tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85877230214670184592024-03-13T18:21:36.893-06:00The Tactical WargamerM.Doroshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09742262581616285671noreply@blogger.comBlogger35125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587723021467018459.post-39338253204853368122018-04-20T20:35:00.000-06:002018-04-20T22:18:20.010-06:00The 2-Half Squads' Interview with John Hill<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
<a href="http://www.the2halfsquads.com/" target="_blank">The 2 Half-Squads</a>
(Jeff Hallett and Dave Kleinschmidt) have just celebrated their tenth
year of presenting entertaining and informative reviews, banter,
after action reports, rules discussions and performance pieces to the
Advanced Squad Leader community. In addition to their tenth anniversary, they are as of this writing three short of the milestone of 200 episodes. As they like to say, they are
"the only podcast dedicated 100% to the greatest game in the
world.’ For my money, the real meat of their episodes has been the
interviews with luminaries in the ASL community, which provide a
unique and intimate look behind the scenes. </div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
As someone with a
deep personal interest in the history of wargames I regard interviews
such as these as important historical documents. I find myself
referring to them often in online discussions where, for example,
newcomers to the ASL and greater wargaming communities pose questions
that are nicely answered by the designers, developers and publishers
themselves in their own words. Making reference to a podcast has its
challenges, as the contents are distributed in hour-long (or more)
chunks, and sharing specific bits of conversation is logistically
challenging.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLc7bK-jlXkxj08W517djxDiz34DAa0DM2RHqr9D13GJSFEFpn37J-tJp4qktXVoRMlVCYuaMfHdZfzmV826AfS8JgcUhyphenhyphenyoe_n2cbpbcrl-7f4oVV4grJrPiLgLd0lsuH9afkaIhGv_M/s1600/hill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="385" data-original-width="683" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLc7bK-jlXkxj08W517djxDiz34DAa0DM2RHqr9D13GJSFEFpn37J-tJp4qktXVoRMlVCYuaMfHdZfzmV826AfS8JgcUhyphenhyphenyoe_n2cbpbcrl-7f4oVV4grJrPiLgLd0lsuH9afkaIhGv_M/s400/hill.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From the 2 Half-Squads website<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.the2halfsquads.com/2015/01/special-john-hill-interview.html" target="_blank">LINK TO THE ORIGINAL INTERVIEW </a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
To that end, I’ve
chosen to transcribe the interview I find myself most often referring
to others. John Hill was a well-known game designer from the 1970’s
on, and is of course famous in ASL circles as the original designer
of <a href="http://tacticalwargamer.com/boardgames/squadleader/squadleader.htm" target="_blank">SQUAD LEADER</a>. There are many interviews with Hill in various
vintage gaming magazines, but the conversation with Jeff & Dave
covers much (interesting) ground I had not seen discussed by Mr. Hill
before. The 2 Half-Squads interviewed the man himself in February
2010 for their Episode 32. He passed away shortly after the 2
Half-squads completed Episode 132 in January 2015, and the interview
was re-released at that time.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Transcripts are
not an exact science. Clarity can be an issue – in this particular
case, Mr. Hill’s speech was very informal as one would expect of an
intimate conversation, and some words were either garbled, or
frankly, beyond my comprehension. (I am familiar with a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladius" target="_blank">gladius</a>, for
example, but some other terms he makes reference to in regards to
ancient historical combat are unfamiliar to me.) I suspect some words
have been inadvertently skipped or mashed together in the process of
recording them from a phone conversation.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Beyond these
technical limitations, I’ve deliberately kept many of the
idiosyncrasies of the speech patterns in the transcript. Hill changes
tense and pronouns, often in mid-sentence, and sometimes invokes a
third party (‘he says’). Though it looks odd in print, I thought
it more important to present the words as actually spoken. These
irregularities may speak well of the skill of the interviewers, as
Mr. Hill seems to have felt quite at ease with them. And if it seems
like Jeff & Dave are not holding up their end of the conversation
(“mm-hmm”), knowing when *not* to talk is also a skill that the
best interviewers acquire.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
I’ve edited out
some cases where words or phrases are repeated while the participants
gathered their thoughts and tried to evict the umms and aahs, though
a couple have been left in where I thought they might be appropriate such as a clue that the speaker has had second thoughts about whatever
words may have come to mind first. Variations from the recording (the
elimination of superfluous words, repeated phrases, or unintelligible
phrases) are captured either by parenthesized words (like this) or
ellipsis ("...") and in some cases a question mark (?) to
indicate something completely unintelligible to me. There will no
doubt be some words that have been changed in the transcript, some
inadvertent, some deliberate (for example, when the speaker jumbles
two words together but it is clear what he intended to say).
</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
The original
podcast may be found at <a href="http://www.the2halfsquads.com/" target="_blank">this link</a>, and the entire series is naturally
recommended for anyone with an abiding interest in, or affection for,
“the greatest game in the world.”</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Hello,
John.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Yes,
how did the sound check go?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Oh, it
sounded beautiful, you sound very handsome.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Well,
let’s not jump to conclusions.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff & Dave:
(laughter)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: I
appreciate your kind thought (but) I have to certainly question the
veracity of the information given the fact that we’re… I’m not
on a television phone.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah,
unfortunately – though we’d like to see you, we’d like to take
a peek into your game room, I’ll bet it’s really nice.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Well,
like most game designers, I don’t play that much.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Ah, yeah,
that’s a problem.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: I
don’t know, maybe it’s some sort of unexpected, and, you know,
curse, you know… James <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Dunnigan" target="_blank">Dunnigan</a> was always proud of the fact that
he never played a game.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Is that
right? (laughs) Well ...we were looking at your page on Wikipedia.
Did you know you had <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hill_(game_designer)" target="_blank">an entry on Wikipedia</a>?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: I’m
sure someone put one in.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah, and
among many other things, it mentions that you were… I’ll just
read this: “Hill was named to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Roberts_Awards_Hall_of_Fame" target="_blank">Wargaming Hall of Fame</a>, receiving
the Charles S. Roberts awards at the Origins gaming convention in
Chester, Pennsylvania on June 23rd, 1979. Hill developed what is
arguably the most popular rules set ever developed for
regimental-level American Civil War miniature gaming, the <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/30684/johnny-reb" target="_blank">JOHNNY REB</a>
series.”</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Oh,
well that’s true, that’s true enough. People often (say) what is
the… they’ll ask me what I think is the most popular Civil War
miniatures rules, and I says well, it’s not JOHNNY REB. And they’ll
look at me sort of weird, and I would say, it’s (a) basically the
most common regimental set of Civil War rules is a variant of JOHNNY
REB. Every...the system is very, very robust, as is SQUAD LEADER,
(as) you can just pile a lot of stuff on it as <a href="http://www.multimanpublishing.com/Products/tabid/58/CategoryID/4/Default.aspx" target="_blank">ADVANCED SQUAD LEADER</a>
proved and the system holds up quite well.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah. Yes,
it does.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: And
JOHNNY REB, you’ll…people have been tweaking with it and adding
stuff on it and taking chrome on, taking chrome off and playing with
it forever and…uh, now, it still holds up well. As a matter of
fact, the two systems, if you look into them, JOHNNY REB and SQUAD
LEADER are very similar. In some respects, JOHNNY REB was the further
development of the SQUAD LEADER chronology, except it’s now done on
a simpler, more simultaneous mechanism which is more traditional with
miniatures games as opposed to the phased turn sequence in board
games.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Mm-hmm.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: But if
you break down the JOHNNY REB turn sequence you’ll say ‘hey, this
is basically SQUAD LEADER but it’s being done simultaneously.’</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Oh, I see.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: And
you can certainly do it, you could go back from one to the other and
you could (and there is)…and that’s because they’re from the
same roots. Ah, that is (a) depiction of the chronology of combat
which hasn’t changed since Cain and Abel. And that, you know…you
go back to pretty much all battles are pretty much the same, and just
different scales, different weaponry and that…One side will have a
piece of land, one side is going to be the defender, he’s very
happy with what he has, he’s dug in, and does whatever he wants to
do to fortify his (position), and the other guy is determined to take
it away, either by driving him off or killing him and then taking it
away.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
So you have a
phase where, you know, the attacker will do a prep fire, whether
it’s, uh, you know…24/7 bombardment like the Somme, or hail of
arrows like back in the Persian era, or, you know, just some heavy
suppressive fire from MG-42s, it’s basically a prep fire.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Mm-hmm.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: In the
Civil War, the one hour barrage by the Confederates before <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickett%27s_Charge" target="_blank">Pickett’sCharge</a>. It’s a prep fire.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Right.
Right.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: And
then, okay, they says that prep fire has softened them up a bit,
hopefully (that) we can now advance. So then there is the advance,
and then the defenders that are not dead, dazed or otherwise out of
it, they will put on a defensive fire, whether it’s with arrows,
with (?), with javelins (and) their various weapons or whatever you
have. It’s David with a sling or long range stand-off defensive
weapons. Well, then, that either stops the defender (sic) or it
doesn’t. Or if it makes him go to ground and make him crawl forward
slowly, and then finally the attackers that do survive the defensive
fire will attempt to close with and destroy the enemy. Whether it’s
a Roman with a gladius, or a German with a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP_40" target="_blank">Schmeisser</a>, basically this
chronology comes out the same.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Mm-hmm. And
did you discover this on your own, or was this…</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Yeah,
yeah, pretty much but it’s not like DUHH.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Right.
(laughs)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: But
obviously, start reading military history, and uh, it’s almost the
same thing every…there’s always a prep fire phase where you’re
throwing rocks at each other with slingers in the days of the
Philistines, or heavy artillery in today’s modern world.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Mm-hmm.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Well what…</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: The
chronology is the same.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Yeah, I’d
like to ask you, then, what your gaming background was. I mean, we
joked that you had… don’t have a lot of time to play games since
you’re designing. Were there games that you liked best when you
were a youngster?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL:
Well…when I started out with the dawn of Creation and started out
with <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1574/tactics-ii" target="_blank">TACTICS II</a>. And played that to death. And then we waited with
bated breath for every new game that Avalon Hill would come out
(with) once a year. And then there was <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4168/blitzkrieg" target="_blank">BLITZKRIEG</a>, which I liked. (?)
it was something different other than TACTICS II (and) had hexagons.
Wow – well how’s that for novelty?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Oh, right.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqB1Tbad35kDNV_m0HeiaWsMalmVJIVwCi8CWhpSO0I8XZkUO1gjpFoE9tE6Me0EP-pavjjBXOXBrMF53h73QOuagul-fgi39WdH1n_KlNAANyF61_C2J9aXzWX-8YfZ8BWSMaGlJHxDA/s1600/tacticsii.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="479" data-original-width="720" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqB1Tbad35kDNV_m0HeiaWsMalmVJIVwCi8CWhpSO0I8XZkUO1gjpFoE9tE6Me0EP-pavjjBXOXBrMF53h73QOuagul-fgi39WdH1n_KlNAANyF61_C2J9aXzWX-8YfZ8BWSMaGlJHxDA/s320/tacticsii.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tactics II</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: And
then we went to BATTLE OF THE BULGE which I thought was very good.
And…but I always wanted a much more tactical game. And then…because
(I was) fascinated with small unit actions and both small and large
unit actions still saw a similarity to the chronology. And so I was
really excited when SPI came out, starting coming out with some of
their tactical games. The first one I think was Dunnigan’s TACTICAL
GAME NUMBER 10.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(1)</span> I have no idea what one through nine looked like.
But yeah, that was, you cut out your own counters, pasted them
together, and yeah, it was, okay, it was an attempt but you still had
a lot of anomalies in it.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Mm-hmm.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Then
we came out with <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2238/panzerblitz" target="_blank">PANZERBLITZ</a>. And that still didn’t feel right,
beyond the problem with “PanzerBush”, the quirk in the rules that
you couldn’t interrupt your fire as a person ran from one cover to
another.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Oh yeah,
that’s right.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Okay.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL:
PanzerBush…gimme a break, you know?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: And
then also if you fired at someone, I think, okay, each unit
represents five tanks and I says, okay, and you could kill all five
or you could disrupt them. When the most likely thing is you maybe
kill o-, if you open fire on a platoon with your appropriate, your
platoons or whatever, you might knock one out,…damage another one.
But you wouldn’t disrupt them, I mean it’s not like these five
tanks are now scrambling around bewildered.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Right.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: You
either, you know, (with sort of like) you either did no damage,
disrupted the tanks or you killed them all. There was nothing in
between.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: So was
that…did you</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: That
gave me the impression that okay, something’s…that’s, then they
put in the…uh, problem with the PanzerBush effect and things like
this. So more and more it was a question of scale. Okay, so if you
really want to show attrition on weapons and you don’t want to have
a tally sheet or something to keep track you might, should perhaps go
down to a lower scale, squad and single vehicle. And if you look at
most of the stuff I was studying, was not the massed armour battles
of Kursk but I was looking at a lot of the fighting in Normandy and
the fighting in Stalingrad and things like this where it was small
groups of men with armour support. Occasionally the tanks would fight
(?) platoon against each other, you know, a section to the fore but
it was mostly the special…it was combined arms fighting. The actual
big quasi stand-off tank duels, and they happened out in the Ukraine
and certainly the desert, but I found the little combined-arm actions
more interesting. So… I followed a lot of other things and so that
was the root of SQUAD LEADER.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
It was two
things. One, I was not getting, there was no game showing the type of
level I was interested in at the time and there was nothing that
seemed to be an accurate simulation of the chronology of the tactical
combat.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: So the
scale of SQUAD LEADER really came about from the need to meet those
criteria?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Yeah,
… the criteria, that didn’t feel weird.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Mm-hmm.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: But if
I fired a group of five tanks with an appropriate five tanks there
would be a … you would get something better than nothing, disrupted
or all five are dead.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: And I…since
I played SQUAD LEADER before I played some other World War II
miniatures games, I played BATTLEGROUND miniatures game…</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL:
Mm-hmm.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: …SKIRMISH,
and I know that…they can run up on you, and there’s like no
defensive fire, and it drives me insane. Because…</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL:
Yeah…that’s sort of like what you had in PANZERBLITZ where
everything is a strict phase, where you can’t do anything. You
know…when it just says okay we have (a) six T-34s, they’re going
to run right up to the 88 and nothing’s going to happen?
</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: I
don’t think so.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Yeah, or
well…in this game system you have a…where if you lay your opp
fire out (in) like a certain area, and you can’t turn to your left
and fire at someone (who) runs up at you down the street. You know,
which again I’m like this doesn’t quite, doesn’t work for me
after playing your system. So…</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Well
yeah, and you can certainly make your case that okay if you’re
suddenly…change your arc of attention or something like that<span style="font-size: x-small;">(2),
</span>your, you know, quick reaction fire. Yeah, your fire could be
degraded. You could easily work it into SQUAD LEADER, treat it as
moving fire, half factor. Because for all practical purposes you …
can make a case that your attention is moving. If you’re at a
crew-served machine gun and it’s too far over the flank you have to
pick it up and slap it down on the flank.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Yeah, which
would be harder to do than with a rifle, or pistols…</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL:
Yeah,…but the thing is that’s the nice thing about SQUAD LEADER.
A mechanism is there. If you could say, if you defined an arc of
attention, arc of where your primary fire suddenly changed target,
you could say ‘well,…a lot of things are changing.’ Attention’s
changing, you don’t know the range (so) it’s a snap shot, so to
speak. Depending on the weapon you can easily treat it as moving
fire.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Right.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: And if
one unit is a squad, the whole squad may be actually doing subtle
little movements that if nothing else going for them, from the north
side of a foxhole to the west side of a foxhole, or something. But if
you want…if you adjudicate that that would degrade their
performance, you have a mechanism, treat it as moving fire. Does the
same kind of thing in JOHNNY REB. If somebody says, ‘Well, I don’t
think this is right.’ Okay, treat it as this thing or the other
thing. So you know, you have a mechanism to address situations that a
person may not be, feel comfortable with or they may feel that
they’re an anomaly. You don’t have to gut the whole system and
redo it.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Right. Were
you working for Avalon Hill when these thoughts were formulating in
your head?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: No. I
was just a free-lance designer.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Oh.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: I was
actually… I had already done, had my own game company, the <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamepublisher/519/conflict-games" target="_blank">ConflictGame Company</a>. Or I was doing quirky little things. My first published
wargame…or, not a wargame, was a game on organized crime called THE
BROTHERHOOD.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: (laughs)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Which
is more of a family game, more like a 3M game or something. But it
had an edge to it, but it also had the fact that you were the
Godfather and you treated everything like a business. Which was just
go out and kill the other guy. Ah, hit men are expensive, and… it
may be better just to say you can’t make a profit in a certain area
of the town but you can in another area and they just move your
operation. So that was sort of quirky. That was the first one. It was
pretty quaint.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
The second one
almost was a tongue-in-cheek game. Yeah. And it still is popular with
this (?) little cult and that was <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5276/verdun-game-attrition" target="_blank">VERDUN</a>. Which incidentally was
re-published I think last year or the year before.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYuj7UX46qyK9hwij629ylHC2Y0fMzk5cnoN_qhQNsl7rgEQoWHys7GmktHUBtych2YfVLLTTqNsxS4vR_8JvEwNREfJQZRBoGr9qiBPsrnkmFtxcLO8070QKR-2mSuC6g_5RbCOajA7E/s1600/verdun.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="364" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYuj7UX46qyK9hwij629ylHC2Y0fMzk5cnoN_qhQNsl7rgEQoWHys7GmktHUBtych2YfVLLTTqNsxS4vR_8JvEwNREfJQZRBoGr9qiBPsrnkmFtxcLO8070QKR-2mSuC6g_5RbCOajA7E/s320/verdun.jpg" width="232" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"The Game of Attrition"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Oh.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: It was
published by Cool Stuff Games. You know, you sort of wonder is it a
real serious wargame when the sub-title of the game VERDUN was THE
GAME OF ATTRITION.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Right.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: And no
matter what you do, it’s unfortunate somewhat, you can have
occasionally great successes but pretty much at the end of the game
everybody’s dead.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: (laughs)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Yeah,
you may have taken the ground and (?) it basically, everybody has
chewed through all the reserves and until they’re willing to say,
sort of… fascinated by the Germans actually calculated that during
the Battle of Verdun the casualties were so predictable, German
efficiency at its best, that they realized that every week they would
have to totally draft all the young men in a single German town and
then the next week they would have to go to another town. But that
basically…it was the concept of soldiers treated as a consumable.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Mm.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: You
know, they’re just a form of ammunition.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Were you
happy with the way that turned out?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Yeah,
it accurately simulated it.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Mm-hmm.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: But
there was enough…there wasn’t enough…wiggle-room for tactics,
what kind of artillery barrage, and that kind of stuff. That, yeah,
at least you could get something for the fact you were burning…
battalions like popcorn.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.
(laughs)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: The
weird thing was you began to think you…the Germans had to roll for
reinforcements, because <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_von_Falkenhayn" target="_blank">Falkenhayn</a> was very stingy. He actually did
not want to get a victory. An outright victory. Which he probably
could have in the beginning. Capture Verdun. He wanted to always be
threatening right on the edge of it so the French would continue to
pour troops in to defend. The whole point is he deliberately wanted a
battle of non-decision, because he felt that Germany could withstand
a prolonged attrition better than France could.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Right.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Oh, okay.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: It’s
sort of a, you know…God help us if our military leaders ever fall
into that mentality.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Oh yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Yeah. How
many total games do you think you’ve designed in your entire
lifetime?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL:
Maybe…published, uh…I don’t know, probably twenty-ish.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(3)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Mm-hmm.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Every
now and then I try to sit down and count, and I’ll (?) with some
other wargamers and they always say ‘No, no, you forgot this’ and
‘You forgot that.’ …There’s another number of wargames that I
designed for the government, for the intelligence community, that…</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Oh, really?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: …that
don’t count since they were all classified.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Oh, really?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Can you
talk about them now or would you have to kill us?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: No,
they’re still classified.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Oh, wow.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: No,
and I wouldn’t have to kill….I hate people when they say that.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: I was
part of the intelligence community and …the only person that gets
in trouble is not the recipient of the information, it’s the person
who committed the security violation (by) babbling.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Right. Oh,
I see, yes.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Yeah,
so…that is usually said by people who are intelligence community
wanna-be’s or something.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: (laughs)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Or people
like Jeff who just like bad jokes.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Yeah,
right.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yes, I do.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: (laughs) So
how did they contact you? Or did you seek that out as opp-</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Well,
it was sort of a mutual thing. I had been involved in…There were
people, obviously, in the government who play wargames, and some that
are very familiar with both everything that goes (on) within the
government – gaming circle there and within what we might call our
field, more common recreational entertainment field of wargames. And
they were constantly (calling?)…a person who has done a tremendous
job on that is Matt Caffery, I think he’s a general now, for the
Air Force.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(4)</span> He was head of wargaming at (their Air (Force)?)
university. But he’s very, very knowledgeable (about) the
commercial wargame field. And…he always was trying to bridge the
two. But I had…basically at one point there was an issue I had in
doing some consulting work for one of their ‘<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beltway_bandit" target="_blank">beltway bandits</a>’
back when I lived in Virginia, for the intelligence community, and so
I already had the clearances to a point...But then they decided they
needed a wargame on a certain subject because there was a big debate
between State Department and the Defense Department on you know,
should we do this, that, or what happens when we give these guys this
weapon, you know, et cetera, et cetera. So, they decided they wanted
a wargame and one of the persons was familiar with my work. And he
says ‘Well, I know a guy, he lives right here in Virginia and
already has the clearances. Why don’t we give him a call and see
what he can do for him as a contractor?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah, and
were they…did they give you, then, requirements for what they
wanted and did those influence you in coming up with designs to make
them realistic?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Well,
the thing is, first of all, yeah, they show me what they were looking
for. The main thing is they are looking for often a specific answer.
I called in, I got very much involved with the analytical wargame.
It’s a wargame that says if X does this what is the…decision
matrix after that? What are the probable outcomes? You know, the
whole question of, okay, well that and if there is a reciprocal
escalation on the other side what was the probable outcomes of that?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: It’s
sort of like, you show them…you start working with hexes, okay….You
can create a wargame world where they can plug in things to find out
what is the effect of, should we (this type of operation and the
office says okay we?) like to help decide but we don’t want to do
X, Y and Z. And eventually I got very much involved in the
intelligence community and gaming out various mil-, uh, weapons
options to the Mujahedeen.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Mm-hmm,
right. Oh, really? So the games that you designed for them-</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: And by
the way, the movie <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0472062/" target="_blank">Charlie Wilson’s War</a> is very well done.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Oh, yeah,
it’s a great movie.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Yeah, yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Were the
games you designed for them more strategic level?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: More
tactical.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Really?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: You
know, because by then I had already developed a reputation as the
tactical guru from SQUAD LEADER and some other things.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: It was
almost like…or tactical/slash/operational.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: So
there was plenty of folks doing the strategic, and the Army, the
military, had a lot of its own wargames which unfortunately often
were, the result of those were either training, which is one thing,
or they were trying to…designed to prove or justify the virtues of
X weapons system.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Mm-hmm.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Now,
that’s fine and that’s all…in training those are both simple
and valid uses. But an analytical wargame which they’re doing for
the (?) actually says what’s actually just going to happen without
any real decisions coming in on it. You know, let other people make
the decisions…I’ll just game it out and you can run it as many
times as you want. No, a lot of times there was, they wanted a
computer game, and they wanted this, that. So it was amazing, you’d
go into the library of existing government wargames and there was
maybe a hundred different systems and you could pick a system you
want, call up whoever had it and say ‘hey, DIA<span style="font-size: x-small;">(5)</span> or CIA would like
to use this for some stuff, can you…can we get the software from
you?’ Since its government, already government-owned, ‘yeah,
fine, not a problem.’ But it was sort of fascinating just to go,
when they gave you the requirements and say ‘if possible, we don’t
want this created from scratch, can you go kick around the government
wargame libraries and find something that would work? Or that you
could modify to make it work?’</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah. That
does sound interesting.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: It is.
You know, it was….and, heck, it kept me gainfully employed for
twenty years.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: That’s
what I was going to ask next. How long. Twen-</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL:
Actually, during that time period, with the exception of JOHNNY REB I
still was pretty much not that active. I…for obvious reasons I
didn’t want to touch anything even inkling of modern war.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Right.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL:
Because after a while your brain becomes a jumble and you don’t
know what you’ve learned from unclassified sources and what you’ve
learned from classified.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Ah, yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: And
so you just decide, hey, you know, I’m not smart enough to sort it
out anymore, so…</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: (laughs)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: …I
know the information but I can’t sort out where I got it. Obviously
with the Civil War I was safe.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yes.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Yes.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL:
There’s a few things that are still classified on the Civil War…</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Is that
right?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: (laughs)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL:
…involving the Lincoln assassination.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Oh, okay.
Wow.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: (laughing)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Well….when
did you, if we could talk to you, you know, because our main focus
is, of our podcast, is about SQUAD LEADER, when did you get the first
ideas that you would design a game like-</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Well,
after a while. Because…I should go back to earlier, I just said I
was totally dissatisfied with what were always available in terms of
a tactical wargame. You know, it didn’t show the lower echelons and
also had silly effects like in PanzerBush, and some of the…and
where you, where a guy can run from cover to cover and not be fired
(at) in between, and even though there was a lot of minis, in many
respects I started designing this as a miniatures game, first.
Because I wanted to play with <a href="http://www.ghqmodels.com/pages/military/index.asp" target="_blank">Micro-Armor</a>. And you know, but I
figured this was all sort of the same thing. And the interesting
thing about it was that I also ran into the same situation that you
had made, pointed out. There is a number of wargames that had this
ridiculousness that a person could run right up to a person point
blank and not receive any defensive fire.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Yeah.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: So I
sort of worked it out. We used to play monst-... Micro Armor and I used
little wargame counters for the infantry. That also was (to) sort of
make it work, so you started with a standard. (You) said ‘okay,
what is the base unit we’re going to work with?’ And then
everything is relative to that. What is the, you know, the lowest
common denominator? And if you notice in SQUAD LEADER, the…I think
the basic unit is a four-four, something like that?
</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: I’m
sorry, what do you mean by that?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: A
combat factor of…</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: 4-4-7?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Yeah,
4-4-7, something like that?</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwMG99ieOaWutnsx8rGlfg0pw-HAnfSI9kbRw2nm4uk91sIKTb3u2ZFSR-M8SbI_gJ9FJEaifd9hjqdbpZHRWNATDL_Jo9KHzSoDCDmwKQaG3ETLASq9HPdOjrnXyhOgONWUgf-krxLKY/s1600/russiansquad.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="445" data-original-width="500" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwMG99ieOaWutnsx8rGlfg0pw-HAnfSI9kbRw2nm4uk91sIKTb3u2ZFSR-M8SbI_gJ9FJEaifd9hjqdbpZHRWNATDL_Jo9KHzSoDCDmwKQaG3ETLASq9HPdOjrnXyhOgONWUgf-krxLKY/s320/russiansquad.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Yeah. That
does seem like the base, yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Yeah.
And the reason I started with that, particularly the 4-4-7 was I had
tons of VERDUN counters left over that were already labelled as
four-fours.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff & Dave:
(laughter)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: So I
figured ‘well, I can play with…use these ones for playtesting’
and just throw on a morale number of seven, or whatever.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM_dTBmuPsfe62GdZEQauKvoiv5xHVFcK-2VzwXiTYbupB4dltaNNRlxx3Q9egEL9xDwFeE8tVa-IgDsmVAZnEy5BHuvYo2s7RbS7z06zY-0YOJSgRdha59ldOIH0qki6JYnzvzaTASeU/s1600/pic772032.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="210" data-original-width="436" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM_dTBmuPsfe62GdZEQauKvoiv5xHVFcK-2VzwXiTYbupB4dltaNNRlxx3Q9egEL9xDwFeE8tVa-IgDsmVAZnEy5BHuvYo2s7RbS7z06zY-0YOJSgRdha59ldOIH0qki6JYnzvzaTASeU/s400/pic772032.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: It
doesn’t matter if this is…because all the numbers are relative,
so pick a number as a base. You know, for your common G.I., neither
elite, neither green. Neither hero, nor coward. You know…</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Right.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL:
General run of the mill. So, we started playing with it like that.
And it was coming together rather nicely. You know, I talked to Eric
Dott<span style="font-size: x-small;">(6) </span>about a tactical miniature game, that was played with
minatures, he said ‘I’m not interested in miniatures.’ And
remember, Eric Dott was the late Eric Dott, now, as president of
<a href="http://tacticalwargamer.com/publishers/avalonhill.htm" target="_blank">Avalon Hill</a>, he says ‘we just do board games.’ Alright, not a
problem, one inch is one hex.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: And it
translated perfectly, because basically it wasn’t based on another
game, it was based on what I, my perception of reality. And for a
long time I’d go to wargame conventions and run SQUAD LEADER in
miniature.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Yeah, which
I have done also, actually.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: It
works very well.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: It does,
yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL:
Whether it’s SQUAD LEADER or ASL, it all works very well. I was at
a convention out west and a guy had actually built a section of
Stalingrad that was on the…that I had, from my little game board,
you know, that actually he was doing a miniature of the infamous The
Guards Counterattack.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Which
is probably the most-played wargame scenario of all time.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Yeah, it
probably is, I suppose.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Yeah,
the first scenario of SQUAD LEADER.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Right.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: And
that worked out, and there were a lot of guys that (?)…in many
ways, ASL is, you know, it’s just SQUAD LEADER with a hell of a lot
of chrome.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Mm-hmm.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: And
some guys like a lot of chrome, some don’t. Fine. It proves that
the system will function if, whether you layer on as much as you
want. You know, when you get down to looseleaf book number three or
something, you know, you’ve layered on quite a bit, (but) that
still works.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: My
personal preference, I think, in…I think ASL has gone too far with
too much detail, and too much that slows down the game too much.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: And when
you look at the fact that they reissued <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamefamily/4050/advanced-squad-leader-starter-kit" target="_blank">ASL Starter Kits</a>…</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Yeah,
I thought that was a rip-off.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: …which
have pared it back down.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL:
Yeah…but I also think that I was sort of, had a bit of…a lot of
gamers told me they had a problem with…’your old counters are no
good any more, you gotta buy all these new ones.’ So, I sort of
like wherever possible to try and keep backward compatibility.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(7)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Right.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: (But)
it’s become a legend, it’s become a lifestyle. The problem I
thought…once again, it’s the old question of detail versus
playability. It’s not necessarily realism. Well, realism has many
different flavours. One of my design objectives with SQUAD LEADER was
once you learned the game, the basic game, you could play it in real
time, two minutes (per turn). People have done that.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: I’d like
to try that sometime.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: You
know, because it’s supposed to present the actual quick, snap
decisions of combat.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yes. Right.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: You
know, go back through <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0185906/" target="_blank">Band of Brothers</a> and time some of the combat
sequences.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: You
will see everything. Prep Fire. Defensive Fire. Advancing Fire. Close
Combat. He comes up to the building and throws in a hand grenade. And
he says ‘hey, this is all happening in a two-minute cycle.’</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Hmm.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: And
you have to make decisions – and that was the whole point of…you
could do it in two minutes, you had to make quick decisions. You
couldn’t ponder, and says ‘okay, let me look up a rule on this,
is this in Volume 3 or Volume 4?’
</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff & Dave:
(laughter)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: No!
Somebody says ‘go for it’, you know. When you began to lay on all
the extra detail and chrome of ASL where people are…You know, I’ve
watched people play it, and they’ll spend most of their time going
through the rules.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Which
they’re very complete, you know. And they’re obviously, when
there are multiple volumes, they gotta be complete. But when it
takes, because of all that rule-checking back and forth, when you
have, when you now have two-minute turns, assuming you’re trying to
simulate two minutes of combat and takes a half-hour to resolve…</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL:
…you’ve gotten a lot of detail, but I think you lost the realism.
Realism is in the stress and snap-decision of small-unit combat.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Were you
aware of that when you were designing SQUAD LEADER? Were you paring
back things? Was detail creeping into your design, which you later
took out?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Yeah,
it was a constant thing. You’d want to put more detail in, at the
same time you could still have the fast and furiousness of it.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Mm-hmm.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: My
personal opin- and it’s a balance. You know, a matter of fact, a
matter of personal taste. Many things. I think the best balance was
attained in CROSS OF IRON.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipIGEWMeKl5sGrSCCvKwaLy3daoM6P1SBw2SWO8sOC-cRgYbnWoYwCHJ8etDM2QosILg0ipN-TsbAJUYMe0AS23UWepOjuTjke4xRWwbKx298n4OQ34MG3VjCRPbuDgyDQEkXA0uQYmZQ/s1600/coi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipIGEWMeKl5sGrSCCvKwaLy3daoM6P1SBw2SWO8sOC-cRgYbnWoYwCHJ8etDM2QosILg0ipN-TsbAJUYMe0AS23UWepOjuTjke4xRWwbKx298n4OQ34MG3VjCRPbuDgyDQEkXA0uQYmZQ/s1600/coi.jpg" /></a></div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Now, did
you work on the next two modules?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: I
worked on CROSS OF IRON and CRESCENDO OF DOOM. And it did some work
on G.I.: ANVIL OF VICTORY but that was mostly Don Greenwood.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Okay,
right. Okay, I remember his name, yeah. Because I actually just got
started in when they did the ADVANCED.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Yeah,
well…</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: But I know
exactly what you’re saying about the speed thing, and it is a
lot…you can still capture that with the new…with the ADVANCED,
but if you stick with infantry. I think that really helps. Or if
you’re playing someone who really knows the rules really well,
which is not me! And I’ve been playing a lot.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL:
Mm-hmm.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: You know, I
can rely on him: ‘okay, what happen here when you overrun me, okay,
you got deception, deception, deception,(?)’ or I’m just ‘I’ll
just do that’, you know? But you’re right, I really like a game
that when you put a little more pressure on it and try and move those
turns along.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Yeah,
and the thing is… the whole question of options. How much options
do you really have? For, you know, some people (?) the concept of
should you be able to….span of control. And, you know, if you’re
the wargamer in SQUAD LEADER and you’re running the normal
assortment of counters, you probably have maybe a company…maybe…
four squads in a platoon, maybe three platoons…twelve to
sixteen…squads out there, maybe more, maybe less. You’ve…got a
couple of tanks in support or something like this. Now, so you’re
the wargamer, so you‘re functioning as the company commander,
that’s your cockpit. You suddenly say ‘get those tanks over
there’, and send the tanks over there, let’s hope the armour does
its thing. Knock out this little roadblock or something like this
with the infantry support. But you’ve just given the order for them
to…. How they actually, necessarily do it, and what options are
really being chosen by the people in the tank, your infantry support,
the defenders and stuff like this, you can’t control. You just hope
they do their job, and…they get lucky.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Hmm. Right.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: So
somebody’s thinking ‘okay, the tank’s going to overrun this,
and my options are this option, this…’ I sort of thought, well,
the options are really if you go back to the concept of you are the
company commander, your option is you order it into battle, tell it
where to go and hope for the best. So that’s why you could…I
think a lot of that stuff as you go further away from the wargamer as
a role-playing person (he’s the company commander) the more you
should probably abstract the various events. Rather than having all
the specific little options played out. But a lot of gamers (?) want
to be able to say ‘no, I want to be able to do… control the
options of everything
</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Yeah, I
actually want to be the infantry guy throwing the DC and the tank
commander and…</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Yeah.
You know, once again, as I say, watch…Saving Private Ryan or any of
Band of Brothers and the first thing that…the combat is very well
done… The people are sort of in control, but they’re really not.
You watch… things are going on, the guy who is supposedly
commanding this is just watching, just hoping and trying to react and
trying to make decisions but his actual span of command once you’re
engaged is very limited.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLQ_242eqly51DWPEuaA-RlGy3_mmYpb0aA4AL3Bc00SDvNs_3e34IG0NQMlQjaGIXJYhgKBtdQXVefsR5-Kq1CQ30x8Io9NA67YTa_2kmIyzefmvXbtQ4u1_ahbUhs6E9uQz59jgizkI/s1600/combat.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="165" data-original-width="305" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLQ_242eqly51DWPEuaA-RlGy3_mmYpb0aA4AL3Bc00SDvNs_3e34IG0NQMlQjaGIXJYhgKBtdQXVefsR5-Kq1CQ30x8Io9NA67YTa_2kmIyzefmvXbtQ4u1_ahbUhs6E9uQz59jgizkI/s400/combat.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Saving Private Ryan</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah, you
see in that: you see an enemy squad coming around the corner of a
building, you don’t, you don’t weigh…’Should I fire at him,
or should I wait until he…’ (laughs) ‘</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: You’re
going to cut loose</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff:…crosses
the street (to) fire. You’re just gonna cut loose. Yeah, that’s
right.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Or
you’re just going to say… you’re out there by yourself with
your Colt .45 and here comes a German squad with an MG-38(sic) you
just hope somebody else is around to take them out.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: (laughs)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Now, did
you…as you were designing it, you know, what was your consideration
regarding fog of war? That’s always been a sort of a topic around
wargaming that’s been really interesting.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: In and
around SQUAD LEADER.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah, in
and around SQUAD LEADER specifically.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Well,
I think you always try to blend in as much as you possibly can, fog
of war, to a point. You want to have as much (as) you possibly can
without… with still making it playable. You could get ridiculous to
the point that no one, there’s no counters on the board and you’re
not even, everybody’s plotting and charting and stuff like that.
Well, c’mon guys, it’s still supposedly a game. But on the other
hand, too much fog of war itself is unrealistic. There’s a lot of
games that sometimes over-stress it…There’s the little blocks…</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yes. The
block games, right.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Yeah,
you can’t see what’s behind them and stuff like that, you know,
you can’t see…you see just a block representing troops.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Yeah,
<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/35478/washingtons-wars" target="_blank">WASHINGTON’S WARS</a> did that, I remember. But it only did it when you
were, like, far away, so…
</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Yeah,
but in reality though, particularly let’s say on the Eastern
Front….they got one of the big block games on the Eastern Front.
Everybody pretty much knew what they – intelligence was very good.
Everybody had good orders of battle on the other guy.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: And you had
aerial reconnaissance, and you had radio communications…</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: And
everybody says, you know, you can look at the Russians’ Operation
URANUS which, the big cut-off at Stalingrad. The Germans weren’t
surprised by the Russian attack. They saw aerial reconnaissance, they
saw all the stuff building up on their flanks. It wasn’t lack of
information, it was the misjudgement of maybe, ‘yeah, well, they
can do that but we probably will, yeah, we’ll attack and we’ll
deal with it.’</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Yeah,
right.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: It was
a mis-… not so much the lack of information but a lack of
appreciation of the potenti…the poor fighting quality of the
Hungarians and Romanians and Italians. And also an overestimation of
what *they* could do…</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Correct.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Which
is more…rather than just a lack of information, big…total
surprise. In some (?) also Kursk, it wasn’t…both sides knew,
everybody knew what each side had or what each side was doing and
everybody, and the Russians knew when the Germans were going to
attack. It was a battle of perfect information. On both sides.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: And so
it was, the mistake was not a lack of intelligence, it was this
mistake of judgement. You know: ‘Do we really want to do this?’
…so that’s an example, sometimes, you know, what is the fog of
war? I think fog of war is more relevant in some of the more
mod-…anc-… more period games where people’s whole armies could
hide behind a hill and come out of a fog and things like that.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah. Okay.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: And
also it becomes a little more fog-of-war-ish as you get down to the
smaller units. Very rarely, you know, it’s not like the company
commander in the middle of a fight for a little town somewhere in
Normandy has access to, at that instant, access to all the aerial
photography. You wouldn’t. And even then it would be 48 hours old.
So: so what?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: He
doesn’t necessarily know exactly what i-…you know, what amount of
Germans are coming around, at him at this moment. He’s pr-… very
much…he’s in a close action inside a town, or, you know, woods or
something, he’s, he will very quickly find out…</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: (laughs)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL:
…whether…so in that case you have the fog of war. I think you
could work a lot of that into SQUAD LEADER and ASL.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqY16j_Sb8nqFW-F54ypOI0vu8pOoqF5939vYH086wj_DVXl23uYJ28kpXlvdgum8lek-Qg3F_soRDtJWRbMoCRTx7hp5CJ27xkGwpLT2MVi1uC-YKVrx13xcLo6-U2OUIfcbK-6uXDoE/s1600/conceal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="287" data-original-width="381" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqY16j_Sb8nqFW-F54ypOI0vu8pOoqF5939vYH086wj_DVXl23uYJ28kpXlvdgum8lek-Qg3F_soRDtJWRbMoCRTx7hp5CJ27xkGwpLT2MVi1uC-YKVrx13xcLo6-U2OUIfcbK-6uXDoE/s320/conceal.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Yeah,
weren’t the concealment counters…they were in the original SQUAD
LEADER, right?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Yeah,
that’s what they were there for, and there’s, other, you
could…they could mean a lot of things. They could say ‘it could
be real, it could be dummy’. You were also, could do some amounts
of ‘okay, I have a whole platoon hidden behind X Hill’ or
something like this. The hidden counter could als…usually estimate
if its real or dummy. You could also, could be ‘it’s real but it
represents like six squads.’ Easily enough done with just a little
roster sheet.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Right.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: But
you don’t want the fog of war element to become a tedious game in
itself. You know, bottom line, we do this for fun, and after a while
if it becomes too much work why bother?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Yeah, with
all, recording all the secret things and that kind of stuff.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Now,
some people, that’s their game. You know, they’re, that’s
okay. But they really like that.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah. So
did you design the game so it was fun for you, or were you thinking
of your audience? Then did you make certain concessions on your own?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: I felt
that primarily I tried…the group I was playing with thought the way
I did, so (if) it was fun for me, it was fun for them.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Beyond
that group, one didn’t know. That’s why so many wargames are a
dud, because the designer thinks they’re a lot of fun, his little
group thinks they’re a lot of fun, but when they go out and throw
it out into the great piranha-pit of wargamers at large…
</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff & Dave:
(laughter)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: NOT!</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah. And
in 1977 you published SQUAD LEADER and what was the reception like
when it…</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: It was
outstanding… I remember when Avalon Hill first, when they first
released at a wargame convention in some little place in Long Island,
I think.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(8)</span> Not Woodnough(?) College, but maybe….I think it was
somewhere else like that…Basically they sold out the first or
second day and they had to get more games schlepped up from
Baltimore.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: That’s a
good thing. And when it went to press, were you happy with the way it
was? Were you satisfied when…</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: …I
was…it was fine. There was always going to be some compromises and
stuff…</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Were you
already starting to work on the next…</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: (laughs)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Yeah…</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: …
improvements…</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: … to
some degree, what would be next, what I should we should go.
Something, they wanted to do certain things for marketing reasons,
like, you know, and I says ‘okay fine, whatever’. But I don’t
know what…person came up with the idea that the box should be
purple.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLTX_Q36eNz-z8xkJp2ICbC4Yu-dkzLy8UndDsoQwNgRZ5YSVzpssHRx5kLcPJvbQooJou57MaGpuHrmkJjmQD40wUI3pBABOy_0Q0keZT3JZOBkHs3j-UoLzGX3Oe0cKEKBLexi8qNgI/s1600/gamebox.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="241" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLTX_Q36eNz-z8xkJp2ICbC4Yu-dkzLy8UndDsoQwNgRZ5YSVzpssHRx5kLcPJvbQooJou57MaGpuHrmkJjmQD40wUI3pBABOy_0Q0keZT3JZOBkHs3j-UoLzGX3Oe0cKEKBLexi8qNgI/s1600/gamebox.png" /></a></div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a>
Jeff & Dave: (laughter)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: You
know, which is the most unlikely colour for a wargame box. Well,
second most unlikely, the first one would be pink.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah. (more
laughter)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: It's not
very military...unless you're like an ancient, I don't know, Prussian
or something.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Yeah,
okay, Caesar's colour...I think the colour of the Emperor of Rome was
purple.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Yeah...
Did...</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: And,
it was, you know, that was just..., but now that's probably one of
the most sought after antique wargames of all time, the 1st Edition
purple Squad Leader.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(9)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff & Dave:
Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Did you,
um, can I talk business a little bit? Do you sell these games in
bulk? I mean, you know what I mean, is it like...you're contracted,
or you design it and then you just sell it all at once, or do you
keep a royalty system, or has that changed throughout history, or ...</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Well
back then I was doing everything on a royalty basis.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Per box
sold, or...?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: It
would be so many per game sold, and it could (be so much) per game
unit or it could be a percent of the amount you get, maybe, if it's a
fixed percentage maybe you get a different amount or it's a wholesale
sale, or retail sale, or you just come up with a flat figure. There's
been a lot of different ways (of) doing it. You know, and a lot of
different companies want different ways.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Right.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: More
and more, not even more and more, a lot of times depending on when I
look at the level of whatever somebody wants something and, maybe,
usually just the scenario for their existing game. I've done a
scenario for the Flights of Fantasy's<span style="font-size: x-small;">(10)</span> <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/22825/tide-iron" target="_blank">TIDE OF IRON</a>. It was their
idea, and it was a good idea, to get all the famous wargame designers
together to design one scenario for the TIDE OF IRON game... So there
was no real royalty, in essence, they all go, all the scenario go
into one scenario book, so that was a flat fee.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Okay. And
now you don't get it...well, you don't get anything, obviously, from
the ADVANCED system?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: No, I
don't.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: And your-</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: That
was a mistake on my part, not to really go into...not to press fully
for that with, you know, the full legal power that could be available
to me. But I didn't. So I didn't get anything on ASL.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Okay.
The...and of course, no one makes a living at this, or have you
managed to kind of do that, or...?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: No. No
one has made a...They made a living by using it as a lever into
something else. Certainly I made a very good living with the
intelligence community for 20 years.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Right.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Which,
my introduction to that was primarily through doing some wargames,
and then one thing led to another and then pretty much it was just
sort of sucked into the whole thing, and you know... But it then
works, but that's the fact the government pays very well.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: So,
but now designing wargames and stuff, yeah, I can (?) living but it
makes such...it makes pocket money and I never will because, you
know, I've got a pretty good government pension, so I don't have to
(rely) on it for a living.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Do you
consider yourself-</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Most
people who make a living out of wargaming are not doing it in the
commercial sector. They eventually... come to the attention of the
prof-... governmental sector, then you can make some very good
money. Provided they have the right contacts... the timing is
everything. You can't just come out and say 'I'd like to sell a
wargame to the DIA or something like that.' Well, it doesn't quite
work that way, they already got their contractors, so...</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Mm-hmm.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL:
...they just got to hook up with some bidding for something, that's a
whole other game in itself.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: So after
SQUAD LEADER, you know, the 1st Edition, then ...that came through
four editions I believe, is that right?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: That's
possible. Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: And were
you involved in those second, third and fourth edition modifications?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Of
SQUAD LEADER, yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Well,
I was involved in cashing...I was cashing my royalty cheques,
certainly.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff & Dave:
(laughter)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: That's the
best part.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: But
after a while, they're just sort of, you know, cleaning up the rules
and plugging and chugging and at least getting away from the purple
box.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah,
right.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: (laughs)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Which they
did, on 2nd Edition, I thought.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Oh
yeah, they most certainly did. As they were doing it they created
the...all-time, you know, the number one collector's 1st Edition. I
know guys...who just constantly go through the consimworld listings
and everything, and constantly hunting for the, hoping that someone
has ... a purple SQUAD LEADER...unpunched, will surface. Lots of
luck, but if you do, it's going to be serious money.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(11)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah. You
don't have a stack of those stashed in your basement?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: No,
everybody has asked me that.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff & Dave:
(laughter)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Ah, what
the world wants to know.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Yeah
that would be... no, no...no.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff & Dave:
(more laughter)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: And it also
said that you-</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: I
probably should have!</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah, if
only-</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Looking
back, yeah-</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: You
know, I could have treated it like a wine, take a whole case of the
purple SQUAD LEADERs and, you know, stashed it away for twenty years.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Well who
would have thought, I mean, it seems to us that there's a reason...</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: It's a
phenomenon, it was unpredict-</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yes.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: And
that was the... No one expected it to be what it was. The normal run
of a game would be, you know, it would be popular for a couple of
years and then sort of die out. And then another game would be in
vogue.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL:
There's an old saying that 80% of all wargame sales happen in the
first two years. That was the rule of thumb in the commercial
wargaming industry at the time.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Mm-hmm.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL:
Because everybody went on to the newest and greatest whatever it
was... To have planned for SQUAD LEADER being what it was would have
been impossible.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Mm-hmm.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: You
know, two things you never can really predict is total disaster and
total success.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: But
odds are too much against either one.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL:
Ninety-nine percent of the time you get something in the middle. And
SQUAD LEADER was such a successful design in the basic mechanisms of
how it works, whether it's SQUAD LEADER, ASL, JOHNNY REB or any one
of its numerous imitations, it had an elegant simplicity about it
that gave it legs that had not been seen probably before or since.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Mm-hmm.
Well it seems to us that there's, you know, something of a
Renaissance, I guess, in this kind of board gaming and we suspect
it's because people played these when they were younger, high school,
college...</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Yeah,
and they're sort of getting back into it.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: And they're
getting back into it, the kids are gone to college themselves, and
people have time and-</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL:
...starts poking around in his basement and stuff and goes 'ah, yeah,
I remember that.'</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Mm-hmm.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: And he
dusts it off, 'yeah, that was cool, man, I had a lot of good times
with that.'</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah, and
of course the internet makes it so easy, then, to find people to
play, it's a wonderful thing. I mean, I found-</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL:
Absolutely. Oh yeah, before the internet you just sort of ... it was
by pure chance.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Yeah, or
you made your friends play.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Your
friends, yeah, you converted a few friends and you played the role of
the apostle.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Right.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: ...Or
eventually maybe you started a little wargaming club at your high
school or something like that.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Mm-hmm.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Or
college, or whatever.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Now you had
also owned a game store, is that right?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Yeah,
I owned a co-... it was a hobby shop. It was in Lafayette, Indiana.
