Getting this last issue of the year out brings a sigh of relief to both Clay and I. We ran far over budget, and would have gone further into debt had it not been for the personal sacrifices of Bill and Butch Taggert, our printers. Anyway, believe it or not, we have received several complaints about our format. A couple of people mentioned that the type is hard to read, while others stated that they would just as soon see a newsletter type format that cost a little less. We are doing this issue straight off of my word processing printer. If you object to the way this issue looks, please let us know. If few people complain, we will continue in this style since it is both easier and less costly in money and time. Perhaps now would be a good time to look at what you can expect from us during the next year. As stated previously, we will be publishing four issues of THE ZOUAVE in 1988 instead of six, but each will contain more pages. This allows for greater coverage of areas of interest and also will lead to more variety per magazine. From the numerous letters we've received it appears that most of you enjoy our more in-depth scenarios (Jenkin's Ferry and Brawner Farm). There will be far more of these in the coming year, simply because there will be more time between issues to do serious research. To this end, I have just purchased a set of the Official Records. The public library here closes early and certainly made it difficult to conduct much work. With the 128 volume Official Records at home, I can stay up until four in the morning if I want to! One frequent complaint has been that all of our scenarios have been geared to JOHNNY REB (JR), and that they don't include actual regimental strengths or distance scales on the maps for easy conversion to other rules sets. Such is not a conspiracy to sell JR. The truth of the matter is that we have begged Scotty Bowden and Paul Koch, authors of STARS IN BARS III (SNB3) and ON TO RICHMOND (OTR) respectively, to write scenarios for their rules sets. For whatever reason, this has not yet been done, and it is the members who use JR that have done all of the work thus far. Dick Bryant, editor of THE COURIER, has agreed to try to send in some scenarios for OTR that have been used by his gaming friends. The New Orleans ACW Club is now using a "hybrid" version of SNB3 for its scenarios and campaigns. Put in a simplified way, we have eliminated the use of regiments and, instead, use brigades as the smallest unit of foot or cavalry. Most future scenarios written by us will be for our version of SNB3, and can easily be translated into OTR terms. I have already received numerous requests for our "house rules changes" for SNB3 and these will be published in the first issue of 1988, along with a scenario for Chickamauga. When possible, all authors of scenarios submitted for publication should include actual unit strengths in their scenarios. It would also be helpful if the maps are accompanied by a table size that such maps were intended to cover so that scale can be established for those using other rules sets. We continue to solicit material from our members. Todd Fisher has discussed running a campaign through THE ZOUAVE for use by our readers, and Dean West is in the midst of completing a project of both historical and gaming significance. He is working on a scenario for the battle of Prairie Grove, and has enlisted the assistance of the historian for the Prairie Grove Battlefield Park. Already having established the first ever complete Confederate order of battle for this engagement, Dean's scenario should be a real winner! Our Confederate flag project is looking very good. Bill Currie, a Canadian from Winnipeg, has agreed to tackle the illustrations of the flags. Having seen some examples of his work, I think that our readers will be quite pleased wit the end result. Two sets of flags will be done, one that is for historians (similar to the Iron Brigade flag drawings) and one that can be xeroxed, colored in, and used with your 15mm flag bearers! A further plus in the flag department is that we will also carry 15mm sized illustrations of the more typical battle flags for use with your units. Bob Trimble, from California, has agreed to do some Confederate and Union flags to take the place of La Legion, which appears to have gone out of business. Before I forget, members who are moving need to send us a notice of their change in address well before they move. Members in the U.S. are sent their magazines bulk mail. The Post Office does not forward OR return anything sent bulk mail, meaning the copy of THE ZOUAVE is trashed. If you don't send us a change of address in time, you will be charged for another copy ($3.50), which will have to be sent out first class rate. We have received some rather good letters to the editor in recent weeks and will print the pertinent portions of these below. Rather than carry all of the complimentary ones (99% of what we get), we are limiting space to the more controversial mail this issue. Back to The Zouave Vol I No. 6 Table of Contents Back to The Zouave List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1987 The American Civil War Society This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com