2) Fill or Bust: This is a push-your-luck dice rolling game still available at many retail outlets. Certain numbers and number combinations rolled yield points, but the fun part is the decision on when to stop rolling and bank the points versus continue to roll and go for the lucrative bonus for scoring a 'fill' ... points for every die rolled. The game always causes good-natured taunting and teasing and is simply fun to play. Bowman Games.

3) Can't Stop: Another push-your-luck dice rolling game, this time from the brilliant mind of Sid Sackson (Acquire; Kohle, Kies & Knete; Metropolis; Samarkand; Buried Treasure; etc., etc., etc.). Players attempt to form dice combinations and beat their opponents to the top of the track for numbers 2 - 12. First player to reach the top of three rows captures the victory. Fail to make a proper combination, however, and your progress is wiped out! Although no longer in production in the U.S., it still can be found on e-bay or at local thrift stores [and Boulder Games -ed]. It's worth the search. Parker Brothers.

4) Take 6 (6 Nimmt): Wolfgang Kramer's chaotic card game of taking stacks of cards .. or trying to avoid doing so! Even the best planning can sometimes backfire on you in this wildly funny game. U.S. Game Systems.

5) Mamma Mia: Time to maka the perfect pizza! Lather on the thick Italian accents while you play this fun card game from Uwe Rosenberg. The game is fun enough by itself, but the accents make it a laugh riot. A good memory doesn't hurt, but isn't necessary to enjoy the game. Rio Grande Games.

6) Family Business: More accents required, but this time mobsters. This is Guillotine with a nasty attitude. Players attempt to rub out opposing gang members and have the last mobster surviving. Nasty, nasty, nasty ... but loads of fun. Mayfair Games.

7) Take it Easy: Even our hard-core war gamers enjoy this one. Bearing similarities to Bingo, players attempt to form intact lines of colors across a grid using tiles as they are 'called'. Not as easy as it sounds, and quite fun and addictive. I even caught my wife playing this one alone, trying to reach new heights in scoring! FX Schmid.

8) Groo: Although I personally have tired of this game, it has proven quite popular with great staying power within our group. The game is based on the comic book series featuring a bumbling Viking who accidentally destroys everything in his path. In this game, players attempt to construct a city and keep the klutzy Viking away.

9) Loopin' Louie: This is now a classic and much sought after. OK ... it's a kid's game, but I have not yet met the adult who hasn't been instantly hooked by the game. Swat the rotating airplane away from your chicken coop and cause it to dive bomb your opponent's chickens, knocking them from their coops. The original is unfortunately out of print, but Hasbro recently released a two player version called Barnstormin' Goofy. Search for the original in thrift stores. Hasbro /Milton Bradley.

There are others, but far too many to go into detail here. Don't dismiss many of these lighter games off-hand. Sometimes, they are just what the doctor ordered to close out an intense evening of gaming, or to serve as a filler between matches of Age of Renaissance and Serenissima.

Greg Schloesser hosts the "Westbank Gamers", is a founder of "Gulf Games" and is the new president of "Strategy Gaming Society."

OF BLOODY BEACH: OMAHA
a review by Joe Blanchette

BLOODY BEACH: OMAHA (BBO) is Bill Ramsey's introduction into wargame design. It is produced as a desktop publishing (DTP) effort. The game comes with a ten-page rule book, assorted charts and tables, nine 11" x 17" sections on thin stock paper which, when laid out for play create a 31" x 46" map and two countersheets (480 x ½" square double-sided counters which come unmounted). Sheet number one is comprised of US units & markers - 220 units and formation status markers and 80 Pinned/Morale markers; sheet number two is comprised of German units & markers - 150 units and formation status markers, 24 Special Hit and six Roadblock markers). Most counters use standard NATO symbology for units with the exception of AFVs which use silhouettes. Markers use non-standard symbols. All look good and quality-wise are somewhere between the counters found in, say, a Microgame Coop game and GMT's JUNE SIX.

As the name suggests, BBO covers the initial landings on Omaha Beach by the U.S. 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions. Facing them are the German 352nd Infantry Division and assorted elements of the 716th Infantry Division and the Coastal Defense Group.

Setup is a pretty straight forward proposition but takes some practice as the German units are given areas instead of specific hex locations. A couple of short practice turns will provide the experience necessary to optimize the setup. The American has no such problem. Instead he must determine how to most effectively commit his forces to the invasion and keeping those forces supplied and supported.

I felt the portion of the game that stands out for me is the initial invasion, played with the initial assaults coming in four "waves." As in the actual event, success or failure depends on the ability of the American player's morale to survive the chaos and catastrophic events that inevitably await the soldiers of the 16th and 116th Regimental Combat Teams. Should things proceed as badly as they did in the actual invasion I can see many American Commanders failing their personal morale check and "tossing in the towel" early on. My most recent play through was immediately preceded by a viewing of "Saving Private Ryan" and was thoroughly enjoyable and closely mirrored the near disaster that is history, with the first waves taking horrendous casualties and having trouble clearing the beaches to allow the follow up waves to come in.

