One of our more quotable GEnie participants, Walter Hard, recently remarked that he wasn't surprised when informed that Second Front would not be completed in time for Origins 1992. He observed, "I imagine that when this monster actually starts clumping down the hall, we'll hear about it."

That, in essence, is what this column is all about. Between now and the eagerly-awaited release of Second Front, GR/D will provide a progress report in each issue of TEM. In fact, next issue will see expanded coverage in the form of the long-promised "Second Front Newsletter #2". In the meanwhile, here is a brief outline of what is going on with one of the grandest wargame projects ever undertaken.

From now until completion, Second Front is going to receive full priority from the entire GR/D staff. Even though much of the work involved in First to Fight and A Winter War was shouldered by the auxiliary Europa design and development team (Gayler, Goodwin, Stagliano, et. al.), these projects did at various stages require substantial involvement by John Astell. This is a matter of corporate policy. NO Europa game product is produced until John Astell reviews and approves each component. The maps, counters, rules, orders of battle, and charts all must undergo John's careful scrutiny. This insures that the game-buying public receives wellresearched, playable, and fully Europa- compatible games for their money.

Recognizing that John's time is a finite commodity, GR/D will henceforth allow him to devote it all to Second Front until finished. Furthermore, John will be assisted in whatever fashion possible by the rest of our staff. And so our commitment to you: there will be no other Europa games produced until Second Front is at long last in your local hobby shop.

A 1943 scenario playtest is planned. This playtest will be administered by Rick Gayler. Due to pressing time constraints and the inherent difficulty of coordinating a large number of groups, there will probably be no more than a dozen groups involved in the 1943 testing. However, these gamers will be the MVPs from the earlier testing, and we feel confident that meaningful results will be generated in the shortest possible time frame using this approach. Rick plans to contact all the second-round groups by mid-November.

The latest thinking on the 1943 scenario is that play will pick up on the Jul I 43 turn at the time of the "Operation Husky" invasion of Sicily, rather than the previously projected start date of Apr I 43. This eliminates having to deal with the final stages of the campaign in Tunisia, which cleans things up quite a bit from a design standpoint. A later Grand Europa scenario will follow adding the April to June OB.

There will soon be concrete results demonstrating that Second Front is approaching! John is wrapping up his final review of the maps, and we plan to commission a special 1,000 set production rur immediately upon completion. GR/D will be offering these maps for sale as part of a special offer. See future issues of the magazine for the details as they are released. A 1939 campaign scenario that will use these maps is under development by Jason Long for inclusion in the magazine.

As regards the air system, progress on the orders of battle and replacement system is being reported by the team of Paul Dunigan, Victor Hauser, and Jason Long. Their work will soon be in John's hands for review. More on this next issue.

Meanwhile, John is finishing up work on the ground orders of battle by poring over the Italian forces. The other nation's ground OBs are already in the can, pending last minute tweaking.

Let's finish with a laundry list of critical design issues and some current thinking surrounding them:

• How should the extensive road net in western Europe be modelled for supply purposes? Eliminate the road element of the supply line and lengthen the overland element. This simplifies things greatly.
• The Allied logistical tether should be shortened. The Allied supply lines on the continent need to be made more dependent on ports, perhaps even to the extreme of limiting the Allies to opening great ports only. In any case, the system must be structured such that the Allies reach their supply limit about the time they arrive at the Westwall if conducting a Normandy invasion.
• Axis forces in Italy are being booted out too easily. Place restrictions on the use of Allied naval forces, allowing them to be used in support of ground operations only a limited number of turns per year. The terrain effects of mountains may be enhanced such that mountain hexes will halve the effectiveness of tactical ground support bombing.
• Shouldn't there be a stringent prohibition against the Allies invading at landing sites outside their fighter cover? This argument frequently crops up in discussing the Italian campaign. In playtesting, the Allies often successfully invade northern Italy and quickly drive the Axis forces into the Alps. Well, maybe that is exactly what the Allies should have done. This quickly evolves into the "doctrinal rules" dilemma. True, the Allies didn't often conduct amphibious operations outside their fighter umbrella, but does that mean the rules shouldn't allow such operations to be attempted? The whole issue of where the Allies can invade is obviously of prime importance to this simulation, and advice on the topic is solicited. Let us know what you think!