''Down Styphon!'' is a miniatures wargame published by

Fantasy Games Unlimited Fantasy Games Unlimited (FGU) is a publishing house for tabletop and role-playing games. The company has no in-house design teams and relies on submitted material from outside talent. History Founded in the summer of 1975 in Jericho, New York b ...

in 1977.

Description

The '' Musket & Pike'' rules for simulating battles of the 16th and 17th centuries with 15mm miniature soldiers had originally been published in 1973 by

Simulations Publications Inc. Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) was an American publisher of board wargames and related magazines, particularly its flagship ''Strategy & Tactics'', in the 1970s and early 1980s. It produced an enormous number of games and introduced innovat ...

(SPI). Using modified ''Musket & Pike'' rules, Mike Gilbert designed ''Down Styphon!'', a miniatures wargame that is based the battles described in

H. Beam Piper Henry Beam Piper (March 23, 1904 – ) was an American science fiction writer. He wrote many short stories and several novels. He is best known for his extensive Terro-Human Future History series of stories and a shorter series of "Paratime" alt ...

's novel ''

Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen ''Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen'' is a 1965 science fiction novel by American writer H. Beam Piper; it is part of his Paratime series of stories, and was expanded by John F. Carr to form the Kalvan series (with some installments co-written by Carr a ...

''.

Reception

In the November-December 1977 edition of ''

The Space Gamer ''The Space Gamer'' was a magazine dedicated to the subject of science fiction and fantasy board games and tabletop role-playing games. It quickly grew in importance and was an important and influential magazine in its subject matter from the la ...

'' (Issue No. 14), Tony Watson thought the game, although well-written, was just okay, saying, "The rules themselves are good, faithful to their inspiration. They are not very innovative, but they certainly provide all major components thus giving the players some interesting and accurate miniatures battles." In the October 1979 edition of ''

Dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

'' (Issue #30), Kenneth Hulme thought that most of the 18-page rule book was "top-notch", but had issues with a number of the rules, which he felt prevented the game from truly bringing Piper's novel to life. However, he concluded with a thumbs up, saying, "Once the purchaser of ''Down Styphon'' gets past the initial few bugaboos, however, the game is very playable. With a few modifications, it can be used for any ''Musket & Pike'' period battle simulation."

References

{{reflist Board games introduced in 1977 Fantasy Games Unlimited games