It's pretty usual at the start of a New Year to reflect on the previous one, and I don't see why I should be any different. So here are some of the highlights of 2001 in wargames. As in every year people bemoaned the state of the hobby, many people seem to think that every year wargaming is on its last legs. So long as gaming companies continue to produce games, and game players continue to play them, the hobby will survive.
GMT continued to be one of the stars that shine in the wargaming world, with releases that spanned historical periods and gaming styles. Three games in particular stood out for me though, two of them - Wilderness War and Thirty Years War - continued the excellent series of card driven games, with WW being the ideal introduction to the genre.
However it is Clash of Giants that stands head and shoulders above the rest and, for me, is the best wargame of 2001. Here is a wargame that has the depth of gaming experience to keep hold of the veteran gamer, while managing to maintain low enough complexity to allow even relative newcomers to the hobby to jump right in. Both games in the box give different experiences, Tannenburg has the Germans trying to defend against two large Russian armies at the same time, while The Marne sees the Germans chasing the French and British onto the map, before they finally turn at bay and show the Germans what they are capable of. Both games can be setup in minutes, and the rules digested in under an hour. Tannenburg can be played under two hours, and The Marne in under three, and are both quickly and easily replayable, and they are both so enjoyable, you will surely wish to play them again and again.
Avalanche was another wargame company that had a successful year. The Panzer Grenadier series has been described as PanzerBlitz for the 21st Century and I have enjoyed the medium complexity WW2 tactical system immensely. 2001 brought two expansions Heroes of the Soviet Union covering mid war Eastern Front, and Airborne! covering US combat in Normandy, and an ideal introduction to the series. At the end of the year the new edition of Third Reich arrived in the US, though it is still on it's way to these shores. Critical Hit/Moments in History continued to focus on smaller scale actions, both through their Combat! series and their ASL add-ons including the long awaited Genesis '48. For the non-tactical based gamer they released Gotterdamerung, the battle for Berlin in 45. This game has been the subject of heated discussion as the original rules were not the clearest available, however the updated rules have been received well.
2001 saw the end of The Gamers as an independent company, finishing the year as part of MMP. They did manage to release Fallschirmjaeger - a game on the German invasion of Holland - and Guderian's Blitzkrieg 2 before becoming part of MMP, where I hope they will continue to release quality games. MMP released Grant Takes Command, the latest in the excellent Great Campaigns of the American Civil War series, and it is to be hoped that this continues, as well as printing the updated ASL rulebook and modules. XTR were another company that didn't survive 2001, and with the end of XTR we saw the end of Command, with issue 54 being the swansong of the magazine which had been the home of many fine games. All is not lost for the design skills behind their games though, as Decision Games became the new home of Ty Bomba. Decision continued to release S&T throughout the year as well as publishing Brusilov/Gorlice-Tarnow and Cherkassy Pocket.
Hasbro released games under the Avalon Hill name, including Axis and Allies: Pacific, an updated version of History of the World, and the incredibly popular Risk 2210, which seems to have been adopted by many wargamers as their multi-player of choice. However if you are after plastic figures (and lots of them) no review of the year could go without mentioning Eagle Games. They arrived from nowhere with two big games, American Civil War, and War! Age of Imperialism. Both of these games have received good reviews, and both contain lots of plastic figures, a big map, and multiple levels of rules complexity, without costing a fortune. Eagle Games were certainly the surprise of the year!
This year has more to look forward to, more GMT, more Avalanche, more of everything. Whatever your gaming interests you can be sure that there will be something for you in 2002, and for gamers, it should be a Happy New Year.
The Games Store http://www.tgs.co.uk/