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MOVES nr.4 published Aug ust 1972

$2.00

Designers
Notes
General Editor
Co Ed itor/Ex ecuti ve Art Director
Art Director
Managing Editor
Research Di rector
Assoc iate Editors

James F. D unnigan
Redmo nd A . Simons en
Manfred F. Mi l ku hn
Lenny G lynn
A l ber1 A. N ol i
John M. Young . Stephen B. Pat ri c k

MOVES Magaz ine is co py r ighl 1972 Simu lati ons Pub l icat io ns, Inc. Pri nted in U .S.A. A ll rights
reserved . A ll ed it o rial and general mdll sh ou ld be ad dresse d to Si m u lat io ns Pu b l ica tions, Inc. 44
East 23rd S t., New Y o rk 10010, One y ea r subscr ipt io nsisi x issuesl are avail able for $7.00. Back
issues o r sing le copie s of l he current issue are <:lVai lab le al $2 .00 per co py . Please pay by c heck or
m oney o rder on ly.
Pr i n l ing by Re flex O f fset, Inc .. presswo rk by John Banks, Bindin g by Apol lo Bi nders.

In this issue ...

page
Designer's N otes

the Ed itors

Game Pro fil e: So ldiers

by Le nny Glynn & David C. ISby

W ar a nd "Peace":
a gu id e to conflict simu lations

by Marti n Campion

12

"All Playe rs are Creat ed Equal"

by Redmond A Simonsen

21

Pow e r Politics

by J oh n Board man

22

PLAYBACK

the Playe rs

27

FEED BACK

Vox Popu li , Vox Dei

30

On rhe cover: A portion ot rhe Soldiers mop showing an assault in progress. Rules
folde r and part 01 tile '-I"il CO/lnter s heel are shown at rhe bottom of IhB picrure.

Simu lations PUblications. I nc., 44 East 23rd Street, N ew Yo rk, N.Y . 10010

Ea rll r thi s yea r we go t 10 wo rk on a plan . The

plan was 10 produ ce th irl y games a yea r, Alter
work ing on th is pIOjeC1 we round out w ila l il
wou ld take 10 produce th irty games a yea r, W e
also found out th at we only had enough of
"who I it tak es " 10 prod uce abou l twen ty-four
games a yea r, It was a very educa tiona l
experience. We learne d a 101 about publishi ng
games , A lo t o f thin gs we th OUg ~l l we already
knew , And a lot 01 th ings we kn ew we 'we re
ignorant o f. It looks like w e' ll be able 10 publish
Ihree new games evelY two mon ths Iplus one
In S & TI. Pr odUCing 30 a year doesn' t rea ll y
re quire thai much ext ra eff ort . If we ge l
ano th er few people on th e sta ff. or get some of
the presen t s1all Ira ined to a higher level 01
efficiency, we coul d easily do It. But both 01
these solutions have shoncomings , To hire
new people is not Iha l SIr"T1p le. W e have
develope d a w hole new field of publishing No
on8 ca n wa lk in w ith any appreciable amou nt
o f training (hat we can use. Anyone we hire fo r
R&D w ork mus t be trained , This takes many
months be fore we ge t any th ing to show for it.
,4 nd befo re we even ta ke anybody on we must
now qu i le a 101 ab oul t~l e rn . I-Iow th ey wan l
to wo rk and Just what they're looking for,
Developing games th e wa y we do IS a ralher
high-ene rgy process and requires tI-18t the
people do ing the wo rk get along ve ry well w ith
each o th er, W ork ing someone into the operation is a long and tedious process, Getting
more out o f Ihe people alread y here also 1185 its
problems. The R& D people at SP I are already
working harder than you s ~lo u l d expec t.
Ge tli ng any more "production" out 01 them
depen ds on Improveme rHS in the methods we
use . This is some thing w e have to develop as
we go along , To put it ano th er way, w e're not
sure wha l we' ll turn up until W8 get I here. The
" book " on how to design games has yet to be
wr illen. A nd we find Ihal we're prepa ring quite
a few cha plers ourselves .
W e have alread y covered the five pa ri process
invo lved in producing a game 1Conceptualization, Res,eareh, In legrat lon, Development
and Prod uct io n). We hav e since ref ined tha t
process sli ll further. Th ere is stil l Ihe " Con cep t" sTage, where tl,e feasibility of th e gan,e
is determined and th e "d irec tion" of Ihe game
is cha rted , The " Research" stage rema ins the
same. The " I nteg ra tlon" stage is whe re
ch anges fi rs t show up. Pul ting Ihe fir sl
work ing pro toty pe of a game toge ther I " Imeg ratlon" ) has always been a diificu l an d
o il ica l process. The idea l o f Ihe "simple Et
playable" yet "realis ti c" game has now become more of a re gular possibilily, The source
01 most 01 th e simplicity, playability and
realism o riginat es in this, the "Integrati on"
stage. Of cou rse, as w e deve lop a w ider va ri ety
01 Simple game "systems" (like Napoleon !'II
Waterloo and FIVing Circus ) th is job becomes
easier. But It is at thi s slage Ihal simpl er
syst em s are developed.
T he next stage, 1he "De velopment" stage, IS
w here most 01 ou r latest in novations are
loun d. Here a team of two or three regu lar and
Iwice as many irregu lar game developers take
OV8! , The reg ular team mem bers are SPI
(co nlinIJed on page 281

NEW!
two basic games
variable Orders of Battle
.clean, playable Game system

August 191 4: Fra nco-British armies reel

Into Fran ce blood ied in a series of disastrous encounters with tile right wing of 1l1e
German Army . On the map and III the
new spapers the German Army looks like a
giant Invillcible scythe sweeping across
France abou t to reap til e " fru i ts of victo ry. "
But the German right wing is weaker tha n it
looks; the scythe IS abou t to be bra en. As
th e German Armies near Paris it becomes
clear th ai th ey lack the streng th to go
around as Ih e city as pl anned : They swing
inside and expose lheir flan k to the Paris
garrison . By early September, the Allied
arnl les are ready to stnke back. All along
til e Marne River fro nt Ihe weary, bea ten
"tommles" and "poilus" abou t face and go
on the o ll enslve The ta xI cabs of Paris are
com mandeered to carry troops to the fron t.
Th e Allied recovery of morale is so exlra di na ry that it is cal led " Th e Miracle of th e
Marne: ' In two weeks of constant ba ttle,

the Alhes force the Germans bac k sixty

miles to whe re tile West ern Front w ill stay
for l OUf years at slaugh ter. Iro nically th e
Al lied " vlctory" at The Marne lays the
groundwo rk fOI the war of attntion tha T
gutted so much of European Civiliza ti on .
The Marne recreates thiS most crucia l
batLie of the First W orld Wa r, the first and
last cl1ance for a dec iSive victory that could
have aVOided the sllalteri ng consequences
o f trench wa rfa re .
The Marne IS prin ted on high quality
cardstoc k In lintS at blue and black. The
d ie-cut co unters represe nt all units w hich
partiCipated in th e Bailie at the Marne and
four op ti ona l Order of Batt le variants cove r
German forces wh ich co uld have reached
the Marne but were divened elsewhere.
There are two baS IC games in The Marne.
The Pursuir Sirua /io n covers th e retreat of
tile Franco- Bri ti sh armies and the Germa n

attemp to catch , engage and destroy the

fleeing A lhes . The CounlerA [{ack S;cua[Jon begll1s w ilh th e Al lied Arm ies intaCT
jus t so uth o f Ille Marne. about 0 turn on
their pursue rs. Th two games share t he
sam e basic rules but va ry w idely. Playing
the same Side in bo th games provides two
completely CO lltrasting game experiences.
In he Pursuir Sirualion the Allied "problem" is escapi ng . In the Counter-Auack
Situatio n the German fin ds himself ha rdpressed 10 hold his ground .
The game system for The Marne is one of
lhe sim ples t In recen t SP I games . Every
conSidera ti on was given to easing seT-U p
time and making the rules as clear 01 5
pOSS ible . For example , In the A ll ied
CounterA llack Situation, t he start ing POSItions fo r all unit s are printed on the
mapsheet. T his reduces set -up ti me to
abou t five min utes. The Marne is available
from Simu lati ons Publ ications fo r $6.00,

GAME PROFILE:

Soldiers
The following Game Profile on Soldrers rep resen/!> a illird approach 10 Games. In f WO
sec rions Lennv Glvnn, rhe game 's developer,
dnd Dave IsbV who researched and designed
Soldiers, cover in deprl7 ,/fe processes of
{Hi ll ing Soldiers llimugh Ihe mill HI SP! dnd
assemiJIing lile raw data lilar makes Soleiiers
an accurate siml/lalion,

by Lenny Glynn and David C. Isby

WOuld al low _ Bul srm pliClty turns Qul lO be Lh e

hardest tili ng to adl ieve .
The original ma p tha i Dave used to tes t his
proto ty pe needed 10 be redone. A few cha nges
w ere needed an d a t leaS I one too many was
made: a confus ing line Ihat Dave tr ealed as a
SHeam translate d into a ridge, a rr dge I hal
block ed Li neal Sigh t 10 15% of lhe mapsheel
ISee ih e module on tile dev el op ment of tile

ma p.) Loca ti on s were assigned w hi msica l and

unpublishable names and we began play l 8sLIng With Dave's o l'lglnal rules .
BeSides the Friday Night Crew, SPI's desrgn
sta ff engages in a 1010 1 gaming on the job. T he
games iested FI idays hav!; their most baSIC
flaw s ace d oul durr ng the wee k. The first o f
our gallant cO lnpany play 1es ta rs to go " over
the l ap" on Soldiers were N ick Maf feo and Bill

PARTl:
The Development Process
By the time a Sim ula1l0ns Serres Game goes to
he prin ter il has been cr it icized , molded . an d
polished by virtu ally everyone In th e game
department at SPI and numerous Interlopers
(o lherwlse know n as "play test rs," or the Friday N igh l Crew). ThiS process has been outlined before but tillS article aims to co ver it in
more detail w ith an eye to r the huma n comed y
in vo lved .
The Game In ques tio n is Soldiers, the la test rn
lhe selles 01 tacllcal games. Soldiers covers
sma ll un ll tac ti cs in the openrng mon lhs 0 1 ihe
First Wor ld War be fore the diggi ng 0 1 the
Western Front, the larges mass grave in
history .
Al thoug h Soldiers is being published in June
1972 . it was conce ived In th e sprin g of 1970 rn
Ihe Inow legendary ) tenemen t basement
wh ich served as wo rld head quaners of Simula tions Publrca li ons, (then know n as Poultron
Pressl . Wh ile J im Dun nigan and A I No fi
chewed lhe la l {as is their wo nO about the
problems 01 designing The Renaissance of
In fa n/ry, Dave Isby loined the con versation_
Isby was a British Vice roy in India, and a
ca plaln in the Li g ht Brigade in previo us live s;
and rs now the left hook 01 Sa T's 1-2 research
team . U nexpec ted ly Dun niga n cha nged the
su blec t and sa id to Isby, "Dave , how wo uld
you like 10 do a i ac llca l game on W orl d W ar
One?" This was tile ing lorious conce pti on 01
Soldiers althoug h Ihe pregnancy was long an d
the birt h pa ngs ternb le.

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Fo r a lmos t two yea rs, Isby gath ere d

informa tion f or a World W ar One Tactical
game. He wo rk ed wtle n he w anle d, since the
game was not yel on any schedu le. Earl y on,
he began playing pro totypes, solr taire and w it h
fr ien ds. By ea rly 1972, Isby felt ~li s game wa s
ready lor pub lica tr on and brough t it in. Thi s is
whe re I came in. In M arch 1972 I had been
wor ki ng a t SPI fo r fou r weeks, mostly
proof rea ding an d edi llng copy_ Soldiers w as
assigned Lo me as my fi rs t res ponsibili tV in
Game Developmenl_
John Youn g, lhe
guardia n angel o f game producii on, gave me
Dave's rules and map in ea rly Ma rch . W o rk got
under w ay.
The first step was to fa m iliarize myself w ith
tac llca l games. I rea d Grenadier, Comba t
Command, and Grunr before trying to play
Soldiers . From ihe sta[{ I hope d to mak e
Soldiers as simple as Ihe histo rr cal Situa ti on

Soldiers req LJ ires SP I'. largo.[ co uni er ma ster 14001 [ 0

recrea te t he var iet y 01 na ti ons and u nit types that f ought
H-' the open ing round o f Wo rl d Wor One. T he Arl
Departme nt outdid t hem se lves to show six .d ifferent
na tio nal ities. T he color combi nati on s are , while on d a ~ k

g reen IBriti shl, blac k on dar k green IF renc h l, black o n

li g ht g reen IRussia n l, dark g reen on li ght green (Be lgia n).
w hl[e on b la~k IA "sr"a n j and blac k On grey lGe rma ni.
Fun cti onal Gam e ma rk ers are bla ck on while. The rules
l or S oldiers (rig ht) inc lud e [hineen scenarios .

