During the recent visit to London by Desto Fante, he mentioned how much he had enjoyed reading about the Matrix Games that I designed some years ago, particularly the one that covered the events of the Balkan Wars. As a result of this I tried to find an electronic copy of my Balkan Wars Matrix Games ... to no avail. I did discover a PDF scan of the pages of the copy of MINIATURE WARGAMES that the design appeared in ... but I do not appear to have the text of the article saved in .doc format.
Looking at the maps I drew, and having read the individual briefings I wrote for each player, it struck me that there might be some other regular blog readers who would find this stuff of interest.
The First Balkan War (1912)
The Second Balkan War (1913)
All the maps and individual briefings will enlarge if clicked on. Please feel free to print off copies for your own use BUT please remember that they are NOT to be used in any other way without my express written permission.
Looking at the maps I drew, and having read the individual briefings I wrote for each player, it struck me that there might be some other regular blog readers who would find this stuff of interest.
The First Balkan War (1912)
The Second Balkan War (1913)
All the maps and individual briefings will enlarge if clicked on. Please feel free to print off copies for your own use BUT please remember that they are NOT to be used in any other way without my express written permission.
I remember reading these article, back in the day, and found the whole thing most intriguing. I think I still have those magazines kicking around somewhere. I recall some of the examples of the how the game functioned, but always felt that a narrative of two or three 'turns' in one of the campaigns would have been interesting.
ReplyDeleteIt is possible, though, that I didn't get all of the articles about Matrix Games, and so wasn't able fully to understand the game mechanics.
All the same, a fascinating concept!
Archduke Piccolo,
ReplyDeleteI did write a blow-by-blow description of a Matix Game that was published in WARGAMES ILLUSTRATED. If I can find a copy I will write a blog entry that contains that description.
Matrix Games are an excellent way to manage all sorts of wargames, ranging from campaigns to tactical wargames.
All the best,
Bob
It's possible my memory is failing me. Do you recall the issue number of the 'blow by blow' account? It's just possible I have it. However, as I used to buy the mag 'on spec' - never was a subscriber, as such - it is more likely that I haven't...
ReplyDeleteArchduke Piccolo,
ReplyDeleteThat particular article (or was it articles? I cannot quite remember which) must have appeared back in the mid-1990s as I ran the game whilst one of my friends was serving with IFOR in Bosnia. I don't seem to have an electronic copy of the original anywhere, but if I find the paper copy I will scan it and re-publish it.
All the best,
Bob
Have you tried opening the pdf files with pageplus? This should be able to turn it to editable text, and to export to other formats. Failing that I've at least one OCR program which does a reasonable job of extracting text from anything if you'd like to have a go.
ReplyDeleteNigel Drury,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the suggestion. I will give it a try as soon as I can.
I hope to produce some better quality maps for the Balkan Wars (I have had several requests for higher resolution images) and I think I have traced an electronic version of the American Civil War Matrix Game I ran during the mid-1990s.
I may well have an OCR program on my computer. I will see if I have as that would be a useful addition to my current setup.
All the best,
Bob