Welcome to CounterAttack Magazine. We hope that you will enjoy the magazine and come to look forward to it every other month. The primary team that will collaborate to bring you CounterAttack are myself, John Burtt, our game editor, double Charley winner Jon Southard, and our publisher, Jeff Tibbetts. For our premier issue, I thought I would address this editorial toward who and what we are, what we as a team want to do with CounterAttack, and where we're going.

Me first.

I'm the 40 year old divorced father of two boys, employed at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory as a nuclear plant analyst. (What that means is that I study potential accident scenarios at nuclear power plants and determine their severity and impact, as well as mitigating actions that the plant operators can take - is that clear or what?) In my "spare" time, apart from teaching a fitness class at our local YMCA, playing soccer, racquetball, and tennis, seeing my girlfriend Freenie Gizzel every chance I get, I write freelance. Novels: mysteries, science fiction, horror, historical fiction whatever idea grabs me when I hit the keys.

I've been involved with wargames for some 13 years, and started writing for the hobby a decade ago. Reviews, game analyses, and historical articles for The General, Campaign, Fire and Movement, The Wargamer have kept me involved in the hobby. I've developed games and designed some. When Jeff offered me the position as editor of CounterAttack, I probably hesitated 1.45 nanoseconds before agreeing - and that was before he told me I would even be getting paid! (an occasional rarity in this business ... )

So what am I going to do with CounterAttack now that I have it?? Jon Southard has total control of the game content of each issue - my job is to back that game up with historical background that will give you the player a better feel for the topic and the issues involved. With that "obligation" out of the way, I intend to fill the magazine with articles that will make you think and question, or give you an insight you haven't had before. Each of our main articles will be distributed to other knowledgeable writers who will add their expertise on the subject in short sidebars - and if they disagree with the main article's author? So much the better. The final decision on who's right will rest with you, the reader.

Apart from historical articles, I'll be looking for series replays that show both how to play a game well and how to incorporate militarily correct principles into the games. And we'll be looking at all publishers' games, not just our own. In addition, articles on how to play a game well (no "perfect plans" please) will be welcome.

And we'll have a grab bag of other goodies to toss at you as well.

I should also point out to all you avid letter writers out there that once CounterAttack gets going, a portion of this column will be devoted to your letters to me. A few ground rules, though. Letters that praise my efforts to the sky will be gratefully received and stuck under my pillow (I may even buy you a steak when I'm in your town - if Freenie hasn't spent all my bucks ... ). Letters that tear my work to pieces will be digested carefully to glean pertinent facts that will make me do my job better. Neither type of letter will see print. What I'd like to see the Letters section do is discuss the content of the articles, both pro and con, perhaps adding something to the discussion that we didn't know. How about those rules for starters??

So, I've told you who I am and what I'll be trying to do. What do we have for you this issue?? To complement Jon's game on modern combat, I asked Bill Gibbs, head of Omega Games, and a former armor company commander, to discuss how each army in the hypothetical battle would go about its business - its internal doctrine. (Editorial aside - if you are at all interested in modern combat, I would heartily suggest you get a hold of some of Omega's games, especially AIRLAND BATTLE. They are outstanding. I personally found it hard to understand why no Omega Games offerings were listed for Charley Award nomination.) Major Hank Meyer and I have collaborated to give you some additional insight into the West German forces. And to get you thinking, we have a couple gems. Owen Stanley, a noted gamer with an extensive background in military history and analysis (but who still can't do any better getting Libyan fighters to hit anything in SIXTH FLEET than I can!), gives us a disturbing view of the Soviet's conventional combat philosophy. If this one doesn't make you think, you're probably reading the wrong magazine. And my assistant editor, Mike Bermighof, contributes a brief thought about the possibility of the West Germans going East rather than the Soviets going West. Something for everyone, I think.

What can you do to help? Subscribe, obviously, but there's more. I'd like to invite all of you to fill out the questionaire enclosed to help us get a better feel for what you want to see. And, if you'd like to get on my list of interested contributors, drop me a line saying so with a Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope, I'll send you our contributor's guidelines - and I'll personally AUTOGRAPH them! (send an extra $5 and I'll skip the autograph).

P.S. Freenie says forget the steak-it's going to be all gone...

And now, here's Jon:

It's Friday evening, and a day of work and chores has left you and your buddy with a few free hours. You scan the shelves eagerly, seeking a game to enjoy for that time. Let's see here is (fill in the blank), the definitive treatment of its subject, a real gem, destined to become a classic. And, having several hours available, we can just about get it set up. Won't that be fun???

