Category Archives: Gaming

Panzerfaust #68

Back on a regular schedule that would last for several years, Panzerfaust picked up cover dates again in the middle of 1975.

Contents:
A Review of Two Tactical Civil War Games * Herschel M. Sarnoff & Frank Peterson
Wargamer’s Guide to the ACW, Part IX * Don Lowry
A Slice of Battleline Publications * Jack Greene, Jr.
El Alamein: Game Critique * Vance von Borries
The Defeat of El Alamein * Pat Allen
Helm’s Deep * Charles Starks
Wargamer’s Guide to Revolutionary War Literature * Gregory J.W Urwin
Game Design: Some Thoughts on CRTs * John Michalski
Thumbnail Analysis * Editor
G2 Reports * Editor
Book Review * Editor
Mail Call

Available at Wargame Vault.

Lowrys Hobbies Catalog 1970

In May 1970, a new small business was launched: a mail-order hobby store geared towards wargaming, especially for miniatures. The business would grow, incorporating other secondary businesses, like Guidon Games (whose first product is featured in this catalog), The Toy Soldier (a physical store that opened in 1973), Panzerfaust Publications (centered on the magazine of the same name, bought in 1972), and Lowry Enterprises, which became the holding company for them all, and was a short-lived wholesale distributor.

This initial catalog is reproduced mostly as a curiosity piece, and to show just what kinds of products were available in the middle of 1970. The bulk of the catalog is for military miniatures of various eras and manufacturers, but also includes paints, brushes, books, replica guns, and of course, games.

Available at Wargame Vault.

Panzerfaust #67

The last issue to go without a date, this is the May-June 1975 issue. The masthead proclaimed “Incorporating CAMPAIGN Magazine”, marking the end of efforts to sell that magazine to someone else.

Contents:
Third Reich Addenda * Steve Kane
Verdun: The Situation & The Game * Jerrold Thomas
Verdun: The Variants * Jerrold Thomas
Battle Report: Le Caillou * Pete Rice
Beating the System * Charles Starks
Thumbnail Analysis * Editor
Mail Call
G2 Reports * Editor

Available at Wargame Vault.

Lowrys Guidon #4

The fourth issue of Lowrys Guidon came out in October 1972, just before the business moved to Maine. This was the final supplement to the 1972 Discount Catalog, with the 1973 Catalog coming out a few months later.

Contents:
Editorial
What To Do With All Those Wargame Counters * R. Medrow
Micromania * Kevin Slimak
Crossing the ‘T’ * Phil Willows
More Hardtack Additions * Don Lowry

And five-plus pages of thoroughly out of date listings for board games from Panzerfaust Publications, and Conflict Game Company; N-gauge miniatures, and miniatures from Scruby and Model Power.

Available at Wargame Vault.

Panzerfaust #66

Roughly the March-April 1975 issue, this was the second one produced in Fallbrook, CA.

Contents:
The Yom Kippur War * Kent H. Clotfelter
Six From Avalon Hill * Don Lowry
The East is Red * Charles Starks
Siege of Gondor * John Van Devender
Sinai: A Critique * Norris L. Darrall
NATO Goes Nuts: The Third Great Imperialist War * Tyrone Bomba
What I Dislike About Critics of SPI * Bob Davis
Thumbnail Analysis * Editor
G2 Reports * Editor
Mail Call

Available at Wargame Vault.

Wargamer’s Guide to Stalingrad

The third booklet in Guidon Game’s Wargamer’s Guidebook Series was an expanded reprint of the book that started the idea, Don Greenwood’s Stalingrad Strategy Guide. Printed around September 1972, it reprinted articles from The Avalon Hill General, International Wargamer, Panzerfaust, and The Spartan collected by Don Greenwood.

The book was reprinted somewhere around 1977, and this PDF is based on that printing.

Contents:
Stalingrad—Win With Either Side * Lou Zocchi
The Pieces of Stalingrad * George Phillies
Stalingrad Replayed * Avalon Hill Staff
Russian Analysis * Gary Charbonneau
Variants & Redesigns * George Phillies
Stalingrad Over Simplified * Terence Zuber
German Chances in Stalingrad * Carl Knabe
Stalingrad in Detail * George Phillies
An Amazing Stalingrad Tactic * Richard Shagrin
Stalingrad Tournament Style * Steve Tinsley
Rule Clarifications
Weather Table

Available on Wargame Vault.

Panzerfaust #65

This issue was the first one produced in Fallbrook, CA, which would be the home of the magazine for the rest of its life. This, and the next couple would still carry no cover date, but this one is being considered December ’74/January-February ’75.

Contents:
A Military History of the Third Crusade * Stanley Grip, Jr.
A Look At the Ardennes Offensive * Anthony O’Brien
Ardennes Breakout * Randy Heller
The Myth of the Daylight Naval Battle in WWII * Jack Greene, Jr.
Combined Arms Operations * James Deininger
The Destruction of Army Group Center * Leo W.G. Niehorster
Victory Conditions, Neutrality & Capitalist Imperialism * Tyrone Bomba
Teaching the Beginner * Charles Starks
The Good Old Days * Mark Wiegia
Game Design: CRT-itis … Some Alternatives * Clifford R. Sayre, Jr.
Thumbnail Analysis * Editor
Passing in Review * Editor
Mail Call

Available at Wargame Vault.

Lowrys Guidon #3

The third issue of Lowrys Guidon came out around late July 1972, after a trip to Maine to secure a larger house for the family and business. It went back down to twelve pages in the same format as the first two issues.

Contents:
Editorial
Modeler’s Corner * Don Lowry
Discovering Wargaming * Chuck Lane
Hardtack Additions * Don Lowry

And five-plus pages of thoroughly out of date listings for models from Tamiya and Bachmann, Scruby and Imrie/Risley miniatures, Roskopf minitanks, scenery from Preiser, the Wargamer’s Guide to Stalingrad, and second edition Chainmail.

Available at Wargame Vault.

Panzerfaust #64

This was the last issue produced in Maine, and has a reconstructed date of October-November 1974.

Contents:
Wargamer’s Guide To the American Civil War Part VIII * Don Lowry
The Battle of Middleton * Pete Rice
The Battle of Slovicike Bridge * Ed Eaton
Chainmail Fantasy Variant * Kenneth Burke
December 1941 * Charles Starkes
Operation Market Garden: Game Strategies * Harold Totten
Drang Nach Osten and Untentschieden Game Review * Herschel M. Sarnoff
Survival in WWII * James L. Cole
Game Review: 1776 * Jack Greene, Jr.

Available at Wargame Vault.

Panzerfaust #63

By the reconstructed schedule, this was the August-September 1974 issue. The big news this time was the sale of Lowrys Hobbies (the original mail-order store) to Pete Rice, under the name “The Toy Soldier”.

Contents:
Game Review: Seven Days * Richard Hamblen
Le Jour de Gloire: The Aftermath of Napoleon’s Victory at Waterloo * Robert D. Harman
Incremental PanzerBlitz * Andy Lavis, Tom Olson & Jim Snellen
Game Review: Two From Rand * Pete Bennett
French Victory in Napoleon at Waterloo * Anthony O’Brien
Allied Victory in Austerlitz * Roland Wong
SPI vs SDC in SEA * Chuck Holland
The Disposition of the German Army, June-December, 1944 * Antonio Munoz
Game Design: Computerized Board-gaming * Scott P. Duncan
Miniature Warfare: The Owlhoot Trio * Gary Gygax
Thumbnail Analysis * Editor
G2 Reports * Editor
Mail Call

Available at Wargame Vault.