Howdy Ladies and Gents,

This week has seen some interesting developments. After initially being willing to discuss allowing Old Soldiers to use copyrighted material for illustrative purposes, Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast/Avalon Hill tersely denied that permission. Fortunately they do not own all of the artwork associated with the old Avalon Hill games. I’ve been reliably informed that Roger McGowan still owns all copyrights to artwork he did for Avalon Hill, several of the old AH games have been returned to their designers, and a few have even had their copyrights expire. So, to get around these problems, it would be nice, if those of you who know about a specific game(s) could post me a note so we can build a list of what games have copyrights owned by whom. As far as Old Soldiers is concerned, Old Soldiers will simply not publish illustrations on games the rights of which are owned by Hasborg.. We will continue to publish articles on those games, but any artwork to be published, the rights of which are owned by Hasborg, must be 100% new artwork. There’s more than one way to skin a ‘Borg’.

The same methodology can be applied to other games from other companies which present the same problems.

The Free Sample Issue is continuing apace. There are now 5 articles written and laid out. Sixteen pages of the 50 allotted are completed. The articles so far are:

Advantages of Interior Sea Lanes in Conquistador (AH) By: Forest Cole
The Fabric of Belgian Skies: Scenarios for the Airforce/Dauntless System (Battleline/AH) By: Tom Cundiff, Mike Rowles, & Colin Lynch
Variant Rules For Panzer ’44 (SPI’s) By: Steven Bucey
A Change of Scenery in B-17 Queen of the Skies (AH) By Steve Dixon
The Sequence of “The Draw”: Ordering The Card Draw in Gunslinger (AH) By Tom Cundiff and Ruben Rigillo

This week has been slow for subscribers. We’ve not reached 65 from last week’s 60. So, keep up the pressure on your friends. Get the word out at your favorite forums. The Boardgamer had 200-250 subscribers and I am certain, restrictive as its scope was, there are people out there who would like to see articles on old games other than AH titles. There’s more people out there, we’ve just not reached them yet.

Also, I was reminded that game store owners sold the Boardgamer and at least one of those is waiting to review the first couple of issues before he commits. These types of venues for the magazine result from individual gamers talking to their local game store owners. I did the same for the Boardgamer. Though, these types of contacts will not help us reach that initial publication goal. It will help us to maintain the magazine’s production. So, feel free to talk to your local game store about the magazine.

We’ve had a wide variety of offers for articles. I’m just waiting for them to arrive. There’s plenty of space left for them, at least 34 pages. The Sept. 30 deadline to get out this first is reachable, it can be done.

Keep up the good work everyone and I’ll keep you informed.

Take Care,
Tom Cundiff
Old Soldiers Magazine

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(Feel free to post this notice to any forum you believe fits the purpose.)

