> The Editor's Soapbox 

August is the last month of summer, and for wargaming, this has been
a summer to remember!  A number of great new wargames have appeared,
new wargame companies have appeared almost out of nowhere, 
previously low-key companies have made an major impact on the hobby
with their latest game designs, and by all accounts Origins '91 was
a great success.  "Board wargaming is a dead hobby..."  Right.  I
remember hearing that 12 years ago!  

Two companies have proven that the combination of quality product
AND customer support leads to commercial success, those two are GMT
Games and Clash of Arms Games.  Hardly a day goes by on the GEnie
network that Gene Billingsley or Phil Boinske aren't online
answering questions or fielding feedback from wargamers.  In
addition, their game releases are extensively playtested and
lavishly use of state-of-the-art graphics throughout.

June and July saw a number of new releases, but the best may be yet
to come!  GMT has Mark Herman's Battles of Alexander on the way and
Clash of Arms is preparing to release their newest Napoleonic
designs, Ligny and Quatre Bras.  Both Napoleonic wargames feature
multiple maps and thousands of BEAUTIFUL hand-drawn counters (Phil
at COA sent me an advance run of the countersheet, take my word for
it - the counters are simply stunning!)  

SDI has Rich Berg's long awaited answer to Campaigns for North
Africa is on the way, a game called Blood and Sand.  Playtester
and Simulations Online Contributing Editor Robert Kasten reviews
new game for us.  In the meantime, a new company called Rhino Games
has released The Legend Begins, a three map, 400 counter North
Africa game that is getting great reviews. 

In one of the more interesting events of this summer, a new wargame
company called Fresno Games came almost out of nowhere and announced
its arrival with a number of full page ads in COMMAND magazine. 

Fresno is now shipping (you heard it here first!) Operation
Crusader, a monster game with no less than 1,600 counters and two
full maps!  Fresno promises to release a War in the Pacific game by
year's end that will have SEVEN full maps and over 3,000 counters!
Is this the start of a new trend towards playable monster wargame
designs?

Finally on this month's plate, the men at XTR have also been
very busy.  COMMAND magazine has earned the respect of wargame
subscribers by being consistently ontime and for its professional
look, no its time to grab everyone else's attention.... don't be
surprised if you see COMMAND magazine (sans the game) on the
magazine rack of your local book store next month!  That's right,
COMMAND magazine has announced plans to go national through a
major magazine distributor - projected print run for issue #13
is an unbelievable 80,000 copies!  We wish Ty and the XTR gang
the very best in this venture - maybe they can give the hobby the
expose we've been dreaming about for decades! 
  
TIP OF THE MONTH:  CAPE COD CONNECTION is a great mail order
company that specializes in wargames as well as computer games.
What makes them special is discount prices and a 24 hour online
BBS for ordering wargames!  The list is updated daily and every
order is shipped the same day it is placed (they take VISA and
MasterCard.)  Master the moment and give them a ring!

(Information on how contact any of the above mentioned wargame
 companies appears the end of this issue.)

Have a great August and see you next month!! 
Peter T. Szymonik