I recently received issues of several of the Regional Newsletters of the Historical Miniatures Gaming Society. They seemed oddly familiar. Then I recognized why.

This is what hobby newsletters used to look like, 30 years ago, back when local, regional, and national boardgaming clubs competed with each other, when the boardgaming hobby was vibrant and flourishing, when boardgame clubs where found on large numbers of college campuses and games could be bought in hobby and stationery stores, because the demand for them was adequate to support sales.

This was what hobby magazines looked like, when many gamers knew about major national clubs, even if they chose not to belong.

This is what hobby newsletters still look like in the HMGS, which turns out to have 2500 members, not our 108. There is a reason that the miniatures gaming hobby is so successful, and the vitality and light enthusiasm of its magazines (which all review each other) is a good part of that.

We need to change. A part of that change is the new magazine review column, which I expect to be a part of -Strategist- from now on. Another part is the membership discounts. Your advertising committee, in its renewed search for companies that want to advertise in Strategist, will henceforth also be asking those companies if they would like to be offering our members a discount in exchange for space on the membership renewal forms.