It was, you know, common general full-line hobby shop. Mostly model
railroading and military hobbies of which wargaming was one part of
it.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Okay.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: But I
... it wasn't primarily a game store. Games... I did okay with the
games but the bread and butter was in the more established hobbies
such as model railroading, R/C models and things like that. The main
reason was model railroading was an established adult hobby, but now
adults had a lot more money than the high school kids who were
primarily the core of your wargaming group at the time.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff & Dave:
Right.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Now
any smart businessman focuses his business on the hobbies of the
rich.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Yeah.
(laughs)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: You
know, so, yeah...adult, model railroaders, they had a lot of money,
they could drop a couple hundred bucks on a single engine and stuff
like that....I want to sell stuff to these guys. But the wargaming
was fun, I had ... I enjoyed it and stuff but...it was primarily the
hobby of the people of, in high school and college and (they) do not
have that much disposable income. A few did, but not that many.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Yeah, and I
think though-</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: And it
was...okay, then, that's when I was running the hobby shop and then I
even, that's when I spun off my game company, the Conflict Game
Company.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: And how
long did that last?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Oh, it
lasted for about a couple, two, three years. And then I sold the
company to Game Designer's Workshop.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Oh, okay,
right, right.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Yeah,
and they ran with it for awhile and it's (a) sort of sobering thought
that very, very few wargame companies survive, maybe five to ten
(years) at best...</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: And
some not even that long,</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Do you have
any insight into the failure of Avalon Hill, or were you not that...?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Eric
Dott's (?) never was a failure. His whole concept was ... Eric Dott
was a businessman.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Was he the
owner of Avalon Hill?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Yeah.
He owned Avalon Hill. Basically Eric Dott owned a printing company.
Actually Charles Roberts sort of started Avalon Hill and the company
went bankrupt, mainly because they owed Eric Dott's printing company
so much money, so Eric Dott just wiped out the books, took over
Avalon Hill, (he was) smart enough to see this little company has
some legs, let it run for awhile, but the whole point was, he would
keep it going to the point he would be able to cash in and sell it
off to somebody else. And he sold it off, eventually, to Hasbro.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Right. So
you mean the printer guy, Monarch, is that Monarch Printing, or
something?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL:
Monarch Press, yeah. That was owned by Eric Dott. That gave him the
angle, the leverage to take over Avalon Hill and then run with that.
Eric Dott was a supreme opportunist and businessman. The company was
a ... his strategy, you know, whether...he sold it off for a good
chunk of change. So from his viewpoint, it wasn't a failure at all.
It did exactly what he intended it to do. It was a commodity that he
picked up cheap because they were broke and they owed him money and
eventually...it made a good cash flow all through the years, then he
sold it off for some serious bucks to Hasbro.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: And what,
how did they not manage theirfunds well enough...printing too many
games at once? Or do you...</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL:
...Well, I think it was ... well it was sort of hard to say. They're
only bringing out one new product a year, and so your whole life, or
life or death is based on what's going to happen to that one new
prod-... you know.<span style="font-size: x-small;">(12)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: You
better have a winner every year.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Yeah, so-</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: And
had SQUAD LEADER not come along they probably would have died a lot
earlier. Because they had a number of really bad games. You know, one
that was sort of mediocre was Lou Zocchi's <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3646/luftwaffe" target="_blank">LUFTWAFFE</a>. And yeah, okay,
it sort of played out in a very simplistic way where....the big air
campaign over Germany, but eventually Germany is pounded into
oblivion, all the targets are bombed. (It) didn't really ha-...you
know, it was okay, but it didn't have the kind of excitement. Then
there was the all-time, I think the biggest dud of a wargame, it was
designed by Tom Shaw: <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3602/kriegspiel" target="_blank">KRIEGSPIEL</a>.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: KRIEGSPIEL?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL:
KRIEGSPIEL.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Hmm.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: That
was their game for one year. And they, you know, maybe it was very
novel, and different, but it was totally out of touch with what the
wargamers wanted....and what they were looking for. So you're
bringing out one game a year and if you bring out a total, you know,
dog, whether it's a brilliant design or not, if the gamers don't like
it you're dead in the water.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: And SPI on
the other hand was coming out with-</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Yeah,
they just cranked them out like popcorn.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Three a
month, or something like that, for a while?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Yeah,
and the whole point was, yeah, some were good, some were bad...</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL:
...some were hideous, some had little (?) but who cares? You got
a....you didn't like it you got another once coming, a couple coming
next month.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah, yeah,
right. (laughs) Right but that didn't-</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: ...you
throw, you do enough of them, you're going to get funds, you're going
to have a part, an even mix of the good, the bad and the ugly.
But...they were cheap enough and popcorn enough that you happen to
get one of the ugly ones, so what? Maybe the next one's going to be
great.
</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Have you
seen the ... we recently received an email with a link to some video
on YouTube of an SPI infomercial. What they call an infomercial from
1977 or so, or 1980. It's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNDe_JDew1E" target="_blank">about five minute long commercial for SPIGames</a>, have you seen that?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: No.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: I'll email
it to you, it's pretty...fun to watch.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL:
(laughs)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: It'll take
you back.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Yeah, it'll
take you back.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: It'll take
you back.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Yeah,
I'm sure it would.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Do you
play...what are you playing these days? Are you still playing? Have a
group of guys you-</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Oh,
occasionally I'll be get together, when I go to the conventions I'll
get talked into a JOHNNY REB game or something like that.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: ...
Okay, you know I went to Consimworld...and I'll occasionally play
something, but usually people just want to sit there and talk about
games, or I'll ... talk about some of my...ongoing design work and
stuff.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: I
really don't play that much anymore...it's simply, I'm more
interested in who I'm playing with.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Mm-hmm.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: My
God, there are some people out there who take this stuff way too
seriously.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff & Dave:
(laughter)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: And you
made the game, and you're saying that...</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: No,
but there is a... I went to a fun little convention, I recommend it
to you, it happens every two years, down in Indianapolis, it's called
JOHNNYCON.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Oh.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: It was
based, the guy who runs it was one of the original playtesters of
SQUAD LEADER, one of the original playtesters of JOHNNY REB and he
became a big JOHNNY REB fan so he founded JOHNNYCON, it was basically
based on JOHNNY REB and all derivatives thereof and since SQUAD
LEADER was the prequel...it's always played there in apparently
endless variations. It's in Indianapolis...this year in June. And if
you're in Chicago, I can promise you it will be a great, a good time.
There's only about 50 guys there. But you're going to be with all the
guys who were there at...the creation.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Mm-hmm.
Might be a worthwhile road trip.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: ...If
you're in Chicago, it's a two hour drive.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah. Well,
we might do that. It'd be fun to see...</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN
HILL:....I'll be there... and a lot of the other guys, there's always
some beautiful SQUAD LEADER miniature games. One fellow did a
beautiful version I think, of, I forget the actual scenario but
everybody knows it, Hill 681 or something like that<span style="font-size: x-small;">(13)</span>...</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah,
right.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Oh, with
the big hill.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Yeah,
which...and I had sort of forgotten, about this scenario and
forgotten how to play SQUAD LEADER even. But this guy had done it
brilliant with miniatures, he did all the terrain in miniature, you
know... So...I was playing this scenario as the German, it's very
frustrating for the German, you guess, when you're constantly seeing,
(when) you're getting ahead, you know, more Russians coming or
something, like that...</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah, here
comes some more...</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Yeah.
(laughs)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: ...so
finally I got these bastards under control, 'aw, ma-an,' you know?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff & Dave:
(laughter)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Which
was really what the Germans felt like in the post-Kursk era.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Yes, no
doubt.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: And,
at one point, I says 'you know,' - I was getting so frustrated -
and...something like that...I had a significant string of bad luck,
and I find myself (saying) 'this is really unbalanced, what moron
designed this scenario.'</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff & Dave:
(laughter)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: And
then the response, 'well, you did!'</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff & Dave:
(more laughter)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Oh -
okay!</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff & Dave:
(laughter)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: But
yeah, so, in closing, so frustrating that I had even forgot I was the
creator of this monster.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Oh, my
gosh.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: (laughs)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: But
everybody had a great laugh about that.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah, well.
Maybe we will get to JOHNNYCON this year. That sounds very
interesting...</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: It is.
And you'll get, the guy will probably once again bring Hill 681.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Mm-hmm.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: ... It
is cleverly balanced in there, the German keeps thinking 'I almost
won this time, maybe the next time If I do just that little bit
different.'</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: That
makes for a good wargame.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: It'd be
worth the drive. It would be worth the drive just to meet you,
because, you know, like it or not you're a legend.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Well,
thank you very much.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: How's that
feel. I mean, when we ...it's really been a real honour to talk to
you.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Well,
thank you very much.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Definitely.
Yes.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: But, I
mean you're gonna...the people who will be there were one who were
some of the first playtesters of JOHNNY REB and the first playtesters
of SQUAD LEADER. The guys who played it in miniature, crawling around
on my basement floor.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: (laughs)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: You
know, this is the real grognards.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff & Dave:
Yeah....</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: The
thing is, you begin to see all the games are, JOHNNY REB is basically
derivative of SQUAD LEADER. And you see all these different
variations. The thing is you can put on any game you want, provided
it's a, based in some way, loosely cosmically with, from JOHNNY
REB/slash/SQUAD LEADER.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Mm-hmm.
Sounds like a kick.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: It is,
it absolutely (is)....because it's so grossly informal, it is a kick.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Now, that
is Hill 621 you think, that scenario we were just talking about?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: I
forget the number, but everybody's knows what I'm talking about.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Yeah, I
think it was 621, it's listed on the ROAR<span style="font-size: x-small;">(14) </span>record where they
record who wins and it actually comes up 75 victories for the German
and 74 for the Russian. That's pretty well balanced. According to
this.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Yeah,
you don't get more balanced than that.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Alright,
well thank you anyway. Anything else you'd like to say?</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Well,
no, I think you pretty much covered it from the SL and ASL viewpoint.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Well, we
appreciate you very much taking the time to talk with us, I know-</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: Well,
it's been my pleasure fellows, fun to reminisce about a lot of the
quirks of hobbies, how these things come to be.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Yeah.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: ...we had
interviewed the new full-time employee at MMP last week<span style="font-size: x-small;">(15)</span> and we had
you this week, and I told Jeff it's all downhill from here.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL:
(laughter)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: We've
already got our...maybe we should stop recording, Dave, and just fold
up the tents.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Dave: Yep...after
this, there's just nothing more important than these two guys.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
JOHN HILL: You've
already climbed the two mountains you wanted to do.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: That's
right.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff & Dave:
(laughter)</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Jeff: Well,
thanks again very much, John.</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
END</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</div>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
<b>NOTES</b></div>
<ol>
<li>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Hill may
be referring to <a href="http://tacticalwargamer.com/boardgames/panzerblitz/tacgame3.htm" target="_blank">Tactical Game 3</a>, which was the precursor to
PanzerBlitz.</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Hill
refers several times to “arc of attention”, perhaps a more
common wargaming term would be “covered arc.”</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Boardgamegeek
lists 21 published titles with Hill as a designer.</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
The
LinkedIn page of Matt Caffrey, Jr. lists him holding the Air Force
Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) Wargame Coordinator position
beginning in May 2005.</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Defense
Intelligence Agency</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Eric Dott
was the president of Monarch Services, which was Avalon Hill’s
printer. When Charles S. Roberts sold Avalon Hill to its creditors,
Dott eventually became the sole owner of Avalon Hill.</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Hill’s
response is a non-sequitur as the ASLSK don’t require the
replacement of counters. He is likely referring instead to the
reaction of original Squad Leader players to having to start from
scratch again with ASL, which completely replaced the rules, player
aids and counter sets. Only some of the map boards from the original
Squad Leader series continued unchanged in the new game system.</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
ORIGINS
III was held on Staten Island on 22-24 July 1977.</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Reaction
to this notion of "sought after" in the community is
mixed. The author tried very hard to obtain an original and
eventually did find two purple boxes for sale, at modest prices, in
the last 10 years or so.</div>
</li>
<li>
<div style="line-height: 108%; margin-bottom: 0.11in;">
Hill is
referring to <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/22825/tide-iron" target="_blank">Fantasy Flight Games</a>. </div>
</li>
<li>
This
author did the same with the ebay listings. His pair of purple boxes
contain later edition components inside the box. Finding a true 1st
Edition may be a difficult task. This author has produced a guide to
authenticating a 1st Edition -<a href="http://tacticalwargamer.com/boardgames/squadleader/squadleadereditions.htm" target="_blank"> click here</a> or see the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3zR_p05OE0" target="_blank">video on YouTube</a>. </li>
<li> Hill is talking about the original loss of Avalon Hill by Roberts
to Eric Dott in 1962, rather than the sale of Avalon Hill to Hasbro
in 1998.</li>
<li>One suspects this is actually Hill 621, the popular Scenario 5
from the original SQUAD LEADER.</li>
<li>Remote Online Automated Record. - <a href="http://www.jrvdev.com/ROAR/VER1/default.asp" target="_blank">website</a></li>
<li>Chas Argent was featured in Episode 30 "All That Chas" </li>
</ol>
M.Doroshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09742262581616285671noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587723021467018459.post-14640804647639317782016-04-17T09:02:00.000-06:002016-04-22T09:01:27.435-06:00Tank Commander Exposure in Combat MissionWith the release of battlefront.com's (BFC) Combat Mission: Final Blitzkrieg (which utilizes the second generation Combat Mission (CM) game engine), there has been a bit of discussion about the modelling of tank commander exposure in that game system. There seem to be two main of points of contention at present<br />
<ul>
<li>how often should tank commanders expose themselves to enemy fire</li>
<li>how effective should fire directed at them be</li>
</ul>
Those issues will be resolved by BFC in their own community, but largely absent from the online discussion so far has been a reference to available evidence.<br />
<br />
<b>Evidence - Rate of Exposure</b><br />
<br />
On the face of it, casual histories answer the question of how often tank commanders exposed themselves to enemy fire, and why, very simply. This primer on German tank crewmen of the Second World War sums up the situation in typically vague terms: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>At the rear of the turret sat the commander. At safe distances, he would stand on his small seat, so that his upper body was exposed in the cupola, and observe the battlefield with binoculars. When the enemy was near and in combat situations the turret hatch was battened down, and the commander observed the battlefield through small episcopes set into the cupola surface.</i><span style="color: #93c47d;">(1)</span><span style="color: #999999;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></span></blockquote>
A survey of tank operations mentions:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>The interior of an (Armoured Fighting Vehicle - AFV) is cramped and dark, with hard metal edges wrapping around the crew and passengers. Visibility is provided through a mixture of periscopes (and) vision slits...Even with the most advanced systems, the crew will have a distinct sense that there are things going on out there that might harm them and that they cannot see.</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>...</i></blockquote>
<i> One response to this vulnerability in the past has been for the tank's commander to direct combat standing up from an open turret. This has its advantages - the commander gains a complete perspective of the battlefield, being cognizant of all threats, including those from the air. He can also spot enemy infantry attempting to creep up on his tank.</i><span style="color: #93c47d;">(2)</span></blockquote>
<br />
And a primer on U.S. tank crews in the Second World War suggests that in U.S. units, there was an additional advantage to the commander exposing himself to enemy fire:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Above the commander's hatch was a .50 cal. Browning heavy barrel machine gun. This was intended for anti-aircraft protection, but in fact was much more often used for self-defense of the tank and for attacking ground targets that did not warrant the use of the main armament...The .50 cal. heavy machine gun was very destructive, and proved to be extremely effective in attacking enemy infantry and trucks; the 4th Armored Division placed a great deal of emphasis on its use. Gen. Bruce Clarke later recalled:</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>I told my men that the greatest thing on the tank was a free .50 cal. in the hands of the tank commander. We were not able to fight from tanks with the tank commander buttoned up - that has never been successfully done. [Buttoned up] he can't hear or see and so pretty soon he unbuttons. Now if he's got a free .50 cal. machine gun, all he has to do is press his thumb and he can pick out a dangerous spot. It may be a bazooka flash or something. He can throw a burst there without even thinking about giving an order.</i></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>On the early M4, the .50 cal. machine gun was mounted on a pintle that was attached to the commander's hatch. On later tanks with the all-vision cupola, it was fitted to a pintle behind the commander's hatch, very awkward for the commander who had to expose himself to use the weapon. On the M4A1 (76mm) and M4A3 (76mm), both of which had the large round loader's hatch with pintle, units often moved the machine gun to the loader's side due to its more convenient mounting. Other units came up with their own improvised solutions. On (Creighton) Abram's (Sherman tank), he had a .30 cal. machine gun mounted in front of the cupola for his personal use.</i><span style="color: #93c47d;">(3)</span> </blockquote>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipR505pSu-AnNESi8sgWA_bFjWsN1KygVd7tPXTVpS3PehctkTd9tYQRqfAJjkn5D7UdGtjxBDaiftzv1Qzh1ExJ94qygLlRYriY8iWPWkJXqVj8-JtdA0wIiCk35hy7JPpNr775gV9kw/s1600/pic1159997.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipR505pSu-AnNESi8sgWA_bFjWsN1KygVd7tPXTVpS3PehctkTd9tYQRqfAJjkn5D7UdGtjxBDaiftzv1Qzh1ExJ94qygLlRYriY8iWPWkJXqVj8-JtdA0wIiCk35hy7JPpNr775gV9kw/s400/pic1159997.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Early Sherman variants had the AAMG on a pintle behind the commander's turret, requiring a crewman to expose himself in order to fire it.</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4M14ZsLh9aelix157ljac4383NIbS3N-fqyZ-mW6lOUZgHMwoalstun1z7ZZiLHBMCzBmc2GERe7Vh41qjm9VCa-H_GjktE1o9eDNyeEB-1raGKXfizKbyZgXd-NwJIqRz4fX7xZ2mSw/s1600/early_t23.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4M14ZsLh9aelix157ljac4383NIbS3N-fqyZ-mW6lOUZgHMwoalstun1z7ZZiLHBMCzBmc2GERe7Vh41qjm9VCa-H_GjktE1o9eDNyeEB-1raGKXfizKbyZgXd-NwJIqRz4fX7xZ2mSw/s320/early_t23.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> The
turret used on 76mm Sherman tank variants (T23 turret) had two round hatches, the
commander's (with armored glass vision blocks and a round hatch) and the loader's
(with split hatch). A pintle can be seen at the rear of the loader's
hatch. (Image from:
http://the.shadock.free.fr/sherman_minutia/turret_roof/turret_roof.html)</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The introduction of a larger round hatch on the loader's side of the turret was not an intentional move to enable the loader to access an anti-personnel weapon; crew concerns about emergency exit had been raised since the original Shermans which had no loader-side hatch at all. A small oval hatch was added at first, since "(c)ombat reports had indicated that the early hatches were inadequate for emergency exits, especially in the turret." The introduction of the oval hatch meant "the loader didn't have to wait for the commander and gunner to leave before he could get out."<span style="color: #93c47d;">(4)</span><br />
<br />
The Regimental History of one Canadian armoured regiment had a copy of the Tank Standing Orders that regiment used during combat in Italy and Northwest Europe. The document is reproduced online <a href="http://www.canadiansoldiers.com/procedures/tankstandingorders.htm" target="_blank">here</a>. One of its provisos shows that Commonwealth tank commanders were expected, under penalty of court martial, to fight with commanders able to expose themselves quickly where necessary:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: x-small;"><b>20. HATCHES ETC.</b> Crew
commanders will NOT close both turret flaps except under very heavy mortar
fire when the situation does not demand unrestricted vision. Drivers and
co-drivers hatches will not be fastened. Safety belts will NOT be used. </span><br />
...<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: x-small;"><b>27. DISCIPLINE.</b> Failure
to obey these orders will be treated as a court-martial charge. </span></blockquote>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5BD_V7NBElfhZ44AnuZ2r73CD3rz-PWZpwOLU5BVSBqjDNC5e7arskzo7rHYKHKKAEj-pLE-vuOAePi84dClRUCHOrPamryQdddq7p_6mppIaA04RoFCpnRbw-_fetgKd5ADHscumSc8/s1600/ortona_e6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5BD_V7NBElfhZ44AnuZ2r73CD3rz-PWZpwOLU5BVSBqjDNC5e7arskzo7rHYKHKKAEj-pLE-vuOAePi84dClRUCHOrPamryQdddq7p_6mppIaA04RoFCpnRbw-_fetgKd5ADHscumSc8/s320/ortona_e6.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A Canadian Sherman in action at Ortona. Commonwealth units often removed the AAMG altogether, but the exposure of the commander is obvious. Vision-block cupolas did not appear on the majority of types employed in Commonwealth units and only late in the war for certain American Sherman types.</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The use of the .50 as an anti-infantry weapon seems not to have been considered by Commonwealth tank crews:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>As well as the 75mm main gun and the two .30 calibre machine guns, Shermans came from the factory with a .50 calibre machine gun mounted on the commander's hatch for anti-aircraft use. While this was sometimes replaced with another .30 calibre gun, in the Canadian Army tank commanders were discouraged from exposing themselves to air attack. There were specific anti-aircraft units whose job it ws to shoot down enemy aircraft and it was believed that commanders had enough to do in commanding their tank without engaging in gunfights with aircraft.</i><span style="color: #93c47d;">(5)</span></blockquote>
<b>Crew Survivability</b><br />
<br />
The question of survivability is a separate issue. Roger Lucy provided some hints in a forum conversation at canadiansoldiers.com - suggesting that Operational Research seems to have focused on what killed tanks with comparatively less emphasis on how crewmen were killed. One report is held by the Laurier Centre:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.archeion.ca/medical-research-council-team-for-survey-of-casualties-among-tank-personnel-casualties-among-tank-crews-in-11-armoured-division-in-operational-veritable-27-feb-4-mar-45" target="_blank">Medical Research Council Team for Survey of Casualties Among Tank Personnel - Casualties among tank crews in 11 armoured division in operational veritable 27 Feb - 4 Mar 45</a><br />
<br />
and this is available online;<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a265499.pdf" target="_blank">Injuries to Tank Crews: A Guide to the Data-base and the Data Forms</a><br />
<br />
There is certainly scope for additional research. Library and Archives Canada has this for example:<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: x-small;">RG24 Series C-1, Reel C-5254
<br />
File: 8676-9-8 , Access code: 90
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File Title: Casualties - Royal Canadian Armoured Corps </span></span><br />
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<b>Other Models</b><br />
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Player complaints that crew commanders are killed too often are difficult to justify without understanding what the historical situation was. Other games like Advanced Squad Leader may be a guide as they also model crew exposure's benefits and drawbacks. In ASL, a tank suffers a penalty to direct fire against enemy targets with the main armament when the commander/crew is not exposed ("Buttoned Up" or BU). When "Crew Exposed" (CE) the tank receives a bonus to its movement. Enemy fire against the exposed crew is possible, and they are given protective bonuses equal to infantry behind a stone wall or in hard cover in a building.<br />
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The effects of crew casualties are temporary inability to perform any actions ("Stun") and a permanent loss of crew exposed bonuses. How often do tank crews expose themselves to enemy fire in ASL? One often-cited article regarding tank warfare in ASL suggests rather unhelpfully that:<br />
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<i>Whether or not to remain CE probably comes down to personal preference, though the primary consideration involves any hazards invited by doing so.</i><span style="color: #93c47d;">(6)</span> </blockquote>
However, good advice in the conclusion of the article applies in CM as much as ASL:<br />
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<i>...(K)eep your eye on the prize. Your goal ultimately is to win the scenario; so even though your stated object is to defeat the enemy's armor, do not let yourself become side-tracked from the Victory Conditions solely to engage his armor. Strategy is dictated by the Victory Conditions - though, if tanks are involved on both sides, they will almost inevitably come to grips with one another. However, do not let yourself become distracted!</i></blockquote>
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<i>... it must seem that the "successful" tank commander adopts a primarily defensive posture during an armored battle. In fact, by following the Rules of Engagement and through judicious use of mobility, a tank tends to behave very much like a hunter stalking its prey...Likewise, the successful tank commander waits for the enemy to move into his sights, or carefully moves into an advantageous position to destroy the target. Conservative play is the by-word here, since the DEFENDER will almost always hold the upper hand initially during an Engagement. Whatever the case, allow the enemy to make the first mistake while you wait to take immediate advantage. Above all, patience is the virtue which most distinguishes the successful tank commander.</i> </blockquote>
Another article on fighting armor in ASL, equally unhelpfully says: "The often difficult decision of "CE or not CE" is taken away from you (when providing one-man turret tanks in the order of battle)" but does not discuss the actual decision making process.<span style="color: #93c47d;">(7)</span><br />
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About the only thing that ASL can offer is that in that game system, deciding to button up or expose the commander is a highly individual and subjective choice to make.<br />
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<b>Conclusions</b><br />
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It would seem tank crews in
the Second World War were not only encouraged to fight with the
commander exposed, but may have even preferred to do so. Canadian
regulations in at least one case actually<i> required</i> the commander
to at the least keep one of the turret hatch halves open except under
heavy mortar fire "when the situation does not require unrestricted
vision." <br />
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The use of turret machine guns seems to
have varied by nationality, certainly on the Allied side, and possibly
only late in the war when U.S. 76mm armed tanks were provided with
turrets/hatches that permitted a greater flexibility of weapons
employment.<br />
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Combat Mission player's perceptions that tank commanders are too easily eliminated may have some basis of truth, though more research into historical casualty rates may be useful. At the very least, though, the<i> rate of exposure</i> in the game seems consistent with the references cited above. Being exposed offered very real dividends, tank commanders often took these risks in order to achieve these benefits, and CM at least seems to model this realistically given the absence of more definitively defined references. <br />
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<b>Notes</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: xx-small;">1. Williamson, Gordon. <i><b>Panzer Crewman</b></i> (Osprey Publishing Ltd., Botley, Oxford, UK, 2002) ISBN 7-84176-328-4 p.27 </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: xx-small;">2.McNab, Chris and Hunter Keeter. <i><b>Tools of Violence: Guns, Tanks and Dirty Bombs</b></i> (Osprey Publishing, Botley, Oxford, UK, 2008) ISBN </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">978-1846032257, pp.99-100</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">3. Zaloga, Steven J. <i><b>US Army Tank Crewman 1941-45: European Theater of Operationss 1944-45</b></i> (Osprey Publishing Ltd., Botley, Oxford, UK, 2004) ISBN 1-84176-554-6 pp.20-21</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">4. <span style="font-family: "arial";">Culver, Bruce.</span> <i><b>Sherman in Action</b></i><span style="font-family: "arial";"> (Squadron-Signal Publications, Carrolton, TX, 1977) ISBN 0-89747-049-4 p.30</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial";">5. Guthrie, Steve. <i><b>The Sherman in Canadian Service </b></i>(Service Publications Ltd., Ottawa, ON, 2002) ISBN 1-894581-14-8 pp.15-16 </span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial";">6. Bakken, Bruce "Panzer gegen Panzer" <i><b>ASL Annual 93'a </b></i>(The Avalon Hill Game Company, Baltimore, MD, 1993)</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial";">7. Olie, Dave "What To Do If You Have A Tin Can" <i><b>ASL Journal Issue 1 </b></i>(Multi-Man Publishing, Gambrills, MD, 1999) </span></span></span></span>M.Doroshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09742262581616285671noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587723021467018459.post-68771476621389423322016-02-15T14:27:00.000-07:002016-02-15T19:32:20.333-07:00Festung Budapest - through Hitler's Eyes<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh7LOMyMUn5dt3xaqx31A3uj677sPSLRiLLT7bzZzbb_XKh3c99o3v9436Hg9ti5bxiRa4uUqTLv5HNOQjAGqhBSS4SagffZzYsERJ7mEAlcZFfgUdyHTjTRbNvKpXoGrSL5mqVTVYTts/s1600/www.uplay.it_Festung_Budapest--400x400.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh7LOMyMUn5dt3xaqx31A3uj677sPSLRiLLT7bzZzbb_XKh3c99o3v9436Hg9ti5bxiRa4uUqTLv5HNOQjAGqhBSS4SagffZzYsERJ7mEAlcZFfgUdyHTjTRbNvKpXoGrSL5mqVTVYTts/s200/www.uplay.it_Festung_Budapest--400x400.png" width="155" /></a></div>
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<span data-offset-key="2mhll-0-0"><span data-text="true">When the German drive into the Caucasus stalled in the late summer of 1942, Hitler ordered that his military conferences be recorded, word for word, by military stenographers. Hitler had various 'Table Talks' recorded beginning in July 1941, and the order to record the daily military conferences extended this past practice. There was a desire to preserve decisions for posterity, but the deciding factor seems to have been an argument between Hitler and the Chief of the Operations Staff of the Armed Forces High Command, Colonel-General Jodl. Fearful that his officers might make false appeals to words he never uttered, Hitler began recording the military conferences in September 1942.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWdPybVoj8aaerA-84vIB-GOUZYKUM3vMNPuI3FHzZIsrIAACIMq23A8S40y9mlXjMQ8GYhZxY3__dXIZ0pG5jRJH4iWB2SDVz3ORm-x4juYvNi9fSA7N-hz5MQFpFV7QWgLy76Eolqi4/s1600/bookx.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWdPybVoj8aaerA-84vIB-GOUZYKUM3vMNPuI3FHzZIsrIAACIMq23A8S40y9mlXjMQ8GYhZxY3__dXIZ0pG5jRJH4iWB2SDVz3ORm-x4juYvNi9fSA7N-hz5MQFpFV7QWgLy76Eolqi4/s200/bookx.jpeg" width="130" /></a></div>
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<span data-offset-key="2mhll-0-0"><span data-text="true">The complete set of transcripts at war's end amounted to 130,000 single-sided sheets of paper. All copies of the manuscript were burned following the defeat of Germany, but portions of one copy were rescued from an ash heap in May 1945. What survived the war has been translated into English. The book<i><b> Hitler and his Generals: Military Conferences 1942-1945</b></i> (Enigma Books, New York, NY, 2004 ISBN 1-929631-28-6) reproduces the text as edited and with detailed footnotes by Helmut Heiber and David M. Glantz.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="2mhll-0-0"><span data-text="true">Players of Festung Budapest may find some interest in a conversation recorded on January 10, 1945. The participants included:</span></span></div>
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<li><span data-offset-key="2mhll-0-0"><span data-text="true">Adolf Hitler, Führer of Nazi Germany</span></span><span data-offset-key="2mhll-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></li>
<li><span data-offset-key="2mhll-0-0"><span data-text="true">Reischsmarshal Hermann Göring, head of the Air Force</span></span><span data-offset-key="2mhll-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></li>
<li><span data-offset-key="2mhll-0-0"><span data-text="true">Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces</span></span><span data-offset-key="2mhll-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></li>
<li><span data-offset-key="2mhll-0-0"><span data-text="true">Colonel General Alfred Jodl, </span></span><span data-offset-key="2mhll-0-0"><span data-text="true">Chief of the Operations Staff of the Armed Forces High Command</span></span><span data-offset-key="2mhll-0-0"><span data-text="true"> </span></span></li>
<li><span data-offset-key="2mhll-0-0"><span data-text="true">Major General Eckhard Christian: Chief of the Luftwaffe Command Staff </span></span></li>
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<span data-offset-key="2mhll-0-0"><span data-text="true">Note that the original transcripts were in rough shape when they were recovered, and missing or unreadable tracts are noted by [--] in the book. </span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true"><b>From the midday situation report on 10 Jan 1945 at Adlerhorst.</b><span style="color: #999999;">(1)</span> <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #999999;"></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">LIEUTENANT-COLONEL HERMANI: The situation at the Budapest bridgehead is very serious. Here's where the attacks against the Eastern front took place. (Presentation.) Because there's no place to land, the supply is very strained, and an airfield absolutely must be built up somewhere in this area. I have a city map of 1:25,000, which we can use today to review the blocks of houses that have been lost, my Führer. (Presentation.) This is a fortification on the outskirts of town; it's not shown on the map because the map unfortunately doesn't reach that far. That was the position on January 8, and this morning we got a radio message with the position of the current main battle line. I drew it in quickly here. The occupying forces are pushed together in this area.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">THE FUEHRER, ADOLF HITLER: There's no airfield there anymore.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">HERMANI: No. The one was over here in this area, and the second was built up on Czepel Island...<span style="color: #999999;">(2)</span></span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">THE FUEHRER: That doesn't help; there's no airfield in this area anymore.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">HERMANI: No, there's no airfield anymore. [--] I'd like to present the figures that the Russian Army reported regarding the battle in the Budapest area: "several residential areas" were taken on December 30, 1944, "several residential areas" on December 31, 1944, and from January 1 to 8 - taken together - 1,761 city blocks. ... the outer suburb.<span style="color: #999999;">(3)</span> It is generally correct, while in detail ... I just received a radio message about the daily report from yesterday, which says: ... heaviest defensive battles at the eastern bridgehead because of the shortening of the main battle line ... led to deep penetrations ... heavy street fighting and sustained ... heavy casualties on both sides; on the western bridgehead sudden concentrations of fire. [--] The supply situation forces us to be extremely economical. Air supply ... up to now 3 tons in the castle ... from the ship, which is on the Danube ... food secured ... How it came to that, I don't know either. [--]</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLU80xib22WrZgRoXFzShUs_DZVTVWLw-TP3ziHv_iwemGoC35K9wNR0kI24bv7MozkCDsaefRM8Z2cNTC-JqkBIgUc9h8tIMNZ1QGMoMQgtV9-f97EIUnZglrf-okjsjQHHSRnxHMX_M/s1600/totalmapsmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLU80xib22WrZgRoXFzShUs_DZVTVWLw-TP3ziHv_iwemGoC35K9wNR0kI24bv7MozkCDsaefRM8Z2cNTC-JqkBIgUc9h8tIMNZ1QGMoMQgtV9-f97EIUnZglrf-okjsjQHHSRnxHMX_M/s400/totalmapsmall.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Festung Budapest</i> map.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbxhGVKd7qbDqAhQdJRj4Zpz0jPplH17mzmQNCLS8rJPGrTNIUkMWQ0qce0emlw731PsiOvPmegnmB5kGZcYmzzIuuuHfd-4a0sD6aqDX24fwFq-qDWARzf_j3ITYritwGOxer5JydSvw/s1600/google.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbxhGVKd7qbDqAhQdJRj4Zpz0jPplH17mzmQNCLS8rJPGrTNIUkMWQ0qce0emlw731PsiOvPmegnmB5kGZcYmzzIuuuHfd-4a0sD6aqDX24fwFq-qDWARzf_j3ITYritwGOxer5JydSvw/s400/google.jpg" width="321" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Google Map satellite view of the same area in Budapest today.</td></tr>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">THE FUEHRER: How long is this here, anyway?</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">HERMANI: The scale is 1:25,000.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">FIELD MARSHAL KEITEL: One centimeter equals 3 kilometres.<span style="color: #999999;">(4)</span></span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">HERMANI: Yes, that's 3 kilometres.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">THE FUEHRER: Is this ice?</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">HERMANI: There's ice on the Danube, yes.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">THE FUEHRER: That's too bad! This is 1-1/2 kilometres. Can you land a seaplane on 1-1/2 kilometres?</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">REICHSMARSCHALL GOERING: Yes, it depends, my Führer.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">THE FUEHRER: With the Ju!?</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">GOERING: We've landed on the Danube with a Ju before.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIEs8v0uxIlrIFwnhmB4LKoFOhUUvLf_xxIEFHAKNznyHWTeS-myumC212mAT1OIJtGcp0YkHW2lW2d8Y-TALKQQFY_ZLnl8F5AxaT5TXTVAQoPeSi-YtD00lAGV1kQWmltagFL5fCv00/s1600/Ju_52.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIEs8v0uxIlrIFwnhmB4LKoFOhUUvLf_xxIEFHAKNznyHWTeS-myumC212mAT1OIJtGcp0YkHW2lW2d8Y-TALKQQFY_ZLnl8F5AxaT5TXTVAQoPeSi-YtD00lAGV1kQWmltagFL5fCv00/s400/Ju_52.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ju-52 transport aircraft, fitted as a seaplane.</td></tr>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">GENERALMAJOR CHRISTIAN: In principle it needs only ... with heavy bombs ...</span></span><br />
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">GOERING: But the area is very short, ...</span></span><br />
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">GENERALOBERST JODL: Now, Guderian has developed this idea.<span style="color: #999999;">(5)</span> --</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">HERMANI: General Wenck will come this evening. The Colonel General has just spoken with the Führer - he called him.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">JODL: -- the idea to go to the west bank and then get more space up here to create an airfield.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">THE FUEHRER: Impossible! All these airfields are just ideas that can't be employed because every location is under artillery fire.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">JODL: I don't know if the idea was developed internally.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">THE FUEHRER: It doesn't matter who had the idea, but every airfield ..., which is not set back 4 to 5 kilometres, ... when they fire on it with mortars, they can't land; it is impossible. They see every plane that arrives at night, ...</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">CHRISTIAN: The report from yesterday, which claimed that four aircraft landed -- I don't know where -- must be confirmed.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">THE FUEHRER: Perhaps they landed on the troop training ground.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">HERMANI: That was here on the ...</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">CHRISTIAN: Here it was still possible yetersday. [--]</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">THE FUEHRER: Could you find out what's happening with the ice floes here? If the ice is breaking up, nothing will work - that is clear - but it could be that the ice is not flowing. [--] We don't have light planes or anything like that? [--]</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">GOERING: But we do that with the piggy-back plane, too.<span style="color: #999999;">(6)</span></span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">THE FUEHRER: Yes, and do we have gliders?</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">GOERING: We have gliders.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">THE FUEHRER: Gliders - they could land. There are enough of them.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">GOERING: We brought them in quickly. They were in Graz.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">THE FUEHRER: Gliders can always land.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">GOERING: They could certainly land here.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">THE FUEHRER: There are countless places for gliders. They're the only ones. Send the gliders here at once - all that we have!</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">GOERING: There are areas here and here for gliders. They just have to avoid the tall houses.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIT7pg_xLipH07zWQ2dGRXJyCGhlCrYtJhLXIpLoOrgNctbTFgIA7o1i-6LIhiOzJ6Unuuf9qaF1OuqxMlHmhFP86XT6ggTAKsynXBwoiCSxZz21izcHwDo-d-dHIL6e1r9ARJx20M4_I/s1600/andrassy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIT7pg_xLipH07zWQ2dGRXJyCGhlCrYtJhLXIpLoOrgNctbTFgIA7o1i-6LIhiOzJ6Unuuf9qaF1OuqxMlHmhFP86XT6ggTAKsynXBwoiCSxZz21izcHwDo-d-dHIL6e1r9ARJx20M4_I/s400/andrassy.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Current Google Map of Budapest. Area of <i>Festung Budapest</i> map outlined in red. Andrassy Street is indicated by the red pointer.</td></tr>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">THE FUEHRER: Gliders can go anywhere. If worst comes to worst, we could land them on streets like this one - Andrassy [street]. [--] How wide are the gliders?</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">GOERING: That varies.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">THE FUEHRER: They have to open up a street like Andrassy, by tearing out the streetlights and everything. [--]</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">GOERING: But a glider is always more or less lost.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">CHRISTIAN: He has 200 gliders.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">THE FUEHRER: (How much will they carry? [--] One ton?)</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">CHRISTIAN: One ton, yes. [--]</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">CHRISTIAN: ... but actually only in limited numbers.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">GOERING: We still have them, but I always say: if something is broken, adjustment a half year later it comes ..., when we need it.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">THE FUEHRER: For gliders I don't need a lot of stuff.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">GOERING: No, that's not a major concern. The Hitler Youth do it. The Hitler Youth have gliders at their schools.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">THE FUEHRER: And then we don't risk the expensive tow planes.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">GOERING: No, they release.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">THE FUEHRER: They will float down in the night.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">LIEUTENANT-COLONEL WEISS: There is a parade ground below the castle - 900 metres long, as smooth as glass..., open area ... landing and starting again.<span style="color: #999999;">(7)</span></span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">THE FUEHRER: Gliders can definitely get in?!</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">WEISS: We'll have to examine it again, to be sure.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">THE FUEHRER: We have to try everything, anyway! [--]</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">HERMANI: Right now there are attacks here.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">GOERING: You know that area, Weiss?</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">WEISS: Yes, Herr Reichsmarshal. In the spring I saw it with General Schmundt - I drove there. At least one regiment was being drilled on it. It's as smooth as glass. There are no barracks or ...</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">JODL: I'm familiar with it, too. It's the best anyway, because the castle is right next to it, with all the cellars.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">GOERING: I can confirm it with a radio message.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">WEISS: It is very easy to find; it's below the castle.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGbT1Y5lSE3ruUw0pu5S7oFc_QKJwHswB7Xi8aqO98IZk7Oqh0YIuquKWTNpNxKNKqf12ZeDUzrSMnUQ4tTmVl8GH2HIFZ8-dx-qge2kggosNID_U6jz9JIGI56AG3lIXpLn0Dt8idQ3g/s1600/budacastle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGbT1Y5lSE3ruUw0pu5S7oFc_QKJwHswB7Xi8aqO98IZk7Oqh0YIuquKWTNpNxKNKqf12ZeDUzrSMnUQ4tTmVl8GH2HIFZ8-dx-qge2kggosNID_U6jz9JIGI56AG3lIXpLn0Dt8idQ3g/s640/budacastle.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Buda Castle, in relation to the <i>Festung Budapest</i> map.</td></tr>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">GOERING: The castle protects it from the wind, which is very good. [--] Could you arrange for that whole area to be cleared of every obstacle - trenches, etc., so that it's leveled off?</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">THE FUEHRER: Flak is definitely [--]</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">CHRISTIAN: I'd like to report the following. We have gliders in four locations: in the southeastern area around Linz and Wels - they have already been ordered here, but the others are in Wittstock, and they must be driven to southern Germany...</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9225p-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">THE FUEHRER: At first we can use those that are in the East already; the others will be brought by train, by priority transport.<span style="color: #999999;">(8)</span> [--] They don't have much there, so it would be good if they were actually to get the Tiger detachment brought in for the attack, because there's no sense in having Tigers, etc., here! [--]</span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9225p-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9225p-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">HERMANI: At least you can drive them around.</span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9225p-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9225p-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">THE FUEHRER: And further north?</span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9225p-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9225p-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">HERMANI: North of the Danube, the 20th Panzer Division began its attack early this morning and pushed through to Ogyalla.</span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9225p-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true"><br /></span></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy6CcVq1MhBMYnd82hbq0Vnru6plprqE10nBoptVo6CU27TWAinSHrqxoQ4RQjqCnA2VmsqCvWrRs3gbdtPKeHY4xHhlYicXcyiemu179XjACIfEMkEMJUcrBXoVS1cebI8zlzz637MUA/s1600/ogyalla.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="468" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy6CcVq1MhBMYnd82hbq0Vnru6plprqE10nBoptVo6CU27TWAinSHrqxoQ4RQjqCnA2VmsqCvWrRs3gbdtPKeHY4xHhlYicXcyiemu179XjACIfEMkEMJUcrBXoVS1cebI8zlzz637MUA/s640/ogyalla.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ogyalla was renamed after the war to become Hurbanovo. Its relationship to Budapest is shown on this current Google Map.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9225p-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">Another group from the 20th Panzer Division is attacking Perpeto. Parts of the 208th [Infantry Division] that pushed ahead from Komoram [Komorn according to the book, most likely </span></span><span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">Komárom as on the map above] forced an enemy tank group to turn away. We took Naszdav and Imely yesterday. They are attacking further to the southeast now. An attack - which has been held off thus far - against the front of the 211th [Volksgrenadier Division], which has built up a blocking front again, ... At this time there are enemy attacks against Kürt from the southeast and east.</span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9225p-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9225p-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">THE FUEHRER: It's a mystery where this guy brings these tanks from again. </span></span><br />
<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</span></span><br />
<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true"> On January 27th, a mid-day situation conference in Berlin contained the following report:</span></span><br />
<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true"><br /></span></span>
<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">GENERAL HEINZ GUDERIAN: In Budapest the situation is intensifying because the enemy has shifted his focal point to the center of the western sector and has reached the so-called Blutwiese [Blood Meadow], which, until now, was the main drop point for supplies brought in by air. The counterthrust has begun. Whether it's possible to do it with the available forces - to clean this thing up - is uncertain, because the casualties have increased significantly. He is trying to build a bridge here over the Danube to Margaret Island. The situation is visibly intensifying... </span></span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWIf_pJIUR9LkERnUJbdC4xTw8xvfQyBMmSdUAoSFQDPujhOKh_OGikyUQqsoa1LAzG-zSw4-XjJTTeAtd3250k4CUbu9tv5FWXUeQQ94VuOQm8w9mDQOK9EW4FR7YSYaI5KYKvCmS72g/s1600/margaretisland.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="536" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWIf_pJIUR9LkERnUJbdC4xTw8xvfQyBMmSdUAoSFQDPujhOKh_OGikyUQqsoa1LAzG-zSw4-XjJTTeAtd3250k4CUbu9tv5FWXUeQQ94VuOQm8w9mDQOK9EW4FR7YSYaI5KYKvCmS72g/s640/margaretisland.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Location of Margaret Island. The Blutwiese (Blood Meadow,<span class="st"><i> </i>or <i>Vérmező) </i>is visible at lower left.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- </span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9225p-0-0">
</div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9225p-0-0">
<span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true"><b>NOTES </b></span></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9225p-0-0">
</div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9225p-0-0">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><span data-offset-key="9225p-0-0"><span data-text="true">1.</span></span></b> Adlerhorst was Hitler's forward headquarters, established for control of the Ardennes Offensive - not to be confused with the Eagle's Nest in Berchtesgaden: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adlerhorst" target="_blank">Wikipedia article on Adlerhorst</a></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9225p-0-0">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>2.</b> <a href="https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Csepel+Island,+Szigetcs%C3%A9p,+2317+Hungary/@47.2499981,18.9324904,14z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x4741fa6302485beb:0xb5a6dbb85420c4b3" target="_blank">Csepel Island in Google Maps</a></span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9225p-0-0">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>3.</b> According to Heiber and Glantz, the Russians reported on city blocks taken daily. Their figures are slightly different than that presented here. On 8 January, according to Glanz, 2,000 of 4,500 city blocks were in Russian hands. </span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9225p-0-0">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>4</b>. According to Heiber and Glantz, Keitel is either referring to a 1:250,000 map, or was incorrectly transcribed (10cm on a 1:25,000 scale map is about 3 kilometres (actually 2.5).) </span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9225p-0-0">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>5</b>. General Heinz Guderian, Chief of Staff of the Army, visited Budapest January 5 to 8 to investigate the failure of relief attacks intended to relieve the city. Guderian's post (he was appointed a day after the Bomb Plot of July 20, 1944) was largely symbolic as Hitler had in effect become his own Chief of Staff.</span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9225p-0-0">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>6.</b> A reference to the Mistel, any one of various combinations in which a piloted aircraft was physically attached to a glider, airplane or drone for delivery to a target. See <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistel" target="_blank">Wikipedia article</a>.</span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9225p-0-0">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>7.</b> Almost certainly the</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="notranslate"> Vérmező</span></span></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> (Blood Field), as shown on the <i>Festung Budapest</i> map.The Hungarian Wikipedia has an article <a href="https://translate.google.ca/translate?hl=en&sl=hu&u=https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%25C3%25A9rmez%25C5%2591&prev=search" target="_blank">here (English translation by Google)</a> which mentions the field being used for courier aircraft and glider landings.</span></div>
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9225p-0-0">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>8</b>. Heiber and Glantz point out that "priority transport" was a specific term for a train going non-stop from loading point to destination, and carrying items of sufficient importance that other trains were removed from the track in order to ensure speedy passage. Generally reserved for shipments of ammunition, tanks, etc., for planned attacks or blocking movements to prevent enemy penetrations of the front.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
M.Doroshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09742262581616285671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587723021467018459.post-15321502407268433862014-08-22T10:26:00.002-06:002014-08-22T10:26:14.173-06:00Preview of War Diary Magazine Issue 1<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPp9CNhwax9Ns1Gu0wGYUy043jr1YFH58qzUd5Ga16P-9o3S0Xwc9il4t29OYrbfjiRhUfbuOvJAYIKSuJ53cesp-aK74N-cB1-JFUDUXbIWS0SL3QCuqIfJCWkQCrul-HdiFwm1dJF_w/s1600/wardiarycover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPp9CNhwax9Ns1Gu0wGYUy043jr1YFH58qzUd5Ga16P-9o3S0Xwc9il4t29OYrbfjiRhUfbuOvJAYIKSuJ53cesp-aK74N-cB1-JFUDUXbIWS0SL3QCuqIfJCWkQCrul-HdiFwm1dJF_w/s1600/wardiarycover.jpg" height="320" width="246" /></a>Despite what the editors refer to, in the maiden issue, as "months of
preparation and work," that self-same premiere has been accomplished
with amazingly little fanfare. Sadly so, in my opinion, as the wargaming
hobby has been poorer for a lack of quality periodicals. The editors
apparently feel the same way and have announced an intent to address
this condition. Their goal - again, as stated in their own introduction,
is not to publish yet more games (which seems to be the function now of
most of the remaining general interest wargaming periodicals (as
distinct from "house organs" that devote themselves to single product
lines)) - but to provide the mix of historical articles, game analysis,
and industry and hobby related articles that marked the best of "old
school" hobby writing that the editors promise to be reminiscent of.<br /><br />This
blog entry will not be a review so much as a simple description of what
lies between the covers of the first issue. I can only imagine many are
curious, and, hopefully, wish for an endeavour such as this to succeed.