5
Su llivan , At th e time, eac h he x on th e ma p
represemed 50 yards and t he basic maneuver
units we re pia l oon~, The idea w as lilal on a
higher level, I i,e. compa ny ) th e ba 11 lefleld
dom inance of art illery and machine guns
wo uld be dlluwd As we soon lound out , the
Soldiers proto type ce namlV avoided 1hlS
prohlern [h e game wos a duel be tw een
OPPOSing arliliery and mach ine guns . These
duels we re otTen reso lved by a Single rol l of \I'l e
die Infantry units w hich all emp ted to advance
we re butchered . Realisti c bu t unplayable? No,
simply unrea llsllc There lust was no l that
much artilierv an d machi ne gu ns in the first
phases of th e w ar , W e were showi ng th elf
power rn rnln l- tac lica l sit uat i o ns w h ic h
exaggeral8cl their Impac t on larger ba i lies
ISoldiers IS set III 19 14, no t 19181

!I

Tll is fl ow chart illustra tes the production

process for Soldiers. Solid lines indicate
direct contro l by one of the design team
members. Dotted lines ind icate advisory
contribu ti ons to the develop ment process.
Products, {i.e. finished pieces of work) are
enclosed in square boxes. Processes, Ii. e.
the work itself) are enclosed in arrow-head
box es that indicate the direction of flow of
the work. The two-pointed boxes indicate
an interacti on process. Similar diagrams
cou ld be drawn for virt ually every SP I
game . T he developement of Soldiers took
about eight weeks from prototype to f ina l
ve rsion, a furth er six we eks from fina l
vers i on t h roug h artwork to actual
production. By the time th is MOVES
reaches you, Soldiers w ill be available for
sale. Bu t then the most dubious step
occurs : the game passes into th e tender
hands of th e U.S. Postal Service.

So tl'le first thi ng to chan ge wa s llle scal e: Hex

size doubled TO 100 ya rds, tu rn ti me to ten
mlflu es and th' bas ic uni ts became
com pan ies ra l her th an pl a1 oons. One thin g
th at plagued us In th ese early games was th e
(cominued all page 7)

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MAP 3_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ __ _

7
(continued from page 51

The four maps shown trace the

development of Soldiers from 1970 to
printing. The first version. Map 1, was Dave
Isby's private prototype. It included coal
tipples by a central cross -roads to repl icate
tactical situations at Mons, three small
towns which stayed basically unchanged
through al l three versions, a few woods,
and some hills. Map 2 is the first made at
Simulations. It includes the infamous
" W ron g Ridge" which should have been a
stream . Dave's stream permanently disappeared from later versions. The second
version expanded the towns and woods of
the original map to provide more cover
whi le leaving open the center so a " mobile
battle" could develop. In fact the center of
Map 2 became an unobstructed field of fire
for Artille ry and Machine Guns and Players
refused to commit their infantry to this
kill ing ground after a few bad experiences.
One addition in Map 2 was a new railroad .
We planned to playas if the Railroad ran on
a viaduct and provided protection but this
would have created a too well protected
section of the map; in effect the upper left
corner would have been a walled camp. So
rai lroads we re relegated to running on flat
ground and had no effect on combat. The
Usine de Condom on the rail spur was not
only an interesting conversation piece, but
something of a popular waystation for
passing Machine Gun units which raked
almost the entire centra l plain from this
excellent cover.

TACTICS IN SO LDIERS
There is rea lly only one tactic in Soldiers
and it was stated with a crude simplicity by
Nathan Bedford Forrest, the Confederate
cavalry genius, " Get thar fustest with the
mostest." In Soldiers, the w inning player is
the. one who brings killing firepower to bear
w ithout exposing himself 10 effective return
fire.. "Effective" is a crucia l word since it is
practically impossible to destroy an eriemy
without coming under some fire.
The key to keeping enemy fire ineffective is
remarkably simple: outflank the enemy fire
positions. The interlocking fields of fire of
enemy units can always be approached and
entered from the ftank without facing the
full force of the fire . Blocking Terrain and
friend ly units Inhibit enemy fire. Frequently
a position is held by say six units which
have "Lines of Sight" to fhe f rOnt, but only
two of which can fire to the flanks .
Every obstacle in an enemy field of fire
must be used in approaching tor an assault
on a position. On defense, every effort
should be made to deploy in a rounded
position that is hard to outflank and to go
into Improved Positions with as many units
as possible. The placement of artillery and
Machine Gun units must be done with
great care, especially if the enemy has
some advantage in these arms. Sometimes
victory in a scenario or defeat can be
dl:lcided by one artillery duel which ma~es
any subsequent infantry action anti-eli,
mactk.

The town in the upper left corner was

named " Ia Merde" and set the pattern for
an increasingly prurient series of locale
names. Redmond Simonsen blew the
whistle on this in the printed version by
deciding to label each woods and town
with a letter.

The canal provides excellent cover and in

effect, a proteGted road for moving along.
Hills are valuable for several reasons: they
are superior defensive positions to level
ground and they extend Lirie of Sight over
Bloc\<ing Terrain . The numbers printed on
the hill~ refer to elevation, a small point that
we failed to mention in the Soldiers rules.

The third version of the Map was

considerably changed. First of all. a great
deal of urban renewa l took place, reducing
the towns from impregnable to assau ltable
positions. There was also a defoliation
program of sorts. There had been too
much, and too deep cover before. Soldiers
was intended to show open combat in
World War One, not street fighting or
jungle warfa re. Hills were smoothed out a
lot, mostly because the complex and
convoluted ridge system in Map 2 was
literally impossible to write Line of Sight
rules for.

All players should use Interdicting Fire

whenever possible, since this enables them
to .channel enemy,assalJlts. Interdicting Fire
is particularely valuable In making roads
and crossroads impassable to the enemy. In
the scenarios that require the exiting of
units, proper use of Interdicting fire can
make that very difficu lt ,
Brea~lng de:fensive positions in Covering
Terrain reqUlr~s the sacrifice of units which
must "rush" those positions to serve as
"spotters" to direct the fire of other
Friendly units.
Finally, mounted cavalry is of very limited
utility in Soldiers. In scenarios that demonstrate cavalry actions these units are
obviously significant, but for the most part
qavalry should be advanced to important
positions and dismounted to fight like
infantry. French cavalry, is more useless
dismounted than mounted. In this case, it
pays to use French cavalry in " kamiKaze"
attacks because they really can' t do much
else what with those heavy breastplates
and all. In essence, Soldiers will teach you
lessons that will be hIghly valuable should
you ever go to war: get under cover, dig in,
advance from cover to cover and if possible
shoot the enemy in the back. As General
Patton put it "You don't win wars. by dying
for your country; you win by making the
other poor bastard die for his country."

The ridge at the bottom of Map 2 was

removed and one of the railroads became a
road. The crossroads in the center of the
board accomplished a very important
object: it provided a goa l to be fought over
which did not itself provide cover. This
forces players in certain scenarios to
actually engage in open combat. This third
version is basically the same as Map 4, the
printed version . If you look closely at Map 3
you can see a tiny line of print runni ng
along the edge. The line, wh ich appeared
on all Soldiers play test maps, is from
Wilfred Owen , a British Poet killed in the
last w eeks of the war. It reads, " What
passing bells for those who die as cattle?"

use 0 1 cavalry units as Kam l ales . A player

w ould send his cava lry uni t c harging up 10 an
A rt illery or M achine Gun un it an d w ipe it out
w llile losing the cava lry. W hile thiS re flected
the Illusions of cava lry commande rs In 1914, it
fa r exc eeded th eir ope ra tio nal a b ili ty .
Surpnslng ly we dldn't li nd a simple way to fi x
th is for a lo ng w hile.
Alle r reso lvlIlg these most basic pr oblems, I
sal down w il h Dave to w rite til e firs1 dra ft rules
for the Friday Night Play tes ters. Dave IS a
foun tain of kn ow ledge. a veritable human Bri
tan nlca . He prOVided the in forma llon that
made every exception to a ru le possible. AS he
explains in a separate article in th is MOVES
there was a fine g rada ti on Ifl unit capabilitle~
and tac tical doc trines in 1914 tha i necessitated
a wide variation in units and rules.
T he first dra ft rules gol heir bap tism of fire tile
next Friday . A h . Friday It's a sacre d ri tua l at
SPI. the initiat ion and pu ri fica ti on rites for
every new game . Around 1800 hours th e
p l aYl e ~ter5 begm 10 arrive . AI Noil deploys
th em to various games, and tMy have al it.
Since they on ly have draft rules and prototype
maps 10 play w it h, the flaws in these
componen s quick ly becom apparent.
As wi th all tac tical games the " hairiest" and
mas I worked-over sect ions o f the Soldiers
ru les w ere the those on Line of Sigh t. LlO e 01
Fire . Even t ually all these ru les wer e
co nsolidated under the Combat section . Clea r
ermi llology in thi S sec ti on of the ru les can
sa ve Players {and our compla in t and question
people) a lot of headac hes. Basica ll y, the
problem IS th at th e peopl e working on the
game get too " close " to it Tile rules become
second nature to them and th ey miss
ambigui ties. W hen someon e asks a question
li ke "Ca n infan try un its fire down the hex-side
between two tow n Ilexes ?" they answer "Of
co urse not." BU I the q ues tion stems from an
ambiguity in the rules; in his case a provision
that "a ny unit may fire along (h e sides of
Bl oc Ing Terrarn hexes but nor th rou gh such
hexes ..
Th is seems c ry stal clea r 10 th e deSigner and
rules writer but muddy to th e player. Some
plaYlesters are espeCiall y va luable fo r detectin g
Ih ls typ e o f faull In a game and using 1\ to w in.
Among play testers Dave Levine deserves
special mention for thiS. IFor example. wh ile
play tesling Winter War Dave managed to
cap tu re Lenin grad with his Fin ns on a
technicali ty.) Of course, there were many
amblgullie 10 ttle ea rly drafts 01 the Soldiers
rules bul they w ere mos tly due to style and
sy ntax rathAr Ihan basic contra dic!rons.
There we re also problems of organization and
Sti uC l ure. NOlhing should be menlioned or

assu med before It has been explained. rh e

rules must Interco nnect. Wi th exCepl lons and
prev iews (e.g. see Artill ery for a fuller
exp lanatr on I servi ng to bind 10gell1er the
se cti ons a the rul es In the same way a straigh t
lacket binds th e arms of a madman . Such
compa risons rush to mmd after war ing on the
ambigUIties and loo p- holes In a se t 01 rules for
'ix weeks . In Soldiers, for exa mple, the rules
on Line of Sight seemed li ke a c rumbli ng dike
which spr ung a new leak every t ime we
plugged an old one. It wasn' t un til J ohn Yo ung
tr ied 10 rewrite the final set o f rules that we
found a Simple wa y to rela te Direct Fire and
"Observed" Fire. II tu rn ed out tha i every time
a uni t was in a positi o n to use Direc t Fire
aga inSI a given Ta rget It was also ab le to serve
as an "Observer" to direct other Friendly unr ts'

