"Really:! Change the name of the Newsletter? You'll be giving away plastic daffodils with it next. Mr. Lord's letter from Ontario seemed rather out of place in the Newsletter, though I am not criticising this. I am a hiker myself and I know of at least three others who combine the two hobbies, I wonder if there is anything about them, except they are opposites. A side note relating to this, when I was on a National Park Warden-cum-Mountain Rescue course recently we shared the hills with some British Army Regulars (not T.A.), we were all appalled at their old fashioned equipment and overall "greenness," and we are far from expert. Half-speed up a mountain side is far too fast for the British Army (sorry Charles Grant). Anyway, keep up the good work, strange you haven't written an Editorial I disagree with for ages!" Clive Darke of Manchester "Not all Americans approach the hobby from a viewpoint of intense competition. I, for one, do not. Unfortunately, those that do are more vociferous and draw the lion's share of the attention. However, there are many gamers in America who share your point of view. Personally, when the game no longer is fun there is no reason to continue in the hobby. I would much rather lose a good, close, hard-fought contest than win one which has been marred by arguments, etc." Donald Greenwood of Pennsylvania, U.S.A. "The possibilities of this unit are very exciting but I do not think that this can be easily applicable to land warfare. However, we are making an appraisal of the logic values employed and hope to be able to modify the design so that it could be used for Napoleonic land campaigns. If anything comes from it I will write to you further. The main problem seems to be in the area of damage indication since it only records "hits" but does not quantify them - this would be O.K. for artillery but to be of value the computer should be able to handle the whole range from skirmishers to artillery batteries Dick Tennant "Please don't change the time-honoured title - just give us more news (and fewer battle reports!) While agreeing with your general opinion re the National and Regional reorganising of the Annual Wargames Championships, there are a couple of points in your December editorial that I would challenge. As I understand it, the rules to be used are to be decided upon by the National Committee which will have one representative from each of the eight regions. Apart from any Research Group vested interests, Leicester and Bristol are known to publish their own rules and will certainly also have vested interests. This may apply to other regions too and some compromise will have to be reached. Your expression "the desire to go one better than the organisers of the previous year" implies that this is something of a dishonourable ambition, whereas in my view it should be an avowed point of honour for the organisers to improve the Convention annually. Apart from that, there is no escaping the fact that you started the ball rolling and you proposed that the winners organise the next Convention, so perhaps you should not have let it get away from you in the first place!" Malcolm Woolgar of Worthing "Herewith I enclose my Newsletter subscription for 1972. I hope despite all adversity you continue to maintain this bastion against commercialism. The December issue cover intrigued me - was it designed to placate your American readership?! I often wonder what would have happened to the reputation of Wellington's Army if Waterloo had not followed New Orleans. Lambert's Brigade was at both battles. The loss of 2,000 men in 20 minutes is scarcely paralleled except by the Prussian Guard; 8,000 in the same time at Gravelotte - St. Privet (1870). Pakenham was a fool if he had waited for the Navy to cross the Mississippi Bar and Colonel Thorton to capture Jackson's Battery on the right bank he could have taken the line at no cost at all and we really could have claimed victory in the war of 1812 by a bargaining stranglehold on the Mississippi valley. As a member of the Oxford University Strategic Studies Group I was very lucky to be on a two day visit to Sandhurst. Did you know Cadets are now trained for Ulster-type T.V. confrontations? No wonder the Under Secretary for the Army said recently that the troops liked interviews! During the trip I was very lucky to be able to meet David Chandler - readers might be interested to know that his study of Marlborough as military commander in the Batsford series is appearing next year. After his distinctive classic on Napoleon this promises great things. Might I plug something else too - Wallace Breem's "Eagle in the Snow" (Sphere paperbacks 35p) is almost the most moving novel I have ever read. It is the story of XXth Yaleria Victors legion holding the Rhine singlehanded against five barbarian tribes in 406 A.D. That year spelt the doom of the Western Empire with the collapse of the Rhine frontier and of course the psychological Amnageddon of 410 followed. The hero is Kaximus an ageing veteran of Hadrian's Wall and devotee of Mithra who deserved to be born in an earlier happier century when the Roman army, as we know it best, really existed. Well I know random thoughts are unpopular so I will close by promising the usual battle report eventually! Forget about those ghastly conventions wargamers are first and foremost individuals!" Randal Gray of London "Please could you print my plea for a local opponent in the Nottingham area. I am interested in every period except the Modern era and the Crimean War. I have a large Napoleonic Army, a large American Civil War Army as well as many other troops from the Ancient period and many other troops from the 18th and 19th centuries." --Keith Oliver, 35 Dungannon Road, Clifton, Nottingham NG11 9BE. "Unhappily, I am writing to bring to your attention some anomalies in your magazine. Firstly, in December's issue the failings of "Make Your Own Army" were pointed out. I agree that this article is rather pathetic, and a wargamer with a knife and a piece of Barbola can generally think up reasonable conversions schemes. I also have some minor moans about your first and second battles of Bridgeport. The Soviet forces were called 'not much' but they constituted nearly half of the Allies heavy tanks. This leads me on to the point of no infantry! I would have thought that in the actual town itself, German troops scattered about with a few Panzerfaust and a cannon or two in support would have slowed the Allies up considerably. The games seemed to be huge killing matches between tanks and artillery involving little or no skill or finesse." C. Trustram of Cheshire Club News "Wargaming is still going strong in East Anglia. The Colchester Wargamee Association meet every Saturday at the Garrison Church Hall (thanks to the Rev. Joe Bell - who has recently developed a healthy respect for my 3th and 17th Light Dragoons!). We fight three main periods- Napoleonic, Napoleonic and of course Napoleonic plus some diversions into World War 1, Ancient, Modern and everything between. Tuesday evenings sees my wargames table aflame - I am usually meeting my match in the hands of my regular opponent Peter Brown from Woodbridge, fighting - you guessed - Napoleonic." Peter Amey "I am glad to say that I think you are using your editorial to good effect. I agree with your comments on the National Convention and hope that you find time to read my own in our "Broadsheet" No.10. The last Convention for me was also my first and I am sure there could be some way of minimising cost and effort of holding the event. It was not the spirit/chat-together was expecting, it was something entirely different. If two days are not enough for wargamer's throughout the Country to get together then I don't know what is. It is definitely not on, this travelling around the countryside." Joe Newton, Newcastle-upon-Tyne "Many thanks for yet another year of excellent reading. My husband and I hav recently started a Wargames Club, so perhaps you will be hearing of one of our successful efforts in the not too distant future." Mrs. J.K.Leniston of British Forces P.O. 15. Another Club recently formed is the University of Warwick Wargames Society, Coventry. The President is John Turnbull of 43 Woodpark Drive, Knaresborough, Yorks. Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter # 119 To Wargamer's Newsletter List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1971 by Donald Featherstone. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com