Being editor of this magazine gives me the advantage of having seen the other parts of this article before writing my own. I find much to agree with among the comments of the others. I agree with Don Greenwood that the vast number of new games that have appeared in recent months - and continue to multiply - has radically changed the shape and the substance of the wargaming hobby -- or at least the boardgame branch of it. Like him, I personally miss the good old days when a wargamer could play, and play well, most of the wargames in existence.

This provided wargamers with a common language. We could discuss the subleties of STALINGRAD, GETTYSBURG or WATERLOO, and everybody pretty well knew what was being discussed. Now there are so many games I don't even know all their names and have had time to play only a comparative few. In those bygone days we waited six months for a new game to come out, wondering and speculating on what the subject might be. When it came it was NEW and DIFFERENT and we had time to thoroughly analyze it and really get to know it before a newer title came along to divert our attention. Now you can hardly read the rules of a new game before there are two or three even newer ones beckoning for you to move on. There is no common language between wargamers because the chances that any give two know and like the same games are very slim.

Furthermore, at least for those of us who've been in the hobby more than a couple of years, all these games (which are essentially infinite variations on a single theme, yet different enough to require considerable time and effort to learn and remember their various rules) cease to stimulate. Just another Russian Front game; yet another Normandy game; and how many battles did Napoleon fight anyway? The subjects change, but the mechanics begin to get stale. When you've played one you've played them all. Thus it is extremely refreshing to see someone take an entirely new and very interesting approach such as is being done by the Gamma Two games (see THUMBNAIL ANALYSIS).

At any rate, what's done is done. The old days are gone. SPI alone has seen to that. (And it's unfortunate that we have no comments from them about all this. They were asked.) But SPI's vast advertising program has brought thousands of new people into the hobby. Many are still satellites of SPI, but gradually many eventually learn that there are other games and other game-companies. It was inevitable that others would get into the act. Guidon Games began as a small sideline to Lowrys Hobbies at about the same time that James Dunnigan was taking over S & T Magazine. At that time only Avalon Hill was producing wargames, except for Games Research's DIPLOMACY. Now, in addition to Avalon Hill, SPI, and Guidon Games, we have Conflict Games, SDC, Gamma Two, Lou Zocchi Associates, Third Millinia (BATTLE FLAG), Thesis Games (Charles Pasco), Cavalier Wargames (Chuck Lane), Histo Games (Laurence Rusiecki), Balboa Games, and no doubt others that I have forgotton for the moment or don't even know about yet. I see this as yet another revolution in the wargaming hobby, The age of competition (among publishers) has arrived.

In addition to all the new companies and individuals now putting out games there are more gaming magazines competing for attention. Of course THE GENERAL is recognized as the daddy of 'ern all. Then came a host of amateur clittograph and mimeograph publications put out by individuals and clubs - of which PANZERFAUST was one originally. STRATEGY & TACTICS was the first independent magazine of professional quality. Slowly some of the amateur efforts improved bit by bit while others folded and new ones rose in kaliedoscopic fashion.

But recently a sudden leap to "professionalism" (for lack of a better term) has arisen. In rapid order PANZERFAUST turned "pro", SPI bought out MOVES, SDC started CONFLICT; the club, Spartan International, upgraded their magazine, THE SPARTAN; and now BATTLE FLAG has turned "pro". Where will it all end?

Of course, one of the first questions that occurs to me is "Is the field getting overcrowded?" Quite probably not all of these magazines and game publishers will be around six months or a year from now. Yet it's equally as probable that many will be. I hope we are one of those, but there are no guarantees. But, as I see it now, the hobby has gone through a phase of being completely dominated by AH, then one of being substantially dominated by SPI (when even AH games were just SPI games warmed over), and now entering a phase of competition between AH, SPI, and the host of smaller companies now gaining toe-holds in the industry. The real winner is bound to be the consumer - the individual wargamer,

As for the plans of my own company, we hope to be able to produce a boxed boardgame of reasonable physical quality occasionally, when we have one that really seems to merit the investment. We also plan to continue producing the WARGAMERS GUIDEBOOK SERIES as long as there are games of significantly universal appeal to cover. BLITZKRIEG will be next. Of course PANZERFAUST will continue, and CAMPAIGN, our new military history magazine, will be growing and evolving. We hope it will serve as another vehicle for bringing more people into our hbby from the ranks of uninitiated. And we will continue to publish our WARGAMING WITH MINIATURES rule booklets.

I feel that the miniatures branch of our hobby is just beginning to come of age in this country. Quite a few board-gamers are discovering the world of miniatures at conventions every summer. And more miniatures are becoming available and more widely available. Another development sure to cause a surge in the growth of miniatures is Jack Scruby's new 9 mm scale figures. These reduce the cost of miniature armies and about double the number of troops that can be used in a given space.

As for PANZERFAUST itself, we plan to continue to offer a mix of reviews, strategy articles, game design ideas, news of the hobby and everything else of interest that comes our way. We don't plan to print many history articles in PF anymore. This is supposed to be a gaming magazine, and so we have started CAMPAIGN to handle all the excellent historical material we've been receiving. With the space thus gained in PANZERFAUST we want to expand our coverage of miniatures slightly and try to review more of the torrent of new games pouring onto the market.

The Future of Wargaming Comments from Five Wargame Publishers

Donald Greenwood, Avalon Hill
John Hill, The Conflict Game Company
Dana Lombardy, Simulations Design Corporation
T. T. Dalgliesh, Gamma Two Games, Ltd.
Don Lowry, Guidon Games