August 2000 Armchair General's Review I'm back from the front lines of personal commitments, and am ready to brief you all on the latest happenings in IAAPA. The 4th Annual IAAPA convention is now in the History Books. A small but very capable collection of A&A enthusiasts met once again to test their metal in face to face competition. The Holiday Inn Boardwalk in Las Vegas was the site of this year's contest. In addition to our traditional tournament, many pick-up games and team games were played, as well as variant play. AARommel blasted his way through the competition and convinced all present that he is the one to beat in IAAPA. If you can get past his game, you've earned it! T-Shirts were again available after a 1 year hiatus, and look rather nice. A limited supply remain, at a cost of $20 plus shipping. I'll try to get a picture of the 3 year's artwork up on the site and ask for those interested to contact us soon. The T-shirts have definately helped me find a new opponent here and there, and they look great too! Tourney Info We're presently looking at reworking our Tourney system to allow for more chances to compete in a variety of playing formats. Send any and all suggestions to tourney@REMOVETHISaxisandallies.net. Recruiting Info We are almost finished automating some of the recruiting process. An automated hurdle exam, will help get things going a bit faster for new recruits. I'll keep you posted on it's progress. Rankings Announcement At year end all members will receive a ranking certificate. This certificate will show your rank as of Dec 31, 2000. The site will continue to show your current rank, and all computations will be based upon your daily ranking. I'll publish the current ranks and recognize the rising stars in the IAAPA regularly. Changes in the newsletter The Armchair General's Review will get an upgrade starting in September. I'll be publishing a printed newsletter and mailing it out to everyone each month. Of course in order to receive the newsletter, I'll need a good address to send it to, so please let us know where to send it. The Newsletter will be called IAAPA Command HQ. It will feature a regular rules explanation, rankings info, tourney updates, and a strategy column. Info regarding face to face playing oportunities and local chapters in your area will also be included. T-Shirts IAAPA will be raising funds to support Prizes for Tournaments, through T-Shirt Sales. Please support the IAAPA by purchasing a T-Shirt. We'll scan some photos of the shirts onto the web-site for you to see. Membership Drive IAAPA has built an amazing resource for all A&A enthusiast, in our ranking system, message boards, players pool, dice server, and archives of games. It hasn't come without costs however, with our Web Site Hosting costs rising stedily each year. I made a plea for donations to help cover the costs, but unfortunately we only had 20 donors, falling far short of our goals. Because of this, we've had to make a shift to a dues collecting organization. I've done all I can to keep the cost to the bare minimum, at $1 a month. I'm asking everyone to send $16 in by September 1st, 2000 to keep your account active. I'll be inactivating all membership accounts then, and reinstating those that send in their dues. It's really a very small amount ( less than a coke and candy bar ), and $16 will cover you through December 2001. All new members will pay $1 a month from whenever they join to the next December. All memberships will again expire on Dec 31st of each year starting with 2001. Send your dues in check of money order form (in US Dollars) made out to and mailed to: Richard Fitzgerald IAAPA HQ 223 Albania St Luling, LA 70070 I'm crediting the donors with membership through Dec 31st, 2001 so you guys don't have to send anything in. I'll send those donors an e-mail letting you know you're ok. AOL Wargamer's HQ If you didn't know about it, AOL has an area reserved for live play in a chatroom called the Wargamer's HQ. If you are an AOLer, just go to Keyword A&A and select the Wargamer's HQ. You can play live using your board at home or the McD Map utility and the built in dice roller in the room. This play method is just as quick as the CDRom/Zone method and doesn't crash! Drop by and visit and chat sometime, and play some live games whenever you wish. That's about it for August's Review, look for the New IAAPA Command HQ newsletter in your mailboxes in Mid September. ToddVomit President of IAAPA