In my support-a-company-I-like philosophy, a couple of years ago I signed up for series subscriptions to all of the game series published by The Gamers, a wargaming company. I have about 40 of their wargames, collected over the last few years, and they auto- matically mail me their new games, 2-4 titles a year.

I first became interested in the company because of the positive word-of-mouth on rec.games.board. This was a company that people were loyal to, who had good games and good customer service. The first few games I bought were all at the same time, at the flea market of one of the RPG conventions I used to go to.

They currently publish 7 series of games. Each series of related games has one set of rules, with short game-specific rules for each game. The series design and games have won several wargaming awards, including awards for the graphics, which are consistenly better than the industry norm.

The Civil War Brigade Series is noted for its command system. You write orders to each division, which may or may not be accepted in a timely manner by the commander. You get the sense of how hard it is to control an army as some divisions obey their orders while others delay or misinterpret your orders. The series is the staple of The Gamers. There is also a Civil War Regimental Series where one counter is a regiment, which translates to hundreds of counters for Gettysburg and something like 6 maps. The Napoleonic Brigade Series is similar to the CWBS except for the scale.

The Tactical Combat Series is a platoon-scale series, dealing mostly with World War II. It also has a command system, although this one is more involved as you have to fill out an army-type OP sheet which are the orders for your whole side. The Standard Combat Series is for more traditionallay designed wargames. One side moves, then the other side moves. No orders. Covering battles, again mostly for WWII.

The Operational Combat Series has probably the most complicated to play games. Not so much that the rules are hard, but winning requires a lot of work. This series focuses on fronts and theatres. Covers large areas with army groups on each side. Logistics is the important factor in these games. You don't have enough of it, so you have to plan ahead to supply the units you need to support your operations.

The Gamers, about 2-3 years ago, after losing money for a couple of years, decided to stop distributing their games and to sell only through direct mail. A game that costs $40 only makes a company $7 if the game is sold at a retail store. Selling direct you only need to sell a fraction of the games to make the same amount of money. Since instituting this change, The Gamers have slowly reduced their debt while still publishing about 4 games a year. They now only publish 2000 copies for each release, which sells out after a year or two. A good rate, meeting almost all of the demand without requiring a lot of warehouse space.

This is a company that has reprinted maps and mailed them out to all known owners. They have a yearly counter sheet, with all of the errata fixed, that's mailed out to any recent buyer. They're prompt to answer questions. All in all a company that shows that they care about their customers and about delivering quality products. And that's why I support them.