In Dr. Strangelove, Peter Sellers delivers one of many memorable lines when he tells an Air Force general and a Soviet diplomat wrestling over a spy camera, "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the war room!" Not so at Origins. I realize the some people make a hobby of just collecting wargames, but most of us have come to play. And the Andon folks provided a clean, well-lighted space to do so.

A good variety of games were underway in the boardgaming room, from Stratego to the complete EuroFront. There I found Keith Fortner with Hube's Pocket, Ronald Chacon with Matanikau and Omaha, Perry Andrus with Black Wednesday, Lee Forester and Zack Waltz with a playtest copy of Lee's Semper Fi: USMC Battles in Korea for the TCS, and James Best and Vernon Robinson with (what else?) Austerlitz. Someone also set up Leros, but the game was over by the next time returned, looking for the players. When I got a chance to push some cardboard myself, I settled in just down the table from Ed Wimble, who spent his 43rd birthday demonstrating Jena. By the way, Ed is very much alive and well following his heart surgery earlier this year.

I joined Boyd Schorzman for a demo game of Hube's Pocket, which attracted several observer-participants on Saturday. I blundered with the Soviets, giving Boyd a chance to execute a dramatic one-turn kesselschlact. We were talking the whole time, explaining rules, giving play tips, and answering questions. In a single game turn we generated a couple breakthroughs, a swirling tank battle, a good deal of enthusiasm, and at least a couple sales.

The Horse's Mouth

Friday night we presented the Gamers seminar, a free-for-all in which Dean, David Combs, Dave Friedrichs, Dan Cicero, Lee Forester, Owen Fuller, Rod Schmisseur, and I handled questions from some 50 attendees. Dean began with the rationale behind The Gamers' move to direct sales only: distributor orders had dropped to the point where he did not want to use up the earnings from direct sales to subsidize the money-losing proposition of selling through the distributor/retailer system (see the sidebar).

Dean expected the venting of much angst about this announcement and its portent for the future of The Gamers, of retail shops, and of the hobby in general. Instead, the crowd prefered to ask about upcoming games. Here's what they heard:

TCS: In response, Lee outlined plans for Semper Fi, which will include 3 half-map and two full-map scenarios, including Chosin. Perry Andrus, who playtests with Wig Graves, gave summaries and progress reports on GD '42 and GD '43 (Kursk). Of course, GD'41, featuring combat at Mtsensk, on the road from Orel to Moscow, appears this fall.

CWB: The next games out in the CWB series will be Dave Powell's long-awaited trillogy on the Seven Days. Seeing a playtest of the whole campaign a few years ago made me eager to use Dave's Extended Movement rules. With only 280-560 counters and nine maps, you will have some real maneuver room. Each three-map game is complete and playable in itself, as well as being part of the greater whole. The first game will cover Mechanicsville-Gaines Mill, the second Seven Pines & Savage Station, and the last Malvern Hill. Scheduled as the next three CWB releases, the whole set should be available by Spring 1999.

OCS: For Origins '97 The Gamers will release DAK. This game is already taking up most of Dean's attention, as the results will show. DAK will include a Rommel counter, an O'Connor counter, a camel outfit, and scenarios covering all the major operations in the desert, not to mention a campaign game covering the action from '40 to '42. Moving further east, Dave Friedrichs described how Burma is going to make a good OCS campaign.

Before you holler, "What, no panzers?" remember that Dave has an unerring sense of good game topics (Black Wednesday, Leros, and Hube's Pocket). I admitted that Sicily: Triumph and Folly will move from design to development once I a) find a little time, and b) stop worrying about perfectionism, especially since Dean will rip the whole thing down to its skeleton and remake it as a good game anyway. Regarding the OCS series rules, Dean intends to let various optional rules undergo further testing and aging before incorporating the best of them into the main body of the rule book. OCS 2.1 will not have anything like the extensive changes seen in version 2.0. Rather, it will be a reorganization of the existing optional rules plus the addition of a few new ones. A release date for this revision has not been set, but expect to see version 2.0i in DAK.

