The cardstock-laminate countersheets in Command 37 prompted me to make an informal survey of some recent wargames. I noticed a trend I hadn't paid much attention to at first. The box for Spearhead's Bloodiest Day reminds me of a Gamers box not just because of the cover painting, but because its materials and construction make it resemble a Gamers "new model" box. I checked other games I own--not a comprehensive sample, to be sure--for "Gamers-style" countersheets and boxes. The results:

Game/Publisher	Counters	Box
Bloodiest Day/Spearhead	No	Yes
A Bold Stroke/Spearhead	Yes	Yes
Glory/GMT	Yes	No
Samurai/GMT	Yes	No
Command 37/XTR	Yes	n/a
Friedland/GamesUSA	Yes	No
Blood on the Snow/Avalanche	Yes	No
And this from the game store shelf (I didn't open the box)
Bastogne or Bust/Terran Games	?	Yes

In Operations 16, Owen Fuller wrote, "SVH [Steketee-Van Huis] is helping us set a new standard for the gaming industry." Chalk one up for Owen as a wargaming prophet.

Counters printed by SVH (or another vendor, if any exists, copying the technique) seem to be catching on. You might wonder why, if these counters give our games an edge in physical quality, we didn't keep quiet about SVH as a "trade secret." Please! We certainly hope we give you better reasons to chose a Gamers game than the fact that the counters won't shed lots of little gray crumbs.

On another component-quality point, I can report that the hundred or so Gamers-brand counter trays I have handled recently all snap together quite firmly.

Last year at this time, Dean made his support-your-local-retailer call, which seems rather quixotic now retail support of The Gamers has softened. Most gamers report that, unlike me in Atlanta, they don't have a good game store just minutes from home. We hope our full-service direct mail will fill your needs.

Several of you have contacted me directly about articles. The enthusiasm and depth of knowledge I have seen bode well for the continued quality of Operations. I am working up a set of writer's guidelines that address payment and intellectual property issues, electronic submission formats, acceptance, lead times, and so on. The basic policy remains the same: write for Ops and get paid in contributor's copies. I am fleshing out the policy and dealing with frequently asked questions. Write for a copy of the writer's guidelines if you're interested. As always, you can continue to submit unsolicited articles; query letters are welcome but not required.

A few words on lettering. I chose the fonts you have seen starting with Ops 21 in part because they don't make Operations look like anyone else's magazine. It's pure coincidence that the type here resembles the rule book design used by Spearhead Games. Oh, and that hairball at the end of each article in our last issue? That's my fault for insufficient paranoia regarding Encapsulated PostScript.

Don't forget HomerCon, September 27th-29th. Bring along any game you feel like playing, or just show up and select from numerous options.