The Spartan Vol 1 No 1, January 1968

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Title: The Spartan, vol. 1 no. 1, January 1968
Type: Wargaming Club zine
Copyright: n/a
Place of Publication: n/a
Printer: n/a
Cover Price: n/a
Mass: 8g
Dimensions: Height 27.9cm, Width 21.6cm, Depth nil
Format: Full sized, 4 pages printed front and back.

Rear Cover:

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Scribe's Musings:

This is simply a single long piece of paper folded in half producing a full sized newsletter. This issue is the first in the line of the newly re-organized IFW. Before this issue they had produced a semi-regular newsletter simply entitled Spartan. The re-organization I think had a bit to do with the financial woes the group found itself in when trying to produce a convention the summer before. The founders had to reach out to the membership for financial support to get the publication going again and I think the new name and re-starting the issue numbers was the way of setting about to a new start. This information I gleaned and apply here from Scott Duncan's article regarding the history of IFW.

In spite of being re-organized and re-energized, I believe this issue still came out a bit late according to Scott Duncan's history article detailed above. The issue being only 4 pages long, I think you could guess the content to be of a very modest nature. I have included the front and rear scans so you can easily read half of the issue. The interior pages include a short review of The General and S&T latest issues, call for submission of articles, second annual Malvern, PA convention with details, description of the war games inventors guild (WGIG), IFW surveys description, future columns plans, Advertising rates, and membership drive.

The WGIG is referred to in later issues of the IFW Monthly albeit briefly. This is the first time I have seen an explanation of what it is and I find it to be interesting. Interesting in terms of what the IFW was about in producing new games and variation on existing games. Many later IFW publications seem to really be about the creation of games and making connections to other would-be game designers. The contact regarding the WGIG is Grant Noble.
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