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The General Vol 06 No 3

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The General Vol 06 No 3 **** The AVALON HILL @ENEN&L 2 Pu bliration Office: 4517 Harford Road. Baltimore Marvland 21214 THE GENERAL PAGE 2 $he ;VA&N ?HI=: @ENEW&L ;. a losing venture published bi-monrhly pretty close to rhe first day of January, March, May, July, September, and Novem- ber. Last inue our Philosophy war prompted from 1968 by Gamescience Corporalion and met with The General is edited and pubtished by studies prepared by James F. Dunnigan. Research a great deal of enthusiasm arnong the hard-core Directorat-Large. Here, we foilow up in kind by The Avwlon Hill Company almost solely for battle game fanatics. With Ganzescience no ionger rtprin ting comtnen rs from Design Director-at- he cultural edification of the sarious game Gamescience, but an arm of n different name Large, S/Sgt Lou Zocchi. Dunnigan and Zocchi uf aficionado. It also helps sell our merchan- under the RenwaU banner, Battle Britiun pooled their talents several years ago to design games are now mther hard to come by. Put dise, too. Bottle of Britim. This game was prabldhed in Battle uf Britian down ar n collecror's item. Articles from subscribers are considered fur ,publication at the whim and fancy of - - In the meantime Zocchi hugraced these pages members of our erudite editorial staff and the same time. Each participant plays from his with mny interesting pieces from the litemiy company baseball team. TO merit considem- own group of cubes. side of his creative talents. One of them is the tion, articles must be typwritten double- Quite simply here is how both TUF and following which we never got around to publish- are spaced and not exceed 7,000 words. Ac- TUF'abet played. Since most battle pine ing until now because it posed questions we fanatics are pseudc-mathematicians (they would companying examples and di~gramsmust be didn't exactly know how to answer. have to be, what with alI those battle odds to In la mnnneT borrowed from PhiIosophy - Part drawn in black or red ink. Payment for compute) we'll start with the TUF game's des- 16 (which elicited encore after encore from the accept& articles is made according to the cription first. To start, each player gets I1 cubes audience) we are reprinting %cchi's text in bold dictates of the voting subscribers. containing numbers. On signal, each player "mlls face - our comments will be intersperced ifl A full-year subscription costs $4.93 (over- his cubes." Only the upper face of the cubes can italics. seas subscribers add $6.00 to cover airmail.) be used to form the equations. Now - everyone BaEk issues cost $I.# each: out-of-stock playing on their own cubes simultaneousIy - If you've been reading every inch of the isues are Vol. I, No's. I, 2, 3, 4, 6; Vol. 3, attempt to be the first to build an equation General faithfully, and who among us doesn't, No. I; Vol. 4, No. 4. however simple (we're kind of partial to the 1 + you might have noticed that the last few contests Printing - oh . say I7,m give or take 1 = 2 equation for speed.) were a bit peculiar. Contest No. 25 wasn't really a few thousand. The first person to form an equation leaps up a contest in the strictest sense of the word, but To facilitate correspondence, we suggest out of his chair and yells, '"TUF." After declaring more like a survey. The survey seemed to be that all envelops to Avalon Hill be marked his equation TUF starts the 3 minute Timer oriented towards discovering more about what the typical fanatic does, where he lives, how in the lower left-hand corner as follows: (specially imported from West Germany for this many games he owns and which games should be Purchaes of The General: Subscription purpose) and sits back, peering in disdain at the produced in the future. Contest No. 27, like No. Dept. remaining players who attempt to form an equa- tion longer than TUF's while he, himself, mental- 25, solicited our opinions about how a particular Purchm of games, play-by-mail kia, and war game should be designed. Has it crossed your ly thinks up a longer one during this 3-minute game parts: Order Dept. minds yet that there might be plans afoot to interval, During this interval, any player who has Questim concerning play: Research & the formed an equation longer than leaps up design the next game along linw indicated by Design Dept. TUF's, out of his chair and yells, 'TUFFER." the surveys? If they can design a wargame with Articles for publication: Editor-in-Chief. the best features of all of their best games, they A Zrninute Timer is set xl that players