St George’s Day has sent me off on a major Elgar kick. Today I have reached the Elgar-Payne 3rd Symphony, Naxos recording – wonderful, and a bargain too!

Keith Jones, a friend of James, responding to my recent raves about Down in Flames writes: “Are you aware that DiF is now on GMT's P250 list? Please tell everyone because I want a copy and it's not getting many committed buyers.”

I’ve never actually tried out the GMT P500 program myself, but I am drooling over the list, especially Thirty Years War - very tempted to give it a go. Have a look.

By the way, P500 is a method employed by GMT to work out which games are likely to sell. You preorder (at a substantial discount) and when they have got 500 takers they commit to producing the game. Your credit card gets debited a few weeks before they ship. P250 is the same idea for reprints of existing games.

Talking of drooling, I just received Paths of Glory. A grand theme, lots of strategy, rules are fairly simple, and it looks luscious. Should have the rules taped by next week, then I’ll be looking for an opponent!