Date of publication (as given): September/October 1974

Context

• September 1974: first showing of The Rockford Files on NBC-TV. General Francisco da Costa Gomes succeeds General António de Spínola as President of Portugal. Scientists first report that freon gases from aerosol sprays are destroying the ozone layer.
• October 1974: Frank Robinson becomes MLB’s first African-American manager, signing as player-manager for the Cleveland Indians. The Guildford pub bombing by the IRA leaves five dead and 65 injured. The Labour Party, led by Harold Wilson, wins the UK general election.

Game Included

Combined Arms by James F. Dunnigan is a game about combined arms land warfare from 1939-1970s. Each turn is an hour, each hex is 300m and units are companies and battalions. There are six scenarios running from Defense of the Vistula Bridges (1939) to the Battle of the Chinese Farm (1973).

For more information about the game, see here.

Articles

• Combined Arms; Combat Operations in the 20th Century – Stephen B. Patrick

Because of the need to be centrally located in order to take action, this meant that battalion commanders would often not see any of the fighting in a critical sector – the crisis would often be over for better or worse by the time he arrived. Consequently, reliance on radio messages became the rule rather than the exception.

• Patrol; Modern Infantry Tactics, 1914-1974 – David C. Isby

In summation, one can say that the essence of infantry tactics is: stay under cover, dig in whenever possible, combine fire and movement to make effective use of terrain, advance from cover to cover. If possible, surprise the enemy, hit him where he is weakest, and shoot him in such a way that he cannot shoot you back.

• Outgoing Mail – editors

Last year, more than half the historical games sold in this country were SPI games. In the first 6 months of 1974, we sold over 150,000 games. In each of the last three years, we have published more new games than were published by all other historical game companies combined in the past ten years.

• Sackson on Games – Sid Sackson
• Footnotes – everybody
• Player’s Notes – Redmond A. Simonsen and John Michael Young

SPI Games Advertised

• Patrol ($8)
• Starforce: Alpha Centauri ($8)

Life Behind Bars

From Outgoing Mail, page 45:

We also received an order from a prison administration a while back. They wanted a copy of Breakout & Pursuit. The request was legitimate, we sent off the game, but never heard what their reaction to it was, or in fact, why they wanted that particular game.

On a Personal Note

The information about SPI sales (see Outgoing Mail quote above) astonished me. The USA had to be full of gamers!

The game in this issue disappointed me. It may have been the decision to use generic counters – for example “Light Armor” units had different ratings (not printed on the counters) according to the scenario – or that I was growing tired of the cumulative disruption (D1, D2, D3, etc.) combat results system. However, over the years, it was also one of the few games I kept thinking about going back to.

The Moves advert on the back page of S&T 46 won me over. My subscription to that magazine followed shortly.

Date of publication (as given): July/August 1974

Context

• July 1974: West Germany wins the (Soccer) World Cup, defeating the Netherlands 2-1. Turkey invades Cyprus. The USA release of the film Death Wish (based on a novel by Brian Garfield) starring Charles Bronson and directed by Michael Winner.
• August 1974: USA President Richard Nixon resigns and Vice President Gerald Ford takes the oath of office to become the 38th USA President. Zaheer Abbas scores 240 for Pakistan against England at The Oval. RCA releases in the USA Harry Nilsson’s tenth Album, Pussy Cats, produced by John Lennon.

Game Included

Operation Olympic by James F. Dunnigan is a solitaire game about the hypothetical USA invasion of Japan in 1945. Each turn is a week, each hex is 6.5km and units are regiments, brigades, and divisions. There is a two-player option.

For more information about the game, see here.

Articles

• Operation Olympic – Frank Davis

During the last year of the war in which Japan lost one decisive battle after another, hundreds of thousands of Japanese had been sacrificed. If the Emperor prematurely agreed to surrender, these lives would appear all the more wasted. Thus, the war must be allowed to continue until Japan’s ruin became visible to all and the suffering caused by it had produced a popular clamoring for peace.

• Science Fiction Futures – Stephen B. Patrick, John Boardman, and Redmond A. Simonsen

The real object is to reveal human behavior under stress – and the stranger the source of stress the better. The “weird” factor in science fiction is what lifts it above other genre writing in importance. It provides a unique esthetic distance from which the reader can appraise the characters and the situation. It enables the writer to arrange all of the background to focus attention on the main players. It can, and consistently does, carry the reader beyond the narrow defiles of his here-and-now reality set so that he can more successfully turn back and see his life. Science fiction is a way of looking at the past.

