WARGAMES, WARGAMES and MORE WARGAMES. It is at once both encouraging and disconcerting to the wargame fanatic, Never before have so many games been available to the simulation game enthusiast. Is it an asset or liability to the hobby?

As a tried and true wargamer of some twelve years standing I can't help but consider it a detriment to wargaming. The "science" of playing the game is rapidly becoming a lost art. No longer are you sure that your Russian opponent will hold Brest-Litovsk till the third turn, or that he will fall back on Tobruch with the arrival of the 15th Armored in May. Not unless you happen to be playing one of the old guard who, like myself, played each AH release over and over until he knew all its intricacies, or at least thought he did, and then waited six months to a year for the next AH wargame. There was something terribly fresh, unspoiled and vibrant about those days when whole clubs sprang up and devoted a newsletter and all their efforts to just one particular game. It is an aspect sorely lacking from today's glutted game market. I am thankful that I broke into the hobby when I did and am not in the position of the new gamers who must factor a myriad of what must seem like never-ending advertisements for the "latest" in game design.

How they can ever gain the satisfaction of truly mastering a good game what with the rush to learn how to play the next one is beyond me. Being a perfectionist by nature, I find it difficult to remember all of the rules to AH games, let alone the virtually hundreds of other titles put out by lesser companies.

So much for my personal opinion. As the New Products Manager for the Avalon Hill Company I have somewhat different comments on the recent flood of wargames. I see it as a healthy sign for the adult game industry -- especially as far as wargannes are concerned. Any student of economics will tell you that the law of supply and demand foreordained the eventual rise of gaming companies in the wargame field. Anything that shows a profit will eventually draw competitors, and as they say "imitation is the sincerest form of flatttery." The effect of everybody jumping on the game bandwagon is only a reassurance to us that our market is a healthy and growing one.

Besides, all of the companies entering the scene now are mail-order oriented, and as a consequence compete more with each other than with A~alon Hill. AH's structure is such that the vast majority of its sales come from wholesalers who purchase in lots of a gross or more. Only a small per cent of our total business is directly attributable to the hard corps. Rather, we try to make our profit in the retail end of the business. It is our goal to become another Milton Bradley or Parker Brothers, only with adult games. Naturally, since we deal with adult rather than children's game, this is somewhat idealistic, the market just not being big enough to sustain that volume of sales.

What I am trying to say is that because we are store-oriented and appeal to the public at large, rather than to the hard corps as a market, the impact of all these new game companies is not that overpowering to us. Small concerns like the Conflict Game Company, Balboa Games, Histo Games, and indivuduals like Lou Zocchi, Chuck Lane, and Loren Sperry who produce their own designs and sell them without the benefit of a mapboard or game boxes are no competition to us whatsoever. Their print runs are so small that even if one of their titles became red-hot it would have no effect on us. By in large, the people who buy games of this sort are hopeless addicts and will purchase everything available for their collections.

Of more concern, but still negligible in its effects on the total picture here at Avalon Hill, are the somewhat bigger and more refined companies which box their games and attempt to match Avalon Hill in physical quality. Thus far, however, none has been able to do so. Simulations Design Corporation in San Diego has come the closes with their GUERRE A OUTRANCE game. Others haven' even come close to matching AH quality, and SDC almos went bankrupt on their sole attempt to do so. Guido Games has a nice, moderately priced line which attempts to be the middle ground, but the fact remains that the physical quality is still questionable for people who like to play games more than a few times.

Games Research, the makers of DIPLOMACY, put out a fine product but unfortunately they have only one title. We recognize DIPLOMACY as a line in iteself, but still it is just one game and one that requires seven players, giving it limited sales appeal. Like the others, it is sold largely by mail.

This brings us to the largest of the "other" game companies and the one which many wargamers mistakenly label our competition. Simulations Publications is by far the leader in the number of wargames published. How they can crank out 30 games per year is beyond me. We have all we can do to produce one or two battle titles per year with a full-time design staff - but then we put a lot of extra work into seeing that they're playable. Although I've actually only played a few of their games, I'm told by people whose opinion I value highly that they treat simulations more as puzzles than games. That is, each title has a particular aspect to solve, and once solved they are no longer games as such. I don't know that I would agree wholeheartedly with this opinion; however, I think there is a lot to be said for the fact that they stress the simulation approach while we are more interested in promoting playable games. Their games seem to pit you against a situation or the game itself, while AH products tend to be more of a think-counterthink exercise between players. At least, that's what I've been told - like I say I've only played a few of their games.

