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.