This year I was able to attend the Compass Games Expo in Meriden Connecticut which ran from 5-9 November. Based in the Comfort Inn and Suites, the playing facilities were good with plentiful tables and space, and lots of different games to sample. In addition, Compass ran a pop-up store offering its games at a substantial discount. In such a situation, it’s a bummer having restricted luggage capacity, but I did buy some of the games I wanted.
The convention noticeboard showing the available game demonstration and teaching sessions.
I invested my playing time mostly in MMP’s Great Campaigns of the American Civil War (GCACW) because it’s one of my favorite systems and I’ve only ever played it solitaire. The con was an opportunity to play, watch, and learn.
First up, along with Bruno, Jeff, and Marshall, I played scenario 7, the Virginia Campaign (the 1861 Bull Run campaign game) from All Green Alike, part of the Stonewall Jackson’s Way II game. At a fairly leisurely pace, we finished the 14-turn game inside two days, resulting in a CSA victory. (You should be able to guess which side I was on…) I don’t have any way of properly assessing how balanced the scenario is, but it truly didn’t matter to me as the focus was on playing the game and learning. Certainly the others seemed to know what they were doing! And it was good fun.
Before my next GCACW game, I played several turns of American Tank Ace – a solitaire game – because the game I had arranged never happened due to my opponent ghosting me, and I didn’t fancy any of the other open slots. American Tank Ace, a solitaire game about being a USA tank commander in Western Europe in 1944-45, was one of my Compass purchases and although the rules have several loose and stray ends, I persevered and the end result was worth the effort. I plan on spending some more time with this game.
Second of my GCACW games, I played scenario 3, McLellan’s Opportunity (the time between South Mountain and Antietam) from Roads to Gettysburg II with Rob. This is a short 3-turn action-packied scenario. My CSA forces failed to hold back the swarms of Union soldiers. Rob’s analysis, which I think is correct, is that the CSA player has the harder task in the scenario as his forces are limited and any one mistake or bad luck in the initiative rolls can make a significant difference. The Union player, however, has plentiful forces and if one division is fought to a standstill, there are plenty more to get the job done. The CSA side can win, but it’s a tougher challenge. Regardless, I enjoyed playing the game and learned a lot.
It was a long way to travel to play games, but that comes with living in Israel. It was definitely worthwhile, despite the jet-lag. The gamers I played with were all courteous, patient, and willing to share their knowledge and I had a ball. It was wonderful being able to see all the other games being played in the flesh – from fifty-year-old classics to brand new unpublished designs – and chat to people about the games and the hobby. The experience has cemented my love affair with GCACW and I’m now going to make a concerted effort to play more of the series.
I stayed in the convention hotel. Let’s just say it’s basic, and if I ever get the chance to go to this convention again, I’ll probably stay elsewhere. It was clean and the staff tried hard, but the shower was less than brilliant and the breakfast uninspiring, and that’s being kind. The food options in the immediate area are typical USA main street fare and not fantastic. Thankfully GrubHub solved that challenge.
The main street in Meriden, where the action took place, isn’t especially picturesque, but beyond the town, Connecticut was beautiful. The autumn foliage colors were glorious. I didn’t do any touring there, but that’s definitely on the agenda if I return.
The Compass Expo is a good convention. I do hope I get the chance to go again. Thanks to Bruno, Jeff, Marshall, and Rob for helping make it such a good time.
Click on the following images to enlarge them.
You only had one job…The convention hotelMaps for the campaign game I playedArdennes ’44Air and ArmorThe Emperor ReturnsNear the end of the McLellan’s Opportunity scenarioJohnston’s at start forces in the Bull Run campaignCrusade and Revolution – Spanish Civil WarCrown of RosesUnidentified wargame – possibly WW2 global?Closeup of counters from that worldwide game.Forlorn Hope – WW1 trench warfareCombat – WW2 solitaireA (forthcoming Wes Crawford?) game about the St. Albans raid during the ACWGrant – The Western Campaign of 1862
July 1974: West Germany wins the (Soccer) World Cup, defeating the Netherlands 2-1. Turkey invades Cyprus. The USA release of the film Death Wish (based on a novel by Brian Garfield) starring Charles Bronson and directed by Michael Winner.
August 1974: USA President Richard Nixon resigns and Vice President Gerald Ford takes the oath of office to become the 38th USA President. Zaheer Abbas scores 240 for Pakistan against England at The Oval. RCA releases in the USA Harry Nilsson’s tenth Album, Pussy Cats, produced by John Lennon.