8
fi re. Once we rea li ~ed this, a tr uck load of
"dirty" Line o f Sig ht rules li te rall y wo und up in
1he scrap heap . I ca n sull reme mber my joy as I
took scissors in hand and cut 1I1e Line ot Sight
ru les to pieces. By this time , w e w ere saying
" good nddance" [0 any rules that gummed up
mechanics wh ile adding litt le to realism . The
memory prob lem s, thi ngs like w hich un its had
used up too man y Movemerll Poin ts to fire in a
Fire Phase, wh ich uni ts we re disru pted, wh ich
in Imp roved Positions etc., were solved, fo r the
mos t par t, by mak ing co unters to indica te th e
vary ing sta tus o f uni ts . Tili s is easier and su rer
than the alternatives w hich involve paper w ork
or sheer hones ty and memory
Dave Isby deserves a Vi ct oria Cross l or th e
laborious resea rch w ork wh ic h enabled him to
prod uce more tha n rorty scenarios for tes tin g.
The majori ty o f these proved un w o rkab le as
garnes , Th ey were historically accu ra te but
difficuil or impossible to play-ba lance w ithout
fudg ing th e history too m uch. A s it is, ma ny 01
t he Soldiers scena ri os are unbalan ced to some
deg ree and players shou ld try both sides of a
given scenario be fo re looklllg at il as a
measure of skill. History is simply not rep lete
With even ly malched , neatly balanced be t ti es.
Most ba ttl es we re pretty uneven in terms of
force mix, and th e simulat ions co ntext al lows
the more pow erf ul player to exploit his
advanlages in ways his rea l-li fe counter part
CQu id no t. We tne d several melhods fo r in lroduci ng the "Fog of Wa r" or li mited intelligence
inlO Soldiers bU1 fou nd that th ey made th e
game hopelessly "hairY" andlor unreal. Afte r
all , given Ihe 1914 tact ica l doctrine of rela tively
stra ighlforwa rd attacks, how much "fog "
coul d there be In a piece of ter rain a m ile
aCr oss.
Vic to ry cond itions are another key source of
diflic ulty. II th ere is some senseless an d
unrea lis tic way to "f ulfill victory cond itions"
one of the Friday Nighl Cre w w ill till d it and do
II. Li ke most garners, they play 10 w ln: n o holds
ba rred, unless th ey are specifica ll y for bidden in
the rules. Friday nig hts for the game
development leam consisl of a seem ing ly
endless series o f arbi tr ati ons of rul e disputes,
and nota ti ons of cor rect ions on xe roxed rul es .
Occasionally, the game des igner com es along
and enligh tens you about some m inor rule he
has been keep ing to hi mself lik e " fro m now on
uni ts have no Zones of Control. " In form ing
pla\/ testers about th is kind of rules c hange is a
nasty task an d always draws agon izing groa ns
and gnashings of leeth . Su t it' s w orth it . A fter
three or four Fri days, a game beg ins to I a II 111 to
shape . The roug h edges get smoo th ed and, as
w llh Soldiers, the develop men t team gets
overcon fident. Worse ye l , one becomes
physica lly sic k al the men ti on 0 1 th e game's
l itle. Don'l get me wrong, Soldiers is a good
game: lust don't come aroun d and ask me or
Dave Isby to playa game of it. A t leas t no t for
a co up le 0 1 yea rs. This nausea begins to set in
about the fo urt h wee k ah er th e second draft
rules have passed throu gh John You ng's
hands and the final vers ion has to be type d.
But w hat seem to be fi nal ru les st ill undergo
changes [lg l1l up to the lasl m inu te. For
example, Redmond Simonsen , the last rules
editor to touch an y game be fo re publicat ion,
rea d Soldiers o ff and on l or fi ve days an d
suggested several cllanges including a new
way of markin g the cha nge in a Cavalry unit's
SlaWS from Mounted to Dismounted and vice
ve rsa . The w hole process is outlined in Ihe
genealogy c hart for Soldiers in thi s article. J im
Dunn igan also gO t his chance to assert
desi gner' s m achismo and make some changes

al the last m inule. Fina ll y the process was

over. Soldiers w as finished ; rules, map, and
co unte rs w ere sent to th e pri nters . For Dave
Isby and l our respile from Soldiers w ill be all
tOO brief . A Iter we get ba ck all our
com ponen ts, pr oo f-read them an d be gin
Shipping we' ll enjoy a few w eeks peace . But
inevitably, some otherwi se su nny summer
mornin g wi ll be destr oyed by a small pile of
Soldiers letters lying on my desk . I'll reluctan tl y
tea r open the first one and read som e classic
Query such as " Dear S&T, under Com ba1 case
tAl you say 'after th e first Player has
com pleted firin g his units the Enem y Player
may return fire' W ha t I w an t to ask IS: w ho is
tile Enemy Pl ayer?"
- Lenny Glynn

PART 2:
The Historica1
Background
The op enin g days of Ihe Firsl Wo rl d War saw
the deat h of the old Europe an d lil e temble
btrtll 01 the new . As Edwa rd Grey said, the
ligh ts we nt ou t all over Europe. Wh en the
smoke cleared , th e struct ured , ordered , worl d
o f th e 19th ce n tury was, along w il h 20 million
people, a c,j $ually o f the Fi rst W o rld War .
Instea d of an ordered civ illzatioll , stra nDe
th ings such as 'commun lsm:' " lasclsm " arl d
"Cwchosl ovak ia" se t the stage fo r a century
of turm oil . In 19 14 , Il owever, Itre " fi na l
arbllralOrs" of the sil ua tion we re I he armies. It
is how lhese armies met in battle in th e early
day~ 0 1 the wa r that the game Soldiers is
conce rn ed w ith.
Soldiers is a tac tica l wa rgame, meaning it dea ls
w ith the clas h of til e brigad es or regiments,
ra th er th an I ll e arm ies, 01 na tions. The ballles
be l ween the nation s have alread y been presented in game form, in A valon Hill 's 1914 and
Srmu la ti {] n's Tannenb urg . but Soldiers is of a
d iff eren t scope, showing not wha t happene d
whe n Germa ny attacked Fran ce, bu t rather
wh at ha pp ened w hen specific un its, tra ined,
organized , and equipped In accord With a
nation'S m il itary dogma , met in a specific area
on a speci fi c da le. A tactical game sho ws nOl
on ly how the training, eqUipment, and organizatio n o f each nallon interac ted , but also the
op ti o ns open 10 a briga dier, co lonel or
lieLl tenant ill 19 14.

Soldiers IS played on a mapshee t w ith ea c h

he xago n rep resenting 100 me ter s 01 te rra in
and each game-tur n 10 minu tes a t time. Thi s
lime an d distance sca le was selecled because
it sh ows th e interaction of all ty pes of arms.
The units represen t co m panies 01 Infa ntry , of
about 250 men , mac hine gun un its are shown
as com panies of six w eapons or sec ti ons of
tw o. Cava lry is In squadrons, abou t 150 men
an d horses, and the artill ery was in 8. 6 or 4
gun ba tte ri es, w ith6 th e most co m mon. These
batt eries ca n be broken down into tw o-gun
pIJtoons as well . Lenny Glynn's arti cle desc ribes tile c hanges in scale we had 10 make
before sel tll ng o n l hls. Platoons an d 44 meter
hexes were just abou t the only feaSible scale,
and I use d 10 th ink , the bes t. Bu t we found tha t
t he 100 me1er scal e showed qUi te accu rately
the percentage o f casualties ca used by ea ch
type of wea pon . It also does not pe rmi t a ile to
use unrea lis tiC tac ti cs. The tac ti cs employed in
Soldiers are tho se used by th e combata nts in
1914-15, the pla yer m ust use these to the bes t
of hiS abil ity rf he is to success full y play
Soldiers .

As w it h just about any tacl lca l game , the hea rt

o f Soldiers is its scenarios. As It stands now,
Ihe game I, as thirteen scenaflOS, plus a soli ta ire
game. One o f th e bi ggest problems In produc ing Soldiers wa s research ing the scenarios. In
fac t, I did the researc h l or some 40 -od d
scen ar ios. The ones In til e game are the bes t.
Th ere was one basic c rilerion for each
scenario: could decen t in fo rmat ion on troop
st reng th s and depl oyment be fou nd? ThiS was
often a problenl , and th is brings us to t he
sources used to Ilesh ou t I he scena riOS , The
maj or source wa s Ihe rnu l tl -volumed offiCia l
hiSlOrtes 01 Bn tain and France , my ignorance
0 1 German preventing eff ective use 01 the
German his tory Der WeI/krieg , Th e Briti sh
hlstorv is iar and away betler th an the Fren ch ,
NOl only is II in English, w it h dala on wea ponry
anej organlza t ions thaI the French lacks, but
mos t Impor ta nt , it goes into great dela il on
sma ll unil actions. Every scena ri o in vo lvilig the
British, excep t the attack on Tsing-Tau, wh ich
I got Irom the history of the Sou l h W ales
Borderers, one of the units invo lved, used Ihe
Otilcia l His tory as ItS sou rce. Some 01 the
scen arios w ere, however, originally researc hed
fr om "po putar" histories such as Terraine 's
Mons and Tyng's The Marne, Mos t of Ihe
o th er scena ri os carTI e from popular histories or
lil e Frencll ollieal history . UnfO rT unately , much
of thiS da ta w as less tha n com plele. The
Russi an I ro nt scenarios, Wi tI'I the excep ti on o f
numbers 6 ari d 12 . we re merely expa nsions of
briel men tio ns, an d lhe names 01 the units
Ih ose w hich we re in the v ici nity at the time of
1he battle.
Severa l s l tuatlo n~ were Inc luded for the ir
hlSlOncal Int eres t, such as th e "Massacre of
th e Innocents " and the Ch arge of the 9th
Lance rs. Su t many o th er histOri ca ll y Im portant
scena ri os we re rejec ted because they were just
too dif ticu ll to make Into decent games.
Severa l ot her actions I w an ted 10 incl ude
prove d impractical because the cou rse o f the
ba ll ie was changed by super-h uman eflorts on
th e pan at one or a lew Ind iViduals . Th e Sall ies
01 Nery, wh ere a single British gun held off a
Ge rman divis iona l aHack, or Ethe, w here one
Fre nch comp an y lo rce d a German diviSion to
retreat from a possibly decisive attack, are
examples. Excepllolls of this type prove d
ImpOSSible to incorporate in 8 game .
I had hoped to Include , among the scenari os in
Soldiers . the coun teraltack o f the 2nd Worces ters at Ghevau lt , probab ly the most dec isive single baltali on ac ti on 01 tile wa l. So I
dashed off a scenari o based on an acc oun t 111 a
popu lar tllsto ry . It d idn' l wo rk OUi. Resea rch
il1to other sou rces, inclu di ng the official
histo ry, showed that the counl erallack cou ld
not be taken ou t 0 1co rnexl l rom th e events on
its Ilanks, whi ch enlarged Ihe scope o f th e
aClio n be yond lhe sca le of So/diers. Then I
fo und out Ihat no One was qUl le Sure w here
the Germ an forces were at the ti rne of t ~l e
a!lack. A ttemp ts to relale the details of the
action menti oned 111 th e ol hcial history wi th
l hose in oth er w orks only led me to wonder
whether they were desc ribing the sam e battl e.
As I wa s under ti me pressu re, I was forced
reluct an tl y, to let the idea drop Once I had
done th e Ilistorica l resea rch for a given
sce nari o, It then had to be Iranslated to t he
co n texl o f th e game, It is a diffi cul t Ih lng to
make 13 vor y differen t ba ttles li t on one
mapsheet and slIll retain historical accu racy.
Th e same is tr ue o f the vic tory con di 'io n~ . This
rs the area w here th ings mus t be mos t finely
adlusted . Th iS "Ime tu ning" was done by Ick
M affeo w ho playe d each one of Ihe fort y-ad d

