The Board Gaming Industry is in a most turbulent time. Let's review some of the many changes occurring in 1998 and 99.

Avalon Hill, of course, sold its assets to Hasbro in October 1998, just after posting a $1.7 million loss on declining sales. Within 3 months, the bulk of its rich stable of titles entirely disappeared from distributors' shelves. (As for the AH General, see below.) Hasbro in turn explained its plans very slowly. This and the sluggishness with which they're preceding suggest to me they really aren't sure of where they're going with this. Or perhaps that they've had second thoughts about ditching the board games even as they pursue their main goal of computer gaming.

Hasbro reps did make the rounds of a couple dozen distributors in January, announcing their intention of offering the remaining AH inventory to selected distributors and reprinting only the "top" (read "those with the greatest mass market appeal") titles. The other ca. 150 titles will go bye-bye. That was in January and they have yet to actually provide a list of available titles or ship anything to distributors as yet. Lastly, they did revive the AH web site, which lists 30-some board games available for direct order http://www.avalonhill.com.

More notably, Hasbro seems to have bowed to popular demand for continuing the ASL line in some fashion. They have renewed an alliance with MMP (MultiMan Publishing) (and Curt Schilling) to produce new ASL products. The first ASL Journal (formerly ASL Annual) is already available from them; see http://www.advancedsquadleader.com for more on that. So, ASL Lives!!!

On other fronts, Xeno Games had problems and is said to have entered bankruptcy, but is still in business and shipping existing stock. Omega Games, which has promised upgraded versions of its better games for years now, is promising to get on the stick & do so. And they bought the rights to Paper Wars, presumably as a vehicle to promote their games. They claim to have published two issues (#27 & 28), but neither has made it to the distributors its seems.

There's renewed life at GMT. In the space of a few short months they published Conquest of Gaul, Barbarossa: Army Group Center, and C3i #9 (which is still being held up due to counter shortages). They will be publishing two new, big releases shortly, War Galley and June 6th. Most importantly, GMT writes that the sale of their games since mid-1998 has brought them out of the financial doldrums that threatened them. Which is great news.

Clash of Arms abandoned the hobby distribution system as of 1 Jan. Hearsay is that they were very disappointed with distributor orders for their latest game, Summer Storm. Sales have been weak on this title, but could it be that a $75 price tag and/or an area-move based system, which has never been a wildly popular mechanic, might be more significant reasons. In any event, the distributors have essentially written CofA off. Most of their games are currently still available, and their is no land rush as there was with Avalon Hill. But as their games go out of stock they will be available only from Clash of Arms itself, and only at their rather high list prices. See http://www.consimworld.com/newsroom/archives/updates/coa.19981219.upd.html for their explanation of the situation. [Your humble editor, who has been buying CoA games since they first appeared, is deeply sorry to hear all this.]

Moments in History has sold its entire stock of in-print titles and titles awaiting publication to Critical Hit. That makes CH the up-and-coming dynamo with a solid line of ASL kits and now a very respectable line of games as well. We actually look forward to seeing where this one will go.

Competitive Edge Magazine, which published but one issue this year, announced plans this month to revise its format to largely black & white and "reduce" its publication frequency to bi-annually. At the same time, the will resume publication of GameFix as a purely historically-oriented mag with similar content and a similar publication schedule.

Shifting focus, we can see a distinct shift in the nature of games regarded as "hot" in 1998-9 versus earlier years. A succession of simpler, multiplayer games especially those from Europe have become very popular (if only for a brief time individually). Gone from the top of the charts of the complex monsters common earlier in the decade. And thus one of the causes of the turbulence in this industry. Domestic wargame manufacturers have been slow to adapt to this shift in the market, in my opinion. And game players more often take a wait-and-see approach to new games, reducing initial demand for games -- the measuring stick of success for most distributors.

Lastly, let’s not forget the distribution system itself. At least one major distributor went of out business last year. Then there was the merger of the two biggest game distributor chains, Armor and Chessex, to form the Alliance. What we have now, boys & girls, is an organization that likes "exclusive" distribution deals with manufacturers, minimizes discounts, and provides plenty of customer service charm as it attempts to correct the corrections to its previous errors. This is the chain that preordered a sum total of six -- count 'em -- six copies of Doomed Battalions for one of its warehouses.

The AH General was not sold to Hasbro but remains with the Dotts at Monarch Services, AH's parent company, so it is essentially dead. As such, AH/Monarch owes its subscribers refunds for the balance of unfulfilled subscriptions. Instead of providing these, AH transferred this liability to Computer Gamer magazine which offered 3 issues for each remaining issue in your General subscription. Unfortunately, Computer Gamer addresses a very different market than did the General; most subscribers probably won't find this magazine to be of interest.

But neither company has made it easy to get a refund. You may get bogus info if you ask for one, in fact, such as "the General is bankrupt," or your request may be accepted but repeatedly "lost."

Don't believe it. The Dotts and Monarch Services are still liable to you for the balance of your subscription. My recommendation is that if you want a refund you send a letter to Jack Dott at Monarch Services, 4517 Harford Rd., Baltimore, MD 21214, specifically asking for a refund. You can also call Computer Gamer, which acknowledges responsibility for processing refund requests but has not done a very good job to date (based on my own experience). Forget their subscription services 800-#; call Computer Gamer's subscription department direct by contacting Tina White at 802-434-3060 x635. You can always view the most recent listing of New Game Releases at http://www.finegames.com/text/new_rels.txt.

Two Gaming Reference Works are in print.. The newest is The Maverick's (as he likes to be known) Space & Fantasy Gamers' Guide. This is a 500 page spiral bound book indexing the contents of 9 magazines published 1975-90: Fantasy Gamer, VIP Gaming, Space Gamer, Interplay, Nexus, Ares. The indexing work itself is excellent throughout this book; the primary key is by game or subject matter. The primary flaw is the bulky format that consumes an entire ream of paper and so weighs in at three pounds. See http://www.brainiac.com/micro/sfgg/ for more info. These are in-stock for $29.

A slightly older but much more comprehensive indexing of gaming publications is the Wargamer's Reference Guide by Etloh Ent. This is currently the most comprehensive indexing of wargame-related material -games, mag articles, errata, publishers, etc -- that we're aware of. It is velo bound & 255pgs. See http://pweb.netcom.com/dannyh22/etloh.html for more. These are in-stock in limited number for $29.

Two Computer Game Recommendations are Decision Games surprising War in Europe v2 which has previously been described here. A second is the just released upgrade to East Front v2 PC by Columbia Games. This Windows 95/98 compliant game upgrades what has always been a slick little game allowing PBEM (play by email) as well as working well for solitaire play. This upgrade refines the user interface, is presumably 32-bit, upgrades the systems to use the v2 rules set, and adds the Volga Front kit's map extension to the system. If you like any of the block games by Columbia and like 2-player computer games, I suggest you check this one out. See http://www.columbiagames.com for more info. Copies of this will arrive in roughly a week's time and will sell for $40.

View From The Trenches, an ASL mag from England, is now in stock. Given its inexpensive price and wide coverage of the ASL-related hobby activities, it is recommended reading for those of this life style. Recent issues from #20 on up (to #23 currently, with #24 being en route) are in-stock for $4-$4.50 apiece. See http://freespace.virgin.net/pete.phillipps/vftt.htm for still more info on this publication.

Orcs at the Gates

Jolly Roger Games reports releasing Orcs at the Gates, a board game based on the comic book Knights of the Dinner Table.Knowledge of the comic is helpful, but not required. The flavor of the game, like the comic, is beer and pretzel. Details are on the web at www.rr1.net/users/vashnaar/jollyroger.