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57-397: White Bear and Red Moon is a fantasy board wargame set in the world of Glorantha , created by Greg Stafford and published in 1975. Stafford first tried to sell the game to established publishers, but despite being accepted by three different game companies, each attempt ended in failure; eventually he founded his own game company in 1974, the influential Chaosium , to produce and market

114-470: A digest quarterly publication of the brand new Metagaming Concepts company in March 1975. Howard M. Thompson , the owner of Metagaming and the first editor of the magazine, stated "The magazine had been planned for after our third or fourth game but circumstances demand we do it now" (after their first game, Stellar Conquest ). Initial issues were in a plain-paper digest format. By issue 17, it had grown to

171-414: A full size bimonthly magazine, printed on slick paper. When Steve Jackson departed Metagaming to found his own company, he also secured the right to publish The Space Gamer from number 27 on. In the first Steve Jackson Games (SJG) issue, Howard Thompson wrote a report on Metagaming and stated "Metagaming's staff won't miss the effort. After the change in ownership, Metagaming feels comfortable with

228-422: A board game, was designed by Charles S. Roberts in 1953. The game, Tactics , was published by Roberts as "The Avalon Game Company" in 1954 and broke even, selling around 2,000 copies. These sales convinced Roberts that there was a market for intelligent, thoughtful, games for adults. Four years later, he decided to make a serious effort at a game company. Finding a conflict with another local company, he changed

285-399: A collector. A French-language edition was published by Oriflam under license from Chaosium under the name La Guerre des Héros in 1993. A Japanese-language edition was published by Hobby Japan. Nomad Gods is another Chaosium board game that shares many rules in common, is set in a neighboring region of Glorantha, and can be regarded as a sequel of sorts. A planned third game in the series

342-461: A colorful array of unit counters with a somewhat complex system of ratings and symbols. Some units represent troops, while others are individual heroes, spirits, or agents. An unlimited number of units can be grouped together in the same hex to form a stack. Depending on the components of the stack and how it is ordered, most stacks exert a zone of control into the surrounding hexes. Units must cease movement upon entering an enemy zone of control, and

399-567: A game which has not been blindtested." Steve List reviewed Dragon Pass in Ares Magazine #14 and commented that "While in some ways it is less "magical" than its predecessor, it is a better product in general and can be appreciated by the average gamer and dedicated fantasy fan alike. Try it; you'll like it." Board wargame In the United States , commercial board wargames (often shortened to "wargames" for brevity) were popularized in

456-501: A large number of new companies publishing an even larger number of games throughout, powered by an explosive rise in the number of people playing wargames. Wargames also diversified in subject, with early science-fiction wargames appearing in 1974 , and in size with both microgames and monster games first appearing during the decade. Designer Steve Jackson produced several celebrated games for Metagaming Concepts and then founded his own company, Steve Jackson Games in 1980 , which

513-436: A magazine dedicated to the subject of science fiction and fantasy board games and tabletop role-playing games . It quickly grew in importance and was an important and influential magazine in its subject matter from the late 1970s through the mid-1980s. The magazine is no longer published, but the rights holders maintain a web presence using its final title Space Gamer/Fantasy Gamer . The Space Gamer ( TSG ) started out as

570-494: A newsletter for his new company. Under the new management, this became the Avalon Hill General in 1964, a house organ that ran for 32 years. Avalon Hill had a very conservative publishing schedule, typically about two titles a year, and wargames were only about half their line. This led to some developments which, in light of the present state of the hobby, now seem almost unfathomable. The best examples of which were

627-439: A non-nuclear (or, in a very few cases, nuclear) World War III would be like, moving from a re-creation to a predictive model in the process. Fantasy and science fiction subjects are sometimes not considered wargames because there is nothing in the real world to model; however, conflict in a self-consistent fictional world lends itself to exactly the same types of games and game designs as does military history. While there

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684-558: A profound shakeup. Hasbro has kept the Avalon Hill name as a brand, and republished a few of its extensive back catalog of games, as well as released new ones, and moved the remnant of the Gamemaster series ( Axis and Allies ) from Milton Bradley to Avalon Hill. While A&A is the only wargame offered by the "new" Avalon Hill, several of AH's wargames have been reprinted by other companies, starting with Multi-Man Publishing 's license for