Game Included
Operation Olympic by James F. Dunnigan is a solitaire game about the hypothetical USA invasion of Japan in 1945. Each turn is a week, each hex is 6.5km and units are regiments, brigades, and divisions. There is a two-player option.
During the last year of the war in which Japan lost one decisive battle after another, hundreds of thousands of Japanese had been sacrificed. If the Emperor prematurely agreed to surrender, these lives would appear all the more wasted. Thus, the war must be allowed to continue until Japan’s ruin became visible to all and the suffering caused by it had produced a popular clamoring for peace.
Science Fiction Futures – Stephen B. Patrick, John Boardman, and Redmond A. Simonsen
The real object is to reveal human behavior under stress – and the stranger the source of stress the better. The “weird” factor in science fiction is what lifts it above other genre writing in importance. It provides a unique esthetic distance from which the reader can appraise the characters and the situation. It enables the writer to arrange all of the background to focus attention on the main players. It can, and consistently does, carry the reader beyond the narrow defiles of his here-and-now reality set so that he can more successfully turn back and see his life. Science fiction is a way of looking at the past.
Outgoing Mail – editors
Footnotes – everybody
Sackson on Games – Sid Sackson
Pass in Review (book reviews) – Albert A. Nofi
Player’s Notes – Irad B. Hardy and John Michael Young
Just wanted to complain about Hardy’s (IBH) comments in the Civil War rules folder. Deesigner’s notes should explain the historical considerations utilized or reflected in the game system. However, Hardy’s suggestion that the Union player set up in odd-numbered hexes to minimize Command Control problems is an example of gamesmanship rather than historical accuracy.
On a Personal Note
My knowledge of the war in the Pacific was sketchy. I knew nothing about proposed plans for the invasion of Japan. This issue of S&T went some way to fill in in the gaps. Although the historical article’s focus was on the later stages, there was some useful material about how the participants got to that part. As for the invasion, while I was happy to play the game, I think I took it less seriously because – perhaps naively – I found it a highly unlikely scenario. No power could have resisted the force of the USA’s nuclear arsenal. Surrender was inevitable.
May 1974: Israel and Syria sign an agreement about the Golan Heights. In hockey’s Stanley Cup, the Philadelphia Flyers win the series 4-2, becoming the first “expansion” team to win the trophy, with Flyers’ goaltender Bernie Parent named playoff MVP. ABC Records releases Rikki Don’t Lose That Number from Steely Dan’s Pretzel Logic album.
June 1974: Yitzhak Rabin becomes Israeli Prime Minister, replacing Golda Meir. At the French Open, USA teenager Chris Evert beats Olga Morozova of Russia to win the Women’s title, the first of a record 7 French singles titles for her. Mean while, Sweden’s Börg beats Manuel Orantes of Spain to win the Men’s title, his first career Grand Slam title. The Provisional IRA bomb the Houses of Parliament in London, injuring 11 people, part of a renewed IRA campaign against targets in England.
Game Included
Tank! by James F. Dunnigan is a two-player game about armored combat in the 20th century with each unit representing an individual tank or vehicle or gun or infantry squad. Hexes represent 50 meters of real terrain and each game turn is “36 seconds to two minutes of real time depending upon the scenario played.” It uses pre-plotted simultaneous orders.
Oddly enough, if a tank was destroyed, the crew was not necessarily destroyed with it. In fact, the average deaths in the crew of a destroyed tank was only 1.3 men per tank for the war. Also, only 75% of all tank casualties occurred inside the tank. This goes to remind us that tank crews did not spend all of their time in the tank. In fact, they spent the majority of their time outside of the tank.
Sea War in the Age of Sail –David C. Isby
Throughout history, the sea has been the great thoroughfare for trade and communication. Small wonder that man, clever fellow that he is, took to fighting on the planetary sea not very long after he learned organized violence on land.
Shortly after the publication of The East is Red, we received a visit from a high-ranking Soviet diplomat, stationed in New York. He was interested in looking around, and also wanted to pick up a copy of War in the East. Unfortunately, War in the East was not yet ready, so we just showed him around. During the tour, we came across a copy of NATO, which was being played. We asked him if he’d like to get a copy of it, to which he replied, “No, I believe we already have that one.”
On a Personal Note
This was the first issue of my renewed subscription. The game had an expansion kit (more counters, rules, and scenarios) which subscribers had to apply for separately. I got mine from the UK distributor.
