User:XinJeisan/sandbox/

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Frank Chadwick is a multiple award winning game designer[1] and New York Times Best Selling author.[2]

Beginnings[edit]

Frank Chadwick, along with Rich Banner and Marc W. Miller, were (the only) members of the Illinois State University in Bloomington-Normal Games Club. They used their club funding to design war games. They also formed a small educational games organization in response to a project by the university to bring new ideas into the system. After failing to win this project, the three continued to work together, forming Games Designer Workshop in June, 1973 [3]

Games Designer Workshop[edit]

Games Designer Workshop existed from 1973 until 1996.[2] There, he designed several well known and award winning games, including Traveller, Space:1889 [4] (which used a steampunk millieu before the term was coined [5], and Twilight 2000[6]. Games Designer Workshop also published his bestselling book on the military capabilities of the United States and Iraq at the time of the Gulf War. The book was on the New York Times bestselling list, and led to appearances on various news programs by Chadwick.[7]

Post GDW[edit]

He currently blogs on history and military issues at greathistory. [5]

Awards and Recognition[edit]

He was inducted into the Origins Hall of fame in 1984 [8]He was nominated for an origins award in 2009 [9]


Chadwick designed several sets of historical miniature and role-playing games rules sets, although his primary focus was on board wargames, with over 50 titles to his credit. His most popular RPG is probably En Garde! (which he sold to SFC Press in 1987) and the two most popular rules sets for historical miniatures, www.testofbattle.com: Volley and Bayonet (now in its 2nd edition), for the blackpowder era, and Command Decision (now in its 4th edition) for combat in World War Two. He also designed the Space: 1889 RPG and wrote the Desert Shield Factbook.[7] and Gulf War FactBook.

Board Wargames designed for Game Designers' Workshop[edit]

Frank Chadwick in 2005


Chadwick is known for innovative game designs.[10] His work has been successful across several types of games. He has designed tactical, operational and strategic games, utilizing many different board wargame formats. His work includes hex based games, area movement games, double blind games, monster games, and series games.

Some of the highlights include:

Drang Nach Osten and Unentschieden are very large (monster) games covering World War II in Russia from 1941 to 1944. These were some of the original monster games, of which many following games have been patterned upon. Chadwick was quoted in Fire & Movement magazine that he scaled the games to fit a ping pong table, as he figured that many wargamers owned them but used them for board games (and not ping pong.)

A House Divided is one of the most successful area movement wargames ever made.[citation needed] Chadwick combined ease of play, size, historical accuracy and parsimony (4 pages of rules) to make this one of the most entertaining games on the American Civil War. The game is in its 3rd edition, the previous two being Charles S. Roberts Award winners.

Two games, Citadel (the battle of Dien Bien Phu) and Avalanche (the Salerno landing in 1943) allow units to move anywhere on the game board. This unique design creates a highly fluid and dynamic game play, and has made these games classics.

Chadwick's tactical analysis of the American M1 Abrams tank in his Assault series of games raised eyebrows in Fire & Movement magazine and amongst wargamers.[citation needed] He rated its armour and firepower as much superior to the contemporary tanks it would face (the T-62, T-64, T-72 and T-80.) Combat reports from the first Gulf War, where the M1 Abrams dominated the battlefield, proved his thesis correct.[citation needed]

Chadwick is no stranger to series games. He helped found Europa, one of the oldest series of wargames in the hobby. His Assault, First Battle and Third World War series of games were a comprehensive analysis[citation needed] of a potential 1980s or 1990s global conflict. His 120 Series of games were designed with 120 counters and meant to be played in 120 minutes.

He was inducted in the Charles S. Roberts Award Hall of Fame in 1984.

After a long hiatus, he has once again had a new board wargame published in 2009, The Arduous Beginning (on the attack of Army Group Center into Russia during Operation Barbarossa in 1941, It is published by Victory Point Games, along with a new edition of his Battle for Moscow game.

His game designs[edit]

  • Drang Nach Osten (1973) - 1st edition Europa series
  • Unentshieden (1973) - 1st edition Europa series
  • Narvik (1974) - 1st edition Europa series
  • Torgau (1974)
  • 1815: the Waterloo Campaign (1975)
  • Crimea (1975)
  • Avalanche (1976)
  • Kasserine Pass (1977) - new edition of a Conflict game by John Hill
  • Bar-Lev (1977) - new edition of a Conflict game by John Hill
  • Case White (1977) - 1st edition Europa series
  • Citadel (1977)
  • Battle of the Alma (1978) - 120 Series
  • The Fall of Tobruk (1978)
  • The Battle of Lobositz (1978) - 120 Series
  • Operation Crusader (1978)
  • Overlord (1978) - new edition of a Conflict game by John Hill
  • Beda Fomm (1979) - 120 Series
  • Belter (1979)
  • Road to the Rhine (1979)
  • White Death (1979)
  • 1940 (1980) - 120 Series
  • Asteroid (1980)
  • Azhanti High Lighting (1980) (Charles S. Roberts Award winner)
  • The Battle of Prague (1980) - 120 Series
  • Tacforce (1980) - miniatures rules
  • A House Divided (1981) - 1st Edition (Charles S. Roberts Award winner)
  • Suez '73 (1981)
  • Trenchfoot (1981)
  • Attack in the Ardennes (1982)
  • Soldier King (1982)
  • Assault (1983) - Assault series
  • Boots & Saddles (1984) - Assault series
  • Spain & Portugal (1984) - 1st edition Europa series
  • 8th Army: Operation Crusader (1984) - Double Blind series
  • The Third World War (1984) - Third World War series
  • Southern Front (1984) - Third World War series
  • Arctic Front (1985) - Third World War series
  • Operation Market Garden (1985) - Double Blind series
  • Bundeswehr (1986) - Assault series
  • Battle for Moscow (1986)
  • Persian Gulf (1986) - Third World War series
  • Team Yankee (1987) - First Battle series
  • Chieftain (1988) - Assault series
  • Great Patriotic War (1988)
  • Space: 1889 (1988)
  • Sky Galleons of Mars (1988) (Origins Award winner)
  • A House Divided (1989) - 2nd Edition (Charles S. Roberts Award winner)
  • Battlefield Europe (1990) - First Battle series
  • Red Empire (1990)
  • Battle for Basra (1991) - First Battle series
  • The Sands of War (1991) - First Battle series
  • Stand & Die (1991) - First Battle series
  • Tet Offensive: 1968 (1991)
  • Blood and Thunder (1992) - First Battle series
  • Bloody Kasserine (1992)
  • Phase Line Smash (1992)
  • Race for Tunis (1992)
  • Battle Rider (1994)
  • The Arduous Beginning (Victory Point Games) (2009)
  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ a b Sweich, Paul. (Jan 13, 1996). "Game over: Role-playing game design firm closes". Pantagraph. p. C1. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  3. ^ http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/days-of-high-adventure/7023-A-Perpetual-Traveller-Marc-Miller
  4. ^ http://www.scifidimensions.com/Mar05/space1889.htm
  5. ^ http://www.heliograph.com/space1889/
  6. ^ [2]
  7. ^ a b Sweich, Paul. (Jan 24, 1991). "Fact Book Author gets spot on TV". Pantagraph. p. A2. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  8. ^ [3]
  9. ^ [4]
  10. ^ http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3244/discussing_multiplayer_online_.php

External links[edit]

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