741-485: A section in their own magazine The VIP of Gaming , but it soon became a separate publication again with the previous numbering and format, but with the name Space Gamer/Fantasy Gamer . Space Gamer ceased publication in September 1985. Since that time, it has gone through a number of owners, all keeping the final name, but occasionally restarting the numbering. Eventually, Better Games , now renamed Space Gamer , bought

798-404: A square grid; hexes were a slightly later innovation), and is still used in many wargames today. In its most typical form, a hex-and-counter wargame has a map with a hexagonal grid imposed over it, units are represented with cardboard counters that commonly have a unit type and designation as well as numerical combat and movement factors. Players take turns moving and conducting attacks. Combat

855-585: A time when inflation was in double digits. At the same time, the attempt to go from a mail-order business to wholesale caused a cash crunch by delaying payments. By 1982 SPI was in financial trouble and eventually secured a loan from TSR to help it meet payroll. TSR soon asked for the money back, and SPI had to agree to be taken over by TSR. As a secured creditor , they had first opportunity at SPI's assets. However, they refused to take over SPI's liabilities. TSR then refused to honor existing subscriptions to SPIs three magazines, which TSR took over, in addition to nearly

912-596: A tremendous rise in the popularity of wargaming in the early 1970s. The market grew at a fast pace, and if anything the number of wargaming companies grew at an even faster pace. Most of these quietly failed after producing a few products. Two of these new companies would each last for about two decades and became well known in just a few years: Game Designers' Workshop (GDW), and Tactical Studies Rules (TSR). Started in 1973 by Frank Chadwick , Rich Banner , Marc W. Miller , and Loren Wiseman , GDW's first game, Drang Nach Osten! , immediately garnered attention and led to

969-404: A unit can not move directly from one enemy zone of control to another. Stacks that are currently disembodied do not exert a zone of control. Each active player's turn consists of the following phases: Resolution of combat can include various types of magic, the use of missile fire, and finally melee combat. The combat results are in the form of Combat Factor losses, which is one of the ratings on

1026-441: A variety of different terrain types, including forest, marsh, hills, mountains, fortresses, stockades, ridges, cities, ruins, and lakes. Each type of terrain has different effects on movement and combat. There are also roads, rivers, and fords that can alter the movement. The map is also divided up into several territories, including a number of independent nations. This game features a great variety of unit types and nations, forming

1083-421: Is a sub-creation as real as all mythology." Greg Costikyan reviewed White Bear & Red Moon in Ares Magazine #1, rating it an 8 out of 9. Costikyan commented that " White Bear & Red Moon is less a game than a description of an entire culture. In a short rulebook, it provides an insight into the religions, governments, and ideologies of whole peoples; descriptions of weird and imaginative alien races;

1140-424: Is broad, and many approaches have been taken towards the goals of simulating wars on a grand or personal scale. Some of the more popular movements constitute established subgenres of their own that most wargamers will recognize. The oldest of the subgenres, and the one that still retains "iconic" status for board wargaming as a whole. It got its start with the first board wargame, Tactics (which, ironically, used

1197-525: Is no direct correlation, the more serious wargames tend towards more complex rules with possibilities for more calculation and computation of odds, more exceptions (generally to reproduce unique historical circumstances), more available courses of action, and more detail or "chrome". The extreme end of this tendency are considered " monster games ", which typically consist of a large subject represented on small scale. A good example of this would be Terrible Swift Sword , which tracks individual regiments in

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1254-508: Is still active today (albeit mostly as an RPG company). Task Force Games was founded in 1979 by former staff of JagdPanther and lived into the 1990s, and its most popular game, Star Fleet Battles is still in print. Squad Leader , often cited as the highest selling wargame ever, was published in 1977 . Decline set in at the beginning of the 1980s, most markedly with the acquisition of SPI by TSR in 1982 . From 1975 to 1981 SPI reported $ 2 million in sales—steady dollar volume during

1311-411: Is typically resolved with an odds-based combat results table (CRT) using a six-sided die. This subgenre started with Risk in 1957 and focuses on entire wars rather than battles, typically using regions or countries as spaces rather than hexes, and often using plastic pieces. These games are often designed to support more than two players. The Gamemaster Series popularized the subgenre further in

