Map and Counters

I'm Back At Last And Ready To Resume Blogging!

For those regular visitors to "Map and Counters" who have been following my latest round of computer-related problems, I'm pleased to report that it looks like the transition from my old (and faltering) laptop to a (hopefully) more robust and durable desktop is now complete. Thanks to the tireless efforts of my wife (who had to do most of these transfers after finishing long days of her own at the office), my files have now all been successfully transferred and, barring something unforeseen, I expect to be able to resume publishing fresh material in the next day or two. Of course, after a month-long break from writing, it will be interesting to see just how quickly I can return to my previous and, time-wise at least, relatively demanding blogging routine. On the plus side, I already have a number of projects in the works so my return to the keyboard certainly won't be the challenge that it would be if I was starting out with absolutely nothing in the "idea hopper".

In a slightly different vein, it is no doubt obvious that the last few weeks have been a bit frustrating for me; therefore, I am especially grateful to those of my regular readers who have been willing to offer both thoughtful advice and more general encouragement: your help and comments have all been welcome and appreciated. In addition, I also want to extend my sincerest thanks to all of my blog's visitors (whatever their individual gaming interests) for their loyalty during this month-long publishing "dry spell". I am profoundly grateful for this support.

Finally, as noted in a previous post, my long holiday away from the computer keyboard has allowed me to revisit a number of titles that, for one reason or another, I have tended to ignore of late. The Avalon Hill "classics", STALINGRAD and WATERLOO, for example, are personal favorites of mine that, because of their age and limited appeal, I have largely skipped over in my previous essays: this is an oversight (in deference to the grognards who visit my blog) that I plan on correcting in the coming months. I also expect to offer new "game profiles" on a few more titles from Rand Game Associates (RGA) and Operational Studies Group (OSG) to compliment my regular quota of SPI, Avalon Hill, and GDW games. Moreover, my extended time at the game table has also rekindled my interest in writing a new batch of "game analysis" essays; hence, I expect to tackle at least a couple of games in this way (Dunnigan's interesting, if under-appreciated NATO being one of them) before too much more time passes. In the end, I suppose that it could be said that my hiatus away from blogging has had at least one signal benefit: it has reminded me that there are a wide-ranging collection of gaming topics about which I still have the desire to write. And given the fact that I have already published over three hundred posts on "Map and Counters", that, in and of itself, is probably no small thing.