John Prados, Third Reich designer, has passed on

[Elessar2]

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/03/book ... -dead.html

Third Reich was one of the first wargames I ever played. Grand strategic wargames remain my first love.thanks mainly to his efforts there, and his influence cannot be denied.

[wjwilson84@gmail.com]

I'm very sorry to hear this, so prolific in wargame design and literature too. At just 71 he probably would have plenty more to give too. Third Reich alone gave my friends and me countless hours of fun and memories. RIP John.

[sPzAbt653]

John Prados was great, dying sucks. Thanks Wiki for providing this list of Prados designs:

Year of the Rat: Vietnam, 1972 (with Jim Dunnigan, Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI), 1972)
Rise and Decline of the Third Reich (Avalon Hill (AH), 1974)
Wellington in the Peninsula (with Vincent Cumbo and Albert Nofi, Rand Game Associates (RGA), 1975)
Von Manstein: Battles for the Ukraine 1941–1944 (with Vincent Cumbo and Albert Nofi, RGA, 1975)
Vicksburg: the War for the West (with Vincent Cumbo and Albert Nofi, RGA, 1975)
The Great War 1914–1918 (with Albert Nofi, RGA, 1976)
Salerno: Operation Avalanche ((with Vincent Cumbo and Albert Nofi, West End Games (WEG), 1977)
Pearl Harbor: The War Against Japan, 1941–1945 (Game Designers' Workshop (GDW), 1977)
Panzerkrieg: von Manstein & HeeresGruppe Süd (Operational Studies Group (OSG), 1978)
The Battle for Cassino: Assaulting the Gustav Line, 1944 (SPI, 1978)
Campaigns of Napoleon (WEG, 1980)
Spies! (SPI, 1981)
Kanev: Parachutes Across the Dnepr, September 23–26, 1943 (World Wide Wargames (3W), 1981)
Cold War (Victory Games, 1984)
Monty's D-Day (TSR, 1985)
Warsaw Rising: Revolt of the Polish Underground, 1944 (TSR, 1986)
Pentagon Games (Harper & Row, 1987)
The Campaigns of Robert E. Lee (Clash of Arms Games (CoA), 1988)
Bodyguard Overlord (Spearhead Games, 1994)
Crisis: Sinai 1973 (GMT Games, 1995)
The Army of the Heartland: The Army of Tennessee's Campaigns, 1861–1863 (CoA, 1996)
Khe Sanh, 1968 (Against the Odds (AtO), 2002)
On to Berlin (with C. Rawling, LPS, 2004)
Fortress Berlin (AtO, 2004)
Toppling the Reich: The Battles for the Westwall (AtO, 2006)
Look Away! (with Paul Rohrbaugh, AtO, 2007)
Tide of Iron: Designer Series Vol. 1 (Fantasy Flight Games (FFG), 2008)
Four Roads to Moscow (with Roger Nord, Ted Raicer, and Michael Rinella, AtO, 2011)
Bradley's D-Day (with Lembit Tohver, Ato, 2011)
Beyond Waterloo (with Lembit Tohver, Ato, 2012)
Beyond Leipzig: Conflict of Nations (Last Stand Games, 2013)
The Victory of Arminius: Teutoburg Forest, IX AD (Turning Point Simulations, 2015)
Set Europe Ablaze: The Resistance War 1939–1945 (AtO, 2015)
The Seeds of Disaster (AtO, 2015)
Four Roads to Paris (with Steven Cunliffe, Roger Nord, and Michael Rinella, AtO, 2017)
Monty's D-Day (AtO, 2021)

[Hellen_slith]

no paywall

https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/news/intellig ... -1951-2022

[MBF]

Thanks for sharing - I had some really great times playing Third Reich with friends in the 80s

[Rodwonder]

This is sad news... I remember hunting down a copy of Third Reich with my Christmas money on a cold February day in 81. I still have it...

[Zovs]

RIP John

I owned 4 of his titles...

[OldSarge]

That is very sad news! Third Reich was one of the first 'monster' games that I had picked up in the '70s. Unfortunately, I never really got to play it because of a lack of other players and the general lack of PBM at the time. RIP, John!

[OldCrowBalthazor]

An excerpt from the National Sercurity Archive:

Although he would rarely mention his love of gaming, one of his creations, Third Reich (1974), has not only survived the decades, it stands as one of the most popular strategy games of all time, having long since transitioned from the board to digital. Third Reich took an innovative approach to strategic gameplay, combining land, naval and air combat elements while also factoring in important economic calculations and political decision making. “The central idea is that players are national leaders, run their economies, and choose the forces they build and how they conduct operations,” John explained. “My cardinal point was that the complexity of the game should be in the gameplay, not the mechanics of the rules.”

RIP John Prados

[Zovs]

Thanks for that excerpt from the NSA.

The Third Reich was my my second batch of war games that I got for Christmas (the first batch was D-Day, Battle of the Bulge, Afrika Korps and Waterloo), in this batch besides TTR, was PanzerBlitz, PanzerLeader and Anzio.

[Zovs]

My Mother was a great wargame supporter for her son at the ripe age of 12 lol.

[jhyden]

I also have fond memories of the game. I played the board game (3rd ed.) back in the eighties quite a bit and later, in the mid-nineties, was a beta tester for the PC version. Back in those days, avalon hill had a group going at the AOL forum boards. A few gaming companies did also, like SSI and Atomic Games. I was lucky enough to be perusing the AH forum during my lunch break (*we used the aol software at work) and they were looking for testers for their new pc version! what luck! At that time, i was constantly playing pbem (+RT) wargames after work and during w/e's (steel panthers, close combat 1,2 plus others like soldiers at war and panzer general). best wishes to all and rest in peace JP. thanks for the great game and cool memories.

[Jason Petho]

I had the opportunity to work with John on a number of his books, creating the maps for him.

He was always exceptionally professional and always knew precisely what he wanted.

He was a pleasure to work with and his contributions to the community will be missed indeed.