The Gamers was a designer and publisher of board wargames that, over the course of 20 years, won over a dozen Charles S. Roberts Awards.
History
The Gamers was founded in 1988 by game designer and artist Dean Essig in Homer, Illinois.[1] Instead of designing a new game system for each game, Essig decided that The Gamers would produce a number of games, but categorized into different series. The games in each series would use a common set of rules. Each game within the series would also have a subset of rules to deal with situations unique to that battle.
The company's games received good critical reception, and won a total of 14 Charles S. Roberts Awards.
The Gamers was bought by Multi-Man Publishing in 2001. Multi-Man continued to use the services of Essig as game designer until his death in 2024.[2] Multi-Man publishes new materials for the original Gamers series as well as new games and new game series.
Series
The Gamers produced games in seven different series: (One game, Circus Minimus, was not categorized. A new category, Modern Tactical Combat, was announced but no games were ever published for it.)
- Civil War Brigade (CWB): American Civil War battles at the brigade level.
- Regimental Sub-System Series / Line of Battle (RSS/LoB): American Civil War battles at the regimental level.
- Tactical Combat Series (TCS): 20th-century platoon level battles.
- Operational Combat Series (OCS): 20th-century battles at battalion and division levels.
- Standard Combat Series (SCS): General system that allows simulation of a wide range of battles.
- Napoleonic Brigade Series (NBS): Brigade-level battles during the Napoleonic Wars.
- Battalion Combat Series (BCS): 20th-century battles at the battalion level.
Homercon
Homercon, a convention for The Gamers games, was held each September in Homer from 1990 until 2012.
List of games
Civil War Brigade Series
Regimental Sub-System Series / Line of Battle
Tactical Combat Series
Operational Combat Series
Standard Combat System
Napoleonic Brigade Series
Battalion Combat Series
Uncategorized
External links
- The Gamers Archive Rules, errata, etc. for all of The Gamers games
- MMP Producers of current The Gamers products and brand owner of older games
References
- Dean Essig. Standard Combat Series: Series Rules, ver 1.8 Multi-Man Publishing, 2015, retrieved 26 October 2025^
- Mike Didymus-True. Tributes pour in after death of award-winning veteran wargame designer Dean Essig Board Game Wire, 26 March 2024, retrieved 2025-10-22^
- Pyramid: Pyramid Pick: Hunters from the Sky