The ‘best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men, gang aft agley’, as Rabbie Burns would have said if he had planned to include a free rules supplement in a wargames magazine and then several things conspired against him at the last minute. We planned to include the Thalassa ancient naval battle rules with this issue (as advertised in last month’s magazine), but we were not as ready as we would have liked by the time we had to go to press with this magazine; so please bear with us while we finish fiddling with them, they will appear with a future issue.

Fear not, there is plenty more to enjoy in this month’s All at Sea theme: Barry Hilton’s excellent pitch for wargaming the Anglo-Dutch Wars of the 17th Century, our construction of the MDF Sarissa Ship of the Line, gaming with 18th Century smugglers and excisemen, Civil War Ironclads, and the history of the Spanish Marine Corps. I would also like to point you in the direction of our free-form gaming article on page 78; this is a recent favourite of mine in which Pete Brown makes some suggestions for throwing off the shackles of the rulebook and taking your gaming into left field.