The Comprehensive Guide to Board Wargaming (1977)

An overview of the field of board wargaming circa 1977.

The chapters include: The Wargames Explosion, Basics of Wargaming, Strategy (chapters 3-5: The Forest and the Trees, Reserves and Build-Up, Political and Economic Affairs), Tactics (chapters 6-8: Defensive Terrain, Combined Arms, Waves and Skies) and Winning (chapters 9-10: The Short Cuts, The Broad Sweep). The final chapter is a four turn replay of SPI's Nordlingen.

In addition, there is a 63 page section with capsule descriptions of over 275 wargames - a real blast from the past!

There are four appendices: Answers to Problems (the book includes six wargame situations for the reader to analyze), Useful Addresses (no longer very useful due to their age) and PanzerBlitz and Panzer Leader free-choice selection unit values.

224 page hardbound book with dust jacket, black
and white photographs. SPI's Strike Force One minigame is included as an insert inside the back cover.

ISBNs 0213166461 (1977 hardback), 0722166672 (1980 paperback 2/ed)

Comments from author Nicholas Palmer (August 2, 2009):

I'm still around and still play when I have time - contact NickMP1@aol.com. For a glance at what I'm doing now see www.broxtowelabour.org .

The book has two successors, The Best of Board Wargaming and Beyond the Arcade. The first was really just reviews of more games since the original title (and it's still 20 years old but maybe useful to those looking for older games to buy), and not an introduction to the hobby. The latter is just a curiosity - it was an attempt to get into books on computer games. It wasn't bad on the subject of play-by-mail games, but again is decades out of date and not recommended.

The Comprehensive Guide was great fun to write and I hope gives a good feel for the hobby - even though most of the games are long out of print the general principles and ideas discussed are still mostly vlaid. It was printed in 100,000 or so copies in five editions in the end, including, curiously, an Italian translation. I didn't make much money out of it (a few thousand pounds in total) but the real benefit was that SPI sent me every single one of their games free of charge for review. The arrival of that parcel remains one of the most memorable moments of my life! (How sad is that? :-) )

http://rpg.geekdo.com/user/NickPalmer