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.