9
scenariOS se vera l limes , seeing if it wa s
ba lanced and If it played well. If Ihere was
some thi ng wrong, Nick and I sa t down and
discussed what c han ges could be made
10 make he scenar io bal anced and wor able,
wh ile stdl re talnl g histoflcal accur acy, Some
01 the scena llOS, Ilowever, are deliberat ely
un balanced, althoug h mosl 0 1 them are fa irly
even , M y allempI s, wh ich I hope we re
succ p.ssf ul, to get scenarios that wo rk also
proved to be one of th e most diff icu lt pa rts of
111e deSig n w ork .
Wars are fo ug ht With weapons, and any
wargame, espeCially a tac lical one, must show
the relative effec tiveness 0 1 the weapons of
he period The events of the First Worl d W ar
were dic ta ted by the types of wea pons used ,
yet the wea pons of 191 4 did not provide (he
deCISive means to break open the war.
Mach ine guns an d massed artillery could, and
did, produce a sta lemate, bu t they cou ld not
ope n the sta lemate up.
In 19 14, th ere we re three arms: in fan try ,
ca valry an d arli llery. The Infa ntry was organIzed mto COmpan ies of approximately 250 men
and arm ed with boil-action rifles. These nfles,
however, vafled greatly in quality, which
accoun ts for the di flerences ill Allack
St ren gth in the infantry companies of different
na tions. The attac k strength also reflects the
trallllllg of the so ldiers in 1914 A rifle IS
w ar hless if you can't hit anything w ith it which IS wha t wa s happening in 1915. The
ca lcu lations tor the anack strength of a unit
al so incfuded the amount of ammu nition
available to it. The high attack strength { 11 1 of
a BOllsh Infan tr y com pany IS because they
used the Lee-Enlield, the wor ld 's fin es t service
ri fle, and because they w ere the bes t trained
army 111 th e world . The men were all longserving volunteers, not unenthusiatic con scriptS as In other European armies. Yea rs of
service and their excellent rille enab led Bri lish
sold iels to sustain a ra te of lire of 15 ro unds
per minut e, at ranges UD to SOO ya rds Betl er
shots could get of f upwards of 30 rounds per
minute and hit targets over a mile away. To
sus tain these hi~J h ra tes of fire, they ca rried
large amoun ts of ammuni tio n. A ll in all , a
formidable force . The Germans had as good an
army in 1914 as possible, based on consc rip ts,
The German rifl e, the Mauser '98, wasn't bad,
and as long as t hey had ofilcers and NCOs
directing fire, th e avera ge German soldier
could get 011 10 roun ds per min ute, allhougll
n01 as well aimed as the Brit ish The Germa ns
also had larg er units and their ammun ition
supply was good . This resul ted in tile German
In1an try company o f 1914 receivlIlg the fairly
good aHack st reng th of seven In Soldiers. The
Belgian infantry wa s superior to the Germans
in mOSt respec ts, bu t nOl by much. ThiS,
cou pled w nh I he sl lghlly smaller un its, also
ke p t the Belgians at seven The Bel gian army,
In lac I. w as armed and tralile d much along
German li nes. Th e French are consp iCUOus
becau se of their low all ack strength of Three,
the lowest of any Infa ntry company. Th iS IS
due 10 many reasons. First, 1he French had not
trained their conscnpl army as well as they
rrllg ht have. Many men did not know their lobs,
When the men WllO did not knOW their jobs
turned ou t to be rank ing off icers, tile resu lts
were blood y. ThiS IS shown In several Soldiers
scena riOS, where French Uni ts make poorly
su pp orted fro ntal assaults. The main French
fai li ng was their rrfl e, the Lebel 'S6. Unli ke the
other ri fles iii use III 19 14, wh ich could be
loaded w ith clips of up to ta n rou nds, the Lebel
had to Ilave each roun d fed into its magazine

IndivI dually , by ha nd . Frene ll compan ies were

also sma ll and lacked low -level co ntrol and
di lection. The British were able to keep their
co ll eslon because of superior train ing and
skilled troo ps, the Germans because of thelf
rigid and w ell- thoug ht -ou t sys tem s 01 co mmand, but the French disdai ned the German
systelll as overly autho ritarian and th eir men
lacked the British tra ining .
The ta ct ics of 19 14 we re probably the grea tes t
ca use of the bloodbath W orl d Wa r One
became. The technologica l adva nces tn weaponry had outstflpped advances in tac TIcs.
W ea po nry overpowering tac lies had been a
tren d Since 1815. Much too often In 1914 , an
adva nce conSisted of rows o f men wa lkrng
through th e open in an attempt to dislodge the
enemy from a pOSit ion , A ll armies except th e
Bnt ish rained Ihelf trOOps 0 attack in thiS
ma nnel . In theo ry, the advancin g troops would
not be stoppe d by enemy fire, and wou ld force
tile enemy to w ithdraw by the threat of the
bayo net. I r enemy fire did stop th e attacking
fO lce , th ey wo uld lay down, shoot up the
defendmg troo ps, then resume the advance.
Sou nds SImple? Try this on your Soldiers
game . Using tilese ta ctics, a de fender in coverII1g terrain or In " Improved posITIons" (dug -inl
can defea t an attacker four or five ti mes larger.
Most nations held to this Idea throug hout the
wa r. The Germans, for example, unlil they
thought of " modern" infiltration tactics In
19 18, believed tha t the way to defeat a defense
befo re sending In one of the usual attacks was
to "so l ten up" the enemy positi ons by
bombarding it . But in 19 14 th ere wasn' t always
eno ugh art illery, and by th e lime more arti llery
wa s available, t he enemy was usually entrenche d, and the reSUlting wee k-l ong bombar dment s sti ll could not crack the defense
lines The French carried the idea of an attack
to ex tremes. They were convinced that their
merl wou ld not be deterred by the fire of the
enemy and would keep gOing and c lear the
enemy position . Neither the FrenCh, no r mosi
others. though t that atlac kmg troops stopped
by fire w ould be forced to dig in . M an y na tions
did no t even bother to train th eir troops to dig,
Thrs is ref lec ted in Soldiers by the Imp roved
POSiti on ruie. Using this rule , a unrt rolling a
certa in number may double the defense
streng th of til e hex it is in. Some nati ons'
troops go into Improved POSitions sasier than
ot hers. The "stu pidity factor" also en ters in to
th is An officer may fail to give lhe order to
"l ake cover" and his conscrip t troops would
not know enough to do it themselves. The
Frenc h were ba d In all depar tments. Very few
Frenc hmen carned spades, they were not
supposed to dig in, and ' their generally
half-t rained tr oops wou ld not dig in wi thout
orders from th eir equally ha lt-nai ned officers.
The Germans we re better off , espec ially
because they ha d more spades and their
coheSion was belter, Thu s the Germans may
en ter impr oved position s on a die roll of "1" or
"2" wh ile th e Frenc h WIll only do it on a " 1".
Of the 10 M ill ion sold iers w ho died in the First
World War, so me 39 % were killed by buttets.
M osl of tn ese bullets were from a weapon
some people, such as M arshals Foch, Haig,
vo n Falkenhyn , Jof fre and Kitc hener, regarded
in 1914 as a " noisy toy, " the machine gun.
M ost na lions attached one sec tion of two
machine guns to each battali on of tour
com panies. The Belgia ns and some ti mes even
t~l e Russians wo uld attach a few ex tra mach ine
guns when they had them. The Germans
grouped rhe lr machi ne gu ns toge ther in groups
of six. This was not an effective way of

orga niZing thmgs - the nlachrne guns tended

to be overconcentrated and they w ere used in
til e front 01 the liri ng line, rather than being
placed III more Vital positions on the flanks.
Their guns also had armored gunshields and
were mounted on sleds, year round . M ost
mac hine guns were Maxim types, except for
th e Fre nch w ho used the air-cooled Ho tch kiss
and th e A ustrians w ho used the Schwarzlese ,
both Inf eri o r weapo ns. The Bril rsh Machi ne
Gu n un its are strong beca use 0 1 the traInin g of
Ihe crew s, wh ile lhe Bel gian guns were
except ionally mobi le. being mOlmted in light
carts pu lled by t rarned dogs. The Russians
suffered f rom a lack o f trai ned personnel an d
amm unition, w hich IS also reflected in their
al1ack strength . The German machine gun
com pany could brea k down into three sections
If the need arose, althoug h they usua lly wo uld
not. They were less effective broken down as
the seclion leaders were no t trained to r
independent ac tion and all th e ammuni tion
wa s I,eld by co mpa ny HO . So they performed
less well broken down .
Th e A rtillery wa s the great killer of the First
World War, casuing 58% of the casua lties.
Most of the artillery was basically the same field guns bert ween 75 and 84 millimeters in
caliber, The British, Germa ns and Austria ns
also used light field howllzers, slightly heaVier
than the gu ns, w hich were able 10 fire hig h
angles over terrain such as woods and ridges
w hich wou ld normally block therr fi re . T his is
represented in Soldiers, as th ey can fIre over
cove ring terrain and also extend their range
With lhe aid of a sPOltlng un it. The range of
art illery in Soldiers , as wi th all other weapons is
the effective rang e. For example, wh ile British
ril les cou ld hit ta rgets a mile away, they did
their rea l destruction at clos er ranges. Art illery
ranges were also limited by visibili ty and the
poo r com municati ons of the era . One feat ure
of artillery was their ability to pu t down
"curtains of fi re" that enemy troops would not
adva nce 1hrough. This was used to isola1.e
secti ons o f the battlefield. Machine gu ns could
al so execute a sim ilar maneuver. These tactics
are rep rese nted In Soldiers by the in te rdiction
rule. Of th e art illery unilS In Soldiers, the mOSl
unique is lhe Fre nch. These we re Ihe famous
Frenc h '75's. They were traine d 10 use any
avai lab le co ver, much more so tha n oth er
na tion 's art illery, so in Soldiers they are the
only arti llery tha t can en ter Improved Positions
during the course of the game . Being light and
mobile and again, being trained for i t, Ihey are
able \(I m ove and fi re In the same phase.
Probabl y the most direc t link to the Middle
Ages III 1914 laslde Irom the German conduct
of the occupa tion of Belgium ) wa s the
ca valry . As It had been since Alexander the
Great, cavalry wa s a man on a horse wltr, a
sword , Un fortunate ly, w hat wor ke d in 1066
wOLIId not w ork in 1914. Even more unlort unately, mos t cava lry comma nders did not
believe thiS. In 1914, all cavalryme n were strll
equ ipped w ith el tl1er the sabre or lance, As a
somewhat grudging concessio n 10 reality,
most ca med a carbine as w ell. These ca rbines,
ligll tened versions of in fan try rif les, were less
ef fective than norma l IIfles. The French and
RUSSian ca rbines, however, were somewhat
rr diculous, bern g similar to ones used in the
Fra nco- P,uss,an Wa l . In the French case, it
was made worse by Ihe lact that some 25% of
the ir cavalry st il l wo re body armor, just like the
kn ights in the Middle Ages, and if these
armored cava lry were ordere d to " hit the dirt"
the y w ou ld be so weighed down th ey couldn' t
get up , All th is w ould be ra t her funny if so

10
many br ave men who believe d th at caval ry was
sti ll the decisive arm had not been killed fin ding
out the idiocy of the ir beliefs. The Britis h, as
usual, Inlected a note of rea lism Into t he
pictu re. Their cava lry carrie d th e sa me ri fle as
Ihe In lamry and was trained to ti ght dismoun ted as we ll , since the exce llent British
cavalry doc trine saw th e ma in role fo r cava lry
to be dismoun led fi gh ti ng .
One o f th e hardest pro blems in Soldiers or any
Twentieth cen tury tacti ca l game is w ri tin g
ru les lor v isibili ty an d line of sig ht Ihat are both
accu rate and playable. In his article, Len ny
Glynn lalks about the great diffi cul ties we had
figUrin g out Ihese rules. Basica lly, one can not
hit w ha t One ca nnOI see , Troops in woods or in
buill-Up areas w ill ava il the mselves 01 th e
concea lment. Any rule Ihat wou ld permi t un its
to fife at w hat tll ey can no t see wou ld have to
be co upled With an ammun itiOn lim ita ti on,
comp lications I wou ld be loath to get ta ngled
in
One of the more difficult parts In the resea rc il
for Soldiers was Ihe Comba l Resu lls Table the In famous "CR T" . W orking out a playable
an d accu rate CRT was a prerequ isit e to any
serious pl ay tes tin g 01 Soldiers . A CRT had to
re late th e cha nces of the firepower of a
specific uni l , rep resented by its attack slfen gth
to ils chances of dOing damage to a lmit In a
cert ain so rt of te rrain. Th e number of bu llets
tha t we re suppose d to hi l w as foun d in
contem po rary bo oks on rifles and tac tics.
Further research rnto til e topic showed th at
almost all the time, sma ll units w hich we re
"destroye d " were 110t w iped out to th e last
man, altll oug h til is did happen in some
inst ances. Ra th er, a Unit wh ich look hea vy
enollgh cas ualties w ould lose its co llesion and
command contro l and become usele ss for
fi ghting during th e re lativel y short spa n o f li me
repre sen ted by a Soldiers scenario. In most
cases in Soldiers, a " des troyed" un it is one in
wh ich between 33% an d 66% 01 the men have
become casua l ties alon g w i th almost all o f th e
officers and NCOs. The unit is no longer an
etfective l igh ting force and In the co ntex t of
th e game , is des troyed . "Disrupti on " is a
harder term to define. When a unit is
disru pted , II mea ns tha t the effects of enemy
fire, re ga rdless of w ll ether they have produced
casualties Of not, have in terefere d w ith th e
comma nd con tro l of a unit enough for it to be
lmable to lake any defin ite act ion, the c lassic
situation of troops pmned down under fi re is
rep resented III Soldiers by disruption. In fac t,
the play tes t versions 01 Soldiers used the w ord
"pinned" instead of disrup ti on. These results,
com bine with (he ef-fec t of fire on un its in
di fferent so rt o f terrain. For exam ple, if a
Frenc h cava lry squadron o f 150- odd men
cha rges a German machine gun comp any of
six Spandau mach ine guns, th e Soldiers CRT
w ould make every French man a casual ty 4. 5
times. In Soldiers, th e odd s wou ld be 34-1
against the cava lry - absolutel y no c hance 01
surv iva l. Th e CR T refle cts the possibilities
open In 19 14. One ca n use the enormous
am ou nt of firepower to creat e a deadly
stalemate, or use 1\ to open up th e enemy
positi on. Th e CR T gives you th e ma terral. The
chO ice 0 1 how to use It IS the player's.
- David C. Isby

Would You Like to Work at SPI?

