La Douce France, cher pays de mon infance Mais oui, my eengleesh cherms, this issue has celebrated the eruption of wargaming design skill and artistic brio to be found amidst our sweet enemy of France. The penetration of French games arising from the strong French gaming infrastructure is almost as astonishing in its speed as the rise of the DTP/game-kit market. Frenchmen, I salute you! (Be grateful I do not embrace you)! Vae Victis can be faxed on 01.47.00.51.11 and a six issue sub is 235 FF., a bargain in any language (though its French in this case). The strength of the French hobby over its reconfiguring American cousin was noted in Vae Victis 21 which speaks the low production runs, the weak sales and lack of morale amidst American producers. Vae Victis's conclusion is to press ahead with its own games (both board and figures) without waiting for others. A sensible attitude that is much in line with the Games Workshop's decision a decade back. As if France were not enough the splendid Svea Rike gives us further reason to celebrate our Euro-chums. We should however also remember that even when the US industry is depressed it continues to produce large numbers of good games. I would be pleased if both languages could build their strength. What is particularly notable about Vae Victis is its support for the Hobby infrastructure of clubs. The US industry has no such common point unless it be the various Internet boards, I look forward to the Duke of Bassano's work as he expands the range of Consimworld. The closure of Just Games in Brewer Street removed one of the few London games pitches (Orc's Nest just off Cambridge Circus has a good range). However, Maurice Criddle (the ex-manager of JG) is to be set up in shop in Museum Street in a new multi-floor shop called Playin Games (what a title, Captain Criddle's Coffee House and Ludicorium would be better). In the basement hard-core nuts will find their product without scaring the families on the ground floor (or the gamers in the first floor playing area). But where's the wine cellar? See you all there! Game Kit News Chariotlords: In testing with a number of teams. Some crucial clarification work going on. With some discussion of the complexity level. Each faction contains about five different nations (The White team have the Hittites, Elam, Cimmeria, Nubia, Judah for example) and each of them can have at least six victory conditions. There has been a complaint that this requires over 120 VP conditions to be learnt if you intend to master the game immediately. I am astonished that folks wish to master a game before they have played it! I suspect we have a group of machos here terrified of losing. Three and two player versions being tested Death Ride: Mars-La-Tour: Colour printer on-line and counters being recoloured. Mike Siggins will snipping the map soon and I will then dry run an assembly in order to prepare the instruction sheet. Four full colour counter sheets plus nine map panels, plus rule booklet. With the cost of colour I reckon we are looking at over £ 15 a pop. The counters do look lovely though. What Do They Know Of England? From the depths of cyberspace Prince Bragaglia sends me the following exchange, proving that the sterling work of the Cool Britannia lobby can be undermined by one idiot in possession of a working mouth kimalan@televar.com : Re PA; "The primary author/editor has got a mouth on him that will flay rhino hide". RGS48@aol.com replies: "You mean Sir Charles Vasey, who's (sic) blood is bluer than a dirty movie? That would be him. Charles is a denizen and gadabout in Manzanaland. You can usually find him trading acerbic barbs with his fiend (er, friend) Richard Berg. A most entertaining fellow, our Charles." kimalan@televar.com replies: "Acerbic. Yeah. That man can sure turn a phrase! You should understand that I mentioned him because I was more than slightly impressed with his ability to insult, belittle and diminish without once using anything even vaguely resembling a swear word. Some of our members could take a lesson." RGS48@aol.com responded; "One of the benefits of an English public school education, no doubt. He has a broad breadth of knowledge about a variety of subjects. Sometimes he carries the English wit thing a bit too far, substituting an epigram for an argument -- especially when he's wrong 8^ ). (CHV: Wrong? Not a term I've ever used in the first person singular!) A lot of folks could learn something about the use of language and making your point with wit, without benefit of Anglo-Saxon epithets, but those folks are just G**-da**-M****e-f****-S***, anyway. 