What you are reading is the CP, the new official unofficial quarterly newsletter for GAME DESIGNERS WORKSHOP (GDW) sets of miniature rules; COMMAND DECISION and COMBINED ARMS. The rational for this split personality is that GAME DESIGNERS WORKSHOP is willing to handle the printing, distribution and someday billing and subscription end of things, so we are an official part of the GDW family. However, we are unofficial in that I, one Greg Novak, get to decide the editorial policy and contents, and will operate the same from my home. To quickly introduce myself and to let you know why I have this task, let me give you a few quick and boring facts about me. I have been a "hanger-on" at the Workshop since I first meet Frank Chadwick in 1973. I have the honor to have hosted Frank in his first miniatures game, and have done various odd jobs about the Workshop ever since. I have the second oldest COMMAND DECISION Army in existence, a 15mm First Indo China War 1946-1954 collection which was converted to CD during the course of the play test for the rules, and have worked/researched and argued with Frank on the rules ever since. For the BARBAROSSA 25 playtest game I served as "GOD" and handled all bookkeeping. (I have always thought that Frank left the best parts out of the booklet, namely the fact that the Russian Team was known as the CCCT (Union of Soviet Socialistic Townships), of which Frank was the County Chairman, as well as the weekly broadcasts from MOSCOW MOLLY, which went out to all Axis players.) Since then, I have worked on the WWI version of COMMAND DECISION "OVER THE TOP" - more on that later, and done several scenarios for the rules (though my topics tend to be somewhat off beat by nature.) For 1990, CP is to be a free quarterly, after which GDW, I, and most important of all, the readership will decide just what is to be done with it. So any comments and suggestions that you might have will be more than welcome over the course of this year. Looking forward to your cards and letters! ORGANIZATION AND SUCH The CP is for those who game with COMMAND DECISION/COMBINED ARMS/OVER THE TOP, or any variants of those rules. It is not designed as a general newsletter for the public covering all types of WWII/Modern Rules. However, the editor belongs to the school of wargame thought that quotes Chairman Mao, and "believes that one should let 10,000 flowers bloom." The common joke about playing CD with Frank is "What are the rules today?", for Frank will gladly borrow new and better ways of doing things if it makes the game better. Part of the purpose of CP is to facilitate that interchange of ideas and thought. If you have a better way to do something, others will gladly follow along - if it isn't better, then they will try it out, and not use it. Either way, the best course of action is to expose the idea, and see how people react to it, and that's what the CP is intended to do! The CP is organized into 6 sections for each issue, with the sections covering the following areas: GENERAL ORDERS: My "editorial section" such as you are reading now. S-1 PERSONNEL: Correspondence to the editor dealing with questions, rule changes and additions, and ideas to be used in CD/CA games. S-2 INTELLIGENCE: TO&E's, Weapons Charts, Vehicle Data, and other items of this type. S-3 OPERATIONS: Scenarios that are complete and ready to run, including information, maps, and any other items that may be needed for players to run the game. S-4 LOGISTICS: Reviews of figures, vehicles and other items, as well as conversions of vehicles and other modifications. S-5 CIVIC AFFAIRS: Events and meeting of interest to those that play CD/CA, as well as listings of clubs and groups that specialize in playing it. The next issue of the CP should be the spring issue, and will be out this May. Hope to have some feedback from you by then. Back to Table of Contents -- Command Post Newsletter #1 To Command Post Quarterly List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1990 by Greg Novak. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com