Joe Wargamer down-shifted from second to first, placed his right foot on the brake, and eased his car into the left-turn lane. Today's rush-hour traffic had been bad: that near-miss on the overpass had been too close for comfort. Soviet Guards Cavalry Attacking. The three guys who insisted on sharing their rap-music with everyone at the traffic lights had left him very tense, filling his head with CAR WARS fantasies of dealing rocket-propelled destruction to all such louts. As Joe Wargamer watched, a stream of cars whizzed by in the opposite direction, none leaving enough room to risk a cross-traffic turn. Joe Wargamer waited, day-dreaming quietly, a thousand disjointed images linking and unlinking in his mind. Bills - pay VISA, the gas company, the student loan. Dinner - Chinese or tacos? A date - call the red-head from Saturday's party. Gym - haven't been in a week. Convention - send in registration. Mom & Dad - write to them soon. Movie - check out something funny this weekend. Play by mail get orders in by phone tonight. Finally an opening appeared in the flow of cars. Seizing his chance, Joe Wargamer punched hard on the accelerator, almost stalling the car in his haste to get home. the blaring horns of cars that had been forced to slow down because of his dangerous move told him that he'd had yet another brush with traffic-disaster. As he pulled into the condo complex driveway he saw the mail-truck exiting at the other end. "We're all running late today", he mused as he steered towards the corner mailboxes. More images crowded his head as he thought of what might be waiting for him. Would today be a good day - no bills, and fun-mail - or a bad day bills, bills, and more bills? Maybe a tax-refund check or the game he'd ordered last month. Either one would be a pleasant surprise. Leaving the car idling in neutral, Joe Wargamer pulled his mailbox keys from the ashtray- change-draw. "One of these days I'm going to put these on my key-chain", he thought, echoing for the hundredth time an ancient - never to be kept - promise. Moving slowly towards the end of the mailboxes he paused to watch the children playing in the wading pool - laughing and splashing as he had done at that age. Without conscious effort the key - with a mind of its own - was in the lock, turning counter-clockwise to open the mailbox door. On cue, Joe Wargamer's right hand reached in to grasp the daily deluge of junk mail, solicitations for this charity, that special deal, and other pieces of useless information. Joe Wargamer noted the slimness of the post office gift as he began the next step of his daily mail-ritual. Flipping quickly through the stack he moved the discards to his left hand, keeping the letter from his old college room-mate, the discount pizza coupons, the cable TV bill, and the clear plastic envelope which contained a surprising magazine. Forgotten, the discards fluttered to the sidewalk, to be blown away later by a warm evening breeze. As time slowed down to the pace of Heinz ketchup oozing from a bottle, his right hand lifted the surprise up under his eyes for closer inspection. "Who'd have thought?" was all Joe Wargamer said, not quite willing at first to accept what he saw. There was no mystery at all to what it was: the message trumpeted loud and clear from the packaging echoed around the parking-lot. Something wished for, a hope abandoned, a treasure recovered after being all but forgotten sat in his hands. Shaking his head in disbelief, Joe Wargamer tore into the packaging, laughter bursting forth for his mouth. As he eased his car out of neutral and headed it to his garage, Joe Wargamer thought that this was the strangest, most unexpected twist of all; for in his possession, returned from exile in Siberia, was...CounterAttack # 3! So here it is, Joe Wargamer -- bright and shiny as you knew it would be -- delivered to your doorstep right on time according to the publication schedule. Yes, folks, I don't mean TV Guide or Time. I'm not talking about the National or Sports Illustrated. Nor am I introducing S & T or Command, fine magazines that they are. What I'm jumping up and down about is that wargaming journal par-excellence COUNTERATTACK! The grognards magazine written by the hardcore for the hardcore - guaranteed to be delivered within your natural life span-written off by many naysayer in the hobby - has returned. Like some fiercely husbanded reserve held like the Old Guard for a crushing blow, COUNTERATTACK is on the move. If some poetic license has been taken in regard to the timeliness of the printing of issue #3, please be gracious: the magazine is under the control of a group of dedicated wargamers who want to see it published on time. Issue #3 is now in the hands of subscribers and #4 is waiting in the wings. You may wonder where COUNTERATTACK has been for the last two years. You and a host of others - ourselves included I might add have speculated that your subscription to COUNTERATTACK was money flushed down the loo. Fear not stalwart player of conflict simulations - COUNTERATTACK is back with a vengeance. Out of the ashes of the old National Wargaming Alliance magazine KRIEGSRAT, a staff has been formed to take over the duties and responsibilities inherent with a quarterly periodical. We shall not - for now - be attempting to publish COUNTERATTACK on a bi-monthly basis. We have several good reasons for doing this. First, a promise to do so would elicit a hobby-wide Bronx-cheer - deservedly so. Second, contrary to what others might attempt to tell you, it is very hard to maintain proper quality control over a magazine with a game in it published every eight weeks. Third, none of us do this for a living, so we don't intend to bite off what we can't comfortably digest. The spirit of Pacific Rim has always been to publish The Grenadier no matter what, and no matter when. Better late than never, as the saying goes. With issue #4 finished, and issue #5 on the drawing board, we feel confident that four, or possibly even five, issues of COUNTERATTACK will be published between Origins 1991 and Origins 1992. More than that we are not willing to commit to. In keeping with the quality of the games and articles found in issues #1 and #2, we will not be rushing games into production. What you may count on receiving in each issue of COUNTERATTACK is a properly researched and playtested game supported by a mix of articles intended to aid in the understanding and playing of the game. Joe Wargamer grognard, veteran, knowledgeable will get good value for money from this publication. We will not be neglecting Joe Wargamer Junior either. There will be simple, though not simplistic, games published from time to time in COUNTERATTACK, intended as the kind of fun game that will help break-in a newcomer to wargaming. Many of you who had subscribed to COUNTERATTACK - if not all of you - have probably heard the joke about the two wargamers discussing the non-appearance of COUNTERATTACK. One had subscribed for two years and figured that at Pacific Rim's speed of publication he had bought himself a lifetime sub. Ha-ha. Pretty funny, eh? His friend observed that he didn't subscribe to COUNTERATTACK because lifetime meant the life of the publisher - not of the subscriber - and Pacific Rim was a stillborn child. Ha-ha again! I am happy to say that these were both completely wrong. Pacific Rim recognizes that there exists a credibility problem due to the failure to deliver COUNTERATTACK in the past. There are many stories associated with this magazine that simply cannot be told. It is sufficient to say that with new people, new funds, new games, and an old-fashioned "can do" attitude we intend to make COUNTERATTACK into the magazine that wargamers believed they were subscribing to in 1987. Without tipping our hand and giving away any of our plans and secrets, let me finish introducing this resurrected gem by saying that we are all sorry for the long absence of COUNTERATTACK from the marketplace and state publicly that our quality will eloquently speak for itself, as next time I will speak for myself. Back to Table of Contents: CounterAttack # 3 To CounterAttack List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1991 by Pacific Rim Publishing Company. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com