I am in a unique position in also producing a small hobby wargaming
magazine, which in no way should be considered a "competitor" of War
Diary as I feel my focus is sufficiently narrow to avoid that title. I
mention the fact in the interest of full disclosure, but more to
highlight the fact that I can relate a little more fully to some of the
challenges around the technical aspects of putting a project like this
together. If I seem more forgiving of minor gaffes, this is probably
why.<br /><br /><b>Physical Appearance</b><br /><br />The magazine is very nicely laid out. I suppose if the magazine was <i>truly</i>
"old school" the articles would all go for two pages, then have a
"continued on p.28" notice and you would turn to the back of the
magazine to read the last half column of text, but not here. Articles,
images and ads are nicely laid out into just the right amount of room,
text is nicely justified, fonts are well-chosen and readable, and the
editor doesn't act like he picked up the latest women's fashion magazine
or update to Quark and feel like he has to show off every bell and
whistle in the software. The emphasis has been put on the material. <br /><br />A minor point - in the last days of <i>Fire and Movement</i>,
the text moved farther and farther toward the edge of the page until
there was practically no margin whatsoever. I never understood that, and
even a response to a letter to the editor never cleared it up entirely.
It's nice to see a nice, clean layout here.<br /><br /><b>What You Get</b><br />There are 44 pages (including the covers).<br /><br /><b>Ghost Division</b>
- the lead article is pure history taking up 18 pages or so, focusing
on the 7th Panzer Division in France, and the effects of Rommel's
personal leadership. The article is footnoted, and sources are a mix of
older texts with good usage of more recent ones from the last decade. As
one would expect from Dr. Michael Rinella, the prose flows well and the
sources are well utilized. The footnotes are actually as interesting
to read as the text itself, something you don't always (or even often)
see.<br />
<div class="post_fr">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmYiBBGyRGQTBlm5x_mmnoK9VIkx3rALBL4Si5twCuGvIwsSGeHXR6LU96LrixlteeDDelChyphenhyphenGpOvqtE8vgrXRNIe4uoTn0BoL05GpUXivPKO2qnCGL5rQ70oiuout9iblTWNR8k5RBLA/s1600/wd1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmYiBBGyRGQTBlm5x_mmnoK9VIkx3rALBL4Si5twCuGvIwsSGeHXR6LU96LrixlteeDDelChyphenhyphenGpOvqtE8vgrXRNIe4uoTn0BoL05GpUXivPKO2qnCGL5rQ70oiuout9iblTWNR8k5RBLA/s1600/wd1.jpeg" height="275" width="320" /></a></div>
<div>
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/image/2078808"><br /></a></div>
</div>
<b>The Grand Alliance</b>
- a variant article for Barbarossa to Berlin. This variant includes
rules and a set of counters affixed directly into the magazine, uniquely
attached to a blank space on one of the pages (see image at right). The
article takes up five more pages.<br /><br /><b>Operation Husky</b> - an analysis of Fast Action Battle: Sicily. This article is seven pages long.<br /><br />A
nice little article on e-gaming by Andy Loakes appears on pp.32-33,
with a handy list of URLs - many of these may well go out of date within
a year, but one hopes the author can keep regular and timely updates on
this subject in future issues.<br /><br /><b>What's In a Game</b> is a more
personal story about one player's relationship with the gaming hobby,
and a fellow gamer, which covers themes of personal redemption and the
influences of Kickstarter, eurogames, electronic gaming.<br /><br />A game
review, of Gloom, follows, and what I can only call a Preview of The
Great Game, which is currently available for preorder at the Legion
Wargames site. The preview is about half history article, and half game
description.<br /><br />The final article is billed as "A Discussion of the
Game Publishing Industry and It's (sic) Customers." This is another
opinion piece like the "What's In a Game" article.<br /><br /><b>Room for Improvement</b><br /><br /><div class="post_fr">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_TMk5lkH5Zb2RdqlLmY9pI8omNy88rGXJtV63uj3oY2ATbcQMBtSDF2dGBpXvB3NO1UE15kNQ6kW97tfDO8flSVbcvtcQ06SCeyQ8E7smZOUZ3EyM6qGW0HXHdHiLAoI3BNJZyyXJUoE/s1600/wd2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_TMk5lkH5Zb2RdqlLmY9pI8omNy88rGXJtV63uj3oY2ATbcQMBtSDF2dGBpXvB3NO1UE15kNQ6kW97tfDO8flSVbcvtcQ06SCeyQ8E7smZOUZ3EyM6qGW0HXHdHiLAoI3BNJZyyXJUoE/s1600/wd2.jpeg" height="320" width="248" /></a></div>
</div>
Some
of the maps selected for the Ghost Panzer article are a tad too small
to read. The Sicily map is a familiar one from the U.S. Army History. It
is a colour map, but reproduced here in black and white, and comes out a
bit murky. More puzzling is the very famous photo of OMAHA Beach in
Normandy used to illustrate the article about Sicily. A minor bit of
trivia, but if the audience is hard-core military buffs, this seems
ill-advised.<br /><br />The editors may get some grief about the pencil
sketches of military commanders that appear throughout the magazine.
They may be derided as mere filler. Individual tastes will vary. I
thought they provided a unifying theme though some of them did not come
off as well as others (Patton looks like his helmet has melted in the
sun.) <br /><br />The list of URLs in the e-Gaming article is inconsistent
with its underlined text - some are, some aren't. A few minor typos as
well - most egregious is the mis-spelling of Rundstedt's name in one of
the quote boxes on page 15. As an editor I know the horror of this and
it is quite possible two or three people looked at this article multiple
times and still missed it. You just stop seeing the trees because of
the forest. <br /><br />I would hope, though, that more images of the games
themselves will grace the magazine in future, particularly in analysis
articles. The OMAHA Beach photo took up half a page in an article about a
game that didn't have a single image of the game board or counters. The
text actually says "as you can see from the game map" - but never shows
it to us, instead opting for the blurry historical map instead, unless
the intention was to include the game map but for technical reasons it
never occurred.<br /><br /><b>Overall</b><br />I won't give a grade or a mark because:<br /><br />a) this is the first issue and the editorial team is no doubt still finding their way;<br />b) individuals will have to figure for themselves if this is the kind of magazine that will appeal to them<br /><br />For
what the editors set out to do - create an "old school" magazine that
will appeal to wargamers, I think they are on the right path. There was a
mix of hard-core wargame stuff and lighter fare, certainly with the
opinion pieces and even the so-called "non-wargame" reviews. <br /><br />I guess the only major question to be asked is whether the latter were intentional, or due to lack of submissions/content. <br /><br />My
personal reaction is that I have no heartache reading reviews of games I
won't play as I am still interested in the history behind them - which
is why "The Great Game" article still interested me. I had no such
interest in Gloom, any more than I had interest in reading articles
about "Wrasslin'" when Avalon Hill published those in The General. But I
digress.<br /><br />For what it is worth, this is what War Diary Number 1
looked like. I enjoyed the magazine and felt that what I received was of
value and that a great deal of effort had gone into producing it. I'm
looking forward to upcoming issues, and hope that the quality of
submissions allows the overall quality to remain high. The magazine can
only be as good as those who write for it.<br />
<br />
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />
The above was posted at Boardgamegeek.com. I've since been in touch with the editor who have responded positively to the feedback. My copy of issue 2 was damaged in transit (it looks like the postman dropped it in a puddle) and the editors are shipping my replacement copy as I write this.<br />
<br />
More info on the magazine is here: <a href="http://tacticalwargamer.com/magazines/wardiary/wardiary.htm">http://tacticalwargamer.com/magazines/wardiary/wardiary.htm</a><br />
<br />
And the magazine's website is here:<a href="http://wardiarymagazine.com/" target="_blank"> http://wardiarymagazine.com/ </a>M.Doroshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09742262581616285671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587723021467018459.post-28855265746941551032013-08-31T18:44:00.000-06:002016-05-04T18:55:33.613-06:00Combat Mission: Take ThirteenNot counting <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/videogameexpansion/112904/combat-mission-campaigns">"Campaigns"</a>, the impending release of <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/videogameexpansion/146986/combat-mission-market-garden">CM: Market Garden</a> will be the thirteenth kick at the cat since the highly acclaimed <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/videogameseries/6028/combat-mission">CM Series</a>
made its award-winning debut at the turn of the century. (Though it's
hard to keep accurate score, since you never know if you're supposed to
include Touch, which I haven't, or Afghanistan, which I did despite it
not being a Battlefront.com development.)<br /><br />As someone who has been
accused of paying too much attention to the goings-on at Battlefront
HQ, it would be tempting to say there has been a lot of talk about the
upcoming release - but in all honesty, I don't think there has been. I
don't intend to comment on whatever contentious issues may linger around
issues of game design philosophy (the move to 1:1 representation has
been firmly established and my thoughts are a matter of public record
elsewhere), Digital Rights Management (personally, I've had no issues
with this), or the timeline of the new game series (we do finally have a
projected release date for Market Garden, per the <a class="postlink" href="http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=326&Itemid=558" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">preorder release notice on 30 August 2013</a>,
stating (admittedly in roundabout fashion) that we would see the game 4
to 6 weeks after the historic anniversary of Operation Market-Garden
itself (in other words, or rather, not in so many words, since they
don't come right out and say it, sometime in October). I guess I should
point out I will also not be talking about Battlefront.com's public
relations style - mostly since I just did.<br /><br /><b>Background</b><br /><br />What is of interest is the content of the news release, i.e. the sneak peak at the content. Some background, however.<br /><br />In a statement <a class="postlink" href="http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=109972" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">on the official forums</a> on May 23 of this year, the developer had this to say:<br /><br />
<div class="quotetitle">
</div>
<div class="quote">
<div class="post_fr">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjacU3dZCUczXnc7MQa2UxSOTHY-8CUilu7eCQb7YbvBS47lFrtuoB5XLdx9Akop09en3Zn6nAjRNjgrsvODX2SovOPmisWpkmTWVuAesk-ZbLaHl_hsRJ5Ssnxh2_4ILreADKpy7hJnUk/s1600/take131.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjacU3dZCUczXnc7MQa2UxSOTHY-8CUilu7eCQb7YbvBS47lFrtuoB5XLdx9Akop09en3Zn6nAjRNjgrsvODX2SovOPmisWpkmTWVuAesk-ZbLaHl_hsRJ5Ssnxh2_4ILreADKpy7hJnUk/s320/take131.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div>
<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/1761392"></a></div>
</div>
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Portraying
the battles of Market Garden posed unique challenges to us on the
development end. Specifically that Market Garden requires British and
Waffen SS units, which are part of the Commonwealth module. And yet our
philosophy is to never require players to purchase Module A to play
Module B. Likewise, our philosophy is to not duplicate content in
Modules because we don't want to double charge those who want both.<br /><br />Interesting dilema we got ourselves into, eh? <br /><br /><b>Instead of canceling Market Garden (CM:MG), which we did contemplate,</b>
we decided to pack Market Garden so full of new stuff that people will
find value in it and minimize the overlap with Commonwealth that people
won't feel like they are buying stuff they might already have. So here's
an overview of what's being included:<br /><br />1. Basic Waffen SS and
British units which represent those units that fought directly in the
Market Garden battles. Which means the majority of units found in
Commonwealth are not present in CM:MG.<br /><br />2. New German Heer, Waffen
SS, and Luftwaffe units have been added which aren't present in
Commonwealth. These better portray the scratch formations which made up
the bulk of the early German resistance to the landings. Training,
security, school, admin personnel, etc. are available.<br /><br />3. We've
added German Navy units. These poor saps were base and ex-ship personnel
thrown into battle without much consideration about their fighting
capabilities (which were next to none). In fact, this is the first time
we've ever had Navy ground units in a CM game. Though to be honest, it's
mostly for flavor as organizationally they weren't that much different
from horribly stripped down and under equipped Heer units. Still, it's
better to give you explicitly tweaked units than to say "imagine those
Heer guys are Navy".<br /><br />4. AAA units are present for the first time
on the Western Front. Not only the sorts of AAA stuff found in Gustav
Line, but some new fun things like Wirbelwind and Crusader AA.<br /><br />5.
The Germans also now have access to Panzer Brigades. These armor heavy
units are uniquely organized and contain the ever fun SPW 251/21 in
large numbers.<br /><br />6. Fallschirmjäger are now present, all the way from June through September.<br /><br />7. Some new vehicle variants for all forces just to keep things interesting.<br /><br />8.
New terrain features to create the feeling you're battling in The
Netherlands and not France. Yes, we have even included a windmill <br /><br />9.
Bridges. Lots of 'em We are including 5 custom made historically
accurate bridges, a canal bridge, and 3 new generic long bridges. Some,
like the Arnhem road bridge, are massive. For the larger ones we include
"stubs" which map makers can use to simulate fights around the entrance
to a bridge without having the other 500+ meters stuck in there.<br /><br /><b>And
before the questions start flying about what new game features are to
be added... a reminder that as a rule Modules do not add new game
elements unless they are directly necessary for that particular Module.
Besides the new bridges and some other terrain related stuff, we don't
see the need for new features and therefore there won't be many directly
related to Market Garden.</b> However, anything new that was added for
Gustav Line will be automatically carried over to the entire Normandy
Family of games. Such as new shaders, "movie" lighting, bug fixes,
gameplay tweaks, AAA support, etc. No worries there.<br /><br />There's no doubt more stuff than that, but I think that's enough for now to get things started.<br /><br />Steve</span></div>
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span><br />Note that the reference here to <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/videogameexpansion/140754/combat-mission-fortress-italy-gustav-line">Gustav Line</a> is to the parallel game series <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/videogame/126859/combat-mission-fortress-italy">Combat Mission: Fortress Italy</a>,
in which the game engine received upgrades. New units, terrain, etc.,
developed for the Fortress Italy series are not available to players of
the Battle for Normandy series of the games, and vice versa. Game engine
changes, as noted, will in theory be made available to all game series.
The updates are not "automatic" as I understand the term (for example, I
have MMORPGs that will automatically upload patches when I connect to
the server), but are indeed made available as new modules are completed
in parallel series. There does seem to be a time lag as the small
production team puts together the appropriate patches. <br /><br /><b>Pre-made Maps</b><br /><br />The most intriguing part of the pre-order announcements is in regards to "Master Maps".<br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span><div class="quote">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Master Maps!<br /><br />The
7 "master maps" are huge maps, historically accurate, detailed and
thoroughly researched, depicting the main areas around the bridges where
most of the fighting happened:<br />•Oosterbeek<br />•Johana Hoeve<br />•Arnhem Road Bridge<br />•Oosterhout ( north of Nijmegen)<br />•Nijmegen<br />•West Nijmegen<br />•Elst<br /><br />These
master maps will help scenario designers in creating their own
scenarios without the burden of having to create the maps from scratch.
The maps can be cut to encompass smaller areas for individual battles.</span></div>
<br />A number of interesting questions and observations come up here. <br /><br /><div class="post_fr">
<div>
<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/1761394"></a></div>
</div>
What
immediately caught my attention was the inclusion of Nijmegen, which of
course would be a necessity for any treatment of the Market-Garden
campaign. The subject has received a modest deal of attention in
various hobby treatments, particularly both the climactic attack on the
road bridge (notable for the cooperation between U.S. paratroopers and
British troops of the Guards Armoured Division), and the waterborne
assault by U.S. paratroopers over the Waal using flimsy assault boats,
again supported by tanks of the Guards Armoured.<br /><br />Elst is another interesting location; currently the subject of the first Historical ASL map for the <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9823/advanced-squad-leader-starter-kit-1">ASL Starter Kit</a> series. The designer of that module noted <a class="postlink" href="http://www.multimanpublishing.com/Blogs/tabid/61/EntryId/14/ASLSK-Historical-Module.aspx" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">in his own blog</a> that:<br /><br /><div class="quotetitle">
</div>
<div class="quote">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">The module is based on the battle that took place along "Hell's
Highway" on the "Island" between Nijmegen and Arnhem during operation
Market-Garden. The battle was fought in the vicinity of the small town
of Elst that is situated about halfway along the main road between the
two cities of Nijmegen and Arnhem. It started on Sept 23 and lasted
until Sept. 25, 1944.<br /><br />The British 214th brigade from the 43rd
Wessex Division fought an "ah hoc" German unit known as Kampfgruppe
Knaust for control of this strategic village. The British needed to get
to the Rhine River Bridge to while the Germans sought to delay them as
long as they could.</span></div>
<br /><br /><div class="tac">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj68xfMP-Y4nilJyOu2ThuJqLuYJWJkZqYdVb_OjC3UQXOciEUwSfvCx_YQTol8K2ogjrzUaM8tVQGdAZrc1tsEk6nrD_cMTkNR8EO4ErVRxffVV3L1SMgJr6JdneuA-MZCJinhMzqx2ak/s320/take132.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The author designed this scenario for CM:BN in Feb 2013.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<br />The
locations for the "master maps" are clearly logical ones as far as
placing tactical wargame scenarios there, but I'm not positive I
understand the concept or the marketing. Every Combat Mission game has
shipped with pre-made scenarios, which as a matter of function include a
map that can be re-used for other scenarios if the purchaser wishes.
This has never been a selling point before. Given that the majority of
scenarios have always been "historical" scenarios (the level of
historical accuracy in these kinds of games is always open to debate,
another topic I won't touch here), the maps have always been
"historical", and in matter of fact, given recent tools such as
GoogleEarth, the trend has been to if not "accurate" maps (that is to
say, accurate to the 1939-1945 period), then certainly at least
"realistic" in terms of the way the terrain has been sculpted, using
real world data as a guide (as opposed, say to, the "clump of this,
clump of that" style of art design found in many hex-and-counter
wargames.<br /><br />I <i>think</i> I understand what the concept will be -
an extremely large map which can be pared down in the editor - though
maddeningly, we are not being given a preview of what to expect. Are
these 100km square maps? Is there a new tool to quickly slice (and
preview) them without having our CPU choke on trying to load a full size
3D representation of all of Nijmegen?<br /><br /><b>Past Announcements, Lowered Expectations</b><br /><br />The
random map generator of the original game engine was a very successful
tool, if not always popular, and was able to not only give scenario
designers a head start at generating random terrain, but produced "Quick
Battles" instantly and for the most part entertainingly. The Quick
Battle system has been carried over into the current game engine, with
the requirement that maps be pre-built and, if playing against the
computer, have AI plans provided to guide the computer enemy. <br /><br />Theoretically,
this has dropped the number of maps available to players of Quick
Battles from "infinite" to very finite. In reality, the difference this
makes may be more negligible than some may think. Hobby time is never
infinite, for example, so a "need" for infinite map making ability is
probably nil. The most prolific of the tactical board games, Advanced
Squad Leader, has made do with some four dozen maps (not counting the
historical and "desert" boards) for thirty years, albeit with the
addition of overlays and "scenario special rules" to permit
modifications to the terrain. Nonetheless, there are something like -
without exaggeration - 5,800 scenarios in print (check the <a class="postlink" href="http://www.aslscenarioarchive.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ASL Scenario Archive</a>
for a complete breakdown), the majority of which utilize those same 4
dozen boards. Using the Advanced Search feature on the site, and
searching by just the original Squad Leader boards, one finds 81
scenarios set on Board 1, 293 scenarios including Board 2, and 316
scenarios played on a surface that includes Board 4.<br /><br />The ability
to mix and match the "geomorphic" (or, isomorphic) boards was something
that the Combat Mission developers alluded to in some comments after the
ability to randomly generate terrain was lost with the new game engine.
(Map designers will note that the original game engine was restricted
to a 20-metre terrain grid and just 20 different elevation levels, while
the new engine has realistic contour lines of practically infinite
gradation, and a tighter 8-metre grid off of which LOS and movement is
based.)<br /><br /><a class="postlink" href="http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=76254" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">In this posting </a>, the developer hinted that a "Meta-tile" system might be introduced to the Quick Battle system:<br /><br /><div class="quote">
<div class="post_fr">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPOhwn_Mh4KYJ9n6yenIWV7lEuxfdSDmEMZYV0a3aixukSx1udul4Bf_dNdFKw2rQ535_-yYFMxb54pYG1TLVj6T2HbdUaz2VMRhSuP4_fjSv7bzLI9clRxuHIcn8DcrYhnhq8Y0Uiut0/s1600/take133.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPOhwn_Mh4KYJ9n6yenIWV7lEuxfdSDmEMZYV0a3aixukSx1udul4Bf_dNdFKw2rQ535_-yYFMxb54pYG1TLVj6T2HbdUaz2VMRhSuP4_fjSv7bzLI9clRxuHIcn8DcrYhnhq8Y0Uiut0/s320/take133.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div>
<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/1761422"></a></div>
</div>
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">The
question many of you have been asking as of late is "where does
Battelfront go from here?" now that v1.08 is out. Well, that's a valid
question and I hope I can answer it to the satisfaction of most. But
remember... we try to not to get too specific about low level changes
because we do not wish to set up false expectations. Therefore, what
follows is a more philosophical answer than a list of highly detailed
descriptions of feature changes. First, an explanation of who makes
Combat Mission...<br /><br />Battlefront is 5 full time employees and a
bunch of regular contractors. The primary force behind the games is
Charles and myself (Steve, if you didn't already know). I do most of the
design work and historical research while Charles does all of the
coding. Charles has a significant amount of impact on the design
elements since, obviously, he has to code them. Charles also has some
great ideas of his own, of course, so at times he is the main brain
behind a particular feature and I simply flesh it out. If Charles nixes
something for coding reasons I usually manage to work around the problem
areas so the feature can be included in some form.<br /><br />Moon (our
fearless President), KwazyDog (our lead pixel pusher), Madmatt
(Battlefront's jack of all trades), and Rune (master of the monster
scenarios [img]smile.gif[/img] ) handle a lot of things besides CM:SF,
so although they have other responsibilities other than testing CM:SF
night and day. Which is a good thing because someone has to do the other
stuff!<br /><br />For the day and night testing shifts we have a bunch of
volunteer testers who were hand picked from this Forum. They are the
ones that kick the tires and tell Charles that something needs more time
in the oven You have no idea how much work they put into testing and
therefore can't appreciate how much good they do for the game as a
whole. Whatever faults people see in the game I can assure you that it
isn't because of the testers are failing at their job.<br /><br />Last, but
not least, are the people posting on this Forum. Without public input
none of the CM games would be what they are today. Overall the
information we gather here is very valuable and worth having to
sometimes dig for, even when it's burried under a pile of poo someone
deposited It's not easy to handle a gaggle of highly opinionated people
who aren't afraid to speak their minds (even when they've misplaced
them), but that's an unavoidable part of an online discussion forum.
Gotta take the good with the not-so-good. People can agree or disagree
with how I handle this... I don't care. It works for us, therefore in
the long run it works for everybody.<br /><br />OK, with that out of the way, onto the outline...<br /><br />Way
back in 2003 we made a long range plan based around what is now called
the CMx2 game engine. I can say, without any doubts, that things have
gone according to plan and that we are overall pleased with the position
we are in now. I know, I know... how can I say that after all the bugs
and rancor that came about after its initial release? Well, easy... we
take the long view and keep things in perspective. Of all the millions
of things that could have gone wrong between 2003 and now, things have
gone pretty much according to plan. Obviously things haven't gone
perfectly, and we are no more happy about that than you guys are,
however that's small potatoes compared to the things that could have
gone wrong. Like what? Well, going out of business would have been a bit
worse!<br /><br />Our plan has been partially explained to you before,
however in case you've missed it the next thing we will release is the
Marines Module for CM:SF. More modules for CM:SF will follow in parallel
with development of our next major release (aka "Title"); WW2 Western
Front. The initial release will be situated in Normandy between US and
German forces with subsequent addons (aka "Modules") introducing
additional forces, weapons, vehicles, and some other things. The first
Module for the WW2 Western Front game will be focused primarily on
Commonwealth Forces, though with German and some American additions as
well. We do not have release dates to announce for either the Marines
Module or the initial WW2 release, however I can say that the Marines
Module is very far along and the WW2 stuff has already been started on.
This is the beauty of the CMx2 system... we can do parallel work and
still get things done faster than we could for one topic using the CMx1
system.<br /><br />What we are doing now, behind the scenes, is planning out
the specific features that will find their way into the first WW2
title. Will these features make every single one of you reading this
happy? Certainly not... that's not possible to do. But will these
features make some of you who are currently a sitting on the fence or
sitting on the sidelines happy enough to enjoy our next Title? Based on
the months of feedback here, definitely. Others will continue to sit
there with their arms crossed and tongues sticking out at us. Oh well,
can't please everybody [img]smile.gif[/img]<br /><br />For the most part our
plans for the future of CMx2 have not changed since CM:SF was released.
However, the emphasis on certain elements has been changed based on
user feedback. Briefly, the shorterm priorities for us are:<br /><br />Introduce
a new Quick Battle system - It's been clear to us for quite some time
that the existing system has some serious shortcomings in the eyes of
many players. Therefore, a new QB system is a very high priority for the
next major release. The primary improvements are some form of unit
Cherry Picking system and <b>semi-randomly generated maps. </b>Think of this as a bridge between the good features of both CMx1 and CMx2 QB systems.<br /><br />Features
necessary for simulating WW2 ETO - Many of the things people have felt
are missing in CM:SF aren't supposed to be there or aren't really all
that relevant or necessary to the Syrian setting. Obviously moving to
France means that some of these things need to be included. Besides the
obvious stuff (temperate terrain/weather and WW2 units) major things to
expect are water, bridges, AT guns, on map mortars, infantry riding on
tanks, expanded defensive works, and other stuff like that. Obviously
TacAI goes right along with this since these things all require new
TacAI and/or improved existing TacAI. (note that TacAI is a long term
"work in progress" and will never, ever be considered "done").<br /><br />Features
not necessary for simulating WW2 ETO - Some of the things that make
contemporary warfare what it is are things which WW2 fans find "not
fun". This has caused some to be unhappy with the Syrian setting simply
because it isn't WW2, regardless of all other factors. Things like the
extremely high lethality, asymmetric forces, the lack of "familiar"
equipment, the whiz-bang technological stuff, etc. It should be obvious
that this stuff will not come along for the WW2 titles, however it
appears that this can get forgotten at times. Consider this a reminder<br /><br />Some
additional MultiPlayer options - I don't want to over comitt us here,
but I will say that it is likely that there will be a form of TCP/IP
WeGo for the Normandy game. Will it be exactly what WeGoers want?
Probably not due to some technical issues and the time we'd need to make
sure we could work around them. Therefore we have come up with what we
feel is a viable compromise system that shoudl give WeGoers most of what
they want. More on that in a couple of months when we get into the
coding.<br /><br />Graphics improvements - We're as unhappy as some of you
are about the inconsistent performance of CM:SF's graphics on various
systems. As some of you know, we've been frustrated from the start by
videocards and their drivers not doing what they should. We have some
ideas on how to work around the problems better and also fix some of the
oddities that some of you have experienced more than others. Time is
limited so some of the graphics glitches people have noted have not been
high up on our fix list so far. Besides straight graphics stuff I'm
alos thinking about some of the WeGo playback issues.<br /><br />Some
changes to the UI - Any game developer will tell you that designing a UI
that makes a majority of gamers at least moderately happy is a tough
task. Many have forgotten that CMx1's UI was generally frowned upon when
first experienced. Complaints generally only died down when people got
used to how it worked. CMx2's UI has also taken a lot of punches and,
with some patched improvements, people have also gotten used to it.
However, it is my sense that there is more resignation than acceptance
than we would like when compared to CMx1. So it's not quite back to the
drawing board, but we are are exploring ways to improve what we have.<br /><br />There
are lots of finer points than this, so please don't think that if you
don't see something mentioned on this list that we aren't going to
address it in the short term. I can't speak much to the details yet at
this point anyway, so this is more or less a heads up about the general
direction rather a written in stone list of specific features and what
we intend on doing with them.<br /><br />In conclusion... we know why we are
here, we are happy with the overall position we're in, and we're
looking forward to continuing on for years to come. Having faith is an
option, but a total lack of faith is unhealthy. People need to figure
this out for themselves because all we can do is keep blazing the trail
that we are on. There is no turning back even if we wanted to. And we
don't want to<br /><br />Now, a special message for those of you who have so
far "rejected" the new game system for one or another reason. I know
for sure a lot of you will be quite happy with the WW2 game when it
comes out, if for no other reason than it is WW2 and not modern Syria.
Others will be less sure, but at least find it more enjoyable than
CM:SF. However, it is certaint hat some of you will find nothing good in
what I've said here and continue to be extremely hostile towards CMx2
just like many Steel Panthers and Close Combat guys were towards CMx1.
I'm sure the latter group of people have something better to do with
their time, so my hope is that they realize this so everybody can be a
lot happier for it.<br /><br />Thanks,<br /><br />Steve<br /><br />P.S. Support for
CM:SF has not ended. It continues in parallel with Marines and WW2
development as it has for the last 2 months already.</span></div>
<br />This was followed up with:<br /><br /><div class="quotetitle">
</div>
<div class="quote">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Yes,
the "mega tile" (as we call it*) map system is the route we are
planning on exploring. What this basically means, in practical terms, is
that people make small maps with certain predefined characteristics.
This is similar to the way the game works now, but instead of selecting a
single user made map CM will custom assemble one from the smaller
pieces based on the QB parameters.<br /><br />This is the best system we can think of since making a true random map generator is beyond our capabilities.<br /><br />*(Note
- a subsequent post corrected the developer on this point, reminding
him that he had originally used the term "Meta Tile".</span></div>
<br /><br /><div class="post_fl">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG5zeSdkBwd9PZ7dI8ImHqN-SvvpeHOehMSKUtwPxUEO_eK2e_AWGH1vl5t2mmhDG9WIVqF-QyOzhsQMfTN1zZDZdGx02aNBY-s059mXfnpBcNyYXzEAnJTbTaEyABzJUhboUdGbPqDcc/s1600/take134.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG5zeSdkBwd9PZ7dI8ImHqN-SvvpeHOehMSKUtwPxUEO_eK2e_AWGH1vl5t2mmhDG9WIVqF-QyOzhsQMfTN1zZDZdGx02aNBY-s059mXfnpBcNyYXzEAnJTbTaEyABzJUhboUdGbPqDcc/s1600/take134.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/1761424"></a></div>
</div>
A
number of items stand out here (still not mentioning the timeline,
though the "Where Does Battlefront Go From Here" post can be seen to
have been posted in April 2008 and the first of the World War II series
will just now be completed in August 2013), notably the reference to
"infantry riding on tanks" being a natural for inclusion in the Normandy
game - a feature still not included. (Lest anyone think this was
somehow a "Russian" practice, Michael Doubler talks specifically about
how at least one U.S. Division in Normandy adopted the practice of U.S.
infantry riding to contact right on the tanks as a means of ensuring
close co-operation between tanks and infantry, the lack of coordination
between the two having been a problem throughout the early weeks of the
campaign.)<br /><br />The lack of TCP/IP support seems to be an ongoing concern, for example, <a class="postlink" href="http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=101654" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this thread</a>
documents (four years after the Where Does Battlefront Go From Here
announcement) the ongoing requests for the inclusion to TCP/IP WEGO
support. In plain English, the ability to play turn-based while
connected online at the same time. This functionality existed in the
original game engine. Strangely, it is possible to play in Real Time
while connected online via TCP/IP. WEGO can also be done via email or a
file transfer service like Dropbox (there is nothing in the game itself
to facilitate the transfer of files.) Those who didn't play the original
game series TCP/IP (and even some who did) see this issue as a tempest
in a teapot, while others have claimed to refuse to support the new game
engine unless the issue is resolved.<br /><br />Also of interest is the
mention of the original CMX2 game, set in a fictional U.S./NATO
intervention in Syria - strangely prescient now, given President Obama's
speech just today, though there is an insistence of course that boots
will not hit the ground (and a British refusal to assist given the
defeat of a motion in Parliament two days ago). Nonetheless, the setting
seems that much more spooky somehow.<br /><br />I'm personally drawn back
to the issue of the maps in Combat Mission: Market Garden. I can't help
but think the Master Maps, whatever they are, have been instituted as a
replacement for whatever plans had originally been drawn up to provide a
replacement for the random map generator and that those plans are
probably now shelved. The concept of the Master Maps seems so - bizarre
somehow - and like such a non-event, that it is hard to come up with any
other rationale for the unveiling of this "feature", than as the
realization that there is nothing better to offer in its stead. The
progression seems to have gone:<br /><br />* Random map generator (CMX1)<br />* Announcement of "MetaMap Tile" feature (2008)<br />* Announcement of "Master Maps" (2013)<br /><br />And
yet the Master Maps don't seem to be anything that hasn't already been
offered in every other Combat Mission offering - i.e. historically
accurate maps that can be re-used by other designers if they wish. The
only hint that anything is different is they may be of a different size
("huge maps") than normally found in the new game engine.<br /><br />There
will be some new building and bridge types as well - a current running
AAR at the official forums shows off the windmill building type:<br /><br /><div class="tac">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/1761431"></a></div>
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<br />As noted in the caption from the BFC site, the building model is not animated.<br /><br /><b>Summary</b><br /><br />Combat
Mission: Market Garden appears to be a product grudgingly put together
by a publisher who wasn't quite sure how to approach the subject, and
then admitted they weren't quite sure how to make it appealing. The
danger with this game system, or more accurately, the current marketing
approach, has always been that each of the modules would only be
soldiers in different coloured uniforms not really much different than
the module that went on sale six months (or, perhaps, three years)
before. <br /><br />With Market Garden, we see that the publisher literally
struggled with this notion, having to include both Commonwealth and
Waffen-SS infantry in the release that were already available via the <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/videogameexpansion/112906/combat-mission-battle-normandy-commonwealth-forces">Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy – Commonwealth Forces</a>
release. And yet, to make up for it, only substandard troops like
German naval forces and Luftwaffe ground troops were apparently left to
throw into the mix. <br /><br />The inclusion of historic terrain is
something that has been lobbied for before. I am certain I've mentioned
this in the past, and am looking forward to seeing the Arnhem and
Nijmegen bridges rendered in 3-D. This is a definite step forward for
the game system, and has worked well in other games such as <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/videogamecompilation/104895/panzer-command-ostfront">Panzer Command: Ostfront</a>, which had historic buildings sprinkled into many scenarios (the Central Rail Station in Stalingrad comes to mind). <br /><br />Whether
or not the addition of a few bridges and German troops in blue pants
will be enough "new" content to warrant the $40 tarrif will be hard to
say. The die-hard fans will undoubtedly say yes, as they always do,
leaving the only real question to be how many of them will remain to
continue to subsidize the efforts. My money has already been sent in,
which must make me one of them.<br /><br /><b>My Last Word</b><br /><br />I'll yield the last word to the currently top-rated response to this promotional teaser video released by battlefront.com:<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JCaiYzIFmVs" width="420"></iframe><br /><br />Click "watch on YouTube" to see all the comments, but the one that has at present received the most approval states:<br /><br /><i>flamethrowers? camouflage for guns? no! new uber bridge for $ 35! </i>M.Doroshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09742262581616285671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587723021467018459.post-9794952560322500172012-11-18T18:25:00.002-07:002012-11-18T18:25:45.412-07:00Scenario Design Notes: Delay on Tiger Route (Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy - Commonwealth Forces)
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="http://www.battlefront.com/components/com_remository_files/file_image_2392/img_2392_01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="209" src="http://www.battlefront.com/components/com_remository_files/file_image_2392/img_2392_01.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=314&func=fileinfo&id=2392" target="_blank">TWC Delay on Tiger Route</a> was uploaded
to the Battlefront.com Repository on 6 November 2012; this author was
also the scenario designer. There were limited Designer's Notes
appended to the scenario file. For those interested, a more detailed
description of the genesis of this scenario is offered for review
and, if desired, further discussion below.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Inspiration</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The current evolution of the Combat
Mission game engine favours smaller scale battles, and appeals by at
least some in public venues, such as the official game forum, for
small (i.e. company-strength or smaller) forces have been
conspicuous. The author's interest has always been with historical
situations (as opposed to obviously fictional engagements drawn up
from whole cloth). </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There is a tradition among Combat
Mission scenario designers in pushing the boundaries of what is
available in the editor, to depict actions strictly outside the
historical bounds set out by the program. For that reason, research
into small-unit engagements taking place during Operation
MARKET-GARDEN in September 1944 have been of interest to the author.
Equipment, terrain, weather and order of battle information is
adequately represented by that which is present in the editor, and
scenarios set in that time-frame will hopefully whet the appetite for
the promised official offering currently - it is said - under
development.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Research</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As the author discussed in detail in
another venue<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">1</span></span>, there is some utility in reviewing the work of others
before embarking on one's own design work. Not only is it a good idea
to check on scenarios done for the same game/title to prevent
duplication (though nothing says that multiple scenarios depicting
the same action can't be widely different in design yet equally
entertaining), but looking at scenarios in other game systems can
also yield dividends as far as suggesting scenario design ideas, from
basic idea inspiration to more detailed data such as force
composition or suggested victory conditions.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Such was the case here. The scenario
<a href="http://www.aslscenarioarchive.com/scenario.php?search=delayed%20on%20tiger%20route&id=58709" target="_blank">Delayed on Tiger Route</a> (note the slight difference in the first word)
was published by a third party publisher<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">2</span></span>, for the Advanced Squad
Leader game system in 1996, accompanied by detailed designer's notes in the accompanying magazine.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Design</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As with most ASL "conversions",
major design changes had to be made to get this to work properly in
Combat Mission.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Terrain</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The most notable change was
terrain; the wide open spaces of the Squad Leader boards are geared
for a board game scaled at 40 metres per hex and contain large tracts
of open ground. The boards are generic in nature and "woods"
features are considered impenetrable at ranges past 40 metres, by
either weapons or line of sight - though a type of "light woods" similar to the foliage in CM:BN is present in the form of "orchard" terrain. Line of sight is merely "hindered" through this terrain and represents less dense concentrations of trees.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The ASL map layout is featured at the ASL Scenario Archive (linked above) and appears as follows:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.aslscenarioarchive.com/uploads/10.2010/SP7-VASLMap.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://www.aslscenarioarchive.com/uploads/10.2010/SP7-VASLMap.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Michael Faulkner modified the "stock" ASL maps heavily (in addition to careful selection from among the 40+ extant geomorphic maps) to approximate the battlefield, suggesting he had done his homework on the actual terrain. Among the modifications were the removal of Level 1 hills, and addition of five overlays to increase the amount of buildings and woods hexes. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A modern Google Earth map of the battle
zone, coupled with period photos and descriptions from a historical
blog<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">3</span></span>, suggested a lay of the land quite close to what the ASL maps portrayed. The exact spot
described in the historical snippet was only surmised; a thorough
search of unit war diaries from archival sources, or even a better
search of second-hand accounts in histories may have turned up better
data, but the author was satisfied that a representative sample of
terrain was found that would produce a workable scenario. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjadwF5VKkKmOmcfVAmhq4aDVmEXg7LjTfSLee9G0kbQPBtQ7EPTChRejmnGEX6Pe0sKty7C0H7Af0Rfi2u_wAWnMxqlcygtAoRHjHObJeFes_2JTqctvTlBR_IgVQS3HzgK-VZBkX9aw/s1600/googleview.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjadwF5VKkKmOmcfVAmhq4aDVmEXg7LjTfSLee9G0kbQPBtQ7EPTChRejmnGEX6Pe0sKty7C0H7Af0Rfi2u_wAWnMxqlcygtAoRHjHObJeFes_2JTqctvTlBR_IgVQS3HzgK-VZBkX9aw/s400/googleview.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Google View</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There were several key elements key to the terrain that needed to be captured on the map:</div>
<ol>
<li>The main road to Oosterbeek (actually the Heelsum-Arnhem road), which British forces were attempting to travel down, the main purpose of their presence in the area,</li>
<li>A "side road", as mentioned in the source, from which opposing German forces were able to launch an attack,</li>
<li>Woods, part of the forested area west of Oosterbeek conspicuous on period maps and photos,</li>
<li>Fences; in actuality four-foot chain-link fences, mentioned as having influenced ASL scenario designer Faulkner's design choices (specifically, forbidding the use by players of a rule known as 'infantry bypass movement', restricting the mobility of infantry),</li>
<li>Limited elevation changes/contour, consistent with the unique nature of the Netherlands.</li>
</ol>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNf_Dk1cYwCaVHcHHFwnE17EYx-ysCCbZ43H-yWEFGiIQvm18UnM8P_1pq4aF7uUhsII-H4FJ1j8YRG4ETkoWxAy8jGGuAUnqbbA8q_WpERQJf8HGyMttpwiqT2wd4wSsgaxkQ_yLvA6o/s1600/CM+Normandy+2012-11-18+12-01-42-80.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNf_Dk1cYwCaVHcHHFwnE17EYx-ysCCbZ43H-yWEFGiIQvm18UnM8P_1pq4aF7uUhsII-H4FJ1j8YRG4ETkoWxAy8jGGuAUnqbbA8q_WpERQJf8HGyMttpwiqT2wd4wSsgaxkQ_yLvA6o/s400/CM+Normandy+2012-11-18+12-01-42-80.bmp" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Delay on Tiger Route map, looking towards the north-east</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Other clues to the terrain were garnered from the book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Retake-Arnhem-Bridge-Illustrated-Kampfgruppe/dp/9081270338/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1353267557&sr=8-1&keywords=retake+arnhem+bridge" target="_blank">Retake Arnhem Bridge</a>, which also includes a full-colour reproduction of a wartime 1:50,000 contour and terrain map of the Arnhem area.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Building the map was relatively straight-forward; the desire from the start was to permit interesting LOS combinations diagonally across the map, and so taller trees with limited underbrush were selected for the most part.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Wire fences were used to simulated the chain-link fences mentioned by Faulkner (and visible in contemporary photos, such as that below:)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9-GwrQ4gBSjPMxD1Vff2RjvyRyUfNsOPjl8L1pnCM8bFhHvO1nYYftFkE9cPM8108fgRo6BeHd34WtCxgeHEJADSFRyhfpP-MVVbGQbCmTpLWWqP0pNpwHAB2H4pTFBiQhVxnZc6qkek/s1600/633px-Soldiers_on_their_way_to_Arnhem.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="377" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9-GwrQ4gBSjPMxD1Vff2RjvyRyUfNsOPjl8L1pnCM8bFhHvO1nYYftFkE9cPM8108fgRo6BeHd34WtCxgeHEJADSFRyhfpP-MVVbGQbCmTpLWWqP0pNpwHAB2H4pTFBiQhVxnZc6qkek/s400/633px-Soldiers_on_their_way_to_Arnhem.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On the road to Arnhem, September 1944. Note the chain link fence.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Forces</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Forces appropriate to the map size were an obvious concern, part of the balancing act of any design where time/forces/victory conditions have to be coordinated to provide the player with something workable. As stated in the introduction, there is a perception, at least among some, that the new CM game engine is at its best in depicting smaller scale actions. The source ASL scenario was notable for only pitting 3.5 squad-equivalents against 6. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The command, control and leadership models of CM purport to be more sophisticated than ASL's more primitive modelling, so a straight-across transfer of forces was never contemplated. The flexibility of options in the editor, however permitted the variability of the German order of battle to be better portrayed. The forces present in the actual engagement consisted of a Panzer Grenadier Training and Replacement Battalion. To reflect this, wildly varying Motivation, Fitness, and Experience levels were selected. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Faulkner's design included two platoons of British paratroopers, and the original CM scenario featured this as well, with a more homogenous set of characteristics, selected from the upper range of options. While the 1st Airborne Division was a well-trained formation, it was relatively inexperienced, despite the earlier deployment of some of its component formations to North Africa, Sicily, etc. Nonetheless, in order that the relatively brittle infantry might be able to use the light anti-tank weaponry on which the scenario might hinge, higher than normal experience and motivation levels were granted as a balancing measure.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Victory Conditions</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The most difficult part of getting a Combat Mission scenario design playable is working out a set of victory conditions (in the CM editor, this is a complex combination of "Parameters", "Terrain Objectives", "Unit Objectives" for each side). The second generation Combat Mission game engine has increased in sophistication as far as the types of interwoven factors that decide victory or defeat, though being hard-coded, the designer is still constrained to operate within those parameters.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Again, the designer could not simply ape what was done in the ASL scenario, given the more flexible VC of that system (permissible because of the manual nature of the system). Faulkner's scenario granted points for exiting British forces of the eastern side of the map - something the CM allows for - but adds or subtracts from this point total based on the number of forces the German elects to also withdraw from the map (simulating the strategic necessity to redeploy to meet other threats). While CM does allow the scenario designer to alter basic victory point totals with the addition of "bonus" points, they are not conditional - at least, not in the current iteration of the game engine. One hopes this might be considered for future developments.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Another consideration when designing "exit" scenarios is that units marked for exit <i>must</i> exit or the points awarded for their exit are lost. This is different than in games, such as ASL, where the player is not penalized for failure to exit, other than not receiving the points (i.e. units not exited count as zero, not a negative number as in CM). For that reason, a bonus of 100 points is assigned to the British player to offset an estimated "acceptable" loss of units in a typical scenario. This seemed to work out well in playtesting. Given a choice, however, another suggested change to the engine would be to give the designer the option between the two models of handling points for non-exiting units (i.e. either deducting their value from the point total, or permiting them to remain on map without penalty).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Comparison</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Faulkner describes his ASL scenario as "a short, fast paced scenario that forces the British player (to) take some chances, the German player to be dogged in his defense, and for both players to use every advantage their nationality gives them." In ASL, nationality factors weigh more heavily than in CM, where nationality is not explicity modelled (British troops in ASL are immune to a "Cowering" rule, for example, where "doubles" on the dice reduces firepower, for just one example). Otherwise, in playtest, the CM scenario played rather quickly, given the small area, and the conspicuousness of key weapons systems means that the game can be decided quickly if not careful or a lucky hit is achieved. But, both sides have the tools to win the scenario if handled properly.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In reality, the Germans hit quickly and withdrew in a hurry, taking prisoners then pulling back down the same side road that they struck from. This was the thrust of the ASL design. Many ASL designs came down, in my opinion, to factor counting and last-turn mathematics, which are hard to replicate in CM, and perhaps rightfully so. It was for that reason that the VC permitted Geman exit points to count against British exit points in the original design. Since the CM scenario was being designed primarily from the British perspective, it was felt there was little reason to include this option for the Germans, and the VC didn't permit this kind of conditional VC in any event.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>My Question To You</b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Any feedback on the scenario is welcome, though I'd be most interested in your thoughts on Victory Conditions, whether in CM or tactical games in general, and the kinds of additional parameters or improvements (or deletions) you would like to see. What works well, what would you like to see more of?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Notes</b></div>
<ol>
<li>
<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/113212/scenario-designers-handbook" target="_blank">Scenario Designer's Handbook</a>, pp.
