Bill' s Gaming Methods, Availability, Limitations

Gaming survives as it is how I maintain my sanity while in chaos. My basic gaming rules are summarized:

1. Limited time at home; conduct by email and arrange matches during business travel
2. Contact me by email or cell phone. Work phone only except in rare cases
3. Seek to attend World Boardgame Championships (early August; Lancaster PA) and Prezcon (Late February; Charlottesville, VA) annually.
4. Almost all my friends of more than 5 years are wargamer's with email.
5. Win without boasting, lose without excuse
6. More knowledge is gained from losing to a better player than winning against a lesser skilled opponent
7. If you find an opponent with whom you develop an friendship, keep playing; find a new game title where skills are balanced if necessary. Friends are more important than a win-loss record.
8. As this is a hobby with perhaps a limited life span; remember you are an ambassador when playing with a new entrant into the hobby; don't sacrifice virgins.

I have been actively in this hobby since I saw Luftwaffe in Junior High School in 1972. Most games were played with neighborhood friends and not always with the correct understanding of the rules (Luftwaffe, Richter's War, Midway, 3R 1st). In parallel to going to college, I had expanded my game titles and started to play by mail (PBM) with several magnetic sets, initially mounted on my dorm room radiator then on sheet metal. I also traveled around the city to face new opponents for AREA rated play. Upon starting my working life and having extra room in my apartment, I hosted several monster games such as SPI' s WAR IN THE EAST, WAR IN EUROPE, WAR IN THE PACIFIC and TAHGC's THE LONGEST DAY. Such endeavors transcended many month;s of real time; in the case of WAR IN THE PACIFIC, a year's worth of saturdays. Such activity also benefited from a local gaming group based around the former BROWARD GAMEPLAYER'S CLUB.

Other than these large games, my mainstay was Squad Leader series as I started with the purple box prototype version in 1978. After traveling to several SQUAD LEADER OPEN'S hosted by the late Don Munsell (Marietta GA), in the early 1980s. I ran similar tournaments in the Fort Lauderdale area. The group of gamers fizzled due to a failed marriage of one of the members due to the activities of another of the group. Allegiances between the husband, the wife, and the other man broke apart this collective group. Also at work were the evolutions of many of the individual's lives.

The APPLE IIE (bought mine in 1982 and still humming) brought another game facet with many SSI titles for play versus another player. My principle local opponent, Rich Josephus bought a 286 PC in the mid 1980's and we played several campaign games of SSI'S THE SECOND FRONT. I remained committed to the Apple line as my employer utilizes Macintosh as its desktop system through 1997.

Other than these large games, my mainstay was Squad Leader series as I started with the purple box prototype version in 1978. After traveling to several SQUAD LEADER OPEN'S hosted by the late Don Munsell (Marietta GA), in the early 1980s. I ran similar tournaments in the Fort Lauderdale.

Like many, my gaming activity and all my other interests have declined due to my marriage and raising kids, and continuous reduction of discretionary time. Email soon replaced both Face to Face (FTF) and PBM. My game boards around the house disappeared although the reappeared as computer files. Such allowed by to maintain a variety of PBEM play. Then followed play by Graphics ( sending a multilayer computer file; back and forth by email). However time I can devote is spotty at best. My youngest son's learning disability consumes whatever little time I do have and there is always more I should be doing either for him, my daughter, my wife's sanity and general family tranquility. Currently I am a strong advocate and contributor to VASSAL as a graphical, platform independent interface. As Java, files can be shared by Macintosh OSX, Windows, Unix and Linux. Games are played either by stepped review of a PBEM turn or real time via inherent server. Also its free.