Mail Call Dear Sir, In Phoenix 7, Feedback Question 17 gave me a bit of a start - "Would you like to see more articles on the basics of board-gaming to help newcomers?" More articles? I have had Phoenix since Issue 4 and I haven't seen any! I have had this hobby for less than a year, ever since a Wargames Club was started at my school. We have progressed from Airfix Soldiers to "Dungeons and Dragons". I have tried to promote SPUK but they just don't seem able to grasp the basics of the games. What is the good of having additional scenarios in Phoenix when some potential customer can't grasp the essentials of, for instance, "Barbarossa". We've played "Napoleon at Waterloo" about fifteen times, being the only one which is easily understood. So how about it, all you mammoths of board gaming, give us newcomers a chance and write a few articles on the basics. Steve Fielding Dear Sir, Returning to the charge about Russian supply in Crimea (Mylie, No.6), as Rule 26 states that "supply lines must still be traced using the strategic movement rate given in Rule 18", which begins "in order for a unit to be in supply, it must be able to trace a supply line from a source of supply no more than six movement points in length using the strategic movement costs". If I am right in reading Rule 22 to mean that 'Lines of Communication' can only be entered on the appropriate road, then Russians in Sevastopol can't be supplied from Odessa as it takes six points to reach a road, which is at least 15 hexes or points from the Sevastopol position. P.H.S.Hatton (Dr.) Dear Mr Spence, Re your review of SALAMANCA in Phoenix 6: a point about the victory conditions. My playing of it suggested that the British would never win because the French would retreat even off non-West edges of the map once they had lost 7 or 8 Units; rules 9.5 & 8.4 make this evasion easier. I wrote to Bob Stuart who replied "it is possible for the French to run away from battle and get a drawn result, though normally they will not break until the allies are close to victory": a French exit except as prescribed "would relinquish the field of battle. Though the rules do not say, someone who runs away is defeated. I think it's pretty obvious?" I hope he clears this one up next time round and that you do not suffer from Frenchmen content with an away point for a draw. Congratulations on a gripping article. P.H.S.Hatton (Dr.)