A few months ago, I put a list of games on the Holy Grail folder in ConsimWorld. Many of the games were uncommon, but quite a few were true rarities, such as Battle for the Factories, Chaco, Prestags and To the Green Fields Beyond. I was confounded at the number of games on the list that I couldn’t give away. I’m going to try once more, but this time in what will hopefully turn out to be a more productive milieu -- right here in Simulacrum.

Why not? Simulacrum subscribers have paid their dues and proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are craz adventurous. They also know about tanstaafl. Now we’re not talking here about the WW2 German organization responsible for ensuring that the D.A.K. all diligently applied sun-screen with a PABA rating of at least 35. We’re talking about that old Illuminati concept that There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. You might get a free game, but the quid pro quo is that you must write an essay, of sorts.

Remember those days? You just got back from summer vacation, and the teacher wanted you to write an essay on what you did on your vacation. Bummer. And so predictable, so lacking in imagination. Well guess what, that was actually a very useful bit of preparation for Real Life. Get a free game, and write an essay about it for Simulacrum.

Actually, the good news is that it’s not so hard to write for Simulacrum. If you are successful in getting one of the games in the list to the right, you’ll also get a copy of Simulacrum’s Contributors’ Guidellines, which tell you exactly what you need to know to write successfully. So here’s the deal: contact me by letter or email, telling me which game you’d like and why. I’ll give away three or four (or so) every issue, to the people who can demonstrate to me that they write better than the average rutabaga. And if you’re smart, you can combine this offer with the other offer on page 5. It ain’t free, but it ain’t bad either.

1914 (Avalon Hill)
1944 (Laurence Rusiecki)
the Battle of the Alma (GDW)
Claws of the Eagle (Perry Moore)
Crisis Games: Columbia (Engelmann)
Cromwell (SDC)
Defense of Rorke’s Drift & the Boer War (3W)
Hannibal (Aker Siegel Game Company)
Holy Roman Empire (Wargamer 33)
Insurgency (Battleline)
Lam Son (David H. Casciano)
The Legend of Robin Hood (AH & OSG)
Major Battles & Campaigns of General George S.
Patton (Waddington House of Games)
Mukden, 1905 (Spence & Gabel)
Nuclear War (Laurence Rusiecki)
Ogre Deluxe (Steve Jackson Games)
Operation Thunderclap (Strategic Games Pubs)
Outdoor Survival (Avalon Hill)
Overlord (Conflict Games)
Pearl Harbor, 2nd edition (GDW)
Power Play (Task Force Games)
Prochorovka (Task Force Games)
Raiders & Traders (The Chaosium)
Road to the Rhine (GDW)
Schutztruppe (Flying Buffalo)
Search & Destroy (SPI)
The Search for the Graf Spee (Battleflag)
Spitfire! (SPI)
Thunderin Guns (Standard Games & Pubs)
Total War (Excalibre Games)