This month sees the first FRONTLINE Forum. Apart from views on this column and computer wargaming in general, this is a space that you can fill by any means you see fit - in depth strategies for particular games, how you use your trusty black box to do all the work involved in calculating how long it takes 1,000 1/300 scale Hoplites to get from one side of a 4x6 foot table to the other... anything you feel may be of interest. If you enjoy wargaming then it's to your advantage to get others interested as well. One way of doing this is to air your views and show your enthusiasm for the hobby. Let's hear it - and if you have any tips on strategy or war games, let's have them. It's high time Robin Candy's monopoly was broken!
On the review front, most of the software companies are keeping quiet, a major exception being PSS. Apart from their latest wargame releases they are busy promoting their computer based Role Playing Game, Swords and Sorcery. They have taken to advertising in the leading specialist games magazines, something few software manufacturers dare to do: the standards expected from that side of the hobby are very high indeed.
Now, before you put pen to paper and say that such games are strictly Derek Brewster's domain, I should remind you that the original Dungeons & Dragons by Gygax and Arneson was considered a one-to-one wargame and was born out of a modified set of mediaeval melee combat rules Swords & Sorcery should be considered a landmark in terms of bringing the home computing and role playing hobbies closer than ever before, with a respectable and easily accessible adaptation of the fundamental elements of a very sophisticated concept. I would very much like to hear about people's experiences in playing this game. Its open ended nature makes it a very exciting product indeed.