This is an historic occasion. For the first time an Europa project was designed, developed and produced outside of GDW. The Urals is now available for order as the ad on the front inside cover indicates. Members receive a discounted price of $19.95 and free shipping. Non-members must pay $24.95 plus $2 shipping when ordering from us. Itwillalsobe available soon in the hobby stores for $24.95. The maps were displayed recently at a convention in Mass. The reaction was very pleasing, to say the least.

A couple of letters to GR/D have asked why we decided to do this project. There are several good reasons from my persepective for this project. I needed to test the waters of the system. I wanted to be in charge of a production from start to finish to work the system out and see what it takes to make something from scratch. Fortunately I had Dennis Dubberley for the creator. I have some experience with getting projects out, but none from day one to completion. Dennis presented the project with such completeness and attention to detail that it greatly helped me take hold of this module and get it into your hands. I can't thank Dennis enough for his tireless hours of work. So I got to do the project and learned a great deal from it. That should make the rest of the games we do go better. But let me tell you something, it is a bit unnerving to have so many other people to rely on to get a project out on time.

Another reason for the Urals was based on an old thought I had. Few, if any, of the desert games that I have played and seen showed the Nile delta and beyond. GDW did. Sort of "keep your eyes on the prize" for the Axis commander. I liked that. So when we all were playing the east front we kept hearing about the Urals, reading about them and occasionally thinking about what they would look like. They are part of the European continent and I felt that the east front was more complete with maps showing this almost mythical place. The market survey we did confirmed that there were many, many people out there who play Europa who wanted them as well.

The final reason was the fact that GR/D has to prove itself ( and rightfully so ) to all of the Europa players. This project should show how well we can get a job done. Since we have the same people involved in the creation and printing side of this project I was not concerned with the quality. But my telling you this is not the same as you seeing it. I hope you will feel satisfied with the product. The initial response from the distribution network has been great and we have received many kind letters of support from researchers, designers and players. Now it is in the box and up to you to let us know what you think.

Lastly, I feel a great sense of pride seeing GR/D as the copyright holder on this project. I have been in love with this system from its inception. It has wrinkles and warts as does anything in life, but damn, it's the greatest game on the market. I personally want to thank Frank and Marc for their unquestioning support for GR/D and the system.

Without GDW's continued support over the past 15 years we would have been left with an incomplete masterpiece. GDW has always been a top company to do business with. They pay more attention to their customers and try harder than anyone else in the business, in my opinion. Now, enjoy ....

Goodbye, Ben . . . (sort of)

You may or may not know by now that Ben Knight has joined the quest for the holy grail by returning to graduate school in Hays, Kansas. He will continue to watch over our system as rules judge and overall question answerer as he enlightens himself and the students he will be teaching at Hays. I want to extend my personal thanks for the fine work Ben has contributed to our magazine and thank him again for the continued work he has done with Europa.

Hello, Rick!

Now we have new editor-in-chief, Rick Gayler. Rick has a long history with Europa and has been a contributor to the system on several different levels. When I was looking for an editor John Greer suggested that I give him a call. I talked with John Astell before I called Rick and he was enthusiastic with the idea. He gave Rick high marks on his knowledge and capabilities.

After talking to Rick I felt that having him as the editor would greatly benefit the magazine. He was equally excited at the prospect and took on the project immediately. Now, Rick will get everything done, on time, and perfectly. (How's that Rick?) Rick's address appears on the masthead of this issue and you may correspond with him with regards to articles for the magazine. He will be developing his TO&E, OA and OB for the magazine beginning with TEN 7.

Projects Report

I have been talking with Gary Stagliano with regards to Europa XV, The Russo-Finnish War. Things seem to be going well. Gary and A.E. Goodwin are in the final stages of rules and an OB scrub and should have a playtest game ready by mid-year. I have not fixed a release date on the production schedule at this point, but I am leaning towards the second half of '90, with For Whom The Bell Tolls being released in the first half of the same year. Watch the magazine each issue for the updates and current news on this game. Don't order it until you see the ad appearing giving details, please.

Europa XIV, For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Jeff Millefoglie and John Gee is progressing as well. John told me the other day that this game will have the state of the art rules, navies and all the necessary ingredients to be a great simulation. John and Jeff have worked over this project for a long time and from what I know of each of them we should have a great game. Although the surveys you have been kind enough to return have not been fully tabulated, the interest in the title appears to be quite strong. John and Jeff will be writing some support info for the magazine in the near future to give you more details on what is going on.

NEW PARTS INVENTORY COMPLETE

The inventory of Europa game parts is complete and we will be issuing the new parts price list. A blank box at the end of the description of each part indicates that there are available quantities of parts for order. If the area is blacked out, no parts are available at this time. The inventory will be brought back as the games are reprinted and new parts lists will appear in this magazine. Members will receive a 20% discount on parts ordered for their games. To use the parts list simply state the quantity at the end of list. No shipping cost is paid by members of the association. Non- members must pay an additional 250 per item ordered to cover shipping.

GDW & GR/D News

The decision has been made by GDW to bring Europa back on line prior to the release of Second Front. Good news! GDW feels that the demand for games is such that they will not wait until the previously announced release date for the games. This means that soon (a cosmic word in this system) all the titles will be available at your local hobby store or by mail from either GDW or GR/D. We have merged ordering departments for this purpose.

