Avalon Hill ... The demise of AH was a big loss for all of us in the industry. Many retail stores carried AH games, including war games. With the loss of that doorway to the retail market we, that being those of us who use the distribution system, have lost market share. Additionally, the AH magazine The General, had just opened up to outside advertising. We did very well for the few months we had ads in that magazine.

There are several bits of info on the web and I have read them. Lots of theories of what happened, why it happened, etc. Hasbro bought AH and have been careful in their pronouncements as to the future of several works in process, the continuation of Squad Leader and other titles. I believe that this is it for the military history end of the company. Certainly it is the end of the magazine unless someone with very deep pockets decides to try it. Even if the latter proves to be true, I am not very optimistic about the outcome.

There is some bizzare plan being worked out to continue Avaloncon under a different name, but the plan presented to me looks like it was designed to give someone a job with no consideration to the participating companies. By that I mean we would pay to have our games played, if we paid enough, but we would not be allowed to have a booth or promote our games any other way. Some deal, huh. Well you have to know the principal involved to understand how a plan like this evolves. This is a nice segway to my next bit of info ....

Origins .... the future

Just a couple of weeks ago WotC, makers of the card game Magic, The Gathering, and owner of TSR, and owner of the company who runs Origins, fired their chief organizer of the event, Gary Smith. He was fired for some unusual reasons which the company would rather not talk about, ok, so be it. However, when WotC terminated Gary Smith they did much to open the door to speculation about the future of Origins. It is my belief that WotC has a plan to incorporate Origins into their other convention GENCon.

If this incorporation were to be done the right way it would be a good thing. The chances of it being done the right way, in my opinion, are close to nil. This means that we may be forced to make some hard decisions about conventions in the future. I look for this to be coming down the track in a couple of years. WotC intends to run Origins next year, same time (July 4th weekend), same place, (Columbus, OH).

NOTE: THIS PLEASE: When you call us, let the phone ring at least 8 times before hanging up. Sometimes we are far away from the phone.

Next:

What is the best game in the whole world? Storm Over Scandinavia! At the time of this writing we are in the end game of production, waiting for boxes and counters to come back from SVH, eager little elves waiting to pack the game. And what a game it is! So this is now old news.

New news. Over There, the next GW series game. Eight countersheets, eight map sections, revised rules book incorporating the errata from the previous book which means you can pitch that book and use the new book for both MTV and OT. Following that, The Damed Die Hard for Origins '99, then, with luck, Total War for the end of 1999.

A special note. The last magazine for 1998 will be a reprise of Europa articles from the past that appeared other newsletters and magazines. That will end the 25th year of this series.