News from SPUK

Before going any further with this feature I will apologise in advance
for any inaccuracies that it might contain at the time of distribution.
I am writing this three weeks ahead of schedule as I will be with SPI at
the end of February, beginning of March and have to get this tied up
before flying out.

The main topic at present continues to be the question of whether or not
to print in the UK. We had a bad time with 'Outreach'. First the
negatives got held up in a US postal strike. When they did get to us it
was nearing Christmas, a very busy time for printers, as you know.
Copies of the rules and charts were seen by us before Xmas and these
turned out to be OK. However, December 23rd saw a somewhat dispirited
printer on our doorstep clutching a proof of the mapsheet. Due to the
complications of putting the US negatives together (10 negatives for the
map alone had to be matched up. Those of you who have the game will
appreciate the headaches caused matching these negatives up literally
star for star) the grey on the map came nearer to being black. As a
result, new plates had to be made with a wider screen to allow for a
lighter shade of grey. This was achieved and by mid January we had taken
delivery of the maps. Also we had seen a proof of the frontsheet which
looked good (only seven negatives this time but still the star for star
bit). The final components were the counters and if we had trouble with
any thing we certainly had trouble with these. First the card was not
delivered until the second week of January. Next, the printer who
realised we were keen to get the games, printed all of the colours
except the black, onto the full supply of board. When he came to print
the black, he found that the colours had dried too quickly and had
sealed the board therefore the black just would not take. Exit
œ100-worth of material, enter more delay as we waited for fresh board.
At this point, the printer was rushing about furiously in an effort to
locate a different type of ink to do the job. Eventually we took
delivery of the counters on January 25th and by the following lunchtime
all outstanding orders were on their way....a mere four weeks late!

Needless to say, the printer doesn't want to see another sheet of
counters as long as he lives. However, he is quite happy to tackle the
maps, etc., therefore all is not yet lost. Until such time as we can
find someone locally to handle the counters we will buy these from SPI
to put into the UK printed games. This will start with Minuteman and
will mean that we cannot bring our prices down as much as we would like.
Hoyvever,we should be able to reduce prices by about 50p per game on the
imported price. Another reason for the prices not coming down by more
than 50p is that we will be aiming for only short runs on a large number
of titles rather than large runs on only a few titles. The reason for
this is to stabilise as many game prices as quickly as possible.

Some more behind the scenes drama. At the beginning of December we
worked out our various schedules for 1977 and decided to hold two Games
Orgies for that year. The first was to be held on the Spring Bank
Holiday to allow an extra day of gaming. Consultation of our 1977
Forward Planner told us that the Spring Bank Holiday was to be May 30th
so without delay we booked the venue for that weekend and proceeded to
make our plans. The publicity material was produced for Phoenix 5 and
all seemed to be well. I came into work 5th February to start on the
Phoenix 6 material and for some reason decided to consult the 1977 Bank
Holidays. To my horror I saw that the Spring 13 Bank Holiday had been
put back a week to link with the Jubilee Holiday thus throwing all our
plans out of the window. Immediately I telephoned the Hotel only to be
told that the Saturday of the new Bank Holiday was booked for a wedding
reception and the Manager did not think the happy couple would
appreciate wargames getting tangled up with their nuptials. We could
have had the Sunday, Monday and Tuesday but this seemed to be more than
a little messy for travelling so we had to settle for the new dates
indicated in Phoenix 5, these being the only other days available. Due
to the late arrival of S&T 59, we had not yet produced Phoenix 5,
although the printer had started making plates. Fortunately, he had not
made plates for the pages that contained references to the Orgy so
corrections were rapidly made, hopefully in time to avert a very
embarrassing situation. I say hope fully because Phoenix 5 has still not
gone to press and something may yet go wrong. As you can see, behind the
cool, calm exterior of SPUK can be found an atmosphere of pure mayhem.

As predicted, S&T 59 was late in arriving. This was caused by a
combination of pressure of business and desire to please in New York.
The November December, January period is the busy time for SPI and
naturally they must look after their home market primarily. This being
the case, we must accept that shipments around this time will be a week
or two delayed. The delay on S&T 59 was aggravated by production
problems with "After the Holocaust". SPI knew that we were keen to get a
supply of this game and they held the shipment back a few days to try
and get these to us. They were advised late December by their printers
that the games would be delivered the next day. The next day became the
next, then the next, then the next, etc... Finally, in despair, the
shipment was sent off minus "After the Holocaust" and yet another brave
attempt to please came to nought. Our own experience with "Outreach" has
taught everyone at SPUK to appreciate the problems that can arise with
production and hopefully some of this appreciation will have rubbed off
on you so that when you hear about delays you may realise that these are
often caused by events that are out side the control of SPI and/or SPUK.