Memberships, kits orders and other non-title ordering should be done through GR/D for the moment. After the release of Second Front , GR/D will be shouldering the orders for all Europa inventory. This may be confusing, for which we apologize in advance, but it is necessary to make the transition work.

As news of this reprint develops we will keep you advised. If you attend Origins in LA this summer we will have some more info at that time, and maybe some games will be available then as well. These are reprints of existing games. I will be addressing the issue of re-doing the games with the corrections in the next issue of the magazine. I have received a substantial amount of mail about re-doing the Europa games to make them up to date and to correct the errors on the maps, counters and rules. This is a rather large undertaking and I have to work it out as to the financial scopev-1imited assets of GR/D. But, more on that later.

A Freebie for Members

Shelby Stanton has created a truly excellent work on the history of counters in Europa. He has graciously given it to us. We will be producing it in a booklet form for our members. The details are being worked out now. You will receive it with one of the upcoming issues of the magazine as an independent booklet, not physically connected to the magazine. Shelby does great work and this is no exception. I think you should be satisifed with it - the price is right.

John Astell's Almanac:

The News will be printing the first edition of the all new Europa Almanac by John Astell. It has a ton of information dealing with places and other items of interest to Europa fans. The Almanac has no definate schedule, but should start appearing soon in the magazine.

New Technology News for the News

We have acquired a true computer genius (no kidding) who has taken on the task of getting our hardware and software in order. Scott Baxter, recent arrival to Grinnell, has joined the staff here at GR/D. He set up a conversion unit with his IBM that will allow us to translate from your FIVE inch IBM word processor to our Mac Desk Top publication system. He has also been working late at night (lots of strange lights and our electrical bill has gone way up!) setting up the new scanning system.

The proof of Scott's genius is that all you have to do to get him to do what you want is to say; "Gee, this damn thing will never work out right!" Then he asks if he can look at the situation (which is what you want) and takes over the task. The test being that he knows that the machine is perfect, only the person is screwed up. Scott has been a big help in keeping us going through the usual disasters that befall computer operations and I wanted to thank him here, officially, for his help. The info you need is as follows:

GUIDELINES FOR GR/D ARTICLE PREPARATION

GR/D has devised a new method of submitting articles for publication. Basically, this amounts to mailing a 5.25" disk containing your articles, which we transfer to the MacIntosh. We hope that this will do away with the time and expense of modem transfers and allow us to better preserve your original formatting. We can translate only certain IBM word processors, but the software listed below should encompass most of you. The suggested word processors are: Word Perfect 4.2 If you use version 5.0 please save it as a Word Perfect 4.2 document before mailing it to us. Wordstar: any version Office Writer: any version Multimate: any version

If you normally use any of the above word processors, simply format your article as usual, save the article on a floppy disk, and mail it in. However, if you use another IBM word processor, such as Display Write, XYWrite III or Microsoft Word, you should save the document in DCA format, also known as revisable form text. This form is sort of a lingua franca among word processors, allowing files to be shared among otherwise incompatible programs.

CAUTION!

Do not use any ASCII graphics characters in your documents. These characters have no parallel on the Maclntosh and will come out as garbage. Also, do not attempt to format your articles in multiple columns. Since IBM programs use a monospaced font (while the Mac uses a proportional font) column borders will not line up properly resulting in wavy columns or pure trash.

Finally, this is for those of you who do not have one of the editors listed above and can not save your documents in DCA format. Contact us and tell us what kind of computer you use and what word processor you use. In certain cases we can supply you with a program that captures the text to disk when you print. Your word processor M= permit the use of Epson printers though. This text capture file can then be mailed in and converted. This is a technique of last resort though, for some of your formatting instructions will be lost and will have to be redone. Scott Baxter

Zog reigns forever!

The picture that appeared in the last TEN was of King Zog, of Albania. We had a lot of people write to us on this. Many different names were submitted such as - David Niven, King Farouk, Chamberlain, and other, and rather obscure, names from various political office holders in Europe during the era.

Zog was correct and we have two winners and a near miss. The winners are Michael Parker; Cyril M. Lagvanec. One person thought it was King Zod, close but no cigar. I guess that there is enough interest for a continuation of the quasi-contest. It will continue to appear under the heading of "Ghosts of Europa" . We have lined up some nasty little boys and some good guys as well for the next few issues. We hope you enjoy this. It will continue for awhile - as long as you like it.

Oops!

In issue 5, I gave you all a survey to fill out and an order form to join the Association. In the follow up, I failed to tell you how you could get the kits you indicated you wanted. In this issue there is an ad on the back inside cover that gives you the details and an order form in the magazine.

Europafest Gaining Speed

I spoke to Tom Johnson recently and he informed me that there was space still available, but it was limited, for the upcoming Europafest as advertised on the back of the cover. The famous John Astell and Frank Chadwick will be there and so will I. Should be great fun. Details are on the cover. Depending on how this mini- con goes over GR/D will be looking for sponsors on both coasts and in the heartland to have more such events. NO details yet. If you have a club or group and have an interest in sponsoring such an event, stay tuned. I believe that we could have a fest once a year if the timing and place were right.

Finally: Europa from Europe and Australia

We now have established The Europa Association in Australia, the UK, Italy, Spain/Portugal and Norway. These developments have occured over the past three months and have been very exciting for Europa players everywhere. Our distribution of the magazine to these countries is very large. We will also be getting writers from the UK, Italy, and Australia (in this issue). Great stuff!