Bill Owen wrote in Bill Owen Q&A:Back to Tractics...

I wrote that when I THOUGHT I was nearly done. I found out that Mike Reese kept thinking of new things to add or old things to fine-tune. So we finally got to print in December of 2021. We have eight identical print editions, which only vary by binding (softcover, coil binding, and hardcover), black ink interior pages for economy or full color, and "view" of the 45 pages of game reference charts: Landscape or Portrait.

Then last month, we came up with a PDF version of Tractics. This was in the place of the Kindle edition that proved to be just too difficult for me to master. Has hundreds of hyperlinks within the PDF to teleport to relevant sections.

That's great, Bill! Glad to see Tractics return. I've been wanting a copy for years; I'll be picking up one of these when cash flow is better.

Congratulations!

Hi Bill,

I had posted on another thread here in the forum a question about some Judges Guild staff. I was wondering if you might recognize this woman and if she was possibly an employee of JG. I have a number of photos taken at Gen Con XIII in 1980 that I had been working on digitally cleaning up, and I was attempting to identify various people in the photos.

Thanks,

Mike

I am currently working on remaking my original “D-Day” series maps that I created decades ago. Together those ten vector-based Illustrator maps have a nominal size of 36.67x90 inches in PDF but can be enlarged to billboard size without losing clarity. They were designed as scenario-making references for miniature wargames like Command Decision, to on specific subset terrain for a game table. The original ten map sections were colorful, which made them unsuitable as terrain mats. The grid sizes varied from 600-meter-wide hexes (for Geohex), and also made a square grid more appropriate for table terrain. Bob, Marc, Mike and I played a game based on the first D-Day map in about 2003.

For this updated version, I changed all the contour colors to green and made the sea a deep blue. I also incorporated major terrain categories used in Sam Mustafa’s new game, Eisenhower, where each stand represents a battalion—nine times larger than the platoon stands in Command Decision.

This updated map is also available as a PDF on Wargame Vault under the title "Normandy Campaign." Eisenhower features a square grid made up of 2-mile cells, with typical gamers wanting squares ranging from 2.75 inches to 6 inches across. The larger squares could produce a game mat that is 22 feet long!

We “grandiose gamers” think bigger is better. This idea was fed by the Little Wars TV series on the first two days of the invasion of France, June 6, 1944. My maps make it possible to continue the game to recapture Cherbourg and Caen in the first weeks.

My current project involves testing materials and printing out Normandy Campaign mats for early adopters. So far, we have produced a 68mm-grid oilcloth mat whose length is 9.8 feet for a gamer in Ireland. I am also working on a 14.7 foot neoprene (mousepad) mat for a gamer in the UK.

Although our JG paper maps were quite specialized compared to the general population—about 1 in 100,000*—the current project has only attracted two gamers out of 200,000 miniature wargamers so far.

You can view this project at www.combatrules.com/bits.

*The 1 in 100,000 figure is based on the sale of 45,000 CSIO units in a world population of 4.5 billion in 1980.

P.S. Now that I'm semi-retired, I have the freedom to focus on projects I enjoy most rather than on more “mainstream” items. Indeed, D&D is closer to mainstream than it was in 1974.

Once again, though without Bob this time, I am the only global publisher of such a map. Who knows? Maybe in another 50 years, millions of planet miners on Mars will be using my mat for their leisure time games to storm ashore in mini- D-Days.

Hi Bill,
 Not sure how often you're checking in here, but if you see this and get a chance, could you please take a look at this thread about what appears to be a 1st printing of Leon Tucker's Fast Rules(pre-Guidon Games) I found.

Fast Rules - Tucker & Reese -Armored Operations Society -

I noticed over on Boardgamegeek you had uploaded a picture of one of the ones he sent you many years ago instead of sending you a Tractics, but yours is the only other photo I could even locate of it. Any insight you could provide would be much appreciated.

The best URL is https://www.combatrules.com/brickwall

Sea-to-sky-games wrote in Bill Owen Q&A:Thanks for sharing. Ill pick up a copy or two. I'm not currently needing a campaign supplement like this- im mostly dungeoneering- but im sure the need will come up.

Thanks, Sea to Sky! I appreciate the vote of confidence. I've been thinking about how much I enjoyed the Barony aspect of D&D, and square-edged cells like the bricks would look better than hexagons. I'm working on a world generator myself, even though I don't anticipate needing it for a multi-player game, but as a solo project.

What about the options?