Just about everyone at SPI has one thing in
common . T hey were orig inall y subscribers
to S&T or dyed-in-the-woo l game freaks.
We are still expand ing rather rap idly and
find that we continua ll y need new people.
To save us some trouble (and perhaps get
some of you an interesting job), we decided
to go right to the sou rce of most of our
present employees: the people who use our
products.
The follow ing types of jobs are open from
time to time:
ED ITOR IA L - editing and, in general,
taking good ca re of the written materia l we
generate here !including game rules). Also
involves working on games and doing
research. Requirements for the job: maturity, sense of responsibility, ability to get
along with a colle ction of crazy people,
ability to keep track of a whole bunch of
th ings at once, Shou ld be able to write
clearly and proofread , Above all you have
to able to do what's asked of you and get
th e job done. College education not necessary; should be over 18. Salary: 500+ (per
month) to start. Rapid raises after that if
you can hack it.
GRAPHICS -

Two positions are available:

Boardman: Heavy mechanicals, some layout, type -styling and spec. Must have good
draftin g ability and good genera l knowledge of art-prepa ration for offset reproduction . Must be able to work with a
minimum of direction. One to three years of
prior professional experience is a necessity.
Wi ll be expec ted to have (or acquire) a
delailed knowledge of simula ti on games.
Salary: $600 to $700 per month to start,
incre ases commensurate with ability and
performa nce .
Assistant Boardman: Mechanica ls and
pasteu p, supporting work for designers,
diagramatic and chart work. Must be able
to do neat an d precise work_ Must have
fami liarity w ith offset reproduction requirements. Recent graduate of accredited art
school or two years professional. experience. Salary: $500 to $540 per month to
start. Salary and resp onsibility increases
with ability and performance.
FINANCE : there are a number of respon sible jobs permanently open in th is area and
more that w ill open in the futu re, Basically
there is a full cha rge bookkeeping position
involving Genera l Ledger and all sub sidiary
journals and ledgers, includ ing Accounts
Receivable and Payable, Cash Receipts and
Cash Disbursements, etc. No educational

background is necessary (though nice), but

operationa l background (experience) is a
must. Then there is a higher level accounting job involving supervision of two or more
bookkeepers land helping them fin ish the
work when necessa ry - no pride in th is
job!) constantly updating cost ana lysis,
verifying and maintaining outside supplier
costs, cash flow analysis, etc. This job
req uires some education (preferably at least
two years of accounting in college). as we ll
as some exp erience. Areas of knowledge
needed are taxes lIoca l_ state and federal!,
all bookkeeping, some statistics, and preferably a little compu te r experience.
In both jobs we hope to get people qualified
to develop games . We are perfectly wi lli ng
to take young people out of school and give
the m the practical experience needed if
they are enthusiastic and work hard .
The bookkeeping job starts at $500 per
m onth, with increases based on performance and ability to assume responsibili ty.
T he accoun tant starts at $600 per month or
more, depending on quali fications . It is
expected that th is wi ll be a high growth job
for anybody w illing to work long hou rs and
perform. The salary will be increased
rapidly after a short probationary period;
basically it goes up to what w e can afford.
To apply for any of these jobs simply w rite
us a letter Idon't ca ll or come inl telling us
all about yourse lf. Also let us know when
you co uld start wo rki ng (assum ing you
liked what you saw at1er we 'd ta lked to
you!. Some of these jobs are open now, but
probably not for long. Wha t we'd li ke to do
is build up a file of people who want to
work here. When a job opens up we ' ll just
start working our way down th e list.
Working Conditions: You wear what you
want to work and have considerable
f lexibility in your work ing hours. T he main
thing is to get the job done w ith the
minimum amount of noise and aggravation,
There ' s a company health-insurance plan
which w ill keep you alive if you get
wrecked. We have our own typesetting
facilities and an IBM System 3 compute r to
kee p tr ack of details. Cash flow averages
over $12,000 a week as of Au gust '72 and
w e' re producing one magazine and over
two games a month. So there's a lot of
w ork .
If you ' re interested, and think you can fit in
around here, write us:
Pers onnel Dept.
Simu lations Publications Inc .,
44 East 23rd Street
New York , N.Y. 10010

11

Battle of Stalingrad

Sixteen scenarios show alternati ves .

The effect of Hitler's "stand fast" order.
H ow much the Sovi ets gambled .

Soviet Winter Offensive 1942

overnb r 19<12 ' The Gerllla n SIX th Army
grHld s 1 lock hy block hrough I he rubble o f
SliJhn grad In Ihe Caucasus. Army Group A
c l o"p'~ 011 Malkop an d Ba tu m. the "011 cllIes,"
~ o urce of uel lor Sovlel arm ies and Indus tri es.
Sudden ly the Red Army strikes . shoe In g th e
Gcrrnilll I-I Igl1 ComfTla nd SOVI t II oops en
velup Ih", Sixth Army In S alrng rad ;md
hrev tcn to I ~olale Army Group A to the south .
Balli or Slalingrad slrnlJ lates the Soviet
W inter 0 lenSlve With SIX 1 en scenarios of Ihe
miJlOI alt erna ti ves that could have occurred
Bailie of SralmgraCi IS a gra nd tac lical (d IVIsinn/colps) game wi th
exes equal 10 16
kil ome tres. Each Game-Turn represents two
days Th
ame sysl m IS Similar to Kursk and
France '40, bU I il has be n rehned an d
mod lfred 10 reflect the peculari ties of he
sltUa lion SOVI I cava lr y, for example, can
move Irl Ihe mo tolized movemen t phase An
pllonal ru le orC lng the German Uni1S to hold
Ihell p Sil lons Sim ulates he dlsaslrous ef fect
01 Hili r' s Insistance thai "Where a German
soldier san ds he Wil l no t retreat." BUI II the
Ge l lnans do cond uct a fl ghl lng Wi thdrawal ,
Bi'",!e of Sr8/ijigrac/ rev als just tlow m uch he
Soviets gambl d to ehleve the lurnlng pOin t
0 1 Ihe Wal In The Eas t. Available from
Simulc tioll S PllbllCiJ llOIiS for $6.00

Strategy I

Most complete set of rules in print.

More than 1,000 unit counters plus .. .
A huge 44"x22" geomorphic map and much more.

Strategic Warfare: 350 B.C. to 1984

Srraregv I 15 more tha n a game . It is a game
designer's w orkshop , The 44x28" mapsheet is
" geomorphic" ; i can be fitted together 48
dl fferen l ways. There are 1020 die-CUI uni t
co un ters In eigh l col ors. Seventeen scenarios
cove r all aspec ts of western warfare from
Alexander the Great to W orld War Two,
eo-Colonial War and poten tial Nuclea r Holocaus t. Players ca n recreate c hanges in the
dynamiCS o f w arfa re through history. The rules
are t~1e la rgest an d mos t com ple te yet w ritte n
but thelf "modu la r" form allow s players to
select an d co mbine them as they choose . Ru le
modules include Tax ation, PrOduc ti on, Lea ders , Partisans, Gueril las, Drafts and Dra ft
RialS, Diplomacy, All iances, Air, Naval. and
Submarine Forces, an d even Plague and
Disease (f or medieval scenarios). The sc ope
and variety of Srraregv ! li terall y must be seen
to be beheved . M any concepts flt st devel oped
for Sua legy I form the ba SIS of later game
systems. The game can be played by twO to
eight players. In mu lti -plsl'er games, diplomacy
and alliances playa c ritica l ro le. Decisions on
alloca lion of resources for production are also
crilica l, particularly In lhe Late Modern IWorid
W ar 1 - Future) scena rios, Slralegy I is
available from Simulations Publications for

$10.00

T
12

War and ''Peace'':

A Guide to Conflict Simulations

INTRO DUCTION
This Ils\ rs a conHnua tlOn 01 the one previously
presente d in th e three issue s 01 S&T Guide 10
Conflict Simu/allOI7 Gam es, Periodicals and
Publications 1/) Print There are a lew chan ges
in format, but lorrne r subscrib ers to the Guide
wi ll recogn ize th e approach,

One thin g that is new is the scope of th e

gam .s listed , The previous lisls covered only
wargarnes . This list IS te n ra ll ve ly expa nded to
111clude "peace" games as we lf. "Peace" is in
quo tallon ma rks because the ga mes here are
51111 conf lict Simu latio ns to a grea ter or lesser
degree, ancl ca n be defin ed as pea ce games
only by Ihe lae t t hat th ey arE) nOI wa rga mes. I r
IS in teres ting t o not e atlh ls pOln lt he degree of
coo perar lon WII ll rh e gaming public, represen led by th e game rev iewer, th at the two
kill ds of game publishers display . In my
prevIou s a tt empts to 8ssemble a com plete set
o f reviews of wa rgames I wa s given all the
rn forma Ion abou t game de ~ lg n ~ th at I needed
and copies 0 1 some games for review by
Ava lon Hill, th e leadmg publ isher of ca mmer
cia l wa rgames , But how do the leading
publrsh ers of non-war games ae ? 3M w ro te
th at th ey d id n' t give you such mformalion or
send gam es, Parker Brothers Indica ted tha t
they w ould send a co py of a game bu t returne d
lhe inform at ion fornl I sen t them with all th e
st raregic blanks stil l blank; th en they answ ere d
my seco nd rnqUlry by saYing rhe same th ing
3M had said in th e first place. M ill on Bra dley's
approac h wa s mu ch simpler They lus r didn't
answer my lellers . Fort unately, th e new er
"peace" game co mpanies are much more
pe acea bl e, ha l is, less comp et itive,
However, thi S list remains rnco m ple\e because
of a lac k of In forma\lon So I ma ke th is plea: II
anyone ou t Ihere know s th e name of a
de~lgner or artist o f a 3M , Pa rker Bro thers or
Mil lon Bra ley game fo r adu lts, please send
me th e name and I w ill publish II I if I fl vel
With lha r o ff my cilesr, f can ;:leI on w it ll rh e
bUSiness al hand . The ga me list co mes in two
parts, lor wsrgames and peace games. For
each . th ere are two furth er subdivis ions : a
review sec ti o n and a game chart . For th e
warga mes, th e review sectron th is ri me is ve ry
Shor l , as It co ntains on ly new games . Reviews
tor othe r wa rgames can sti li be found In Iss ues
1 to 3 o f th e S &T Guide. However, th e Chart
includes all th e ga mes that I have seen tllat are
III print. Th ere are other games Iha t I know
abolll that I haven't seen. Also, any games L1la t
arrived after J une 1, 1972, are not inclu ded For
the peace games, the reviews and ril e li stings
on til e c l arl are lo r the smne games. Agai n,
Ju ne 1 was th e cu toff date an d o ther games
co uld have been Included , II the read ers o f
MOVES are interested, Ihe list of peace games
wi ll be expa nded to inc lude, as nea rl y as
po ssible, all conflic r simu lalions in print. The
de l ini lion o f wll ar cons ti tutes a con fli ct slmu
lat ion IS vague, but I will co ntmue to in te rpret it
loosely , It Incl udes any adulr game w hic ll
clillm s s ny reference to th e rea l w orld . It does
n0 1 incl ude pure ly abS lra ct games like c hess or
c h ec~e rs

As lor w argames, th ey Will remain the ma in

business o f th iS li st. There are sti ll games
m lssmg Ihal shou ld be mcluded and I am
w orkin g on getllng co pies, bu t I ca nnot review
someth ing un less I see it even If I kn ow it is
around , The game chart IS nDt a subsiltute tor
a lull reView, bu l most o f the re aders have only
th e game chart to go on for games th ey are
co nslde fLng. But eve ry yeBf or so, It may be
that all reviews 0 1 cu rre n t games wi ll be dusted
ofl , revised to refle ct more mforma ti on and
published In a comp re hensive liSt. The f ut ure
holds ma ny pOSSibilities.
Meanwhile, ma il con cern ing this enterprise,
especially co pies of games tor reV iew, must be
sent 10 :
M arr in C Campion
History Depart men t
Kansas Siale Col lege of Pittsburg
Pi llsburg, Kan sas 66762

EXPLANATION OF
THE WARGAME C H ART
The accom panying char i is in a form th at
ma kes It look li ke the most objective parr, bu t It
is ac tu ally th e most subject ive. In order to
remind he reade r tha t Ih is represe nts ma inly
lhe opmlOIl ot t he editor, I have used t he
followr ng subjec tive gra des for mos1 o f the
co lum ns:
A
Exce llent
B
Good
C
Fair
D
Poor
NA = Nor App lica ble
In lwo of Ihe co lum ns I use numbers to deal
With measu rable th ings, In all o f the assess
menls, a Wide rang e of numbers o r grades
in dical es th at the game has several differen t
si tuati ons or sets o f rules, The mean ing of each
co lu m n is IhIS:
C Co mpleXit y re fers to Ihe number of impo r
ta nt ru les and the diffic ulry 01 un derstan ding
th ose rules . Some ti mes also it refers to the
numbe r 01 pie ces invo lved in a game and to t he
num ber of calc ulat ions necessary to play a
gam e . II IS ra ted on a 10 point sca le. It IS not
nece ssa ril y desirable for a ga me \ 0 be comp lex,
nOT is II necessa ril y ba d.
R Clari ty and Completeness of th e Ru les IS
so meth in g that is very desira ble and some
thl nQ decepti vely difficu ll to achieve.

