Subscriptions, The Association, and all the rest...

There have been some questions about how The Europa Association works: how do you join, what do you get, and how is this magazine related to The Association.

We run The Association on an annual basis. Therefore, a new member who joins in December 1989 will get all the published materials for calendar year 1989, a 20% discount on 1989 purchases from GR/D, and a binder. However, he will have to re-up for 1990 to continue to get the printed materials and take discounts during 1990. By the end of 1989, members will have received six issues of The Europa News, John Astell's Europa Almanac, and a 20% discount on our first Europa module, The Urals, and/or anything else purchased from GR/D during the course of the year. The printed materials are not time sensitive or time dated. The keystone to The Association is The Europa News. As such, members will be receiving notice in TEN #9 of their Association renewal and magazine resubscription at the same time. One goes hand in glove with the other. Since the magazine is our way of communicating with the membership and is our direct link with you, it is the foundation of The Association.

Members of The Association are receiving a copy of John Astell's Europa Almanac free of charge as promised in prior issues. Additional copies will be sold through GR/D for $4.95.

Watch the magazine for your resubscription and membership renewal form (one and the same) which will give the details of what is involved, info in general, and all the rest.

Europafest

Well, if there is a heaven I got to see part of it on July 27th. In my travels to conventions both as a wargame company owner and as Secretary of GAMA I have the chance to see how things are done at many shows over the course of a year. The convention put on by Tom Johnson and his crew in Eau Claire, Wisconsin was A+ in every respect. His report appears in this issue along with some photos of the convention, so I won't go into great detail here, but it should be known that a terrific time was had by all. The convention brought Europa players together from all over the U.S. It was quite a sight to behold. All the Europa maps assembled on one wall what a vision!

Frank Chadwick and I got to play one and three quarters games of Narvik and of course the usual East Front crowd was playing at several tables. I saw John Astell playing War in the Desert, and Fall of France was being played, as well as Marita-Merkur and several other titles. Frank told me (and here is a guy that attends many, many, many conventions) that the program of speakers, facility, and accommodations were the best he has seen.

GR/D gave out a number of awards at the dinner: to GDW for its continuing commitment to Europa and its work over the past 15+ years on behalf of all of us who play the games; an award to Gary Stagliano, the founder of Nuts & Bolts and long time contributor to the system; an award to Shelby Stanton who shoulders so much of the research and is the person who keeps the system going by his long term commitment and dedication to Europa; and an award to John Astell who is continuing his work on the system and has received far less credit from the gaming community of professionals and players than he deserves. I spoke to the assembled about what GR/D has planned for the next two years, recapping what we have announced recently in TEN.

A.E. Goodwin unveiled the new standard maps for Europa and they had some interesting stuff on them - 4 to 5 levels of ports; two levels of railroads; rivers, lakes, and historical points of interest (named on the maps); terrain fixes for the all-new MM, new maps for Spain as shown in the game For Whom The Bell Tolls; and The Winter War map showing the display from the Arctic Ocean to three hexes south of Leningrad. (It's official now, the title of Gary Stagliano's Russo-Finnish War game is The Winter War.) Arthur has spent a great deal of time on these maps and they look absolutely great.

Dennis Dubberley was in attendance with the eight maps of Soviet Asia, including the home islands of Japan. He also had map 32, which completes the Caspian Sea area of the USSR, and will be ready some time this year or early next year. Map 32 will be made available as a special offer for members of The Association. Watch for it advertised in the magazine. Both Arthur and Dennis gave a seminar on the new mapping situation.

Paul Dunigan gave a talk about the Second Front and Grand Europa research he has been doing and John Astell spoke about 1,000,000,000,000 words during the convention (which was a four day seminar for him.) I figured that if John was paid a penny a word over the course of a year for everything he said or wrote he could retire after one year.

Several other speakers were present, as reported elsewhere. The crowd was very happy with all that went on. About 70 people showed up in total, which was a larger Europa contingent than was at Origins.

The future of this convention looks very bright. We have set a tentative second convention for Dallas next year. It will occur at the same time as DALCON and at the same site. Some concern was voiced about having our fest at the same time as another convention. The test may be at the same place and same time as DALCON, but it will be a separate event, in a separate area, and will be advertised as such. We will be taking advantage of DALCON to provide facilities for us and to off er our members an increased opportunity for buying, playing, and visiting. But the test is a separate operation in every respect and will treated as such. I am currently negotiating with the convention organizer, who is a personal friend, and have expressed our needs and desires to him. He has assured me that it will be a co-event in every respect possible.

In 1991 mark your calendar, buy your tickets, ship the family off, gather your friends, and get ready. The test will be held at Origins in Baltimore with some very special happenings at the convention. A slam-dunk for Europa, with all sorts of things planned and being set up. It's too early to go into details at this time, but if but one half of the stuff GDW and GR/D have in mind happens, oh boy!

Finally, I want to extend personal thanks to Tom and his crew for the tremendous performance they gave. The convention was everything it should have been and more - a fine example of how special this system is and how much those of us who play it care for it. Tom set the standard by which every future test will be judged.

The Winter War

The game is nearing playtest stage. It appears it will entail one map and three countersheets. We may include some extra counters for some other things, but we do not have a real feel for what that may entail at this time. Details on playtesting appear elsewhere in this magazine. Price and release date have not been set at this time.

For Whom The Bell Tolls

I have the counter mix and charts, and await the rules. This is another item that we will put out for playtesting soon. I saw the game set up at Origins and it looked great. As I was rather busy, I did not have time to get much response from the Europa gamers at Origins, but I met with John Gee and Jeff Millefoglie and they gave me an update on the game and the general plan for components.

