News from S.P.U.K.

The printing of NATO and WWII in November of this year will mark the end
of the 1977 UK print programme. Since March we have endeavoured to
maintain a flow of two SPI games per month but for various reasons we
have been unable to do so. StarSoldier and Mech War'77 were produced on
time in April. Sniper and Dreadnought also kept to schedule and were
produced in May. Sorcerer and Fulda Gap were scheduled for production in
June but the former was late in coming from the printers and did not
come in stock until mid-July whilst Fulda Gap negatives did not get to
us until the end of July. A further two weeks' delay ensued due to the
late arrival of sample games without which the printer could not make a
start. It looks like Fulda Gap will now be available September 10th,
three months behind the original availability date.

Patrol and StarForce were to be produced in July but again negatives
were late in arriving and we put their production back by a month. Star
Force eventually came into stock 12th August and Patrol is due on the
22nd. Thus, even with what I consider to be sufficient time, the
printers could not get Patrol to us on schedule.

WWIII and Panzer'44 were to be produced in August. They have now been
put back to October because negatives are still not to hand. Since the
people who shoot the negatives in the States have now embarked on a move
to new premises it would be totally unrealistic to hope for these games
any earlier. Even October might be optimistic though, hopefully, we can
get them for then.

Finally, WW11 and NATO are to be produced in November. Again we await
negatives.

We dropped plans to print Modern Battle Quads II and Road to Ruin as it
seemed to be pointless adding to our problems by pushing more into the
programme than the printers could realistically cope with.

Was it worth all the headaches? Our sales figures and your own reaction
to the attempt tells us yes. This being the case we will make a further
attempt in 1978 to get into the swing but with a few changes in our
modus operandi.

Firstly, we will not attempt to produce new games as they come out.
There is too much uncertainty involved in their availability as Fulda
Gap has shown. Also we cannot be totally certain what components will be
included in a game that has not yet been produced thus we cannot work
out an accurate costing.

What we will do is select a number of released titles for which we will
obtain negatives prior to the start of the production programme. This
should eliminate the sort of problems experienced in the second half of
this year. Further details will probably be given in Issue 12 of
Phoenix.

Air War'78 and War in the Pacific have continued to be a problem.
Initially they were expected May and July respectively. It now looks
like being October and November of this year, as long as nothing further
goes amiss.

S&T looks like getting back onto an even keel with Issue 63. According
to the documentation presently to hand we should have these in good time
to meet the September 20th deadline, so we will stick with the original
shedule and hope that we do not fall on our faces over the Xmas period.
Moves 33 also looks good. It should be in stock within the next few days
and be out a couple of days after the 20th August.

Philmar's two new games, Seastrike and Decline & Fall are still not to
hand. ETA is now late August - quite a difference between that and the
original launching date which was mid-April. I have heard the inside
story on this debacle but will not repeat it in print since to do so
might invite a writ or two from aggrieved parties. Suffice it to say
that Philmar have not had their troubles to seek in this venture.

Another story of late arrival - GDW's Citadel, Pharsalus and Pearl
Harbour, which have been out in the States for some time now, are still
not available in the UK. Their agents do not know when they will arrive
and what they will cost as and when they do show up. As many of you will
be aware, we were at one time acting as agents for GDW but elected to
drop their agency almost two years ago. The reason for taking this step
was GDW's insistence that we should have been able to move more units
than we were doing. What they appeared to forget is that you can only
sell an item if your supplier gets said item to you, a task which, with
boring regularity, they seemed unable to perform. Since they were unable
to back up our stock requirements we dropped our wholesale commitments
and brought in sufficient supplies to take care of our mail order
customers only.

GDW have since appointed a new agent who, although actively engaged in
pushing their product, is apparently receiving the same support we did,
which was very little. Come on GDW, how about backing up your agent and
letting us in the UK get hold of your games!! I would like to stress
that this is my personal opinion based on what we at SPUK have seen of
the situation as prospective buyers.

The Autumn Orgy attendance is now up to 68. Add SPUK staff and local
gamers and you have yourself a full house. What is particularly
gratifying is the number of gamers coming back for their second and
third time. At this rate we may have to look around for a larger hall
next year. This possibility will be evaluated after we see how well this
year's attendance fits into the Ashley Hotel.

Those of you going to the National Convention and/or the Northern
Militaire, please call and see us. The dates and venues are as follows:

National Wargames Convention
Royal Victoria Hotel
Victoria Station Road
Sheffield 
Sept. 24th and 25th

Northern Militaire'77
Lancastrian ,Hall
Swinton, Manchester
Nov. 5th and 6th

New SPI games currently in stock are "A Mighty Fortress", "Modern
Battles Quads II" and "First World War". Expected shortly: "Air War'78"
(ETA October 1977), "War in the Pacific", "Up Scope" and "Canadian Civil
War" (ETA November 1977).

Non-SPI games expected soon: From Avalon Hill --"Squad Leader" (£9.65p.
inc. P&P) small infantry tactics, "Gettysburg" (£8.65p. inc. P&P) a
complete re-design of the original AH game, "Victory in the Pacific"
(£8.15p. inc. P&P) simple WWII Pacific theatre game similar to "War at
Sea", ETA September. "Assault on Crete" based on the major German
paratroop action of WWII (£8.65 inc. P&P) ETA December. The following
Battleline games are expected in approx. October - ''Flat Top" (carrier
battles in the South Pacific during 1942), "Alpha Omega" (tactical
combat in space), ''Objective=Atlanta" (ACW), "Viva Espagna" (Spanish
Civil War 1936-39). Firm delivery and price details are not yet
available. Please contact us before ordering. Finally we now have GDW's
"La Bataille de la Moskowa" in stock, see price list.

We are now again stocking a selection of Arms & Armour books which we
feel will be of interest to boardgamers. Where possible, these will
relate to current games. Should demand be sufficiently encouraging we
will expand the coverage and look into the possibility of stocking books
by other publishers. The War in the East S&T Staff Study No1 is to be
published by Arms & Armour later this year and will be available through
us.

Malcolm Watson