SA Stra teg ic Accu racy is also deSirable, for

strale \j lc leve l games. It refer s to the way in
w hich t he game han dles the movemen t an d
co rrlbat 01 units over a large area and fo r a long
period 0 1 lime.
TA Tac ri ca l Acc uracy is desirable fo r tactica l
level game s and also fo r st ra te gic games if it
does 1101 mterfere w it h th e point being made . 11
relers to Ihe wa y in w hich an actual battle or
flreli ghl IS hand led in rhe game.

by Martin Campion

co ndi tion s Ilave to be carefu lly drawn up to

ma ke a close game o f II. PrObably no histori caf
games are perfec tty balance d, although some
are cer tainly m ore IJala nce d than ot hers. The
grades g1ven here assu me tha t play balance is
deSirable. For some players th iS may 1101 be so.

PT PlaYin g Time IS measured ill hours. Bu t rh e

lime give n here assunl es thai tile players
alrea dy know lile game and do not have to
kee p look lllg up ru les, II also assumes tha t the
game bein g played IS org aru zed , tha t is, that
the counters have been pr eviously separated
and put into envelopes or at her cont ainers.
W ith unprac ti ce d players or an unorganiled
game, th e tim es given here can easily be
doubled or tflple d. Tilese t imes do Include the
tlfll e to set up ,
RE COMM ENDA TI ONS In an altemp t to give
a succ inc t opin ion o f each game , I have
im agined rhe existence 01 four Ideal types 01
wargamer, and tried to give each a reeom
men dall on base d on his spec ial needs . Probably no o ne w ill fll perfect ly mto any ideal
type. fn fac t, most wargamers befong 10 all
ty pes al differen t times, or even at once Bu t
' maybe th lS procedure Will help someone
choose belween compet ing games. The Ideal
types are
N Th e Novlce w ant s a game Ihat wi ll be eas y
to understand, ro r lIS ty pe, and tha t w rll lead
11im naturally in to o rh er games of Ihe same
Iype.
G Th Ga mer 15 IIlterested primarily In a game
th aI ca n be played In a sin gle alTernoon or
evening, 11lat will lead 10 no difflcu ltr es over the
illlerprel ati on o f ambiguous ru les , lhat w ill give
each playe r a nearly equ al chance 01 Winning,
th ai Will be deCided pri ma ri ly by skill , and that
w ill seldom , or pr eferably never en d III a draw.

SG Tr1e Supergamer IS in love with numbers

01 uni ts and long games. He likes to see large
numbers 01 unirs surging across cont inen ts,
His favorite w ar IS tile Russo -German W ar of
t 94 1-45 . HIS ideal game wou ld be 8 company
level m ulti -co m man der ren dition of thai w ar in
wh ic h his posn ion could, al tile appropriate
time, be in herited by hiS son However. he IS
w ill ing to se ttl e fo r les5 than th e idea l, He is not
necessari ly in teres ted In co mplex rules, bu t
rhrlves on the complex iT y 01 maki ng numero us
sma ll deCISions.
H The Historia n deslfes ga mes that w ill
demons tra te some wo rt hy histories I interpretatio n He pre fers games that can come ou t as
Ihe original ca mpargns ca me out , and for
srmlla r reasons. He does not like ga ines in
w hich deTails are righ t at tile expense of the
genera l result , bu t he does not oblec t to
sigrll l ica nt detai ls thaI harmoilize with th e
general resull

PB Play Balance IS th e phrase used to indica te

wh eth er bo th Sides i n a game have an equa l
cha nce to w m, Sin ce in mos t wa rgames , the
two sides are deliberatelY unequal, the victory

COM PO NENTS . These Iwo columns attemp t

to summarize Th e physical quali ty o f boards
an d coun ters. The rat ing codes are :
Icontinued

011

pag e 141

13
Name
01.

SA

TA

PT

PB

SG

Bd

Clrs

Publ

Pric e

D
D

B
A

At

AI

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6.95

ANCIENT HfSTORy'

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MEDIEVAL HISTORY

O~l . Dark Age&

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ALLIED AIR OFFENSIVE IN EUROPE

15.

WORLD WAR /I -

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151 . Do;

152. West Wall

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154. Banle of the 8ulge

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4-6

IMAGINARY WORLDS -

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187. Wehrmacht

AH

9.00

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161 . RIsI!)Q Su
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155, 0 eratiOn
156. 8astogne

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THE IMAGINARY FUT.,;;

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1 1.
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Neb ula 19

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10f

S6.00.

14
Icontinued 'rom page 12)

Bd Board :
A . Printed

several co lors an d professiona ll y

mounted on a ngid bound board.
B. Printed In several co lors and mounted on
car dboard .
C. Pun ted in several colors on heavy paper or
fight ca rdboard .
D. Print ed in ~) I a c k and gray on heavy paper
or light cardboard .
E. Pnn ed In blac and gray on light pa per.
F. Printed or xeroxed on separa te sheets of
SY;x 1l" ' paper.
G. M imeog raphed on separa te shee1S of
8 % x 11" paper .
H. Dittoed on separate sheets of paper Of lig ht
cardboard.
f . Flawed fused with any o f th e above!.
Indicates pro l)lems With lIle physical character isti cs
NA ot applicable .
In

Ctrs Co unters:
A . Pr ofeSSIOnally deSigned and drawn, pnnted
on co lored pape! , mounted on sti ff board and
die cu t.
B. Un profes siona ll y des igned and drawn,
printed on colored paper, mou nted on sli f f
board and hand c U\.
C. ProfeSSiona ll y deSigned, printed on colore d
paper, moun ted on IIgh l cardboard, uncut or
perf orated.
D. ProfeSSionally designed and drawn. pri nted
on co lored paper, unmounted .
E. UnprofeSSionally designe d and drawn,
prin ted on co lored paper, un mounted
F. Unpr o feSS io na ll y de Si gned and drawn,
pon ted or xero xed on whi te paper, unmoun ted
G. Dittoed In va ricolored !Ilks on light card
board, uncu t.
f . Flawed (used With any o f the abov l.
Indicates problems o f the physical cha rac te rISTI CS
NA at applicable .

Pub! Publishel's abbreViation . Re fer to the

Publisher list for fu ll address
Price Relail Price. In a few cases this price is
inc reased by postal and handling cha rges.

WAR GAME
PUBLISHERS AND ABBREVIATIONS
AH Avalon Hi ll Co., 4517 Harford Road,
Bal timore, Maryland 212 14. Remember that
AH now cllarges $' .00 extra to r pos ta ge and
handling lor each game ordered from it. So it's
bener to order PanzerBlicz or Origins of World
War 1/ from SPI for each. or any o th er AH
game from Lowry 's Isee belowl after sendi ng
for their price list.
Bb Blutbad Enterprise, clo Tyrone Bomba,
405 flreHne Road , Bosmanstown , Pennsy l
vania 1S030.

cwe

Cobra W arga ming Club, 28700 Euc lid

Avenue, W ick li ffe , Oh iO 44092,

DC Drumco . P,O. Box 1421, College Station,

Texas 77840
DDI Dynamic Desi gn Inc., 1433 North Cen Lral
Park . Anaheim, California 92802.
De Deca lse t. 16 Davenport Road,
Kent DA 14 4 PW, England .

Sidcup ,

Do Terence p , Donnelly, P.O. Box 3137,

Station A. Edmonton. Afberta, Canada
T5J2G7 .

GG Gu id on Games, P.O. Box 1123, Eva nSVille.

India na 477 13. See issue 2, page 2. It you orde r
1 to 5 games. you pay Sl .00 extra for pos tage
for the who le order. But if you order 6 games.
postage IS free . So far th ere are only two
GU idon Games, bu t Lowry's Hobbies. which is
th e same as Guidon Games, also sells AH
games at a discount with the same arrangemen for post age. So an order o f 2 Gu idon
Gilm8s and 4 A H games is the least expensive
way to order both \In the long run , tha t is ).
GR Games Resea rc h, Inc., 48 Wareham
Stree t, Boston, Massachusetts 02118.
Lo Richard F Loomis. S149 East Thomas
Road, Sco ttsdal e, Arizona 85257.
LW Dona ld Lowry, Box 1123 EvanSVille, Ind .
477 13
Ma Alfred R. M angus . 1045 East 27th Avenue,
An chorage, A laska 99504 ,
M i Harry M . MIshler, Box 2626, La Mesa,
Cali forn ia 92041.
Mo Bruce M oore, 95 East Pioneer Avenue,
Sandy, U tah 84070.
Pa Robert Partanen, 783 Wedgewood Drive,
Sa n Jose, CaliforrHa 95123.
SPI Simu la ti ons Publications, Inc., 44 Eas t
23rd Stree t, New York , N.Y. 10010. SPI has
two Imes of games. Simuialions games which
are sent first c lass postage and :
S&T Stralegy & Tacrics games wh ich ore
published in th at magaz ine. The pnce given is
Ihe back iss ue prrce and includes third class
postage.
Spa Spanan International, 5820 Jo hn Avenue,
Lo ng Beach , Ca li forn ia 90805.
UTR UTR En lerp rises , 617, 14th Aven ue S.E.;
Minneapolis, M inneso la 55414.

REVIEWS OF NEW WARGAMES

01. Ancient History

0 15. Decline and Fall 11972. Do. $4.00), by

Terrence p , Donnell y, is an excellent simple
game dealing With the barbarian invaSions at
the Roman Emp ire from 375 to 450 A D. The
mapboard cove rs the wh ole o f Europe sou th of
Scotla nd and ScandinaVia , and the Medi terranean Including North Afri ca. There are
fil t en moves in each game, and ea c h move
represents a fi ve yea r period . Thus, as IS
approp ri at e for a game dealing With the
m oveme n t of peoples, it is a very stra tegic
game . There are tour players or teams: the
Roma ns, th e Got hs, the Vand als and the Huns.
The midd le two ac tually represent many
different German tribes. The game begins With
the Hu ns movlllg west wa rd, forci ng the Goths
and Vanda ls to Ir y to gel in to defensive
posit ions Within th e Imperi al terri ton es. The
Roman player can try to keep them out, or try
o c hannel their movement. Nei ther IS likely to
wor k very we ll . I t IS likely tha t the Wes tern
Emp ire, wh ich IS less de fensible, wi ll fa ll . but
th Roma n can 105 a lot and still Wi n.
Vi cto ry In the Sla me goes to one player with th e
mosl points at the end . There are di fferent
wavs at ge lling points : the Roma n gets hiS for
saving pa rt s 0 1 the empire or re tri eving them:
Ihe two Germans get points for possessin g
terr il ory at the end, or for loo ting Roman cities:
the Huns get pOints for killi ng Germ ans and
R ma ns, a fac t tha t makes it difficult lo r
anyOne to like them. or for lootill g. The Huns
are fast movin g. the Germans ar slow moving .
Tr avel by sea is possible for any excep t the

Huns, but such tra ve l IS very dangerous. The

I ules lor sea travel are somewhat ambiguou s
anyway Th e Ro rnans are allowed to raise Hu n
or German troOps IIl stead 01 nallve ones, but
these are unreliable However, Iha game
does n't give the Roman much reason to do
thiS since na trve troops are unrealistical ly
always available. A ll players add new counters
in an sw er to events on Ihe board Meanwhi le,
there is considerable room for all players to
engage In freew heeling diplomacy o f any type.
Hie game proceeds by the players taki ng turns
movin g. atlacking and moving agaill. The
ba ties, Ihe deSigner IIl forms us, represent all
kinds 0 1 co mpetiti on III reality , not Just m ilita ry
ac tivity .

