On the Net by Alan PoulterNEWSThe International Gamers AwardsThe International Gamers Awards announced the finalists for the 2004 award for the Historical Simulations category. This complete list of this year's nominees includes, in alphabetical order:
For thumbnail reviews of all the nominated games, as well as biographies of the committee members (which includes me!), please visit the International Gamers Awards website at: htttp://www.internationalgamersawards.netThe Traditional Wargame Business ModelThe following was written by Kevin Zucker, veteran designer of Napoleonic games, who runs his own company OSG, in his email newsletter, Operational Studies Group Report (March 30th, 2004). It is reproduced here as it is an excellent primer on the economics of contemporary board wargame publishing: “Over the years the model of how games are sold in this trade has changed, especially since the implosion of the market in the mid-1990's. Prior to that, we could expect to sell at least 2,000 copies of a Napoleonic Game. (The Emperor Returns and Napoleon at Leipzig, from Clash of Arms, each sold over 4,000.) The formula required a strong network of distributors. In those days there were no web sales, but over a dozen major distributors. Direct mail sales required having a regular way of communicating with the core audience, such as a magazine. When we released Napoleon at Bay in 1997, one distributor, Berkeley games, took 144 copies on day one. That is a $2800 order. They came back with a reorder for 72 more copies before the end of that year. In the mid- to late-nineties all of the distributors were absorbed by one giant distributor, which became so big that they were no longer interested in our product. We decided to start selling direct to the stores and bypass this distributor entirely. That was in May of 2003. Clash of Arms was having success with this method, and since Clash had been our fulfilment agent through July of 2000, we knew which stores were buying our product. Gradually, however, we have found it harder and harder to get the stores to order. Generally, they'll only order when there is a new game. They will take a few of the new game and one or two each of the back list. The stores prefer to place one order with the distributor for all their game products.Prior to 1995, Clash of Arms could print 2,000 copies and sell a few hundred direct mail and the balance at sharp discounts to distributors. That business model worked because they were moving out 1,500 units of a title on day one; something like this: Pre-1995 Model (print run 2,000) Direct Sales 200x $40 $8,000 Distributors 1300x $16 $20,800 Remaining in-stock 500 If you can increase your direct sales via the web and decrease your discount by selling direct to stores at 45% off instead of distributors at 60% off - then you can realize the same income per title. Transitional Model (print run 1,500) Direct Sales 300 x $40 $12,000 Stores 800 x $20 $16,000 Remaining in-stock 400 Now, however, we are seeing a collapse of the store market for our type of games. The store owners we talk to, who are old grognards, want to keep our games in stock, but commit all their dollars to German games, role-playing and collectible card games. We are now moving toward a new business model, which is based almost entirely upon direct sales plus overseas distributors and a few stores. As a result of this new business model, our gross income for 2003 was actually down by one-fifth from our gross in 2001. We have to find a way to invite those store customers back to ordering by mail or on the web. Practically all of our direct sales now come via the website. If someone doesn't have access to the web or cannot make a purchase from work, potentially half of our audience, they cannot order. So one very important piece of this puzzle is to be able to reach those guys who used to purchase our games in the stores. It means doing more mailings, and perhaps sending out a free copy of Wargame Design from time to time, but it requires a marketing budget to generate those sales. By the same token we would like to expand our website. It would be great to have an alternative to the paypal order form, as that would allow us greater flexibility with discounts and would avoid lost customers who don't like paypal. We could maximize our sales by having a better, more flexible order form and by having more information on the website, discussion boards, that would provide a resource of great interest. Unfortunately, all these things take time, and we have to keep our website updates limited to small weekly bites. If we had the requisite dollars to invest in the website, I am sure it would make a big difference.”The Non-Traditional Wargame Business ModelLest the previous item seem a little depressing, the following is a post from Consimworld (the online discussion forum for board wargaming at http://www.consimworld.com). The post is written by John Kranz, who runs Consimworld, and who also organises an annual board wargaming convention supported by this online community, ConsimWorld (CSW) Expo. The 2004 Expo has just finished and was a great success. For reports see: http://grognard.com/info1/consim04.txt John seems to be on the verge of using his online community as a base not just for stimulating talking about and playing wargames but for publishing them as well, via a new company called Consim Press: Greetings from CSW Expo It's 1:20am, so please excuse me as I keep this note short. As eluded to, there has been quite a bit of effort behind the formation of Consim Press over the past few months. Work is continuing to launch the web site this