Handing Over Command

As I write this, I've been editing Operations magazine for ten years. If that's amilestone of sorts, the road hasn't been all smooth running. I'm referring to this magazine's spotty schedule over the last couple years and, more broadly, a series of ups and downs, real and imagined, for The Gamers line of games. The line has landed on its feet. MMP has published all of the games it inherited in 2001 -- including the long-awaited A Fearful Slaughter (Shiloh for RSS) plus Korea: The Forgotten War. Recent non-Gamers releases include The Skirmisher #2, ASL Journal 5, Operation Veritable, Monty's Gamble: Market Garden (MG:MG), and For King and Country. Dean Essig has agreed to take on the role of The Gamers project coordinator at MMP. In addition to his design and graphics work, Dean will work with the honchos to keep the preorder pipeline full of interesting and well-developed games.

What's up next? More of the same, along with something new. Three Battles of Bull Run and Bloody Ridge are waiting in the wings, the reissue of the ASL Rulebook is poised to come out, and orders for a new edition of DAK have been strong. Meanwhile, MMP is preparing its first card-driven wargame, Shifting Sands and the Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit #1 (now out). Even Armies of Oblivion is available for pre-publication orders.

Meanwhile, this magazine aims to support the newer releases. This issue includes player's notes for MG:MG and Screaming Eagles in Holland that you Market-Garden afficionados should find useful. John Kisner offers some tested ideas for Chinese intervention in Korea. The informal series of OCS master classes continues with a nuts-and-bolts tutorial by Ric Van Dyke and my look at the OCS combat system inspired by a note Ric sent me about a few exceptionally bad surprise rolls (see Ops 43). Bob Cloyd, the series honcho for CWB, provides a look at the update of the Civil War Regimental Sub-Series. And that prolific European, Ernesto Sassot, has come through once again with some of the history that helps make the games fun.

By the time you read this, Winter Offensive 2004 will already be in the record books. But Chip Pharr was at HomerCon 2003, as ever, with his camera. The schedule for HomerCon 2004 is already set for 30 September to 3 October 2004 at The Hut, 500 W. Fourth St, Homer, IL. If you have Internet access, see http://home.earthlink.net/~davedwork/pages/hc.html for a MapQuest link and some other helpful information.

Don't forget to check the pre-order pages on the MMP web site for discounts on the games and modules you'd most like to see in print (or in print again). Load www.multimanpublishing.com, call 1-888-TGAMERS (1-888-842-6377) toll free, send a fax to (410) 729-1312, or send postal mail to Multi-Man Publishing, LLC, 403 Headquarters Drive, Suite 7, Millersville, Maryland 21108.

This is my last issue as editor of Operations. Working on the magazine has been fun and rewarding, most of all when I've heard from people who appreciate the magazine. Their praise is a tribute to the excellent articles our contributors have written and continue to write. I have tried to keep working on the magazine even after it changed from fun to chore, and you've suffered the resulting delays. Now is the time for me to step aside, stop gumming up the works, and wish the publishers, the authors, and all you readers the very best. So long, and thanks for all the dice.

(I just want to add that when I took over, my first job was the get this issue out the door as soon as possible. Fortunately, Dave had it mostly all lined up, and I just had to put it together Next issue I will introduce myself a little bit and offer some insight as to where Operations is heading.--BM)