Frank Chadwick

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Frank Chadwick in 2005

Frank Chadwick is a game designer. He co-founded Game Designers' Workshop in 1973. He has also done consulting work in the defense industry.

Chadwick has designed several sets of historical miniature and role playing games rules sets. These include En Garde! (which he sold to SFC Press in 1987) and two very popular sets: Volley and Bayonet, for the blackpowder era, and Command Decision (now in its 4th edition) for combat in World War Two. He also designed the Space: 1889 RPG and wrote the Desert Shield Factbook.

His primary contribution was designing board wargames, and has over 50 titles to his credit.

[edit] Board Wargames designed for Game Designers' Workshop

There is little doubt that, even in the rather busy pantheon of (wargame) industry heroes, Frank Chadwick is a Zeus amongst the Ajaxes. He is one of - if not THE - finest game designer working today. Since GDW's emergence in the mid 70's, Chadwick has been GDW's main designer, producing a body of work remarkable for its breadth and width. ... ever resourceful, Frank C covered his simulated butt with the out-of-sight success of his Desert Shield Fact Book. Its reported, six-figure sales will probably bank-roll the company for the next decade. And, as if that weren't enough, he has steered GDW (admittedly with the astute help of others) from a small-town, Third World company to its status as one of the major simulation and RPG publishers in the market today. Frank is also president of the industry professional association, GAMA, so GDW's tentacles reach out to almost every cave in which hobbiests can hide in. If dice produced olive oil, there is no doubt that Frank Chadwick would be wargaming's Godfather.

Richard Berg, 13 time Charles S. Roberts Award winner, in Berg's Review of Games, issue #3, Spring 1992

Chadwick is remembered for innovative game designs. His work has been successful across several types of games. He has designed tactical, operational and strategic games, utilizing many different board wargame formats. His work includes hex based games, area movement games, double blind games, monster games, and series games.

Some of the highlights include:

Drang Nach Osten and Unentschieden are very large (monster) games covering World War II in Russia from 1941 to 1944. These were some of the original monster games, of which many following games have been patterned upon. Chadwick was quoted in Fire & Movement magazine that he scaled the games to fit a ping pong table, as he figured that many wargamers owned them but used them for board games (and not ping pong.)

A House Divided is one of the most successful area movement wargames ever made.^{[citation needed]} Chadwick combined ease of play, size, historical accuracy and parsimony (4 pages of rules) to make this one of the most entertaining games on the American Civil War. The game is in its 3rd edition, the previous two being Charles S. Roberts Award winners.

Two games, Citadel (the battle of Dien Bien Phu) and Avalanche (the Salerno landing in 1943) allow units to move anywhere on the game board. This unique design creates a highly fluid and dynamic game play, and has made these games classics.

Chadwick's tactical analysis of the American M1 Abrams tank in his Assault series of games raised eyebrows in Fire & Movement magazine and amongst wargamers.^{[citation needed]} He rated its armour and firepower as much superior to the contemporary tanks it would face (the T-62, T-64, T-72 and T-80.) Combat reports from the first Gulf War, where the M1 Abrams dominated the battlefield, proved his thesis correct.^{[citation needed]}

Chadwick is no stranger to series games. He helped found Europa, one of the oldest series of wargames in the hobby. His Assault, First Battle and Third World War series of games were a comprehensive analysis of a potential 1980s or 1990s global conflict. His 120 Series of games were designed with 120 counters and meant to be played in 120 minutes.

He was inducted in the Charles S. Roberts Award Hall of Fame in 1984.