Moves 29 was also a little late. In fact, it was delayed a few days more
than need have been the case, due to a slip up at this end. The carrier
picked up 63 cartons from the docks and brought them to us with all due
haste. We were about to unload these when it was noticed that the
cartons were not addressed to us but to a firm in Stockport. This was
pointed out to the driver who became quite irate, his delivery note said
63 cartons for SPUK, we expected 63 cartons and he had 63 cartons on his
lorry. Quite obviously, therefore, these cartons were for us and never
mind what the labels said. After ten minutes we managed to persuade him
that we did not want 63 cartons of Bibles (which is what the contents
proved to be). We contacted the Freight Agents and requested that they
put matters right. On asking if we could have our own goods the same day
we were told that we didn't have a prayer - 'Oh No!' says I 'for your
information we've got 63 cartons of 'em!'. Despite all this aid from
above we still did not get our goods for another three days.

In Phoenix 5 we are advertising three games by "Battleline". This firm
is now closing down therefore we will be unable to obtain further
supplies. If you want any of these games I suggest that you buy now
before they go out of stock. We have been able to get hold of a few
copies of "Wooden Ships and Iron Men" from these people and these are
available at f5.00 each for as long as stocks last. See centre spread.

At this point in time I am not entirely certain which new games will be
in stock late March there fore we will put a stop press in at the last
minute giving this information.

Philmar recently put their prices of "Kingmaker" and "Diplomacy" up.
Details of the new prices are given in our order form. Also they will be
releasing two 'new' games in April. These are "Seastrike" and "Decline
and Fall" which have previously been available through Wargames Research
Group. I have not seen the new components yet but they will be coming in
the "Kingmaker" style packaging and will cost œ5.25 and œ4.75
respectively. First supplies will be to hand mid-late April. Due to the
lack of response we have shelved plans to organise a charter trip to
Origins III. I must confess that I was never very hopeful that this
would get off the ground with the economic situation being what it is at
present. Only five people showed interest and we needed a minimum of
thrity to do anything.

As you will have gathered, our determlnation to produce games in the UK
is indicative of our desire to expand our coverage for wargamers in the
UK. Increased coverage means increased stock which in turn requires more
storage space. We have in our four year existence moved no fewer than
three times to larger premises and the thought of having to do so again
left all at SPUK with a feeling of pure dread. Fortunately, we have been
able to negotiate terms for adjacent premises which, if used purely for
storage, will hold over 100,000 unboxed SPI titles. Always assuming that
our plans do not fall through we should take on these premises at the
beginning of April and this will ensure that we will not have to
contemplate another move for at least three years and hopefully longer.

We are also in the process of building a small reception room which will
serve as a retail area for those of you who like to call at our premises
to off-load the contents of vour wallets.

Recently, I was approached by a gamer who has designed his own game and
who had a mind to see this produced in the UK through Phoenix. Whilst
details must still be sorted out, I have agreed in principle to tackle
this project which will consist of a series of articles leading up to
the final product. Should this prove to be popular with subscribers we
will be open to similar suggestions in the future so if you have ideas
on these lines please step up and let us know about them.

To end on a humorous note, we recently received an order from a trade
source who will remain anonymous. The retailer sent a cheque with his
order to get extra discount and being a keen lot we sent his goods off
the following day without waiting for the cheque to clear. Well,
needless to say, the cheque bounced all the way back to Hale much to my
consternation. Immediately, the carrier was phoned up with a request to
hold delivery of the consignment. However, I was not hopeful that this
could be done due to the time that had elapsed between the goods going
out and the return of the cheque. After a short time, back came the
answer which was in the form of a good news/bad news reply. "First the
good news", said the carrier "the games have not been delivered. Now the
bad news --the lorry carrying the the games has been stolenl"

STOP PRESS

New items now in stock: Minuteman, Wellington's Victory, After the
Holocaust, Wilderness Campaign, 1918, Marne, Year of the Rat and
frontsheets for Conquistador. We have also acquired limited stocks of
"Wooden Ships and Iron Men" from Battleline Publications. These sell at
œ5.00 each and are not on the price list. Highway to the Reich and War
in Europe are expected mid-April as is issue 4 of Fire & Movement.
Finally we are now stocking Salamanca by Maplay, price f5.25.