I found the rest of the game tends to "get lost in the details" of tracking supplies, lines of communications, support assets and headquarters. To use a term which seems to be in vogue these days, I didn't find the system very intuitive. In particular the rules limiting Reaction (opportunity) Fire and resolving artillery and supporting fires as Small Arms fire gave me problems. Of course, in the game there are good reasons for both design decisions. The former would be too effective if all units could fire

all of the time, not to mention the additional tracking of who has and hasn't Reaction Fired. And the latter is probably more due to my military background and a personal inability to redefine the terms in my own mind than any problems with the game. However, for a game with only ten pages of rules there are a lot of details and exceptions…Reminds me of a Berg design in those respects.

Still, with more time to devote to learning the system (this short write up is over two months late! - Sorry Jim) and playing this game with a small group, I'm certain there's a lot of enjoyment to be had. If you're DTP-challenged, this game is definitely not for you (lots of cutting and pasting). If you're not I'd recommend it, especially if you have an interest in the subject and are looking for a more detailed treatment of the actual invasion than The Longest Day or Second Edition Cobra offer. I'm certainly looking forward to setting aside a weekend sans distractions to give it another try.

Joe Blanchette is a grognard and retired army sgt. living in Seattle, Washington.

TRYING TO SELL YOUR GAME
by Richard M. Berthold

OK, you’ve just designed and playtested the game of the decade. You don’t work well with glue and are not inclined to run a small business (Ask Randy Moorehead of Simulations Workshop about small business regulations: "You start thinking about joining the Republican party."), so your plan is to sell the game to an established company and kick back and collect royalty checks. Here is some – perhaps obvious – advice from someone who actually did this (Avalon Hill’s REPUBLIC OF ROME).

First, choose the right company. Decision Games would be a better target for your 3000 chit simulation of the third battle of the Isonzo River than Hans-Im-Glück Verlag. Examine the game list of each potential company to find those that publish primarily the type of game you are selling. If you have a simpler, shorter and faster playing general interest game, I recommend you try a German company like Hans-Im-Glück. Their production values are generally stunning, and many can market your game both in Europe and America.

Second, unless you already have an international reputation as a designer or your name is Reiner, don’t send your game without first querying the publisher. Fearing legal problems, many companies will return unsolicited games without opening them; we learned this when we sent our game to AH and received a cold form letter suggesting such (How then did they know they were interested in our game? X-ray vision?). Send a formal letter - not an e-mail! – in which you provide a brief description of the nature and play of the game and emphasize what’s novel about it. As briefly as possible, explain why people would want to play your game. Remember, their default assumption, based on a lot of incoming, is that your game is crap.

Next, and most important, prepare a clean and clear set of rules. The first element of your game examined by a potential publisher is the rules (some companies will ask you to send only the rules at first), and the state of your rules can easily make or break your chances. (How the hell did VINCI ever get sold?) Begin with a list of components, a game overview of a paragraph or two, the game set-up and a sequence of play; then carefully explain each step in the sequence of play, any other rules and the victory conditions. Provide examples of play whenever a game mechanism is explained, and unless you have some experience writing, use an outline approach. Examine the rules of published games similar to yours. You are not trying to be elegant (the publisher will rewrite the rules anyway), but attempting to make it as easy as possible for them to play the game. Find the most literate person in your circle and have him check the finished product for grammar and spelling: you don’t want the publisher to conclude immediately that you’re some adolescent goofball and stop reading. And incidentally, the singular of "dice" is "die," and the common singular possessive pronoun is the politically incorrect "his," as in "everyone has his (not "their" or "his/her") token." As the final and most critical test of your rules, have some gamers completely unfamiliar with your game attempt to play it without any input from you.

Fourth, prepare an attractive test version of the game to send to the publisher. The Prime Directive here is providing a game kit that can be immediately and easily played with NO hassle whatsoever, so with the exception of dice, provide EVERYTHING necessary to play the game. Raid other games for components if you have to and provide a sufficient number of players’ aid and information cards/charts, if such is called for. Playability is what counts, but playtesters will be more favorably disposed if the test game looks good, so use your PC (hey, if you’re a gaming geek, you’ve got one) to print out your chits, charts, maps, etc. Yes, I remember the junky playtest kits AH used to send out, but AH wasn’t trying to sell you a game idea.

There you have it. Do your research, prepare your letter of inquiry and send it off, perhaps to SPI? Oops, maybe TSR? No, they’re gone. How about AH? Ah, also gone. The (Marketing) Wizards of the Coast, then? Also absorbed. Let’s face it, resistance is futile in the American gaming industry: send it to Hasborg.

Richard Berthold is a professor at the University of New Mexico and has been known to run around Albuquerque in a toga.

Player's Notes
by Peter McCord

It occurred to me that the new year would be the perfect time for me to offer up my assessment of the hobby, from the point of view of a 20+ year player and consumer of historical games. I would like to venture forth the opinion that the Internet has been good for gaming, not bad. Hot-seat gaming, computer gaming and competition online from all sides has only shown that for a good number of us, nothing will ever replace our beautiful and cool collection of maps, counters and game boxes. Additionally, the internet has provided a great medium for playing games (via pbem, or cyberboard, or ADC II) and of course a great medium for buying them (direct from producers, or from Boulder Games, or from auction sites like ebay). Consimworld (found at www.consimworld.com) has an excellent collection of discussion topics, just for historical gamers. I'm told similar discussions take place at the games marketplace, and on AOL. Finally, there are a plethora of mailing lists, including Consim-L, World in Flames, ASL, The Gamers, etc. If email is your thing, you should join one of these lists. Almost all the information necessary to take advantage of any of the above is available at Consimworld, or at

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