Back during one of The Gamers' favorite wars, a Wehrmacht soldier took the opportunity of quiet times on the front to slip out into the fields with his sketchbook to collect ideas for his "flower letters," an artsy typeface he was designing. Had that soldier, like millions of others, gotten whacked in The Big One, I wouldn't have these particular fonts available to set this magazine. Thank you, Hermann Zapf.

With issue 20, something of a milestone, behind us, the time seems right to spruce up Operations' look. Well, like Ophelia had of water, wargame press readers have too much of font-chatter already, so enough said.

On from form to substance. If you read the "Internal Business Report" from last issue, you have an idea of why doing business through a distributor/retailer system is bad business for The Gamers. We think the better approach is to go with direct-mail sales. See Dean's Out Brief in this issue for the full story.

Our shift to direct-to-customer marketing entails a few procedural changes. For example, The Gamers will provide a toll-free (800) telephone number for orders. For rules questions, problems resolution, and so on, keep using (217) 896-2145. You can fax in credit card orders, rules questions, letters to the editor, etc. (217) 896-2880, and you can visit our Web page (http://www-eskimo.com/~graham/the-gamers.html) for orders and information. E-mail reaches us also.

This year the Replacements and Variants countersheet will contain a new twist, vanity counters. For a reasonable fee, you can have your own counter design published. Would you like to see your own name on that 4-rated Army of the Potomac leader counter? How about an OCS Uberpanzer battalion, with, say, 20-5-10 on its combat mode side? Perhaps an O'Connor counter for Afrika? Come up with a few bucks and an idea that's not in totally bad taste, and you'll see it in print from The Gamers.

Game Subscriptions:

Some people, like me, habitually respond to Gamers pre-publication offers. Now you can receive your games at the pre-publication discount, without the postal shuffle or concern that your pre-pub order is number 251, through a Gamers subscription. Subscribe to a series, to the whole Gamers line, or some other combination. For example, you might want to specify all East Front games, regardless of series, for your subscription. When the games you want are ready, we'll send them to you and charge your Visa or Mastercard the going pre-pub discount price, with another 5% off if you subscribe to Operations. Your game subscription will continue until (unless) you change it or cry "Hold, enough!" Call, write, or e-mail for details and we'll establish your subscription today.

See "An Ops Omission" for better counter images for Couch's division, in support of Thomas Prowell's article from last issue. Maybe we can talk Dean into including them on the Repls & Variants sheet.

As I write this, I am also working on the books for The Best of Operations. Along with adding value through organization and commentary, I have a fair amount of lost material to reproduce, so the task is not a simple "reprint." When you see them, I think you'll agree that the results also are more than a mere reprint.

Early this year I was in the game store--Sword of the Phoenix in Atlanta, which boasts a wide selection and a knowledgeable staff--buying the Blue Max miniatures rules set. The shopkeeper said, "You're buying this at the right time. GDW is going out of business tomorrow." When I think of how I enjoyed the excellent production values and solid designs in games from the Europa series to the Assault series to that champion party game, Blue Max, I figure that Frank Chadwick and everyone in his workshop can feel justly proud of their long run and good work.

Don't forget HomerCon, September 27th-29th this year. It's fun and games, just minutes from downtown Homer. Call for details.