Working part-time at SPI, in a far-away galaxy, a long time ago.

I mentioned in another post somewhere that I once did some work for SPI. SPI (Simulations Publications Inc.) was the original publisher of Strategy and Tactics magazine. At least one person expressed interest online in hearing more about this, so here goes. 

 All internet images have been removed from this post, sorry.

Back in the 70’s I had a part-time gig at SPI, mostly as a game tester and partially doing stuff for Redmond Simonson, their graphics chief.  

The head game designer was James Dunnigan, who had come up with the heretical notion that different board games required different systems.

(Early Avalon Hill games used identical CRTs (Combat Results Tables). Battle of the Bulge was the first to have different results on the CRT.) The work I did for Redmond is done with a mouse and a PC these days.

 

I recall testing John Young’s Year of the Rat, a game of the 1972 NVA offensive.

I had the ARVN and John the NVA. His units operated hidden, upside down. He was beating the crap out of me. Then I found a flaw. Air strikes could immobilize an NVA unit. If my ARVN ground units could manage to get a retreat result on an immobilized enemy unit it would be eliminated. While unable to come back from the initial shellacking, knocking out several NVA divisions took some wind out of his sails.  

 

I tested one scenario of the WWII Pacific surface combat game CA, the battle of Tassafaronga, when Tanaka’s destroyers did extensive damage to the intercepting USN cruisers off Guadalcanal. As Tanaka, I ran my tin cans down, dropped the oil drums packed with supplies off the Japanese-held beach and ran back north. The intercepting cruisers blew me out of the water at long range. My torpedoes took out the leading US destroyer. We went to meet Dunnigan. Hearing that the Japanese had been wiped out, Dunnigan asked the full-time tester if I’d screwed up. The tester said not as far as he could see. Dunnigan went into his office and came out with a paperback bio of Tanaka, Japanese Destroyer Captain. Finding we used daylight sighting, he consulted the book. He said use night sighting since it was a night action. I was relieved, figuring the problem was solved. I bought a copy of CA when it was published. With night sighting rules, the USN had to get within range of Japanese Long Lance torpedoes and was crucified, making that scenario a forgone conclusion. Historical result, not much fun. Otherwise, I found CA too basic for my taste. Ships were OK, damaged or sunk. There was no further granularity.

If you read or watched Winds of War, Tassafaronga is where Tug had to abandon ship when his heavy cruiser was torpedoed. 

 

One of my favorite  SPI games was John's Musket and Pike. I recall having worked on the graphics. Another player surprised me a decade or so back by saying I had a design credit for the game. Digging out my old copy from the closet revealed it was so. I have no recollection of testing the game. It was long ago and I’m long in the tooth. The game has a number of inaccuracies, since-debunked myths and the like. Super Swedish cavalry hit harder and moved faster (8 strength – 8 movement) than normal heavy cavalry (5-6). The complete lack of command control enabled all the musketeers in one’s army to rush to one spot or another at will. Actual musketeers had some flexibility within the battalion but not much otherwise beyond deployment. Units had three states: OK, disordered or dead. This worked better when there were a lot of units, instead of a few ships per side as in CA. The Lutzen scenario had the Swedes go berserk whenever their first cavalry unit was disordered, simulating the death of Gustavus. After that, Swedish units ignored disorder results. It was hard to  eliminate any of them. The usual way to knock out units was disordering already disordered units. This was based on the since discredited story that the Swedes went berserk and routed the Imperialists. Gustavus’s death was kept quiet and the Swedes eked out a marginal win in the real battle.

 

That said, Musket & Pike was a blast to play, if Lutzen was ignored. It played quickly. Many of the scenarios had great replay value, if sometimes dodgy OBs. I played many games of this. Perhaps some scenarios from it can be used in different periods. One that comes to mind is Szent Gotthard, a town in Hungary. A small, regular imperial force on a hill is beset by a larger Ottoman force, half levy troops and half regulars (Janissaries). Badly outnumbered, they must hold on desperately while a large force of regular mercenaries appears behind the Ottomans. The Ottomans need to clear the hill so they can then use the slopes to defend against the new arrivals. Great game, no idea how close it is to the actual battle.

 

I have fond memories of SPI. John Young passed away way too soon. Redmond should have been around longer too.