XXX -XXX</li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="http://www.aslscenarioarchive.com/viewPub.php?id=1193" target="_blank">Schwerpunkt, issue 1</a>, 1996
Scenario Designer:Michael Faulkner</div>
</li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="http://runningdutch.blogspot.ca/2012/08/run-through-history-of-battle-of-arnhem.html">http://runningdutch.blogspot.ca/2012/08/run-through-history-of-battle-of-arnhem.html</a></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
M.Doroshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09742262581616285671noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587723021467018459.post-4424601852403387742012-04-20T20:04:00.000-06:002012-04-20T20:15:24.809-06:00Scenario Design, Historical Accuracy, and Rediscovering Stanley Hollis’ Sunken Lane<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Whenever a new scenario-based tactical game depicting ground combat comes out, designers began anew in their quest to find situations to depict. Tastes vary, and while the quests may be different, for such things as balanced match-ups, armour-heavy battles, scenarios that highlight specific equipment, favourite (often ‘elite’) units, etc., the struggle for new inspiration is a constant.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The quest leads scenario designers to mine a variety of sources; I don’t know how common it is for designers in one medium to review scenarios in another, but I wonder if it isn’t more common than some may let on (a review of the extant designer’s notes for games like ASL, Combat Mission, Panzer Command, etc., leads one to believe that inspiration comes from either the heavens or the sacred scrolls of the Library of Congress, not “ripping off” a Flames of War booklet they bought second-hand on ebay).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Plagiarism would come most readily to mind as the most obvious hazard of this practice. Not just because of the taint of the accusation, which in reality is probably more harsh than any possible harm of actual legal repercussion. Some may recall the “ASL2CM” website which was a proponent of replicating ASL in Combat Mission. Rumours had swirled of legal action, particularly when the site closed down, <a href="http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=25259" target="_blank">though this thread</a> on the CM forums seems to indicate nothing so drastic, and that the decision was simple time constraints on the webmaster. Before the end, though, the site developed into a detailed primer on translating the venerable boardgame's terrain into Combat Mission maps, and gave advice on reproducing force match-ups, leadership values, game lengths and other “conversions”. The end results, as far as the CMx1 game engine went, were mixed for the most part, as some scenarios really didn’t translate well, particularly the terrain, which was highly stylized to match John Hill’s concept of “Design for Effect” in the original Squad Leader board game. (For just one example, urban streets in SL/ASL were laid out in an abstract system 40 to 80 metres across while CM had a 20 metre terrain grid - directly translating the maps meant that crossing a street was unrealistically dangerous.) So the largest hazard of “plagiarism” was that in the end scenarios directly translated were often not all that good because of the differing natures of the games themselves. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1jqQyiVDTjzwpXT10dbeJKw85upsfJ3ile8_DzQjgALFprwxyJvNoLbo1OZrmEK46cmWEw8FgQD0PoaDWGtoF48JJVoNg3gUbXHyKNkvSP1ajPBsoEJG5TA_OuXYMKXWcjyp5pKB_7xo/s1600/000asl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="257px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1jqQyiVDTjzwpXT10dbeJKw85upsfJ3ile8_DzQjgALFprwxyJvNoLbo1OZrmEK46cmWEw8FgQD0PoaDWGtoF48JJVoNg3gUbXHyKNkvSP1ajPBsoEJG5TA_OuXYMKXWcjyp5pKB_7xo/s400/000asl.jpg" width="400px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Strange collision of two worlds; the "ASL Interface" seemed like a good idea at the time. <br />
So did the terrain mods. "Fusion" is often better in theory than practice.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As inspiration, though, a scenario designer is missing out on a lot of opportunity by simply refusing to look at the work of others, with tens of thousands of tactical-level wargame scenarios set in the Second World War now in print for various game systems, probably at minimum 5,500 for Advanced Squad Leader alone. (As of this writing, <a href="http://www.aslscenarioarchive.com/" target="_blank">The Scenario Archive</a> has tracked 5,647, including one-offs and self-published works.) While not suitable for a straight conversion into a game system, like Combat Mission, that uses realistic terrain, order of battle, and command and control systems (ASL in its basic form has none of these), those printed scenario cards that the ASL community cranks out do have the stamp of historical verisimilitude on them and if nothing else provide the start point for one’s own historical research. Some designers, such as Evan Sherry of <a href="http://www.aslscenarioarchive.com/viewPublisher.php?id=36" target="_blank">Schwerpunkt magazine</a>, even go so far as to provide their historical source material references right on the cards.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
And when you find a scenario design by a fellow like the late Ian Daglish, who has published bona fide and well-respected volumes on military history in addition to taking those scenario designs to the next level with “historical modules” based on actual terrain, you get the comforting feeling the historical background you’re holding in your hands is probably going to be pretty accurate even if the scenario itself is stylized for playability.<br />
<br />
All of which presupposes that historical accuracy (as opposed to pure fiction) is a precondition for a good scenario, which is certainly not the case. More on this later on.</div>
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<b>First Cristot</b></div>
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The more recent ASL products are based on more stringent historical research; the Normandy 1944 product is an example, and Ian Daglish's name looms large in the credits.</div>
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<br />
The scenario FIRST CRISTOT jumps out immediately; aside from the "hook" of involving Stanley Hollis, it had a unique proposition, or sub-plot if you will, presented alongside the main story-line. The basic story, or objective, was familiar - a British unit with little support was to attack across bocage and farm land up a hill and take heavy punishment from SS troops in the process. Daglish went further in modelling the lack of tank-infantry co-operation by permitting either infantry, or armour, to move in each player turn - but not both.<br />
<br />
Scenario design for Combat Mission now involves story-telling as much as simply researching order of battle, and so the scenario was something of an inspiration. My initial design for <a href="http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=314&func=fileinfo&id=1938" target="_blank">FIRST CRACK AT CRISTOT</a> revolved around exploring this theme; it was impossible to place restrictions on command and control in the abstract manner of the board game, so the solution was to widely divide the tanks from the infantry, but testing showed that the scenario didn't seem to go anywhere, and besides, it wasn't as interesting as historical source information that was uncovered, which gave fairly specific information regarding the location of German positions. To that end, the map was reworked, lines of sight re-tooled, and positions re-arranged. The ASL scenario included a single company of British infantry, and reviewing the historical notes, it seemed prudent to make use of the entire historical arena:<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSsfvGPpqboTCCaGLqXbNnnqvrRPSNq9dCIkhdUSBnmapCi00z1IlgJmprnuZ5kqdf4qQ51W9eOqKX_0EUeZXzHzauREEA2Hsu38-ty_maUhjXfYETXqvF_cowp64E08Nt_-cNMPPpiyA/s1600/field.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="256px" qda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSsfvGPpqboTCCaGLqXbNnnqvrRPSNq9dCIkhdUSBnmapCi00z1IlgJmprnuZ5kqdf4qQ51W9eOqKX_0EUeZXzHzauREEA2Hsu38-ty_maUhjXfYETXqvF_cowp64E08Nt_-cNMPPpiyA/s400/field.jpg" width="400px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Reproduced from <a href="http://www.creullyclub.freeuk.com/sept11.htm" target="_blank">The Creully Club newsletter</a>.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh1ut1sChhTWxTmvUUHmtcbjUvcptP_voRHKvilCGTGgxzd7lA9UyqRvtr3unOAWoN4uOa6DOr4EjD_b-P8yTY7nwnE6IuHF5FtELuyLKyjnN0F7py5WPmLVHiSjBVFSPzqR9lu16EFow/s1600/mapoverhead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="250px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh1ut1sChhTWxTmvUUHmtcbjUvcptP_voRHKvilCGTGgxzd7lA9UyqRvtr3unOAWoN4uOa6DOr4EjD_b-P8yTY7nwnE6IuHF5FtELuyLKyjnN0F7py5WPmLVHiSjBVFSPzqR9lu16EFow/s400/mapoverhead.jpg" width="400px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The map in "First Crack at Cristot"</td></tr>
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The final scenario is much larger - beyond the company-sized comfort level that by consensus seems to be "just right" for squad-based tactical games. Given the limited tactical options that individual companies had on the actual day, the scenario designer is hard pressed to split off individual actions into anything playable. In the actual event, The Green Howards lost 250 men, which would represent over half of the fighting strength of the battalion when one considers just the rifle companies. The challenge for the player of FIRST CRACK AT CRISTOT is to better utilize the resources at hand, or perhaps see if his luck is any better, than his historical counter-parts.<br />
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<b>Bil Hardenberger’s Sunken Road</b></div>
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It occurred to me a week into the project that it might be wasted effort if someone else had already published something on the topic. A search on “Combat Mission Cristot” led me to a thread on an existing scenario, but to my surprise, it referred to one on the release disc for the original Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord from 2000.<br />
<br />
I had not been involved in the CM community until well after release; however, one of the pre-release highlights had been a publicly disseminated battle between scenario designer Bil Hardenberger and beta tester Fionn Kelly.<span style="font-size: xx-small;">1</span> The original scenario had garnered much attention.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTkaH_3Tc-88cHLHWkM-Z-47mBqnL6GqD82bUtKBMFa33ypqD632J2OWaHhLZCy4RacfJ9IiJUvQ2Olv6C9tgRkHdRw0HfLwNT20mbZN3REwr4DOgbVCySDNyJRiBiFzzv_UxkmM-JA7Q/s1600/TheSunkenLane2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTkaH_3Tc-88cHLHWkM-Z-47mBqnL6GqD82bUtKBMFa33ypqD632J2OWaHhLZCy4RacfJ9IiJUvQ2Olv6C9tgRkHdRw0HfLwNT20mbZN3REwr4DOgbVCySDNyJRiBiFzzv_UxkmM-JA7Q/s400/TheSunkenLane2.jpg" width="400px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bil Hardenberger's THE SUNKEN LANE from the original CM:BO release disc.<br />
Forgotten now is the fact that this may have been the first CM scenario to orient the battle at 45 degrees to the map edges.</td></tr>
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<b>Map Design</b></div>
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There is nothing new to the idea that books often get judged by their covers; in CM a scenario's worth is determined in part by its map design. Not just whether the map is an appropriate size for the forces involved, or offers interesting tactical choices to both sides (criterion on which it naturally deserves to be judged), but also on aesthetics. This too is natural, and there is something visceral about the notion that a pleasant looking map is more fun to play on. The map from THE SUNKEN LANE was particularly unique in that the action was oriented at 45 degrees to the playing surface, helping prevent unrealistic use of the map edge as a secure flank, and widening the possible avenues of maneuver for the attacker.<br />
<br />
In CMx1, good designers came up with different methods of providing visual interest to their maps; mixing up terrain types in unexpected combinations or choosing well-known historical locations to emulate. Going over maps with an eye for detail was the best way to cement the notion that the designer had done his homework; roads were smoothed out and straightened, buildings not allowed to overlap other terrain, slopes were smoothed off and made to look natural, billiard-flat terrain altered for relief, foliage arranged with the appearance of randomness, as it would in nature, etc. <br />
<br />
In CMx2, the increased palette available to map designers gives greater power to provide convincing terrain. The cynical might note it gives greater ability to disguise poor scenario designs. The designer also faces more labour in his efforts; while the new elevation shaping tools have assisted in levelling the ground, other details have to be added painstakingly, such as road tiles, individual trees and bushes, and "flavor objects" which add verisimilitude, as well as the personalization of buildings by altering details of windowsill ornamentation, balconies, numbers of windows and doors, etc.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqsXudLTMxEeM9cPLCQcwvCzSkkqw26glGk_OC5EtXUqStJAsJ0bixw73OHtcglhcliEwifQhucw4VCE3fl8RDjpOXBC-O-maDggTS5-FXnkBsxXlD6sDxEASlpMJeHDvbZbs04Pa7hek/s1600/img_1938_01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="190px" qda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqsXudLTMxEeM9cPLCQcwvCzSkkqw26glGk_OC5EtXUqStJAsJ0bixw73OHtcglhcliEwifQhucw4VCE3fl8RDjpOXBC-O-maDggTS5-FXnkBsxXlD6sDxEASlpMJeHDvbZbs04Pa7hek/s320/img_1938_01.jpg" width="320px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The 3-D terrain depictions in CM have come a long way. The inset shows the actual "Sunken Lane" south of Cristot, the colour screenshot comes from the CM:BN scenario. Second inset are the unit insignia of forces participating in the battle.</td></tr>
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<b>Game Designer as Story Teller</b></div>
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As alluded to above, the (good) CM scenario designer is now a story teller. Certainly when designing for solo play, the creation of AI plans almost requires a script of the action beforehand. The strategic AI requires the scenario designer to plan moves in advance, and in effect, to anticipate the actions of scenario players. It's a difficult proposition, and the ability to make the Tac AI appear to be operating randomly is to provide multiple plans to select from, none of which are chosen by the Strat AI according to the evolving tactical situation. It's not a complaint, but a truism that the scenario designer now must be able to script these AI plans and predict well what a reasonable player might do when playing solo. It may be fair to say that the CM player today has to be a better player himself, when designing for the new game engine, than in the past, or at the very least, a poor player had a better likelihood of sneaking a good design into publication and past the discerning eyes of those who would play it.<br />
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<strong>Changing Appetites?</strong><br />
If there ever was an appetite for strictly historical scenarios - and I'm not positive there really ever has been a huge following for such things - it is clearly diminishing as Combat Mission matures, perhaps in inverse proportion to the average age of its followers. It would be interesting to see what the new CM: Touch and other Apple applications will do to the demographics. Sadly, BFC may jealously guard these details as closely as they guard their sales figures, which is their prerogative as entrepreneurs. But the appeal of wargaming has always seemed to be more of a 'war is fun' approach than a strict retelling of history. The most successful games seem to have taken that approach - Advanced Squad Leader, for all its pretend gravitas, and those 5,500 deathly serious scenario cards, is about as realistic as Rick Jason ordering Vic Morrow around on a Hollywood backlot. Boardgames like Ambush! are still fondly recalled for their homage to war-as-fantasy/adventure, and even CM's designers seem to have cut their ties to reality firstly with the unique (for its setting and backstory) Shock Force project in its entirety, but also by indulging their scenario designers on the release disc of CM:BN, with a number of fictional and "semi-historical" scenarios. The community has responded in kind, with the most popular user-submitted download on their Repository to date being a unique, story-driven campaign which improves on CMX2's linear structure by introducing decision trees and a character-driven narrative of a kind lacking in the official release fare. <a href="http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=314&func=fileinfo&id=1165" target="_blank">Devil's Descent</a> seems purposefully reminiscent of Ubisoft's Brothers in Arms, which isn't such a bad thing. The most successful scenarios seem to be those that engage the desire for action-adventure rather than just a sense of reliving history.<br />
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<strong>My Final Word</strong><br />
Panzer Command:Ostfront, with its attention to historical fidelity (3D terrain models of historical locations like the Stalingrad Train Station trump even Combat Mission for "you are there" immersion), came and went with little fanfare. Is it the scale - company-level, squad-based tactics set in the Second World War - that is starting to seem 'done to death'? New game systems seem to be appearing in bunches; Fighting Formations and Band of Brothers are relative newcomers now in the boardgaming world. New miniatures sets appear with some regularity also - James Day's rework of his venerable Panzer rules is still highly sought. And on the computer, Tigers Unleashed and a number of other board-game like treatments have come along while Combat Mission continues to feel its way into new territory. <br />
<br />
And in the meantime, first person shooters and massively-multi-player online role-playing games rake in the disposable cash of the mainstream, eager for action and adventure.<br />
<br />
Perhaps we're just not getting it, but having tried World of Tanks, I can't get excited about resource gathering and treating tanks as if they were elves.<br />
<br />
But I am getting the feeling that the strict history stuff is quickly going the way of the Dodo.<br />
<br />
<strong>My Question to You</strong><br />
Whither next? I'm having trouble getting excited about iOS games if only because, from my limited perspective, they don't seem to offer much opportunity for community input, which is where traditionally the best scenario designers have come from, regardless of which game system one cares to name. Perhaps that will or is changing, but the PC communities have a lively feel right now. Can that be replicated if tactical wargaming makes a major shift to tablets as the platform of choice?<br />
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<strong>Notes</strong></div>
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<h2 style="font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">1. My only experience playing Fionn was in the so-called "CMBO Invitational Tourney of the Stars", which was a series of 1500-point purchase scenarios, all meeting engagements, on custom maps by Treeburst155 (Mike M.) Fionn's stardom was assured by his known skill at the game; mine definitely not any great skill at playing CM. His reputation preceded him and his paratroopers drove me off the field in an 81-19 rout whose score probably doesn't reflect accurately the nature of the beat-down I was given. He gave some generous pointers on tactics after the game in a debrief though the exact conversation is now lost to memory and does not appear in my files.</span> </h2>
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</div>M.Doroshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09742262581616285671noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587723021467018459.post-55427653659703082202012-04-02T15:09:00.006-06:002012-04-02T18:56:29.172-06:00Eight Thoughts About Combat Mission: Touch<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.battlefront.com/images/stories/CMT/cmtsplash.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.battlefront.com/images/stories/CMT/cmtsplash.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Some people confessed to be stunned by the announcement of the release of Combat Mission: Touch, but there were signs that something like this was going to happen. Battlefront.com (“BFC” hereafter) has hinted about some unspecified “big news” for a long time – one presumes this has to be it. Anyone following the rise in popularity of devices and games, and the conversations among wargamers who are now clamouring for wargame-themed apps, may have even predicted this.<br />
<br />
I would not have guessed nor am I in the camp of those desiring such things, but the news is nonetheless a thought-provoking one. Here are eight such thoughts of mine after having had a day to process the news:<br />
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<b>The Timing</b> – BFC has had a consistently inconsistent relationship with its own consumer base. When the first major change to the PC-based game engine was initially discussed (the passing from so-called "CMX1" that powered their first three releases circa 2000-2003 to "CMX2" in 2007), the developers announced, in advance and with candidness, that they were prepared to exchange some of their older customers/fans for new ones as a result of the new direction they wanted to take with their vision. In business, it’s a practical approach to adopt (not necessarily to admit), though the forum signature tag line of one of their customer service reps from the period still stands out in memory - <a href="http://www.archivum.info/comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.war-historical/2007-07/00497/Re-Not-good.html" target="_blank">“Battlefront.com – your best friend, your worst enemy”</a> – if only as an indicator of what can be interpreted as an ambivalence towards those that support them.<br />
<br />
Things have changed in many ways since then. Their most aggressive customer rep has moved on, and their public relations efforts have been improving. A case can be made that the rollout of the latest CM module was skilfully handled, with informative public videos, after-action reports (i.e. public replays) in advance of release, and generally much slicker pre-release material than that which preceded earlier CM titles – such as one memorable preview posted to their YouTube feed in which unedited footage of an outclassed enemy being shot to pieces (narrated in a matter-of-fact monotone) was used to sell the game. It’s one thing to note that playing Shermans against Tigers is a tactical challenge that nonetheless happened with historical regularity in the Normandy bocage; quite another to post a movie of the massacre of a third world opponent by American Strykers and then think it is going to act as an incentive to rush out and buy your game. However, they’ve come a long way since then, albeit not without the occasional glitch. The Commonwealth Module logo depicting a P17 rifle was quickly replaced on their website when the inappropriateness of same was pointed out by multiple parties. <br />
<br />
The announcement of CM: Touch should have been an easy hit out of the park; tablet/iOS games are all the rage now, and wargame treatments for same are in high demand, as for example <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/778263/where-on-earth-are-all-those-good-wargames-on-ios/page/1" target="_blank">a recent and relatively popular thread at boardgamegeek</a> demonstrated. How do you mess up the announcement of something highly anticipated, and completely unexpected?<br />
<br />
Answer: <a href="http://www.battlefront.com/community/announcement.php?f=135&a=507" target="_blank">make it look like an April Fool’s joke</a>. Just about every bit of positive feedback on release day was tempered with caveats starting with words to the effect of “Highly suspect this isn't real, but…”<br />
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The lack of belief was understandable, given that BFC has not made a tangible peep about this specific product, and the screenshots and videos were just “alien” enough to BFC’s existing project line to lack conviction. But BFC didn’t help matters by replying on their official forums with characteristic “hey, if you don’t want it, don’t buy it” aloofness. <br />
<br />
<b>The Business Model</b> – I’ve thrown in these thoughts in a couple of other places but will collate them here. Micro-transactions seem to be the way of the future, though as far as wargaming goes, aren’t really anything new, either. Multi-Man Publishing has made a killing in recent years selling scenario packs to die-hard fans of their Advanced Squad Leader board game empire, often selling out their pre-order lists in a single weekend. If it works for hex and cardboard gear, it’s far easier to institute in the digital domain, and companies like Turbine, who are using it to make MMORPGs such as Lord of the Rings Online lucrative even in a free-to-play model, are doing quite well at it. BFC had mentioned a similar scheme for micro-transactions once before, when their Repository went online in support of their PC-based games, as an online file-sharing site for scenarios and mods. There was an immediate backlash against the notion that some sort of fee schedule be instituted for the site, probably because there were already fan/community sites providing a similar service that were well-established. However, this brings us to:<br />
<br />
<b>The Content Providers</b> – Combat Mission on the PC has always had the advantage of shipping with a powerful map and scenario editor; additional content for the games was instantly provided via the fan and community base. Outstanding effort was rewarded within the community by name recognition (compare to the ASL community, for example, where it took decades before scenario designers were ever recognized by having their names attached to their designs) and word of mouth. Often, community-produced designs exceeded the quality of those that came with the original games, since those that produced them had the advantage of spending far more time with the products than the beta testers who had deadlines and the disadvantage of working in a closed environment, rather than the open feedback of the entire community to draw on.<br />
<br />
The financial success of the new micro-transaction model would appear to rely on a proprietary scenario format and the necessity for BFC (or their agents) to be the sole creators of same. But this is debatable, too; despite the lawsuit between Critical Hit and the publishers of ASL, the latter have survived the growing number of third party scenario designs published for sale, mostly because most aficionados will buy “official” scenarios before those of the so-called Third Party Publishers (TPP) that are held in lower regard.<br />
<br />
At any rate, <a href="http://www.battlefront.com/community/showpost.php?p=1354271&postcount=7" target="_blank">it is confirmed that CM: Touch will not have an editor</a>, so the question is raised as to who will provide the new content. Given the surprise raised by some of BFC’s own regular Combat Mission beta testers on the official forums regarding the very existence of the new game, another question that comes up is – who has provided the content that is already there?<br />
<br />
<b>Duration of Interest</b> – The last point begs another question though, which is ultimately how many scenarios does a 5 or 6 dollar “time-waster” really require. The game itself apparently has a time cap of 15 minutes (30 turns of 30 seconds each). The game is obviously limited by the hardware, and the interface (just your “war fingers”). None of which is a criticism, but an observation without even having seen the actual product personally. Will it be the kind of game one plays over and over? Will new scenarios really feel all that different? Will the intent be to sell new games every six months with different theatres of war to make up for that?<br />
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I would not be surprised by the latter, particularly given the interest expressed on the forums for the PC game in theatres such as the Pacific, the Eastern Front, or even France 1940 or NATO vs. Warsaw Pact circa the 1970s. (Though how alienated would the PC crowd feel if Touch went to France and the PC game never got there? Probably a bit, but BFC would survive it just as they survived when the Australian Army got a custom edition of CM:AK and the “paying customers” had to wait. I think by now the remaining BFC fans have something akin to battered wife syndrome; there wasn’t as much as a cross word on the official forums at the lack of prior discussion about CM: Touch. Surprise announcements are now just the order of the day in the tight-knit community there.)<br />
<br />
Much would depend on how the revenue streams go, and of course – BFC doesn’t discuss that. Ever. In the meantime:<br />
<br />
<b>Development Stream</b> – …<a href="http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=103636" target="_blank">the question raised by at least a couple of nervous fans</a> in a couple of venues, is what impact this new game has had on the development of the current BFC flagship, the PC version of Combat Mission. What we do know is that the new game engine – CMX2 – premiered in 2007 to a rocky start but has maintained a loyal fan base. CMX2 has seemingly split into two development streams – Shock Force, a game about near-future combat in Syria (or perhaps “near-past” circa 2008, I’m not sure anymore), and Battle for Normandy (CM:BN), which apparently has one more module on the slate, to include, if I am reading things correctly, terrain and forces circa Operation MARKET-GARDEN in the autumn of 1944. The plan was then to create more games – which may or may not have been compatible with CM:BN (i.e. they may have been standalones), to cover the Battle of the Bulge in World War II, and eventually the Eastern Front of World War II (in an ambitious scheme that would split the war into three or four games (1 per year) and each game into modules, or something like 9 or 12 products in total).<br />
<br />
What hasn’t been discussed publicly is just how much manpower BFC has devoted to CM:Touch. They have partnered with a company whose specialty is producing apps for Apple. Any number of scenarios are possible, including the notion that BFC has simply licensed their trademark CM name and some of their in-game artwork (notably the disc-shaped icons) and let a fresh set of programmers do the heavy lifting in exchange for a share of the rewards. Perhaps they’ve hired more programmers to work behind the scene. Or, perhaps their already busy, and small, programming and development staff is hard at work shaping the future of CM: Touch. The latter would not be happy news for fans of CM for the PC, I think, given the want/feature lists for CMX2 that keep appearing on the official forums, alongside a sprinkling of nagging bug reports and/or requests for explanation of current features that just don’t seem to sit right with the existing community (things like World War II tanks firing on the move with Abrams-like accuracy, which have been officially explained as “abstractions”.)<br />
<br />
<b>The Splintered Community</b> – There may be a debate in some circles as to whether CM: Touch is a wargame, presuming enough people are interested enough to engage in public discussion about it. Those discussions tend to take place when “popular” games hit the mainstream, so perhaps such a debate is premature. Twilight Struggle is the classic example from the boardgame world. These debates probably shouldn’t concern fans of BFC or even fans of the game; they’re just so much noise in discussion circles. What may be of more concern is how the developers themselves relate to their own creations, and where the CM series as a whole goes a year from now should one form of CM prove vastly more popular than the other. For those with an investment in the “serious” side of wargaming, there is more at stake.<br />
<br />
Reaction among the fans at the official forums seems to indicate there does not need to be a schism; those fans of the PC game that also happen to own an iPad seem happy to pick up CM: Touch as an augment to their gaming library. A reasonable proposition that has been noted in the past is that games of a given genre usually appeal collectively. When it was suggested that Panzer Command was a “competitor” of Combat Mission, I added my voice to the chorus of those who said it was nonsense – anyone interested in Second World War tactical combat games was likely to pick up both games for their library. (Again, from the boardgaming world, when the Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kits hit the market as a “gateway” to the venerable tactical gaming system, some of the most ardent consumers of the new kits – were the oldest veterans of the system, some who introduced new players with the kits, others who just wanted to collect them, still others who genuinely just enjoyed the new feel of the ASLSKs and wanted something different to play.)<br />
<br />
With this game, however, one wonders if BFC isn’t more interested in appealing to casual or non-wargamers than in engaging their existing hardcore wargaming fanbase. I seem to recall the same being said about much more hardcore products such as CM:SF. The best case scenario – perhaps optimistically, from BFC’s perspective – is that Touch serves as a gateway, so instead of just selling $1 scenario packs, you eventually hook people on $40 CMX2 games.<br />
<br />
Any real “threat” to the PC Combat Mission community would come from a splintering of resources among the developers, but if the plan is to use Touch as a gateway, BFC would be foolish to let that happen. Despite their occasional marketing glitch, the fact remains they are still in business and doing what they need to do to produce what their fans apparently want.<br />
<br />
<b>The Right Decision</b> – wargamers tend to think that the companies who make these games are charities who make these games for the love of the hobby. BFC wrote a manifesto in 1999 and appeared to their fans to be a little company that was different from the big bad corporations, but they’ve (perhaps sensibly) moved away from that. Their decisions, too, will be made by the bottom line. There would be no way for an outside commentator to observe accurately whether or not CM: Touch was a bold decision, or even a good decision, without access to BFC’s balance sheets. Time will tell. For now, the consumer simply wins by having a new product in their hands. It will all, ultimately, come down to how much money BFC can make off of it. That’s the reality of the wargaming industry (I don’t call it a hobby), no different than any other.<br />
<br />
<b>Staying Focused</b> – But per the last point, one does note BFC’s track record of being side-tracked into unprofitable territory. They have burned through a number of ventures with other developers, and games have come and gone from their website with some regularity over the years as they’ve struggled to find relevant ventures to augment their flagship titles. CM:SF got off to its aforementioned rocky start by an unfortunate partnership with a retailer that forced a premature product release. Panther Games came and went with Airborne Assault, Histwar: Les Grognards was a non-starter, and some less-mainstream projects such as T-72 (a Balkans Wars tank simulator) passed through to little fanfare. Some stories were heart-breaking, such as <a href="http://videogamegeek.com/videogameexpansion/112904/combat-mission-campaigns" target="_blank">Combat Mission: Campaigns</a>, which apparently nearly bankrupted independent designer Bruce Poon of Hunting Tank Software as they struggled with BFC to design an operational-level interface for the flagship. Others were too strange to be believed, such as the notion that Drop Ship, the science fiction game, was being developed into a World War II tactics game (would there really have been a need for this alongside BFCs other two World War II tactics titles, Theatre of War and Combat Mission?)<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.macobserver.com/images/columns/slackersguide/2006/20060802dropteam/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://www.macobserver.com/images/columns/slackersguide/2006/20060802dropteam/2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not as crazy as it sounds; Dropship had a realistic physics engine and 3-D modelling. <a href="http://www.macobserver.com/columns/slackersguide/2006/20060802.shtml" target="_blank">At least one fellow</a> saw the logic in a World War II version.</td></tr>
</tbody></table> A lot of these projects fall under the “sounded great at the time” category, though naturally it is very easy to criticize in hindsight. I’d still love to see a product like Combat Mission: Campaigns. As a member of the beta team, while not directly involved with the coding of CM:C, I was certainly witness to the enthusiastic support it received from the scenario/campaign designers. I am certain its failure was not due to a lack of effort. <br />
<br />
No one will know whether or not CM: Touch will represent a drain on BFC’s resources or not; to speculate on a company stretching their resources against their better interests is probably foolish, especially with no inside information to back up any such assertion. The only lesson to be drawn here, however, is a general lack of success among a number of “side-projects” (which probably cost them little or nothing in terms of resources such as capital or manpower), which one can attribute as easily in the absence of any detailed information to bad luck. I know I wouldn’t want to try and gauge in advance what sells or what does not in something as volatile as the videogame market, in a niche as small as wargaming.<br />
<br />
If I was in that position, I would never have guessed that Theatre of War would have been a success, and probably would have jettisoned it for being too much like Combat Mission. Yet there it remains, with its sequels, apparently none the worse for wear for its similarity in scope and theme to CM. So perhaps the smart money is to just figure BFC knows what its doing based on the successes it does continue to enjoy.<br />
<br />
<b>Conclusion</b><br />
<br />
Most have said all along that if BFC does well – I suppose to mean remains solvent while producing games – it is good for the wargaming industry. I’m not sure I’ve ever fully agreed with that. Good games are what are best for the wargaming industry. Anyone that proves to be capable of doing that is by extension good for the industry.<br />
<br />
This gets more than a little complicated. If CM: Touch fills Battlefront’s coffers, but takes away development time from the PC flagship, those who are fans of the latter but not the former will no doubt fail to see any benefit from BFC’s success, for themselves or the industry. But as noted, if managed well, the Touch has the ability to be a lucrative venture. It’s all in the hands of the consumer. <br />
<br />
And, apparently, a small “chosen few” of scenario designers.<br />
<br />
Or, thinking larger, other game producers, who may see a BFC success as a gateway of their own. Perhaps, for example, the most detailed, fully realized Sherman tank simulator to hit the market in the 21st Century will not be a PC game at all – but an app?<br />
<br />
<b>My Question to You</b><br />
<br />
Should wargamers embrace this as the future of wargaming? The potential is for widespread, mainstream acceptance of this game, with its cute sprites and easy to use interface coupled with deeper gameplay. At best, it would augment CM for the PC for those that own it, and act as a gateway for those that have not yet experienced it.<br />
<br />
Or should wargamers shun this as “not a wargame” and reject it as a threat to the hobby, for fear it will simply eat up production time better spent on “real wargames”, promote a further dumbing down of games and interfaces to the lowest common denominator, and add more fuel to the exodus away from games like CM, Close Combat and Steel Panthers and back towards Panzer Claws?M.Doroshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09742262581616285671noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587723021467018459.post-10654258077565191492011-12-06T21:43:00.000-07:002016-05-04T21:46:27.595-06:006-6-6: The American Soldier<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisz_bUkREgY4T3GA82vgx5YLOiMpMRdN5e4hPwdleHVRHFXmRxl_s4u6CFkRzKW01zJTuJVjRrAfrQUdqrxGNsLyNv6BcT3CRgUI9JAepxh_x6Iosw8AjVczl5GpehqVS9HvktlfjWg0w/s1600/pic1171343_md.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisz_bUkREgY4T3GA82vgx5YLOiMpMRdN5e4hPwdleHVRHFXmRxl_s4u6CFkRzKW01zJTuJVjRrAfrQUdqrxGNsLyNv6BcT3CRgUI9JAepxh_x6Iosw8AjVczl5GpehqVS9HvktlfjWg0w/s320/pic1171343_md.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: 7pt;">In 2009, I posted the following in
response to some threads on another website that discussed the depiction
of American soldiers in ASL, most particularly the 1st line U.S. Army
squad that saw combat in Europe. I didn't intend to crawl into the
thought processes of the original designers of the game - I wasn't one
of them nor do I know any of them personally - but as I review and
revise the material for presentation here, I still feel perhaps a
historical discussion of some of the characteristics of the American
infantryman and a little compare/contrast with the Germans might be of
interest to those unfamiliar with him, and offer a brief look at the
depiction of the G.I. in the evolution of the <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/243/advanced-squad-leader">Advanced Squad Leader</a>
game system. The comments are really applicable to any tactical game
system, though references to firepower factors and morale are obviously
peculiar to ASL.</span><br /><br />
<div class="tac">
<div>
</div>
</div>
<b>Squad Leader to G.I.</b><br /><br />A brief description of the evolution of the portrayal of the G.I. in ASL is easily achieved; in <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1035/squad-leader">Squad Leader</a>,
there were two types of squads for the three nationalities. The
Russians and Germans had 4-firepower squads to represent the fact they
were predominantly armed with bolt action rifles. The Americans had an
advantage in men (by 1944, a 12-man squad as opposed to the 9-man squad
of the Germans) and raw firepower (the semi-automatic M-1 Garand rifle,
described by General Patton as the best battle implement ever devised,
supplemented by a the M-1 and M-2 carbines in semi- and full- automatic
intended as a replacement for the .45 automatic pistol in front-line
units). "Engineer" squads received 8 firepower and represented units
armed with submachine guns, the Germans 8-3-8s and the Americans 8-4-7s.
The American 6-6-6 squad, with its ominous ratings, was competitive
because the GIs were also immune to Desperation Morale (DM) status. They
were also automatically granted captured weapon use beyond what the
Germans were permitted, representing the American fascination - so the
designers told us - with "gadgets."<br /><br /><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/2587/cross-iron">Cross of Iron</a>
introduced new unit types for the Germans; the 6-5-8 SS squad, armed
with assault rifles, and the 5-4-8 "cavalry" squad which in ASL is often
used to depict paratroopers armed with the FG42 assault rifle. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/5293/gi-anvil-victory">G.I.: Anvil of Victory</a>
saw an expansion of the Americans to include "Green" and "2nd Line"
units, as well as "Elite" 6-6-7 squads a cut above the 6-6-6s, and the
downgrade of the "Airborne" squad to a 7-4-7. The ability to repair
broken support weapons on a "1" or "2" was not trivial (33% chance of
success, double that of other nationalities), increased smoke grenade
capability, WP availability and the retention of DM-lessness.<br /><br />ASL
saw minor changes to the American order of battle, though the
elimination of the DM bonus was not trivial. However, the broken side
morale of the 6-6-6 squad was increased to 8 - a "bonus" of 2, something
not granted to other squads of other nationalities at that scale.<br /><br /><b>Morale</b><br />So
why does the G.I. rate a 6 morale? The observation is often made that
the American fighting man is rated lower than the worst of the European
armies. The Italians, who lost Hitler's war in Russia, the Balkans, and
North Africa, who surrendered in pitiful mobs at the first opportunity,
have a 1st line squad superior to the G.I. The Romanians, who collapsed
on the flanks of the 6th Army, have a squad superior to those that
stormed ashore on OMAHA Beach. Why?<br /><br />Quantifying factors for a
game is no simple task; armour values are a relatively simple matter
(the late Lorrin Bird would no doubt argue it is not, and he'd be right,
but at the least, it is more a matter of mathematics than such
intangibles as morale) compared to capturing the likelihood of a group
of 12 men to stand and fight, or go to ground, or even surrender - or
try and devise a game system in which you can depict a squad doing all
those things in the same turn.<br /><br /><b>Conscription and military training</b><br />The
majority of American soldiers were (relatively) short-term soldiers;
many were volunteers, some were draftees. Almost all intended to leave
the military at the conclusion of hostilities. This was not different
from the European militaries, though military life was certainly
different in the European militaries. In the German Army, pre-military
training might start before the age of 12 in the youth services; after
high school, mandatory service in the Reich Labour Service beckoned,
which was highly militarized and included drill, field camps and
marching in addition to labour tasks. Mandatory military service
followed. By the time he was in the Army, the German male had been fully
indoctrinated in a military outlook and rarely had problems adjusting
to discipline and authority. The average U.S. recruit encountered
considerably more culture shock, particularly the urban recruit not used
to long days or physical labour. Like all soldiers, though, he quickly
adapted because he had to.<br /><br />Raw material, though, was often
wanting. Other armies also noted a tendency for the best officer and
junior leader candidates to join the air service or the navy; there was
no glamour in the infantry, though the paratroops (and in the U.S., the
Marines) did draw eager volunteers - the jump pay of the former was a
nice incentive as well. The U.S. Army only had one category of general
service into which physical abilities were graded, compared to the
German or British armies which had a wider series of grades, meaning
that American infantry units received fewer suitable candidates.
Education and intelligence was also a problem.<br /><br />Craig F. Posey
discussed this in his excellent article "A Nation of Workers: Utlization
of American Manpower and Material in ASL" in <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/67787/asl-annual-89">ASL Annual '89</a>. According to him:<br /><br /> <div class="quotetitle">
</div>
<div class="quote">
<i>Field
commanders in 1942 complained repeatedly that they were receiving men
of so low a mental capability to be trained. One commander stated that
the hardest problem in finding competent enlisted peronnel to be
instructors was because "everybody higher than a moron" had already been
pulled out...An Army Ground Forces observer with the Fifth Army in
Italy (obviously in 1943 or later) reported, "Squad leaders and patrol
leaders with initiative were scarce...the assignment of Grade V men to
infantry is murder." In essence, competent leaders were scarcest where
the fighting was the thickest.</i></div>
<br />No one can criticize them
for not being perfect, but it sometimes seemed like they didn't even
try. What is clear is that the AGF had a problem in that by the time the
"specialists" (which, oddly to us today, didn't include the infantry)
skimmed off the higher graded candidates, the U.S. Army found that the
average intelligence level was "well below the national average." The
U.S. Army Infantry did score at least one coup over the other services
in their quest to predict who would stand up best to the crucible of
combat. A skinny Texas farm kid named Murphy was turned down for both
the paratroopers and the Marines before becoming America's most
decorated soldier of World War II.<br /><br /><b>Rank and Authority</b><br />The
German Army was ironically more egalitarian than the U.S. Army; German
officers were often considered "good comrades" by their men, exposed
themselves to front line conditions, and enjoyed relatively few
comforts. There were also far fewer officers in a front line infantry
company in the Wehrmacht; platoons were almost always led by
battle-hardened NCOs in the German Army. In the U.S. Army, platoon
commanders had to be commissioned officers, and by 1945 they were
inexperienced - "90-day wonders" from an Officer Candidate School. Those
few "mustangs" who were commissioned from the ranks were not permitted
to serve in the same units in which they cut their teeth out of fear
their former comrades would not respect their new-found authority.
Casualty rates among officers was also high, meaning many did not live
long enough to gain the experience they needed to command with the
authority and respect their German counterparts earned by advancing
through the ranks, usually for months, sometimes for years. The officer
candidate system in the German Army required the soldier to serve in the
ranks of a field unit as an offizieranwärter, something U.S. OCS
candidates were not necessarily required to do. Robert S. Rush commented
in his book "G.I.: The U.S. Infantryman in World War II":<br /><br /><div class="quotetitle">
</div>
<div class="quote">
<i>Later
in 1944, the OCS policy changed to accept soldiers directly from the
RTCs, which because of the younger draft ages, lowered the average age
of candidates to something less than the mid-20s. The popular image of
the beardless 90-day wonder leading other baby-faced soldiers, though
partially true in 1945, was not in 1944. Before deploying overseas,
officers shipping as replacements spent, by AGF policy, at least three
months with company-level tactical units in the U.S.</i></div>
<br />By
contrast, German officer candidates did two months field training with
units of the Field Army - combat units, in other words.<br /><br /><b>Regionalism and Replacements</b><br />It
is not widely reported in English histories, but the German Army had a
regional-based organization very similar to the "county" regiments of
the British Army, though individual regimental identities had been
phased out after the First World War to place emphasis on divisional
identities, a model the U.S. Army strongly emphasized as well. While the
Wehrmacht did have official perpetuations of regimental histories,
there seems to have been little but lip service paid to these in favour
of regional designations of the divisions. They are usually absent in
English language histories. Elite units such as Grossdeutschland were
notable in that they recruited nationally, but other divisions drew
strength from recruiting locally. The U.S. Army drew some strength from
this model as well, certainly the National Guard divisions such as the
36th (Texas) Division or the 29th (Blue and Gray). The story of Bedford
on D-Day is well known.<br /><br />The Germans and the U.S. Army both had a
system in which wounded men might not be returned to their former unit.
The American system of "replacements" however, was notorious. While the
Germans fed their divisions by recruiting locally and creating formed
units known as "March Battalions" for the trip to the front (often
stopping on the way to the Field Training units for indoctrination in
the rear areas by way of "partisan hunts" before final advanced
training), the Americans treated the need for replacements somewhat
different. According to Mark Henry's "The US Army in World War II:
Northwest Europe":<br /><br /><div class="quotetitle">
</div>
<div class="quote">
<i>The
giant olive drab machine needed a constant flow of additional troops to
keep up its strength. The AEF in World War I solved this problem by
disbanding about every fourth division arriving in France...In World War
II the Army refused to allow this, and depended on individuals sent
from the US to fill the gaps. Emphasising its machine-like viewpoint,
the Army called these men 'replacements'. In 1944 the number of men
individually trained for posting as replacement parts rapidly fell short
of the needs of the ravenous armies in France. The units based in the
USA were soon mercilessly plundered. This weakened these training units,
and sent bewildered replacements forward to units with which they had
no connection. The semi-trained GIs lurched through the system until
they arrived at forward replacement depots...Here combat-experienced
GIs, sent forward again after recovering from wounds, mingled with the
green replacements for days or even weeks as they awaited new
assignments.</i></div>
<br /> Stephen Ambrose said of this system that "Had
the Germans been given a free hand to devise a replacement system for
the ETO, one that would do the Americans most harm and least good, they
could not have done a better job."<br /><br />As a sidebar, both armies were
racist and both had an interesting history of social experimentation
when manpower crunches began to make themselves felt. All-black combat
units began to see action in Italy and the ETO; some, like the 761st
Tank Battalion, gave a good account of themselves while others, such as
the 92nd Infantry Division, have been painted in much harsher terms. The
Nisei units have been painted in much more glowing terms and have a
better war record. Both were officered predominantly by "whites". The
Germans, for their part, considered themselves racially homogenous due
to their bizarre Nuremberg Laws which stressed biological purity, but
when the crunch came in the mid-war period, dozens of foreign legions
began to appear in uniform, and Ost Bataillonen were in the trenches on
the Normandy beaches on D-Day. Other exotic units such as the Free India
Legion saw little or no combat but were advertised for propaganda value
as taking their place in the anti-Communist, anti-Semetic crusade. The
point, perhaps, is that in the all-white combat units that made up the
majority of either army, there was less discord of the type that
characterized units of the U.S. Army in Vietnam, where strife sometimes
existed within units broken down along racial lines, reflecting the same
kind of rifts in society back home.<br /><br /> <div class="quotetitle">
</div>
<div class="quote">
<i>In
my Army unit in Vietnam we had a rule that only E5's and above were
permitted to enter our NCO Club. However, an E4 was allowed to enter if
'sponsored' and escorted by an E5 or above. To keep black troops out of
the club, which displayed a four-by-six foot Confederate battle flag on
the wall behind the bar, no black was ever promoted above E4 during my
12 months there, and no black E4 was ever 'sponsored' by a white E5 or
above.</i><br /><i><br /> Racism in Vietnam was practiced daily by many in
Vietnam. But you would never know it today because those who practiced
racism against their fellow Americans adamantly deny any form or manner
of racism ever existed in Vietnam, or if racism did exist it was rare
and islolated. Very few African Americans hold memberships in Vietnam
Veteran organizations because of past and ongoing racism. --Otis Willie
(Ret.), Military News and Information Editor, The American War Library</i></div>
<br /><b>Motivation</b><br />Perhaps
the crux of the morale issue is the least tangible and hardest to
source accurately; the GI was the least warlike compared to the
Europeans because he had the least to lose. His home was farthest from
the fighting. The Italians on Sicily were defending their own soil; the
Germans in Normandy were fighting a last ditch defence of what by 1944
had become a way of life to them. The Romanians and Hungarians and
various factions of the Yugoslavians all had bitter old scores to settle
with each other. The American soldier was for the most part eager to
shed his olive coloured clothes and return to the normalcy of civilian
life.<br /><br /><b>Criticisms</b><br /><br />The G.I. is often criticized for being a lot of things, but the criticisms don't ring true. Among some of the more popular ones:<br /><br /><span style="color: #006600;">The G.I. was too reliant on firepower to win his battles for him.</span><br /><br />This
one makes little sense on the face of it. The G.I. effectively used his
excellent artillery support to good effect to pound the daylights out
of the Germans whenever and wherever he found him. No one seems to
"criticize" the Germans for using their mortars so effectively in the
defence, or whining that they "didn't fight fair" for siting these
invisible, near-soundless weapons with wild abandon wherever an infantry
battalion stopped to fight and inflicting terrible damage with them (by
some accounts, up to 70% of British casualties in Normandy, for
example, were a result of German mortars). The G.I. wasn't concerned
about fighting fair - he fought smart where and when he could. And there
were plenty of bloodbaths to go around regardless; Hürtgen Forest
coming to mind.<br /><br /><span style="color: #006600;">The G.I. was no match for the German in a one on one battle.</span><br /><br />Outside
of the Roman Coliseum or an episode of Combat!, there were very few
one-on-one battles, so the comparison is meaningless. And even so, the
G.I. received a lot of training before embarking for overseas -
certainly more training days than the <i>Landser</i>, though admittedly
things like close order drill and other Army "chicken" crowded the
syllabus long after the German dropped such things from his (by 1944
basic training for German infantrymen might be as little as 7 weeks, and
advanced training might include actual combat missions such as
"partisan hunts").<br /><br /><b>Conclusion</b><br /><br />The frontline G.I.
won the war; without arguing about the importance of the Eastern Front
or the Pacific, or the Combined Bomber Offensive, or the North Atlantic
Run, all of which was part of a massive team effort by the Allies and
the United Nations, the G.I. in France, Belgium, Netherlands,
Luxembourg, Germany and Italy in 1944-45, along with his allies,
guaranteed final victory over the Germans.<br /><br /><div class="tac">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIkHQMetxzp_0F1q6OqW2_ksFxDj44c5ZwCmjZ-Lq08VgrdWm7xYrvkDA6CrpXndUnlwANmZE_lKNzdQru5_BEUDrsoSuT041X3im3q5-NqnseL12UTTZ9hQxh2VitUdHrziQKWplmb8g/s1600/pic1171344_md.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIkHQMetxzp_0F1q6OqW2_ksFxDj44c5ZwCmjZ-Lq08VgrdWm7xYrvkDA6CrpXndUnlwANmZE_lKNzdQru5_BEUDrsoSuT041X3im3q5-NqnseL12UTTZ9hQxh2VitUdHrziQKWplmb8g/s320/pic1171344_md.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div>
</div>
</div>
<br /><div class="tac">
<span style="font-size: 7pt;"><b>The Culin device, one of many implements devised in the bocage to get through the hedgerows.</b></span></div>
<br /><br />He
didn't do it with bloodless victories such as Operation Desert Storm;
it wasn't that kind of war, and the Germans weren't that kind of enemy.
The G.I. had to go at him for long months, and devise new ways of doing
things, often with equipment not up to the task. And he overcame and
adapted. The best example is the Culin hedgerow device; a tactical
problem made itself apparent and the U.S. Army responded. (There were
others, less famous, such as the "Salad Fork".) When the Sherman proved
vulnerable to enemy tanks - a role that doctrine never intended it to
take on - tank crews provided local solutions in the form of improvised
armor kits, tactics (placing Jumbos in key positions) and eventually new
equipment. Individual units simply endured apalling conditions wherever
they were; despite a few setbacks on the way - mass surrenders such as
the 106th Division in the Bulge were extreme outliers as were mass
slaughters such as OMAHA Beach - he was capable of outstanding feats of
bravery.<br /><br />There is no insult in saying that there was nothing
European about him. The American is - or was - an individualist with
pride in himself. The G.I. eschewed the trappings of the British
regimental system, and was derided for having no pride; and forewent the
flash of the German uniforms, and was ridiculed for having no style.
But by the time he blasted himself out of the bocage, he had something
far more important - the self-assuredness of a veteran soldier who could
use his equipment, training and bravery to best advantage, and
historians can say that after Kasserine Pass, the American soldier never
lost a battle.<br /><br />Does he "deserve" to be treated in ASL the same
as those Europeans, with 7 morale? I say he doesn't. He had a unique
character that is well reflected in ASL which is itself a unique game
system. The replacement problem was not confined to the Americans - the
British and Canadians in Northwest Europe also suffered from a
"reinforcement crisis" in the autumn of 1944, post-Normandy. And
Canadians were just as far from Europe as the GIs were, so the rationale
for the "6" morale can't stop there. The other factors all play into it
as well; there is also the well documented poor quality of recruits and
the leadership aspect - which should extend beyond just the SMC
countermix of any given scenario.<br /><br />Jeffery Williams, a Calgary
Highlander serving in a staff position in 1st Canadian Army, wrote after
the war about contacts between the 3rd Canadian Division and the
American 82nd Airborne in the winter of 1944-45:<br /><br /><div class="quotetitle">
</div>
<div class="quote">
<i>It
was the first time that General Spry's men had had direct dealings with
Americans. They were intrigued by their language which was familiar but
seemed non-military - torches were flashlights, petrol was gasoline.
They were fascinated by their equipment, their robust 'deuce-and-halfs'
and four wheel drive 'threequarters' (2-1/2 and 3/4 ton trucks), their
weapons and their rations. They liked the U.S. .30 calibre carbine but
they wouldn't swap a Browning automatic rifle for a Bren. In fact, there
was little that the Americans had that they envied, certainly not their
rations nor their clothing. Everyone shivered in that damp November but
the Americans 'looked' colder. As one battalion commander put it, 'They
were great guys, good soldiers who had fought well. We gained a great
respect for them but their ways were not our ways.'</i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 7pt;"><b>Famous photo of an 82nd Airborne trooper in the winter of 1944-45 (in fact, it was used on the cover of <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4964/close-assault">Close Assault</a>). The Canadians who relieved the 82nd in the Nijmegen Salient thought the Americans "looked cold."</b></span></div>
<br /><br />None
of which is to take away from the fighting abilities of the U.S. Army
soldier - who turned in ferocious fighting performances from Morocco to
the Elbe. But he was what he was - mostly just there for the duration,
doing things his own way - just like everyone else.
