BradsTinyWorld - you might be able to reduce the number of loops by reading this, which basically says if this is the first post post it in full, otherwise post excerpts
http://perishablepress.com/press/2007/11/14/easily-adaptable-wordpress-loop-templates/
Similar to this
http://www.cameraontheroad.com/?p=732
What I need to do is display three posts across the top of the page, magazine style. That's one loop.
Underneath it I want four posts from one category; then another four from another category; then another four from another category. And then a different section below that. The layout I can work my way round; the categories I'm not sure about. I don't really want to have 6 or seven loops.
Apart from comments, pings and date, are there any conditional tags that can be used within The Loop?
http://codex.wordpress.org/Conditional_Tags
Or is there any other way of saying, if in category 3, display latest 3 posts; if in category 4, display latest 3 posts etc? A counter would get me to 3 posts, six posts, but is it possible to select categories?