have an Requestr for Brochures: Advertising Dept. opportunity to build an even longer equation, the should have their kst seller yet1 Requests for Parrs Lists: Pam Dept. player so doing yells 'TUFFEST." At this point, I hope you noticed that I said IF. It might not be possible to design a game which can encom- Letm to the Editoc Editor-inchief. the I-minute Timer is set and all players have a Try-outs for the heball ream: Manager final round in which to improve upon their pass all of the features which we think are desirable. I feel that it takm at least a year to Thomas M. Shaw. equations to see who can end the round with the design an excellent game. The ideas which you Miscellany: Marketing Dept. longest equation. Sounds simple, what? thought would work out don't always come off Copyrght 1969 The Avalon Hill Company, Not on your life. It is surprising how difficult right on the playing board once the battle starts. Baltimore, Maryland 2 9294. the play of TUF can get when you add that A lot of revising is necessary to bring any game exciting element of time - or the lack of it - to - to the point of playability. a game that already claims a high degree of interplayer competition. If you have tried to invent your own gak- s you know that each venture requires a tremend- Game Variations are Unlimited ous amount of work. You might create 4 or 5 COVER STORY qmes before you get one which seems to work TUF'abet is quite similar to TUF except that like you envisioned it. Then you might be To the complete surprise - and astonishment in TUF'abet, letter cubes instead of number disappointed to discover that you are the only - of the adult game industry, Avalon Hill cubes are included. Further - TUF'abet can be one who likes what you've created. recently introduced two new allskill games de played in most foreign languages providing com- signed to revolutionize the industry. petitors with an interesting and diverting way to Zocchi quotes from experience here as lhe reinforce vocabulary and improve spelling ability. ~nyand Yariow numbers of BE prototypes TUF - No Waiting for Turns Variations in the superlative mathe- indicated BB was originally scheduled to lappear matics game - run the gamut from simply in FaU 1967 - but because hst rnInute 2nd The great hue and cry against sophisticated arithmetic equations to those found in the most thoughts necessitated production alterations, it complex of higher mathematical subjects. Thus, games has been their slowness of play. Scrabble, didn't get on the mket until the Spring of TUF be played on any sophisticated level for instance, is a classic game and could conceiv- can 1968. ably have been the all-time great game if it wasn't desired - and regardless of which level everyone for the fact that one person plays while the other plays at once competing against each other and Avalon Hill has been trail blazing the Adult person waits - and waits - and sometimes falls the clock. game market with many unique ventures. I asleep. Not TUF'abet. Like Scrabble, the object is Game masterpieces in the truest sense, TUF believe that they were first with a sensible means to form words or word sentences . the big and TUF'abet are Avalon Hill's gift to the of resolving combat, first to recognize the value difference being that there is virtue in playing egghead market. Packaged in bookcase format of terrain, first to explore the mass-movement of fast. Here's why. In both TUF and TUF'abet both games are available - now - for $7.98 each pieces concept and first with many other innova there is no waiting for turns. All players play at wherever adult games are sold. tions which we now take for granted. THE GENERAL What is important to remember, is the fact Today5 young adults - that's who. To them, being discarded. The rejection was based on the tha the innovations were not introduced just G~adalcmaI meant nothing - no glamour, no rather obvious conclusion tht the sport was too because they were something new. They were hero Fgwres, no title appeal. And since it is the regional in consumer interest. designed into the game because they seemed to young adults who purchae these gumes in great Also in the sports area, golf gLarnes M been b he best way to represent the specific tactical numbers, add 'ko sales" to the above list. d&cwsed as possibilities many times. Mmy out- situation which the wrne was trying to simulafe. side designs had been looked into as well as If Waterloo is played according to the rules for conrideting one of our own. But with the tmds Guadalcanal, the French can't low because they I'd like A.H.
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