M.Doroshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09742262581616285671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587723021467018459.post-8451657548967134462011-11-24T21:26:00.000-07:002016-05-04T21:38:50.771-06:00The Machine Gun in Tactical Wargames
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Whatever happens</div>
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<span style="font-size: 7pt;"><div class="tac">
We have got</div>
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The Maxim Gun</div>
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And they have not</div>
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<span style="font-size: 7pt;"></span><div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 7pt;"><div class="tac">
- -Hilaire Belloc</div>
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<br /><br />Having not been impressed by my viewing of the film <i>Passchendaele</i>,
I am struck by how often the Machine Gun is pressed into service by
motion picture screenplay writers, directors, and producers, but how
little the role of the MG is understood by those in the entertainment
industry. Have tactical wargame designers done any better at
understanding or portraying them?<br /><br /><b>What the MG is not - the Machine Gun in the Movies</b><br /><br />Hiram
Maxim's machine is not something you stick in a corner of the
battlefield and wait for a heroic band of 4 or 8 guys to blunder into.
Generally speaking, it's supposed to be something you set up to guard
something. That can be an open flank, or it can be an approach route, or
a gap in your barbed wire. It can be a supply route or withdrawal lane,
and you can set them up to fire indirectly. You employ them best when
they fire at greater than point blank range - one of their advantages,
to, say, a pistol or a rifle, and in interlocking arcs of fire, using a
high rate of fire. So employed, they can mow down a great number of men,
or deny them passage. Hollywood films like Legends of the Fall, Saving
Private Ryan, and now Passchendaele think that machine guns are simply
dropped off at random with 3 or 4 man gun crews, in isolation, and left
there to hunt single men or other groups of men - and by "hunt" I mean
sit there stupidly with an 80 pound gun and tripod and big metal cans of
ammo and wait to be found, sitting behind un-camouflaged sandbags.<br /><br /><div class="tac">
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<span style="font-size: 7pt;">Machine
Gun in Passchendaele. Still image taken from the official movie site.
Passchendaele was the most expensive Canadian movie ever made, with a
budget of 20 million dollars. The MG08 behind the stereotypical sandbag
bunker was the centre-piece of the film's opening scene.</span></div>
<br /><br />And
of course, the heroes of the story find the MG, and destroy it, but not
before losing one or two men, which is the point of the attack and
finding the MG in the first place. In the comic books, by the way, Sgt.
Rock went through this routine about every other issue.<br /><br />And
despite the fact these machine guns are always dropped off in the middle
of nowhere, backed up into hard cover with no escape for the gun crews,
our heroes (tactical geniuses, all) find themselves with no alternative
but to mount a frontal assault. The true purpose of the attack, of
course, is to get a disposable character in the script killed off and
provide a plot point. Any sensible squad leader would simply have
flanked the MG in Saving Private Ryan and attacked from the top of the
hill, using the radar station as hard cover. There were no other Germans
for miles around - that is made obvious by the fact our hero has time
for a crying scene, a Mexican stand-off between his platoon sergeant and
one of his men, and a lengthy burial of the dead, during which no other
Germans intervene.<br /><br />The tactical situation in Passchendaele is
more mystifying; the rationale for attacking the gun is even less clear
than Captain Miller's - though the book suggests that he is at this
point in the war into his third year of service and less than mentally
stable. The movie is brave to approach this subject and in many ways
does it well; unfortunately, as good as the speeches are about
nightmares and guilt, the movie falls apart in the depictions of combat
and the clichéd frontal assault on the machine gun (and the use of the
term "gun nest") don't do much to add to the pantheon of realistic movie
moments. Far better was Robert Blake's assault on Pork Chop Hill (shown
below) when he misses a Chinese MG bunker with a grenade - from two
feet away - and nearly blows his own arm off. But Pork Chop Hill was
more text book than movie. In fact, the screenplay was actually written
from one of U.S. Army historian S.L.A. Marshall's texts, and such a film
would not be commercially successful today if anyone was crazy enough
to try selling it to Hollywood.<br /><br /><div class="tac">
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<br /><br /><b>What the Machine Gun Is - A Brief History</b><br /><br />Automatic
firearms date back to the early 1700s, and the first military
applications were for naval use. By the time of the American Civil War
in 1861, the famous Gatling Gun was in limited use - a hand cranked
repeating gun used by land forces as light artillery. In 1881, the Maxim
Gun was invented, becoming the first true machine gun - a relatively
light, man portable, crew served weapon firing rifle cartridges at a
rapid rate of fire. In 1914, they began to shape modern tactics as
armies in western Europe sought to maneuver for victory during the
German invasion of Belgium and France. Cavalry, infantry and massed
artillery - still employed directly in the firing line in many cases -
were still operating as they had in the previous century, deploying in
thick skirmish lines with the company of 100 to 200 men as the basic
maneuver element of the infantry. The British expressed reluctance to
introduce great numbers of machine guns, as there was an official fear
that it would "unbalance" the delicate firepower organization of the
infantry battalion - whatever that meant. Possibly it was a reference to
the fact that a great number of men (and animals) were tasked to
supporting the guns, for they were heavy, and supplying them with
ammunition was a logistical burden that the battalions themselves had to
bear to keep them firing.<br /><br /><div class="tac">
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<br /><div class="tac">
<span style="font-size: 7pt;">Scottish troops with a Maxim Gun early in the First World War.</span></div>
<br />The
Germans were not so reluctant, and fielded greater numbers of the
weapons. During the Race to the Sea - that period in which the Allies
and their enemies both sought an open flank - it became increasingly
clear that the defensive would be favoured in this war. Massed riflemen
stopped major German attacks at the Marne and at Mons. The grappling
armies never found their opponent's open flank and battle lines soon
stretched from Switzerland to the English Channel - after which the
armies went underground, building first shallow ditches, and soon a
system of trenches, dugouts and saps from which they would besiege each
other for four years. They wired themselves in and began to deploy new
weapons in a technological race to break the deadlock - poison gas
(Ypres, 1915), flamethrowers (Hooge, 1915) and tanks (Courcelette, 1916)
were among them, but the deadlock was brought about to begin with by
the Machine Gun, which made crossing No Man's Land a dangerous
experience.<br /><br /><b>What the Machine Gun Does - How It Works</b><br /><br />The
Canadians arguably did more with their machine guns than anyone else on
the Western Front. They didn't just issue them to infantry battalions,
they eventually created an entire combatant corps around them, and if
that wasn't enough, they created additional units outside the corps,
mounted them on wheels, and protected them with steel plate. At Vimy
Ridge, they were used as indirect fire weapons and fired on fixed lines,
raining lead down on German reinforcement routes from over hilltops,
and the Canadians even planned to use their new armoured cars as
breakthrough weapons, replacing the cavalry and beating the Germans to
what an Allied newspaper man would call Blitzkrieg in 1939 - Lightning
War. It had been a long struggle to get there; in 1915, MGs were
allocated just four per battalion, and the Canadians were using
unreliable American-made "potato-diggers", as the Colts were known. The
British had gone to France with two guns per battalion, and the Germans
had six. The Canadian Colts jammed almost as frequently as their Ross
rifles, though some battalions used them into 1917, by which time they
had been replaced officially with the Lewis, and a new type of gun - the
Light Machine Gun - had entered the arsenal, hand in hand with a new
concept in military organization: the infantry squad.<br /><br /><div class="tac">
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<br /><div class="tac">
<span style="font-size: 7pt;">Canadian Colt MG crew (Library and Archives Canada photo)</span></div>
<br /><br />What
advantages did the MG have on the Western Front? Rate of fire is the
obvious one; the Vickers which eventually came to equip British and
Canadian MG units (and remained on inventory into the 1960s virtually
unchanged) could fire 450 to 600 rounds per minute, and if equipped with
a clean supply of ammunition and enough water to cool the barrel, could
fire indefinitely with little problem. It was well made, reliable, and
well liked. But it didn't just fire a lot of bullets; it could fire out
to 800 yards in a direct fire role.<br /><br />The basic unit of maneuver in
1914 was the infantry company of 100-200 men; they moved as blocks of
soldiery, tasked with common objectives, and while platoons existed
nominally, they were for organizational purposes - as a way of feeding
or billeting them. To do battle, they lined up in waves and marched not
unlike the armies in the Crimea, or at Gettysburg, or under Wellington.
Unfortunately, the machine gun made it clear in short order why this was
no longer a good idea.<br /><br />Massed riflemen could still operate
effectively - the British proved it at Mons, where the pre-war Regulars,
trained in marksmanship and rapid fire on their bolt action rifles
turned back German assault troops. The machine gun was a "force
multiplier" however, and where one machine gun is good in helping stop
such a charge, the MG is really a "support weapon." It doesn't exist to
do the job of an infantry company, it supports the infantry. Therefore,
multiple machine guns are better than one, and the idea is to create
interlocking arcs of fire: to support not just the riflemen, but other
machine guns as well, creating ground over which the enemy cannot pass.
It does this best set up outside the normal effective battle range of
the enemy's rifles - 200 yards or so - and if he can deliver his fire
while covered from the enemy's artillery, even better. At Passchendaele
in 1917, firing from concrete bunkers and good field works, the Germans
were able to make Allied gains costly indeed using machine guns and
artillery to good advantage.<br /><br />Bill Rawling, in his book "Surviving Trench Warfare" (University of Toronto Press, 1992) says the following:<br /><br /><div class="quotetitle">
Quote:</div>
<div class="quote">
Open
formations, however, could be defeated by a very unsophisticated
technology - barbed wire. Artillery was short of ammunition (early in
the war) and lacked a shell fuse sensitive enough to explode within the
barrier, and the latter remained essentially untouched, forcing troops
to pick their way through clinging, piercing metal as best they could.
Caught on the wire, soldiers became targets for machine-gunners, who
could not fail to miss men immobilized by the obstacle.</div>
<br /><br />The
more subtle lesson here is that machine guns are best employed in
conjunction with other weapons; the barbed wire could be used to channel
the advance of infantry into killing grounds, created by gaps in the
wire, or when enough wire barred the way, effectively slow the advance
that the machine guns' effectiveness was increased.<br /><br />The MG could
also be used as a form of artillery, fired not directly at a known
target but into the air, with bullets looped on an arcing trajectory to
fire over obstacles, using "plunging fire" to descend on the enemy's
rear, interdicting trenches and roads and routes of supply, retreat,
reinforcement.<br /><br /><b>The Light Machine Gun</b><br /><br />Ironically,
one of the solutions to the Machine Gun was another Machine Gun, at
least partially. The other solutions to the deadlock of No Man's Land
had their disadvantages - poison gas was an abject failure once the
initial shock wore off and protective equipment was developed, and
relatively few men died because of it, popular culture to the contrary.
Flame weapons inspired fear but were not available in large numbers. The
tank was mechanically unreliable and expensive to produce. Artillery
was being perfected into a truly scientific arm, particularly by
Commonwealth troops (at Vimy Ridge, the majority of German batteries had
been located and silenced in the days preceding Zero Hour by Allied
counter-battery work) but its ability to win battles on its own was
negligible.<br /><br />As discussed in <a class="postlink" href="http://www.tacticalwargamer.com/articles/squad/infantrysquad.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this article </a>on
the development of the infantry squad, small units began to develop
from early in the war. By 1917, the British were fielding the Lewis Gun
in infantry platoons - a smaller, man portable automatic weapon that
could deliver firepower in support of infantrymen moving in small
bunches, either firing their rifles, using grenades (hand-thrown Mills
bombs or firing rifle grenades), or even bayonets (or more exotic
hand-to-hand weapons such as knob-kerries) but above all, maneuvering in
close under the weight of fire of the Lewis, with its multi-man crew
lugging panniers of ammo. The French and Americans would introduce
LMGs/automatic rifles late in the war also, and the Germans experimented
with the LMG too, as well as with sub-machine guns, an even more
portable weapon firing pistol ammunition - larger bullets with shorter
range for true close quarters combat. The best way for infantry to
defeat the enemy was to seek him out, in small numbers, and then defeat
him locally with overwhelming firepower - using artillery where
possible, and the light machine gun. The pattern established in
1917-1918 would remain unchanged in its basic elemental concept to the
present day, though individual firepower increased with the creation of
the assault rifle during the Second World War and the dissemination of
either semi-automatic or fully-automatic battle rifles after 1945.<br /><br /><div class="tac">
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<br /><div class="tac">
<span style="font-size: 7pt;">The Lewis LMG.</span></div>
<br /><br />But
the Machine Gun is still there; it is now known as a GPMG, or General
Purpose Machine Gun, the first such true GPMG being the German MG34 and
MG42 of the Second World War, so known because it could operate as a
light machine gun right in an infantry squad, fitted with a bipod and an
assault drum, operated by a single gunner and carried into an attack on
an enemy position - or it could be fitted to a tripod, equipped with
telescopic sights, given a virtually unlimited supply of linked
ammunition, and set to fire on fixed lines, even by remote control, at
the touch of a remote trigger, to produce grazing fire along an axis of
advance or down a pre-set fire lane to deny an avenue of approach to an
enemy, the MG 42 firing up to a mind-numbing 1200 rounds per minute - 20
bullets a second!<br /><br />These technological marvels are often the key
to a company fighting position. They are generally organized into a
separate weapons company within a battalion, or perhaps a separate
weapons platoon within a company. The British and Canadians pooled them
at the Divisional level in the Second World War. Wherever they were
kept, the troops knew how important they were - and they were assigned
to units and sub-units in recognition of their important role rather
than simply cast adrift in the wilderness, as the movies would have you
believe.<br /><br /><b>Exceptions - Movie Silliness in Reality and in Wargames</b><br /><br />Of
course, there are always exceptions to the rule, and sometimes, movie
silliness is based on reality. That scene in Saving Private Ryan where
Miller is throwing 60mm mortar rounds? It was based on the story of
Technical Sergeant Beauford T "Andy" Anderson, a Medal of Honor
recipient who performed the same deed on Okinawa. Not a bad scene, but
freeze frame it and ask yourself why he didn't just use the grenades the
prop guy stuck on his web belt instead. Or why the director chose to
emulate such a rare event. Medals of Honor are generally given for the
uncommon rather than the common. SPR also depicted a blind charge by
armour down a narrow corridor into the teeth of Allied infantry
resulting in a costly defeat. Critics have pointed at this and said
"would never happen." But - never say "never" because strange things
happen on battlefields, and at Arnhem, just such a charge occurred.
SS-Hauptsturmführer Viktor Graebner mounted an armoured attack over the
bridge over the Rhine - as narrow a corridor as the street in Ramelle -
and paid the ultimate price for his aggressiveness. The charge was shot
to pieces on the northern ramp by the British paratroopers ensconced in
buildings at the far end. The charge is depicted in the Advanced Squad
Leader module named <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/8616/bridge-too-far-asl-historical-module-6">A Bridge Too Far</a>, and the action can be reasonably simulated in other tactical games.<br /><div class="tac">
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<span style="font-size: 7pt;"><div class="tac">
The
aftermath of Graebner's charge; at the top of the image are wrecked
German vehicles littering the north ramp of the Arnhem bridge.</div>
</span><br />The
hand-thrown mortar rounds, on the other hand, probably come under the
heading of "chrome". Chrome is that grand old term from the old days of
wargaming, referring to rules added for historical flavour or to capture
individual peculiarity. Coming from the shiny metallic trim once
applied to automobiles, the word suggests something eye-catching but
having no real practical value.<br /><br />Chrome sets the old board games
apart from the new generation of computer games only in that paper games
can be modified at will, restricted in large part only by the
imagination of the user. A sophisticated fan base and increasingly
open-ended games are changing this. <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/videogameseries/6984/panzer-command">Panzer Command</a> allows for modification of the game's unit data, for example, and for those with the skills to do so, a game like <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/videogame/70667/operation-flashpoint-cold-war-crisis">Operation Flashpoint</a>
allows almost unrestricted ability to add not only 3D models but
scripts and routines to power all sorts of (unofficial) additions to the
game.<br /><br />So this brings us back to that machine gun in the church.
Could it have reasonably happened? Never say never, but once you
overload your movie with stretches of tactical logic, you've lost the
verisimilitude you need to connect with a knowledgeable audience.<br /><br /><b>The Machine Gun in Tactical Wargames</b><br /><br />There are few tactical games dealing with First World War combat; <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4241/soldiers">Soldiers</a> and <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/8471/trenchfoot">Trenchfoot</a> coming most readily to mind and both date back several decades; newer titles like <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/8711/landships-tactical-weapons-innovations-1914-1918">Landships</a>
fight for audiences among the crowd. It is probably more useful to
examine all of tactical gaming as a whole (and by tactical gaming, as
always, I refer to commercial, board and video wargames dealing with
"modern" land combat as my area of focus, a narrow field I make no
apologies for restricting my gaze to - and especially not with this
subject in mind). We can trace the evolution of the depiction of the MG
in tactical wargames, as the problem of how to accurately portray the
unique characteristics of the Machine Gun, and the advantages it brought
to the battlefield (and the disadvantages inherent in the weapon) are
illuminating.<br /><br /><b>Did You Say Disadvantages?</b><br /><br />The first
machine gun sections in British and Canadian service in 1914 were
composed largely of ammunition bearers. In 1917, even the Light Machine
Gun section required several ammo bearers to carry the heavy panniers
for the Lewis to keep the gun in action. By 1939, though, LMGs were
integrated directly into rifle squads, often firing the same ammunition
as the battle rifles carried by the bulk of men in the infantry
companies, and few tactical games portray in-battle logistics.<br /><br />The
larger MGs, however, are a different story. Squad Leader created a
fairly elegant system of "portage points" for the various weapons and
equipment types that an infantry squad might be expected to carry into
battle, which factored in the weight of ammunition, tripod, and
accessories for the MGs. The expansion "gamettes" created "dismantled"
status, which reduced the portage load on infantry, imagining the guns
broken down into component parts. When <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1035/squad-leader">SL</a> was replaced by <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/243/advanced-squad-leader">Advanced Squad Leader</a>,
they recognized that the German GPMG, when removed from its tripod, was
still a serviceable LMG and allowed it to be fired as a weapon - a nice
bow to reality that some might call chrome, though all the information
one needed was right on the counter and it required no special or
complicated rules.<br /><br />Logistics reared their ugly head in the development stream of <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/videogameseries/6028/combat-mission">Combat Mission</a>;
specifically, the question of whether or not units equipped with heavy
machine guns should be permitted to use a fast movement command.
"Running" with an HMG became a bone of contention. Equally contentious
was the question of whether or not British and Canadian troops ever
actually used the tripod for the Bren Light Machine Gun. Sometimes, the
research isn't the hard part and neither is the implementation; the hard
part is the point of decision in between the two.<br /><br /><b>Other Myths and Movies</b><br /><br />Readers
may remember that "silly" scene in the Carentan episode of Band of
Brothers, where the Sherman tank commander is riding into battle
blasting away with the .50 while standing on the back of his tank. In
actuality, it wasn't silly. In fact, standing on the back of the certain
models of the Sherman tank was the only way you could fire the .50 at
ground troops. There is a misconception that the Browning gun on the
turret of the Sherman was there for close protection. It wasn't; it was
an anti-aircraft weapon. You had to exit the turret, depending on the
mount, in order to use it. Canadian Sherman tanks rarely kept the
Browning in 1944-45; in fact, the 4th Canadian Armoured Brigade
specifically ordered the guns removed. One source suggests that Brigade
headquarters expressed concern that tank commanders would be exposed to
hostile aircraft by so doing; the risk of exposure in dismounting the
turret to use the gun was considered too great.<br /><br /><div class="tac">
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<div class="tac">
<span style="font-size: 7pt;"><br />Sherman tank in France. The tank commander has dismounted to use the .50 on enemy infantry across a river. (US Army photo)</span></div>
<br />The
AA MG on the Sherman has been contentious in both board and PC games.
In ASL, it is a weapon of great power, but there are no special rules
depicting the hazards in using it against troops beyond the normal "crew
exposed" rules that cover all exposed tank commanders. A Canadian tank
commander, trained to expose just the top of his head above the rim of
the turret, is given the same advantages of vision and cover as an
American tank commander blazing away with the turret Browning, which we
know had to be done from outside the turret altogether in certain
instances.<br /><br />In <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/videogame/74343/combat-mission-beyond-overlord">Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord</a>,
the AA MG on the Sherman was similarly quite potent and often could be
found knocking out enemy armoured vehicles before the main gun. The
ballistics are consistent with real life - the .50 round was a potent
one and punching through the thin rear armour of a Hetzer or any of the
armour on a Sd Kfz 251 halftrack would not have been a problem - but
doctrinally it would have been unlikely for a tank commander to leap out
and blaze away with the MG rather than "button up" and let the main gun
do the work of the tank. The abstract nature of the game's mechanics
worked against the realistic portrayal of this doctrine.<br /><br /><b>My Final Word</b><br /><br />While
modern combat appears to have changed a lot since 1917, many aspects of
it have not; the employment of machine guns is probably one of those
things that has stayed relatively constant, at least in principle. While
infantry are performing many more different tasks on the battlefield in
the modern "Three Block War" environment, when it comes time to employ
the Machine Gun in full-intensity conflict, an infantry unit will still
use the principles pioneered for it in the trenches, and later developed
in the Second World War. Game designers have struggled with how best to
capture the effects of this unique weapons system. Film makers have
been quick to capitalize on the reputation the MG has gained as a
leading causality factor in the infliction of casualties, second only to
artillery, even if the depiction of the MG on film has been more
sensationalistic than real.<br /><br /><b>My Question To You</b><br /><br />We can examine the MG through <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/75009/machine-gun-tactical-wargames">this GeekList</a>,
but which game do you think has presented an interpretation of the
Machine Gun in modern battle that seems to be the closest to being
accurate? Is it possible that, like artillery, getting it too close to
accurate would simply be a game-killer?</dd></dl>
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M.Doroshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09742262581616285671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587723021467018459.post-28993605512671043412011-11-24T17:31:00.000-07:002011-11-24T17:31:33.832-07:00Player Typing<div id="entry_text_654"><blockquote class="blogcontent restore floatcontainer"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbb7MBITfVBTORB55PxgX_BBmJE1XZe1RVi87wTyHNQTzvjscFF_3KUOJ17xgxjWU5e547UYkc045A0C1Gytq0sx0aNtTrBfljSCnUQau1jx6XE8TjIB-e0tyY8OQmNElzURnLMy4bjrk/s1600/blog2" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a>There is a need in certain quarters to categorize game players, whether it is to gather demographics for advertising, or to attempt to predict future sales, or to better enable fellow gamers to talk to one another. MOVES Magazine printed an article in 1975, breaking down board wargamers into the following:<br />
<ul><li>The Military Establishment</li>
<li>The Military Historians</li>
<li>The Military Buffs</li>
<li>The Avengers</li>
<li>The Social Wargamers</li>
<li>The Mathematicians</li>
<li>The Supercompetitors</li>
<li>The Accidental Converts</li>
<li>The Shut-Ins</li>
<li>The Limited Interest Minority</li>
<li>The Wishful Thinkers</li>
<li>The Reluctant Gift-Receivers</li>
<li>The Elite Capitalists</li>
<li>The Reluctant Opponents</li>
</ul><br />
The categories, author Phil Kosnett admitted, overlapped. What he didn't admit in print was that the piece was probably meant as much as humorous filler as a serious attempt to define the wargaming community. As with all good humour, there was much truth in his descriptions. I recall turning a friend of the family into a Reluctant Opponent in a game of <i>Wreck of the B.S.M. Pandora</i> during a stay at his home. I think most of my early <i>Squad Leader</i> opponents were probably Reluctant Opponents, come to think of it.<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: silver;">1</span></span><br />
<br />
Twenty-five years later, Curt Schilling described the <i>Advanced Squad Leader</i> community as "cliques", breaking them down as "Competitor. Simulator. Historian. Socializer. Many of you may have seen wargaming broken down like this before."<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: silver;">2</span></span><br />
<br />
Somewhere during the intervening quarter century, however, it became possible to introduce a new dynamic into the mix; that of the Experiential Wargamer. The introduction of tactical level wargames, first person shooters, and legitimate solitaire gaming all helped develop that new category.<br />
<br />
<b>Early Roots and Shameful Pursuits</b><br />
<br />
The first board wargames were intended to portray operational level clashes where the gamer filled the role of a general in command of an army group, army or corps commander. Tactical-level games didn't arrive on the scene until later - though miniature players had been recreating low-level tactical battles for decades by the time <i>PanzerBlitz</i> hit the scene in 1970. The "dirty little secret" among wargamers, however, was that the majority of gamers had always played solo. SPI began surveying its customers in the late 1960s with reader feedback cards and found in excess of 50 percent of those surveyed played alone - before the invention of board wargames specifically designed for solo play. "In the 1990s, the number of games played solitaire exceeds sixty percent."<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: silver;">3</span></span> SPI recognized this phenomenon early on; in the very first issue of their "house organ", MOVES Magazine, they published a "how to" article on maximizing solitaire play.<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: silver;">4</span></span><br />
<br />
As the focus of wargames decreased in scope, however, the ability to picture one's self in the role of the commanders increased. It became possible to become personally involved in the events on the game board. It had been possible to picture yourself as the generalissimo of the Red Army in <i>Tactics II</i>, of course, but it was still a somewhat abstract experience to push entire divisions from square to square.<br />
<br />
<b>You Command The Action</b><br />
<br />
In 1977, <i>Squad Leader</i> not only put the player into the role of a company commander, in charge of 100 or so men engaged in desperate battle, but with a unique Campaign Game and a set of blank "leader" counters, permitted the player to lend his own name and personality to the proceedings. For the first time, the 1/2-inch cardboard square represented one person - the player - and his skill at arms would have repercussions not just in the current game, but in a series of games, with the ability to rise in rank and ability.<br />
<br />
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<div align="center"></div><br />
<b>Playing for Experience</b><br />
<br />
What the <i>Squad Leader</i> campaign game permitted was the creation of another category of "casual" game player - the Experiential Player. Like the other categories that have been created (and none of these are set in stone, as they are creations of convenience for the specific purposes of those that create them) they freely overlap. They can be the bane of the Serious Competitor who wants to play him, or the Stolid Historian who wants to debate him. He might even be highly sought after by the Crass Commercialist who wants to sell extra historical modules to him because he knows he can "hook" him based on new "flavours" alone.<br />
<br />
What the Experiential Player could do was actually relive some of the excitement the ad copy on the back of the box promised, which proclaimed "YOU are the Squad Leader." The game became less a function of calculating the chance of a 2:1 odds attack with three regiments at Quatre Bras, and more about whether or not he had the guts to order his last five men into close combat against that tank around the next block. Imagination became part of the game. The following was recently posted in an ASL-themed blog, and illustrates the imaginative approach still taken to <i>Squad Leader</i>'s offspring:<br />
<blockquote><i>If there's one hallmark that makes a good wargame it's the narrative generated from the game. This is something you're just not going to get out of a Euro like Agricola or Puerto Rico or whatever. For example, take the case of the Cursed MMG.</i></blockquote><blockquote><i>Early in the game, around turn 2, the Russians who would have been manning a MMG...ran off after taking fire. They left a perfectly good support weapon lying around and in the next rally phase I rolled a SIX -- what the HELL?! Pick the damn thing up you scrubs!</i></blockquote><blockquote><i>I should have known then that the MMG was cursed. Slick with the blood of the Russian who last held it, the MMG was to be an albatross on the neck of every German squad who managed to pick it up... By game's end, its bad mojo extended into the full hex and even squads who didn't pick it up were gunned down...<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: silver;">5</span></span></i></blockquote><b>Rise of the Individual</b><br />
<br />
While SPI recognized early on the proclivity to play games solitaire, it did not result in a great number of solitaire titles, and of those released, success has been mixed. Games like <i>Iwo Jima</i> and <i>B-17: Queen of the Skies</i> were mainly exercises in dice rolling. <i>Tokyo Express</i> received greater attention, and the title most germaine to this article, <i>Ambush!</i>, was perhaps the most successful, spawning several sequels, including three follow-ups, a companion game with sequel, a two-player version, and a tank-based variant as well as a number of third-party variants and scenarios. <i>Ambush! </i>was perhaps the most intense expression of the notion that players sat down with wargames solely for the Experience - that is to say, to engage their imagination and to indulge in escapism, rather than emphasis on the other often-cited historical, educational or competitive aspects to wargaming which had often been used to "legitimize" the hobby in the early days when escapism was really not possible given the limited physical components and interactivity of the games themselves. Not coincidentally, <i>Ambush!</i> was a man-to-man level game, with each game piece representing a single soldier, and the player was given free reign to name each member of his squad as he saw fit. Like the SL Campaign Game, each "character" had the opportunity to advance in skills, rank and ability over time as the player campaigned his squad through several missions.<br />
<br />
The rise of role playing games in the early 1970s must surely have had an impact on legitimizing how wargamers approached the experience also. The first military themed RPG was published in 1979 - SPI once again led the way, with <i>Commando</i> - followed by almost a dozen other titles in the 1980s, none of which came anywhere close to the popularity of the fantasy or science fiction RPGs. But it may have been a simple matter of technology.<br />
<br />
In 1992 <i>Wolfenstein 3D</i> was released and began appearing on home computers; it popularized the First Person Shooter genre, had a tinge of history to it (there were "Nazis" in an underground cavern and the Horst Wesel song was accurate, if not slightly offensive to the sensitive), and there was no need to pull out cardboard pieces and paper maps. By 1997, <i>Muzzle Velocity</i> was offering something much more historical - accurate 3D models of historical equipment in camouflage paint jobs, first person tank crew and infantryman views, the ability to switch between the 3D world and a 2D map; not all that remarkable, given that <i>M-1 Tank Platoon</i> had done many of the same things in 1989, but with vector graphics and without the infantry. The games weren't about counting firepower factors, they were about being there on the battlefield and experiencing it. Just like role playing games, first person shooters and 3D battle games were letting wargamers set foot in other worlds.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbb7MBITfVBTORB55PxgX_BBmJE1XZe1RVi87wTyHNQTzvjscFF_3KUOJ17xgxjWU5e547UYkc045A0C1Gytq0sx0aNtTrBfljSCnUQau1jx6XE8TjIB-e0tyY8OQmNElzURnLMy4bjrk/s1600/blog2" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbb7MBITfVBTORB55PxgX_BBmJE1XZe1RVi87wTyHNQTzvjscFF_3KUOJ17xgxjWU5e547UYkc045A0C1Gytq0sx0aNtTrBfljSCnUQau1jx6XE8TjIB-e0tyY8OQmNElzURnLMy4bjrk/s400/blog2" width="400" /></a></div><div align="center"><br />
</div><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> <div align="center">Knocked out Sherman tank in Muzzle Velocity (1997)</div></span><b>Trends</b><br />
<br />
The focus on solitaire play and on individual achievement/campaign play would seem to have been influenced, either directly or indirectly, by the fantasy and role playing worlds. Real militaries emphasize teamwork and the necessity to work together to overcome obstacles. Basic training is an ordeal that takes weeks to accomplish. Divisions are commanded not by single commanders, but by staffs of officers trained in administration and logistics who wrestle with problems well beyond the ken of the uninitiated. The trend in military gaming is towards games such as <i>Brothers in Arms</i> which, while touting its "realism" because it occasionally asks the player to maneuver riflemen to a flanking position, still manages to ignore most of the realities of modern combat, specifically but not restricted to the complexities of command and control.<br />
<br />
In actual fact, first person shooters are so unlike military practice, they are usually not considered "wargames"; but a new category has slipped in - "tactical shooters." These are man-to-man games set in the first person with a level of realism and fidelity superior to the "first person shooters." The differences are apparent; tactical shooters have no "health packs" or ability to magically heal, for one. <i>Operation Flashpoint</i> and <i>Armed Assault</i> have been assigned to this category. They also claim to have actual restrictions on command and control, in both single- and multi-player mode. Kill ratios are way down in the tactical shooters, and just seeing the enemy is a real accomplishment - as it usually is in real life.<br />
<br />
As the games increase in scale, to squad- and platoon- level, the level of abstraction also increases, to simulate command and control problems and various types of "friction." The Experiential Player becomes drawn out of the game, and makes decisions not just for one person, but represents in reality a syndicate of commanders. It's possible to lose one's self in the experience, but it doesn't become the entire point of the game. An example is the initial iteration of <i>Combat Mission</i> where watching the 3D "movie" is necessary to plan strategy each turn. Another is in ASL, where smaller "narratives" get naturally built around individual vignettes, as we saw illustrated above with the Russian MMG.</blockquote> <b>Bartles</b><br />
<br />
<b> </b>Video gamers who play MMORPGs (massively Multiplayer online role playing games, which tend to be fantasy-themed in nature) have their own breakdown, for which there is even a test, the <a class="postlink" href="http://www.gamerdna.com/quizzes/bartle-test-of-gamer-psychology" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Bartle Test of Gamer Psychology</a>, which rates players on their responses to questions which measure four basic personality "types" - Explorer, Achiever, Socializer, and Killer. The test examines the primary motivations by comparing two situations and weighing them against each other - would you rather find a pot of gold, or make a new friend, etc. The test weighs each respondent in the four categories with a percentage - you may find you are 100% explorer, but still 13% killer and 40% achiever, as there is definitely some overlap in the categories. Is it scientific? Probably not. <br />
<blockquote class="blogcontent restore floatcontainer"><b>My Final Word</b><br />
<br />
At the most basic level, every wargamer is an Experiential Player, given that the point of playing a game is to have fun or be entertained. The point of the article is to describe a player who plays for escapism above all else. Anyone who has fired up<i> Panzer Commander</i> just to maneuver the camera around one of the maps will relate to him. So will anyone who has used a map editor to recreate their own childhood neighbourhood.<br />
<br />
<b>My Question To You</b><br />
<br />
To whom should any of this really matter?<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">1. Kosnett, Phil "What is a Wargamer?" Moves Magazine (Issue Nr. 19 Feb-Mar 1975)<br />
2. Schilling, Kurt "Can You Ever Be Sure? Historical Research and ASL" (ASL Journal 2)<br />
3. Dunnigan, James F. Wargames Handbook, Third Edition (Writers Club Press, Lincoln, NE, 2000) p.304 ISBN 0-595-15546-4<br />
4. Richardson, Jay "Solitaire Wargaming" Moves Magazine (Issue Nr. 1 Feb 1972)<br />
5. <a href="http://triplepbf.blogspot.com/2009/06/d1-aar-part-one-things-always-start.html" target="_blank">http://triplepbf.blogspot.com/2009/0...ays-start.html</a></span> </blockquote></div>M.Doroshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09742262581616285671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587723021467018459.post-76231221170185613982011-11-15T10:15:00.000-07:002016-12-23T10:26:05.350-07:00The Tragic Tale of Combat Mission CampaignsThe Combat Mission community was very pleased to hear, in October 2005, that a new product named Combat Mission: Campaigns was in the works. A workable "operational layer" for the popular 3D tactical game had been the Holy Grail since the release of the first title in the series - which by that point had progressed through the original and two sequels (<a href="http://www.tacticalwargamer.com/computergames/combatmission/combatmission.htm" target="_blank">CMBO,CMBB & CMAK</a>) - and as it turned out, the faithful would have almost two more years to wait for the release of the next game in the series.<br />
<br />
There had been many attempts to devise "manual" operational layers. (The games did ship with "operations" - sort of 'super-scenarios' - that let the player string together a series of scenarios much like Historical Advanced Squad Leader Campaign Games. But they never seemed to work properly, with front lines being drawn between scenarios in strange places - and the developers either refused or couldn't figure out how to let players export saved game data for re-use in the editor, which would have permitted terrain damage, knocked out vehicles, and depleted units to be "carried over" for free-form campaigns.) The "Meta Campaign" was a popular pastime, where an operational-level game was played out among a group of players, with CM scenarios used to determine the outcome of the battles generated. There were different methods of playing and tracking the operational level movements - usually involving spreadsheets, lots of emails, and communications issues as players dropped in, and dropped out, from across time zones. Battles were generally done PBEM (or TCP) against live opponents (not the AI) and thus a two hour battle window might take a couple of days, or a couple of weeks, to resolve. Simulating a week or two weeks of operational time could take months. <br />
<br />
Co-ordinating large numbers of players in such an effort was a chore. Those who stuck with it swore by the rewards. Some players began to develop software to handle logistics, mapping, and other book-keeping (vets will recall the COCAT software with either dread or awe.)<br />
<br />
Every couple of months, someone new would announce another new campaign on the official forums, or one of the many unofficial CM fan forums. Some never got off the ground, others folded when the creators realized how much work they were. But there was no shortage of good ideas, and with CM games covering the gamut from North Africa to Italy to the entire Eastern Front (and with a choice of either using the updated Mediterranean module to do a convincing stand-in for NW Europe, or using the original with its older infantry and armor modelling), there were thousands of brigade or division size actions to choose from.<br />
<br />
Bruce Poon of Hunting Tank Software obviously thought so. The announcement in October 2005 struck the community by surprise (save those few beta testers who had been selected to participate behind the scenes). But it seemed like a natural idea.<br />
<br />
In a press release on October 14, 2005, he described the product <a href="http://www.gamershell.com/companies/battlefront_com/257628.html" target="_blank">as follows</a>:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Bruce Poon, lead designer:<br />
What we are trying to do with Combat Mission Campaign is provide the operational level layer that Combat Mission players have always wanted. Every feature has been designed to be as realistic, complex and challenging as commanding troops really was back then, and to complement the realism in Combat Mission itself. If we can provide a realistic and fun game for Combat Mission players, we know that we have made a great contribution. It could not have been done without great support from Battlefront.</blockquote>
<br />
<a href="http://www.battlefront.com/community/showpost.php?p=1019582&postcount=12" target="_blank">On the official forums</a>, an FAQ was posted by one of the beta testers[/url]:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
<b>Frequently Asked Questions</b><br />
<br />
Q: Is this a whole new game or simply an expansion to Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin?<br />
<br />
A: Actually, its both. While CMC could certainly be played without CMBB, it was always designed to work in tandem with it in order to allow the player to experience the challenges of operational level planning and strategy. CMC will allow you to "auto-resolve" tactical engagements but this is really meant as a time saving feature and the game was always designed for you to play out the battles, in person, with CMBB.<br />
<br />
The best way to think of CMC is as an Operational Level Command expansion for CMBB although it is a new game in of itself.<br />
<br />
Q: Did Battlefront design Combat Mission Campaigns? Did Charles Moylan (programmer of CM) work on CMC?<br />
<br />
A: Partially, while Combat Mission Campaigns was developed, designed and programmed by the team at Hunting Tank Software, they have been given unprecedented access to the inner workings of the Combat Mission game engine. Charles coded up the interface between CMBB and CMC which allows for the great interaction between the two programs and the ability to "share" information, status and results with one another.<br />
<br />
Q: Is CMC based on the new CMx2 engine or the older CMx1 (classic) game engine or something else?<br />
<br />
A: Something else. It's a whole new game, coded by an outside developer (Hunting Tanks Software) but it adds the Operational Level Command component to CMBB which was a CMx1 engine based game.<br />
<br />
Q: I am a little confused, when enemy units get close to one another in CMC, how are the battles played out in CMBB?<br />
<br />
A: CMC handles all the work for you. It chooses the necessary map for the battle to be played on, sets up the correct weather and time of day and populates the battle with the troops and equipment with their experience levels, ammo load outs, morale and fatigue levels and more all intact. Once the battle is complete, CMBB sends the results back to CMC for proper processing and updating of the campaign.<br />
<br />
Q. What multiplay modes and gameplay are supported?<br />
<br />
A. At the Operational level you can play solo against the AI or Multiplay with numerous human players against other human players or a combination of both human and AI players. If you play out the tactical battles using CMBB you are restricted to normal 1 on 1 or single player vs. the AI.<br />
<br />
Q: What campaigns will come with CMC?<br />
<br />
A: Right now we are planning to include campaigns covering the following: Barbarossa, Stalingrad, Operation Mars, 3rd Kharkov, Kursk and Berlin.<br />
<br />
Q: I can make my own though campaigns, right? CMC comes with an editor?<br />
<br />
A: Yes! CMC ships with the same editors that we used to make the original campaigns. These include a Operational Map Editor, Turn Editor which allows for the game to run with several different turn lengths (in hours), including the allowance of different turn lengths for different times of day, a Time of Day editor allowing for different dark / light cycles in different regions of the conflict and a Weather editing program that allows historical weather conditions to be accurately reflected in the game.<br />
<br />
There is also an Order of Battle (OOB) Editor that enables the selection of a range of German and Russian troop types and formations, as well as the creation of unusual or custom formations from scratch. Any formation created can be saved for use in a variety of scenarios.<br />
<br />
Q: Does CMC allow you to create/play with some of the minor nations like Italy, Romania, Hungary, Finland?<br />
<br />
A: Currently, only Russian and German forces are included although other nations may be added as a patch or future add-on.<br />
<br />
Q: Will CMC be expanded to support Combat Mission: Afrika Korps or even the older Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord?<br />
<br />
A: That is certainly a possibility depending on CMC's commercial success.<br />
<br />
Q: How big can the campaigns in CMC really be?<br />
<br />
A: Currently, CMC is designed and best enjoyed with campaigns up to a Division per side. WIthin those divisions, several human players could have individual commands.<br />
<br />
Q: What's the smallest battles you might have in CMC, that would then be played out in CMBB or auto-resolved? What's the largest?<br />
<br />
A: The smallest maneuver unit in CMC is a Platoon so you could have, for example, a small skirmish of just two enemy recon platoons or a massive battle with several enemy Battalions slugging it out.<br />
<br />
Q: Will CMC have a "replay" feature?<br />
<br />
A: Yes it will. You will be able to review what happened for all past turns at any time.This gives each commander the ability to review the historical progress of the game, including an ever improving operational view of 'what really happened'.<br />
<br />
Q: Tell me about Fog-of-War and unit spotting. How have you dealt with that at the operational level?<br />
<br />
A: Combat Mission Campaigns implements an exacting Fog of War system, showing limited information due to the visibility of enemy troops, but also takes into account the time to transfer information from one unit to another, the types of signals involved, and the inertia in large units being able to respond to new orders. This means it's even possible to lose situational awareness of subordinate units that are slow to report their current status and position!<br />
<br />
Q: Does CMC offer any new tools to help with spotting or being spotted by enemy units?<br />
<br />
A: Yes, it offers both. On the operational map, you can select any unit under your command and toggle both a "Who Can I See" and "Who Can See Me" mode which will shade various areas of the map depending on the visibility to and from that terrain.<br />
<br />
Q: On the Operational Isometric 3D map, I see that it is made up of terrain squares. What's the size of one of those terrain squares?<br />
<br />
A: The smallest terrain tile shown represents an area approximately 1km by 1km in size. Battlefields are made up of 4 of these small tiles, thus giving a 2k x 2k battlefield in CMBB.<br />
<br />
Q: When is it coming out and how much?<br />
<br />
A: When it's done and expected price will be about 35 dollars.<br />
<br />
Q: Do you need beta testers or people willing to create new campaigns for the final release?<br />
<br />
A: Actually, we might. If you have a PROVEN track record of creating quality CMBB operations and scenarios we would certainly be interested in speaking with you about the oppertunity to help with CMC! If interested, please email us at support@battlefront.com and be sure to spell out your background with CMBB scenario/operation creation.</blockquote>
(Forum post by Wicky, 13 Oct 2005)<br />
<br />
It sounded great. Some of the posters on the forum wondered who Bruce Poon was; when he started posting about the project, curious fellows started checking his posting history. One <a href="http://www.battlefront.com/community/showpost.php?p=1020153&postcount=1" target="_blank">noticed this</a>:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
OK, I've got my Sherlock Holmes hat on tonight.<br />
<br />
I've been trying to get a campaign thingie going for quite a while now. My last effort, an attempt, to do a huge battle of Stalingrad, with a Java app not too much unlike CMC ended with me ripping all my hair out in frustration trying to get CMBB to build the OOB's for a generated battle (by simulating mouseclicks all over the damn place).<br />
<br />
So I decided to check into who actually did manage to get his grubby little fingers onto CMBB's innards where all the rets of us failed.<br />
<br />
He's from Melbourne of all places (great town...go Blues!) so proximity can't have anything to do with it.<br />
<br />
Early on he couldn't even figure out operations!<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
posted August 13, 2000 09:06 AM<br />
<br />
"I made a map and an Operation but I can't really make it work the way I think it should."<br />
<br />
Huge gap between 2002 and 2004 which is where me may presume CMC was being done????</blockquote>
<br />
Then in June 15, 2005 12:21 AM in the When will the Operational Art of War meet Combat Mission thread...<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Who would be foolish enough to build such a campaign system anyway? Must have rocks in their heads "</blockquote>
</blockquote>
...<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Anyways congrats Hunter. Still can't figure out how you managed to do it. Must have been incredibly frustrating. Tip of the hat from one programmer to another. Get a move on though...my brain is starting to hurt from playing ASL and I can't wait to ditch it for your game.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Another noted that Hunting Tank Software had posted adverts going back to 2003 for programmers:<br />
<br /></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
And another one from February 2003:</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Hunting Tank Software is looking for an additional analyst / programmer =<br />
to work on our first title, a turn-based WWII Operational Level Wargame.<br />
<br />
Candidates should have knowledge and experience with (in order of =<br />
importance):<br />
- Python<br />
- XP (Unit Testing, Pair Programming, Object Oriented Design and =<br />
Programming)<br />
- Pattern Programming<br />
<br />
Familiarity with wargames of this genre would be useful.<br />
<br />
The position will be Part or Full time (to be negotiated), and will =<br />
involve work in the Melbourne area (Brighton and CBD) and possibly some =<br />
work from home.</blockquote>
<br />
When the opportunity arose later, several of us sent in c.v. to apply for a spot in the beta test and campaign design team. Much of the detail is lost to memory, other than there was a long - long - wait. The testers were hamstrung by what they could do; basically wait for the code, and the project was - and I don't recall when we were informed - stalled by the loss of one of the main coders. There was really no idea when the project would be finished.<br />
<br />
In November 2005, battlefront could only <a href="http://www.battlefront.com/community/showpost.php?p=1021173&postcount=6" target="_blank">announce</a> they would do their best to release it before the new game engine premiered.<br />
<br />
In July 2006, battlefront was <a href="http://www.armchairgeneral.com/battlefront-interview.htm?page=1" target="_blank">interviewed by Armchair General</a>. They mentioned that "After the last three recent releases (Strategic Command 2, DropTeam and at the beginning of July For Liberty!), we still have a few games in development which we’re (very loosely) planning to release towards the end of the year – among them HistWar, the Combat Mission Campaigns add-on to CMBB, and our own new Combat Mission game, Shockforce." As it turned out, HistWar was never released by battlefront, and Shock Force had another year of gestation.<br />
<br />
The campaign designers dutifully did their bit. It involved creating 2km x 2km tactical maps in the CM:BB game. Each operational area required a matrix of these maps. The main CM:C game would then generate battles to be played on them (alternately, CM:C could be played as a game unto itself, without kicking out data to be resolved in CM:BB).<br />
<br />
The campaign designers attacked the projects with relish; I had the help of a talented map-maker who called himself Sergei, who whipped up 180 or so maps depicting terrain around Mcensk, based on a wartime map and other references. Others worked on Brest-Litovsk, Stalingrad, Berlin, Kursk, and points in between. The work spanned a period of six months.<br />
<br />
In the meantime, we finally saw the early drafts of the game. Perhaps the worst video wargame ever was something called "Avalon Hill's Squad Leader", a horrible little 3D man-to-man turn based thing that borrowed the famous board game's name, and nothing else. It was depicted in an isometric kind of 3D view, borrowed from Soldiers at War. And so was the CM:C operational layer. It had cheesy little icons, and worse, no 2D map. Some of us expressed our doubts - an operational wargame without a map? The player was supposed to plot movement for companies and battalions and translate their movement and plan their eventual combat on the 3D CMBB terrain based on the operational layer - and yet the only hint as to how the terrain related to that layer was in little cutesy "sprites." Perhaps I simply wasn't clear on the whole intent. It just seemed bad.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZwxmgu9d5Fxdex4HFP7qm6wD0Iaf6zUyzdqdybp9wPFOvrV8pn2zZe30LUKk57Idg-NxDGyFmMdhyphenhyphenIqu95G9b_ieQA3CeElkb_LPaWoA-Cc0BvD441supX7NRuAO_JMSX_e9Id6KygXY/s1600/pic1151145.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZwxmgu9d5Fxdex4HFP7qm6wD0Iaf6zUyzdqdybp9wPFOvrV8pn2zZe30LUKk57Idg-NxDGyFmMdhyphenhyphenIqu95G9b_ieQA3CeElkb_LPaWoA-Cc0BvD441supX7NRuAO_JMSX_e9Id6KygXY/s320/pic1151145.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Each tile on this map represented a 2km by 2km CMBB map (divided into 1 x
1 quadrants). How you were supposed to tell what the CMBB map really
looked like was never explained in the rules.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
So did the sound effects. And so did the horrendous loading times, which thankfully got better as the project progressed.<br />
<br />
Time wore on. Shock Force was released, and I parted company with battlefront - so my beta testing stint was over. I watched the project with interest and kept in touch with other testers but even by the time I left, Bruce had largely stopped posting in the development forum. So had everyone else. It was sad. Even as goofy as the interface looked, there was hope that it might at least be fun to play - or that one could develop some work arounds - no game being perfect, one can always add their own enhancements. Printing paper maps of the CMBB world could have made the sprite-infested ops map at least bearable. Part of me thought that enough player feedback post-release would convince the designer to review some of those decisions - just get it released, and make it a hit, and the community will carry you along on, helping you out after that. <br />
<br />
It wasn't to be. <br />
<br />
In February 2009, after four years, Bruce Poon announced what many had speculated. <a href="http://www.battlefront.com/community/showpost.php?p=1125504&postcount=1" target="_blank">The plug was finally pulled</a> - and in heartbreaking fashion.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I regret that I have had to cancel the development of Combat Mission Campaigns, at least in its present form, and possibly in any form.<br />
<br />
What went wrong<br />
<br />
CMC was a major undertaking, and I certainly underestimated how long it would take to develop. I was probably way too ambitious. Just building an interface to CMBB was one thing, and a tricky one at that, given that CMBB had not originally been designed with that end in mind. But as well as that there was an engine that enabled 'relative spotting' for each commander, given the reports that he would have access to from his subordinates, including communication delays and so on. I had never seen this done before in a comprehensive way, for any game or simulation, and it caused some considerable complexity.<br />
<br />
CMC was designed to be a 'grognard's dream', with every aspect of WWII warfare included at some level. It has a very sophisticated supply model, air forces, weather and 9 different ground conditions with associated (2D!) graphics, artillery support, tactical reserves, entrenchment, etc, etc. There is a ridiculously large code base handling everything from medals to soldier promotions to strategic AI.<br />
<br />
The problem is that it took too long to develop, and the core engine proved unstable and difficult to fix. I find myself in the position this New Year of having something that is arguably 99% done, and yet we cannot nail the key bugs which prevent release (and no one wants to release something that is deficient). Just like the same time last year. And the year before that.<br />
<br />
There have been some talented people dedicate work to the project, only to leave for a variety of reasons throughout (better career, family tragedy, etc). Each time this happens, on such a small team, it causes disruption and complication in new people coming up to speed. It generally takes some months for them to be at peak productivity.<br />
<br />
Unlike most major commercial titles, but similar to CMBB, this was developed on a 'shoestring', without the support of a major backer. That means that it cost me personally the bulk of my life savings and my earnings over the last few years. I have run out of passion for working on it, and money to fund it. Keeping one or several programmers busy simply from the funds I personally earn in the computer industry has been possible, but increasingly painful.<br />
<br />
It has been clear for some time that any proceeds from the sale of the game would not meet the expenditure. Nevertheless, I persisted with it because I did not wish to see the effort go to waste, I wanted to provide something entertaining, and I am very, very stubborn.<br />
<br />
Work ceased over a month ago now. I already feel better, like the man who stops hitting his head against a wall. Apologies for not releasing news of this earlier, but there are some processes.<br />
<br />
Apologies and Thanks<br />
<br />
I lend my apologies to the fans who wished to see the kind of campaign system that CMC was intended to provide.<br />
<br />
Thanks to the beta testers who helped out, creating maps, campaigns, providing feedback, testing buggy software, etc.<br />
<br />
An even greater apology to those who volunteered time and effort to help with manual development or graphics. Especially so, Marco Bergman who personally created THOUSANDS of graphical images covering units, vehicles, interface, etc. I feel badly for someone who has worked so hard voluntarily and does not even see the title released. And there were others.<br />
<br />
Battlefront, through Martin and Charles, have put a lot of effort into this game as well, while pushing forward with their other titles.<br />
<br />
The Future<br />
<br />
As promised, we have made the source code and other assets available for the community. Too much work, sweat and blood was invested by too many people to let it simply vanish. And who knows, maybe there are skilled individuals out there who have the time and energy to take what we have and lead it to a conclusion.<br />
<br />
The source code and other files have been uploaded and are available as an open source project from sourceforge.net here:<br />
<br />
http://sourceforge.net/projects/cmcampaigns<br />
<br />
If you are interested to become part of the project, please feel free to join the sourceforge.net project.<br />
<br />
There are two important things to note:<br />
- the files are released AS IS. There is a set of documents released and downloadable from sourceforge. That is all the documentation you're going to get. There will be no further support for this project from us.<br />
- all files are released under the GNU GPL Copyleft license. This means that not only are they open source, any derivates based on them have to be open source, too, and may not be commercially exploited. We strongly suggest that you read the GNU GPL 3.0 license text (it's available under the "Documentation" tab on the sourceforge project) to avoid any nasty misunderstandings about this in the future.<br />
<br />
If I had ever released the game, I would certainly have dedicated it to those who fell in that terrible conflict, whose suffering puts all our troubles in perspective.<br />
<br />
Cheers,<br />
Hunter</blockquote>
<br />
The loss of the dreams of hundreds (or more?) gamers' dream product must pale in comparison to the loss of an individual's personal fortune. It was hard to read; it's hard to read now. Some programmers in the online CM community have looked at the source code, and it doesn't seem that much can be done with it - perhaps one day if the original CM code was ever released - which battlefront has vowed won't happen - something could come of it, but then, the original CM is already 11 years old.<br />
<br />
Wargames that combine operational strategy with company-level tactics are a rarity - had Combat Mission: Campaigns succeeded, it would have occupied a unique place in the wargaming niche. As someone who had a tiny glimpse into its gestation, I doubt it would have been the Holy Grail we all look for. With all due respect to Bruce, who poured heart, soul and livelihood into it, I just can't see the sprite-driven map, dated graphics and limited capabilities (only two nationalities, non-scalable maps, etc.) catching on. But I think it would have gained a small but loyal audience, much like the other CM titles, and encouraged refinements and updates.<br />
<br />
I hope someday, someone gets a product like this right. I'm not brave enough to risk my own treasure on the notion there is a market for it, but I hope there are developers as brave as Bruce Poon that are.M.Doroshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09742262581616285671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587723021467018459.post-13059973846291435832011-11-05T21:20:00.000-06:002016-05-04T21:22:55.127-06:00Nijmegen: A Walk Through the Battlefield
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Climax at Nijmegen Bridge debuted as Scenario 34 in <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/5293/gi-anvil-victory">GI: Anvil of Victory</a>, and was redone in <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/243/advanced-squad-leader">ASL</a>
terms for the GI's Dozen scenario bundle by MMP as scenario U4. Like
many (good) ASL scenarios, it compresses actual historical events and
takes liberties with the historical terrain to conform to the
constraints of the geomorphic mapboards.<br /><br />The story of
MARKET-GARDEN is well known, but the fighting in Nijmegen is often
overlooked even by enthusiasts of this operation. The fighting in the
city, as well as the nearby Groesbeek heights, has been relatively
under-reported, even during the events that transpired there. Only two
war correspondents were assigned to the division, both of whom covered
the battle on the heights while the drama inside Nijmegen itself
unfolded. In the words of historian Tim Saunders, as a consequence
“there has never been the level of interest or knowledge that this
highly significant battle deserves.” It is often not realized, for
example, that there were two bridges in Nijmegen, a railway bridge and a
road bridge, and references in histories to "the Nijmegen bridge"
abound.</dd><dd class="right"></dd><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: 7pt;">Modern day road map of Nijmegen.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></div>
When
the 82nd Airborne landed at Nijmegen on September 17th, it managed to
capture the Grave bridge intact. At 18:00hrs, two companies of the 1st
Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment (1/508) were sent to seize a
bridge over the Waal at Nijmegen; a rail bridge and a road bridge
further east both spanned the river. The company ran into machine-guns
and an armoured halftrack as it penetrated into the city, and engaged in
a firefight in the Keizer Karel Plein, a large traffic roundabout.