06. World War I -

Wes t ern Front

064 Flying Circus 11972, S PI S& T # 31, $4 00

fm the Issue) . by James F. DUllfllgan , graphiCS
by Redmond A Simonsen, dea ls wi th the
hall il:ls 01 W orld W ar I airc raft In a very
appealing w ay Til e mapsheet, appropri ately,
Ilas few features. but It show s a sect ion o f the
front wit h trenc h lilles and art illery positions
located. These ar e so the planes can try to
carry out reconna issance and SLrafing m issions. There are th ree kinds of missions
pOSSible - th e oth er one IS Simp ly fighter to
ligtl ler combaL Al thoug h th' title re fers or
seems to refer to larger numbers of aircra ft , il
IS only possible 10 have three planes on each
Side 0 I Ihe board In one scenano H wever ,
each Side can pic k from numerQl;S types o f
alrcra ll Th Germa ns have five Inds of fighter
an d one type o f reconnaissance piane, and the
A llies I1ave, fo r tl)e British, I ive lighter and two
reconn aissance types. and tor the FrenCh , SI X
llgilter and one reco nnaissance types. All 01
these are no ti ceably diffe re nt in per tormance
cha rac tells tlcs, a di ff erence tha L is especially
no tab le for airc raft of dll ferent yea rs. The ru les
co ntai n a m uili tud e of scenarios. incl Uding
some that are open end d A few are faulty as
games. On e A llied reconnaissa nce miSSion
IUffled out to be an au toma ti c vic ory for the
Allied player. But m ost are rue test s. The
beginner wi ll wa nt to start w lt il single plane
combats. bu t these soon Will turn in to sta lema tes With two e penence flyers - It IS too
eas y LO iN Ol d mis takes w ilen there IS on ly one
plane to worry about . The rnul iplane cont es ts,
low eve r, wi ll usually produ ce a winner and a
loser . The mechanics of the game ta ke
accoun t at several vanables: speed. alhtude.
diVing and climb!llg abifity, ammunition supply
and damage suf fered . Admitted ly. It contains
com promises, but II IS slill realiStic, Simple to
operat e, and c halleng ing at th e same time - a
ra re combination

09. World War II - Europe to 1940

091 France 7940 German Bliczkrieg in (he
Wesf 11972, A H. $9 .00), by James F. Du nn igan. g raph iCS by Redmond A . Simonsen . dea ls
w ith par t o f the German Allied sir ugg le of
1940 Th,~ ti me Involved IS only May 10 to May
29, and the map and order of bailie leave out
the greater pan of the Netherlands , S!Ilce each
tu rn IS Lwo days , th e game las ts 10 turns, and
at the end, POUl ts are cou n ted up to determ ine
th e vi c lo r The CO llfllers represen t corps fo r
In fantry blJ division s for all mechanized un its.
The laller have the speCial abili ty to move In a
second Movemen l Phase , The game uses
alrforces. hat are physically present on the
boa rd . The hls tol'lcal game IS supplemenled by
var IOU S I) YPo Lh et ica l orders of bailie, most o f
them Improving th Allied preparations for the
war . ThiS game IS the second ve rSion of a

15
game pUblished If! SEt T # 27. and owners of
Ihe earlier game w ill wan t to know how the AH
v~) rS l on is dIfferen t . Not much, In the b asic
ame, but many li ll ie thi ngs are di ffere nt. The
map se .ms !O be the same. bu t IS now
mounted and printed in several gorg eou s
colors There are tew c hanges in the rules.
Several pa ragraphs are added or rew n llen to
make things clea rer. like the re treat afler
comba t. Th e victory poin t sys tem is allered to
req Uire Ih coun tlllg of co mbal PO Ill \S des
Iroyed rather Ihan sim ply units destroyed. It is
stili possibte fo r the Fre nch to win the hiS10rica i
game an d sull lrnpOSSlble for t he French to Win
he W,3 1 playing the hisi oftcal game . A new
optiona l vict ory ondllion ca lled " player VICtory" milkes 1\ even more pOSSible for th e
Fr nch to win . There is also a new op tional rul e
to allow the evac uallon 01 Allied units by sea
and a comple te play by mail system , made
easier by the fac t that eac ll of Ihe hexes on the
board IS separa tely numbered . Fi na ll y, the
game Incl u des a new hislOfical ve rsion w i th
ac tual Il istorical beg lnnlflg POSitions p,c tu red
on the map and w ith a few extra rules th at
reqUire the French to ac t stup idly, so lhe
German s Can attack throug h the Arden nes and
surround them as In th e origi nal campa ign. In
shor t. then, lhe new version offers many new
lhlfl gs bu t, since the baSIC game is sti ll The
sam e, ow ners of the old vers ion w ill have to
calculate their resources ca refull y .

Therefore, they are not rated . A nd Ihen, olher

thmgs are im p ortant. Peace ga mes are lor
va ned numbers o f pl ayers, in contrast to
wargames w hich are predomi nantl y, tho ugh
no t exclusively. for two players.

C Complex it y is rated on the same 10 pOint

sca le u sed fo r wargames, w ~l i c h shows that
most of tl'le peace games are simpler, some
muc h SImpler, lhan mos t of the w argames.

R Clamy an d Comp leteness o f the Rule s.

Beca use most o f th ese games are simpler than
wa rgames, most o f their ru les are clearer and
more com pl ete . Bu t there is no thing especially
Virt UOUS about that.

N Num ber of players. i.e. according to the

rules Some num bers do not make ve ry good
ga m es.
subjec t tha IS re fl ec ted In th e game . A ga me
may be very abs trac t in Its de tai ls and ye t have
much va lue as a general In terpre tation o f its
su bject .

DA Deta iled Acc uracy is the o ther si de of the

coin . How m uc h do the opera lions 01 the game
resemble the day to day operati on s o f rea l
people In the wor ld t
L Luck factor IS rat ed on a 0-10 scale wllh
each POII11 repre sen tin g 10 pe rce ntage points.
= no luck IIwolved; 10 = 100% luc

EXPLANATION OF TH.E
" PEACE " GAMES CHART

h ours and
assumes play ers w ho have some prev ious
acquain ta nce with the game .

Th iS cha rt IS obV iously based on the warga me

char t, wh ic h preceded It In time . BlIt th ere are
dl l fe re nces due to the dit terem qualities of the
peace games reViewed here. For o ne thi ng,
they are all commerC ial games and there is no
Wid va ri ety In the qua il y of the co mponents.

Recommendalions: Several 11'pes 01 people

are hereb y inv med f or the purpose o f
rece iVing recommendatio ns on these games.
Any resemblance between these extremes an d
rea l people IS unlikely . Recomme nda ti ons are
gi ven o n a grade sca le. A = excellent ,

01 .

GA

DA

2-4

'2-4

.8

023. LJAWMFI

4
3

B+
A

1:

024. Conf rontation

NA

025. The Cilles Game

026. Blacks and Whites

4
3-9

= poor,

NA = not

G The Ga mer IS slill In l eres ted m the good

game, Ii e chess, wi th liS olJ l com e de termined
pr imarily by ski ll , w ith its rules clea r. sim ple and
una mbiguou s and Wit h ItS endmg de fini te, i.e .
With a Wlnnel ancJ a loser

WG The Wargamer IS a broad wa rgamer who

li kes almos t all A H and SP I games, but w ho is
suspiCIOUS of any o l her gaming ac ti vity.
ever heless, I w ill recommend a lew of these
peace games to hi m.

T The T acher wa nt s a game tha i makes a

socia ll y va luable pOln1. He is no as much
in te res ted In the gtlm lng aspect 01 the game as
111 th e s,m ulatlng aspec t , bu t he doesn't want
to bore his studen ts or himself either

PT

" PEACE" GAME

PUBLISHERS AND ABBREVIATIONS
AH The A.va lon HIli Company, 4517 Harfo rd
Road . Ba ltimore, Maryland 2 12 14

CCR Crea tive Communlca llon and Resea rch.

460 35th Avenue . San Fra nCISCo. Ca liforn ia
9412 1.

DDI DynamiC De ign Indus tries, 1433 NOrlh

Cenrra l Park. A naheim, Ca lil ornia 92802 .
FGI Fam il y Games Inc .. ava ilable from Urba n
Systems, see below .
GR Games

Resear ch . Inc., 48 W areham

Street. Bos to n, Massachuse tts 02 118.

Ha Harwe ll ASSOCiates. Inc . Box 95, Conven l

S la ti o n. New Jersey 0796 1

HP Hor POllOI, 1'150 Broadway , New Yo rk.

N . Y 10001 . Bu t The Nex( Presrden l IS available
fro m SP I lor $9.00

Recommendation To:
G
WG
T

Publ

Price

Si

11 .95

B
B

C.

A
B

Ha

1200

3.00

8
D

B
B

SPI
SPI

o
o

~c

t5

1-3

1.00
4.95
7.00
7.00

2+

o
C

2-4

B+

9'.

DOl

001

eCR

3.96

DDI

8.00

CCR
ODI
DOl

OTHER SOCIAL CONFLICT

031 . S6cj e t y T o d a Y l
032. Drug Attack

A
A

'l.s,
3-5

WAR OF THE SEXES

041. Trye"Lib Game

042. Woman an d Man

05.

US. POLITICS

051.

W~.

ChE!<lt, Steal

052. Convention

053. The

NeJCt President

054. Mr. President

05$.

Who Can. Beat lIJixon?

06.

THE STOCK MARKET

2
1-3

B
8

2.:3

8.00,

6
4

2-3
1
2
2-3

C
B
B
C

5.00

A
B

10.00
895
7.00,

3-4

B+

AH

10.00

B
C

3-4

3M

895

FGI

A
A

NA

NA

2-6

A
A

2-6

2-7

c+

D+

/};

2~

B- '

A
B

2-4

B
8-

s-

~-8 ,

4
8,

061. The Stock. Market Game,

1+

062. Stocks and 80nds

2-8

8-

4
6

DB.

Irl

02. URBAN PLANNING AND CONFLICT

021. NewTown
4
A
022. Chicago. Chicago
3
8+

04.

BIOLOGICAL CONFLICT

011 . Extinction

03.

C = fair .

GA General Acc uracy refers to the fee l of the

PT PlaYing Time tS measured

Name

B = gOOd .
apphcable

8
B

CRIMINAL CONFLICT

08i , The GodfatheTGame

.
~. '

16

Psv Psychology Today Games, Del Mar, Cali

lo rnla 92014 ,
SPI Simula ti o ns Publi cation s, Inc., 44 East
23rd Str8e t, New Yo rk, New York 100 10,

Si Sinauer ASSo cla t l~s , 20 Secon d Stree t.

Stamford, Connect.lcut 06903.

3M 3M Co mpany, S r Paul, MmneS01a , These

ga mes 8re widely r. vallable over til e coun te r In
drug stores, toy stores, etc. I doub t th at th ey
cfl n be ordered by ma il from 3M w ilh any ease ,

USI Urban Sys tem ::; Inc " 1033 M assachusells

Ave nue, Cambridge, M assachuse tls 021 38.
"PEACE" GAME REVIEW
01 . Biological Conflict
01 1 EXlinelion 11970, 51, $11,951 , by Stephen
Hubbell , graphiCS by Ed Fo x, rs a Simu la tion o f
an Imaginary Island (Darwinia ), on w hic h tw o
to four species o f an ima ls fig h t o r surViva l
agaill st erich o ther , cll ma llc d lHlcult les , an d
man made colog lca l d isasters, Eac h player
direc ts the s tra egy a l o ne species (the book at
lf1structlon5 con alns an apology
or th
necessity 0 1 his and OTher unrea li slic co m prom isesl Vi ctory is th e extinct ion 01 all rivals,
Each specie s IS desc rr bed by six gene car ds
which define 1I1e species' abrlities to repro
du e, prey on otllel Spet; le s, deien d agains t
other speCies, move around , and reS ist en vl
r onmen t~ 1 c hanges, Th e genes are drawn al
random and may be traded in for o l her genes
In the cO urse o f play. Darwl llIa IS d iVided In to
hexagrJn sha ped spaces Will) SIX d iller8 n l kinds
of terra in , Tile in di v idua ls 01 l ile species are
repr esented by tile dOls on colo red dice. A die
With a one up rp.presenlS one In diVidua l, with a
tw o up w o indi viduals, etc , Spaces w ith frve
or six IndiVidua ls are co nSidered to be over
crowd ed and the mdlviduals are tlle re fore
vulnerable 10 rap id des truClion AClions In Ihe
game t<lk e place accor ding to tile dic tates o f
a sprnner, w hich pr OVides for severa l kin ds of
opt iona l and req uired moves, Reproduc tion ,
when il comes up, is req uired, a fact thaI IS
responSible tor much of the tenS ion In a game
If a species s tart s 10 overpopula e its areas.
Among tile o p tional ac ti ons arE! c hangin g
loc<r tlons, attacking ri va l species and c hangin g
genes, EXlincrion IS an excellen com pe[ltlve
game, an d a va lu able teachi ng device , The
action as a game IS rapid when th e player::;
Ilave a ra lional strategy, bu t it ca n ge t bogged
dow n i f none 01 th e players develop sud ) a
str ategy .

