Date of publication (as given): November/December 1974

Context

• November 1974: Lord Lucan disappears, never to be seen again. The John Lennon single Whatever Gets You Through the Night goes to #1 in the USA. MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn suspends George Steinbrenner (New York Yankees owner) for two years after his conviction for illegal contributions to political campaigns.
• December 1974: Jean-Paul Sartre visits Andreas Baader (Baader–Meinhof Gang leader) in prison. The Towering Inferno movie, starring Paul Newman and Steve McQueen, is released. Australian Evonne Goolagong Cawley beats Martina Navratilova of Czechoslovakia 6-3, 6-2 at the Australian Open Women’s Tennis to retain her title.

Game Included

Wolfpack by James F. Dunnigan is a solitaire game about the submarine campaign in the North Atlantic from 1942-44. The player, as the German U-boat commander, is trying to sink the maximum number of Allied merchant ships while trying to conserve the U-boat forces.

For my take on the game, see here.

For more information about the game, see here.

Articles

• Outgoing Mail – editors

Coming:… in S$T 50, a game called Twentieth Century…The exact design parameters for The Twentieth Century game are still up in the air. In all probabibility, it will be a two-player game with a Multi-Player option. We have a rather novel game system in mind, but, since nothing is firm yet, we will wait until the next issue of S&T to give further details.

• Wolfpack; The German Submarine War in the Atlantic, 1939-43 – Frank Davis

With a little help from their Italian allies, the Germans lost over 800 submarines during the six year war against Allied shipping. About 15,000 tons of Allied shipping was sunk for each U-boat lost. This is approximately two merhcant ships lost for every U-boat lost. While the Allies were able to absorb such losses, the U-boat losses proved too severe for the Germans.

• World War 3; Potential for Conflict in the 70s – Stephen B. Patrick

…the Middle East. Here we have everybody else in the area arrayed against Israel. Israel easily outnumbers (in terms of ground combat strength) her immediate neighbors and enemies, Egypt, Syria and Jordan. The element that gives Israel a decisive edge is the qualitative superiority of her soldiers and their equipment, particularly tanks and aircraft. While the main confrontation is between Israel and all of the other Middle Eastern and North African states, one must not forget that between these states there are also long standing animosities which have only been temporarily put aside due to the confrontation with Israel. Once the Israeli issue has been settled, it is entirely likely that certain Middle Eastern and North African nations will turn their armed forces on each other to settle old (or new) grievances.

• Footnotes – everybody
• Sackson on Games – Sid Sackson

SPI Games Advertised

• Patrol ($8)
• Search & Destroy ($8)
• World War 3 ($8)

On a Personal Note

The Sackson on Games article featured some games newly introduced to the USA – including Election, and The Game of Nations – which I had been playing extensively and enthusiastically before starting my S&T subscription. After then, I barely played them again.