For Whom The Bell Tolls will be first and foremost a complete and independent game covering The Spanish Civil War. However, it will also contain a revised edition of GDW's Spain & Portugal module, some additional scenario material covering later war activities, and some extra counters. Target price for the game is $34.95 with members receiving a discounted price. The game should be ready by Origins of next year (saying that should give me plenty of time to get it ready, right?) and will be well advertised so you will have plenty of notice when it hits the streets.

Fire In the East

The reprint of this game is progressing well. Note that this is a reprint, not a reissue, so no changes other than an up-to-date errata sheet will be involved. We have been in negotiations with the printer. It seems that they want to charge more for the reprint than they did for the original print run.

Well, I am in the printing business and I know better. Reprinting with no changes costs less, not more. Some increase is caused by the mere fact that paper and ink costs rise over time, but this does not offset the cost savings of using previously made plates and negatives. The reprint will not cause a price increase - the game goes for $60 as it was priced the first time. There will be an announcement on the release date for this one in the near future.

Marita-Merkur

This will be a new game - a reissue of the title with the new maps I spoke of, state-ofthe-art rules, new counters, and updated existing counters. The game will have one and a half maps and three countersheets (or more). Work is progressing on the OBs, OAs and the like. Shelby Stanton is lending his considerable skill by taking care of the Germans, John Gee is working on the Greek side and we have a committee working on the rest. Tentative release for last quarter this year or (more probably) first quarter next year. We will keep you informed. Target price for the new game will be $39.95 with a discount to members.

... so in 1990:

Look for FWBT, the reissue of MM, and Second Front. Three in one year. A record! The magazine will publish issues 11 through 16 (remaining at six issues a year as in 1989.) Cover price of the magazine will go up 500. Renewal for the magazine subscription and your continued membership in The Association will cost $20 for 1990. New members joining in 1990 will be paying $29.95, and will receive a binder and all the free material we have produced up to the point of joining in addition to the 1990 TENs and other goodies. An important point I failed to state earlier.

BIG...

The Europa Association continues to grow. We are receiving more interest from overseas and continue to promote the growth of our system there, as well as in the United States. This brings up a point I want to address - how big are we and how do we get in touch with each other.

Previously we had a contact service. Unfortunately, it was misused and we dropped it to insure the privacy of our members. Still, the need for contact is there. We are going to try a new approach. We must stay in touch to help the system grow and become better - so you want to know who is in your area so you can get together? Send a SASE (self addressed stamped envelope) and we will send you the list of members in your zip code area. This should help matters and I feel that it will meet your needs as expressed to GR/D.

Another point was brought up at Europafest. We had a lively discussion on what the market is for Europa. Well, there have been 10,000 Fire in the East games sold (or more) and so there are some players out there. The question on how to get to them is answered in part by the appearance of the magazine on the hobby store shelves. This means that once the gamer gets through the door of the shop, he or she will see our game system's magazine and get into that way. We advertise in the print media, so other gamers; who might not have a hobby store in their area will learn of us, but in this case we are relying on their subscribing to a gaming magazine to get the word to them.

What about the gamers that have no store and do not subscribe? That is tough. Even tougher, what about those who have never played Europa or other wargames, the new life blood of the system? That is even tougher.

It, seems to me that people fall into three general groups:

Group I gamers are those who have retail outlets available to them that carry the full line of games and the like.

Group II gamers are those who don't have shops, but subscribe to wargaming periodicals or know about wargames and how to get them.

Group III is the general public that needs education about the thrill of what we do: freezing above the "A" weather line, slogging through the mud (on paper, of course).

GAMA, the Game Manufacturers Association, has two events a year. One is the trade show that talks to the retailers. The other is the national consumer show, Origins. GAMA is very concerned with making our products reach everyone who might have an interest. As such, GAMA will be taking a much more active role in the promotion of gaming to the non-gamer (or in other words - those who have not yet gamed) and you will be seeing the effect of this at subsequent Origins. There is talk of regional mass market advertising in Time magazine and the like. As Secretary of GAMA, and sitting on the Board of Directors I am involved with this promotion. There will be a marketing strategy aimed at the people who have not heard of us and we will be attempting to get them involved. It will address all three groups.

The other day a young man of about 16 walked into the print shop here in Grinnell. He came to use the photocopy machine. The woman who runs GR/D daily operations, Billie Jo Ladely, noticed he was photocopying wargame stuff, as she puts it, and called me at one of my other offices. She told me he might be interested in GR/D. By the time I got there she had shown him The Urals and sold him some kits and given him a magazine. Well, he felt like he had picked the right curtain, Monty!

I talked with him a bit and found that he had a group sixty miles south of Grinnell consisting of about 5 to 7 gamers who met off and on to play games. He had heard of Europa through advertising, but had no store in his area (a Group II gamer). He had heard of GR/D but was just getting into Europa or wanting to get into Europa. Here is the prototype new gamer, our future. His group was diversified in what they played and he thought they would like to try FRE.

WE are going to have to go after people like this. GR/D will do all it can to make sure people know about Europa and have products available to get them introduced to Europa. You are the front line and have to encourage the gamers you know to play the system and recruit new enlistments.

GR/D's responsibility is to market like crazy, produce quality goods, and to keep the faith with those people who have kept faith in Europa.

ON LINE:

This just happened. We are currently negotiating with a computer bulletin board and data service. The idea is for GR/D to be online with the service which would give those of you with a modem a chance to get the latest on what is happening. It would also pave the way for us to promote PBM of Europa. There have been requests for listings of players and some have written to us asking what games may be going on and how to get into them. This service, still under examination, would provice a host of possibilities to the players.

• current errata publication
• feedback direct to GR/D
• current release info
• Q & A immediate response
• find opponents, find games

and much more will be accomplished with this service. We have been talking about this for some time and now we have the chance to try it out. More info will be available in the next issue.