figures can be picked up using one figure as a handle.

Thomas J. De Shetler , Rockville, Maryland

Enclosed is a check for $4 for a year's subscription to the Armchair General. If you are no longer printing this magazine I would like you to send me $3.50 worth of back issues starting with Vol. 1, No. 1. I would also like to ask you a few questions.

1. Do you know of any wargaming clubs in the Rockville area?

2. In some of your publications you mention wargame books such as Featherstone, Wargame and Discovering Wargame. Where can I obtain these publications?

3. In Vol. II, No. 6 in the article on The Battle of Austerwitz under musket fire effectiveness you state to see table. Where could I obtain this table?

I am just getting started into Wargaming and I find your publication interesting and full of valuable information.

ED: Washington Area WIG's Note. Write Don Featherstone, 69 Hill Lane Southampton, Hampshire, England. For a start on WIG Rules you could try TAGS "Wargame" - David Geise is putting together the missing tables.

Ken Burger Omaha, Nebraska

Glad to see the Armchair General back, or was it ever gone, I'm not sure?

Who was the author, and what were the sources for the article "French Inf. in the Mid-18th Century" Vol. I I No. 8?

Also in reference to the first paragraph of the article, the choice of the word "unfortunately" was unfortunate. Without such distinctive and confusing distinction. In the dress of the French Army, the Armchair General would not have such articles or such enormous reader response as this letter must indicate. (Ha.)

I enclose a stamp so as to obligate you to send me an answer to m questions on the article. Also, are there any other TAG subscribers in the Omaha area (within a couple hundred miles)? Just wishful thinking!

Thank you and good luck to TAG.

ED: Pat Condry is the culprit, Nebraska Wargamers Note.

David Louis Raybin Staunton, Virginia

Please find enclosed my check for $4 for a one year subscription to the Armchair General. I have been a past subscriber of your fine magazine since the first issue.

My wargame is the Second Empire Period using 1" Scruby troops. If you know of anyone in the period using this scale perhaps you could give them my address.

R.E. Johnson Whippany, New Jersey

So glad to see TAG back and with hopes of being more regular.

I also wish to offer an explanation to the tradition of the Southern Colonel. As you noted many politicians were awarded colonelcies in the north and as such they were mainly politicians. The reverse was true in the south as the aristocratic slavers thought the army a more honorable profession than politics and Colonels became political leaders. Yet that is a part of the story. Most Colonels Were colonels of militia; of militia regiments there were many - viola many colonels. The militia was stronger in the south and more of a social thing than in the north - probably due to southern enthusiasm for the Mexican War. Since no one was a Colonel all the time (it depended on who was governor, etc.), each militia regiment contributed a multiplicity of colonels, and once a man was a colonel - HE WAS ALWAYS A COLONEL.

So between having plenty of colonels and the fact that these colonels dominated the social, political and often economic scenes, we have the traditional southern Colonel, suh. Of course, the loses relish their titles, winners have the feast.