Panzerfaust Magazine / Campaign Magazine

Panzerfaust was an amateur wargaming magazine started by Don Greenwood in 1967 and named after the German rocket-based anti-tank weapon. Like the professional Strategy & Tactics premiered at the same time, Panzerfaust included complete games, though S&T did not produce games until 1969 after its takeover by SPI.

The magazine got its start in a similar way to Fire & Movement according to Greenwood:

One of my postal opponents had taken to sending a carbon-copy newsletter of his (correspondence) with his various game moves so as not to have to repeat the same small talk over and over again. I not only mimicked him, I went him one better by starting my own magazine. Xeroxed at first to about a dozen correspondents, followed by school dittos provided by sympathetic teachers. My opponents were now harangued into contributing articles. Suitably impressed with my new venture, my parents sprang at Christmas for a new A.B. Dick spirit-master machine. If only my mother had known what evil consequences this would have for her son - the "Doctor". Thus was born PANZERFAUST - or PANZERFAUUST (sic) as it was misspelled in its maiden issue...Circulation eventually rose to 800. (Which is a lot of cranks on a hand-driven spirit-master machine let me tell you...) 1


Issue 45 of Panzerfaust. Anyone growing up in the 1970s will remember the purple ink of the "ditto" machines on which Greenwood produced early issues of his magazine.

 

It was apparently not uncommon for early "fan" magazines to be printed on (by modern standards) crude equipment, which in the early 1970s included

"spirit master" (often incorrectly called "ditto" or "hecto"), "mimeo" (which includes mimeograph, Gestetner, and related processes) and "offset" (including all sorts of offset printing). "Xerox" refers to the Xerox TM process and to its relatives.2

By 1972 the magazine still unremarkable production values, being distributed with a monochrome cover, stapled binding and an average length of about fifty 5.5" x 8.5" pages. Don Greenwood, having graduated college in May 1972, went on to accept editorship of The General after a three month chase by then-editor Tom Shaw, his first issue being Volume 9, Issue 1.3 Don Lowry, owner of Guidon Games, acquired Panzerfaust.  Lowry stopped including games in the magazine, preferring to sell them separately under the Panzerfaust Publications imprint. In 1976 Lowry renamed the magazine Campaign and production values improved.

The magazine published articles by notable industry figures such as Lou Zocchi and Jack Scruby. The last issue of Campaign magazine appeared in 1982. In all, 111 issues of both magazines were printed, and two additional Special Issues were also published. Special Issue #2 was a compilation of Squad Leader and Cross of Iron articles reprinted from previous articles.
 

Issue 74 of Campaign bearing the combined title, and the final issue, 111. 

 

Cover Gallery

 

       
No. 45
Jun 1971
No. 46 No. 47 No. 48 No. 49
       
No. 50 No. 51 No. 52 No. 53 No. 54
Jul-Aug 1972
 
No. 55
Sep-Oct 1972
No. 56
Nov-Dec 1972
No. 57 No. 58
May-Jun 1973
No. 59
Jul-Aug 1973
     
No. 60 No. 61 No. 62 No 63 No. 64
         
No. 65 No. 66 No. 67 No. 68 No. 69
   
No. 70 No. 71
(Jan-Feb 1976)
No. 72 No. 73
(May-June 1976)
No. 74
(Jul-Aug 1976)
   
No. 75 No. 76 No. 77
(Jan-Feb 1977)
No. 78
(Mar-Apr 1977)
No. 79
(May-Jun 1977)
       
No. 80 No. 81 No. 82 No. 83
(Jan-Feb 1978)
No. 84
   
No. 85
(May-Jun 1978)
No. 86
(Jul-Aug 1978)
No. 87 No. 88 No. 89
(Jan-Feb 1979)
 
No. 90
(Mar-Apr 1979)
No. 91 No. 92
(Jul-Aug 1979)
No. 93
(Sep-Oct 1979)
No. 94
(Nov-Dec 1979)
   
No. 95
(Jan-Feb 1980)
No. 96
(Mar-Apr 1980)
No. 97
(May-Jun 1980)
No. 98
(Jul-Aug 1980)
No. 99
     
No. 100 No. 101
(Jan-Feb 1981)
No. 102
(Mar-Apr 1981)
No. 103 No. 104
         
No. 105 No. 106 No. 107 No. 108 No. 109
(May-Jun 1982)
       
No. 110 No. 111      

 

Special Issues

 

 
Special Issue 1 Special Issue 2

 

Notes

  1. Greenwood, Donald. "Spirit-Master to Offset-King" The General, Volume 25, Number 1 (Avalon Hill, 1988).
  2. Phillies, George and Martin Campion. "A Guide to Conflict Simulation Games and Periodicals" Moves, Nr. 7 (SPI, Feb-Mar 1973).
  3. Shaw, Thomas N. "In the Beginning", The General, Volume 25, Number 1, Ibid

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