#52 "Brandy Station, Maiwand, October War, Stellar Conquest"

The lead article is a review of issue #14 of Panzerschreck magazine, which until now was an innovative amateur publication with complete wargames inside. Now it's an equally good professional magazine, with complete wargames inside, now with color printing and die-cut counters. Check out Line of Departure Issue 52 to read more about it, and the boardgames Brandy Station and Race to the Vistula.

Science fiction returns to the print edition with the article on Avalon Hill's edition of Stellar Conquest. This game is one of the best in the genre, and as a boardgame it presages much of what we now know and enjoy from 4X and RTS computer games.

The centerpiece of the magazine though is a long look back at SPI's game of armored tactics in the Yom Kippur War of 1973, October War. The article examines the game on its own, as well as in the context of its contemporary designs, and as a late member of the PanzerBlitz family. Look for optional rules introducing Soviet-style doctrine for the Arab armies and for refinements of October War's system for small unit panic.