1368-487: The D-Day and Stalingrad cults. Hundreds of wargamers, this writer being one of them, strained, sweated, argued and meditated over those two games, devising strategies, set-ups and variants almost ad infinitum. Both games were simultaneously unhistoric and unbalanced, yet we played them (brother, did we play them!), simply because they were the only simulations widely available on the two 'classic' campaigns of World War II. By

1425-451: The Europa series. They quickly followed this with other games, which also got favorable reviews. It has been estimated that GDW published one new product every 22 days for the 22 year life of the company (to be fair, this would include magazines and supplements, not just complete games). TSR was started in 1973 by Gary Gygax and Don Kaye as a way to publish the miniature rules developed by

1482-450: The definite article with the split in Number 64), and Fantasy Gamer ; the former concentrating entirely on science fiction, and the latter on fantasy. This arrangement lasted about a year. Fantasy Gamer ran six issues before being folded back into Space Gamer : You see, we were churning out magazines - Space Gamer , Fantasy Gamer , Fire & Movement , and Autoduel Quarterly - at

1539-400: The 1980s, with Axis & Allies eventually evolving into an entire line of games. Many American-style board games are strategy wargames. This subgenre was created in the early 1970s, when Gamma Two Games produced the three initial games of this type. It has long been the province of Gamma Two and its successor, Columbia Games, but recently other companies have been putting out games of

1596-833: The Battle of Gettysburg, instead of the more common scale of brigades . These games typically have a combined playing surface (using several map sheets) larger than most tables, and thousands of counters . Wargames tend to have a few fundamental problems. Notably, both player knowledge and player action are much less limited than what would be available to the player's real-life counterparts. Some games have rules for command and control and fog of war , using various methods. These mechanisms can be cumbersome and onerous, and often increase player frustration. However, there are some common solutions, such as employed by block wargames , which can simulate fog of war conditions in relatively playable ways. The first modern mass-market wargame, presented as

1653-482: The Tactical Studies wargaming club (thus, Tactical Studies Rules). While TSR produced several sets of miniature rules, and a few boardgames, it became much better known as the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons in 1974 . The first role-playing game , it sparked a new phenomenon that would later grow much bigger than its parent hobby. The period 1975–1980 can be considered the ' Golden Age of Wargaming', with

1710-465: The ailing magazine, and restructured his own company (then known as Poultron Press) to publish it, creating Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI). An aggressive advertising campaign, and a new policy of including a new game in every issue, allowed S&T to find a much larger market, and SPI to become a company known to all wargamers as having a line of games that surpassed Avalon Hill's (at least, in numbers—arguments about quality raged). This caused

1767-617: The battles. This can be an appealing factor to those who enjoy games with a fantasy atmosphere. Heroes and superheroes can have a powerful impact on the outcome of the various battles. The extra details can add complexity to what would otherwise be a relatively simple board wargame. Sumner N. Clarren reviewed White Bear and Red Moon in The Space Gamer No. 5. Clarren commented that "The game has been crafted with great skill and wit, rare in games today." In his 1977 book The Comprehensive Guide to Board Wargaming , Nicholas Palmer noted

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1824-454: The company and wargaming with its distribution chain and marketing clout, it was shown that Hasbro had no interest in this with the immediate laying off of the entire AH staff and the closure of its web site. Combined with Wizards of the Coast 's acquisition of TSR the year before, and their acquisition by Hasbro the year after, what is sometimes called the "adventure gaming market" was going through

1881-572: The concepts that most wargames share, and often assume some familiarity with. Wargames tend to be representational , with many using soldier-shaped pieces on a map-like board; as such, they may colloquially be called "dudes on a map" games. Generally, they depict a fairly concrete historical subject (such as the Battle of Gettysburg , one of several popular topics in the genre), but it can also be extended to non-historical ones as well. The Cold War provided fuel for many games that attempted to show what

1938-431: The counters. As is typical of many wargames, every friendly unit that is adjacent to an opposing unit must attack an adjacent opposing unit. Also each opposing unit adjacent to a friendly unit must be attacked. The exception to this is a unit inside a fortification, which is not forced to attack. This game includes a considerable amount of chrome, simulating the variety of heroes, creatures, and magic that were involved in