8^ )" (CHV: the end bit lost me, shouldn't the M-word end in "r"? Clearly some things a good education does not encompass). A Book of Lists MagWeb (http://www.magweb.com), the on-line repository of gaming magazines has run a couple of polls recently on what's popular, coming from a figure gaming background they seem to fit the model in the UK as well. Who is the best general of all time? Not, as some US general recently argued George Washington, but the Napster himself. Our Corsican chum was followed by Alexander The Great and (trailing) Hannibal. The top ten included two Americans (Patton and Lee) and one Brit (Wellington). Most popular period (you got to pick three) was Napoleonic, World War 2, ACW, Ancients, Renaissance, Medieval, American Revolution, Seven Years War, 19th century and then 18th Century (presumably all other 90 years after SYW and Nappy are removed). Ancients seems to have backed off a bit, but one-in-five listing Renaissance (which goes to the ECW) shows an admirably catholic trend. Badly Printed Counters of The First Kind The new Sumo replacement, put together by the Running Dogs of The Gang of Three, has hit the streets. Called (with all the originality of a builder in the Seventies buying a Capri) Counter (geddit?) it appears to have been printed using coffee grounds by the Colditz Escape Committee. How can this scandal have occurred, who has profited from quality reductions, only the Shadow knows..... The contents are a game (geddit again!) attempt to be Mike Siggins despite the obvious difficulty of not being him. I found it rather lack-lustre and lacking the Siggins' catholic approach, but in fairness it's not my area. It is a big magazine and priced competitively (even with the variable print quality). It has yet to develop a signature of its own, which depends very much on the chemistry between its team - Stuart Dagger, Mike Clifford and Alan How. Snail Mail Micro Games Co-op Kerry Anderson, 10179 90 Street, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T5H 1R8 can supply the games of the Co-op (including Arriba Espana from the last PA). It's ten dollars Yankee for a copy in the UK (post included). I also hear that Moments In History will be publishing this game next year. Withering Good Fun Thwack, down goes Avalon Hill sold to Hasbro but with the game staff ejected into the cold cold snow. Time for a management buy-in from Manchester Board Wargames Club. Will Don Greenwood find a home for his new Hougoumont game? Or Ted Raicer with his Paths of Glory? The hubris of many of the now redundant staff has sadly been repaid. Still and all it remains the company with the best hit rate with me. Sad it is to see it encounter a vegetative state. Larry Marak on Consimworld commented: "Who's left, ranked from largest to smallest print runs, and within that, by fiscal health. 1.XTR Largest print run in hobby ca. 8000. 2.Decision Games, number 2, circa 5000 print run, but now less than 2000 subscribers. (Hint--everybody subscribe now!) 3.CoA runs of 2000 and above, hurting from distributor bankruptcies 4.The Gamers. No longer retail, almost disappeared last year in plane crash. 5.Avalanche. moving up 6.Moments in History. High quality, low print runs 7.GMT. High quality (with a few exceptions), facing heavy financial burdens, probably shaky. All the above is based on subjective evaluation, print figures where mentioned, and publisher statements. We will probably never see 10,000 copies of a game again unless Command or S&T does some very effective recruiting." [The above list misses out Columbia Games.] The following succinct report from Gamespot - an Internet website - may be of use, and is of course copyright Gamespot. Hasbro Interactive Reveals Plans, By Alan Dunkin, GameSpot The twin acquisition announcements of Avalon Hill and MicroProse by Hasbro sent shock waves throughout the computer and board game community. Speculation ran rampant. What would happen to the companies? The fact that the entire design staff at Avalon Hill was laid off fed more fuel to the fire. GameSpot News spoke on Monday with Tom Dusenberry, CEO of Hasbro Interactive, and learned some interesting things. Hasbro's acquisition of Avalon Hill mainly involved trademarks, current and previous designs, and other tangible assets. In that sense, since Monarch Avalon (the parent company of Avalon Hill) was still responsible for the AH employees and not Hasbro, the design staff was laid off completely. While Hasbro had no immediate plans to rehire any of the