summer but for now, I simply wanted to get the word out that Consim Press indeed exists and we have some great initial projects in store for everyone. Work on the initial titles is taking place in earnest, as developers are in place for all projects. We have separate, private forums taking place to facilitate the playtesting and development process, to facilitate collaboration amongst the playtesters, developer, designer, and art director. Speaking of the art director, yes -- that would be none other than Craig Grando. I've been a long-time fan of Craig's work and impressed upon GMT Games to utilize his talents which I'm happy to see has happened. Craig is responsible for the entire enchilada when it comes to graphic presentation I consider him the 'Rodger MacGowan' of Consim Press. I think we can expect some great things from Craig in presenting our products in a very compelling way for all to enjoy. I don't have much time to give my elevator pitch on the goals of Consim Press at this time, but I think it's safe to state that one can anticipate a melding of new ideas with classic tradition. Don't be surprised to gain a sense of the original SPI look-and-feel when it comes to certain packaging aims, but also we look forward to introducing some new concepts into the mix - such as the Talking Version audio CD in every box which will include designer interview, game tutorial and more. We will also place a heavy emphasis in supporting and promoting our designers, which will include a Designer Rewards program as products hit the market. In terms of the landscape of games lined up, I would like to add that we are also working with Vance von Borries on a two-mapper game on Tunisia. This is operational in scope, with game development by Michael Welker. A preliminary version of this game is currently on the gaming tables here at CSW Expo. Of the games in the hopper right now, Age of Bismarck is the furthest along in terms of development. John B. Firer has poured considerable effort into this design that dates several years. It's quite polished at this point, and refinements will continue as we brighten the polish on this design that I consider akin to a Power Politics type treatment. The heaviest development traffic currently taking place is on Great Battles of the 30 Years War, in a positive sense. Michael Welker is also developing this Ben Hull design and there is a lot of playtest activity now taking place. This one is deep in the cooker. Veldt Commando is primarily in the playtest/scenario balance mode. Dennis Bishop did a great job on Lion of Ethiopia for XTR way back when, and this topic matter returns Dennis to his "sweet spot." We've got Paul Rohrbaugh on board and he has applied a nifty game system with Devil Takes All. This is a system which we expect to get considerable mileage out of to cover many other historical situations. Paul was intrigued by this battle, so we thought we'd get this system introduced by covering what many would consider an obscure battle compared to the typical 'big-named' ACW battles out there. Salamis shows that we will not only focus on card-driven games (like Age of Bismarck and Thirty Years), or the traditional boardgame treatment coming in Veldt Commando and Devil Takes All, but also place an emphasis on true monster size titles as well. Craig Grando will work his wizardry to turn what began as a Rob Markham DTP effort (51 units being published in all), to a completely new and polished monster game treatment which will feature the return of the SPI style detergent box. There is more to say on these initial projects, but not tonight as it's 1:30am and I need to catch a few hours sleep. I'll do my best to answer a few questions, but understand I'm buried neck deep in CSW Expo at this time and may not be able to respond in a timely fashion. In closing, I look forward to placing a CSW partner hat on myself and working with many talented individuals. I thank you in advance for your support and look forward to launching the official Consim Press web site later this summer.” Wargames in the newsFinally, the following appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education, March 27th: “A former top Vietnamese military leader surprised Paul H. Rohrbaugh, a librarian at Youngstown State University, in Ohio, by buying 100 copies of a board game Mr. Rohrbaugh had created. Called "Valle de la Mort" ("Valley of Death"), the game depicts the siege of Dien Bien Phu, where Communist guerrillas under that leader, Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, overwhelmed French troops in 1954 and brought an end to French rule in Vietnam. The battle was "their Gettysburg," says Mr. Rohrbaugh, noting that it caused the north-south split that led to U.S. military involvement. General Giap led the Vietnamese forces that fought American troops. Now retired in Vietnam, General Giap loves the game, according to Mr. Rohrbaugh, who says the general plays it with his former officers and has put copies on display in the battlefield's on-site museum and in his units' military archives. As a thank-you gift, General Giap even sent the librarian an autographed copy. Mr. Rohrbaugh, a lifelong fan of military history, has designed 26 other board games that depict battles from around the world. "It's a way of introducing history by stealth, by having fun," he says. But not until General Giap's purchase last year had Mr. Rohrbaugh ever heard from a participant in one of the battles. Take his game based on the 1973 Yom Kippur War that pitted Israel against Egypt and Syria, for example. "I haven't heard anything from Ariel Sharon," says Mr. Rohrbaugh.” NEW