I was just in the middle of fashioning a reply to Mr Thebruce's latest bit of
smug argumentative ignorance when I realised that I really couldn't be bothered
with it.
 
I have enjoyed the tournaments I have done and extend my thanks to the gentlemen
who have attended, putting their time and money where their mouths are. I am
also grateful to some of the experts on this list for their patience in
explaining some of the intricacies of the period.
 
However I have decided that my time is better spent elsewhere. I may do the odd
period-specific event in future but this game is way too frustrating to commit
to fully so I have decided to back out of any further events this year and
revert to playing informal games with contemporary armies. The last straw for me
was expending a lot of time on a test at the behest of a designer who lacks the
basic manners to respond to the findings. I find this inexcusably rude.
 
I fear that this is a game that will never achieve adequate balance for open
play and there are clearly not enough players to enable events to be
period-specific. Now there is one less. I am not going to enter events and use
armies I don't like and I am not going to turn up with infantry just to lose
because the rules are bent in favour of horses. The way things are going I would
also find myself facing armies that never existed such as the Tupi and that just
destroys the period for me.
 
I have already paid for my Britcon upgrade but have no enthusiasm for it any
longer so if anyone would like a friday-saturday hotel package at a discount
price, please contact me directly.
 
I have tried to be friendly and positive since returning to competitive
wargaming but this forum has consistently sucked the fun and hope out of it. If
I have been strident of late it is because I have been desperate to get things
sorted out but the uninformed prognosticators enjoy this type of e-debate far
more than I do and I have no appetite for banging my head against a brick wall.
It will be interesting to see where the prognosticator's wisdom leads the game
but I don't think it will be anywhere good, to pick a good route you need to be
able to read a map, many of the correspondents here seem to think they can just
make one up.
 
Cheers.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]