1995-407: The current number of board wargamers in the 15,000 range (this is limited to people purchasing games, which leaves some room for groups with one person who buys the games, or people who stick to older titles—who do exist, but are cold comfort for publishers). During 2006, several publishers reported that sales were up, but this could remain a short-term bump in sales. The subject matter of wargames

2052-425: The decision; it was the right thing to do." In the same issue, Steve Jackson announced, " TSG is going monthly   ... from [number 28 (May 1980)] on, it'll be a monthly magazine." The magazine stayed with SJG for the next five years, during which it was at its most popular and influential. In 1983, the magazine was split into two separate bimonthly magazines published in alternating months: Space Gamer (losing

2109-413: The early 1970s. Elsewhere, notably Great Britain where miniatures had evolved its own commercial hobby, a smaller following developed. The genre is still known for a number of common game-play conventions (or game mechanics ) that were developed early on. The early history of board wargaming was dominated by The Avalon Hill Game Company , while other companies such as SPI also gained importance in

2166-495: The end of the 1960s , a number of small magazines dedicated to the hobby were springing up, along with new game companies. Many of these were not available in any store, being spread by 'word of mouth' and advertisements in other magazines. The eventual "break-out" into a larger public was accomplished by the magazine Strategy & Tactics . It was started in 1966 , as a typical "hobby zine ", and despite some popularity soon threatened to go under. However, Jim Dunnigan bought

2223-440: The entire existing line of SPI's games. Largely as a result of this, Strategy & Tactics circulation shrank from its high mark of 36,000 in 1980, until TSR sold it off to World Wide Wargames (3W) in 1986, where its circulation continued to shrink to a low 10,000 in 1990. Meanwhile, most of the existing staff left SPI, and negotiated a deal with Avalon Hill. Avalon Hill formed a subsidiary company, Victory Games, staffed by

2280-413: The former SPI employees. Victory Games was allowed to publish pretty much what they wanted, and produced many commercially and critically successful wargames. However, there were no new hires to replace departing personnel, and the company slowly died a death of neglect in the 1990s. This period is marked by a decrease in the number of wargamers, and lack of new companies with commercial viability while

2337-433: The game had "Eight scenarios of increasing complexity; the total effect is highly complicated." Palmer also warned that the game required a large amount of luck, but also involved "absorbing diplomatic possibilities of played with a number of participants." Neil Shapiro reviewed White Bear and Red Moon in The Space Gamer No. 13. Shapiro commented that " White Bear and Red Moon is much better than just fantastic [...] It

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2394-419: The game. The game depicts the wars between the mighty Lunar Empire and the barbarian nation of Sartar, led by Prince Argrath, with many smaller countries and individuals available as allies to either side. Like other games of the board wargame genre, it has a hex map , many cardstock unit counters , and a number of rules themes. White Bear and Red Moon went through three printings with minor differences. It

2451-527: The history of the genre. Wargames exist in a range of game complexities . Some are fundamentally simple (often called " beer-and-pretzel games ") whereas others attempt to simulate a high level of historical realism ("consim"—short for 'conflict simulation'). These two trends are also at the heart of long-running debates about "realism vs. playability". Because of the subject matter, games considered 'simple' by wargamers can be considered 'complex' to non-wargamers, especially if they have never run into some of

2508-676: The larger companies experiment with ways to sell more games in a shrinking market. While TSR tried to leverage its line of existing SPI property, Milton Bradley started the Gamemaster line of mass-appeal wargames in 1984 . With the financial backing of a company much larger than any in the wargame business, the Gamemaster games had excellent production quality, with mounted full-color boards (something that only Avalon Hill could regularly do), and plenty of small plastic miniatures as game pieces. The games were generally simple, by wargaming standards, but very playable and successful. The first game of

2565-417: The line, Axis and Allies , is still in print today, and has spawned a number of spinoff titles. The wargaming business continued to be poor, new companies continued to be formed. GMT Games , one of the most respected names in wargaming today, got started in 1991. The popularity of role-playing games, video games , and, finally, collectible card games continued to draw in new players. These attracted