SCS: Borodino has been announced as a work in progress for some time, but more progress still has to be made (by Dave Powell) to turn the original submission into a finished game. In contrast, Aspern-Essling impressed Dean as "a near-perfect submission," so it will most likely be the next SCS game you see.

SCS: None of the current SCS submissions is close to ready for release. If you have read the developer's notes for Yom Kippur, you know how that game went through an extensive development process. That process, by the way, seems beneficial, considering that YK won a Charlie this year. Other titles on hand now need the same kind of attention. Consequently, the SCS will be our "dormant" series in 1997.

Dean pointed out during the seminar that, given our four-game-per-year schedule, the current plan is to cover four of the five active series each year. In '96 the SCS stood down; next year the SCS will lie fallow. Another consequence of the game schedule is that there is no room for reprints and second editions. Dean cited "mixed responses" to second editions as the reason for putting them on hold indefinitely.

More than one Operations reader expressed frustration that ours is "the only magazine in the English language" that features cover illustrations that have no relation to any of the articles inside. So now we will relinquish this unique distinction and include regularly a "cover story" with a designer's preview, playtest notes, or some other appetizer related to the game whose box art appears on the cover.

Regarding Operations, I promised start handling article acceptance more formally (i.e. you will be notified) and pointed out that some articles can sit in the ready basket for a year or more before they appear in the magazine. If you want to write for Operations, contact The Gamers for the new writer's guidelines. The rules haven't changed, but I have codified them, mainly to ensure that Operations doesn't unintentionally include previously published material and that authors understand when and how they can reuse submissions we print. Of course, Dean extended the invitation to HomerCon, pointing out that it's a good opportunity to get into some of the bigger games with teams of experienced players.

The Envelope, Please

Much to my regret, I missed both the CoA roast and Kevin Zucker's 1807: The Eagles Turn East seminar to attend the awards ceremony Saturday night. I figured I should be there for journalistic purposes and because The Gamers was so heavily nominated for both the Origins and CSR awards. Black Wednesday, Tunisia, Marengo, April's Harvest, and Yom Kippur were nominated for both sets of awards, with Black Wednesday and Tunisia also in the running for the CSR graphics award, Operations in the pro mag category, and Dean up for another Dunnigan award. (Do we dare start calling the latter "the Jimmy"?) For the winners, see the sidebar. Thanks to all of you out there for your support and appreciation.

Stories you may have heard about the demographics for the Origins Awards and the Charles S. Roberts awards are true. The former had a panel of presenters and a roomful of fans, while the Charlies drew a handful of folks, at least half of them nominees. Maybe I should feel like a member of a small elite.

By taking a double crown for BROG, Richard Berg has all but convinced me that I should start publishing with a photocopier and stapler. (The irony-challenged among our readers should note that, yes, I realize that the key to BROG's uniqueness and success lie elsewhere than in its production.)

At right, Dave Fox shows off his latest trophy from a recent Samurai game.

Why, you may ask, didn't Black Wednesday capture an award or three? You play it and you love it. My guess is that the initial barrage, the huge Soviet force, and the teeth of the outnumbered but well-armed Blue Division all make BW rather intimidating. Tunisia, BW's Charlie competition, is no wimpy game, but looks more accessible and hence proved more popular. Black Wednesday is not for girlie men. To play it, you got to get pumped up.

I noted also that the CSR awards were treated like the crazy uncle in the attic: unpublicized and generally avoided. It seems to me that preventing scheduling conflicts for events historical gamers might be interested in would be a good idea, even if we are a minority amid the Magic players and vampires.

Another type of award deserves mention here. The Gamers' SCS tournament was run and won by Mike Lochtefeld. Jim Mehl took second place, while Karl Seibert and Jim Gutt tied for third. Sure, there was no million-dollar purse, but the satisfaction (and the Gamers title of your choice) are nothing to sneeze at.

Break Camp and March