German commanders had decided that Nijmegen would be a centre of main
effort – a Schwerpunkt – and the reconnaissance battalion of the 9th SS
Panzer Division had been hurriedly dispatched to bolster the defences
there, along with a battle group of mixed elements from the 10th SS
Panzer Division. Their orders were to block Allied troops in the south
long enough to annihilate the British in the Oosterbeek area. The
seizure of the north ramp of the Arnhem bridge put a hamper on further
German reinforcements, isolating units in the Nijmegen area,
notwithstanding those units now willing to endure a long flanking march
and slow ferry ride across the Rhine well upstream.<br /><br />Other
reinforcements in the immediate area, however, were activated and thrown
into a ring around the bridges, including a company of the Hermann
Goering Training Regiment which had happened to be in transit on that
day, three companies of trainees from nearby Military District 6, and a
number of other forces including NCO candidates, railway guards, reserve
police, anti-aircraft units, and replacement infantry companies.<br /><br />The
arrival of SS reinforcements had halted all forward motion by 1/508 and
the Americans stopped for the night, all thought of capturing a bridge
now vanished. The local resistance did pass on that the Post Office in
Nijmegen contained one of the firing mechanisms for destroying the
bridges, and that same night a patrol assaulted the building. The
paratroopers seized the building and destroyed the firing mechanism;
they were then counter-attacked and held out for three days as food,
water and ammunition slowly ran out and the rest of 1/508 first pulled
back to the south of Nijmegen, and then received orders to withdraw to
the Groesbeek heights to reorganize.<br /><br />A new crisis materialized on
the 18th, when the Germans seized dropping zones from the 82nd on the
Groesbeek Heights. A single company in Nijmegen was all that could be
spared to continue the assault towards the main objective, the bridges
over the Waal. Company G, of the 3rd Battalion of the 508th P.I.R.
attempted to bypass German resistance in the Keizer Karel Plein and
brushed through a number of rear echelon troops until finally running
into SS defences close to the bridge, stiffened by artillery fire, and
again fell short of taking the road bridge – though they had come within
100 yards of the near ramp.<br /><br /><div class="tac">
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The Keizer Karel Plein today shows no evidence of the 20mm gun and German infantry positions dug into the grounds in 1944.</div>
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<br /><span style="font-size: 7pt;"></span>On
the 19th, contact was made between the leading elements of the ground
forces of British 30th Corps, and the U.S. paratroopers in Grave.
Daimler armoured cars of the 2nd Household Cavalry led the division into
the city, and were soon engaged with German heavy flak guns; the
heaviest armament the Daimlers could bring to bear with their small
2-pounder (40mm) guns. They exchanged fire with German anti-aircraft
units across the river, and soon the divisional artillery joined in as
well, answered by fire from German 10.5cm pieces. Additional troops
prepared to assault both the road and rail bridges, split into two
forces:<br /><br /><b>Western Force ( Railway Bridge)</b><br /><span style="color: #ff9900;">tank troop from No. 3 Sqn, 2/Grenadier Guards</span><br /><span style="color: #ff9900;">platoon from No. 2 Coy, 1/Grenadier Guards</span><br /><span style="color: #33cc00;">Company D, 2/505 P.I.R.</span><br /><br /><b>Eastern Force (Road Bridge)</b><br /><span style="color: #ff9900;">3 troops of tanks from No. 3 Sqn, 2/Grenadier Guards<br />3 platoons from No. 2 Coy, 1/Grenadier Guards</span><br /><span style="color: #00cc00;">Companies E & F, 2/505 P.I.R.</span><br /><br />A
look at the scenario card for ASL Scenario U4 shows that the research
for this was well done; the unit designations match exactly to that of
the Eastern Force. Though the prelude on the card correctly identifies
the objective as the "road bridge" it does not mention the rail bridge.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: 7pt;"><div class="tac">
Current Google Earth map of the area of the road bridge (today known as James Gavinweg).</div>
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<br />The
Eastern Force came under fire 300 yards from the Road Bridge, as it
entered the Keizer Lodwijk Plein; the Germans were heavily fortified in
stone houses and in the grounds of an ancient fortification called the
Valkhof (incorrectly called "Valkhol" on the scenario card).</dd><dd class="right"></dd><dd class="right"><span style="font-size: 7pt;"><div class="tac">
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Buildings
overlooking Keizer Lodwijk Plein in which Lieutenant Dawson of No. 2
Company, Grenadier Guards and his men sought cover. They used automatic
weapons on the enemy to their front and killed a considerable number of
men, according to the divisional history, but return fire from an 88mm
gun scored a direct hit on their house, which caused it to be
evacuated.The building is marked "1" in the map above. The camera is
facing south.</div>
</span><br />Three British tanks were knocked
out in exchanges with German flak and anti-tank guns; attempts to gain
an advantage by flanking the Germans through the side streets failed to
succeed and the Eastern Force withdrew under heavy German artillery
fire.<div class="tac">
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<span style="font-size: 7pt;"><div class="tac">
Tanks
of 2./Grenadier Guards were knocked out in this square, which leads
into the Valkhof Gardens. The square is marked "2" in the map above. The
camera is looking south.</div>
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<br />The Western Force, like
the Eastern Force, advanced with the paratroopers riding on the tanks
and the British infantry mounted in armoured carriers. This force also
ran into heavy opposition and were unable to penetrate to the rail
bridge. Major General James Gavin, the divisional commander of the 82nd
Airborne, enquired to the commander of 30th Corps about the availability
of boats, and a plan was drawn up to push across U.S. paratroopers
across the Waal to try and put pressure on the Germans from the northern
end of the river. The Guards Armoured Division's Royal Engineer Field
Park Squadron had 26 assault boats which were ordered to the front. The
3rd Battalion of the 504th P.I.R. was to cross the Waal while forces in
Nijmegen continued to attack the approaches to the bridges. The river
crossing is well known as ASL scenario 25 Gavin's Gamble - the scenario
card for which does not make a distinction between the rail and road
bridges, and speaks as if there was one single "Nijmegen Bridge."<br /><br />On
the afternoon of September 20th, the date on which ASL Scenario U4
takes place, renewed attacks on the railway bridge moved closer, and
buildings around Kronenburger Park were cleared, as the U.S.
paratroopers learned a new method of house-to-house fighting, now
fighting from rooftop to rooftop. The river crossing took place two
miles to the west of Nijmegen. The crossing began after many
postponements at 15:00hrs with artillery and mortar fire providing the
smoke screen; the river was 175 yards wide and one report states that
the boats travelled the first 100 yards without a shot being fired. The
Germans had not expected an attempt to cross "one of Europe's widest and
fast(est) flowing rivers in daylight", in the words of one of the
German divisional commanders, and the notion was disregarded as
"inconceivable and dismissed as suicidal." Only scattered outposts had
been placed out on the Waal. The infantry landed in good order on the
far bank, and Royal Engineers started shuttling heavy weapons over. The
Hof van Holland, a 17th Century fortress, 500 metres from the north end
of the railway bridge, with earthen banks and a wide water-filled moat,
was next to be taken, and was blasted by fire from the south bank. By
18:00hrs the paratroopers had not only taken the fort but had driven on
and flown the American flag from the north end of the railway bridge.
Resistance began to melt away at the south end during the evening, but
the success never got reported up the chain of command, or else the
importance of the news never resonated with higher headquarters, who
remained fixated on the road bridge. (Incidentally, the river crossing
was simulated in <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/5289/yanks-asl-module-3">Yanks</a>
scenario Gavin's Gamble (ASL 25) - often singled out as a "dog" because
of the ability of German defenders to "skulk" - that is, duck back out
of the way of American defensive fire, then advance into their positions
again because of the peculiarities of the multi-phase turn system in
ASL.)<br /><div class="tac">
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The
Valkhof Gardens (numbered "3" in the map above) are home to several
fortifications, including the Belvedere, a tall tower (which is perhaps
what the scenario card is referring to when it says "the action centred
around a medieval tower), and two ancient brick chapels; this is a
current view of one of them.</div>
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</span><br /><br />Half an hour after the
river crossing started, British and American infantry were jumping off
on yet another attack north towards the road bridge. The Valkhof Gardens
had by now been fortified by engineers with crawl trenches and barbed
wire. During the desperate fighting, a garbled radio message that the
paratroopers across the river had "reached the northern edge of the
bridge" was misunderstood to refer to the road bridge, not the rail
bridge, and orders were given to the Grenadier Guards to dash ahead. A
squadron of tanks – the last uncommitted reserves in the city – went
forward and five managed to make it onto the bridge where they found
German engineers working; there they engaged the engineers then
dismounted to cut the cables of the demolitions. <br /><br />The fighting
for the road bridge had been intense but little of it had taken place in
urban terrain; Hunner Park and the Valkhof Gardens are a treed
green-space which the SS had fortified, located on high ground
overlooking both the bridge and the inner city.<br /></dd><dd class="right"></dd><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<dd class="right"><br />Top
view shows the location of the former police station (at left) now
occupied by a more modern building, from which King's Company, 1st
(Motor) Battalion Grenadier Guards attacked up a then-rubble covered
slope into the Valkhof Gardens. The camera is looking in the direction
of the Waal. The next photo shifts the viewpoint to the right, showing
the top of the Belvedere in the background. This attack gained a toehold
into the Valkhof, and eventually supported the advance of No. 4
Company, and of E and F Companies of 2/505 PIR. <br /><br /><b>Future Depictions in Wargames</b><br /><br />Nijmegen,
and the Waal, have been a popular subject for pop culture depictions;
the river crossing was a focal point of the movie A Bridge Too Far, as
was the final rush by British tanks to cross the road bridge. Several SL
and ASL scenarios have been set there, depicting the river crossing,
road bridge fight, and German counter-attack to take the bridges (which
resulted in a Medal of Honor being awarded to a US paratrooper). Given
the tight concentration of terrain and relatively small forces involved,
one could envision a Historical ASL module, and with the focus of the
next <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/videogameseries/6028/combat-mission">Combat Mission</a>
releases including both British and - it is hoped - SS troops, quite
possibly Nijmegen might feature in the plans of scenario designers for
that series as well. One doubts the final word has been written on the
subject. </dd></dl>
M.Doroshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09742262581616285671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587723021467018459.post-77868821689748973802011-09-28T18:11:00.001-06:002011-09-28T18:17:03.464-06:00Age Old Wargaming Questions as they relate to Combat Mission: Battle for NormandyThe latest entry in the tactical wargamer's PC library, if he is interested in 20th Century ground warfare, is most likely Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy. A demo is available <a href="http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=277&Itemid=477">at this link</a> for those not yet familiar with the game. The various <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_Mission_%28video_game_series%29">Wikipedia entries</a> describe the history of the game, and you can find find some screenshots at <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/videogameseries/6028/combat-mission">videogamegeek</a>. Anyone who has followed the game series since the first title can't help but be a student of the various changes - not just in feature sets, but in game design philosophies that have driven the publishers. Certainly, they have been the subject of much discussion, both on the <a href="http://www.battlefront.com/community/index.php">official forums</a> and elsewhere. <br />
<br />
<b>Definitions</b><br />
<br />
It is sometimes useful to take a step back and define meanings of words and phrases that come up in conversation. As one spends more time navigating sites devoted to wargames - and even that word can be a loaded one, as not everyone agrees that Combat Mission, in its current form, represents their idea of a "wargame" in something other than a strict dictionary definition - one finds many of the same themes being repeated.<br />
<br />
What is more interesting is to find out that those same conversations and words have been repeated for decades now. All fields of human endeavour often show a proclivity to repeat patterns of behaviour, and it seems that wargame design - and I'll use the term "wargame" because I believe it still applies to Combat Mission - is one of them.<br />
<br />
My case in point is an article I recently uncovered in an issue of<i> <a href="http://tacticalwargamer.com/magazines/panzerfaustcampaign/panzerfaustcampaign.htm">Campaign Magazine</a></i> from 1978.<br />
<br />
<b>Simulation vs. Gamesmanship</b><br />
<br />
In an article in Issue 87 of <i>Campaign</i>, Len Kanterman and Doug Bonforte had this to say:<br />
<blockquote><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://tacticalwargamer.com/magazines/panzerfaustcampaign/87.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://tacticalwargamer.com/magazines/panzerfaustcampaign/87.jpg" width="242" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Campaign Number 87</span></b><span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>...Dr. J.E. Pournelle touched on one of the controversies facing game designers (in a recent article): simulation versus gamesmanship, otherwise known as Realism versus Playability. This was a big subject several years back...Since then, the philosophy of simulation has been largely adopted in game designs, due primarily to the phenomenal rise of Jim Dunnigan's <i>Strategy & Tactics </i>organization...Unfortunately, S&T's attempt to present historical information through its games has resulted in games that are difficult to play and not very enjoyable. While not all S&T games are difficult...even (the less difficult ones) lack something. This "something" is harder to put your finger on, but can be called for lack of a better word, <i>flavor.</i> S&T games lack the excitement, drama, and challenge the old Avalon Hill games had. Their rules may duplicate the mode of warfare at the time, but don't capture the "feeling" of the historical era. </blockquote>Without a doubt, this article could not be mistaken for anything but an opinion piece. I've no idea if the opinion of the authors was widely shared or not. It does draw parallels to conversations currently taking place in the CM communities.<br />
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For the record, the official stance of the publisher was stated on release in this <a href="http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=96372">forum announcement</a> (emphasis below in original):<br />
<blockquote>Before you, our favorite Refresh Monkeys™, get your little paws on the Demo, I wanted to say a few words about the pending release of the Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy.<br />
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What we're about to release is a <b>GAME</b>. It is something to be played with and enjoyed, hopefully for longer than the time to download/install <img alt="" border="0" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.battlefront.com/community/images/smilies/smile.gif" title="Smile" /> Yes, it's also a serious simulation, but that's merely a means of providing a more enjoyable gaming environment. After all, if this wasn't about having fun then how many of us would be interested in it?<br />
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It is also important to remember that we're not releasing "the perfect wargame", or even "the perfect game". There are no such things, therefore by definition there will be issues to raise here on this Forum. It's important to keep this in mind as we start in with the discussions that dissect and reduce a massive game down to a few bits and pieces for a particular topic of discussion. It's all too easy to get so wrapped up with the minutia and have that detract from enjoying the fullness of what the game has to offer. In all cases let's remember to keep criticism constructive, respectful, and within reason. It's important because that sort of feedback opens the door to improvements, while the opposite is harmful.</blockquote>The announcement reads as an interesting mix of rededication to the original <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20020228010318/http://www.battlefront.com/about/about_festo.html">Battlefront Manifesto</a> and almost an appeal for mercy. The orginal manifesto is still available from an internet archive. The quote from it below is from April 2001.<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #999999;">1</span></span> <span style="color: #009c00; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular; font-size: medium;"> </span><br />
<blockquote style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Our strategy is twofold. First, we outflank the Retail distribution problem with technology: the Internet. It’s cheap, totally within our control, and is without the artificial pressures of </span><span style="font-size: small;"><b>The Industry</b></span><span style="font-size: small;">. We can do this because we don’t have to to sell hundreds of thousands of units each and every 6 months just to stay in business. Therefore, we don’t have to produce games that appeal to the lowest common denominator. Battlefront.com is about enjoyable, intelligent gaming, not Hollywood budgets, hype, and mass-market insanity. The only limit is the interest of all you wargamers out there, and we’re one of the few companies who think your interest matters!</span><span style="color: #009c00; font-size: small;"></span></blockquote><div style="font-family: inherit;"></div><blockquote style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #009c00; font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">The complementary half of the plan is community building. We want Battlefront.com to become a haven where wargamers come to discover and discuss games, military history, favorite strategies, feedback, you name it. It will also be a place - perhaps the only place - on the internet or anywhere else where you can buy first-rate wargames that haven’t “sold out” and become watered-down, thin gruel for the twitch crowd. </span> </span></blockquote><b>Relationships with "Gamers"</b><b></b><br />
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It is not unreasonable to take the developer/publisher at their word, and examine Combat Mission in its intended guise, as a game, though Battlefront splits the difference by their own words and tells us it is "also" a "serious simulation." Conversations, going back decades now, have popularly put the two notions in opposition to each other. But most telling in the pre-release announcement above was the plea for mercy - perhaps not so much a plea, as an announcement within an announcement that conversations about the direction of future changes would take a different tone. Which seems to be at odds with that original manifesto.<br />
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It matters, because there are some gamers who believe this interaction between gamer and publisher is crucial. Again from the article in 1978:<br />
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<blockquote>To revitalize wargaming out of the simulation doldrums it is presently in, game designing must be made a more dynamic proposal. As anyone who's ever tried designing a game knows, it's never really finished. There are always a few more "finishing touches" that can be added. Instead of being limited to the designers and a few playtesters, this process should be opened up to all gamers. If designers explain how games were designed, players can begin treating rules as something less than gospel truth. The player is now a passive partner in game design. He can only accept what is offered to him, and he has no real foundation for correcting what he doesn't like. </blockquote>These words were written with respect to hex and cardboard games, but they are obviously applicable to hard-coded computer games. No one would doubt there is more to be done with Battlefront's CMX2 game engine. No one would suggest the engine itself should be literally "opened up to all gamers" to tinker with, but certainly a deeper understanding of how and why things work - beyond the purely mechanical of the game code - would be helpful. <br />
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One commentator on battlefront's approach to "explain(ing) how (their) games were designed" had <a href="http://forums.gamesquad.com/showthread.php?101092-Why-so-few-reviews&p=1434678&viewfull=1#post1434678">this to say</a>:<br />
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<blockquote>Wargame rules can be arbitrary, but you get them written down in English and in paper, and quite often accompanied by a rationale under the title "Designer Notes". This approach to <i>documenting</i> the game might not appeal (to) the casual reader, but it's quite informative. BFC appeal to our intuition with 1:1 modeling and lush 3d graphics, but both the representation on the screen and the modeling are at odds with it. </blockquote>Battlefront has been adamant, and with good reason, that involving the audience in things like <a href="http://www.battlefront.com/community/showpost.php?p=1105517&postcount=32">adding free content</a> will never happen. The rationale for not publishing more detailed "designer's notes" is less clear, but apparently is not confined to any one company, or wargaming medium, since it has been a topic of discussion for decades now. They might prevent these<a href="http://forums.gamesquad.com/showthread.php?101092-Why-so-few-reviews&p=1434650&viewfull=1#post1434650"> kinds of posts</a>:<br />
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<blockquote>The best example is the stepped degradation of optics and fire control. There seem to be 4 or 5 standard steps that no matter where it hits, it gets reduced one step. There may be some reality to that with back up sights and such, but I had a Leopard 2 hit on the rear deck that ended up dropping optics down a level. I have no idea what that means or how it happens. </blockquote>Similar questions continue in the Normandy title, as evidenced by <a href="http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=100486">this thread</a>, which includes this comment:<br />
<blockquote>Sub-system damage never made any sense to me in CMSF or this game. There are some indications it is hit-point based, but it never makes enough sense for me to work it out.</blockquote>After three days of discussion, the publisher has not provided a response, or directed respondents to an FAQ. <br />
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<b>Gamer and Designer as Equals</b><br />
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Kanterman and Bonforte ended their article by suggesting that "If players and designers begin interacting as equals, the hobby will take on a totally new dimension." It's an interesting proposition, though on the face ot if one would need to clarify before declaring it still valid, with respect to computer games. As pointed out in the post referenced above, expecting fanbases to directly contribute computer code is probably not workable. In many ways, fan contribution does happen already, inasmuch as games like Combat Mission depend on volunteer scenario designers and beta testers to populate their releases. As someone with direct experience working on several beta teams on various tactical wargame projects, both board and computer based, I can personally attest that there is a certain amount of input (dependent on the personalities involved) that testers may have on the actual design of the game, via feedback to the developers during the research stage.<br />
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The article from 1978 makes some interesting points that still apply, but I would suggest that they may have wanted to divide their attention between pre-release input and post-release input. A famous military artist once told me that his favourite come-back to "know it all" critics was to use the line "where were you when I needed you", i.e., <i>before</i> the project was completed and released to the public. <br />
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<b>Conclusion</b><br />
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The "Realism vs. Playability" debate is not one I intended to enter into; merely comment that it has been ongoing for decades and will go on for as long as hobbyists enjoy wargames. Rather than be disappointed that this dichotomy can never be resolved, I think it may pay publishers - and gamers - dividends to look at successful models from the past to find strategies for communication. FAQ lists, Designer's Notes, and bilateral communication on design decisions seem like good models to adopt. Whether gamers and designers should be "equals", as suggested by Kanterman and Bonforte, in the design phase is still in my opinion open to debate.<br />
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<b>My question(s) to you</b><br />
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Can a game designed by committee really be superior? Kanterman and Bonforte mention in their conclusion that a game author who "relates what his interpretation was based on" gives players a "guide to creating a better (game)." Battlefront has stated publicly that allowing free content additions to their games would be "competing with themselves." Is there a valid disincentive to publishing designer's notes?<br />
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<b>Notes</b><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">1. Though the manifesto is referred to by Steve Grammont as having been published as early as 1998 in <a href="http://wwww.battlefront.com/community/showpost.php?p=1159836&postcount=18">this post</a> which references the current, 2008 version, which rewrites the 1998 version.</span>M.Doroshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09742262581616285671noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587723021467018459.post-50424988305054349642011-09-03T20:08:00.000-06:002011-09-03T22:21:44.988-06:00Buildings in Tactical Wargames
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<br />This subject seems to be coming up in various communities recently. One of the criticisms being levelled at <a href="http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=274&Itemid=457">Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy</a> is that houses afford too little protection to infantry. In the Advanced Squad Leader world, the latest edition of their own journal devoted 12 entire pages to an article on "Key Building Defense."
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<br />Given the amount of discussion of the subject, you would conclude the topic is somewhat important; at first blush one might even ask: what's to conclude? Hiding behind a wall is safer than being out in the open - it's a non-starter.
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<br />Let's go back a bit, first.
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Background </span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxIZFXDxIoICjiT6S-1NwUtX751KkoXi7zrkB2Ce2L4FQBqHSioU786IqTcC_wPKfZTtSk02sC4DdJMP4cEFLQFJZPiNPBB676HWCSc-TyM_YOVSejqhoWIMRXB5omc8WWvrT5gb0aNPo/s1600/JoshuaJebb.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 147px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxIZFXDxIoICjiT6S-1NwUtX751KkoXi7zrkB2Ce2L4FQBqHSioU786IqTcC_wPKfZTtSk02sC4DdJMP4cEFLQFJZPiNPBB676HWCSc-TyM_YOVSejqhoWIMRXB5omc8WWvrT5gb0aNPo/s200/JoshuaJebb.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648314189113841122" border="0" /></a>Lieutenant Colonel Joshua Jebb of the Royal Engineers, pictured at right, made a modern and scientific study of military approaches to attacking and defending not just military fortifications, but also civilian dwellings, and published his findings in <span style="font-style: italic;">Aide Memoire to the Military Sciences</span> in 1853. His approach to the subject was thoughtful and measured, but above all, indicated that buildings could be successfully defended by infantry given the proper circumstances, notably solid construction, commanding lines of sight/fields of fire, and a clear path of withdrawal, among others. In 1862, as the American Civil War was being fought, the same publication printed an article discussing the concepts of house-to-house fighting inside built-up areas. By 1914, engineers in the world's armies - for centuries, the practitioners of siege operations - were studying and practicing for siege operations in miniature. New weapons were perfected in the 1914-18 war, such as the flamethrower, and old weapons - such as the hand grenade - were modernized with new twists, such as the friction igniter.<span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="color: rgb(192, 192, 192);">1</span></span>
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Modern house clearing</span>
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<br />So even as early as the ACW, armies were thinking about not just attack/defence of isolated strongpoints in individual buildings, but also urban combat, where entire blocks of buildings might become fought over by infantry. Large cities did not become objects of attention in the First World War - mobile warfare advanced at too slow a pace even when the front broke loose of the trenches - but things were to change by the time of the Second World War.
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<br />Tactics for street-fighting in the 1939-45 war were developed in many ways reluctantly. Most armies considered major urban operations as undesirable due to the resources it would require to fight within a large urban centre, and cities were usually considered best bypassed. While the Germans did have their own tactical training in place for urban operations in 1939-40, their operations in places like Calais or Warsaw were the exceptions to the rule.
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<br />Even in open warfare, though, individual buildings still had to be dealt with. German training manuals emphasized deception:
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<br /><blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">Individual farms or other isolated buildings required rather different treatment, as described in</span> Der Feuerkampf der Schutzenkompanie (1940)<span style="font-style: italic;">. In this instance the best plan was for a squad to be placed in cover a few yards to the rear of the structure while the leader adopted an inconspicuous forward observation position...Once enemy troops came into view the rest of the squad could quickly be signalled up into defensive positions in and around the house. In this way the en</span><span style="font-style: italic;">emy would be fooled into thinking the building was undefended until it was too late, when their own men were exposed to fire at disadvantage</span>.<span style="color: rgb(192, 192, 192);font-size:78%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">2</span></span></blockquote>
<br />If there has been argument in the gaming communities about the advantages/disadvantages afforded by buildings, so too has there been in the "real world" on which our tactical wargames are based, at least if some of the reports of the 1st Special Service Force from the Anzio beachhead are any indication. In mid-April 1944, a "lessons learned" document emerged from their experiences, gleaned from every soldier in the Force:
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<br /><blockquote>One of the problems it dealt with was houses: whether to use them or not. One member of 3rd Regiment (1SSF) pointed to their value: "Houses are not death traps but give protection from artillery and mortar fire," he argued, "and patrols will not be surprised in them if they are properly out posted." Someone had a different opinion:
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<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">If your intention is to secure a house, you do not get in it. Place your fie</span><span style="font-style: italic;">lds of fire to cover it. Basically you were probably not given the mission of holding the house but of engaging the enemy in that vicinity. The house will likely attract the enemy. That </span><span style="font-style: italic;">is all value the house has to your operation 90% of the time.
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<br /></span>And a third added this warning:
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<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">A patrol from a neighbouring infantry outfit, 13 strong, was sent out to an outpost, a house. Nothing happened for two night. They assumed that nothing would. They relaxed. All members of the patrol were taken PW. A subsequent patrol went to search for them, found all their weapons neatly stacked</span><span style="font-style: italic;">...The enemy patrol apparently was not even large enough to carry off the captured weapons. Never get in a house at night.</span><span style="color: rgb(192, 192, 192);font-size:78%;" >3</span></blockquote>
<br />If tactical wargames reflect the reality that they seek to portray, then it's incumbent on them to address the modelling of troops in buildings. Most games do this with a simple bonus to cover and concealment, often with two or more categories (light/heavy, wood/stone, etc.). The actual tactics for breaching the buildings are not often modelled in detail, for example, rooftop entry, "mouseholing" by use of demolition charge, etc. There are exceptions to this. <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4436/cityfight-modern-combat-in-the-urban-environment">Cityfight</a> (SPI, 1979) was a purpose-designed look at contemporary urban operations in great detail. Likewise, <a href="http://videogamegeek.com/videogame/80863/combat-mission-shock-force">Combat Mission: Shock Force</a> (battlefront.com, 2007) attempted to give similar coverage to 21st Century urban warfare in a videogame treatment.
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Wargaming Examples</span>
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<br />The axioms that Colonel Jebb outlined as early as the 19th Century were sound, and can be applied to any wargame. The ASL Journal advises players defending buildings to protect flanks and ensure escape routes lest defenders become trapped inside buildings.<span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="color: rgb(192, 192, 192);">4</span></span> Test scenarios set up in both <span style="font-style: italic;">Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">Combat Mission: Battle for</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> Normandy</span> reveal the wisdom of this, and you can try this on your own. Put a German heavy MG crew in a building on a flat open piece of terrain. Put three U.S. squads 200-250 metres metres away at three widely divergent compass points. They can all be "out of command" from their headquarters. You can even have the U.S. headquarters charge headlong at the German MG just to have the rifle squads sight the MG and get the test started. What will invariably happen is that the machine gun team, surrounded, will be picked off by rifle fire and the U.S. rifle squads will suffer little, or no, losses.
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<br />However, in CM:AK, when the American rifle squads are put on line, and the German MG is able to benefit from the cover of the building, the expected results occur: the German MG team will remain intact - suffering no losses and firing until it runs out of ammunition. Even under concentrated rifle fire at ranges of 200-250 yards, rifle fire alone will not be enough to have an effect on the MG. On the other hand, the MG will be able to return fire on the infantry in the open and inflict casualties.
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<br />In CM:BN, the German MG team acts uniquely - the Tac AI will almost immediately pack up the machine gun, and retreat outside the building and set up in the lee of the house, highlighting a self-preservation rationale in the AI's decision making. Even when playing from the German side, the Tac AI will override the player's orders and exhibit this behaviour; just one minute into the test scenario, the German MG team, faced with three rifle squads to its front, will pack up its MG and race for the back door of the house in order to redeploy in the lee of the building.
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<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-2HGWHmmcsm2dJaSOImS4A7NpXj32jJDr8VXJfgYdwQT-3NvusfgTXWnuq-YDts4bVDP67MwQHmrUfYzVNFSPxhkSwGK4A82tBB3xQMLY-23sbvfJd93Vybo3ve0jHezMpWlMb0RBbwE/s1600/testscenario.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 190px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-2HGWHmmcsm2dJaSOImS4A7NpXj32jJDr8VXJfgYdwQT-3NvusfgTXWnuq-YDts4bVDP67MwQHmrUfYzVNFSPxhkSwGK4A82tBB3xQMLY-23sbvfJd93Vybo3ve0jHezMpWlMb0RBbwE/s400/testscenario.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648334937292077026" border="0" /></a>
<br />The tempting conclusion here, absent solid data to back up the assertion, is that the building does not offer solid enough cover to the infantry inside. Observational data seem to confirm it - i.e. repeat tests show the infantry inside do suffer losses when exposed to rifle fire at the same ranges as in CM:AK. However, the Americans use rifle grenades with greater frequency in CM:BN, and their use, like that of all weapons, is less abstract.
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">What is "correct"?</span>
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<br />None of which gets one closer to the "truth". The fact of the matter is that given the wide variance of actual practice in real world armies, and the lack of consistency in which success or failure was reported, we may never know what is "right" or "wrong" with regards to the modelling of same on the game board or in computer simulations, or indeed, if such a thing can exist. Timothy Harrison Place, who wrote of Military Training in the British Army, tells us that "The scarcity of evidence makes it impossible to gauge the progress of units towards achieving fluency in minor tactics."<span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="color: rgb(192, 192, 192);">5</span></span> He writes of the training phase, but certainly such confusion must extend to the actual battle phase, for which relatively few detailed technical examinations at the section/squad and platoon level have circulated in the public consciousness.
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<br />All of which is frustrating for the tactical wargamer, who has to spend time - perhaps in "test-bed" scenarios such as the one above - trying to figure out what works, and what doesn't, rather than having the comfort of an easily accessible manual or rulebook that will outline in clear "how-to" terms what to do and what not to do. Then again, that, too, is historical. The major combatants of the Second World War dipped their toes into major urban combat only reluctantly, as we have noted, and developed their doctrine for house-to-house fighting as the war progressed only out of necessity, not desire, particularly after Stalingrad. The British began honing their methods as the threat of invasion loomed in 1940, and in fact their Home Guard were among the pioneers of development, and it was contacts with them that prepared the Canadian Army for the bitter test of Ortona in late 1943 on the Italian front.
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<br />Still; in 1977, there was some comfort for a <span style="font-style: italic;">Squad Leader</span> player of having a nice firm kill stack ensconced in a solid +3 TEM stone building, especially with a solid -2 leader directing the action. One has to ask what those fellows in CM:BN are doing - <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">skulking</span> (this is a term used to describe the specific tactic in ASL of moving one hex in the phasing player's movement phase, to avoid being fired on in the enemy's defensive fire phase, then advancing back into the very same position in his advance phase again, an exploit of the game's unique multi-phase system) - or <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">sulking</span>?
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<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">My question to you</span>
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<br />The traditional breakdown of building types has generally been two - SL/ASL has had wood/stone buildings; CM's various incarnations has generally had light/heavy buildings; <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1608/ambush">Ambush! </a>had light/heavy, etc. Is this enough? Should there be more distinctions for a Second World War era game set in Europe? Just one? Which game has gotten the modelling just right - and which game has gotten it disastrously wrong? The parallelograms from the <span style="font-style: italic;">Sniper!</span> games by SPI have never been popular, visually, but in practice seemed to work okay.
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<br /><span style="color: rgb(192, 192, 192);font-size:78%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtVajDAiXdJijGHut45olO7dxzeZ1m6HJTy0nIVhFozL6LM461ykizxRlrUa5bbROmpHN2JyMbWkkHo-nlRJudVBQztIl1rmQ_4hecbrSfH3V0S9a0ljDdOt87LJocSrGyiHOAuG329-Y/s1600/Sniper.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 273px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtVajDAiXdJijGHut45olO7dxzeZ1m6HJTy0nIVhFozL6LM461ykizxRlrUa5bbROmpHN2JyMbWkkHo-nlRJudVBQztIl1rmQ_4hecbrSfH3V0S9a0ljDdOt87LJocSrGyiHOAuG329-Y/s400/Sniper.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5648354389247172290" border="0" /></a></span></span>
<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Notes</span>
<br /><span style="font-size:78%;">1. Bull, Stephen <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">World War II Street Fighting Tactics</span> (Osprey Publishing Ltd, Botley, Oxford, UK, 2008) ISBN 978-1-84603-291-2pp.3-4</span>
<br /><span style="font-size:78%;">2. Ibid, p.7
<br /></span><span style="font-size:78%;">3. </span><span style="font-size:78%;">Joyce, Kenneth H. <span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Snow Plough and the Jupiter Deception (The Story of the 1st Special Service Force and the 1st Canadian Special Service Battalion, 1942-1945) </span></span>Vanwell Publishing Ltd., St. Catharines, ON, 2006 ISBN 1-55125-094-2
<br />4. Pitcavage, Mark "The Last House on the Left: The Art of Key Building Defense in ASL"<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"> ASL Journal Issue Nine</span></span></span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span></span>(Multi-Man Publishing, 2011) p. 47
<br />5. Harrison Place, Timothy <span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Military Training in the British Army, 1940-1944: From Dunkirk to D-Day </span></span>(Frank Cass, London, UK, 2000) ISBN 071468091-5 p.67
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<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></div><span style="font-style: italic;"></span>M.Doroshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09742262581616285671noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587723021467018459.post-10646264197444398962011-09-03T17:52:00.000-06:002011-09-03T20:07:26.325-06:00Tactical Wargamer's Journal 2A brief post here, to announce the publication of Issue 2 of Tactical Wargamer's Journal.
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<br />Full four-page Index of subjects:
<br /><a href="http://forums.gamesquad.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=34191&d=1314680483">Index Link</a>
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<br />Preview and order link:
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<br /><a href="http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/tactical-wargamers-journal-issue-2/16687992">http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/tactical-wargamers-journal-issue-2/16687992</a>
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<br />Available in both print and electronic download form.
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<br />Link to all titles: <a href="http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/madorosh">Publisher's Spotlight</a>
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<br />The issue is intended as a "gamer's guide" to the American effort in Normandy, with articles - as the preview suggests - on the campaign as a whole (operational overview), analysis of tactical wargame treatments of the American experience there, a guide to U.S. Army uniforms in Normandy for miniature and computer mod artists, a guide to the Sherman tank and its variants, plus extras such as a study of wargame treatments of the Battle of Singling (coincidentally featured this month in both the new Special Ops Issue 1 from Multi-Man Publishing as well as Armchair General magazine), a look at how real life battle procedure compares and contrasts to wargame mechanics, and a list of suggestions of how to write scenario briefings for board, miniature or computer games.
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<br />The issue is larger than issue 1, but unlike the premiere, is available in electronic form in addition to the standard print format, meaning you can view it on a computer screen, iPad or other device, or print it yourself at your convenience.
