Guidon Games
Company type | wargaming publisher |
---|---|
Founded | Evansville, Indiana (1971) |
Headquarters | Evansville, Indiana, and later in Belfast, Maine |
Key people | Don Lowry, Gary Gygax |
Products | Chainmail, Fight in the Skies, Tractics |
Guidon Games produced board games and rulebooks for
History
By the late 1960s the miniature wargaming hobby had grown large enough that there was a demand for rulebooks dedicated to a single historical period. Don Featherstone of the UK produced booklets for eight different periods in 1966.[1] A few years later the Wargames Research Group began producing rulesets with an emphasis on historical accuracy.[2]
With this trend in mind Lowry conceived the Wargaming with Miniatures series for which he recruited rulebook authors from the ranks of the
Guidon also produced Avalon Hill style board wargames, as well as supplements designed to be used with existing Avalon Hill board games. Avalon Hill later republished Alexander the Great, one of Guidon's stand-alone games, while TSR republished Fight in the Skies.
Guidon was a small publisher, and print runs were never more than a few thousand. Lowry apparently failed to recognize the potential of Dungeons & Dragons,[6] prompting Gygax to found TSR. Gygax made the following recollection about the company in 2004:
Guidon Games had a game shop, sold gaming via the mail, published a magazine and likewise printed and sold military miniatures rulebooks and boxed board wargames. They were small but certainly a legitimate company.... I was paid for the work I did for them, yes. Unfortunately, sales volume did not make the income received thus sufficient to do more than supplement income from other work. I was asked to go to work for them full time. That would have required me to move to the state of Maine. Tom Wham did so, but I thought their new location was a poor choice. Furthermore, the company was not run in an aggressive and responsive manner. In my opinion there was no chance for growth and success as things stood and I said so to Guidon. Sadly, I was correct in my judgement.[7]
Despite its brief existence, Guidon had a large influence on TSR and the nascent
In 1972 Lowry acquired Panzerfaust Magazine.[citation needed] In 1973 the Guidon Games imprint was shut down by its parent company, Lowry Hobbies.[4]: 7 Lowry published Panzerfaust Magazine instead under the name "Panzerfaust Publications".[citation needed]
Products
Wargaming with Miniatures Series
Title | Date | Author(s) | Product Code |
---|---|---|---|
Chainmail | 1971 | Gary Gygax & Jeff Perren | WM101 |
Tractics | 1971 | Mike Reese & Leon Tucker with Gary Gygax | WM102 |
Hardtack |
1971 | Lou Zocchi | WM103 |
Fast Rules |
1972 | Mike Reese & Leon Tucker | WM104 |
Don't Give Up The Ship! |
1972 | Mike Carr |
WM105 |
Grosstaktik[8] | 1972 | Leon Tucker | WM106 |
Ironclad | 1973 | Tom Wham & Don Lowry | WM107 |
Tricolor[9] | -- | Rick Crane | unpublished |
Board Games
Title | Date | Author(s) | Product Code |
---|---|---|---|
Alexander the Great | 1971 | Gary Gygax | GG001 |
Dunkirk: The Battle of France | 1971 | Gary Gygax | GG002 |
Fight in the Skies | 1972 | Mike Carr |
GG103[10] |
Atlanta | 1973 | Don Lowry | GG201 |
Lankhmar[11] | -- | Gary Gygax | unpublished |
Board Game Supplements
Title | Date | Author(s) | Game Supplemented | Product Code |
---|---|---|---|---|
Alexander's Other Battles |
1972 | Gary Gygax | Alexander the Great | PG2 |
Wargamer's Guide to Afrika Korps | 1972 | Don Greenwood | Afrika Korps | WG101 |
Wargamer's Guide to Battle of the Bulge | 1972 | Don Greenwood | Battle of the Bulge | WG102 |
Wargamer's Guide to Stalingrad | 1972 | Don Greenwood | Stalingrad |
Footnotes
- ^ *http://www-personal.umich.edu/~beattie/timeline2.html Courier Magazine History of Wargaming
- ^ http://www.phil-barker.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/WRG/wrg.html Archived 2006-09-07 at the Wayback Machine History of the Wargames Research Group
- ^ Gygax, Gary. "Gary Gygax (Interview)". TheOneRing.net. Retrieved 2008-10-07.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7.
- ^ http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/columns/lynch01may01.html RPGnet: Interview with Gary Gygax
- ^ http://wiki.acaeum.com/wiki/Dragon_11 Archived 2011-07-07 at the Wayback Machine Acaeum: Dragon 11
- ^ http://www.enworld.org/article.php?a=39 EnWorld: The Ultimate Gary Gygax Interview (Free Registration Required)
- ^ This pamphlet does not have a Guidon Games imprint. However, the back page has a product list entitled Other Booklets from Guidon Games.
- ^ Listed as part of the Wargaming in Miniatures series in the back of the 2nd ed. Chainmail. Unpublished by Guidon Games and finally released by TSR in 1975.
- ^ The product code for Fight in the Skies is given in the 1972 Lowrys Hobbies catalog as GG003, but in the 1974 catalog as GG103.
- ^ http://www.boardgamegeek.com/images/thing/4025 Collaboration between Gary Gygax and Fritz Leiber, presented for release by Guidon Games but unpublished until finally released by TSR in 1976.