Star Realms is a non-collectible deck-building card game, primarily suited for two players (though multi-player is possible) with a science fiction theme and easy core mechanics. Each player starts with his own small deck and 50 authority (life). The first player to reduce his opponent’s authority to 0 wins.
This nifty device, making it easy to track your authority (life) comes with the game.
Card play provides resources, combat damage, and boosts to your authority (life).
You use the resources to buy new cards to add to your deck. But first, in general, they go to your discard pile and so take time to be available.
You use the combat damage to reduce your opponent’s authority.
You add boosts to your own authority, making it harder for your opponent to win.
In your turn, you may play all of your cards. At the end of your turn, played cards and purchased cards go to your discard pile, and you draw new cards from your deck. When your deck is exhausted, you take the discard pile, shuffle it, and that’s your new deck.
Most cards belong to a faction. Some cards have a basic effect and an additional effect that is available if you simultaneously play a card of the matching faction. Therefore, making your purchases has some strategic depth as you want to be able to trigger additional effects, but you also don’t want to focus only on one faction.
Some cards trigger an effect when you buy them. It’s important to also maximize these effects, but it can be tricky.
Some cards are bases and these, when played, stay on the table and continue to have an effect each turn unless your opponent destroys them. One type of base (outpost) even protects you by taking damage before your own authority is hit.
There are several games using the same key mechanics but with a different twist. This version is a campaign game of twelve scenarios with the following features:
Each player takes either the Star Empire or Trade Federation. Each starting deck is slighly different.
During play, you can upgrade your purchases and align them with your faction. This is done by applying stickers to your cards.
In each of the first four scenarios, you get a new set of upgrade stickers. In these scenarios you can also win by being the first to utilize five upgrades.
If your opponent wins four or more scenarios, you get one gambit for every victory over three he has. Gambits are typically one off benefits that reduce the cost of buying bases or add to damage of certain cards, and so on.
At a certain point random event cards are introduced. They do exactly what they say and tend to affect both players.
Roy and I just finished the twelve scenario campaign game of this Star Realms product. In the early scenarios, I built up a decent lead. But Roy was the clear winner in the second half and finally edged me out 11-10 in the final reckoning.
I suspect that, in a sense, I was penalized for being first to four wins as that gave Roy access to the gambits. They weren’t cards with big effects, but they were a definite advantage. By the time I got some, the pendulum had swung.
The events were not too powerful and added some surprise and variety to the game.
We enjoyed playing the game and it held our interest so that we were keen to complete the campaign. However, as Roy pointed out, once we had done the upgrades in the first four scenarios, the game seemed to lose its focus: there were no more new sticker sheets and the victory points available for being the first to upgrade 20 purchases didn’t seem much of an incentive.
The scenarios did a reasonable job of presenting a different type of game, but truly it’s all about how quickly you can kill your opponent. The exception is the last scenario. Spoiler alert! In the twelfth scenario, both players have to join forces to fight the Blob. The Blob uses different mechanics to generate damage against the players and there are some interesting challenges. That scenario, for me, was better than most of the latter half-dozen.
Basic Star Realms is fun. This version was also fun. It could have been better with a bit more work done on some of the scenarios, though. The physical quality of the game is very high. The rules are clear and easy to understand. I Have had more than my money’s worth because I played through to the end of the campaign. So, if you think you will manage to copmplete the campaign, I’d recommend it. Otherwise, not.
March 1974: 29 years after World War II ended, the last Japanese soldier, a guerrilla operating in the Philippines, surrenders. In China, farmers discover 8,000 clay warrior statues (The Terracotta Army) buried to guard the tomb of China’s first emperor Qin Shi Huang. At the Grammys, Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly” wins the Best Record award.
April 1974: the Agranat Commission publishes its report on the Yom Kippur War. The Swedish Band Abba win Eurovision with their song “Waterloo”. Ray Kroc (San Diego Padres owner) tells fans “Ladies and gentlemen, I suffer with you… I’ve never seen such stupid ball playing in my life!”
Game Included
The American Civil War by James F. Dunnigan is a two-player strategic-level game about the whole civil war. There are ground and naval units backed up by forts and leaders. No unit nor ground scale is given. The map shows from New Jersey to the northern parts of Florida on the east coast and the southern part of Iowa down to Louisiana on the west coast. There are four turns in a year. One basic scenario covers the whole war with options available to adjust the historical setting to your tatste.
