Back in 1989, before the “G”, “M”, and “T” had even officially formed a company, I was working on my first “real” (as opposed to all the extremely amateur efforts that violated my game tables during the college and early-professional years. MAN, I kinda wish I’d kept the one on Brice’s Crossroads!) game design, an operational level game covering the campaigns of the newly arrived 1st Cavalry Division in Vietnam’s Central Highlands in late 1965. That game was Silver Bayonet, and it was the game that tested a system that my other two initial designs, Air Bridge to Victory and Operation Shoestring, were based on. We actually released all three together in late 3rd quarter, 1990, but Silver Bayonet, to me at least, was always “my first published game.”

Later this year, to mark our 25th year in business – no small feat in this industry – we’re going to release a complete remake of that original game, as a special 25th Anniversary Edition of Silver Bayonet. This edition will feature WAY better map and counters than what we published in 1990 (thank you Mark Simonitch and Charlie Kibler!), a few new units, and a complete rework of rules, while maintaining essentially the same (streamlined just a bit) operational system that appeared in the original. Rodger is doing special cover art for this edition as well, so this should be a pretty cool package, all in all.

The only reason I can really make a new design of this original game a reality is because my friend (and our webmaster) Mitch Land has agreed to help. As many of you know, Mitch has taken over the reigns of my original Crisis: Korea 1995 system and is now creating new games using that system in our “Next War” series. Recently he came to me and inquired about basically doing the same thing with my Operational Series – updating it and then taking it to new topics and eras. I replied that “I’ve been thinking about doing a 25th Anniversary Edition of Silver Bayonet, and this would really help me with the workload.” So, we agreed, the only difference being that I’m way more involved in the Silver Bayonet project – it’s still my baby, I guess – than I was with any of the Next War series update. So I have the original game out on my game table and am looking anew at the system, scenarios, as well as scaling issues for the reworked map (more below on map and counters). We have a May deadline to send the game to the printers (for a planned Fall release), so this is something that I’m working on daily. And Mitch is a huge help, getting the rules in shape for Mark and helping me identify areas we can tighten up in the system and scenarios.

Believe it or not, I kept a ton of customer letters with questions from the early 90s, along with my answers, so I’ve been poring back over those, too – smiling as I read names of guys who are STILL regular customers 25 years later, and remembering good times with some of those who have passed from this life in the years since. It’s been an interesting – and a little melancholy – experience, really takes me back to those early, crazy years when it was just Jewel and me running the office and we only had a few game series that we were trying to get off the ground. I like our situation today MUCH better, but it’s still pretty cool to be transported back to those early years as I read those feedback cards and letters.

The Map and Counters. For those of you familiar with the original game, you’re going to see a MAJOR upgrade to the map and counters. For the counters, I’m adding a few, but mostly it’ll just be WAY better art from Mark and Charlie. Also, we’re increasing the size a bit, using 9/16″ counters this time instead of the 1/2″ in the original game. These are designed to complement an entirely new map. A few things to note here:

1. Back in 1989, most of the good tactical maps that we have access to today were still Classified. So I’m using current sources to update the terrain analysis, which should give us a much better look at what the area of operations west of Pleiku actually looked like in 1965. Sorry about the original guys – I did the best I could with the sources I had – but this one should be a considerable upgrade.

2. We are re-orienting the map (N-S) and increasing the hexsize. The overall effect should be a much easier tactile feel to the game, with a map and counters that are much more pleasant to look at.

3. To accomodate the resize, I’m modifying the ground scale ever so slightly (about 5%) so that everything will fit nicely on one 22 x 34″ map.

Just to give you a sense of the art difference, here’s a look at a few of the original game counters verses a REALLY ROUGH PLAYTEST VERSION that Mitch made up last week.

By the time Mark and Charlie do their magic on these counters, I think you guys will be really happy with what you get.

How are we selling the Silver Bayonet 25th Anniversary Edition? Once we have the new map from Mark, we’ll put this up on our P500 list. Unlike most of our P500s, though, this one won’t have to pass 500 to be printed. We’re already committed to printing it, with the funds set aside. But we’ll use P500 as a way for you guys to reserve your copies, as this will be a limited edition, one-time-only print run, and the P500 orders we get will determine how “limited” we make the print run. So, if you want to get a copy of this 25th Anniversary edition, look for it on P500 in another month or two, and get your order in early.

A recommended book. The “We Were Soldiers Once and Young” book came out in late 1992, and the movie a decade later, and Americans began to learn about the bitter struggle of Hal Moore’s troopers in the shadow of the Chu Pong at LZ X-Ray. But even now, little has been written on the broader campaign in October and November of 1965, a campaign that stopped, attritted, and later routed a tough North Vietnamese Division poised to overrun the Special Forces camps and meager fortifications around Pleiku in just over a month of campaigning. Considering that airmobility was mostly “an idea” at that point, and that the unblooded 1st Cavalry troopers that implemented new strategies and tactics were about as familiar with the area of operations as they were the face of the moon, what they achieved was quite remarkable. And, of course, terribly costly. To this day, I know of no better book – if you want to read up on this campaign – that disects the entire campaign, than J.D. Coleman’s “Pleiku,” a book that was my primary source for constructing the game’s scenarios way back in 1990. To be sure, we have more information today, and some of that will make its way into the updated edition of the game, but this book remains a tremendous resource, written by a gifted writer, with enough precise detail that it almost reads like an after action report (though much more interesting.) If you’re interested in the topic, read (or re-read) this book.

Mitch and I will update you guys from time to time on progress, and give you peeks at the new art as we have it. We’re looking forward to making a cool new version of our first game. We hope you guys like it!

Enjoy the games!

Gene

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