AH design staff, if opportunities should arise down the road they would consider doing so. However, Dusenberry did say that Hasbro had many "strategy-minded" designers that were apparently well acquainted with AH titles, so development would continue along those avenues. Dusenberry indicated that as Hasbro has the facilities to do so, Hasbro would continue to publish Avalon Hill games. Unfortunately Hasbro will not reprint the entire line-up of AH titles, but only the top 15 or 20. This means that Diplomacy, Advanced Squad Leader, and even Civilization among others would still survive. Dusenberry indicated that 275 titles, some still unpublished, were involved in the acquisition. During the interview, Dusenberry never really made a distinction between the more traditional strategy-oriented games like Civilization and the more adult-oriented wargames such as Advanced Squad Leader. He had a tendency to lump them all together. However, Dusenberry did acknowledge the fact that Hasbro would continue to develop the wargame style of titles and that Hasbro was very much aware of "recognizing the core audience" of Avalon Hill. In other Avalon Hill matters, he said Hasbro would be more than happy to help run the AvalonCon convention held each year to continue support of AH products. However, concerning AH's magazine publication The General, Hasbro would like to see it continue, but it is unfortunately out of the company's hands - it was not a part of the acquisition, and the future of The General lies in the hands of the Dott family, which owns 42 percent of Avalon Hill. Hasbro's main focus will be on Hasbro Interactive and publishing computer games, perhaps the most central reason behind the two acquisitions. According to Dusenberry, at the end of 1997 Hasbro saw the need to expand into the strategy and action fields. Avalon Hill and MicroProse both help satisfy that need. Hasbro Interactive fully intends on publishing everything currently in development at MicroProse and will retain MP's full research and development staff, although consolidation will occur in the marketing, management, and media departments. Hasbro Interactive also fully intends on producing computer versions of Avalon Hill board games, most notably Diplomacy. Since the acquisitions will probably not be approved until late September or October, many questions remain unanswered. Exactly what Hasbro intends to publish of Avalon Hill's backlist is still unknown, and the fate of the various third-party contracts concerning Advanced Squad Leader is up in the air as well (though Dusenberry did admit that specific questions about AH titles on the board game side of things was not really his area - he is the CEO of the computer products division). When more becomes available, GameSpot News will be sure to let you know. For now, Hasbro intends to take a deep breath and see just what it's acquired. According to Tom Dusenberry, at least, this is definitely not the end; it's only just the beginning. But that's not all Indeedy not, XTR producers of such primo-rubbish as Tomorrow The Berg have given us a set of Chess variants as an issue game (because Army of The Republic fell off the wagon) and reduced the number of games in a year's subscription. Irate subbers are told to cease subscribers or put up with it. Totally poptastic! Of course my air-mail subscription still has not shown up (although in this case I may not complain). Naughty Rob Markham has released a variant of Noughts & Crosses to make the point! And I understand the Spanish Vae Victis has shuffled off this mortal coil too. The publisher of the unbelievably ginormous The Battle Of The Ebro its vanishing is not likely to shake the tottering if vibrant ruin of The Hobby. French Leave But if the Hobby is a bit queasy in the Americas it is in hearty condition in France as I note above. [Some games are being given the same francophone as anglophone print runs!!!!]. Laurent Garbe has sent me details of the 15th Championnat de France which (if my ropy French is on song) will use Azure Wish's Rossiya 1917 as its game. In addition there is a new French game review magazine appearing called Cleopatre. Hatch Match And Despatch (Subset Hatch) Tim Cockitt, Mancunian games auctioneer, has just acquired an expensive lot - a son, Guy Cockitt. Congratulations to Tim, and to Mrs C sine qua non. Back to Perfidious Albion #97 Table of Contents Back to Perfidious Albion List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 by Charles and Teresa Vasey. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com