Season greetings to all our members. Hope the holidays find things going well. We got jammed up during the last couple of months with some projects, but we are doing better. The planning and execution of this magazine is no small matter. I have worked closely with Rick and he can attest to the fact that it takes no time to get through the first 99% of the magazine, and the rest of your life to get the last 1% done.

Welcome to Deen Wood

We have an assistant to the editor to welcome to our humble home. Deen Wood from Houston, Texas, long time player and articulate writer, has joined our staff as assistant editor to help Rick with the crush of stuff we have to enter, massage, fix, and all the rest. I have known Deen for some time and find him to be a good sort and more than able to help with the growing job this magazine represents.

Culture

Back at Europafest some of us were discussing what kind of music to listen to during Europa play. Well, there were a number of titles listed, some I remember, some I listen to, some I forgot. I thought I would list a few of my favorites and invite our readership to send in theirs. I have a wide range of taste and offer a mixed bag for your listening enjoyment. My top 20 favorites are

TANGERINE DREAM, Exit, Thief (sound track)
MUSSORGSKY, Pictures At An Exhibition
PINK FLOYD, Wish You Were Here, The Wall, Final Cut, Momentary Lapse of Reason
KRAFTWERK, Trans-Europe Express, Radioactivity, Autobahn
BEETHOVEN, 5th Symphony, 9th Symphony
ALAN PARSONS PROJECT, I Robot
NEW AGE MUSIC, Chronos (Michael Sterns), Ancient Leaves (Michael Sterns), Structures From Silence (S. Roach), Dreamtime Returns (Steve Roach), Oxygene (Jean Michel Jarre)
SOUND TRACKS, Excalibur, Empire Strikes Back

Membership Info Files:

We are ready to accept your requests for members living in your area and we are ready to accept ads for opponents wanted in the magazine. Send a SASE Stamped (Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope) with your request and the words ATTN: Stephanie and we will take care of it. Stephanie, by the way, is our newest employee. She works for both GR/D and Grinnell Graphix. She may be accompanying us in our treks to the conventions to run the booth. Stephanie does not have a background in wargaming or Europa, but she is taking the time (her own time) to learn about the system. It you visit us make sure to stop and see her.

Fire In The East

It's back on the shelf. You can order it from GR/D as well. We may insert a reprint of Scorched Earth into the production schedule if the need arises, but there seems to be enough copies still out there in the pipeline.

SPECIAL OFFER

We have had requests from time to time to make unfolded Europa maps available. We had the printer pull 100 sets of unfolded maps from the last reprint of FitE. We will now make these maps available to you if you will send us $30. Please add $2 for shipping and handling. If you are a member of the Association you can get the maps for $25 total with no shipping or handling fee. Make your check or money order out to GR/D. Make sure to indicate that you want the unfolded map offer. No other ad will appear elsewhere in the magazine and we will sell on a first come, first served basis. You must allow up to eight weeks delivery time.

If you want the maps laminated we can do that here at an additional cost of $5 per map, or consult the offer made in the last issue of the magazine from a company in Ohio that is offering the service as well. Maps come to you in a tube and you must provide us with a U.P.S. shipping address, or we will mail them to you, but we will not accept responsibility for the condition of maps sent through the U.S. Mail.

Map 32 - The Caspian

Well, how should we proceed with this map? It is about ready to produce and we are trying to figure out how we can give it to you. If you have any suggestions we would like to know about them. Send a letter to Rick Gayler (let him handle the mail for this baby).

PRIZES OFFERED, PRIZES TAKEN

We get responses to our Ghost of Europa contests and we offer you OUR choice of $1,000,000,000 or mention in the magazine at some time in the future as a winner of the contest. Well, not content with this mere offering we have upped the ante in your favor. Now the winner of the ghost contest may win a free copy of Second Front. Well! It works this way. We give you a ghost to guess. With the ghost will be the deadline for postmark of your entry. A correct guess that has the proper deadline observed entitles you to be put in the giant fishbowl. Once you get into the fish bowl your name may be drawn and you could win. Odds of winning are determined by the number of entries. Decision of the judges is final!

On close calls we will give you a break. For instance, if you had guessed King Zug instead of King Zog for our first contest, we would have put you in the bowl. The ghost you see in this magazine starts out the contest. Guess the correct name, observe the deadline, and you may win. The ghost will have some clues with it, although they may not be easy. Give it a try and see how you do. If lots of folks like this real prize contest we will have some more.

End of another year

Well, this year of the magazine has come to a close. When I look back at where we started with the newsletter, 125 subscribers, 6 pages, and a quarterly publishing schedule I am amazed. I didn't know the extent of the work that would have to go into the magazine and the tremendous support you have shown for ft. I want to thank the writers who have kept US going with their great work, Ben Knight who helped us change our look and kept things together while he was editor, the Europavolk who kept giving us good ideas and support through the mail, and to Rick Gayler who (if he has read the computer manual yet) gets a big gold star for taking lots of time to add polish to the magazine.

I could go on and on because so many of you have helped so much, but time and space do not permit. In 1990 we will be getting better. With each issue of the magazine (7, 8, 9, and 10) 1 have told Rick that "this issue is going to be even better than the last issue." I feel that we have done that. The challenge is to keep up the good work and get better. We may be getting bigger in page count next years, time will tell, but we will continue our very best effort.

Best Article -- 1989

In the first issue of the next year we will announce the best article of 1989. This will be a tough choice since we have had quite a few very good articles. Rick, John, and I will view what has been written by our outstanding group of columnists and make the award for the year. Next year we would like you to vote and will develop that idea a bit more as the year progresses.

Beginning August 3rd (Friday) and running through August 5th (Sunday night) at DALCON

The die is cast, as it were, and we are on our way to Dallas for the second annual Europafests. This should be a great time. We have learned a great deal from the first fest Tom Johnson and company put on in Eau Claire. We have a large base of support in Texas to draw from and should easily hit 100 attendees. This fest is the first convention I know of that has been put together for a game system. That makes it special for me.

... and many thanks to GDW

I would like to take this space to thank GDW for its unending support. The staff at GDW has always given us any materials we have requested; taken time out of their schedule to help production; showed us the ropes in technical areas such as counters, boxes, art work, and all the other details that go with producing games.

I've heard criticism of GDW for not caring about Europa - not true. They have a personal interest in Europa which has been demonstrated many times. I would like to extend an extra personal note of thanks to Darlene File who runs the cost accounting and ordering for GDW. Darlene has made the difference in getting things done.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR ORIGINS EUROPA DEMO

Anyone interested in helping us with the Europa demo that highlights this great game system at Origins'90 in Atlanta should write me. We need people for some administration work, to help with command positions, and some PR work.

Help is need for the entire convention, Thursday through Sunday, 28 June - 1 July.

A short training course will be provided to all volunteers before we begin activities.

Help us spread the word.