Brian contacted me about an ad he remembered from Miniature Warfare for a game called Coup d'Etat. Here are two versions of the ad - the "out soon" one from August and the "out now" one from November 1970. Brian wondered if anyone had, or played this game, or even knew if it was actually published - if so, could you post any information using the comments system?
8 comments:
I've never heard of this game, let along played it...But now that I have, I WANT to, as a wargame campaign set in a factional Banana Republic has been ony my pipe-dream list for a long time...
Hi Clive - I remember seeing the ads but never saw the game. Even at the time I thought it was a rather bizarre concept. Seems quite topical now though.
Ian
James from Bedford has been in touch:
I remember the game, played it around 1976, when I helped form the Bedford Club.
It was great fun, not too complicated and I suppose realistic in a way.
Players had to enlist the help of various groups, the generals, the police etc. We jokingly referred to it as Koody Tar, it was not so difficult as to preclude drumming in non-military minded types to play.
Brian here, original enquirer - I have actually managed to contact Brian Shieldhouse, designer of the game, through Facebook!
Brian is 79 now and lives in Sweden. He said that he was inspired by Edward Luttwak's book "Coup d'etat: a Practical Handbook" and that the layout of the fictional capital city in the game was similar to the Swedish city of Jonkoping, where he was working at the time.
(I also was inspired by Luttwak's book, and designed my own board game on coups, called Power Play, in 1991.)
He does not have a copy of the game handy but may be able to get access to one this fall. So scans or pictures may one day end up on boardgamegeek.com.....
I have this game for sale if anyone is interested. You can contact me through my website. www.chiletreasures.com
Great old ads, thanks for posting!
I contacted Michael and he was referring to an old card game once put out by Parker Brothers and other companies over the years.
(http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2174/coup-detat)
The search continues!
-Brian
Well, well, well. This is Brian Shieldhouse, creator of the game. When I retired to Sweden ten years ago, I left it with my son, David in England. My wife Pauline and Iemigrated in our small camper-van and just didn't have room for it. However, about six nonths ago, I was contacted by Brian Train, and nentioned that I would be going to my daughter's in Snowdonia for my 80th birthday, now in a week's time. David will be coming and has said he will bring it, and I'm then taking it home to Sweden. It will be great to see it again. I also write games in Visual Basic and am currently doing a Cricket simulation for my grandschidren. This hopefully keeps my brain from atrophying. I did of course start a Visual Basic simulation of Coup d'Etat, and it fouled up when I changed computers about four years ago. I've still got it there sonewhere and will try to retrieve it when I've finished the Cricket simulation. I didn't get all that far with it - maybe about one third of the way thriugh, and I can still remember the thrill of seeing all the Police Units changing colour when the Police Station was occupied ! Anyway it costs notbhing to watch this space, and maybe one day, before my time runs out, I'll actually finish it.
Well, Brian did dig out his sole copy of Coup d'etat, even at that it's missing the rules, and took some pictures.
I created an entry for the game at Boardgamegeek.com, and you can see these pictures, along with Brian's recollections of how the game played, at
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/113869/coup-detat
Many thanks for Vintage Wargaming; I never would have been able to get this far without it!
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