This game uses the (almost-standard) command control rule whereby certain of your units (occupying hexes whose last number matches a dice-generated number) will not contribute to the fight each turn. In this case, I would stick with the original rules as drafted. Why? Union reinforcements enter in Washington (6 Strength Points, hex 4507) , Cincinnati (3 Strength Points, hex 2607), and Cairo (2 Strength Points, hex 1513). While the Union Command Control Level is at 5 (which is where it starts), there is a 50% chance of Washington and Cincinnati being affected, and a 50% chance of Cairo being affected. It means the Union may struggle to get his troops into battle. It’s a nice wee design touch.
Between 1861 and 1865 the United States of America was almost torn apart in the bloodiest war in its history. In a strange conflict combining features of the Napoleonic Age with features of the Machine Age, fully 600,000 men perished fighting for sectional particularism, constitutional principle, economic self-interest and moral righteousness. And, in the end, vast changes were made in the nation, yet the nation remained unchanged. All with fateful implications for the present.
The Soldier Kings 1550-1770 – Frank Davis and Ron Toelke
But perhaps the best measure of the horror and cost of the Thirty Year’s War can be seen in the actions of the generations born soon after the conflict. For a century and a half following the Peace of Westphalia [24 October 1648], war was conducted with a degree of civility and restraint which is umatched in the entire length of the rest of history.
From page 42 of this issue’s Outgoing Mail referring to the then upcoming Tank! game:
Each tank is represented by two counters. A bottom one for the body of the tank and a top one representing the turret, which of course can be turned at various aspects.
On a Personal Note
This issue marked the end of my first year’s subscription. I remember looking back at the games received and thinking that renewing the subscription was a no-brainer.
The front page text is one of my favorite quotes. Perhaps that’s why this issue was also the tipping point for making the American Civil War one of my favorite historical periods – to read about and to game. The Gettysburg article in issue 38 was the spark and this issue converted it to a passion.
KampfPanzer by James F. Dunnigan is a two-player game about early tank warfare (1937-40) with each unit representing five tanks, a platoon of infantry, or a battery of guns. Hexes represent 100 meters of real terrain and each game turn is three minutes and forty seconds of real time. One of several distinctive features of the game is that it uses pre-plotted simultaneous orders.
Components
KampfPanzer was released with Strategy & Tactics 41. The counters (not backprinted) have silhouettes for vehicles and are pretty nifty. All are clear and easy to read.
The map is bare and dull. The rules are printed on one of the foldout pamphlets that were a regular feature of SPI’s output. (There’s a small amount of errata which you should track down if you want to play the game.) There’s also a separate sheet with scenarios, historical notes, and the charts and tables.
Game Turn Sequence
Each game turn includes the following:
Simultaneous Movement and Combat Plot Phase
Panic Determination Phase
Combat Execution Phase
Panicked Movement Plot Phase
Movement Execution Phase
Disruption Removal PhasePlaying the Game
Playing the Game
To get me in the right place to do this post, I chose Hannut from the nine available scenarios.
The game is not really suited for solitaire play given that you start each turn by writing out the detailed orders for each unit. The plotting system is well explained with plentiful examples, and in face-to-face play it adds a considerable amount of tension to the game play.
When playing this solitaire, I wrote out orders for one side first. Then, took a coffee break, returned and did the other side. To try and alleviate my knowledge of the other side’s orders, for the second side I tried to give each unit at least two sensible options and let the dice decide which one was selected.
Panic determination involves one die roll per side and a quick and easy process for finding out who has been affected. However, as with PanzerArmee Afrika, the system has its limits in that not every hex is equally at risk. For better play, I suggest using one of the options mentioned there.
Panic is a misleading term as it’s more to do with command and control. (And, in PanzerArmee Afrika, it was referred to as command control.) Units plotted to fire, don’t fire. Units plotted to move, do a random (die-roll determined) move. The latter was too chaotic and unrealistic for many players with several suggestions for house-rule replacements being touted. For sure, the result does give you a challenge because you cannot guarantee your units will do what you want them to do. In my opinion, that’s both a good thing and realistic.
Action from my replay of the Hannut scenario. The French, suffering from bad command and control, are outmanned.
The scenario runs for ten game turns. In the first game turn, both sides plot movement orders as each needs to head for the victory point area.
