Pass the envelope, please

I think your favorite might be the 2nd edition of Peloponnesian War. If I win though, we have to find a way to give the prize away to someone else in another contest. Lebensraum is my third choice of favorites from you. The one on my wall is Line of Battle. My second place was the cover for Seapower and the State. You know, I forgot to look at Scourge of God. I just did. You are right, it is very good. I look forward to hearing about the responses that you get. pax

I guess Dieppe, because it is the only game I have, currently, with your name on it! Art Lupinacci

My guess is the cover for Norseman. Richard MacRae

I only recently started collecting SimCan titles and only have a handful at the moment. My guess for favorite cover you have done would be D.A.K. Simple yet elegant (at least in my view). Kosta K.

Its was ... Hannibal. Brandon Einhorn

I consulted the Ouija board, and ... your favorite SimCan cover is Scourge of God. Steve Carey

He will fight no more

(When I Will Fight No More Forever was first published, Charles Vasey panned it in Perfidious Albion, and started a rhubarb of minor proportions that dragged even me into the fray. I asked Charles if he remembered. -ed)

Didn’t I misstate a rule or something, and Steve thought that meant the game was OK? I remember Steve wrote to every one wingeing, and Jack Radey tried to act as peacemaker. All I can remember otherwise was Mike Colleran of Swabbers thought it was great and then he vanished. What would Mulder and Scully say? I’m afraid it’s several lifetimes ago so its not very strong in my memory. Charles Vasey

I’m speechless. He passed up Gallipoli!

Dear John,

I’ve started this letter at least four times since receiving my latest issue of Simulacrum, #7. (Yes, I know I’ve missed an issue. My check for $21 is included. Please continue my sub with issue #8). My first attempt was on the plane during my move to Germany from Washington, D. C., but that quickly ended with my second Bloody Mary. I next picked up the pen after my trip to Braunfels, Germany, and Hexacon XIV/ Homercon Europe, but this time I was distracted by the arrival of my wife and dog from the states. I started again In July, but then had to spend virtually every spare moment over the next two months moving into our new house in Kirchenthumbach, Germany. This time I hope to be more successful.

Let me begin by praising the general quality of Simulacrum. The journal is the magazine that I have been missing since the lamented demise of Rich Erwin’s version of Paper Wars. This is not meant to slight the new Paper Wars, under the editorship of John Burtt. The old Paper Wars and before it, The Wargame Collector’s Journal, helped fill a niche in the wargaming hobby. It frequently examined old, overlooked games, forgotten classics, and those special games that most of us drooled over -- because of their superior qualities coupled with their general unavailability. Somehow, Rich seemed to have many of them. In my case, these times were frequently the only ones where I read clear reviews, coupled with accurate descriptions of the games’ contents, of a number of games that I had only heard about, but had never seen. This frequently occurred, despite my own large collection of wargaming literature dating back to the mid-seventies.

Since my discovery of Simulacrum, unfortunately only with the third issue, I feel that the best of the old Paper Wars is reborn, but improved with a focus almost exclusively on game collecting. I especially enjoy your sage editorials in each issue. Issue #7’s highlights for me included the article on Richard Gutenkunst’s counter-making abilities. I’m sure that I read of, but never took advantage of, his counter offers in issues of The General in the seventies.

As to Berg’s Paradox, I am fortunate enough to own one of the games mentioned, Game Preserve’s Rommel in the Desert. While I previously thought it was uncommon, I had never thought of it as being “rare”, but then again I’d never seen another copy, nor had I really attempted to hunt one down.

Although fairly recently I’m quite sure that I’ve seen at least one sold for a relatively modest sum on Ebay, whereas much more common items published by SPI regularly seem to be sold for greater amounts.

I’ll conclude this rambling letter with some thoughts about the German wargaming scene, based solely upon my one weekend attending Hexacon XIV/ Homercon Europe at the beginning of June. When I arrived on Saturday, after a five hour drive, I was pleased to find at least 120 people in attendance. All were board wargames. There were no “German” games or dragons in evidence. Games being played included The Gamers’ Tunisia, 3W’s Last Blitzkrieg, GMT’s Paths of Glory, DG’s Totaller Krieg, VG’s Civil War, SPI’s Arnhem, The Longest Day, This Hallowed Ground, Air Assault on Crete, GD ‘41, The Great War in Europe, Blitzkrieg General, Bulge ‘81, Up Front, ASL, Columbia’s East Front, and Angola. The Gamers’ Circus Maximus received an enthusiastic crowd of playtesters and I spied what appeared to be a playtest copy of an operational-level game on the struggle for the Crimea on the eastern front.

The highlight of the day for me was at 3:00 PM when the gaming paused for a couple of hours as the auction took place. Under the able direction of Rian van Meteeren, who has served as the auctioneer for each of the annual Hexacon auctions, several hundred games were sold. Almost all of them were strictly historical simulations. The minimum bid on an item was 20 Deutsch Marks or about $10 US. Almost all of the items sold. The highest selling price was 135 DM for a mint copy of The Gamers’ Omaha. An unpunched folio edition of SPI’s World War One sold for a surprising 120 DM! The first item sold was, perhaps, the most uncommon item, a punched copy of Paper Wars’ Gallipoli that went for 105 DM. I would have bid more myself in retrospect, but at the time was conservatively holding my funds for later in the auction. I was fortunate to acquire a punched copy of the Gamers’ Omaha in excellent condition for 80 DM, but wish I had been the winner of Gallipoli.

Interestingly, the whole auction was conducted in English, even though a good 90% of those present must have been native German speakers. After the auction I purchased a copy of Jeux Descartes’ Alesia from a German dealer, the Fantasy Encounter, out of Essen. The game with both French and German rules. Does anyone know if an English translation is available? Hexacon was a very enjoyable experience. All of the gamers I met were very friendly and knowledgeable about the hobby. I look forward to joining the prominent German wargaming club, GHS, and attending Hexacon XV next year. It was an excellent and encouraging introduction to German wargaming.

Best regards, Jim Di Crocco III Grafenwoehr, Germany

(Jim, you just made my day -ed)