larry marak - 09:08pm Sep 29, 2000 PST (#612 of 616)
Harpoon (boardgame version, GDW), Mohawk (Aulic Council)

Rand Games, a whole subunit of the hobby of game collecting. They
produced 2 lines of subscription games, the first 6 folio sized and the
next series full sized. Several games used a square grid using their
"time-space" system, which made movement a function of the hypotenuse of
a right angle (Omaha Beach, Lee at Gettysburg, among others). They did
an excellent Cambrai 1917 game in their first series, as well as the
classic Missle Boat, still the best simulation of small ship missle
combat in the hobby, with extensive historical scenarios, a campaign
system, and a ship construction system sufficient to allow you to design
helicopter carriers if you wanted to. Also a solar sytem game was part
of the first sub series. Second series included John Prados's Von
Manstein, Battles in the Ukraine, which has been reprinted by OSG, then
Avalon Hill, then CoSi, making it one of the most rescued game desings
in the history of the hobby. They also did Hitler's Last Gamble, a bulge
game which as Randy has said had serious problems. Last Gamble was one
of many games produced using SPI's France 40/Kursk game system and
demonstrated the reason you don't use a 2-week game turn system at a
half-day per turn scale, which is why the game failed. It also featured
the first minigame in the hobby, and coined the phrase minigame, an
unplayable relief of Bastogne scenario. Rand also released mounted
versions of two of its first series games, the above mentioned
Gettysburg title and Sicily: Monty vs. Kesselring, under their Gamut of
Games label. 2nd series also included a pedestrian game on the
Peninsular Campaign. Lastly there were two Rand ames released by West
End Games, a Marlboro battle game and The Great War, Prados's expansion
of Third Reich to the era of the Second Reich, and a must have game for
the grand strategy collector.

Rand Games staff included Dave Isby and John Prados among others. They
were fearful of lawsuits. Someone over at SPI gave them a copy of their
customer list, which angered the folks in New York. They went out of
their way to invent new names and abbreviations for wargaming terms.
e.g. CCC for CRT, for fear Avalon Hill or SPI would shut them down. They
did come out with innovative packaging, plug cut counters (no triming
necessary) and a few good ideas, like the variant matrix, which allowed
you in some games to always play with a slightly different scenario.


Joseph B. Dooley - 04:42am Sep 30, 2000 PST (#613 of 616)

Re: Msg #612 on RAND games. Great summary. Thanks much. Had no idea that
RAND products included more than the minigames.


Steve Carey - 09:48am Sep 30, 2000 PST (#614 of 616)
Have Games, Will Travel

Larry, one minor correction...the complete first Rand sub series was 9
(not 6) folio games:

·       Lee vs. Meade
·       Saratoga 1777
·       Cambrai, 1917
·       Invasion: Sicily
·       Missile Boat
·       Napoleon's Last Campaigns
·       Omaha Beach
·       Rommel: The War for North Africa
·       War of the Worlds II

Their full size games also included Brandy Station and Vicksburg.
What is the Marlboro game you are referring to? It's not on my list...


Joe Scoleri - 09:59am Sep 30, 2000 PST (#615 of 616)
Space and Fantasy Gamer's Guide - http://www.brainiac.com/micro/sfgg/

as well as the classic Missle Boat, still the best simulation of small
ship missle combat in the hobby

Is it up against anything other than Yaquinto's Fast Attack Boats (a
simple introductory game.) If so, that's not saying much... ;-)

the Mav


larry marak - 11:28am Sep 30, 2000 PST (#616 of 616)
Harpoon (boardgame version, GDW), Mohawk (Aulic Council)

Steve, check out the early West End adds that carried product lists;
IIRC all 3 years worth of Druid adds included the Marlboro game.

Mav, you're right. Fast Attack Boats, Raketny Kruiser, Modern Naval
Battles and some of the Fleet Series scenarios are the only competition
Missle Boat has. Considering it covers modern individual surface to
surface, surface to air, air to surface, torpedoe and asw combat, its
amazing someone hasn't tried to do another and better game on the topic.