The French (with a Panic Level of 3) suffer a bad breakdown of command and control with several units going off in the wrong direction in the first turn. The Germans are untroubled. By the end of the turn, the French have a toehold on Hill 2, and the Germans are not quite there. Turn two sees the advance German forces start to arrive and turn three sees much combat. By the end of turn four, lots of damage has been down. Slowly, but surely, the German superiority in command and control tells – as does their superior firepower against the French infantry and anti-tank guns – and by the end of turn seven, it’s clear the Germans are going to win.
In this system, units take hits in terms of levels of disruption. There’s also a Pin result that prevents units with a move order from moving. You have to roll for recovery from disruption, so disrupted units are potentially out of the action forever if you roll badly. Pinned units automatically recover. I’ll admit the French recvovery rolls were awful. Such is war.
Good Stuff
The capability of the different types of unit (tank, infantry, guns) is portrayed well, as is the fact that the German tanks were not necessarily the best in the world.
This game is a great starting point for looking at creating your own game about tactical warfare in World War II. You get an impression – broad brush, to be sure – of what combat at the sharp end might have been like and a sure appreciation of the difference troop quality can make. It would be straighforward to replace the simultaneous plotting parts to make the game more solitaire friendly.
The simultaneous plotting adds to the tension.
Not So Good Stuff
This game doesn’t teach a lot about the tactics of armored combat of the time. You won’t see much of a difference between the German forces that were masters of the Blitzkrieg and for example the French forces that were, in general, swamped. The exception is that the German forces will have a better Panic Level and so be less prone to panic and not implementing your chosen orders. That’s a somewhat shallow differential, albeit it does highlight the advantages of (presumably) better command, control, communications, and troop quality. But the influence of artillery and air power, not forgetting radios, are sadly missing.
The unit ratings are a mystery to me. For example, the article in Strategy & Tactics gives armor thickness figures that don’t seem to directly relate to defense strength. The speeds given seem more closely related to each unit type’s movement points (MP). Here’s a sample of units with the armor thickness (as given in the article) and the defense strength in the game, then speed per the article and MP in the game.
*Note: there is no Pz IVD counter, only a PzIVE counter. The latter type wasn’t available till 1941 so I assume it’s a typo and is really the type D.
The numbers are close, but it appears there are other factors being taken into account when calculating defense strengths. There’s no hint what these might be – size, speed, metal quality – making it next to impossible to expand the unit coverage for DIY projects. At least speed and MP seem close enough.
The combat system has not aged well.
The scenarios are not especially engaging.
The map is drab and dreary, and looks unrepresentative of any real-life battlefield.
In Conclusion
KampfPanzer is an OK game and while I enjoyed my time playing it, this may well be the last time it hits the table, at least in its present format. Some people in the hobby developed the combat system for the related game Panzer 44 (though it has a different ground scale) and hopefully at some time I am going to try that out.
I remember being excited when this game originally arrived as part of my S&T subscription. Some 52 (!) years later, it’s less exciting, but I had some great times with KampfPanzer and I’m glad I got the opportunity to enjoy it.
Date of publication (as given): January/February 1974
Context
January 1974: Start of the three-day week in the UK due to the energy crisis. The Miami Dolphins beat Minnesota Vikings 24-7 in Super Bowl VIII, at Rice Stadium, Houston.The $6 Million Man starring Lee Majors premieres on ABC TV.
February 1974: Playmobil toys debut at the Nuremberg Toy Fair. A bomb, planted by the Provisional IRA, explodes on a bus in West Yorkshire, England, carrying British soldiers and family members. Blazing Saddles, the Mel Brooks western comedy, premieres in California.
Game Included
The East is Red by James F. Dunnigan is a two-player game about a hypothetical Soviet invasion of China in the 1970s. Units are at the division and corps level. Hexes represent 50km of real terrain and each game turn is one week of real time. One distinctive feature of the game is that it includes, as standard, rules for atomic warfare.
Within the theater of operations it is assumed that tactical nuclear weapons and atomic demolitions will be used.
The vulnerability of the Transsiberian Railway will pose a problem to the Soviet forces to permit them to actually wage prolonged war. However, the USSR is capable of using the seas, especially since China is not a sea power itself and cannot, therefore, threaten naval resupply except as the shipping gets close to port.
Napoleon at Waterloo – Albert A. Nofi
By 1800 the French had charged four times. Losses on both sides were extremely heavy, but at the end Napoleon’s cavalry was pretty much useless. Wellington’s cavalry was also more or less useless, having been expended in a series of countercharges, and his infantry was not in much better condition. Although no squares were reported broken, most were on the verge of collapse as a result of the heavy pounding they had received. The lack of horse artillery, beyond one battery which had somehow joined the charge, told on the French. With it, they might well have broken a number of squares. Without it, the cost of breaking squares became prohibitive.