2622-448: The major types of board wargame, which was created by the game We the People published by Avalon Hill in 1994 . In most aspects it is much like a typical board wargame (on the simpler side of the spectrum), but play is driven by a deck of cards that both players draw from. These cards control activation points , which allow the use of troops, as well as events that represent things outside

2679-427: The name of the company to The Avalon Hill Game Company. The beginning of the commercial board wargaming hobby is generally tied to the name " Avalon Hill " and the publication of Tactics II in 1958, along with Gettysburg , the first board game designed to simulate a historical battle. Avalon Hill was subject to a number of bad economic forces around 1961, and quickly ran up a large debt. In 1963 Avalon Hill

2736-452: The normal scope of the game. Newer card driven games have helped reinvigorate the war game genre as well as other differently themed games. Twilight Struggle , a game based on the Cold War, was ranked #1 on the website BoardGameGeek from December 2010 to January 2016. As of September 2018, it's ranked fifth overall but first for wargames. The Space Gamer The Space Gamer was

2793-401: The rate of two a month!   ... We had to find some way to preserve what little sanity we had left. The best way to do this was to merge Space Gamer and Fantasy Gamer   ... As it has for the past year, Space Gamer will appear bimonthly, giving us the time to get some games done, as well. Like Metagaming before it, the effort of producing a magazine became greater than its publisher

2850-495: The rationales for several competing kinds of magic; and the biographies of the greatest heroes of the age. Further, despite its occasional awkwardnesses, White Bear & Red Moon is an enjoyable and fast-playing game." Forrest Johnson reviewed the 1980 revised edition, Dragon Pass , in The Space Gamer No. 40. Johnson commented that "The rules for Dragon Pass are no cleaner than those for White Bear and Red Moon . After all this time, Chaosium should know better than to publish

2907-422: The rights to Advanced Squad Leader . The Complete Wargames Handbook shows sales of wargames (historical only) peaking in 1980 at 2.2 million, and tapering off to 400,000 in 1991. It also estimates a peak of about a few hundred thousand (again, historical) board wargamers in the U.S. in 1980, with about as many more in the rest of the world; the estimate for 1991 is about 100,000 total. Another estimate puts

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2964-419: The same sort of players that had gravitated to wargames before, which led to a declining, and aging, population in the hobby. The continued marginal sales of wargames took its toll on the older companies. Game Designers' Workshop went out of business in 1996 . Task Force Games went bankrupt in 1999 . In 1998 , Avalon Hill itself was sold to Hasbro . While it might have been possible for Hasbro to revitalize

3021-423: The same type. The defining aspect of this type of game is the use of wooden blocks for the units. These are tilted on their side normally, and then put down for combat. Until combat occurs, the opponent can see how many units are where, but not what type and what strength, introducing fog of war aspects. The blocks are also rotated to show different strength values in a step-reduction system. The most recent of

3078-506: Was never produced. The game components for the Dragon Pass version of this game include the box, a fold-out board map of the battle area, the rulebook, two sheets of die-cut cardboard counters, a player aid card, and a die. The game board is 22" × 31" and printed in color. The map is overlaid by a hex grid to regularize movement. At one end of the board is a turn track and several holding boxes for magical spirits and agents. The map includes

3135-509: Was sold to the Monarch Avalon Printing company to settle the debts. The new owners resolved to let the company continue to do what it had been doing, and while Roberts left, his friend, Tom Shaw, who already worked at the company, took over. The sale turned out to be an advantage, as being owned by a printing company helped insure that Avalon Hill games had access to superior physical components. Roberts had been considering producing

3192-503: Was substantially revised and republished in 1981 under the name Dragon Pass , first by Chaosium and then in a nearly identical reprint from the Avalon Hill Game Company in 1983. The main differences in the reprint are a few streamlined rules and a notable improvement in the quality of the components. In particular, the paper map was replaced by a full-color game board. All editions are now out of print, and moderately valuable to

3249-464: Was willing to bear. The change to bi-monthly publication was not enough to allow SJG to focus on new games as they wished, and in 1985, it was announced, "We've sold Space Gamer . We'll still be heavily involved—but SJ Games won't be the publisher any longer. Giving up SG is definitely traumatic... but it gives us the time to do other things, especially GURPS ". The magazine had been sold to Diverse Talents, Incorporated (DTI). They initially had it as

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