Kevin Zucker
Kevin Zucker started playing board wargames as a teenager in La Jolla, California, and began to design his own games. In 1971 he found his first job in the wargaming world as co-founder and editor of the first two issues of Conflict magazine. Zucker then moved to New York to work for the wargame publisher Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI). Zucker worked his way up to Production Manager and, over two years, oversaw the production of 24 issues of Strategy & Tactics, plus the games enclosed in each issue, and 48 boxed games.
Zucker left SPI in January 1976 but stayed in New York, working in bookstores and studying music. Zucker met with other ex-SPI employees, and the group started to plan a Napoleonic wargame that would be presented as a spiral-bound book. However, this format's logistics were beyond the group's ability to create economically. Ultimately, the group changed the design to a ziplock bag game called Napoleon at Bay. To publish the game, Zucker formed Tactical Studies Group and convinced George Blagowidow, the owner of Hippocrene Books and distributor of SPI wargames, to buy 800 copies. Based on that sale, Zucker convinced SPI's printer to print 2000 copies. Zucker went to Origins '78 with the ziplock game and sold 250 copies.
Due to the similarity of "Tactical Studies Group" and "Tactical Studies Rules" (TSR — the publishers of Dungeons & Dragons), Zucker changed the company name to Operational Studies Group (OSG). At the 1978 Origins Awards, Napoleon at Bay was a finalist for the Charles S. Roberts Award for "Best Pre-Twentieth Century Game". The following year, Zucker's game Napoleon at Leipzig won the Charles S. Roberts Award for "Best Pre-Twentieth Century Game.”
In 1979, Zucker left OSG and moved to Baltimore, Maryland, to join game publisher Avalon Hill. OSG continued for a year in his absence, then went out of business. At Avalon Hill, Zucker designed The Struggle of Nations, a finalist for the Charles S. Roberts Award for "Best Pre-Twentieth Century Game of 1981." Zucker left Avalon Hill after a year to go back to college to study music. In addition to his studies, he designed 1809: Napoleon's Danube Campaign for Victory Games; the game was also a Charles S. Roberts Award finalist for "Best Pre-Twentieth Century Game of 1983."
In 1985, while still at school, Zucker was approached by Ed Wimble to create a wargame for his new game company, Clash of Arms. The result was The Emperor Returns, published in 1986.
Zucker graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Music and Visual Arts in 1985.
Zucker eventually refounded the moribund OSG as a publisher of operational-level wargames about Napoleon's campaigns. In 2000, he published Bonaparte in Italy: The Defense of Mantua and the Quadrilateral. For his contributions to wargaming, Zucker was inducted into the Clausewitz Award Hall of Fame in 2003.
In October 2008, Zucker announced that OSG was going out of business at the end of the year, but after a year-long hiatus, the company recommenced production with The Coming Storm, which was a finalist for the Charles S. Roberts Award for "Best Ancient to Napoleonic Era Wargame of 2010".
In addition to designing Napoleonic games for OSG, Zucker became interested in flower essence therapy and created The Flower Essence Game for the Flower Essence Society in 2018.
Games designed by Kevin Zucker
1974 (SPI) Bloody Ridge (part of Island War Quad)
1976 (SPI) Napoleon's Last Battles
1978 (OSG) Napoleon at Bay
1979 (OSG) Battles of the Hundred Days
1979 (OSG) Arcola
1979 (OSG) Napoleon at Leipzig
1980 (OSG) Bonaparte in Italy
1982 (TAHGC) Struggle of Nations
1983 (TAHGC) Napoleon at Bay, 2nd Edition
1983 (TAHGC) Battles of the Hundred Days, 2nd Edition
1983 (TAHGC) Battle for Italy (2nd Edition of Arcola)
1984 (Victory Games) 1809: Napoleon on the Danube
1984 (TSR) Napoleon's Last Battles, 2nd Edition
1986 (COA) The Emperor Returns
1989 (COA) Napoleon at Leipzig, 2nd Edition
1994 (COA) Napoleon at Leipzig, 3rd Edition
1994 (COA) 1807: The Eagles Turn East
1995 (Decision) Napoleon's Last Battles, 3rd Edition
1996 (COA) The 6 Days of Glory
1997 (OSG) Napoleon at Bay, 3rd Edition
1998 (OSG) 1806 Rossbach Avenged
1998 (OSG) La Guerre de l'Empereur
1999 (OSG) Last Days of the Grand Armee
2000 (OSG) Bonaparte in Italy, 2nd Edition
2001 (OSG) Highway to the Kremlin
2003 (OSG) The Sun of Austerlitz
2004 (OSG) Seven Days of 1809
2005 (OSG) Four Lost Battles
2006 (OSG) Napoleon at the Crossroads
2007 (OSG) The Habit of Victory
2009 (self-published) The Flower Essence Game
2010 (OSG) The Coming Storm
2012 (OSG) The Last Success
2013 (OSG) Napoleon at Leipzig,5th Edition
2014 (OSG) La Patrie en Danger
2015 (OSG) Napoleon Against Russia
2016 (OSG) Napoleon's Last Gamble
2016 (OSG) Highway to Brussels, Expansion Kit
2017 (OSG) Napoleon's Quagmire
2018 (OSG) Napoleon's Resurgence
2019 (OSG) Napoleon Retreats
2020 (OSG) Napoleon's Wheel
2020 (OSG) Napoleon at Bay, Expansion Kit
2021 (OSG) Napoleon Invades Spain
2021 (OSG) Highway to the Kremlin, 2nd Edition
2022 (OSG) Bonaparte in the Quadrilateral
2022 (OSG) Four Lost Battles, 2nd Edition
2023 (OSG) Bonaparte Overruns Piedmont
Kevin will be conducting several seminars at CSW Expo TEMPE 2024.
