Take a journey with us back to July 1976, when a small wargame club in Amarillo Texas (led by Steve Cole) turned into a real company that produced an award-winning magazine filled with articles, variants, and reviews. The "Iron Age" of JagdPanther continued with color cardstock covers, one-piece multi-color maps, and die-cut counters.
The game in this issue was Warsaw Pact, a World War III game with the Russian invasion of western Europe.
The editorial discussed the development of the magazine, business, and industry. It mentioned some experiments we had tried and how they turned out. The main history article was about the problems faced by the Warsaw Pact in conquering Europe.
Rules variants included alternate minor nation activations in Third Reich, a better First Punic War scenario for Punic Wars, a way to spread out units in any strategic land game, tracking pilots in Battle of Britain, the missing spells for Sorcerer, British amphibious landings in any game about the North African campaign against Rommel, attacking German dockside depots in Narvik, forming battle groups from destroyed units in France 1940, rules improvements for Combined Arms, and splitting fire in Midway.
Alternate history scenarios included German units in Spanish Civil War, an alternate starting line for War in the East, German and Italian intervention in Chaco, and German intervention in Port Arthur.
New units included: submarines in the SPI game CA, stats for newly deployed real world units in Mech War, airborne and Marine units for Revolt in the East, Dutch units in Cromwell, shore batteries in Wooden Ships and Iron Men, masked merchantmen in Global War, stats for more armored vehicles for Tank, and ironclads in the game Frigate.
New scenarios were provided for Panzer Armee Afrika (focusing on El Alamein), American intervention in a South American banana war in Viva, a later scenario for White Bear and red Moon, a Wake Island scenario for Marine, unbalanced scenarios in any naval game, West Wall (using units from each of the four games in the others), an alternative WW3 scenario for Anvil-Dragoon, and an Italian scenario for Panzer Leader.
Reviews included Bar Lev, Sea Strike, Brandy Station, and Formalhaut II.
The company was riding high and paying its bills (but not its owners). Nobody knew that the company had only four months to live.