The game in issue #44 will be Tank. This game will involve Tank-to-Tank combat during World War II…Tank, to give you fair warning, will probably be an unusual game. We are kicking around a number of rather radical game systems. The one that is currently a front runner for selection as the game system to be used relies upon a very different movement system. It is rather difficult to describe without actually showing it to you, but we’ll give it a try. Basically the one to five armored vehicles on each side will each occupy a hexagonal shaped area containing perhaps fifteen hexes across from one side to another. The actual playing board will be a much smaller area with each hexagon on the playing board representing one of the larger hexagons in which each side’s tanks actually maneuver. The actual playing board will be called the control board. The large hexagonal shape board will be the maneuvering board. A tank’s position will always be shown on the control board. That, in effect, will be its strategic position. Its tactical position will be shown on the manever board. We will have to use an as yet undefined system to show the terrain features on each of the many control board hexes. Each of the control board hexes, again, represents the much larger maneuver board hex. This system, hopefully, will allow for the sometimes substantial range differences between tanks, although we are aware of the fact that most tank battles occurred at under 500 meters range. The system just partially described makes use of control charts upon which each player keeps track of various mechanical functions for each of his tanks, such as current speed, position of turre[n]t, ammunition status, and the like. There is a lot more work yet to be done on the game Tank. In fact, it is not supposed to start, in theory, until January. But we usually get started on the design concepts far in advance of this.
Two points of interest. First, the version of Tank that was released bore no relation to the design described above. Second, note the emphasis on the design with no mention of scenarios.
On a Personal Note
This issue of S&T introduced me to the concept of gaming future, potential conflicts. The game, itself, was not of great interest and my recollection is that I hardly played it. The topic didn’t appeal to me. Also, the implementation – aside from the rules about nuclear weapons – had nothing novel.
I read the advert for War in the East knowing I had neither the funds to buy it nor the space to play it. By now I was realizing that if SPI kept up their output, I wasn’t going to have time to play all their games anyhow. As a gamer, that realization was depressing. I’m not sure I have ever recovered from it.
PanzerArmee Afrika (PAA) is a two-player game about the war in the desert from April 1941 to November 1942 designed by Jim Dunnigan. Game turns represent one month of real time, units are battlions, regiments, or brigades, and each hex is 12 miles.
PAA was released with Strategy & Tactics 40. The original components were good for their time, but now show their age. The counters are not backprinted. The map uses a limited color palette, is clear, and more than functional. Redmond Simonsen – responsible for Physical Systems Design and Graphics – produced some outstanding work at SPI and this early effort of his set a high standard. I don’t recall having any issue with the rules other than whether eliminated units get to counterattack (they do) and I worked that out by a close reading of the overrun process.
Note: SPI later sold the game to Avalon Hill (AH), who published their version around 1982. Images on this page are from the AH version. I have the original map and rules, but the counters are missing in action.
To give some context, before looking at the game’s key features, let’s start with the game turn sequence.
Game Turn Sequence
Each game turn has an Allied player turn followed by a German player turn. The game turn sequence is:
Supply Determination Phase
Command Control Phase (Allied player only)
Movement Phase
Combat Phase
Replacements and Reinforcements Phase
Supply
No game about this campaign would be complete without supply rules. PAA’s supply rules are easy and essential to master if you want to succeed. Supply flows from a source via depots (counters on the map). Depots can form a chain, extending supply as far as desired. However, you need to use your transport facilities (a truck counter) to move depots and you only have one truck. You can create another truck by sacrificing some units, but it’s a heavy price to pay.
Units more than 20 movement points from a depot (connected to a supply chain) are out of supply. They defend at half strength and can neither attack nor move. They are also known as sitting ducks.
Units within 20 movement points (and more than 8) of a depot (connected to a supply chain) are generally supplied, meaning they can move and defend at full strength, but their attack strength is halved.
Units within 8 movement points of a depot (connected to a supply chain) are attack supplied, meaning they can move, defend, and attack at full strength.
Units within 8 movement points of a depot (connected to a supply chain) which they consume in an attack are maximum attack supplied, meaning they attack at double their normal strength.
Therefore, in this game, you can quickly tell that each side needs to guard its supply lines. These straightforward rules do a nice job of representing the realities of warfare in this arena. You can quibble about the details, but the general impact seems to work.