If you've acted out that scenario, then CounterAttack is designed for you. We intend to emphasize short playing times and ease of learning. We won't promise you that you can read the rules on the way to the club meeting and finish the game the same night. But we do promise you that you'll be able to pick our games up more easily and finish them a lot more quickly than you can most of the bulky boxed items sold these days.

Of course, a game can hold anyone's interest only if it offers some design features he hasn't seen before. So each of our games will offer some significant innovation, within the setting of basically familiar mechanics. You won't have the feeling of simply repeating something another publisher has given you before.

This issue's game, and those in the issues immediately to follow, illustrate our approach. You'll get games that simulate essentials of their topics and offer you some ideas you haven't seen before. They won't be the ultimate, definitive statements on their respective topics - how many ultimate, definitive statements are sitting on your shelf unplayed?

Finally, we recognize how important it is that you be able to count on high quality every time. When you go to your favorite bar and grill, you want to know that magic burger will always be cooked a perfect medium rare. The same holds true for games. Our games may not always excite you, but we'll do our best to see they're always well polished, well checked, well tested. A good game requires more than the packaging of a few design ideas together with flashy art. Thorough care and lots of drudgery are what really separates professionals from amateurs.

So much for the basic kinds of games we'll publish; what about the subject matter? We intend to emphasize the familiar eras most people like. Out of six issues each year, you'll see about four games on World War II and after. we expect to have at least one Civil War games per year and one Napoleonic or Ancient.

But within these familiar eras, you'll see specific battles that haven't been done before. We won't publish a game on the entire Soviet-German War; how many such titles are there? But already in the works are some fascinating games on specific battles and campaigns of that war. Some of our games will treat hypothetical topics, battles which didn't happen but could have. We think historicity means historical options, not exact replications of what happened. You will see this in our topics and designs.

Nobody will enjoy every subject or every game we do. We aim instead at a good mix of topics, so all of you can be happy some of the time. We're confident you'll be happy at least enough of the time to keep supporting us.

Who Dares, Wins

Welcome to CounterAttack, The Magazine for Wargamers. The first issue of any magazine is always something of an unknown and John Burtt and Jon Southard, as the editors, have set out their thoughts about what this magazine is and ought to be. As the Publisher, I have a different perspective: not what the magazine is to be, but how and why.

It is, or should be, no secret that Pacific Rim Publishing Company was formed to purchase Strategy & Tactics Magazine from TSR Inc. Mr Burtt and Mr Southard were specifically enlisted to that purpose, funding was obtained, plans were drawn. When that did not come to pass, staff and backers alike looked at me and asked: "What now?"

The answer was simple: CounterAttack.

'CounterAttack' was originally set to be a feature in the magazine with a game in it. When the magazine had no name -- but still possessed counters and attacks -- a title was taken to bless the concept in which a very large number of people passionately believed. And, they still do.

This is not Strategy & Tactics, The Wargamer, Conflict, Wargames, Battleplan, The Journal of the American Design Association, or any other magazine which ever appeared with a game in it. What it is, in the briefest possible terms, is the most exciting and dynamic event in wargaming in this decade: event in wargaming in this decade: it is the combining of the trench-level insight of the past president of the international play-by-mail wargaming association, with the award-winning brilliance of the brightest and most swiftly rising star in the pantheon of military simulation design.

The sign on the wall says: Do Not Believe Your Own Hype. I look at that and then I go over the contents of this first issue of CounterAttack and I am still impressed-and I hope that you will be, too, with the insight, the study, the care which has gone into the articles and analysese which have been assembled here.

As Publisher of CounterAttack, and a wargamer for the past 29 years, the real meaning of CounterAttack to me is that it gives you a choice, the ability to select from among more than one magazine with a complete wargame in it. While I hope that all of you will -- as I do -- purchase, peruse, and play everyboard wargame and simulation that comes down the pike, I must acknowledge in my heart that not all of you are going to be stimulated by a simulation of the Boer War, or the First Afghan War (William Hay McNaughton fans, take note), or the exploits of the Bulgarian two-man Speedboat Corps in WWI.

And that, really, is what is at the bottom of my starting this magazine: so that more board wargame designs will be published; so that more people, wargamers and not, will be attracted to this, the most fascinating and intricate hobby in the world; and so that, through my efforts and yours, the gaming of war for the amusement and the instruction of people around the world will spread and, in spreading, will promote understanding of the burden of command, the unspeakable nature of war, the wretchedly high price of glory in balance against the sublime love of one's own country, the blood- stirring adventure of campaigning, and the ultimate gratification of the primal instincts which may be the most deep-seated bonds of humanity.

Also, there was feeding my children to consider.