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Friday, June 01, 2007

Crunch Time

It's June 1st. The next four weeks are the busiest, most stressful, and most important of the entire year.

In about a week, the die-cut counters for FC: Battleships Attack and for SFB Module R11 will go to press. That should be 5 or 6 June. Which means I better get busy doing the graphics for them. I had to spend all of the day doing the R11 Master Ship Chart because the data on the R11 counters comes from that chart. Petrick actually does all that stuff, but I have to punch in the data because if he ever learns Excel, he won't need me at all.

A week after that, the laminated ship cards for FC:BA will to press. Fortunately, those are finished, and could go to press today but I'm letting the playtesters have another ten days. They'll go to press about 12 or 13 June.

A week later, the covers for FC:BA and SFB:R11 go to press. That should be easy. We have the art and Matt has done the layouts. I just have to write the 100 or so words of hype to go on the covers. Say 20 June.

In the final days of June, we'll use our high-capacity laser engines to print the rulebooks for those two products.

Everything will land on the dock about 27 June, allowing us to pack both games over the weekend.

On 2 July, we'll ship the two products to the wholesales about 4:30 and at 5:00 I'll be driving out of the parking lot a truckload of games and Steve Petrick (who will grouch for the first hour until we get to Shamrock for supper and he gets to drive, since he hates to "not drive"). We'll get to Tulsa about midnight and get a good night's sleep. Tuesday 3 July is the best day of the entire year, a quiet 10-hour drive through green countryside on nice interstate highways, with great BBQ at Missouri Mile Marker 163 (on I44) at Sweetwater. Last year, Petrick and I got to have lunch with some Bulgarian officers in the US for training. I never thought I'd see that. Maybe in 10 years we'll be having lunch at the same place with North Koreans? Or Iranians?

It's gotta be an intense month. If you want SVC or SPP to do something, and it's not for Origins, be prepared for a memo saying your request is in "The 10 July File".