Larry Bond
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Larry Bond (1952 - ) lives with his wife Jeanne and daughters Katie and Julia in Virginia outside Washington DC. He is the designer of the Harpoon and Command at Sea gaming systems and several supplements for the games. He also co-authored Red Storm Rising with Tom Clancy and has recently finished The Enemy Within, published by Warner Books in hardcover February 1996, and softcover February 1997. He has three other novels to his credit, Red Phoenix, Vortex and Cauldron.
Biography
Graduating from St. Thomas College, St. Paul, Minnesota in 1973 with a degree in Quantitative Methods, Larry worked first as a computer programmer for two years before being selected for Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island. He was sworn into the Navy in 1975 and graduated from OCS the following year.
Larry was in the Navy for six years, serving four on a destroyer and two on shore duty in the Washington DC area. He served in the reserves for two years with the Naval Reserve Intelligence Program. After leaving the Navy he worked as a naval analyst for defense consulting firms in the Washington, DC area. He now writes and designs games full-time.
Larry is an avid wargamer and modeler.
Early writing career
Larry's writing career started by collaborating with Tom Clancy on Red Storm Rising, a runaway New York Times bestseller that has been called one of the best-selling books of the 1980s. It depicted a hypothetical conflict between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, drawing heavily on current analysis of what such a conflict would be like. It has been used as a text at the Naval War College and similar institutions.
Since then, Larry's books have depicted military and political crises, emphasizing accuracy and fast-paced action. Red Phoenix , Vortex, and Cauldron were all New York Times bestsellers. Red Phoenix was set in South Korea and depicted an invasion of the south by a decaying North Korean government. Vortex told the story of a reactionary Afrikaner government trying to roll back the clock in South Africa. Cauldron showed a financial crisis in Europe that grew out of control, leading to a military confrontation between France and the United States.
Harpoon gaming system
Larry's Harpoon gaming system was first published in 1980. Designed as a general-purpose air, surface, and submarine naval simulation, it combines playability with a wealth of information on modern naval weapons systems. Designed for the entry-level player, it has found acceptance in both the commercial market and the professional naval community. It is used at the Naval Academy, several ROTC installations, and on several surface ships as a training aid.
Now in its fourth edition, Harpoon has won the H.G. Wells Award, a trade association honor, in both 1981 and 1987 as the best miniatures game of the year. It is the only game to win the award twice. The computer version of the game first appeared in 1990, and won the 1990 Wargame of the Year award from Computer Gaming World, an industry journal. An updated version of the single-player game has been released, and a multiplayer version is in preparation.
Current Projects
Command at Sea
Command at Sea is Larry's latest game, and is an adaptation of Harpoon to the WW II era. Like Harpoon, it emphasizes both playability and historical accuracy, drawing on many contemporary sources.World in Conflict
Larry is currently contributing to [World in Conflict], a computer strategy game under development by [Massive Entertainment] for 2007 release. The game, set in 1989, models the kinds of conventional military confrontations that were likely to occur between NATO and Soviet powers in the event of Cold War escalation.Published Work
- Harpoon First Edition, 1981, Adventure Games Incorporated.
- Resolution 502, 1982, Adventure Games Incorporated.
- Harpoon Second Edition, 1983, Adventure Games Incorporated.
- Red Storm Rising, with Tom Clancy, 1985, Putnam
- Harpoon Third Edition, 1987, Game Designer's Workshop
- Battles From the Third World War, 1987, Game Designer's Workshop
- Red Phoenix, with Pat Larkin, 1989, Warner Books
- Computer Harpoon, 1990, Three-Sixty Pacific, Inc.
- The Harpoon SITREP (20 issues - 1989 to 1994)
- Harpoon Data Annex 3.2, 1990, Game Designer's Workshop
- Harpoon Captain's Edition, 1990, Game Designer's Workshop
- Vortex, with Pat Larkin, 1991, Warner Books
- Cauldron, with Pat Larkin, 1993, Warner Books
- Command at Sea, with Chris Carlson and Ed Kettler, 1994, Clash of Arms
- The Naval SITREP (10 issues - 1995 and continuing)
- Command at Sea Player's Handbook, with Chris Carlson and Ed Kettler, 1995, Clash of Arms
- Command at Sea Second Edition, with Chris Carlson and Ed Kettler, 1995, Clash of Arms
- Harpoon Fourth Edition, with Chris Carlson, 1996, Clash of Arms
- The Enemy Within, 1997, Warner Vision
- Day of Wrath, 1999, Warner Vision
- Larry Bond's First Team, with Jim DeFelice, 2004, Forge Books
- Dangerous Ground, 2005, Forge Books
- Larry Bond's First Team: Angels of Wrath, with Jim DeFelice, 2006, Forge Books
References
[Larry Bond Biography from ClancyFAQ.com]
[World in Conflict] website.
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