• Outgoing Mail – editors
• Footnotes – everybody
• Sackson on Games – Sid Sackson
• Pass in Review (book reviews) – Albert A. Nofi
• Player’s Notes – Irad B. Hardy and John Michael Young

SPI Games Advertised

• Frigate ($8)
• Starforce: Alpha Centauri ($8)
• War in the East ($20)
• WW II ($7)

Somebody Was Paying Attention

From the Footnotes article, page 23:

Just wanted to complain about Hardy’s (IBH) comments in the Civil War rules folder. Deesigner’s notes should explain the historical considerations utilized or reflected in the game system. However, Hardy’s suggestion that the Union player set up in odd-numbered hexes to minimize Command Control problems is an example of gamesmanship rather than historical accuracy.

On a Personal Note

My knowledge of the war in the Pacific was sketchy. I knew nothing about proposed plans for the invasion of Japan. This issue of S&T went some way to fill in in the gaps. Although the historical article’s focus was on the later stages, there was some useful material about how the participants got to that part. As for the invasion, while I was happy to play the game, I think I took it less seriously because – perhaps naively – I found it a highly unlikely scenario. No power could have resisted the force of the USA’s nuclear arsenal. Surrender was inevitable.

Date of publication (as given): May/June 1974

Context

• May 1974:  Israel and Syria sign an agreement about the Golan Heights. In hockey’s Stanley Cup, the Philadelphia Flyers win the series 4-2, becoming the first “expansion” team to win the trophy, with Flyers’ goaltender Bernie Parent named playoff MVP. ABC Records releases Rikki Don’t Lose That Number from Steely Dan’s Pretzel Logic album.
• June 1974: Yitzhak Rabin becomes Israeli Prime Minister, replacing Golda Meir. At the French Open, USA teenager Chris Evert beats Olga Morozova of Russia to win the Women’s title, the first of a record 7 French singles titles for her. Mean while, Sweden’s Börg beats Manuel Orantes of Spain to win the Men’s title, his first career Grand Slam title. The Provisional IRA bomb the Houses of Parliament in London, injuring 11 people, part of a renewed IRA campaign against targets in England.

Game Included

Tank! by James F. Dunnigan is a two-player game about armored combat in the 20th century with each unit representing an individual tank or vehicle or gun or infantry squad. Hexes represent 50 meters of real terrain and each game turn is “36 seconds to two minutes of real time depending upon the scenario played.” It uses pre-plotted simultaneous orders.

For more information about the game, see here.

Articles

• Tank! A Weapon-System Survey – Stephen B. Patrick

Oddly enough, if a tank was destroyed, the crew was not necessarily destroyed with it. In fact, the average deaths in the crew of a destroyed tank was only 1.3 men per tank for the war. Also, only 75% of all tank casualties occurred inside the tank. This goes to remind us that tank crews did not spend all of their time in the tank. In fact, they spent the majority of their time outside of the tank.

• Sea War in the Age of Sail –David C. Isby

Throughout history, the sea has been the great thoroughfare for trade and communication. Small wonder that man, clever fellow that he is, took to fighting on the planetary sea not very long after he learned organized violence on land.

• Outgoing Mail – editors
• Sackson on Games – Sid Sackson
• For Your Eyes Only – editors
• Pass in Review (book reviews) – Albert A. Nofi

SPI Games Advertised

• Frigate ($8)
• War in the East ($20)

Wargaming and Real Life

From page 4 of this issue’s Outgoing Mail:

Shortly after the publication of The East is Red, we received a visit from a high-ranking Soviet diplomat, stationed in New York. He was interested in looking around, and also wanted to pick up a copy of War in the East. Unfortunately, War in the East was not yet ready, so we just showed him around. During the tour, we came across a copy of NATO, which was being played. We asked him if he’d like to get a copy of it, to which he replied, “No, I believe we already have that one.”

On a Personal Note

This was the first issue of my renewed subscription. The game had an expansion kit (more counters, rules, and scenarios) which subscribers had to apply for separately. I got mine from the UK distributor.