This isn't to say that I question the quality of their designs -- indeed, they have come up with some fine design principles which have solved some long-standing problems, but I am still not convinced they utilize these principles to make the best games. The whole thing boils down to their philosophy of handling games as books, while we treat them as what they are - games. Thus, their line of 50-60 titles with no end in sight. The only way you can decide whether they're correct in this philosophy is to wait and see. If they glut their own market they'll cease to exist.

If not their "book" treatment of simulations will be proved correct. However, one must keep in mind that they spend $10-$15 on advertising for every subscriber they get. This insures a continuous subscriber turnover which will give their marketing a considerable boost.

It is this same advertising policy which so endears us to S & T. There can be no denying that they have done a lot for the hobby. By sinking their funds so readily into general media advertising they have brought a lot of people into wargaming. And although an S & T subscriber is primarily an S & T customer, he is first and foremost a wargamer. Once indoctrinated into the intricacies of wargaming, he is more susceptible to spotting an AH game on the retailers' shelf. Thus, their advertising keeps them alive but has a spread effect which helps us sell our games indirectly.

As far as tete-a-tete competition goes, Simulations Publications is no real problem for the same reason. They are basically mail-order oriented. Although they have three games currently available retail in a record-jacket type box, I think that they will find wholesale distributorships to be a tricky business. To begin with, they'll have to sell their games for 30% to 35% of what they get for them by mail. This is fine only as long as it doesn't cut into their mail-order business. When their subscribers start buying games in the stores rather than direct for the full price, they'll feel a pinch that will probably make them think twice about getting seriously involved in a wholesale operation.

At any rate, they have a long way to go before they can match AH's physical quality. They are already selling a largely paper product for $6.00. How are they going to provide mounted map boards and attractive game boxes for an additional $1.00? These are the most expensive elements in game production. The answer is, quite honestly, that they can't match our physical quality for the same price - let alone develop the wholesale distributorship that has taken AH over a dozen years to build up. They would be hurting themselves by trying to go retail with their line. It would ruin what is an already lucrative mail-order operation.

So you see only an established company with a developed retail/wholesale distributorship could really provide serious competition to AH. And quite frankly the adult game market is so minimal that it would be foolish for any established company to make any inroads here. Thus far, only Research Games has made any attempt to top the wargame market. Their PATTON game is of questionable quality and their distributorship such that they cause us no great concern. For practical purposes Avalon Hill remains unchallenged in its field.

I will say, however, that all this enthusiasm has caused the powers that be at AH to sit up and take notice. The result has been the biggest advertising allowance in AH's history and more services for the hard corps in the form of an expanded staff and a greatly improved magazine. I might also say that I think we are taking the steps which will allow gamers to return to the days of the "science of wargaming". By subscribing to the GENERAL and limiting their playing primarily to AH games, I see no reason why games can't enjoy the old days of limited titles and optimum strategy again. The Series Replay feature which we are implementing in the new GENERAL should do much to return the lost art of playing the games well.

As far as what the future holds, I think it's good for everyone concerned. The mail orders companies may experience some difficulties once the market is glutted, but otherwise it appears to be a time of expansion both commercially and for the hobbyist. My overall recommendation for a new gamer is to become familiar first with the AH line and subscribe to the GENERAL. He should supplement this, if he feels it necessary, with either DIPLOMACY or Guidon products. And then, if he has the necessary time, space, and money he should investigate a period of miniatures and subscriptions to general gaming mags like PF or BATTLE FLAG. Of course, if he has no aversion to paper boards or prefers collecting games to playing them, he might find the S & T series the panacea to his needs. One thing is for sure: with today's crop of manufacturers there's no need for anyone to be unable to find his niche in the hobby.

The Future of Wargaming Comments from Five Wargame Publishers

Donald Greenwood, Avalon Hill
John Hill, The Conflict Game Company
Dana Lombardy, Simulations Design Corporation
T. T. Dalgliesh, Gamma Two Games, Ltd.
Don Lowry, Guidon Games