GAMES Avalon Hill/Hasbro Axis & Allies D-Day, designed by Axis & Allies designer Larry Harris, covers the landings in Normandy in 1944. Its mounted area map shows all the landing areas, the Cherbourg Peninsula and goes inland to encompass St. Lo and Caen. It has 240 neat plastic figures for infantry, tanks (Panthers and Shermans), anti tank guns (88’s), fighter planes, bombers and German blockhouse defences. Unlike previous incarnations of Axis & Allies, this game has three decks of cards. Order cards simply reiterate the sequence of play, while fortune and tactics cards have a fixed order of appearance and bring random events into play. All in all this is a solid game with the strongest historical feel of the Axis & Allies stable. See: http://www.avalonhill.com Days of Wonder Days of Wonder publishes a range of strategy/family board games. For example, it’s latest hit is Ticket to Ride, a very neat railway game that is in the running for the prestigious ‘Spiel des Jahres’ German prize for best family game. They are being mentioned here as they have just published the latest game from Richard Borg, designer of Battle Cry. Descended from Battle Cry, Memoir '44 covers some of the most important battles of World War Two including Omaha Beach, Pegasus Bridge, Operation Cobra and the Ardennes. Each battle is covered in one of 15 different battle scenarios. Battles take place on a double-sided hex game board which flips for either beach landings or countryside combat. The game includes 144 detailed army miniatures for infantry, tanks and artillery, obstacle and special terrain tiles and 60 Command cards. These cards are central to the game as players must use them to move and fight with their infantry, paratroops, tanks, artillery and resistance fighters. Memoir ‘44 is designed for 2 players but easily accommodates team play. For example, in Overlord scenarios, up to eight players can conduct large scale operations, experiencing the challenges of troop coordination and military chain of command on a large scale battlefield. Memoir ’44 is not only a good game but will get wide distribution and recognition because of its publisher. See: http://www.memoir44.com/ Decision Games To the Green Fields Beyondand Kaiserschlacht 1918 are two reprinted games (incorporating errata where necessary) which have just been re-issued in ziplock format by Decision Games but bearing an imprint from Excalibre Games. To the Green Fields Beyond covers the Battle of Cambrai and Kaiserschlacht 1918 the final doomed German offensive on the Western Front in World War One. Kaiserschlacht 1918 was originally published by Spence and Gabel Games but later reprinted by Excalibre Games. In the case of To the Green Fields Beyond, which was originally issued by SPI, when Decision Games bought most of the SPI boxed game titles, Excalibre Games bought most of the Strategy & Tactics magazine game titles. Some trading occurred afterwards so that Decision Games ended up with World War One and Battle for Germany and other magazine games while Excalibre Games got To the Green Fields Beyond and others. Another World War One game from Decision Games is The Cossacks are Coming! on Eastern Front campaigns. This game was originally issued by People’s Wargames but this edition is a revamp by Bro Games. See: http://www.decisiongames.com/ Fiery Dragon Brian Train has sold three games to Fiery Dragon Productions that were released as DTP games by Microgame Design Group. The three are Arriba Espana (on the Spanish Civil War), Battle for China (on the Chinese Civil War) and Freikorps (on a hypothetical Communist insurrection in Germany in the 1920s). Arriba Espana is the first to appear: it has mounted, perforated (not die-cut) counters, charts and tables, a small sized 20 page rules booklet, and a colour paper map in an aluminium box! It is a straight reprint of the Microgame Design Group original. The other two games will shortly follow. See: http://www.fierydragon.com/ GMT Downtown is a unique game on operational air combat during the Vietnam War. The game covers everything from the Rolling Thunder campaign of 1965-1968 to the "Christmas B-52 bombing" campaign that brought the Vietnam War to a close. One player is the US raid commander, attacking with bombers, fighters and recon planes from both the Air Force and the Navy. The other player manages the North Vietnamese gun and SAM anti-aircraft defences, supported by MiG fighters. Downtown has 16 raid scenarios, 3 multi-raid campaign games, and 42 aircraft types, from MiGs to B-52s and Wild Weasel defence suppressors. Borodino, Battle of the Moskova, 1812is the second game in the Triumph & Glory game system of brigade-level Napoleonic battles from designer Richard Berg. In addition to the full Borodino battle, the game also includes a short, introductory mini-scenario, featuring the attack on the Schevardino Redoubt (which took place on September 5th, two days before the actual battle). See: http://www.gmtgames.com/ L2 Design Group Originally designed by John Edwards for Jedko, The Russian Campaign was picked up by Avalon Hill and received a Charles S. Roberts award in 1976. It has now been republished in a new sumptuous 4th edition format by L2. This game is a classic, a playable and fun corps-and-army level World War Two Eastern Front game that is reasonably historical. Its game mechanics capture the sweeping initial German advances, the pivotal winter of 1942, the gradual rise of the Red Army and the slogging battles that saw the conflict to a finish. To facilitate play-by-email, it comes with an Aide-de-Camp 2 version. L2 have also issued a Southern