A tentative start by the Germans as they ponder what route to take.
Command Control
Before the Allied player moves, he has to roll for command control. The result of each roll is 3 numbers. If the number of the hex a unit or stack is on ends with one of these generated numbers, the unit or stack sits on its hands for the turn and does nothing; it may neither move nor attack.
This implementation of a restriction on the player’s control of his units is interesting. It’s not the first time something like this was used as a similar limitation was applied to barbarian units in Fall of Rome. However, that was a case of the enemy to the solitaire player being handicapped. Here, it’s you – if you’re the Allied player – who has to contend with this. It’s realistic, but it’s clunky. As printed, players can (and did) try to minimize the effects by putting their units on hexes with humber endings that come up less often.
A better process to achieve the same goal was to make a pool of 10 chits and randomly draw three chits, refilling the pool after each draw. This way, each hex was equally at risk.
An even better option was to take a broad brush approach, ignore the existing table and hex numbers and instead roll a six-sided die for each unit or stack, 1-2 meaning the units were affected and 3-6 meaning they were free of any restriction. More rolls of the die, but more chaos.
At the time it didn’t bother me that the German player got off scot-free. Now, I’m more inclined to believe the rule should also apply to the German player, but less severely. For example, using the last mentioned option, only a roll of 1 would affect the German player.
Movement
The units in this game had huge movement allowances: 40 movement points (MP) for the Italians, 50 MP for the Commonwealth units, and 60 MP for the Germans. This gave the game a very different flavor.
In my limited playing experience, it made the Allied player focus every turn primarily on trying to prevent the Germans sweeping around the flank and cutting off supply. Only when that position was secure, could the Allied player think about advancing, slowly. I have seen online discussions suggesting the game was broken because the German player could always easily achive that flanking maneuver, but the responses and my own play leads me to think that it’s far from a given. The German player has his own challenges about keeping his flanking forces in supply. A cautious, careful Allied player – assuming command control doesn’t screw him over completely – should be able to stay out of trouble. The discussion, however, shouldn’t hide the fact that it’s fun to have such liberated movemnent abilities.
Where the large MP numbers do have an adverse affect is on the simulation value. PAA is a good game, possibly a great game, but having one side being powerless – ie., sitting still – in the face of the enemy’s huge movement potential, is not realistic. There were optional rules kicking about that gave the non-moving player some reaction ability. (Look, for an example, at the AH version.) I have no experience of them. If I had the time or inclination, I would experiment by halving the MP of all units and doubling the number of turns, so each represented two weeks.
Combat
PAA used combat differential instead of combat odds. So, 6 strength points (SP) attacking 2 SP gave a +4 differential. This was the same as if 12 SP were attacking 8 SP. However, despite the differeng size of forces, the potential casualties remained the same. The other new tweaks on show here, or at least new to me, were (a) allowing the defender a chance to counterattack, even if eliminated so that no attack was risk free, and (b) overrun combat, allowing a moving stack to eliminate an enemy unit or stack during combat if it had a high enough combat differential.
Reinforcements and Replacements
PAA was also unusual in having reinforcements and replacements arrive at the end of a game turn instead of the more usual arrival at the start. This may have been done to make it easier for the Allied player who has to cope, additionally, with units being withdrawn. Dealing with the requirement at the end of the turn gave the Allied player extra time to get the withdrawing units back home. Failing to do this allowed the German player to pick the withdrawing unit; something to be avoided.
Overall
PAA is a good, challenging game. It’s easily accessible, there are not too many counters to maneuver and you can get through some turns quite quickly. Combat is never risk free because even an eliminated force gets to counterattack before dying. It was innovative in its time and remains a benchmark design. To prepare this article, I took the game out for a spin and solitaired a few turns. It was fun.
The strikes against it are that it is too long at 20 turns (unless the Germans capture Alexandria), the command control procedures need to be simplified, and it falls short as a simulation. For example, the victory conditions give the Allies a marginal victory by holding Alexandria and having more than twice as many combat strength points as the Germans. The Germans can get a marginal victory by holding El Agheila and having more than half as many combat strength points as the Allies. There’s no incentive, in terms of victory, for either side holding Tobruk, for example. These conditions need tweaked to encourage more historical strategies. PAA would also benefit greatly from some shorter scenarios, and a decent reaction rule. (The AH one doesn’t convince me.)
