"War to End All Wars," my World War I strategic game, is beginning to move. As might be expected, a fair number of bugs, glitches and missed options are beginning to surface as the computer code is given a run for real. Some of the generals are finding it hard to come to terms with the idea that logistics are as important as tactics. As someone once said, "Amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics

Ian Jones (38 Wool Grove, Andover, Hants, SP10 2QG, (01264-355225)) writes that he is working on a short PBM, based on Avalon Hill's "Firepower", a tactical 1980s 10 second 5 yard scale game with a 3 week turnround for 2-5 players. It will either be a Advance to Contact in an urban area, or an Assault on a Fortified Urban Strongpoint (Game name FIBUA). Write for places, stating scenario preference and defender or attacker (British/East German) The game is not computer moderated, reports will be battle-style - short and descriptive - expect people to disappear and enemy to appear unexpectedly.

I gather that there is a growing level of interest in Play-By-Mail in the States, or perhaps I should say "Play-by-E-Mail", since some of the players would like to speed up turnround by using electronic communication. For my part, l am not sure that speed of turnround is particularly important - some poor fool (known formally as the Umpire or Gamemaster (GM)) has to collate the orders and adjudicate on them, and it's that which takes up the time. The GM is unlikely to move any faster just because the orders arrive more quickly - most GMs do sometimes have a measure of contact with "real" life which can take up a lot of time.

A key thing in designing a Play-By-Mail game is the way that one capitalises on the strengths of the medium and evades the weaknesses. For example, you might wish to refight World War II, using SPl's "War in Europe" and "War in the Pacific" to save yourself a lot of work on mapping, games systems etc. (I'm assuming that you've already obtained an interface between the two game systems).

Now, with games of that size, you could drive yourself crazy trying to play them as designed, only at a distance, transmitting incredible volumes of data on movements, combats etc. etc. And what is the point, when you think about it? You are duplicating the acknowledged weakness of all board games, namely the excessive level of information available to the players. With a GM running the game, he can release the information which would reasonably be available to each player - and impede any attempts to interfere in the detailed command of units, by ensuring that they end up the way that Hitler's interference did. The time so released from data processing can be devoted to campaign newsletters, dreaming up interference from Non-Player Characters, devising rules to cover the little bells and whistles that it's nice to have, but no-one is going to include in any game for use on a regular basis, for when the players think of something unusual, like devoting resources to development of the nuclear research programme of the German Post Of fice.

It is usually possible to include a considerable number of players in a PBM game, so that co-ordination with allies becomes as important as operations and logistics. An attack at the junction of two armies is often successful in real life, because of the co-ordination problems, but in boardgames it rarely matters. In PBM, the problems surface again.

The moral of all this is simple. For PBM games, design scenarios that exploit the nature of Play-By-Mail, rather than duplicating existing setups.

Vicoria - Games update by Steve Foster.

Firstly there is a full compliment of players plus a healthy number of reserves! The game itself is about to enter the third game year with the Orcs under Lord Great Gut already eliminated after a brief, but glorious, career. The realms of Bigundia and the Half Elves are seriously threatened as the Nogs of King Noggin the Nog [I remember him!] and the Undead Armies are on the march. Vicorio is not a game for the serious minded gamer but is proving to be good fun (for the Umpire at least), intriguing and exciting for the players.

FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!

And specifically for our North American members, we have two PBM games offered by Jon Laughlin and George Arnold. Chris Morris has been an excellent source of information on how to set up a PBM. So if there are any of you out there who have been waiting for a PBM closer to home, here are Jon and George's letters.

Dear Rich, LW 113 was a great issue. I see that some of our North American members are looking for some North American-based PBM games. If they like ancients, I'm looking for a few good men. The world of Volci beckons. It's one of those mythical continent set ups that Tony Bath wrote about in his Setting Up a Wargames Campaign. This campaign is designed for my 20,000 toy soldiers to romp around on. If anybody is interested, please contact me. I can also be faxed which is a lot faster than the post office.

Jon Laughlin
2630 Pearce Dr. #110
Clearwater, FL 34624
Phone (813) 797-0404 (press * to transmit FAX)

[Jon has submitted a lengthy article on the set up of Volci with maps and charts that will eventually be published in LW. - Rich]

Dear Rich, Since last edition's discussion of play-by-mail campaigning on the North American side, I'm setting up such a campaign for those who might be interested. It will be a two-player game set in the American Civil War period, with the campaign conducted in the Shenandoah Valley. The campaign will feature fog of war, with strategic decisions made by the players and regular reports of the results of your moves, decisions to engage in battle (or not) and battle results themselves. Write for details to

George Arnold
707 Royal Oak
El Dorado, AR 71730.

[In another letter from George, he tells me that he could run more than one game at a time if there was enough interest. From the notes I've received from the membership, it looks like several folks out there are anxious to give PBM a try. Let me also add that mail between here and Europe is really fast enough to support North Americans playing in European based games. And if you and your gamemaster are on line, transmission of moves over the internet is virtually instantaneous. - Rich]