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HISTORY

WARRIOR's origins began when Scott approached Phil Barker in 1999 about acquiring the rights to his WRG "7th Edition" rules which had been released in 1987 and updated by Scott in 1998.   Later in 1999, it became apparent that in order to adequately support a rules set, a small team of developers would be needed.  Therefore, Scott began working with Jon, Jake, and Bill toward establishing Four Horsemen Enterprises to oversee development of WARRIOR and any spinoffs.  All four men are longtime wargamers and have been active ancients tournament players and organizers since the 1970s.

WARRIOR is not "8th edition".  Although those of you familiar with 7th edition will find many of the underlying mechanics the same, WARRIOR is a product with fundamental differences.  Being able to review 18 years of playtesting data from thousands of games enabled us to correct flaws, clarify ambiguous concepts, and present a clearly written, indexed set of rules.  We were not concerned about page count so every rule received as much space as needed in order to totally explain its meaning.  Moreover, players had significant input as to what was changed and how things are presented.  The first two printings came about after an online egroup had almost a year to review drafts and offer comments.  The third printing offers a cleaner more professional layout and look and is the result of four years of active play. The result is a game that preserves elements of traditional ancients play that we wanted to see continue while offering tactical challenges like no other and is the result of literally hundreds of players efforts.   We have the most extensive army lists on the market that are designed to appeal to both the gamer and the historian this web site offers an outlet for those doing independent research and interpretation to offer their work for review and use. 

An added bonus in the rules is FAST WARRIOR, a  version of the basic game with some elements eliminated in order to speed up play.  FAST WARRIOR has the corresponding 276 armies as are found in the army list booklets, only this time they consist of just one command of approximately 700-800 points in strength.  A game can be played in about 1.5 hours and the dynamic between armies is significantly different that what one is used to using all of WARRIOR.  FAST WARRIOR offers those new to the game a chance to master the basic mechanics of WARRIOR with smaller figure requirements. 

Before we get to some short bios, there are some people we really need to thank.  First and foremost is Phil Barker.  Phil has worked with us every step of the way during the lead up to publication and without his cooperation, WARRIOR would not have become a reality.     Don Coon's hard work actually made completion of WARRIOR a reality.  Others with specific contributions include Steve Honeyman, Patrick Byrnes, Chris Bump, Greg Regets, Harlan Garrett, Jevon Garrett, Kevin Santos, Robert Turnball, Phil Gardocki, Scott Turner, Todd Kaeser, Tim Brown, Robert Hofrichter, and Roger Walker.  Charlie Randow also contributed to the rules AND did our Four Horsemen logo.  Lastly, the North American Society of Ancient and Medieval Wargamers have supported our efforts from the beginning and that has included running WARRIOR tournaments with only draft playtest copies of the rules available. 

Scott Holder is primarily responsible for list development.   He has an MA in Historical and Political Geography from the University of Colorado and is a Distinguished Graduate of the USMC Command and Staff College.  He was Chief Umpire for the NASAMW for 13 years.  His other wargaming development work includes being one of the North American playtesters for Phil Barker's DBM rules, a playtester for Phil Viverito's HACK series of ancient rules as well as a contributing author to a HACK scenario book.  Scott has also had published Patriots and Loyalists, a set of miniature wargaming rules for the American Revolution, is a contributing editor for The Courier, is a past editor of Spearpoint, and former editor of the Historical Miniature Gaming Society East's chapter newsletter.

Jon Cleaves is primarily responsible for rules development.   He is a 1984 graduate of the USMA (that's West Point).  He holds two masters degrees, one in Strategic Intelligence from the Defense Intelligence College, the second in Military Art and Science from the Army's Command and General Staff college.  He has been playing and designing games for 29 years.  He has done freelance playtest and design work for GMT, Decision Games, XTR, and is a member of the playtest and design staff Amarillo Design Bureau.   He has had published articles in Fire and Movement, Moves, C3I, Captain's Log and Spearpoint.

Jacob Kovel is primarily responsible for the business end of WARRIOR and began wargaming in the mid-1960s and is a member of the Society for Military History.  He is a 1980 graduate of the USMA and was an instructor at both the Army's Engineer School and Command & General Staff College.   He still teaches battle analysis, evolution of warfare, and general military history at CGSC.  He holds a PhD in civil engineering from Georgia Tech University.   He has authored an article on siege warfare for Salem Press' Encyclopedia of Military History, Weapons and Warfare.  Jake owns Silver Eagle Wargaming Supplies, and is the major North American distributor for Irregular Miniatures, Ainsty, and Tin Soldier. 

Bill Low is primarily responsible for all those pesky legal issues, helps out in army list review and any electronic development of the WARRIOR gaming system.  He concentrated in Ancient History at Harvard College and has a degree from Harvard Law School.  He has played wargames since 1958, starting with early Avalon Hill products and SPI boardgames, and was introduced to miniature wargaming in 1985, gaming almost exclusively in 7th edition until the publication of Warrior.  Bill has organized and umpired numerous tournaments over the years for NASAMW's New England Region, and has contributed occasional pieces to regional newsletters.  Perhaps just to show it could be done, at Cold Wars 98 he both played on the 15mm National Championship Team and took the Sportsman award.

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