News from SPUK / Malcolm Watson As you will know by now, we were recently thrown into a state of chaos by a dock strike in the States which started October 1st and went on until early December. This delayed the posting of S&T 64 and Moves 35 by 7 weeks and 3 weeks respectively. Since the strike lasted for over two months it is fair to assume that there will be a considerable backlog in New York and I expect S&T 65 to be 2-3 weeks late in arriving, and Moves 36 about the same. Hopefully, by the time S&T 66 is due to go out we will get back on schedule for our subscriptions. Dwelling on the thorny subject of schedules. SPI are still falling behind with their new titles and have decided to draw up a completely fresh timetable. Games which were due in late '77 will not be available in the States until Spring or later. I do not have details of the new release dates at present however a quick telephone call to us will enable you to get the latest information to hand. Items now in stock are Air War '78(SPI), Citadel (GDW) - œ7.75, Fire & Movement 8 - 95p, Dungeons & Dragons new edition (TSR) - œ7.50, Jan Zizka & Hussite Wars (SDC Booklet) - œ1.50 and Hammer of God (GDW, 68 page booklet on the Yom Kippur War) - œ3.00. Expected late January are Drive on Stalingrad (SPI), Wargame Design (S&T Staff Study Nr2, the "inside" story of how games are designed and produced) - œ5.50. In late February we hope to have Up Scope (SPI) and Red Sun Rising(SPI). Finally in March/April we should have SPl's 'The War in the East' book which is being published by Arms & Armour Press. No price is available on this at present. All prices quoted above include P&P. You will note that we do not have a feedback results section in this issue of Phoenix. This is because we got only a 5% response to the Phoenix 9 questions. I imagine this is directly related to the fact that you were not in a position to reply to the S&T feedback. Whatever the reason we felt that the low response (we normally get 10% to 15%) would give a false picture and we decided to pass this one over. Finally, we have for sale a limited number of 'Destruction of Army Group Centre' (œ4.99 boxed, œ3.99 unboxed), 'Arnhem' Collectors Edition with mounted mapboard (œ6.75 boxed only) and 'Assassinate Hitler' unmounted maps (œ1.00 Z-packs only). Prices include P&P. Thus endeth the shortest News from SPUK in the history of Phoenix. No doubt there will be much more information to impart in the next issue. STOP PRESS The shipment, carrying S&T 64, which was caught up in the US dock strike, landed at Greenock on 20th December and got to Liver pool December 28th just in time to become enmeshed in a good ole UK dock strike. The latest information that we have is that the Liverpool dockers will be meeting January 11 th to decide whether or not to go back to work and prospects of an early settlement are quite good! If the strike goes on for long, S&T 65 will also get caught in it but hopefully this will not be the case. SPI are to increase the base price of all S8.00 games, back listed S9.00 games and S&T sub scription issues in February. At the moment I do not know how thiswill affect us. I am hoping that the increased strength of the pound against the dollar will offset the increases but will need to recost the whole line before making any firm decision. We will, of course, honour all S&T subscriptions taken out prior to any subscription price rise. It looks like we will be marketing the 'Lord of the Rings' game in the UK after all. SPI are to talk to the copyright holders early in February and are hopeful that they will get the go ahead to sell the game world wide. Finally, we have now received the following games direct from Battleline: Flat Top œ9.65: Alpha Omega œ8.55; Objective Atlanta œ7.55; Viva Espana œ6.45. Supplies are limited and when they run out we will be resupplying through Battleline's UK Agents at which point we will be bound by their higher prices. Also now in stock we have Nicky Palmer's book "The Comprehensive Guide to Board War gaming" at œ6.50. All prices include post and packing.