A Rich Historical Tapestry

This is a mirror of an article original appearing at this link: http://www.gamesquad.com/forums/blog.php?b=424

Within the next few days, the first of what I hope will be many articles will appear on gamesquad under my name. The first is entitled Lessons From The Past and asks the question: what can PC game developers learn from their board game counterparts?

Blogs

As a way of complementing the article and any follow ons, and to make them interactive, I've decided to also create a blog. I've never been a fan of blogs; the concept initially seemed to me to indicate a frustrated writer who couldn't get published by conventional means because of a lack of something significant to say. That may still apply in some cases, though my view is softening. Given the ability of people with nothing significant to say to actually get published in book form in today's desktop world, the distinctions between online and virtual publishing mean much less. But I think now that blogs are losing their 'newness', and the truly insignificant are moving to Facebook, the blogs are starting to gain in importance once again. It still bothers me that I will probably need to edit this to add an insipid smiley face to indicate that the previous sentence was intended as a joke. Sort of. What isn't a joke are some of the high quality writings of other blog writers here at gamesquad, and the calibre of the other article writers, whom I am honoured to soon number myself among.

Tactical Wargaming

My articles, and this blog, will focus on board wargaming, particularly from a historical slant. And I don't mean the history the games are covering, but the history of the games themselves. To be precise, my interests cover commercially produced board wargames depicting 20th Century combat at the tactical level. That may seem absurdly exclusionary, but by my reckoning includes about 135 titles up to the year 2000, and dozens more since then, and of course increasing every year. I also have an interest in PC games covering the same era and genre and I anticipate some crossover topics being of interest.

There are a lot of titles out there that haven't seen much public discussion in many years; perhaps for a reason. But tactical game development has progressed sufficiently that it would be relatively difficult to do anything, be it on the PC or in paper form, truly unique or revolutionary. Studying history has more value than simple nostalgia; it can help us understand our present and inform our future in addition to being entertaining and educational. These will all be goals here. My first article should illustrate what I'm talking about nicely.

Structure
I hope to go a little beyond the normal blog format of simple blocks of text; what I want to do is provide the articles with links back to the blog where supplementary information will be provided - references, supporting quotes, additional images to illustrate points made. One of the great appeals of tactical board wargaming from its beginnings in 1969 was the diversity in graphic design, and hopefully some of that can be captured here. Anyone who recalls the stark impact of the PanzerBlitz boxtop will know what I mean.

In addition to collecting, playing and studying these games, my research has extended to the magazine industry that grew up in support of them. There is a goldmine of information in the house organs, fan 'zines and hobby press that was the precursor of the Internet and was the way that information was shared in the pre-digital age. I hope to share some of that in this space as well. Many of the issues in PC and board gaming today - probably all of them, really - have been discussed in the hobby press for as long as there has been a hobby press.
 

I'm looking forward to the opportunity to share my thoughts with the community and to hear yours. The timing is fortuitous. Recent discussions at a PC game developers site regarding the state of development of their tactical game series has been strained recently. Many of us "old guard" there had noted there were a lot of lessons to be learned from nearly 40 years and counting of wargaming "history" - and the parentheses are unnecessary, as that is exactly what it is - history. Others remained unconvinced, and a certain obliviousness to history seems natural in all walks of life, so it seems only fair it would extend to our hobby.

My Final Word
And there would be no reason to expect the average board wargamer to know, or perhaps care, what a Tac Game 3 was, or to reflect on the origins of the Infantry Fire Table every time he rolled the dice in Advanced Squad Leader. So we won't try and change the world here, or lead horses to water, just cast a little bit of light on something I myself find interesting. And in the end, a friend of mine who produces books for a living said it best. He publishes what he would like to read, not what he thinks can make money, or what he thinks he can sell - or by extension, what he thinks will inflame, hurt, shock, annoy or disturb others. If others want to read it too, so much the better. I suppose I feel the same way.

Question
Can anyone identify all the games that the counters in my header art are taken from?