Expansion Kit for The Russian Campaign. The Southern Expansion Kit contains a mateable map and an eight page rule book, intended to give long-time fans of The Russian Campaign new challenges. There are new rules for the southern oil fields, the Volksturm, "defecting" Soviet forces, German airborne forces, an expanded war economy, Spanish and Turkish involvement, weather, Russian airpower and three "Alternate History" variants. See: http://www.L2DesignGroup.comMulti-Man Publishing Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit #1tries to ease players into the notoriously complex world of the Advanced Squad Leader series of games. The Starter Kit consists of a sheet of counters, two maps and a 12 page rule book(!), which has plenty of pictures and illustrations. It has six scenarios (two with Russians and four with Americans). Its compatibility with the myriad of Advanced Squad Leader gamettes and scenarios is obviously problematic and the capability of adding scenarios to the Starter Kit itself will be limited. However, as a stand alone game that introduces the player to the basic concepts of Advanced Squad Leader it is excellent. A new edition of The Gamers monster game on the entire War in the Desert, DAK2, is out. It has some minor map and counter changes and a new Axis shipping table. DAK2now uses version 3.1 of the Operational Combat Series rules.See: http://www.multimanpublishing.com Nexus Wings of Waris a new game of World War One air combat. Each aircraft (all single-seat fighters in this release: Sopwith Camel; SPAD XXIII; Albatross D ; Fokker Dr I) is represented by an Aircraft card. Aircraft cards move across the playing surface via Maneuver cards which act both as clever measuring devices and which give each plane realistic features (e.g. tighter turn arcs). Firing occurs if opposing planes are within range (determined with a short measuring stick marked to distinguish long and short range) and firing arc. Damage is resolved by the target drawing one (long range fire) or two (short range fire) Damage cards. Most of these are numbered and damage accumulates until the aircraft's damage rating is reached. Wings of War is a fun game with short, simple rules. Expansion sets are promised. Although published by a new company, Nexus, Wings of War is distributed by Fantasy Flight Games, so it will be widely available. See: http://www.wingsofwar.it/index-en.html NEW MAGAZINE WARGAMES Strategy and Tactics issue #221 contains The Seven Years World War. The map covers the world using a square-box grid, rather than a hex grid, and each game turn equals a full year. Designed by Joe Miranda, there is plenty of action over control of colonies, trade routes to and from Europe, fortifications, campaigns in Europe etc. Strategy and Tactics issue #222 contains The Ottomans, also designed by Joe Miranda, on power struggles in the Balkans in the Middle Ages. See: http://www.decisiongames.com/ Vae Victis issue #56 contains Semper Victor, covering the Roman Empire campaigns of 4th Century AD. See: http://www.vaevictis.com/ Note that Vae Victis magazine and games are in French but rules translations are made available via: http://grognard.com/vaevict.html Finally, Panzerschreck #12 is out. The main game is Drive on Leningrad, on the initial German assault in the north, June-September 1941. It is corps/army level, with weekly turns. German initiative chits and variable Russian reinforcements give the game a twist. Masada is a solitaire tactical game of the famous Roman siege in Judea, ca. 72-73 A.D. Invasion is a reprint of a 19th century abstract game on a hypothetical invasion of England, following a defeat of the Royal Navy. See: http://www.homestead.com/minden_games) NEW WEB RESOURCES GMT is offering for free new ‘Simple Rules’ for the Great Battles of the American Civil War series at: http://www.gmtgames.com/living_rules/living_rules.html#gbacw A new link for the second edition rules for Avalon Hill’s Hannibal, (Carthage against Rome) is: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~gnichols/glg/Hannibal2ed.pdf Official new second edition rules for UGG’s Blitzkrieg General, on all of World War Two, are at: http://www.ugg.de/errata/Living%20rules/BGADRULNEW.pdf Official second edition rules for OSG’s La Guerre de L’Empereur (strategic level Napoleonic Wars) are at: http://www.napoleongames.com/Rules/021025LGE2.pdf Official new second edition rules for Columbia’s Hammer of the Scots (award winning game on English/Scottish Wars) and Pacific Victory (World War Two in the Pacific) are available, respectively, at: http://www.columbiagames.com/resources/3215/hammerrulesv2.0.pdf http://www.columbiagames.com/resources/3401/3401PVRules2.0.pdf The latest edition of the rules for Phalanx’s Age of Napoleon (strategic level Napoleonic Wars) are at: http://grognard.com/info1/aonrules122.doc There is an excellent card draw tool for playing Avalon Hill’s Gunslinger by email available at: http://www.amarriner.com/gun/Six classic science fiction and fantasy games from Dwarfstar (Barbarian Prince, Demonlord, Goblin, Grav Armor, Outpost Gamma and Star Viking) are available for free download at: http://dwarfstar.brainiac.com/ Interformic Games are offering two free games, Interspace on interstellar warfare and Hidden Empires, on conflict between ant colonies. See: http://interformic.com/games.html Another free wargame, this time on contemporary conflicts between nations, is Hotspots, see: http://www.geocities.com/toadsky413/hotspots/hotspots.html Return to Despatches 10-2 Return to AHIKS Home Page Last update 07/10/07 by Paul
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