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<br />M.Doroshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09742262581616285671noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587723021467018459.post-85382876858048707532011-02-08T22:24:00.000-07:002011-02-09T10:37:43.588-07:007 Reasons Stalingrad is so Compelling to the Tactical Wargamer<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">In March 2008, in a discussion at </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/10%20Reasons%20Stalingrad%20is%20so%20Compelling"><span style="font-family:arial;">gamesquad</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"> I did a survey of the “official” Advanced Squad Leader scenarios, in order to determine which campaigns and battles scenario designers were focusing their efforts on more than others. The results were a mixture of anticipated answers with a couple of surprises thrown in.<br /><br />The survey included all the historical modules (of which, at that time, two were set in Normandy on D-Day and two in Stalingrad), Deluxe ASL (again, one of which was set in Normandy), Historical Studies (one set in the Scheldt and another on Guadalcanal), Action Packs, two website scenarios, <em>GI’s Dozen</em> (reprints from <em>G.I.: Anvil of Victory</em>), <em>Out of the Attic</em>, <em>The</em> <em>General</em> (including G series, tournament scenarios, and <em>Squad Leader</em> conversions), the <em>ASL Annual</em>, <em>ASL Journal,</em> and subsequent re-releases by MMP of core modules (i.e. version 3 of <em>Beyond Valor</em> and <em>For King and Country</em>, which featured reprints of earlier <em>Annual/General</em> scenarios – these were counted as separate scenarios for this survey).<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><strong>Some Statistics<br /></strong>The survey showed that Stalingrad was the most popular subject for scenario designers, with 39 separate scenarios taking place within the city proper (this excludes scenarios set during Operation WINTER STORM, the relief efforts, and fighting on the flanks of the cities.) </span></div><div align="justify"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">By contrast, 24 scenarios were set on D-Day in Normandy (June 6, 1944), due in no small part to the<em> Paratrooper</em> module which focused on Normandy actions, as did <em>Hedgerow Hell</em>, the first Deluxe module. No wonder that there were 11 more scenarios set during the first full week in Normandy, D+1 through D+7 (June 7 – 13 inclusive). The most interesting contrast was the fact that for the rest of June, (June 14-30), only three scenarios had been crafted, despite all the hard fighting of V Corps to expand the bridgehead, to cross the Cotentin Peninsula, to advance to Cherbourg, and to take the city, not to mention what the British 2nd Army was doing.<br /><br />And for all of July and August in Normandy, some 61 days, there were only 21 scenarios. And just two depicting the fighting in August in Southern France.<br /><br />By contrast, 31 scenarios were set in the Ardennes Offensive between December 16, 1944 and January 3, 1945 (19 days). MARKET-GARDEN, the Allied offensive in September 1944, is depicted in 26 scenarios, with 13 set in Arnhem. Kursk, the largest (if most misunderstood) tank battle in history had 9 scenarios, while perhaps one of the most important tank battles in the history of the west, Second El Alamein, had exactly one scenario in the published inventory. </span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family:arial;"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 306px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5571560473733180658" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtagp3EEpEVjj5QFqPjtvs-PWwifV-HYOKkAtNsQjLlIYoe_GTa-fJHzP461hWbVtHW4SnJy-sAjujxYvmDwxDx5ass6BzwEhhd1eX9GQ80wPLS7Xd03Tx-EQoO9Jpgu5XPYC0V2-JPgE/s400/blogmap.png" /></span> <p align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />Between 1 September 1944 and 31 December 1944, the Allies deployed 7 full armies in combat on the Western Front. From north to south: 21st Army Group, consisting of 1st Canadian Army and British 2nd Army (and as a point of trivia, that is exactly the order in which the ordinals appear in their names); 12th Army Group, with U.S. 9th Army, U.S 1st Army , and U.S. 3d Army (the Americans, always stingy with letters in their abbreviations, shed the “d” in their ordinal as religiously as the British added the “u” to their armoured units), and the 6th Army Group, with U.S. 7th Army and French 1st Army. During this 122 day period, in which these 7 armies were engaged in major campaigns such as the clearing of the channel ports, the Scheldt estuary, the Hürtgen forest, the Lorraine campaign, and if one excludes the Bulge and southern France (as we have counted them above already), there are exactly 16 scenarios representing this period – but even if every Army (composed of two or more corps, each corps with 2 or more divisions, each division with 2 or more brigades/regiments) produced only one company-sized action (i.e. ASL scenario) per week, one would expect to find fodder for over 100.<br /><br />Sicily, a battle that raged for 38 days, produced 18 scenarios, on the other hand, and the fighting on the Italian mainland eight, due mainly to an Action Pack concentrating on Italian forces, and the unique situation presented by the capitulation and the fighting between former Axis partners. Yet the 92 calendar days for the rest of 1943, from October to December, which includes the Moro River and Ortona, are represented by a single scenario, as are the 128 days of 1945 in which the war was fought up until VE-Day. For the 366 days of 1944 (which was a leap year), there are 11 scenarios, not even one per month, or an average of one every two months for the two Allied armies that fought there (the American 5th and the British 8th.) Put another way, the campaign on the Italian mainland averages a scenario every 45 days. The 10 published scenarios set in Poland in September 1939 have a higher ratio, of one every three days.<br /><br />Why?<br /><br />Surely it can’t be that English-language source material, and on a tactical scale, is easier for researchers to find for Poland than it is for the Scheldt. Can it be that the fighting there just isn’t that interesting?<br /><br />Why should Stalingrad rule the roost? Wasn’t it mostly just guys squatting in buildings?<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><strong>The Truth<br /></strong><br />General discussion of tactical games often reveal ignorance of conditions on the ground – part of the fun of playing them, of course, is in learning new things of the period involved. There is no greater misunderstood period, tactically speaking, than the First World War. The ground work for the combined arms tactics that the Germans so successfully employed in the Second World War was not only laid down in 1917, but arguably perfected by 1918. The best units in the BEF, including the Australians and Canadians – “</span><a href="http://www.penguin.ca/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780670067350,00.html"><span style="font-family:arial;">shock troops</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;">”, in Tim Cook’s phrase – were using artillery, mortars, light machine guns, grenades, bayonets, tanks, and even aircraft in concert to win ground and defeat the enemy. Yet the myth persists that the war was a deadly stalemate dominated by poison gas, where infantry were mere pawns and the military state of the art stagnated for four years. Nothing is further from the truth.<br /><br />Where does our vision of “truth” come from, then? Mostly pop culture depictions. In the 1920s, these were sardonic novels such as "The General Died at Dawn", and "All’s Quiet on the Western Front". They had the ring of verisimilitude about them, and anyone who criticized these works would have been seen as calling into question the suffering of the veterans themselves. The revisionism that Corrigan alludes to in "Mud, Blood and Poppycock" began to build, and was in full swing by the 1960s when films such as "Oh, What A Lovely War" were presenting the war as a useless waste conceived by European elites, conducted by incompetent generals, and suffered through unwillingly by millions of common people who had no choice. This distorted view has been reinforced by television shows such as the fourth series of "Black Adder", which played on the popular understanding of the war to extremely good effect. Outstanding entertainment television it most certainly was; good history, it neither was intended to be, nor one hopes will it be remembered as.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><strong>What do you know?<br /></strong><br />Stalingrad has entered the popular culture via a couple of routes. "Enemy at the Gates", the William Craig book, is perhaps one of the most well known. Written in a style reminiscent of Cornelius Ryan, it is not a scholar’s book, instead painting a broad canvas of the battle, at the same time personalizing it through the eyes of a handful of participants, as if characters in a play. As is well know, the book became a well known movie, though even more well known was the eponymous "Stalingrad" film in 1993, directed by Joseph Vilsmaier. Like "Enemy at the Gates<em>"</em>, though, it was not exactly a documentary about the battle.<br /><br />Those who chose to dig deeper could find some decent titles; Ballantine published an entire volume in their Second World War series, expanding on the standard treatment meted out in general histories of the war. All these sources generally agreed that the battle was monumental, fought in several distinct phases, but never really broke down in tactical terms what happened there, or why – a phenomenon not restricted to books about Stalingrad by any means.<br /><br />Perhaps that is part of the allure. </span></p><p align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;"><strong>1. The Streets of Stalingrad</strong> – For anyone who did play <em>Squad Leader</em>, regardless of whether they progressed to <em>Advanced Squad Leader</em> and left the original series in the dust, or just happened to play a couple of games from the purple-topped original and moved on to other things, they almost had to have started out with the first three scenarios in the rulebook. Using the Programmed Instruction method of learning, the first three scenarios were set in the doomed city, with the now all-too familiar board 1 filling in for the massive Dzerzhinsky Tractor Works complex. It is probably not on anyone’s list of best scenario designs, but it has remained unarguably a set of classics in their own right. And for anyone interested in tactical games, probably whet their appetite for learning – and experiencing – more about the battle.<br /><br /><strong>2. Scope</strong> - For drama, you can’t beat the notion that you’re taking part, however vicariously, in an event that is changing history. Historians, and gamers, will always debate whether or not there was a single turning point of the Second World War. I think there is little debate that there were many obvious changes of fortune even if one doesn’t agree on where they war changed. Stalingrad was without doubt one of those changes of fortune. The scope of the confrontation was enormous; even if one remains ignorant of the numbers involved, the figure of 91,000 Germans going into captivity after the battle is well known, as is the fact that only 5,000 survivors came back to the west 10 years later. A beach is an abstract concept, a bridge, a hill, or a forest, are all difficult to conceptualize or assign a scale to; but to mention the word “city” is to automatically know that it is something bigger and grander than a hamlet, village or town. Whatever Stalingrad was, even if you knew nothing else about it, you know it was big.<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/Stalingradmadonna.jpg/464px-Stalingradmadonna.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 232px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" border="0" alt="" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/Stalingradmadonna.jpg/464px-Stalingradmadonna.jpg" /></a>3. Pathos</strong> – Some of the books that emerged in the immediate post-war decades were similar to the First World War revisionism; the generals and particularly Hitler were targeted as wasteful and stupid and the brave men of the 6th Army portrayed as unwilling sheep. Two novels in German (widely available also in English) are noteworthy; "The Forsaken Army" and "Stalingrad". Particularly emotional is the book "Letters from Stalingrad", notes home from anonymous soldiers of the surrounded 6th Army; history did not record their fate, though the odds of survival can be calculated from the numbers given earlier. The “truth” of the German Army is probably somewhat different than the pop culture depictions since the war; certainly some work (many by Israeli scholars) have pointed out that genocide may have been a much higher priority among field troops than is otherwise suggested in self-serving memoirs, or indeed, letters home at Christmastime by men in beleaguered garrisons. That “truth” probably lies at some point in the middle. In English, the Soviet side has hardly been scratched in the public consciousness; the lay person would be excused if he thought the average “Russian” looked like Jude Law and had a faint British accent.<br /><br /><strong>4. Familiarity</strong> – the more you learn about a place, the more time you want to spend there. Reading about the Tractor Works, the Barrikady, the Grain Elevator, etc., the more intriguing it becomes to think about ways in which they truly differed from each other. Just as the novelizations personalized the battle, histories have as well by imprinting the names of key features into the collective memory. “The Tennis Racquet”, “The Grain Elevator”, Univermag Department Store, “Pavlov’s House”, and the more one learns about the battle, the more places one picks up on. The upcoming <em>Panzer Command</em> update will have a detailed 3D recreation of the railway station area (the same location that ASL’s <em><a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/19829/valor-of-the-guards-asl-historical-module-number-7#information">Valor of the Guards</a></em> map depicts) complete with accurate models of several historical buildings. These locations have become characters in the drama just as much as Paulus (often incorrectly cited as “von”), Chuikov, Zaitsev, et al.<br /><br />Which brings us to:<br /><br /><strong>5. Jason Mark and Charles Kibler</strong> – How you write an informed treatise on Stalingrad without leaving Australia, I don’t know. I suppose someone should ask him. That’s if the story is true. Frankly, I don’t care how he did it; his books on Stalingrad are the current gold standard, despite harrumphing in certain quarters about lack of synthesis in his findings (Glantz is better, they scoff) or that he is simply regurgitating raw data. Here’s a hint to anyone curious about how tactical game scenario designers work: they love raw data. If only for their own purposes. If they can sneak the real name of a participant into a scenario briefing, or point to a shed on a map and say “that building was really there in 1942”, the more they like it, even though it will have no effect on the outcome of any game. It’s about the verisimilitude. Mark’s “Island of Fire” has provided owners of the <em>Red Barricades</em> module much added value, fleshing out the history contained on the scenario cards and putting faces to some of the names. That module, by Charlie Kibler, was the first historical module for ASL and a truly ground-breaking concept in tactical games; a multiple scenario format where results on the map (and a historical map of the actual terrain, at that) carried over from one scenario to the next. Incidentally, Kibler has produced other Stalingrad maps for historical projects, both published and unpublished, including an excellent map of Skulpturny Park for the PC game <em>Combat Mission</em>.<br /><br />But just understanding something, or having availability to resources, doesn’t make it fun. So what’s the attraction?<br /><br /><strong>6. Tactics and Weapons</strong> – Stalingrad, as is well known, was the first major strategic level defeat for the Germans on the Eastern Front. But wait, you say, wasn’t that mostly because of the collapse of the Romanians and Italians on the flanks?<br /><br />Not really. It was important, but the 6th Army was pinned inside the city, and the Red Army did an honest job of finding new ways to beat the Germans there. Chuikov learned lessons from fighting the Germans out in the open; he saw how their firepower and ability to stand off at range served them well. He knew the close terrain of the city would permit them to fight it out – “hug the Germans” – and nullify the advantage of artillery, tanks, and machine guns. The Germans countered with assault pioneers, armed with demolition charges, flamethrowers, and assault guns, including rare types brought up special for the fighting. In wargamer’s parlance, lots of “toys”, which is an appeal in itself. Perhaps it is the fragility of a flamethrower unit with its limited range and slow movement, or the open-topped, thinly armoured assault guns, vulnerable to attack by mortars and Molotov cocktails. Perhaps it is the astonishment when they actually do something worthwhile. One hopes it isn’t the realization of what the actual participants went through when these terrible weapons scored a direct hit. But there is something satisfying about seeing these weapons perform on the simulated battlefield, and few places as appropriate as Stalingrad in which to employ them. And that’s because of:<br /><br /><strong>7. Terrain</strong> – The popular image of Stalingrad – now reinforced by Vilsmaier’s film – is of small groups of infantry huddled in desolate city blocks, sometimes in spitting distance of each other, for hours or days at a time. This was certaintly true at times, but the "characters" mentioned above speak to the variety of terrain types encountered in the fighting. There was a variety of terrain types, from the <i>balkas</i> - deep gullies – to Mamayev Kurgan, the large burial mound now home to Mother Motherland, at one time the world’s largest statue – to blocks of wooden worker’s settlements, to the factories. Even the fact that the two armies stopped to fight it out in a city is unique in the annals of the Second World War; most major cities were declared "open" in order to spare them from destruction. Commanders rarely wanted to get bogged down in costly street-fighting, either, as it nullified the advantages of mobility and firepower. The Germans certainly knew this, and Chuikov used this to great advantage once battle was joined. But for that very reason, major confrontations usually took place away from major cities - another reason Stalingrad was unique and why so many men were sucked into its vortex. </span></p><span style="font-family:arial;"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 360px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 252px; CURSOR: hand" border="0" alt="" src="http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic106916_md.jpg" /></span> <p align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">As it turned out, the battle was far more interesting, tactically speaking, in reality than the popular notions we've seen in popular culture depictions. Most battles usually are. The Pentland print above - used as the cover art for <em>Valor of the Guards</em> - is one other notion of Stalingrad combat; massed infantry charges through the streets into concentrated machine gun fire, depicted on screen in <em>Enemy at the Gates</em>. It may have happened, but the reality was somewhat different. Not that starving to death in the cold for two months is all that exciting a prospect for a good game, either, but the period of operations in the early weeks of the battle do offer considerably more of a challenge. </span></p><p align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">Perhaps it is the quest for the "truth" that is the compelling part, and what draws one back to the subject material time and again. The journey, rather than the destination.</span></p>M.Doroshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09742262581616285671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587723021467018459.post-40172128679647784122011-01-17T19:55:00.000-07:002011-01-17T21:13:05.174-07:00Wargaming Normandy<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" >The wargaming world - or at least, the small part of it I frequent - is eagerly anticipating the release of Battlefront.com's first World War II themed game designed with their new second generation Combat Mission engine - <a href="http://www.battlefront.com/community/announcement.php?f=124&a=370"><span style="font-style: italic;">Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy</span></a>. Not only because it has been going on 8 years since the last CM title set in the Second World War, but because squad-based, company level, turn based, 3D tactical games for the PC from any publisher have been few and far between. The only other game in town is<span style="font-style: italic;"> Panzer Command, </span>though a long-awaited - and major - update to that series is in the works, called <span style="font-style: italic;">Ostfront</span>.</span><p style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;font-family:arial;" align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">Why Normandy?</span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;font-family:arial;" align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >So, one might ask, why go back to the same well with Normandy? It's a popular subject. In the last three years alone, there have been several major game releases set in Normandy for a variety of game systems, including miniatures</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" > (<span style="font-style: italic;">Flames of War,</span> for example), board games (particularly <span style="font-style: italic;">Advanced Squad Leader,</span> whose published scenarios and "historical" m</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >odules outnumber every other game system, the proportion of those set in Normandy probably reaching over 10% and possibly even one in five).</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;font-family:arial;" align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >There are a number of reasons that Normandy fascinates - beyond even the fact that pop culture has made it "popular" with <span style="font-style: italic;">Saving Private Ryan</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">Band of Brothers</span>. The earliest Normandy-exclusive game treatments pre-date these films.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;font-family:arial;" align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >a) unique circumstances: the initial entry onto the Continent was by the largest invasion in history (Sicily involved more formations, but D-Day was grander in overall scope). You had paratroopers, landing craft, cliff assaults, swim</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >ming tanks, "funnies", and devious devices by the Germans to combat all this.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;font-family:arial;" align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >b) balanced forces: Allied and German formations in Normandy were a mix of veteran and green divisions on both sides, and even the experienced divisions were a toss-up between "battle-hardened" and just plain "battle-weary." The 82d Airborne fought hard, drawing on its experience on Sicily, while other veteran divisions like the 51st Hig</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >hland or 7th Armoured were criticized for lack of drive when it was expected their cadre from the North African battles would help them lead the way.<br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;font-family:arial;" align="JUSTIFY"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg4XAz8jLGe0sXu1v2_fvD0XteNo1ZQKmoM2Vi8yVeCpCCjRilfxDSH0Afu3s-y-Ib36uSmgE629Os8ptUrUyurBefldp4z5MCxWaBie4bRxHCnDUuKcibBF4B7mEHOzsPbemZySPf3bc/s1600/27a.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 105px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg4XAz8jLGe0sXu1v2_fvD0XteNo1ZQKmoM2Vi8yVeCpCCjRilfxDSH0Afu3s-y-Ib36uSmgE629Os8ptUrUyurBefldp4z5MCxWaBie4bRxHCnDUuKcibBF4B7mEHOzsPbemZySPf3bc/s200/27a.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5563360911629784402" border="0" /></a></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >c) unique terrain: particularly in the American sector, the bocage country has been described in countless personal accounts. The Normand</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >y hedgerows, with deep ditches flanking thick hedges laced with impenetrable roots and surmou</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >nted</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" > </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >by tangles of trees and bushes, lining small fields for miles inland of the U.S. beaches, made hard-going for infantry on the a</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >s</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >sault. The troubles began on June 6th for U.S. paratroopers and the Germans tapped to counter-attack the invading forces, and the hedgerows became a steady trial for weeks. New tactics had to be devised, defensively and offensively, and American ingenuity developed new equipment for the problem as well.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;font-family:arial;" align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Advice on games</span><br /></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 0.08in;font-family:arial;" align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >The existing literature on finding the "best" tactical level wargames is scarce. Certainly in print, there is little to guide the prospective gamer.In an appendix to the book “Normandy 1944”, entitled “Wargaming Normandy”, Dr. Stephen Badsey tells us the following:</span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.31in; margin-right: 0.29in; margin-bottom: 0.08in;font-family:arial;" align="JUSTIFY"> <span style="font-size:100%;"><i><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">...a table top representation of the notorious Normandy bocage will deliver a sobering lesson n the difficulty of piercing a dense defensive line in close country (and) board games proved a ready packaged alternative (to miniatures) – especially in respect of squad- and platoon-level combat. The appropriately named </span></i><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-style: normal;">Squad Leader</span></span><i><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> and </span></i><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-style: normal;">Advanced Squad Leader</span></span><i><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> series of games are particularly popular and offer clearly D-Day orientated scenarios as </span></i><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-style: normal;">Paratrooper</span></span><i><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> and </span></i><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-style: normal;">Hedgerow Hell</span></span><i><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">. These games, however, offer only 'typical' scenarios, and the wargamer wishing to re-fight the numerous small actions of D-Day and its aftermath will have to suffer the satisfaction of doing his own research. (Normandy 1944, Osprey Publishing, ISBN 0-85045-921-4)</span></i><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><sup><span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></sup></span></span></p> <p style="margin-left: -0.01in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-style: normal;font-family:arial;" align="JUSTIFY"> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >Dr. Badsey may refer to the use of geomorphic mapboards but all ASL scenarios are based on actual events, </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >not “typical” scenarios. (He's wrong about "Squad Leader" being an appropriate name for a company-level game, also, but I digress.) He is correct in that a large number of games have included "bocage" rules to simulate the Normandy fighting - as far back as <span style="font-style: italic;">Armor</span>, and carrying on through <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/5293/gi-anvil-of-victory">G.I.: Anvil of Victory</a>, <a href="http://www.multimanpublishing.com/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx">Advanced Squad Leader</a>, <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/8715/combat-normandy">Combat!</a>, </span><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.criticalhit.com/">Advanced Tobruk System</a></span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >, <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/28452/valor-victory">Valor &Victory</a>, <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/18460/lock-n-load-band-of-heroes">Lock 'n Load</a> and <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/41985/combat-commander-battle-pack-3-normandy"><span style="font-style: italic;">Combat Commander</span></a></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span>to name the squad-based ones. Platoon-level games include <a href="http://www.avalanchepress.com/line_Panzer.php"><span style="font-style: italic;">PanzerGrenadier</span></a> and <a href="http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBUQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fboardgamegeek.com%2Fboardgame%2F26745%2Fpanzerblitz-hill-of-death&rct=j&q=panzerblitz%20hill%20of%20death&ei=vwk1TdDdCIqCsQP9yNTYBQ&usg=AFQjCNE0GpM71nrLodQ4ciAdhQimAj4SNw&sig2=qiCNs93dQAS3hURuvYqvdw&cad=rja"><span style="font-style: italic;">PanzerBlitz: Hill of Death</span></a> for which a "Carentan" mini-game was published in the Special Edition #2 of <span style="font-style: italic;">Operations</span> in 2009, not to mention the Tactical Combat Series, which has an <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9112/omaha">Omaha Beach</a> title in print and has a <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/59008/canadian-crucible-brigade-fortress-at-norrey">second title in Normandy planned</a>, dealing with the Canadians on the Caen front. Even man-to-man games got in on the act with <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/6470/hetzer-sniper-sniper-companion-game-1">Hetzer</a>, </span>the <span style="font-style: italic;">Sniper!</span> add-on, which had a "hedgerow" map.<br /></span></p><p style="margin-left: -0.01in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-style: normal;font-family:arial;" align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >The most detailed treatment of bocage is without a doubt ASL, with large sections of text devoted to "Wall Advantage", the Culin hedgerow device, and detailed LOS examples. A recent scenario offering, or "Action Pack" as their publisher calls it, provided several scenarios and bocage-heavy maps set in Normandy. A couple of third party offerings by Bounding Fire Productions offer some boards and scenarios (<a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/42242/beyond-the-beachhead-2"><span style="font-style: italic;">Beyond the Beachhead</span></a>), and as well an extended article on understanding the complex bocage rules (contained in <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/42326/operation-cobra"><span style="font-style: italic;">Operation Cobra</span></a>).</span></p><p style="margin-left: -0.01in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-style: normal;font-family:arial;" align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >Most other rules, however, seem to either ignore the bocage altogether (including many miniatures sets) or simply treat the bocage as a super-wall and leave it at that, adding a +1 modifier to fire traced through it or adding a half level of height and increasing its ability to block Line of Sight.</span></p><p style="margin-left: -0.01in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-style: normal;font-family:arial;" align="JUSTIFY"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8ghi5LSD57Ex0-XIKAXfRxl5Gna6jaab1dwKN-spEtbqYc9qGbPVSY7HdYUmVbEVST6JJnV0N5QO-XnYEUZ3TIEBolC-R52H8xfRlt1enSRmcWHom1eTNYBLjg3A7vx6ZxkQuJ3fxjBA/s1600/42a.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 153px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8ghi5LSD57Ex0-XIKAXfRxl5Gna6jaab1dwKN-spEtbqYc9qGbPVSY7HdYUmVbEVST6JJnV0N5QO-XnYEUZ3TIEBolC-R52H8xfRlt1enSRmcWHom1eTNYBLjg3A7vx6ZxkQuJ3fxjBA/s200/42a.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5563368214122540498" border="0" /></a></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >On the computer, <span style="font-style: italic;">Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord </span>attempted to deal with the tactical problems of the bocage country and the advantages of the Culin hedgerow device - lengths of steel girder welded to the front hulls of tanks and used to batter their way through the hedges in order to avoid exposing their vulnerable underbellies to German anti-tank fire. But the programming challenges were many, and the solutions were simplistic: breaches weren't created, all tanks were simply assumed to have the devices, and the 20 metre terrain tiles meant that the tight Normandy terrain really wasn't simulated well - and neither were the defending machine guns in that earliest incarnation of the first generation game engine.<br /></span></p><p style="margin-left: -0.01in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-style: normal;font-family:arial;" align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >And so, eyes look to Battlefront.com as they go back to Normandy - bets are on for the late spring or early summer of 2011 now, as evidenced by chatter on the official forums, which are following a hotly contested match between two beta testers duking it out for public consumption. Memories of <span style="font-style: italic;">Close Combat's</span> spinning tanks and the turn-based silliness of <span style="font-style: italic;">Steel Panthers</span> and the long wait for <span style="font-style: italic;">Panzer Command</span> to come to the Western Front leave little choice for the computer enthusiasts. Board gamers and miniaturists have been feasting for years, with <span style="font-style: italic;">Flames of War's </span>constant stream of Normandy offerings and goodies such as <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/39694/purple-heart-draw"><span style="font-style: italic;">Purple Heart Draw</span></a> to please the ASL crowd.</span></p><p style="margin-left: -0.01in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-style: normal;font-family:arial;" align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >If nothing else, the CM scenario designers will have a lot of inspiration to draw on - when the time comes.</span></p><p style="margin-left: -0.01in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >My question to you</span></p><p style="margin-left: -0.01in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-style: normal;font-family:arial;" align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >Can Normandy ever really get old? I think it probably could, but not until it has been done <span style="font-style: italic;">right</span>. We're still waiting for that day on the PC.<br /></span></p><p style="margin-left: -0.01in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-style: normal;font-family:arial;" align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><br /></span></p><p style="margin-left: -0.01in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-style: normal;" align="JUSTIFY"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></span></span></p>M.Doroshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09742262581616285671noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587723021467018459.post-14647307085139540002010-08-18T17:19:00.000-06:002010-08-18T18:03:04.235-06:00Hunting Good Will: How Much of a Good Thing is a Good Thing?The announcement on August 16 (2010), after many months of near-silence from Matrix Games, regarding the status of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Panzer Command</span> series, has initiated more than a few conversations among the few die-hard tactical gamers still milling about in the squad-based, company-level, 3-D turn-based “strategy” tactical wargame niche (hopefully I haven’t left out any other major descriptors – oh, I suppose we can add in “World War II era” for good measure). <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>History of the Niche</b></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">A quick review of where this niche has been for the last few years: Combat Mission moved to a new game engine after their successful trilogy with the original game engine (the so-called “CMX1” games – <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/videogame/74343/combat-mission-beyond-overlord"><span style="font-style: italic;">Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord</span></a> (2000), <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/videogame/74120/combat-mission-2-barbarossa-to-berlin"><span style="font-style: italic;">Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin</span></a> (2002) and <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/videogame/74117/combat-mission-3-afrika-korps"><span style="font-style: italic;">Combat Mission: Afrika Korps</span></a> (2003)) and fans are awaiting the first World War II title in the new “CMX2” game engine, yet to be titled, but taking place in Normandy. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_Combat_series"><span style="font-style: italic;">Close Combat</span></a>, which like <span style="font-style: italic;">Combat Mission</span>, had started its development life as a planned electronic version of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Advanced Squad Leader</span> boardgame but instead went independent, has shuffled along with a series of sequels, the most recent being remakes of their earlier titles. <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel_Panthers">Steel Panthers</a> apparently quietly retired with a release of World at War, never transitioning to simultaneous or 3D play.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">So here we sit; there have been other games on the market or in development in the interim but few have seemed like serious entries; <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.matrixgames.com/products/349/details/Mark.H..Walker%27s.Lock.%27n.Load:.Heroes.of.Stalingrad">Lock ‘n Load</a> still uses hexes and counters for pity’s sake. Yet even <span style="font-style: italic;">Panzer Command</span> doesn’t seem to have drawn much attention. Perhaps the question to ask is whether or not the entire genre (I won’t repeat the cumbersome description here – see para 1) has shot its bolt.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Ostfront worth waiting for</b></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwxkh_JVumTn-lZpyYQOD8ENJDWL-jP30bccphmf6f4Pyai5rxIpCcCLj5gqumz4LNZhbyJDAS4QQ9M335no0wg4Svda3LTorSkOCOUvK2ZezcHUgSM7XwlUoSBf__n3-0ybjiVUf_b4U/s1600/kharkovgoogle.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwxkh_JVumTn-lZpyYQOD8ENJDWL-jP30bccphmf6f4Pyai5rxIpCcCLj5gqumz4LNZhbyJDAS4QQ9M335no0wg4Svda3LTorSkOCOUvK2ZezcHUgSM7XwlUoSBf__n3-0ybjiVUf_b4U/s200/kharkovgoogle.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506902959844520434" border="0" /></a>For that dying breed that still remember the new-game smell of a <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1035/squad-leader"><span style="font-style: italic;">Squad Leader</span></a> box, though, <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.matrixgames.com/products/391/details/Panzer.Command:.Ostfront">Panzer Command: Ostfront</a> is something worth waiting for on the face of it. I admit to being one of those who are feeling at least a slight twinge of anticipation. I was left cold by <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/panzercommandoperationwinterstorm/index.html?tag=result%3Btitle%3B0"><span style="font-style: italic;">Operation Winter Storm</span></a>, the first installment of <span style="font-style: italic;">Panzer Command</span> (PzC hereafter), mostly because it meant unlearning one interface (<span style="font-style: italic;">Combat Mission’s</span>) and techniques in favour of another. I didn’t much like the “reaction phase” and some other aspects, and especially didn’t like the lack of a map editor. Apparently I wasn’t alone. I bought the <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/panzercommandkharkov/index.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gssimilargames&tag=similargames%3Bimg%3B1"><span style="font-style: italic;">Kharkov</span></a> title in 2008 – PzC’s second installment – out of a desire to support the developer and in hopes the series had improved. It had, but not in the ways that really grabbed me. Maps were larger and their public relations front was certainly professional – a <a href="http://www.matrixgames.com/news/493/..Get.a.Sneak.Peek.at.Panzer.Command:.Kharkov.with.Google.Earth%21">GoogleEarth installation</a> that put all the game maps into the current world, with historical front lines and scenario descriptions accessible via one click. It was pretty slick.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">What <span style="font-style: italic;">Ostfront</span> offers is pretty impressive. If you have never played either <span style="font-style: italic;">Winter Storm</span> or <span style="font-style: italic;">Kharkov</span>, you get all that content for free when you buy <span style="font-style: italic;">Ostfront</span>. If you already own the first two, you can download <span style="font-style: italic;">Ostfront</span> as a free patch. More on this later. The feature list for the <span style="font-style: italic;">Ostfront</span> expansion brings the game into line with what user feedback, as expressed on websites such as Matrix’s own forum, or third party sites like <a href="http://gamesquad.com/">gamesquad.com</a>, have been asking for. The “reaction phase” of the turn sequence, while still the default, can now be turned off as part of several optional turn length settings. It’s just one example of how the developer was willing to listen to the fanbase and make what promise to be constructive changes. But, of course, the entire patch appears to have been largely fan-driven as much of the content has apparently come from third party modders, scenario designers and even coders. How well will it work? The beta testers seem to think it has come together nicely, but Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA) pretty much assure that they always will. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">But the announcement has been low-key rather than boasting; I won’t speculate on the meaning of that. I know that I prefer it and always like to see products speak for themselves. I’ve been rooting for this team for a long time mostly because I liked the direction that <span style="font-style: italic;">Combat Mission</span> (CM) had taken and was disappointed to see some of the later design decisions with the new game engine. I think PzC could do very well to pick up where CM had left off, particularly if the new map maker/scenario design function helps produce some entertaining match-ups. Not sure I like the pre-set map sizes, but I won’t be one to kvetch about “only” having 4 square kilometers to set up on.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Commitment to Good Will</b></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">As stated earlier, the new <span style="font-style: italic;">Ostfront</span> product will combine three different PzC games into one, for one price, and you only need to purchase one to get all three. I am sure there will be skeptics or pessimists out there who view this in a negative light, but I’m inclined to accept it favourably as a desire to establish the game on a firm new footing. Tactical wargamers have had to deal with a lot of different models of “regeneration” over the years as developers stumbled around trying to find the best way to model squad-based, company level action during World War II. SPI led the charge in “sequenced obsolescence” with a series of releases in the early 1970s, first releasing games like <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/8725/red-star-white-star"><span style="font-style: italic;">Red Star/White Star</span></a> with plotted orders and “Si-Move” (simultaneous movement) which were hopelessly cumbersome to play but supposedly pushed the envelope of realism, and then replacing them a couple of years later with games like <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5383/mechwar-77"><span style="font-style: italic;">MechWar '77</span></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">. </span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Avalon Hill notoriously replaced almost all of the counters in its <span style="font-style: italic;">Squad Leader</span> game during the three-game run of sequels, and then replaced all those new replacement counters and rules just three years after that, with a sequel to the sequel, or rather, a reboot of the entire mess, called <span style="font-style: italic;">Advanced Squad Leader</span>. There are still two competing camps, with die-hard fans of the original series that refuse to subsidize the usurper. The developers of<span style="font-style: italic;"> Combat Mission</span> stated very earnestly that they needed to embrace new markets to grow their company, and that new methods of gameplay, including real time, would be found in the second-generation game engine. Their up-front admission that they expected to lose some customers but gain new ones did not prevent bitter backlash from a vocal online minority. It is also not known what benefit the changes have brought; the new game engine<a href="http://www.gamerankings.com/pc/930381-combat-mission-shock-force/index.html"> has not performed as well critically</a>, and sales figures are not made public.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Which brings us to Matrix and their interesting model of providing previous releases for free every time a new game is released. This was the case when <span style="font-style: italic;">Kharkov</span> was released (content from <span style="font-style: italic;">Operation Winter Storm</span> was provided at no charge on the <span style="font-style: italic;">Kharkov</span> release disc). The<span style="font-style: italic;"> Ostfront</span> release deal has been described above. </span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">It isn’t my practice to look a gift horse in the mouth but one presumes this practice will cease at some point. The developers have promised to move on to other theatres – the western front 1944-45 being a natural, especially as the vehicles for one of the major combatants are already finished. One supposes North Africa, the early war campaigns, or even the Pacific couldn’t be too far off if Ostfront manages to strike a chord and/or turn some kind of a profit. The inevitable debate that follows on in public forums for popular tactical games is how quickly to move on to the Arab/Israeli wars, fictional Cold War scenarios, and even science fiction themes (and with some exceptions like <span style="font-style: italic;">ASL</span> or <span style="font-style: italic;">Steel Panthers</span>, they rarely seem to actually get there).</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The questions – largely unanswerable by us – will be whether Matrix sees a reason to continue. Did <span style="font-style: italic;">Panzer Command</span> already reach its maximum audience – and the free patch will just be salve to an already sated core group? Or will it be the springboard for a revival of squad-based, company level 3D World War II strategy (did I get them all in?) gaming that has been largely neglected for several years now?</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtQdYLyE6EU96fnt86ze9y2UOfx7FbknPGLdh27_0z7U4qtcqK3MNOqQWWGBHbRl3LKhS1QHO0ZY4R4ujnRVHILPNC6OgKj185O-rVVdfPuBL0bvYTcDou6DdwSFiIAOk1Jleev0sXzQs/s1600/bookshelf.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 156px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtQdYLyE6EU96fnt86ze9y2UOfx7FbknPGLdh27_0z7U4qtcqK3MNOqQWWGBHbRl3LKhS1QHO0ZY4R4ujnRVHILPNC6OgKj185O-rVVdfPuBL0bvYTcDou6DdwSFiIAOk1Jleev0sXzQs/s200/bookshelf.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506901946435310194" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">It should be no secret what I am hoping for. I would have gladly paid full price for <span style="font-style: italic;">Ostfront</span>, but reading some comments on various message forums, I realize my views are not predominant. The “free patch” idea seems to be a good one. Perhaps a better one would be a demo for those who need convincing, but screenshots, videos, and at least one After Action Report (AAR) are finding their way onto the official website even though release is not scheduled until the fourth quarter of this year. I’m going to buy a copy of <span style="font-style: italic;">Ostfront</span> just because I like the idea of subsidizing companies who make games that I enjoy, even though I qualify to download it for free. As a collector, I prize having a physical box or jewel case in my collection in any event; to me they’re part of that “rich historical tapestry” I spoke of in my <a href="http://www.tacticalwargamer.com/blog/spring2008/tapestry.htm">very first blog entry</a></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">. </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">They're also like trophies for the unathletically inclined.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">There is no reason to presume Matrix can’t “afford” to give away this content. Those pessimists referred to earlier might suggest that free content can’t be good content, and that this distribution method will mask shortcomings in the Artificial Intelligence (AI), game play, or expanded content, perhaps indicating bugs or software issues making this an unofficial “beta” version. The actual beta testers insist this is not the case; having interacted with several of them in the CM community, for going on years now, I’m inclined to believe them or at least give benefit of the doubt. Personally, I hope Matrix starts to make money hand over fist with <span style="font-style: italic;">Panzer Command</span> – including my money – and that the series becomes a strong contender in this little niche of ours. I also hope other games in the same genre do well also; there is a mistaken belief that games like <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Combat Mission</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Panzer Command</span> “compete” against one another, but I suspect that if two games in a very small niche are both well done, those that are passionate about the niche will usually invest in both games. At any rate, <span style="font-style: italic;">Combat Mission’s</span> new game engine has successfully diverged from the original vision of CM that the similarities between the two game series are much less apparent than they were with the original game engine.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>My Final Word</b></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://static.lulu.com/product/paperback/tactical-wargamers-journal-issue-1/6538005/thumbnail/320"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 246px; height: 320px;" src="http://static.lulu.com/product/paperback/tactical-wargamers-journal-issue-1/6538005/thumbnail/320" alt="" border="0" /></a>As work progresses on the second issue, just a reminder that the premiere issue of <a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/tactical-wargamers-journal-issue-1/6538005">Tactical Wargamer’s Journal</a> is still available. Reviews by <a href="http://minden_games.homestead.com/index.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">Panzer Digest</span></a> and at <a href="http://social.consimworld.com/profiles/blogs/the-tactical-wargamers-journal">Consimworld</a> have been favourable, and a number of articles will be of direct interest to anyone thinking about <span style="font-style: italic;">Panzer Command: Ostfron</span>t. There is a direct comparison between <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin</span> and <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Panzer Command: Kharkov</span>, as well as a historical piece on the actual battle of Kharkov that inspired the game. As well, there is a detailed article on characteristics of Soviet armour in the Second World War and a discussion of how different wargames have chosen to deal with some of the peculiarities of Red Army equipment. I’d love to include articles on the “new” Panzer Command in upcoming issues; if you’re interested in writing them, please contact me.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>My Question to You</b></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Is Matrix doing the right thing giving away so much milk for free? </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Links</span>:</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Matrix Announcement of Panzer Command</span>: <a href="http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2550502">http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2550502</a><br /></p>M.Doroshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09742262581616285671noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587723021467018459.post-21707866848800628162010-07-19T21:50:00.000-06:002010-07-19T22:36:31.187-06:00Accuracy in the Trivialization of Human ExperienceI will inaugurate this new web log with the same caveat I gave with my previous "blog" at <a href="http://tacticalwargamer.com/blog/spring2008/tapestry.htm">this link</a><br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">I've never been a fan of blogs; the concept initially seemed to me to indicate a frustrated writer who couldn't get published by conventional means because of a lack of something significant to say. That may still apply in some cases, though my view is softening. Given the ability of people with nothing significant to say to actually get published in book form in today's desktop world, the distinctions between online and virtual publishing mean much less. But I think now that blogs are losing their 'newness', and the truly insignificant are moving to Facebook, the blogs are starting to gain in importance once again. It still bothers me that I will probably need to edit this to add an insipid smiley face to indicate that the previous sentence was intended as a joke. Sort of. What isn't a joke are some of the high quality writings of other blog writers (I have encountered...)</span><br /></blockquote><br /><br />...and continue to encounter. But it also doesn't hide the fact there are still some dreadful ones. The reader is left to judge how useful this will be, and if I am one of them. I still don't read all that many blogs. Actually, for the joke I made about Facebook in my original comments, I think perhaps I could easily have been far more serious about "podcasts" which are now running on average of about two hours for some of them. At least you can scan an average blog posting in about five minutes.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Revisiting Old Heroes</span><br /><br />I know nothing of war beyond what I've read and gleaned from those I've talked to. But I can extrapolate enough to realize that those who knew the most are as often as not likely those who died in it. From what I've read, it wears you out and ultimately, if you're left to toil at it for too long, it consumes you. One way or another.<br /><br />Manfred von Richtofen died as a result not so much of a bullet through the head but as a result of earlier brain damage. He was target fixated the day he died, exhibited classic symptoms of brain injury and simply pushed his luck beyond the breaking point. There is reason to believe now that Tiger ace Michael Wittman may have done the same thing. The arguments about which Allied soldiers can get the credit for exterminating them are a little beside the point; their suicidal final charges simply put them in position for others to pull the trigger. Not to take away from the bravery or dedication of the Allied troops who were in position at the moment of truth; Roy Brown was equally tired on that fateful day when he was in the air at the moment that Australian machine gunners, firing from the ground, fired the fatal shots that killed the legendary German pilot.<br /><br />Richtofen's fame had not been gained in glorious man-to-man combat of the type later glorified by Joe Kubert and Russ Heath and Bob Kanigher in the thinly veiled tribute pages of DC Comics' <span style="font-style: italic;">Enemy Ace</span> series. Where von Hammer kept tin cups on a pristine mantelpiece and spoke of honour and chivalry, von Richtofen in real life fought desperate battles in the sky, picking off stragglers on occasion, and was at best a medium rated marksman. It is also intimated in some sources that he never flew a complete loop in his aircraft, and that his flying was similarly not above average. And yet the legend persists of the crack shot, the expert flier, and the impeccable gentleman aviator.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDhMizDhQUY_9efr8sWCwdjL-U-4Qea7pw17r3bpF5igqxG-RfcqRAqHocr0MqxP66wNpKlubzSCnBQ-NHd8MpV1BVe7ymKfljicxvDbDb-heYVA-zPjW9VchJ-50aQKJ0lIqSDWbUeag/s1600/wittmandriver.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 192px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDhMizDhQUY_9efr8sWCwdjL-U-4Qea7pw17r3bpF5igqxG-RfcqRAqHocr0MqxP66wNpKlubzSCnBQ-NHd8MpV1BVe7ymKfljicxvDbDb-heYVA-zPjW9VchJ-50aQKJ0lIqSDWbUeag/s200/wittmandriver.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5495837815602662738" border="0" /></a>In June of this year, I crouched in the loft of a barn in Cintheaux by a round piece of metal, purportedly one of the few pieces remaining from Wittman's tank. Humbling, if true, that the once mighty Tiger 007 was now reduced to a hayloft curiosity. It is human nature to be drawn to to the morbid and the absurd, and to seek to be entertained by it.<br /><br />The intent isn't to open the "debate" on the legitimacy of conflict simulation; that ship sailed a long time ago. I think we can take it for granted that we will always look to conflict as a means of entertainment.<br /><br />What is more interesting is the degree of accuracy and the types of messages we hope to learn from our modelling of these events. The familiar game-vs.-simulation question has been around for a long time. After our battlefield tour left Cintheaux, leaving behind the battlefield debris in the hayloft, meatier questions arose.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7wFYi4mxwgjC9DLU7zD3lLuXmq6zSuYB2gg1gMCXFg1T_sXgkSSflEbxERMALyD7LkNjo-K_bVz7x1Z7V8k-2F2EOvWphMw7sBE8Gc1-fzw6xWNedyKMfMXHgfAL6Y7Dh7hZanh09dkA/s1600/177.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 296px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7wFYi4mxwgjC9DLU7zD3lLuXmq6zSuYB2gg1gMCXFg1T_sXgkSSflEbxERMALyD7LkNjo-K_bVz7x1Z7V8k-2F2EOvWphMw7sBE8Gc1-fzw6xWNedyKMfMXHgfAL6Y7Dh7hZanh09dkA/s320/177.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5495840440148154018" border="0" /></a>We visited the site at Poperinghe where British military executions took place; the cells are preserved as is the post where the firing squad did their work. It is believed now that some of the condemned men may have suffered from what we now know is post-traumatic stress disorder - a malady little understood at the time. The human condition has changed dramatically since British soldiers killed other British soldiers in this courtyard, as has the lens through which we interpret their world.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">My Question To You</span><br /><br />If we are going to trivialize the accomplishments of the veterans of these wars anyway, is it better to trivialize them in ways that are clearly meant as entertainment - <span style="font-style: italic;">Medal of Honor</span> games where the depictions are so clearly not meant to be taken seriously, or do we continue to march into the Uncanny Valley and try to stamp our understanding of "what it was like" so imperfectly on the history of military history, and continue to distort the true picture (whatever that is) of important events? The further we get from those events, the less able we are to understand them in context. Geography shifts (I noted with interest that the sea-wall on Juno Beach has been all but consumed by sediment), mores and morals change, technology baffles past practice. It may be that the point of no return for accurate portrayals of many conflicts - recent or not - may have been reached. And the only ones who can tell us for sure aren't in a position to tell us.M.Doroshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09742262581616285671noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587723021467018459.post-3793619910399638142010-01-05T18:33:00.000-07:002016-05-04T18:36:44.411-06:00The Death of Fire & Movement<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> This article was originally posted at gamesquad.com</span><br />
<br />
With the arrival of Issue 150, Fire & Movement has ended its 33 year
publication run. Those unfamiliar with the history of the magazine can
review a brief rundown of that topic at <a class="postlink" href="http://www.tacticalwargamer.com/magazines/firemovement/firemovement.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this webpage</a>.<br /><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCvhoKPaGfaJs0mItNHQHi6Mah7XvNXPE6W0Ew7odwRuq4FyqjaFS4c0PF-gKC_oaRO8HRCxlbq9KfeZ-gjxxuNQ7N_NHaKxkKhoRF0ml5gG_J4IhYKVH2YEJf_kSM5YldFX_bDSGOXDo/s1600/pic1139866.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCvhoKPaGfaJs0mItNHQHi6Mah7XvNXPE6W0Ew7odwRuq4FyqjaFS4c0PF-gKC_oaRO8HRCxlbq9KfeZ-gjxxuNQ7N_NHaKxkKhoRF0ml5gG_J4IhYKVH2YEJf_kSM5YldFX_bDSGOXDo/s320/pic1139866.jpg" width="241" /></a></div>
<div>
</div>
<br /><br />As
is well known now, the magazine began life as the brainchild of Rodger
MacGowan, who set the tone for the board wargaming industry - that is
what it had become - in the mid-1970's through his graphic design and
his all-encompassing approach to coverage of topics in his magazine (it
was not a "house organ", but devoted itself to covering works by all
publishers, large and small).<br /><br />Since 1991, Decision Games has
published Strategy & Tactics, Moves and Fire & Movement (at one
time, S&T and Moves were house organs for SPI, and competitors for
F&M). The three magazines went hand in glove to provide global
coverage of the wargaming scene, as described by the publisher:<br /><br />Fire & Movement: Helping you decide which wargames to buy<br /><br /> * close-up reviews of new wargames<br /> * profiles and player's notes<br /> *guide to computer wargaming<br /> * annual year in review issue<br /><br /><br />Strategy & Tactics: Exploring decisions which made history<br /><br /> * wargame in every issue<br /> * game design forum<br /> * articles on historical and current events<br /> * professional wargaming column<br /> * media notes<br /><br /><br />Moves: Helping you decide which strategies and tactics to use<br /><br /> * analysis, strategy and tactical tips<br /> * variants and new scenarios<br /> * art of computer wargaming<br /> * annual index and mini-game<br /> * previews of upcoming games by their designers<br /><br /><br /><b>Recent years</b><br /><br />Editorship
of the magazine most recently passed to J. Bernhard (Jon) Compton. In
an interview in 2005, he stated that he had been in the industry for "15
years", citing Miracle on the Marne as his first design. He had
previously worked as editor and publisher of Gamefix Magazine and his
designs also included Foxhole, a "grand-tactical" (platoon level) game
(or microgame) which was originally published in Gamefix. In the Spring
2009 issue (Issue 149), Compton revealed that he planned for Issue 150
to be his last, citing a new job, relocation, family commitments, and
recent automobile accident (in which his computer containing his F&M
files) as being demands incompatible with delivering a quality product
in a timely manner.<br /><br />By this point, F&M had reached a very
erratic publication schedule; what had been published at one time every
two months had fallen drastically. There were only two issues in 2007,
three in 2008, and one in 2009 (my "Summer 2009" issue actually arrived
in January 2010).<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2wsp0Xl5Ye8YZTLTYoJ6-TJKEPkJoLAfu-B-urZ3-WAZ7HwIE5wnUT4HCN_x50IyRtrWGbKy3-iQ7LBN3DQVAX1KybbjH20ly0_IdUK-NHVKFoxMcxgErzwyG-PHYr-CFs7G2Yt1NkSI/s1600/pic1139867_md.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2wsp0Xl5Ye8YZTLTYoJ6-TJKEPkJoLAfu-B-urZ3-WAZ7HwIE5wnUT4HCN_x50IyRtrWGbKy3-iQ7LBN3DQVAX1KybbjH20ly0_IdUK-NHVKFoxMcxgErzwyG-PHYr-CFs7G2Yt1NkSI/s320/pic1139867_md.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />Another
blog entry of mine discussed some of the challenges F&M was
apparently facing in terms of physical quality, with poor black and
white imagery and few illustrations to support their articles:<br /><br />Jon Compton responded to a statement that the magazine's layout was "bush league" at <a class="postlink" href="http://social.consimworld.com/profiles/blogs/the-end-of-fire-and-movement?commentId=2011369%3AComment%3A106720&xg_source=msg_com_blogpost" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">consimworld</a>:<br /><br /><div class="quotetitle">
Quote:</div>
<div class="quote">
The
entire budget for the editing, art, layout, proofing, and contributor
issue shipping was all of 550 dollars per issue. I did what I could with
what I had. That said, by any real standard the layout was not bush
league, although the printing and over-saturation of everything
certainly was. I'd dare say that more attention was put into the layout
of F&M than any other DG pub. No trapped white space, solid widow
and orphan control, even margins, and no broken-up articles in any
issue. But the graphics were what they were since we had to take what we
got and had no budget to do anything more professional. DG starved
F&M of resources until it just wasn't possible to continue. The
printer continued to cut the pages wrong until I finally gave up
complaining about it.</div>
<br /><br />Mr. Compton makes a valid point about
the difference between layout and printing quality. Personally, I feel
there is a certain irony in that the last issue made it to press with a
proofreading snafu. The masthead contains a call for submissions for
future issues. A simple oversight, easily overlooked, but still, I can't
help but feel it is somehow emblematic of something. But I digress. It
is mostly just too bad that Decision Games starved this magazine of
resources.<br /><br /><b>Isn't this inevitable?</b><br /><br />The argument is
being made now that the internet is simply replacing magazines and that
with so much "free content" available there is no room for magazines. I
think this is a ridiculous proposition. I would agree that there is no
room for poorly done magazines.<br /><br /><b>My final word</b><br /><br />The
notion that the internet is "competition" for magazines is false, and
given the proper resources, there are two main reasons that a decent
magazine should be able to do well.<br /><br />a) wargamers are tactile
creatures - its one of two reasons that board wargames still continue to
sell in the first place (the other being the social dimension). Nothing
compares to being able to hold a physical object such as a counter,
mapboard, rulebook or yes - glossy magazine - in one's hands, or display
it on one's shelf. Tangible products are still sought after and
cherished.<br /><br />b) If someone enjoys or is even passionate about a
subject, they will not read just one thing and then stop or find
themself sated. They will tend to pursue their interest or passion
through multiple media. They will watch movies, television shows, play
games, and yes, read books and magazines about their favourite subjects,
in addition to surfing the web, talking to friends, and other forms of
recreational endeavour.<br /><b><br />My question to you</b><br /><br />How many
times have you heard people complaining about the "noise to signal"
ratio on your favourite internet forum? Isn't it true also of most
internet sites of any kind? Doesn't the risk inherent in publication
require editors and authors and publishers to bring their "A-list"
material to any printed endeavour - unlike "free" and unvetted material
thrown onto the internet?
M.Doroshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09742262581616285671noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587723021467018459.post-6646186543143565532009-10-15T17:23:00.000-06:002016-05-04T18:07:26.441-06:00What Does Worthless Really Mean?<br />
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: xx-small;"><i>This is a mirror of
an article original appearing at this link:
</i></span><i><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: xx-small;">
<a href="http://forums.gamesquad.com/blog.php?b=719">
http://forums.gamesquad.com/blog.php?b=719</a></span></i></div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">There have been many
discussions regarding the “First To Fight” modules that started
appearing on ebay in 2009. For those unfamiliar with them, they are
a series of third party variants for ASL produced by Wild Bill
Wilder, whose wargaming credits go back decades now, mostly as an
unofficial scenario and variant designer for games such as <i>Squad
Leader</i>, <i>Steel Panthers</i>, <i>Combat Mission</i> and others.
The First to Fight products gained notoriety for both their quality
(or apparent lack thereof) and their method of marketing which
resulted in high auction prices.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCRr5k-KbcD1x2z_MMaoRJxaz8AUH0s6qwnvkKaa5FU1AEFJjlys_2c0nF_JuBP5C6WhtwJuAp93xLqX1QwJyTyJplzvlx44NPRoVLC3MURzsde5i3AOLYB4pK_TUMQ_xBay0bX8G0IGo/s1600/gloryandgrief.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCRr5k-KbcD1x2z_MMaoRJxaz8AUH0s6qwnvkKaa5FU1AEFJjlys_2c0nF_JuBP5C6WhtwJuAp93xLqX1QwJyTyJplzvlx44NPRoVLC3MURzsde5i3AOLYB4pK_TUMQ_xBay0bX8G0IGo/s320/gloryandgrief.jpg" width="225" /></a></span></div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">The following email
exchange has been typical of the discourse surrounding these
products:</span></div>
<blockquote>
<div align="justify">
<span style="color: grey; font-family: "arial"; font-size: xx-small;">From:
Pxxxxxx<br />
Date: Wednesday, October 14, 2009 2:45 pm<br />
Subject: The Tactical Wargamer Site Query/Feedback</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: x-small;"><br />
<br />
<i>Is Glory and grief available on the open market? How does one
get them</i><br />
<br />
</span><span style="color: grey; font-family: "arial"; font-size: xx-small;">From: MICHAEL
DOROSH <br />
Sent: Wednesday, October 14, 2009 4:58 PM</span><span style="color: grey; font-family: "arial"; font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: x-small;"><br />
<i>Hey there;<br />
It's not on the open market. I would recommend contacting ebay
user "firsttofight" through the ebay site. ebay rules say you
can't make deals off the site, but I'm not sure how else you would
arrange it; you might be able to set up a private auction or
something. There is a review of the products at the
<a href="http://www.desperationmorale.com/" target="_blank">
Desperation Morale website</a> in addition to the info on
<a href="http://www.tacticalwargamer.com/boardgames/advancedsquadleader/tpp/firsttofight/glorygrief.htm" target="_blank">
my site</a> that you might want to read before making a decision
on purchasing. Sorry I can't help more.</i><br />
<br />
</span><span style="color: grey; font-family: "arial"; font-size: xx-small;">From: Pxxxxxxx <br />
Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2009 7:17 AM</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: x-small;"><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>Thanks Mike, I did a little looking last night and read the
reviews, Also saw the latest auction at 259USD What a rip off.