Her’s the acid test: if someone asked me to play PAA, I’d gladly accept the challenge. PAA is a game that deserves to be played.
Date of publication (as given): November/December 1973
Context
November 1973: three Arab terrorists hijack KLM flight 861 over Iraq, forcing the plane to Damascus, Nicosia, Tripoli, Malta, and then Dubai, where the hijackers surrender. A bloodless military coup ousts Greek President George Papadopoulos. Reggie Jackson (Oakland A’s) unanimously wins the AL MVP award. Last of the Summer Wine debuts on the BBC; it goes on to become the longest running sitcom ever, airing for 31 seasons.
December 1973: the American Psychiatric Association declares homosexuality is not a mental illness. Gulag Archipelago, an expose of the police-state of the USSR, is published by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Johan Cruyff is chosen to be European Football Player of the Year. Apple Records releases the Paul McCartney/Wings album Band on the Run in the UK and USA.
Game Included
KampfPanzer by James F. Dunnigan is a two-player game about early tank warfare (1937-40) with each unit representing five tanks, a platoon of infantry, or a battery of guns. Hexes represent 100 meters of real terrain and each game turn is three minutes and forty seconds of real time. One of several distinctive features of the game is that it uses pre-plotted simultaneous orders. For my view of the game, see here. For more information about the game, see here.
Articles
Outgoing Mail – editors/publisher
Mechanized Warfare – Albert A. Nofi
One of the curious things about the development of armored mobile warfare outside of Germany is the fact that the Germans never kept their work secret. They wrote articles in military journals, invited foreign military experts to observe armored maneuvers, and they even lectured in foreign military institutions. For all of this, no one paid them any attention. It was, and remains, an interesting comment on humanity that this occurred. So well entrenched were certain elements in certain armies that reality made no impact upon them.
You will notice an ad for the SPI DATABUS. This is for all you computer freaks out there. We’re starting to use our computer in the design of games and we’ve already had quite a few letters from computer people subscribers offersing suggestions and advice. SPI DATABUS is an attempt to give you all a forum to express yourselves in whatever language turns you on (COBOL, FORTRAN, BASIC, RPG II etc.). English won’t do. Most computer people seem to be only semi-literate.
On a Personal Note
The Yom Kippur War was close to my heart (and community) in 1973, but I never imagined there would be a game about the topic available so quickly. I added Sinai to my list of wanted games. Unfortunately, when I eventually got a hold of one, I discovered the game wasn’t to my liking.
Date of publication (as given): September/October 1973
Some context. In September 1973: Jackie Stewart’s 4th place finish in the Italian Grand Prix (Monza) secures his 3rd Formula 1 World Drivers’ Championship. The elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende, is overthrown by a military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet. The Prisoner of Second Avenue, a theatrical comedy by Neil Simon, starring Peter Falk, Lee Grant, and Vincent Gardenia, closes at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre in New York City after 798 performances.
In October 1973: the Yom Kippur War begins with Syria & Egypt attacking Israel. Dolly Parton releases her single Jolene, the title track of her then forthcoming album. Europe and Asia are connected over the Bosphorus for the first time by the completion of the Bosphorus Bridge (also known as the 15th July Martyrs Bridge and the First Bridge) in Istanbul, Turkey.
Game included
PanzerArmee Afrika by James F. Dunnigan. PanzerArmee Afrika is a two-player game about the war in the desert from April 1941 to November 1942. Game turns represent one month of real time, units are battlions, regiments, or brigades, and each hex is 12 miles. SPI later sold the game to Avalon Hill, who published their version around 1982. For my view of the game, see here. For more information about the game, see here.
Articles
Outgoing Mail – editors/publisher
Panzerarmee Afrika and the War in the Desert – Albert A. Nofi
As you may have noticed, we have changed the names of two games. Battle of Stalingrad is now Turning Point: The Battle of Stalingrad. Lee at Gettysburg is now Lee Moves North. These changes were made on the advice of our lawyer. We are trademarking the titles of our games now that we are selling them in stores and the above two titles might have run into trouble with the trademark people in Washington. Just more details to attend to.
On a Personal Note
Having an S&T subscription was a blessing and a curse. The blessing was getting all these new games. The curse was seeing adverts for all these other new games (not part of the subscription) that I couldn’t afford. From the adverts, I kept a note of those I wanted, so the information was readily to hand when my birthday and Chanukah came round. From this issue, WWII was top of my wanted list. My financial position improved when I went to university, but that’s a story for another time.
