Subscribers will notice that the number of games, books, etc. that you can obtain through us has been greatly expanded by the addition of Avalon Hill's new line of 5 mail-order games, their latest regular game (THIRD REICH), miniatures rules by Wargamers Research Group and Skirmish Wargames, and two games from SPI, These latter are an experiment. If they sell well we can add more of their games later.

Something else new this issue is the inclusion of a do-it-yourself game. We hope to be able to bring you more such features, and occasional variants and mini-games, from time to time, within the pages of PF. This does not mean a major change in our format, however. There is no sense in our trying to imitate S&T or CONFLICT, we don't have the resources for it (neither does CONFLICT, evidently), Besides, PF fulfills a different need a magazine about games, and the wargaming hobby, from an independant viewpoint.

While we appreciate receiving articles from our readers -- in fact that's where all our articles come from, except those I write myself -- we must ask that manuscripts be typed and double-spaced, other wise they're too hard to read and to edit, And if you want rejected articles returned and/or to be notified in advance whether your article will be published, you must provide the envelope and postage to take care of such matters.

We'd like to apologize to those of you who've had to wait quite a while to receive OVERLORD and BAR LEV games you ordered from us. just after sending the last issue to the printer we learned that Conflict Games was sold out of these again and waiting for their printer to finish another run. We expect to have BAR LEV again any day now -- long before you read this --and OVERLORD in a few weeks.

Before looking at the Return Fire results for last issue I'd like to point out that this issue is the sixth straight that has gone out almost exactly two months after the previous i'ssue. In other words, we hve kept right on schedule for a year now! And now for those Return Fire results:

The Third Crusade 6.88
Issue #65 as a WhoZe 6.72
Line of Communications 6.42
Myth of the'Daylight Naval Battle 6.35
Thumbnail Analysis 6.33
A Look At The Ardennes Offensive 6.19
Teaching the Beginner 6.19
Destruction of Army Group Center 6.16
The Good (?) Old Days 5.85
Victory Conditions, Neutrality, etc:5.80
Mail Call 5.71
Ardennes Breakout 5.45
Combined Arms Operations 5.35
Game Design CRT-itis 5.33
Pass in Review 4.85

That is the highest everall rating since #59 was rated 6.93. and the only other issue to surpass it (since we started rating issues, with #56) was #58, at 6.87. This came as a surprise to us since we considered #65 a rather average routine issue. It was put together in a hurry after we got to California to keep from getting behind schedule. This (#66) is the issue we consider exceptional. I wonder, now, how many will agree with us. Oh, well. As usual, the voting for best- three bonuses disagrees somewhat with the 1-10 ratings:

Third Crusade - Grip $5.00
Teaching the Beginner - Starks 3.00
Daylight Naval Battle - Greene 2.00

You may recall that, on the Return Fire for #64, we asked you to vote for your choices for the Best New Game of the Year and for the All Time Best Game. We defined "best" as "the one that you, personally, enjoy the most". And the term, "game", was confined to commercially produced games, not old favorites like Chess. The definition of the exact 12-month period was left undefined, as not everyone is always aware of a game when it first appears on the market. So whether it actually first appeared during the last 12 months is not as important as whether or not we think of it as new this year.

Twenty-one different games received votes as the Best Game of the Year, and Thirty- one games were mentioned for the All Time Best Game. Interestingly enough, the same game won in both categories, and it is neither an SPI nor an AH game. And so it gives us great pleasure to announce the winners of the First Annual PANZERFAUST Awards:

The Best Game of the Year: DRANG NACH OSTEN, by Game Designers' Workshop
RUNNERS-UP (tie): BAR LEV, by the Conflict Game Company
WWII, by Simulations Publications, Inc.
HONORABLE MENTION: 1776, by the Avalon Hill Company

The Best Game of All Time: DRANG RACH OSTEN, by Game Designers' Workshop
RUNNER-UP: PANZERBLITZ, by the Avalon Hill Company
HONORABLE MENTTONS: DIPLOMACY, by Games Research, Inc.
WWII, by Simulations Publications, Inc.