Talk about taking advantage of people.</i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;"><b>Is There Really
Such A Thing As a Worthless Product?</b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">We’ve all heard the
same old maxims about “buyer beware” and I don’t think one needs to
repeat them here. I do think, however, all the discussion of the
value of the products has overlooked one basic premise – the notion
that all products make up a part of a greater aggregate. My website
and research has been focused on looking at tactical wargaming as an
entity to itself, and from that perspective, each game, each
scenario, each publisher, can be seen to have brought something
unique to the history of the medium. I'm not yet willing to say that
is true with <i>Glory & Grief</i>, but it would be unusual for a
product to truly have contributed absolutely nothing or be one
hundred percent valueless. Not impossible, but unusual. Sometimes,
the value comes in unexpected ways.<br />
<br />
I come by this belief from my experience in publishing. My first
book, <i>Canuck: Clothing and Equipping the Canadian Soldier</i>,
was an early attempt to catalogue Second World War uniforms and
equipment. There are better and more comprehensive books on the
market today and the book is reasonably crude by any standard. Yet I
was gratified when meeting a well-known collector one day, whose
personal holdings would put average museums to shame, when he
admitted to me “I had no idea how the 1908 Pattern Large Pack straps
actually attached to the back until I saw this picture in your
book.” After hearing his comment, I went home to look through my
other references, and by chance, I had been the only one to document
this piece of information. I did not set out to document this info
specifically, nor would I recommend buying the book just to obtain
it, especially when a ten second conversation with another collector
would obtain the same result; and yet, in his years of collecting,
he had not been able to acquire this knowledge. Perhaps he simply
had not tried very hard. <br />
<br />
It was a small point, but I liken it to any kinds of wargaming
products – games, magazines, variants, rules, scenarios, books –
that make some attempt to introduce something new. A new rule, a new
piece of research, a new counter, a new kind of mapboard, a new
procedure. The worst written rules in the world might have the most
innovative layout. This isn’t to encourage copyright theft from one
another, but inspiration strikes in the most unlikely of places, and
innovation feeds off of other innovation. These are intangibles.<br />
<br />
I see other examples in the publishing world. Since the publication
of my first book – mine was the first I am aware of to deal
exclusively with Canadian Army uniforms and equipment in the Second
World War – there have been many other publications to see print on
the same subject. Most notably, French collector Jean Bouchery put
together a larger, flashier, more comprehensive and without doubt
more successful work than mine entitled <i>The Canadian Soldier</i>.
At first blush, it was disheartening to see a book with a goldmine
of good information tempered with many minor errors of fact. The
most glaring was the color corrections, presumably by the publisher,
or perhaps an error in the printing process, that shifted the color
of the uniforms to an overpowering shade of green in an attempt to
emphasize the contrasting quality of uniforms among Commonwealth
combatants. Other pages had a variety of more minor miscues; a
wrongly identified regiment or a typographical glitch or a
mistranslation from the original French. And yet, every page also
had much more value for a reader who did not have access to original
uniforms, or source references, and in fact, the book could usefully
take the place of several volumes already published, including my
own. It was hard to know if my own reaction to the book was a
legitimate criticism or mere sour grapes. And so I have stopped
criticizing it, and look at it as I look at the First to Fight
variants – as forming a part of an overall body of “literature”
which is best judged as a body rather than on the merits of each
constituent part. For in the final analysis, any true aficionado is
most likely to acquire as many products within a niche as they can,
so comparing one against the other is often wasted effort.<br />
<br />
<b>Who Is The Arbiter?</b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;"><br />
There can be no single arbiter of how useful a product is or what
value it has; each person who acquires it or uses it can obviously
only do that for themselves. The collector who buys a game and feels
his collection is more complete as a result has gained more value
than the player who finds a set of scenarios missing the victory
conditions entirely due to a printers’ error. <br />
<br />
It may be hard to believe, but there have been purchasers of the
Vietnam ASL products that have expressed satisfaction with their
products. Reaction from some others has been hostile, perhaps
understandably so given the amount of money changing hands. The most
difficult part of reading the public commentary has been seeing the
bidders who do find value in these sets called “morons” or worse by
knee-jerk reaction, particularly on public discussion forums where
some of the “morons” are known to be active participants.<br />
<br />
None of which is to suggest that honest reviews of any product are
inappropriate, or unnecessary. One would believe that the main focus
of most ASL purchasers would be to actually play the game.
<a href="http://www.desperationmorale.com/worldofasl/worldfirsttofight.html" target="_blank">
The review at Desperation Morale</a>, referenced above, looked at
the First to Fight products from that perspective. As long as
reviewers make their perspective clear, and prospective purchasers
know what their expectations are, there can be little problem. The
access tactical wargamers have to sites like
<a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/" target="_blank">boardgamegeek</a>
or <a href="http://www.gamesquad.com/" target="_blank">gamesquad.com</a>
allow them to fine tune their research to meet their needs, be they
players, collectors, designers in search of inspiration, or any
other category in between. <br />
<br />
<b>My Final Word</b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">More product on the
market means a richer collective history to draw on; each scenario,
rule, design element or physical component isn't just a plaything
for today, but is part of the whole tapestry of the industry. No
matter how much we may doubt the value of a handful of poorly
photo-copied scenario cards and halfhearted "rules", of unplaytested
scenarios and incomplete counters, who knows what inspiration might
be wrought from them one day in the future? They now occupy a place
in the pantheon for good or ill.<br />
<br />
<b>My Question To You</b></span></div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoV3TpiKAb_gEo6Vr7Ag7PHG9WvpSM4lcRj0p47SSlzH5Ns0WhPBTTZgVCo0nJbsMOJ-XG9MB-W39SGG4vKSkilY9A_EbPfurbwoKh0p4upk5SedqH2JqLWX-eSQehuh5dUy8wgynfGUw/s1600/squadleader.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoV3TpiKAb_gEo6Vr7Ag7PHG9WvpSM4lcRj0p47SSlzH5Ns0WhPBTTZgVCo0nJbsMOJ-XG9MB-W39SGG4vKSkilY9A_EbPfurbwoKh0p4upk5SedqH2JqLWX-eSQehuh5dUy8wgynfGUw/s1600/squadleader.jpg" /></a></div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">Can you honestly
describe a product, in the realm of tactical-level wargaming, that
was really so devoid of value as to be completely worthless? My pick
would probably be <i>
<a href="http://pc.ign.com/articles/164/164776p1.html" target="_blank">
Avalon Hill's Squad Leader</a></i>, the insipid game for the PC that
came and faded quickly, but if pressed, I am sure I could mention
one or two positive aspects to it, for example the addition of 'back
story' to each character, something not often done in games where it
could have been usefully applied (such as <i>M-1 Tank Platoon</i>).
I am not saying it was successfully done or even necessary in AHSL,
but it did make the game unique in some tiny respect and might serve
as inspiration for some future, much better, game.</span></div>
M.Doroshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09742262581616285671noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587723021467018459.post-88855620598378720722009-09-03T17:14:00.000-06:002016-05-04T18:07:13.118-06:00DIY and the Decline of Community Standards<br />
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: xx-small;"><i>This is a mirror of
an article original appearing at this link:
<a href="http://forums.gamesquad.com/blog.php?b=688">
http://forums.gamesquad.com/blog.php?b=688</a></i></span></div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">The self-publishing
revolution has had tremendous impacts on the wargaming “industry”,
if one wants to refer to the hobby with that term. In 1997, the
editor of <i>The General</i> noted the growing rise of Desk Top
Publishers (DTP) and had the following to say:<br />
</span></div>
<blockquote>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;"><i>So what if DTP
games are skimming sales from a fixed layer of existing consumer
demand? Is this so bad? ...This is where the issue of the
traditional game company comes back to us front and center. The
boardgame company doesn't simply print and ship a paper product.
Production isn't really limited by a lack of designs. For the most
part, the boardgame company is selling the “finish.” By that I
don't mean chrome or unnecessary details, polish and packaging. I
mean that the traditional boardgame company sells you a finished
product which it believes cannot be affordably improved. It is
selling the development work and the artistic and functional
rendering of the design. God knows I could create an ASL scenario
in less than an hour. Would it be publishable within the standards
of the ASL gaming community? Absolutely not. The ASL players have
come to expect their scenarios to meet certain criteria that
revolve around historical accuracy, playability and competitive
play balance (let's applaud MMP for all that they do to keep up
the quality of ASL products).</i></span></div>
</blockquote>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">For fans of the ASL
game system, the third party publishers (as MMP was at the time the
above was written) who were pushing out those ASL scenarios were
seen as saviors, rescuing their favourite game system from oblivion.
The point Tucker was making, however, was that large companies like
Avalon Hill had the resources to do it all – playtest, design,
research, yes, but also put the physical refinements into the
finished product that desktop publishers could not. (Avalon Hill was
also leagues ahead of other mainstream publishers in having its own
printing services on-call, being a subsidiary of Monarch Avalon.) At
the time he was writing (1997), dot-matrix and tractor-feed printers
were still in common use, and storage of data was done on floppy
discs. There was no widespread internet access to acquire images or
research data.<br />
<br />
The situation today is a trade-off; researchers can quickly glean
information on obscure battles to create tactical scenarios for
their favourite game, and even recreate reasonable facsimiles of the
terrain using modern mapping tools like GoogleEarth. What has been
surrendered, however, is a tangible decline in physical quality and
a lowering of professional standards in such things as periodicals
and graphic design elements of physical components of games. Classic
graphic designers such as Rodger MacGowan and Redmond Simonsen,
whose work was ubiquitous throughout the industry (at a time when
that appellation truly applied), set high standards for others to
maintain, and the inability of others to measure up was always made
obvious by direct comparisons to the current state of the art.<br />
<br />
The falling off of the current state of the art has been such a
gradual process, perhaps the change has been imperceptible, or
perhaps even it is something gamers are willing to accept in the
understanding that a niche hobby is fighting a battle for existence
against a growing number of other pastimes and distractions. Simply
put, there are other battles to fight. It was not hard for a
bookcase-style box stuffed with photo-realistic, hard-mounted
geomorphic maps to compete for the hobby dollars of teenage boys in
the 1970s, since their dads or uncles or granddads may very well
have been Second World War veterans, the war was still immediate
thanks to countless prime time TV depictions and comic book heroes
still fighting the war, and the number of ways to refight the
battles were few, with video games just a gleam in the eye of the
guy about to invent “Pong.” Spending more money on quality wasn’t a
hardship.<br />
<br />
Today, however, editors and publishers have either forgotten how to
put together products with elegance and sense of design, or lack the
will to do so. A look at some contemporary products will illustrate
what is meant.<br />
<br />
<b>Fire & Movement</b><br />
</span></div>
<div align="center">
</div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">This is a sample page
from the latest issue of F&M magazine; this old industry standard
began in 1976 under the stewardship of graphic design artist Rodger
MacGowan, who has long since headed for greener pastures with GMT
and his own magazine <i>c3i</i>. What may pass unnoticed to most
stands out like a sore thumb to those in the know; note the tiny
margins on the page (the printing goes almost the very edges of the
paper), and the poor quality of the photos. Rare industry standards
like <i>The General</i> came out on a fairly rigorous schedule and
actually adhered to them; lesser lights like<i> Grenadier</i> tried
to come out as regularly as possible but could at least be counted
on to produce ‘x’ number of issues in the span of a year. Current
magazines like <i>Operations</i> or <i>F&M</i> are unapologetic
about being printed haphazardly, and the editors – who are not full
time employees – cite real world concerns beyond their control as an
excuse for missed deadlines – or no deadlines at all.<br />
<br />
<b> </b></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMjtEMYMaBLcOF3Ik3sAemhOI5LYwIFiyAO7926XVR7MfYVFClkjUEHxVSZBiVjkGWekTIzsR4wF9biLrCAIrKTFkjBJHGnSFo19xLc_YXjUbes2wgwm1F5KHekN36B9TsOOwW2_d8Bhg/s1600/f%2526m0001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMjtEMYMaBLcOF3Ik3sAemhOI5LYwIFiyAO7926XVR7MfYVFClkjUEHxVSZBiVjkGWekTIzsR4wF9biLrCAIrKTFkjBJHGnSFo19xLc_YXjUbes2wgwm1F5KHekN36B9TsOOwW2_d8Bhg/s320/f%2526m0001.JPG" width="239" /></a></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;"><b>Operations Special Edition #2</b><br />
<br />
After lauding the first SE in a previous article, I happily sent in
my money to MMP for the second annual installment. What shortcomings
I’ve found are no doubt forgivable by true fans; I personally don’t
find them truly heinous, but they go to illustrate the kinds of
deteriorating standards I am talking about across the hobby.
Low-resolution graphics have been used in several images, with large
pixelation in the translation to print – a very large problem in
today’s desktop-to-doorstop publishing world. <br />
</span></div>
<div align="center">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq6kxnW9MvJ4Wb9-Wlpe8TuJvMbNI47gExkzE2wfU0IcLTYKlQC94y8tGNLRIcRireVRgWOr64GUgMp6LcQ1m7AFIb2MrTtZ_6-BOANPwchDwq9CRWlK5LU7tP1swGZ846uuaJuEXE4Dk/s1600/se2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq6kxnW9MvJ4Wb9-Wlpe8TuJvMbNI47gExkzE2wfU0IcLTYKlQC94y8tGNLRIcRireVRgWOr64GUgMp6LcQ1m7AFIb2MrTtZ_6-BOANPwchDwq9CRWlK5LU7tP1swGZ846uuaJuEXE4Dk/s320/se2.JPG" width="320" /></a></span></div>
</div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;"><br />
My own publishing works have suffered as well in this regard so I
can’t in good conscience scream too loudly about it. But other
aspects of layout and design make the magazine seem like
amateur-hour, certainly in comparison to older works, that we just
know for a fact were done by more expensive and time consuming
processes rather than cut-and-paste from easily transposed digital
files. <br />
<br />
<b>Relative Worth</b><br />
<br />
In short – it’s all too easy in this day and age to throw something
together, publish it, and have others purchase it. With desktop
publishing tools, print-on-demand services, online payment services,
and direct-to-download marketing, you could theoretically decide to
create a book at the breakfast table and have it in the hands of a
paying audience that afternoon. But as Stuart Tucker might have
asked – would it be any good?<br />
<br />
Sometimes the community has no choice but to subsidize poorer
physical quality; after decades of having hard-mounted mapboards as
standard, ASL changed to thinner cardstock maps for its modules, for
example. Many fans have applauded the decision as it permits easier
storage of the maps in sheet protectors, and makes them more
air-transportable for distance travel to far-off tournaments.
Sometimes change is good. MMP, who took over ASL from Avalon Hill,
no longer has access to on demand printing services and contracts
out. They collate large print runs in-house, often with the help of
local volunteers from the community, and have been known to worry
publicly about warehouse space – a far cry from the glory years of
AH who boasted at least two vibrant locations in Baltimore for
playtesting (Read Street) and production (Harford Road). The quality
of the maps has further been altered by the usage of
computer-generated artwork rather than hand-painted art – there is
no consensus on which is “better” but there is no denying that
something unique has been lost.<br />
<br />
Other times, the community does itself in. Using unique marketing on
ebay and name recognition, Wild Bill Wilder racked up over $7000.00
in sales with his ASL variant modules in 2009. The physical quality
varied from fair to poor. The counters were pre-cut (not die-cut)
but sported good artwork and were probably the most attractive
element of the modules. The scenario cards, oddly, did not feature
the unique counter art (nor did they include vital information such
as sniper activation number). The cover sheet of the module I
purchased for review, <i>Glory & Grief 2</i>, had an obvious typo.
The rules were poorly formatted, and the table of contents listed
one method of pagination that was completely different from the
actual pages, rendering it useless as a finding tool. There was no
index. There were also no “Chapter H” notes explaining the vital
statistics of the vehicle counters.</span></div>
<div align="justify">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUC96BFvHl8AIaVAdtJ9rSGkHLSKSGO5oXvn7HBHEDf8sVHh2NME_LCQ8c17GLD6xYk057dUqO6EArbacsoK07tX37AV-bDw7JrilWu5L03Ia7Q-G0aRfTI7ilrPm75ewBemRkoVGD2Dg/s1600/glorygrief3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUC96BFvHl8AIaVAdtJ9rSGkHLSKSGO5oXvn7HBHEDf8sVHh2NME_LCQ8c17GLD6xYk057dUqO6EArbacsoK07tX37AV-bDw7JrilWu5L03Ia7Q-G0aRfTI7ilrPm75ewBemRkoVGD2Dg/s320/glorygrief3.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div align="justify">
<br /></div>
<div align="center">
</div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div align="center">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: xx-small;">The artwork on the counters isn't so
bad, but if you want to know the TO KILL numbers for an 82L RCL,
your guess is as good as anyone's; this vital information wasn't
included in the game's rules. Even "owndership" (sic) of the ASL
Rulebook doesn't help out with that.</span></b></div>
<b>
</b>
<br />
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">Where the community
did itself no favours was in buying into the marketing plan – the
items were offered up one at a time via online auction, while eager
collectors routinely bid on the modules to prices well in excess of
the cost of comparable products from other publishers; prices of
over 300 dollars were not uncommon for modules that contained on
average less than two dozen loosely-written pages of rules, fewer
than ten scenarios (at least one based on a Hollywood movie rather
than real life events), a couple hundred counters, and a pair of
overlays.<br />
<br />
<b>Shouting to be Heard</b><br />
<br />
There are, or course, small magazines that are matching and
exceeding the established periodicals in terms of quality. The ASL
community again yields examples; <i>Le Franc Tireur</i> comes most
immediately to mind, having risen from an average fanzine to a first
class magazine with world-class graphic design as well as cutting
edge game variants. They released their first box-set ASL variant in
2009 and have promised more. <br />
</span></div>
<div align="center">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3QFommQOI_SF9iwc83g-wfdUMngZVPWfZgBLN7CAzHyxYzEUWzNNTPnmdthse_CczdqWjJMQJ5I2yY6nB99LK11bcTptLYiGTQv8UxndGriWFzhe5H74fuuPw_ZEQ6lsIp1oyuew2TvU/s1600/lft.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3QFommQOI_SF9iwc83g-wfdUMngZVPWfZgBLN7CAzHyxYzEUWzNNTPnmdthse_CczdqWjJMQJ5I2yY6nB99LK11bcTptLYiGTQv8UxndGriWFzhe5H74fuuPw_ZEQ6lsIp1oyuew2TvU/s320/lft.JPG" width="223" /></a></span></div>
</div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">But without the hook
of game pieces and mapboards, is there a “need” for periodicals?
With the advent of the BBS and now blogs, internet forums and social
networking, aren’t there enough ways to communicate online that
paper communications are irrelevant? I would argue that here, too,
community standards are easy to let slip. More is not always more. A
site like boardgamegeek.com can be an enormous tool for finding
lists of raw data and in communicating with others, but the
noise-to-signal ratio of a poorly moderated chat room or mailing
list or message board can make such a venture seem not worth the
effort in the end. For a game company or publisher especially, more
time can actually be spent in fighting malicious messages by
dissatisfied consumers than in working constructively on product. A
magazine slows down the rate of conversation and puts the control
back in the hands of the publisher. Sober second thought is allowed
to dominate the proceedings, even if exchanges take place between
opposing sides in a debate. Witness the discussion between Hal Hock
and John Hill/Don Greenwood over the direction of tactical games in
the pages of <i>The General</i> in 1977 after <i>Squad Leader</i>
made its debut, and Hock defended his technocrat’s vision of <i>
Tobruk</i> against the more fanciful but popular SL. <br />
<br />
The administrators of battlefront.com’s forum – in particular, their
<i>Combat Mission</i> games – have apparently tired so much of the
“noise” that they have admitted to moderating in favour of “pro”
postings only. It’s not that different than the editor of house
organs of old picking and choosing with deliberation which letters
they would print in their mail columns. Other forums, such as
Matrix’s <i>Panzer Command</i> forum, have run the gamut from being
over-run by disruptive posters with nothing constructive to add but
mayhem, to becoming dead as doornails as ardor for the game cooled
post-release and enthusiasts found little to talk about. <br />
<br />
<b>My Final Word</b><br />
<br />
The Do-It-Yourself community has brought down standards in all
areas; that third parties who publish scenarios for favourite
tactical games may have their own lower standards is obvious, but if
they are rushing the mainstream publishers into getting “more
product” onto market to compete, standards across the board are
dropped. Community discussion, once directed if not controlled by
the publishers, is now firmly in the hands of the consumer, who can
create Do It Yourself sounding boards for opinions – fair or not.
<br />
<b><br />
My Question to You</b><br />
<br />
Can there really be no need at all for quality printed magazines on
board, miniature or computer games any more? If the answer is yes,
what does that say about us? If the answer is no, are we doing
enough to create them?</span></div>
M.Doroshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09742262581616285671noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587723021467018459.post-69611586129335800832009-07-06T17:34:00.000-06:002016-05-04T18:06:56.589-06:00Experiential Game Players<br />
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: xx-small;"><i>This is a mirror of
an article original appearing at this link:
<a href="http://forums.gamesquad.com/blog.php?b=654">
http://forums.gamesquad.com/blog.php?b=654</a></i></span></div>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">There is a need in certain quarters to
categorize game players, whether it is to gather demographics for
advertising, or to attempt to predict future sales, or to better
enable fellow gamers to talk to one another. MOVES Magazine printed
an article in 1975, breaking down board wargamers into the
following:</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<ul>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">The Military Establishment</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">The Military Historians</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">The Military Buffs</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">The Avengers</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">The Social Wargamers</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">The Mathematicians</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">The Supercompetitors</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">The Accidental Converts</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">The Shut-Ins</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">The Limited Interest Minority</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">The Wishful Thinkers</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">The Reluctant Gift-Receivers</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">The Elite Capitalists</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">The Reluctant Opponents</span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">The categories, author Phil Kosnett
admitted, overlapped. What he didn't admit in print was that the
piece was probably meant as much as humorous filler as a serious
attempt to define the wargaming community. As with all good humour,
there was much truth in his descriptions. I recall turning a friend
of the family into a Reluctant Opponent in a game of <i>Wreck of the
B.S.M. Pandora</i> during a stay at his home. I think most of my
early <i>Squad Leader </i>opponents were probably Reluctant
Opponents, come to think of it.<sup>1</sup></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">Twenty-five years later, Curt Schilling
described the<i> Advanced Squad Leader</i> community as "cliques",
breaking them down as "Competitor. Simulator. Historian. Socializer.
Many of you may have seen wargaming broken down like this before."<sup>2</sup></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">Somewhere during the intervening quarter
century, however, it became possible to introduce a new dynamic into
the mix; that of the Experiential Wargamer. The introduction of
tactical level wargames, first person shooters, and legitimate
solitaire gaming all helped develop that new category.</span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial";">Early Roots and Shameful Pursuits</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">The first board wargames were intended
to portray operational level clashes where the gamer filled the role
of a general in command of an army group, army or corps commander.
Tactical-level games didn't arrive on the scene until later - though
miniature players had been recreating low-level tactical battles for
decades by the time <i>PanzerBlitz</i> hit the scene in 1970. The
"dirty little secret" among wargamers, however, was that the
majority of gamers had always played solo. SPI began surveying its
customers in the late 1960s with reader feedback cards and found in
excess of 50 percent of those surveyed played alone - before the
invention of board wargames specifically designed for solo play. "In
the 1990s, the number of games played solitaire exceeds sixty
percent."<sup>3</sup> SPI recognized this phenomenon early on; in
the very first issue of their "house organ", MOVES Magazine, they
published a "how to" article on maximizing solitaire play.<sup>4</sup></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">As the focus of wargames decreased in
scope, however, the ability to picture one's self in the role of the
commanders increased. It became possible to become personally <i>
involved</i> in the events on the game board. It had been possible
to picture yourself as the generalissimo of the Red Army in <i>
Tactics II</i>, of course, but it was still a somewhat abstract
experience to push entire divisions from square to square.</span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial";">You Command The Action</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">In 1977, <i>Squad Leader </i>not only
put the player into the role of a company commander, in charge of
100 or so men engaged in desperate battle, but with a unique
Campaign Game and a set of blank "leader" counters, permitted the
player to lend his own name and personality to the proceedings. For
the first time, the 1/2-inch cardboard square represented one person
- the player - and his skill at arms would have repercussions not
just in the current game, but in a series of games, with the ability
to rise in rank and ability.</span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC2SuHaHo1UKtwvPGW0G7_sVkldNBN4U84FK0D8JSmy68Vr_eKTqpYsM9lpCRB5ZHgwtL6wp5oPGq2t67psvS7aNAO28_iOM9XTEHNKenVTk2i9cV6E7HemWsMtMZdu55zmlNn2IscSr8/s1600/campaigngame.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC2SuHaHo1UKtwvPGW0G7_sVkldNBN4U84FK0D8JSmy68Vr_eKTqpYsM9lpCRB5ZHgwtL6wp5oPGq2t67psvS7aNAO28_iOM9XTEHNKenVTk2i9cV6E7HemWsMtMZdu55zmlNn2IscSr8/s320/campaigngame.jpg" width="271" /></a></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial";">Playing for Experience</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">What the <i>Squad Leader </i>campaign
game permitted was the creation of another category of "casual" game
player - the Experiential Player. Like the other categories that
have been created (and none of these are set in stone, as they are
creations of convenience for the specific purposes of those that
create them) they freely overlap. They can be the bane of the
Serious Competitor who wants to play him, or the Stolid Historian
who wants to debate him. He might even be highly sought after by the
Crass Commercialist who wants to sell extra historical modules to
him because he knows he can "hook" him based on new "flavours"
alone.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">What the Experiential Player could do
was actually relive some of the excitement the ad copy on the back
of the box promised, which proclaimed "YOU are the Squad Leader."
The game became less a function of calculating the chance of a 2:1
odds attack with three regiments at Quatre Bras, and more about
whether or not he had the guts to order his last five men into close
combat against that tank around the next block. Imagination became
part of the game. The following was recently posted in an ASL-themed
blog, and illustrates the imaginative approach still taken to <i>
Squad Leader</i>'s offspring:</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<blockquote>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial";">If there's one
hallmark that makes a good wargame it's the narrative generated
from the game. This is something you're just not going to get out
of a Euro like Agricola or Puerto Rico or whatever. For example,
take the case of the Cursed MMG.</span></i></span></div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial";">Early in the
game, around turn 2, the Russians who would have been manning a
MMG...ran off after taking fire. They left a perfectly good
support weapon lying around and in the next rally phase I rolled a
SIX -- what the HELL?! Pick the damn thing up you scrubs!</span></i></span></div>
<div align="justify">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;"><i>I should have
known then that the MMG was cursed. Slick with the blood of the
Russian who last held it, the MMG was to be an albatross on the
neck of every German squad who managed to pick it up... By game's
end, its bad mojo extended into the full hex and even squads who
didn't pick it up were gunned down...</i><sup>5</sup></span></div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial";">Rise of the Individual</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">While SPI recognized early on the
proclivity to play games solitaire, it did not result in a great
number of solitaire titles, and of those released, success has been
mixed. Games like <i>Iwo Jima</i> and <i>B-17: Queen of the Skies</i>
were mainly exercises in dice rolling. <i>Tokyo Express</i> received
greater attention, and the title most germaine to this article, <i>
Ambush!</i>, was perhaps the most successful, spawning several
sequels, including three follow-ups, a companion game with sequel, a
two-player version, and a tank-based variant as well as a number of
third-party variants and scenarios. <i>Ambush!</i> was perhaps the
most intense expression of the notion that players sat down with
wargames solely for the Experience - that is to say, to engage their
imagination and to indulge in escapism, rather than emphasis on the
other often-cited historical, educational or competitive aspects to
wargaming which had often been used to "legitimize" the hobby in the
early days when escapism was really not possible given the limited
physical components and interactivity of the games themselves. Not
coincidentally, <i>Ambush!</i> was a man-to-man level game, with
each game piece representing a single soldier, and the player was
given free reign to name each member of his squad as he saw fit.
Like the SL Campaign Game, each "character" had the opportunity to
advance in skills, rank and ability over time as the player
campaigned his squad through several missions.</span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">The rise of role playing games in the
early 1970s must surely have had an impact on legitimizing how
wargamers approached the experience also. The first military themed
RPG was published in 1979 - SPI once again led the way, with <i>
Commando</i> - followed by almost a dozen other titles in the 1980s,
none of which came anywhere close to the popularity of the fantasy
or science fiction RPGs. But it may have been a simple matter of
technology.</span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">In 1992 <i>Wolfenstein 3D</i> was
released and began appearing on home computers; it popularized the
First Person Shooter genre, had a tinge of history to it (there were
"Nazis" in an underground cavern and the Horst Wesel song was
accurate, if not slightly offensive to the sensitive), and there was
no need to pull out cardboard pieces and paper maps. By 1997, <i>
Muzzle Velocity</i> was offering something much more historical -
accurate 3D models of historical equipment in camouflage paint jobs,
first person tank crew and infantryman views, the ability to switch
between the 3D world and a 2D map; not all that remarkable, given
that <i>M-1 Tank Platoon</i> had done many of the same things in
1989, but with vector graphics and without the infantry. The games
weren't about counting firepower factors, they were about being
there on the battlefield and experiencing it. Just like role playing
games, first person shooters and 3D battle games were letting
wargamers set foot in other worlds.</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxsyOdgndjaq2eYRsugGcomb9N3UkqbuNOcSATsvWwIMQSJoml4Goxl1j1B9XLS8JjhAy4bUk3pMr6WhzqLTYu0qpYJEg2gOD5JyVsTvkBULPeMKHM8Ut0Z_-p79X0iTRe9K5SFHFIJEQ/s1600/muzzlescreenie11.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxsyOdgndjaq2eYRsugGcomb9N3UkqbuNOcSATsvWwIMQSJoml4Goxl1j1B9XLS8JjhAy4bUk3pMr6WhzqLTYu0qpYJEg2gOD5JyVsTvkBULPeMKHM8Ut0Z_-p79X0iTRe9K5SFHFIJEQ/s320/muzzlescreenie11.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b> <span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: xx-small;">Knocked out Sherman tank in Muzzle
Velocity (1997)</span></b></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial";">Trends</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">The focus on solitaire play and on
individual achievement/campaign play would seem to have been
influenced, either directly or indirectly, by the fantasy and role
playing worlds. Real militaries emphasize teamwork and the necessity
to work together to overcome obstacles. Basic training is an ordeal
that takes weeks to accomplish. Divisions are commanded not by
single commanders, but by staffs of officers trained in
administration and logistics who wrestle with problems well beyond
the ken of the uninitiated. The trend in military gaming is towards
games such as <i>Brothers in Arms</i> which, while touting its
"realism" because it occasionally asks the player to maneuver
riflemen to a flanking position, still manages to ignore most of the
realities of modern combat, specifically but not restricted to the
complexities of command and control.</span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">In actual fact, first person shooters
are so unlike military practice, they are usually not considered "wargames";
but a new category has slipped in - "tactical shooters." These are
man-to-man games set in the first person with a level of realism and
fidelity superior to the "first person shooters." The differences
are apparent; tactical shooters have no "health packs" or ability to
magically heal, for one. <i>Operation Flashpoint</i> and <i>Armed
Assault</i> have been assigned to this category. They also claim to
have actual restrictions on command and control, in both single- and
multi-player mode. Kill ratios are way down in the tactical
shooters, and just seeing the enemy is a real accomplishment - as it
usually is in real life.</span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">As the games increase in scale, to
squad- and platoon- level, the level of abstraction also increases,
to simulate command and control problems and various types of
"friction." The Experiential Player becomes drawn out of the game,
and makes decisions not just for one person, but represents in
reality a syndicate of commanders. It's possible to lose one's self
in the experience, but it doesn't become the entire point of the
game. An example is the initial iteration of <i>Combat Mission</i>
where watching the 3D "movie" is necessary to plan strategy each
turn. Another is in ASL, where smaller "narratives" get naturally
built around individual vignettes, as we saw illustrated above with
the Russian MMG.</span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;"> </span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial";">My Final Word</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">At the most basic level, every wargamer
is an Experiential Player, given that the point of playing a game is
to have fun or be entertained. The point of the article is to
describe a player who plays for escapism above all else. Anyone who
has fired up <i>Panzer Commander</i> just to maneuver the camera
around one of the maps will relate to him. So will anyone who has
used a map editor to recreate their own childhood neighbourhood.</span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial";">My Question To You</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">Is it possible to sub-divide the
Experiential Player class?</span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">Notes</span></b> </div>
<ol style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 8pt;">
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">
Kosnett, Phil "What is a Wargamer?" Moves Magazine (Issue Nr. 19
Feb-Mar 1975)</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">
Schilling, Kurt "Can You Ever Be Sure? Historical Research and ASL"
(ASL Journal 2)</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">
Dunnigan, James F. <u>Wargames Handbook, Third Edition</u>
(Writers Club Press, Lincoln, NE, 2000) p.304 ISBN 0-595-15546-4</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">
Richardson, Jay "Solitaire Wargaming" Moves Magazine (Issue Nr. 1
Feb 1972)</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: xx-small;">http://triplepbf.blogspot.com/2009/06/d1-aar-part-one-things-always-start.html</span></div>
<blockquote>
<div>
</div>
</blockquote>
</li>
</ol>
M.Doroshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09742262581616285671noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587723021467018459.post-30643819999465729872009-02-05T17:42:00.000-07:002016-05-04T18:06:39.508-06:00The Question of Battle Doctrine and National Mythology in the Second World War<br />
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: xx-small;"><i>This is a mirror of
an article original appearing at this link:
<a href="http://forums.gamesquad.com/blog.php?b=600">
http://forums.gamesquad.com/blog.php?b=600</a></i></span><br />
</div>
<div align="center">
</div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">The first commercially successful
tactical wargames rules were actually based on miniatures, and
indeed, the first true tactical wargames were heavily influenced by,
and even marketed to, miniatures players. Certainly comparisons to
miniatures were rife in articles on <i>PanzerBlitz</i>, and not long
after its publication, Strategy & Tactics published its own
miniatures rules called T-34, now long forgotten. When Squad Leader
hit the scene in 1977, advertising appealed directly to miniatures
players by name.</span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">There has been a resurgence in recent
years in the popularity of miniatures systems, though one can safely
say that the miniatures players never really went away. Popular
systems have always been part of the wargaming scene, from the
earliest efforts of men like Donald Grant who published “do it
yourself” type books, to the publication of <i>Tractics</i>, to more
sophisticated rules sets too numerous to mention in the 1970s and
80s, yet never have they occupied the mainstream popularity or
commercial success of role playing fantasy titles such as <i>
Dungeons & Dragons</i> or board games such as <i>Advanced Squad
Leader.</i></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1FN5LfyKxKEgJFzpALVVTClGJQtFnFDdDtu5ODxqRXX76TKgt_3T2aeG91l7SvGCUPaOknD0-TSl79EkA9SK6maw55DIppx1cUCtC9fYtsIcmfTDgWjHr_Uxft5CAALKu4YTHbc31zeY/s1600/honourregiment.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1FN5LfyKxKEgJFzpALVVTClGJQtFnFDdDtu5ODxqRXX76TKgt_3T2aeG91l7SvGCUPaOknD0-TSl79EkA9SK6maw55DIppx1cUCtC9fYtsIcmfTDgWjHr_Uxft5CAALKu4YTHbc31zeY/s320/honourregiment.JPG" width="236" /></a></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">The miniaturists are making efforts at
catching up commercially, with slick new products today like <i>
Flames of War </i>or <i>Axis and Allies</i>; there is the use of
“big industry names” in other cases, and in all, an attempt to win
wide market appeal. I recently picked up a recent publication with
the name Frank Chadwick attached to it, and was struck by the
production values. (Chadwick’s name is well known in the annals of
board wargaming.) The book – <i>Honour of the Regiment</i> - was an
overview of a rules set for British Commonwealth forces in the
Second World War, with detailed unit values and the usual bits of
history and regimental trivia thrown into the mix, as part of the
reboot of <i>Command Decision/Test of Battle</i>. What struck me,
however, was Chadwick’s attempt to riff on an old myth:</span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 50px; margin-right: 50px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial";">A few years ago I was part of a
symposium on offensive tactical doctrine of World War II. Each panel
member had a single country for which they made a presentation -
mine happened to be Germany. Once the four or five of us had all
made our presentations, someone in the audience pointed out that
there had been no panelist presentation for British offensive
tactical doctrine. (This was, as you might imagine, in the United
States.) The moderator was apologetic, but explained that he had
been unable to find a panelist to give a position briefing on the
British, but wondered if any of the panelists would now like to give
an improvised talk. After we looked at each other for a few seconds,
and it became clear that no one else was about to do so, I stood up
and gave a short presentation on British Army Offensive Doctrine in
World War II.</span></i></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 50px; margin-right: 50px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial";">"We didn't have any," I said, and sat
down.</span></i><span style="font-family: "arial";"><i> </i></span><span style="font-family: "arial";"><i>After the inevitable laughter, I
stood up again and elaborated. </i>(1)</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 50px; margin-right: 50px;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">It struck me as not particularly funny,
not because I had heard it or jokes like it many times before (there
was an old saw pasted up in my Reserve Army regiment’s orderly room
for many years by an unattributed and probably apocryphal Red Army
officer of the Cold War era who was reputed to have said “the
problem with training to fight against Canadian Army doctrine is
that the Canadian Army has no doctrine”) but because it was so
patently untrue.</span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial";">
Commonwealth Doctrine – 1944</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;"><span lang="en">The term doctrine is
simply defined as an established set of procedures to solving
complex problems; in the military sense, it refers to a standard set
of maneuvers, kinds of troops and weapons and the way in which they
are employed as a default approach to a kind of operation.</span></span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">In February 1944, Lieutenant-General Guy
G. Simonds, the commander of 2<sup>nd</sup> Canadian Corps, gave a
detailed series of tactical notes to commanders preparing for the
invasion of Europe, based on his battle experience in Italy as
commander of the 1<sup>st</sup> Canadian Infantry Division. The
notes are remarkable for their clarity and in describing so well the
course of tactical battles to come in Normandy, the breakout across
northern France and Belgium, the fighting in the Netherlands, the
Rhineland, the Rhine crossings, and the final battles in Germany.
(2)</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<ul>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">For attacks on prepared positions,
adequate reconnaissance was emphasized, with assaults to take
place on a limited front with "all available" artillery so that
"really heavy support may be given." A Commonwealth division of
nine infantry battalions had three field regiments of 25-pounder
guns (24 guns in each), while each infantry battalion had six
3-inch mortars of its own. The divisional support battalion had a
company of 4.2-inch mortars. The corps artillery had additional
fire support available in 4.5”, 5.5” and 7.2” gun regiments, and
for large scale operations, tactical air support was available
ranging from fighter-bombers to medium and even four-engine heavy
bomber support. Naval gunfire was also used while in Normandy.</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">Initial objectives had to penetrate to
beyond the normal range of German mortars, or else those mortars
had to be dislodged by counter-battery fire (difficult to do owing
to the ease with which they could be deployed in cover and
concealment). </span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">Consideration was to be given in
large-scale operations as to when to move friendly artillery
forward, and when to schedule friendly air power, possibly as a
substitute. </span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">Simonds also impressed on his
commanders the value of friendly tanks and anti-tank guns being
forward with the infantry, as well as the use of artillery against
enemy tanks, directed by Forward Observation Officers of field
artillery batteries travelling with the leading infantry.</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">Anti-tank obstacles and thick
minefields were common and initial attacks were to be made by the
infantry to secure gaps or breach obstacles</span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">These
tactical points were raised in reaction to German defensive battle
doctrine, which stressed the following:</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<ul>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">Forward positions were defended
lightly, thinly held with small groups of men strong in automatic
weapons.</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">Stronger infantry forces were held in
reserve, ready to counter-attack where necessary.</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">Forward positions were strongly
supported by mortars, usually located 3,000 to 4,000 yards to the
rear, capable of firing ahead of or anywhere within the defended
zone. The Germans pre-registered their own positions and
immediately and heavily shelled and mortared them once they were
known to be lost.</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">Tanks and self-propelled guns were
held in reserve and when enemy infantry had broken into friendly
positions, would move in and deliver direct fire at very close
range.</span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">While a Canadian assault, properly
planned and supported, might easily break the crust of such a
defensive set-up, the German policy of counter-attacking with fresh
reserves and armour meant that the real battle was one of defeating
the follow on forces, which would also include any mortars not
over-run in the initial assault. For this reason, Simonds insisted
that planning had to consider the German counter-attacks as a
routine part of the initial battle.</span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial";">Did It
Work?</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">The drawback in practice was that the <i>
“set-piece”</i> approach was often applied, in fact, <i>piecemeal</i>.
Operations that should have been assigned to divisions were
sometimes assigned to brigades. Such was the case in Operation
WINDSOR in early July 1944, when four battalions of the 3<sup>rd</sup>
Canadian Infantry Division were ordered to assault Carpiquet and the
adjacent airport. While the village fell – it was defended by just
50 fanatic SS men – the assault over open ground against the south
hangars and control towers was stopped cold by automatic weapons
fire and tanks. During Operation CHARNWOOD a few days later, the
three divisions of British and Canadians again met stiff resistance,
but managed to batter their way into Caen. The Highland Light
Infantry of Canada did everything right at Buron during CHARNWOOD;
they fought a textbook operation according to doctrine: (3)</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<ul>
<li>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">They
cleared the enemy mines before zero hour</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">They laid on an extensive opening
barrage</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">They attacked with a squadron of
tanks, as well as mine-clearing tanks and troops of M-10
tank-destroyers</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">Their reconnaissance included a
prisoner taken only days before who provided intelligence of the
identity of the defenders and the location of weapons, in addition
to aerial reconnaissance and other patrol data; the battalion even
built a scale model of the terrain to rehearse the operation on</span></div>
</li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">
</span><div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">The unit had occupied the ground
opposite Buron for four weeks and was intimately familiar with the
ground</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9BZthVhOhxSqBGkejdB5wnt9vlJFnD9dr9xt5emNTwjat3rV7v-z5jdqVhg2Z2380DQ7D6JUkiq8ix0OtuY05avFJoxfDRkZhbGsryh-kLzmWJuPjSzM6EkFWTLBiTeVSX8ysyH6CuC8/s1600/buronmap0005.GIF" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9BZthVhOhxSqBGkejdB5wnt9vlJFnD9dr9xt5emNTwjat3rV7v-z5jdqVhg2Z2380DQ7D6JUkiq8ix0OtuY05avFJoxfDRkZhbGsryh-kLzmWJuPjSzM6EkFWTLBiTeVSX8ysyH6CuC8/s320/buronmap0005.GIF" width="275" /></a></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: xx-small;"> Canadian Army Intelligence Information
Sheet dated 2 July 1944<br />
showing the HLI's deployment for the Buron Assault on 8 July. </span>
</div>
</li>
</ul>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">Unfortunately, the Germans also fought
according to their own doctrine, and the 3<sup>rd</sup> Battalion,
SS Panzergrenadier Regiment 25 held on to the village grimly. They
held the forward edge of the town lightly, with automatic weapons
sited in an anti-tank ditch. When they were finally cleared from the
ditch and the leading edge of the village, their guns and mortars
shelled Buron violently and kept it under constant attack so that
the only vehicles able to enter and leave were jeeps and carriers to
evacuate the wounded. Of the 15 Canadian tanks supporting the
attack, 10 were knocked out. The only departure from doctrine was
that no infantry counter-attack was delivered, but a company of
Panther tanks did counter-attack after the village fell late in the
afternoon, but was beaten back. Even then, some SS troops held out
inside the village until the next day. The total cost to the HLI was
262 dead and wounded, of a full strength of about 800 (just under
500 of those being in the rifle companies).</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYAgBnyUwf3H6TXqoosqWEv3F8x8tJ2TWnWhg04GNA_LCCHsIN5L7Wzo5i_7bW25NTqX7NbmjShX7Ex7a5ZRDaWwZuYt-cllUrHcPL0EOzn-lqnUQlhZ53vXiUrbhAG1fKD2D8KsqTneg/s1600/buronmap2.GIF" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYAgBnyUwf3H6TXqoosqWEv3F8x8tJ2TWnWhg04GNA_LCCHsIN5L7Wzo5i_7bW25NTqX7NbmjShX7Ex7a5ZRDaWwZuYt-cllUrHcPL0EOzn-lqnUQlhZ53vXiUrbhAG1fKD2D8KsqTneg/s320/buronmap2.GIF" width="320" /></a></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: xx-small;">The village itself was heavily defended
with tanks, artillery, mines, automatic weapons, and three rifle
companies<br />
supported by a heavy weapons company with machine guns and mortars.</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">Buron is an extreme case; the SS troops
of the Hitler Youth Division had fought unusually fanatically – many
refused to surrender, having been told they would be murdered if
they did so (their division had been responsible for the murder of
over 130 Canadian POWs immediately following D-Day, on the other
hand, and so the advice was not entirely unwarranted), and many were
teenagers with a high degree of motivation and political
indoctrination. Reports of soldiers holding out even in the face of
point-blank 75-mm tank fire were made after the battle. It was one
of the costliest days for any Canadian battalion in Normandy, and
the worst day of the HLI for the entire war. But the doctrine had
worked; Buron had fallen, against the toughest of opponents.</span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ7qqfzXoiZvc-Uyab1GQjpveEDrtBJlNjfMjFBkqFP3Ut50Ij_aOS6sepCgZr7R88fbndbcDbH7kISNjIBHwJ7V4O9Mnc9nyzJbceOMtTLrC9bLs_ES9yHtxTUXhcZOpKN8ZRaf_-ihg/s1600/buronphoto3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ7qqfzXoiZvc-Uyab1GQjpveEDrtBJlNjfMjFBkqFP3Ut50Ij_aOS6sepCgZr7R88fbndbcDbH7kISNjIBHwJ7V4O9Mnc9nyzJbceOMtTLrC9bLs_ES9yHtxTUXhcZOpKN8ZRaf_-ihg/s320/buronphoto3.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: xx-small;">A tank of the Sherbrooke Fusilier
Regiment sits abandoned in Buron on 8 July. Buron<br />
had previously been the scene of furious fighting a month earlier,
on 7 June, as well, when the<br />
3rd Canadian Division and 12th SS Panzer Division clashed on the day
after D-Day.</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">In other cases, German technical
superiority, especially in the case of armour, was overwhelming. In
the words of historian Terry Copp:</span></div>
<div align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 50px; margin-right: 50px;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;"><i>In theory there was nothing wrong
with Simonds' version of Allied battle experience but in practice
the thinly armoured, undergunned Sherman tanks were seldom able to
accompany the infantry onto the objective, and almost never able to
stay to help meet the counterattacks. The self-propelled anti-tank
guns stayed well to the rear and it usually took some time to get
the towed six-pounder and seventeen-pounder anti-tank guns into
position. All too often the infantry had only the artillery to
(rely) upon, not only to "shoot" them onto the objective but also to
break up the counterattacks with well-directed concentrations. More
than one infantry company commander has described his role in
North-West Europe as "escorting the artillery Forward Observation
Officer (FOO) across France." </i>(4)</span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 50px; margin-right: 50px;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>
<span style="font-family: "arial";">My Final Word</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">It is interesting that historians and
especially casual observers have failed so utterly to understand
what the doctrines of the various armies really were. The Blitzkrieg
Myth has been persistent since the first Allied newspapermen wrote
their first hysterical accounts in 1939 and the myth was perpetuated
by post-war apologists seeking to explain away why a truly
unprepared and in many ways mediocre German Army had gotten the best
of larger Allied forces in Norway, then France, then North Africa.
The operationally competent Red Army of 1944-45 is very often
dismissed in popular culture as having had no abilities whatsoever
beyond the artillery barrage and the human wave, and the British
Commonwealth armies are generally maligned – as Chadwick did, if
only in jest – for bumbling about and only fighting when it suited
them, in “set-piece” battles, as if fighting a battle you were
prepared to fight was somehow something to be ashamed of.</span></div>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "arial";">My
Question To You</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">Is it not eminently sensible to fight
only when you are prepared? Perhaps the only army more sensible than
the British in that regard were the Italians who, when it was clear
they were on the wrong end of the conflict, had the good sense to
capitulate. Sadly, their divisions in Yugoslavia suffered terribly
in the process, and many in mainland Italy fared no better. Why,
though, do the Germans continue to get the lion’s share of “glory” –
if that is what it is – for continuing to surrender the lives not
only of millions of their soldiers and citizens, but to continue the
suffering of their captives, their slave labourers, and their
enemies, all to no apparent purpose – and be praised for their skill
at arms while losing battle after battle, usually by mounting costly
local counter-attacks both large and small?</span></div>
<ol style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 8pt;">
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">
Chadwick, Frank <i>The Honour of the Regiment: The British and
Commonwealth Armies in the West in World War II, 1939-45</i> (Test
of Battle Games, 2008)</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">
Lieutenant General Guy Simonds Directive, February 1944, attached
to War Diary, 2nd Canadian Corps</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">
Snowie, Allan J. <i>Bloody Buron</i> (The Boston Mills Press,
Erin, ON, 1984)</span></div>
</li>
<li>
<div align="justify" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Copp,
Terry. <i>The Brigade</i> (Fortress Publications Inc., Stoney
Creek, ON, 1992)</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
M.Doroshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09742262581616285671noreply@blogger.com3