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Since many of you received our Special Report #3, I will not repeat that information here. Onward...

First-wave sales of FWTBT is complete. The second wave should be kicking in about 60 to 90 days from now. This will be of interest as an indicator of the strength of the market in general, and this game in particular.

War in the Desert will have the missing Italians-in fact, all of the Italians from 1939 through the end of the war, with the exception of the forces in Second Front and Fire in the East/Scorched Earth. This means you can retrofit them into Balkan Front; it also gives you more Grand Europa counters.

Origins is set: Columbus, Ohio. The date is yet to be announced, but I believe it will be over the July 4th weekend, which is not what we wanted, but all we could get.

Europafest will happen at Origins '96. We have asked for your ideas and feedback on what the Fest should do for you as an attendee. After we get the surveys back, we will discuss the Fest, what we will do, what you can do, etc.

Counter reprints for First to Fight and Second Front have been put on the schedule. This will give us about 1,000 more Second Fronts in stock immediately. First to Fight will be reissued as a revised edition correcting the maps and rules and fixing the butt-ugly box. In both cases, additional counter sheet sets will be made available to you to retrofit your games at cost. There will be a detailed announcement in the magazine and by direct mail. This retrofit will give you some additional counters in the case of First to Fight, and a few more markers in Second Front. Errata will be corrected for First to Fight and an expanded errata sheet will be available for Second Front. We hope to have all the counter sets ready about the same time that War in the Desert is ready.

And now for , something completely different

Since we have been working on non-Europa games in the Glory and The Great War series, we have come upon a problem that must be solved. The problem is: where do we talk about these new games after they are published? We can not start two new magazines, too much work, not enough return. We are not going to change this magazine into a General-type magazine, because Europa is the big wheel. In discussions with Rick, John and others at Origins, the general consensus is to expand this magazine and put a couple of additional sections in TEM dealing with the new series of games. What do you think? The expansion would be nominal and would reflect the interest in the games. If interest grows [and I expect that it would] the space would grow. If the interest grows large enough to support a new magazine devoted to that series, it could happen.

That is the current thinking; what do you think of that solution? We can't put out much more effort. Everyone is doing everything they can, and more, so we are maxed out in the effort department. Expanding the staff may solve the situation, but putting the magazine together is more than just editing. Rick and I talk almost every day to deal with problems and solutions.

During the time I have known Rick, I have learned he is probably the best editor in our part of the industry. I don't believe anyone else could do the kind of work, quality and quantity, that he does. He has spoiled me. Nonetheless, it looks like we would have to start a "desk" for Glory and a "desk" for The Great War using additional resources, and go from there. Any other ideas?

It appears that we will have four games on WWI and six Europa level games in the Pacific. There will be five non-standard games covering the island fighting, two to four games on the naval war and one strategic theater game. Just some thoughts, nothing written in stone at this time. Maybe we should consider making one final set of rules covering all of WWII, hmmm, something to think about. All we would need is a place about the size of the Superdome and two uninterrupted years of playing time. Hey, it could happen.

We won no awards at Origins. The system was nominated for the Hall of Fame, and Second Front was nominated in its category. Don't know who or what won the Hall of Fame, but a railroad game won in our category. One wonders, what the hell is a railroad game doing in our category? Well, long ago I gave up thinking about awards, how they work, and who gets what. Not that I wouldn't mind winning an award for the work all have contributed. It is just that, well, I was involved in the process some time ago and it doesn't seem to make any sense on any level at any time. It made my head hurt, so I stopped thinking about it, and I am feeling much better...

That is the end of this column, talk to you later...