Howdy Everyone,

It’s been a hectic two weeks since school began, I beg your forgiveness for being ‘tardy’ with news of Old Soldier’s progress. As many of you know I am a substitute teacher, I tutor students outside of school, and I am going back to college to obtain my teaching license. So, school beginning these last two weeks has been pressing on my free time. Our membership has reached 65, please continue to place notices about Old Soldiers on whatever wargame sites you believe best suits the purpose of getting the news out. And continue twisting the arms of your wargaming buddies to subscribe.
We now have 18 pages of the first issue laid out. I was reminded that when we go to printing we need to have a page total that is equally divisible by four. That’s not 50, so I’ve moved it to 52. More is always better if it’s sustainable.
A word about article submissions. I recently discovered that MSWord permits people to use a format called “html typewriter” which is a virulent format. It attempts to convert all subsequent openings of MSWord as the same type. I discovered this early and killed off one submitted article. Please guys, don’t use any type of fancy formatting for your articles. The simpler the better. Better yet, a straight paste from your articles to my page layout would be Times New Roman 12 point font in “Normal” style.
Also, I’ve been asked about editorial columns. Do I intend to have any? Well, that isn’t something I’d previously considered, though at least one subscriber did offer to author one such column (he wasn’t the one who asked the question). I personally am not inclined to write editorials. Not my style and I’d end up sounding like “Dr. John Becker”, a character not only can I identify with and like, but who is almost always correct J If you don’t watch Ted Dansen’s show you won’t get that one. On the other hand I’m not averse to the idea. I even like the idea of columns if they serve a purpose, just as long as I am not the one writing them. I think a column similar to the old General columns for Squad Leader advice would be great. Columns which support the discussion of tactics and strategies for specific popular games would indeed be a good idea. I was even asked about such a column for computer games. Well, computer games are not exactly the focus of ‘Old Soldiers’ unless that is you’re writing an article discussing how to get your old Atari game to work on your new computer. The magazine’s format is the discussion of older games, so discussions about new computer games doesn’t exactly fit.
Speaking of computers. We need a website. I’ve had offers to host webpages, but no one has stepped forward to build such a site. I’m not computer literate enough to build a web page with forums and the like. So, it’s going to take the efforts of someone who is and who is, like me, dedicated to old wargames. I need someone to step up to the plate on this one.
Since this first issue is to be free and in electronic format only, I’ve told those wargame companies that have been supportive that I’d be more than happy to run free adds. Oddly, not a one has taken me up on that. I do intend to sell advertising space as a means of subsidizing things like new counter sheets.
Speaking of new counter sheets, I’ve received a quote for small print runs. They’re going to be more expensive than I had any idea of. Unless we receive some moderate amount of advertising, I feel counter sheets may not be immediately possible. We’d need to have a sizeable number of subscribers to pull that off, with nearly all of them buying the sheets. We’ve been in touch with Critical Hit/Moments in History to produce counter sheets. They’re more than willing to do this for us. Ray Tapio, their owner/manager has also been most cordial and helpful with his advice. I’d like to thank him for that.
Also, one wargame company suggested that any attempt to produce counters that had the same “look and feel” as original game counters, even if the new counters represented units not in the original game and not possessing the same artwork would be considered a copyright violation. On the other hand, I’ve had reliable counsel on that matter indicating the said “look and feel” argument is nothing but smoke and mirrors, BS in other words. Afterall, if that were true then Parker Brothers would owe the makers of Parchese for tokens, and Avalon Hill would owe the makers of ‘Checkers’ tons for the use of round tokens resembling Checker pieces. Simply put, the “look and feel” argument is as bogus as it gets, but it does represent rattling of sabers by one company’s lawyers. I’m hoping they have better sense than to do more than complain.

Well, keep up the good work, and do your best to get the word out about Old Soldiers. This month’s main focus is the publishing of our first free issue. So, authors please make a concerted effort to put fingers to keyboards and bang out those articles. I’d like to have them before the 25th so I can have them laid out and ready for transmission to the readership by the 30th. The size of the magazine’s first issue is running to about 3.5 mb in it’s first 15 pages, so extrapolating the total size of the first issue will probably run to about 12 mb. So, I may take advantage of Jonathan Arnold’s “TheWargamer.com” page to post the first issue for free download sending you only the link to those pages. This will beat receiving a 12 mb download in your mail box (which of course many of you would be unable to receive because most mail boxes are limited to a 1 to 10 mb per mailing download limit). Anyway, I am hoping to receive more articles quickly, not only for this issue, but to begin to build a stock of articles for future issues.
I’ll keep you all informed of future progress.

Take Care,
Tom Cundiff
Old Soldiers Magazine
tgunslinger@excite.com

Howdy Ladies & Gents,

We’ve reached 65+ subscriber. Remember, we need a minimum of 110 to go to print, so we’ve a ways to go yet. So, keep up the pressure on your friends and do your best to get the word out to your favorite gaming groups/forums.

The First Issue is growing. There are now 7 articles written and laid out. Thirty Five pages of the 52 allotted are completed. The articles so far are:

Advantages of Interior Sea Lanes in Conquistador (AH) By: Forest Cole
The Fabric of Belgian Skies: Scenarios for the Airforce/Dauntless System (Battleline/AH) By: Tom Cundiff, Mike Rowles, & Colin Lynch
Variant Rules For Panzer ’44 (SPI’s) By: Steven Bucey
A Change of Scenery in B-17 Queen of the Skies (AH) By Steve Dixon
The Sequence of “The Draw”: Ordering The Card Draw in Gunslinger (AH) By Tom Cundiff and Ruben Rigillo
The Defense Of Rorke’s Drift : Errata : Sept/2004 (3W) By Peter Bertram (Designer of Rorke’s Drift)
Rules Clarifications For Dune 2nd Edition (Descartes Games/AH) By Alan Arvold

Author’s we need to fill at least 17 more pages. So, I need more articles to complete this first issue. Furthermore, we need to begin building a stock of articles for future issues. Authors are what drive a magazine.

I continue to be amazed that from all of the well wishes and support from the various wargame companies I’ve received not a single one has taken advantage of the offer for free advertising to place a single add. It’s not often that something free is offered to a company, especially advertising space. I’d have thought the game companies out there would have been quick to jump on a free opportunity.

Well, that’s enough for now.

Take Care,
Tom Cundiff
Old Soldiers Magazine
tgunslinger@excite.com