"Charge ceasing publication in August" Topic

Debi and I have struggled in the past year with getting folks to submit Johnny Reb scenarios for publication in the Charge newsletter. We have appreciated the fantastic support from the JR gaming community for the past decade, but it's getting tougher and tougher to have a backlog of material to use in the quarterly issues.

If you have any scenarios sitting around collecting dust which might be of interest to JR gamers, why not send them to me for the next two (and final) issues of Charge.

That's right. Final.

After 10 years of preparing, printing, collating, and mailing Charge to as many as 200 people each quarter, with rising postal prices, declining membership, and my change in historical focus from wargaming to writing Civil War books and speaking on the CWRT lecture circuit, the time has finally come.

The August issue of Charge will be the last issue.

It has been our pleasure to serve the wargaming hobby through this publication, which has been a labor of love for so long for us. Charge has been a neat thing for Debi and I as a couple to do together, but the four grandsons take up more of her time and my work career and writing second career take up much of mine.

In July or so we will refund the residual money for any time left on membership dues which stretch past August (most people's memberships run out in August, which is why we are ending Charge then). Back issues will remain available on the Wargame Vault, as well occasional new digital material I plan on writing in the future.

With Charge gone, I can actually spend more time writing scenario books, something I really enjoy have had almost no time to work on for the past few years with changes in my professional career (the paper industry is shrinking and managers and executives are taking on far broader roles which mean much more hours on the road for me).

Thanks for all the contributions over the years!

So, let's go out with a bang. We still need articles and scenarios for the final two issues. I want to load them up with as much good stuff as possible.

Yours in the service of the hobby,

Scott and Debi Mingus
York, Pennsylvania

Bill,

Please correct the typo in the heading to publication.

wow. very sad news. i hope we can look forword to new scenerio books from scott in the future.

Scott,

Have you considered what you are going to do with the past issues (guessing that you have them in electronic form)? I'm not a JR player, but there are probably a lot of articles that would lend themselves to other games systems and/or interests. Just curious…

JM

All of the back issues have been available for some time on the Wargaming Vault and they can be downloaded in digital form there.

Thanks to Scott and Debi for all their hard work. I know I for one often thought of submitting an article and just didn't get to it. For that I am sorry, and just want to say I do appreciate getting Charge and I do appreciate the amount of work it takes to put out a publication. So from what I expect is a silent majority, sincere thanks. Rob.

Scott, thank you for all the hard work and contributions to Civil War gaming! I look forward to more of your scenarios and books in the future!

Rob,

There's still time to submit an article for the final two issues!

Scott

Scott, thanks for contributing so very much to the hobby. The magazine was clearly a labor of love. I will miss it!

Thanks for all your work Scott. I hope all the issues beyond 36 will be put on the Vault for download as well!

Thanks for all the kind words!

Who knows… perhaps there may be an annual or bi-annual special all-digital edition of Charge to come in future years?

I am sure after Debi and I have some time off from the quarterly hard copy newsletter that I will keep my foot in the water, so to speak, with regimental-level ACW gaming scenarios and news.

Scott

Congratulations on a long ten year run with the magazine. I'm sure that you will enjoy your 'retirement' after the last issue goes to press. I went through the same thing with the SYW Assn. Journal after seven years.

This was my introduction to ACW gaming.

Really enjoyed the magazine – thank you.

Richard

Scott, thanks for all of your effort. It was greatly appreciated.

Thank you for all of your time and effort with Charge! I'm glad I could contribute, and I wish I could have found the time to do more in the past few years.

Sounds like a good life decision for your family, though Charge will be missed by us JR players.

Yep, my writing career is really taking off, and I have contracts or commitments for four more books. Unfortunately, wargaming (and some other of my hobbies) needs to take a back seat for awhile.

link

The link will take you to my author's page on amazon

Scott

Whatever happened to "Gettysburg Army Lists", will it be at the Vault at some point?

I am almost finished with it. It was delayed because of commitments with two of my publishers for me to finish my two latest books, Confederate General William "Extra Billy" Smith: From Virginia's Statehouse to Gettysburg Scapegoat and Echoing Still: More Civil War Voices from York County, Pa.. Now that both books are at the respective printers, I will have more time to finished the Gettysburg Army Lists digital file for the Wargame Vault.

Cool