Mail Call

I read in 'Mail Call', Phoenix 4, that Mr Paul Morphine is interested in
a PRESTAGS scenario for Navarette--it so happens that I am way ahead of
him and I take the opportunity to present:

SCENARIO - Navarette (February 1367)

Henry's Army: 15xPS, 5xCB, 6xLC, 2xHC, 20xMI, 1 x"2", 1 x"3", VP=91,
PL=27. Deploy (1215) -4, stacking:2.
Edward's Army: 12xMS, 12xLB, 2xPS, 1x"1", 1x"2", 1x"3". VP=79, PL=31.
Deploy N-3, stacking:2
Game length: 20 game turns.
Victory conditions: Both sides must achieve a substantial victory.
Terrain Mods: Ignore all woods, towns and the stream running 0911 to
1636.

So there you are: the stacking and panic levels probably need a bit of
fiddling with to sort out the balance but overall we have a larger and
quite powerful army attacking a smaller force, but with considerable
firepower. It makes for quite a good scenario, as both sides have their
strong and weak points.

Andrew Gilham

Perhaps this tip will be of use to readers of Phoenix. A lot of gamers
will have found that after playing a game once or twice or even before
play the map starts to split where two folds cross in the centre. It is
a simple job to halt further splitting along the folds by means of
sticky tape. I use paint masking tape, as sellotape tends to dry out and
fall off. Four small pieces of tape at each fold cross over will prevent
any split going further along the fold.

The tape will increase the life of maps and care in folding will always
help.

Ian T Parry AIST

Dear Sirs,

I feel I mustpointout Dr. PHS Hatton's erroneous belief that Albert A
Nofi is a fanatical Catholic for writing that Frederick of the
Palatinate was "fool hardy" and "foolish" (in S&T 55), which he said on
the Letters Page of Phoenix 4.

Frederick's acceptance of the Crown of Bohemia was surely based on the
supposition that Ferdinand of Styria would be too weak to resist this
move, as he was concerned with internal revolts and external threats
(the Turks). Even so this was to ignore the Habsburgs' allies, which
inciuded Bavaria, Saxony, Poland and, most importantly, the Spanish
Habsburgs, with whom the Austrian branch of the family had fairly strong
links at this time.

The Palatinate was militarily not strong enough to resist these powers
and could not muster much powerful international support. Although
Frederick was son-in-law to James I of England, James openly said that
he was not prepared to support the venture into Bohemia and was in any
case too weak to do so. The Dutch, Protestant like Frederick, were
shortly to be tied up with the Spanish, when the truce with that country
expired in 1621 and were thus unable to give any substantial aid.
France, patron of the Protestant Union, was too weak to support
Frederick in open war against the Habsburgs and lacked the guidance of
Richelieu until his rise in 1624. The members of this Protestant Union
disliked Frederick's leadership of that body and were therefore
unprepared to support him.

In short, Frederick misread the situation. He tried to be opportunistic
and failed, due to lack of the necessary power to back up a legal claim
(for his election to the throne of Bohemia was legitimate) against the
certain reaction of the Habsburgs. His action led to a situation where
Protestantism had never seemed so threatened and he could not have
foreseen the final result, when religion was less of a driving-force
anyway.

R J Stephens