02. Urban Planning and Conflict

021 Ne w To wn (1967, 1969, 1970, 197 1, Ha,
$12.00 for family ga me, $16 00 for school
verSion w ith Increased record keepi ng ma ter
lals, $28.00 lor double schoo l versio nl, by Barry
R Lawson , Simu lates the bUild ing 0 1 a ne w
town WI III the pur chase 0 1 land and the
erec tloH 0 1 bui ldings (va rious shaped bl cks o f
wood), The pOSSible bUil d ings are houses,
apanmen t hOU5CS, small re lail sto res , depart
menl stores, sma ll fae ories , large in dustrial
plan ts, schools, a town hall , and a sewage
tr ea tment planl The for m er (priva tely o wn ed
bU lldlngs l are erec ted acco rdlllg 10 the ro ll of
cllce. The publiC bU ildings are erec ted IJY vote
at Ihe town meellng , Il eld eVery o ther lurn.
There are SIX turns and Iherefore three t ow n
mee In gs The players III the normal comoetil ive ve rsion of th e game have two roles, as
promO lers an d as la w n pl an ners, Thev are
rewa lded f r bu rl d i l1~l a w ell planned town bu t

t he w inner is th e one wil h til e mos t ca sh at th e

en d . Coopera tion IS necessary to get tile most
money or all , bu r compe tit ion IS necessary to
b tile Sing le w inner. II is a w ell planned
clrlemrna for the players. Th ere are a few
pr oblems w llh til e game. Too mu ch depends
on he luck of th e ro ll of Ihe dice , Too o ften,
players who si t and do nothing win because
tlley happe n to roll m any dep artment sto res
and Illd ust rra l plants on the dice , w hile players
wh o pl an Intell igelltl y lo se bec ause the y can ' t
get Ihe big paying bUildi ngs, There are two
m lno l bu l an noying physical pro blems: one o f
the fo ur se ts oll ranspa rent plas'ti c sq uares th at
are u sed to mar propert y on Ihe board is
cOlo rless and there fo re nearly invisible w hen
pla ced o n the boa rd ; and the i ig ures on the
play mo ney are so hard 10 rea d lIl at the players
rlave to mem ori ze the co lo r sch eme to use It
w ith an,! fac ility

022, ChlCdgO, Chicago (1970, S PI : S & T #2 1,

$3.00 for he issue) by Ja l1l8s F. Dun nigan,

c ornponen ts by Redmo nd A. S imonsen, is
based on the Ballie of Chicago In 1968. Vic to ry
comes trom iavorable publici ty as regIs tered
orr a poin t Index, The police w in , If they can , by
con tro lli ng the dem onstrators w l thoul break In g too many tl eads T he demons trat ors w in
mo. I qUiCkl y If rhey can pa nic the potr ce In 0
str oo tlng someo ne. The only tro uble thaI I
rlav
o und 50 far is lh ar l he po lice ca nnol
see m to w in However, l hey ca n ca ll in th e
81lona l GUilfd , T he boa rd :s a rough map 01
Ci llcayu w ll h spaces for several pa rks and
neighborhoods and roa ds connec trng them ,
Ell '~ r side C(ln orce a co nfro n tati on (aHack ),
Unlike mos l w arga mes, i is not nec essaril y
aclvan tageous 10 have greater strength In an
atlack . T here are various types 0 1 polrce and
ViJr lOUS types o f dem onstra tors , all Illus trated
on Ihe co un ters w ilh f asc l n alill(~ symbo lism
Demon slra tors me more effect ive as Itle'(
become ma le radical, bu t there is a tenden cy
fo r ihem ro di millish In numbers and to become
tess rad ical it c onfrol1 tallon s are n ot encou rag '
II1g, Police are more e f fect ive il the y are n01
vi len l. IJIII he y tend to deteriora t e, Th. game
las ts twe lve tu rn s, w itll th ree tu rns equa lli ng
aile day
023 Up Against [he Wall, M _ l (1969, Colum ,
bia Oailv Specraror, order from SP I $ 1.001 , by
Ja nles F D unn igan and J erry L, Avorll ,
graphiCS by Barlow Palm interr and Ro n Ra ger,
usually re lerred Sim ply as UAW M F, IS based
on l he bat tle of Columbia Uni vers ity III the
sprrng 0 1 1968, It is (l Simple an d abstract
lepresen taT ion, Tile tw o players 01 teams
re present the rad ica ls an d tile adm rn lstration ,
Th Ir task .5 to a ff ec t ttle min ds of eleven
differen t groups w hich al e represen ted by
track s 011 the ga me boa rd , Each of the
obleCll Ve groups has a co unter o n Its track
w hich show s Ihat group' s state of mrn d at th e
momen l ' pr oad rnln ls rra l lon, pro rad ical or
necl ral, WITh various deg rees of the l irst two.
Each spac on the tracks has a poin t value,
TI10. players rece ive co un te rs wh lcrl rep resent
the ir abili ty \0 In fl uenee people ea ch tu rn, an
bli l l y w hich IS plo tted on a c hart and modifi ed
by assorted chance cards. The In fluence
count ers (RA Ds or LA W s) are deployecl o n any
Irack as they are received , Tile n the players
may attack I he Inll uence o f the o th er side and
at emp t to wipe It out. If the enemy is
w eakened , the min d of the objective group is
a ffe c ted and the ir co umer IS mo ved toward Ihe
VIClDr aloflg trl e track, Th game ends aher
twelve turns and the poin l va lues 01 ea c h Side
n the tracks is added to determ ine the wi nner

The chart of RA Ds an d LAWs g ives the

advan tage 10 lhe radica ls at the beginning and
l he admi nistratio n at the end, but the result
seems even It is again qu ite abstrac - the
players have to Irn iJglne w lla t kinds of action s
t hey are supposed to be perto rming as th ey
place their RA Ds an d LA W s and make their
all ac ks, It can be recommended to any game
player w 10 does no t m ind shou ting the name
o f Ihe game, wh ich is I he w ay th at the players
m ake a pa rti c ular rnove coun t mo re
unrealist ica ll y, ev n the adrninistratron does
ttr is By the wa y, protrfic game deSigner
Dun niga n has been heal d to con fess th at thiS
rs hiS favo rite.

024. Con/rama l/on (1970, CC R, $4,951. by Ginl

Sco t t, g ra pl'lics by I. arry Green, is a very
In forrna l game w hich encourages debate on
current Issues bu t In w hich Ihe c onlpe til lve
ga lTle lemen t IS very w ea k In deed the " rules"
specifically encourage the players to chuck tIl e
\Jame appiHaTus comple tely and IUSI rap , The re
are lou r lea ns or players, one rep resentin g the
studen lS, w hO make demands on any subjec t.
an d Ihree represel ilin g any num ber o f es ta
LJl lshmen grou ps, w ho reaCl 10 these de
ma nds, I til e studen ts don' t like th e reaclio n
hey call l or il con fro m at lon , In lil lS all Sides
ha zard their tokens and the resu lt 01 play ing
specllrc tokens, some o f w hich represent
po lrce ac l io n, IS rea d on a Si mple ma triX, Then
Ihe nex t rQund 5tar s, Ti le Win ner, al ler Ihe
explral io l l o~ ~ ti me li mi t, is Ihe player With the
most to kens, II an yOn e c;:rres,

025. Th e Cicies Game (1 968, 1970,

Psy an d
D Ol, $7,00 1 by Da ve Popo ff, grap hiCS by Gene
Holtan, IS CI simple re prese nT at ion of co n/ronal la n III [he Cit ies , The players or learns are
four I)uslness , govern ment, slum dwelters,
a nd ag il ato rs. They stan ou t unequa ll y and 1l1e
o bjP.ct I'or each IS to acqu ire Ihe largest amoun t
0 1 money by Ihe en d of Ihe game , The
mechanlf:s o f Ihe game are abstract and
Simpte , A roun d starts (luI With the draw of an
Issue O ne troublQ is th at til e Issue has no thing
10 do w illl the game, There oll ow s a peflod of
diSC USSion, If the players w an t to bo ther Wllh
It , b LJ the marn pOin t IS to decide ho\.v 10 VO le.
Each play er has three J)ossible vot es , Eacll has
a pOSSible vote of " 0" , Til e ag itato rs and sl um
d w ellers ea ch have a vo te o f " nO!. " The
Governmen t can vo t "police aCllo n;" the
o ther pOSSible va les are " 1", "2" or "3" Th e
Play ers can cas l only o ne of their votes, w hic h
they do sec ret ly afler ma king wha l ever deals
and <1 rra ngemerrts Ihey can w lt ll their oppponents , The n there are seven pOSSible results
IlorTI Ihe co mblrlalio ns of votes. Some resu lts
help one team, o thers hurt all til e teams w ho
have m orrey , and one resull , if everyo ne VOles
coo pera tive ly, pays off everyone, bu t unequally , A l ter fou r cooperative votes have
IJe91l achieved, the fina l rewards are given and
the game er1cJs . Bu I Ihe game co uld go on
l orever if coopera tion proves impossible On
rhe w h ole, th e game IS too Simple . There are
toO few al erna tives In stra tegy and too lew
vil r i ~ t i ons III resul ts, A provi sion all o w s the
players to make up the ir o w n rules bu t they Will
probably n OI be lem pl ed to save the game ,

026 Blacks-a nd Whiles 11970, Psy and DOl,

57 001 by Da ve Popo ff , graph iCS by Kar l
Nlcho los8n, deals w ll h raCial preju dice an d
segregaTion , It is ver y strongly based all
Monopoly Wl lh a track con taining asso rte d
propert ies reac hed by ro ili ng dice, an d vari ous
cha nce factors introduced by spaces on t~l e
boa rd and by decks of car ds drawn by

17
command oll he boa rd , A lso, a5 1n M onopoloy,
lIle play r5 acqu ire pfOpeny and Ihen can
charge l or others lan ding on their squares, at
a great er ra
II blocks of properties are
secured BU I th is gam~ is Monopolv for a
segrega ed society, The players are ellher
blnc s or wh ll sa nd, i Ihe re IS an odd number,
Ihe m 10'1 ty muS I be white . The w hites can
buy any properly on Ihe boa rd; I~l e blacks
muS1 stay on two o f Ihe Sides L1 nlll some brea k
occurs, Th e whi tes Slart l he game Wilh $1,000,
000 each: th e blacks with $10.000, Th e IWO
types at players draw Irom segregated oppo r
lun lty decks and thel' collecl unequa l sala ries
<,s th ey go around IIle boa rd , The ne l resu ll IS
tha t blac ks ca n' t Wi n rt ihey playas IndiVidua ls.
They mus cOQpera le and Ihen prck on of
their number 10 tly l or the Win, There are a few
good hlngs for the blacks III the game For
example, blacks who go bankrup t go on
weltaro and co llec, from w hi tes, wh ile wh ites
who go hankrup l are OUI of I he; game, Blacks
and Whites IS so mewha t bette r In co ncepl ion
Ihan II IS In exec ullon The re are a few aCl ions
In 111e ga me tha t thr ow Ihe pOint ott, like cards
tha ternpo ranly lur n black , whIte or vrce versa
There is iJ prOVISion lor c hanging rules bUI It IS
50 for mless Ihat II is Irkely to lead to dissenSion .
Bu , II 1\ IS used at all by peop le who are
plaYing Ie game In earnes l, II 15 li kely 10 be
l lsed, con trary to Ihe deSigner's appa ren t
In ten tiOn, to make" more dlff lc ul tor the
blac's to w in rather Iha n easier .

03. Other Social Conflict

03 1, Soclely Today 11971,

Psy and

DDI,

$8.0OJ by Jolln Wexo, grapll ics by Kar l

Nlc holosen arl(J Roberl Burn s, IS nol m uch o f a
Simulation bUI dea ls w rl h li fe in Am enca loday
Tile plaYing boar d IS a si ngle track gOi ng Irom
he stall to the" Bes t 0 1 All Possible W orlds."
The w inner IS the Ilrst 10 reach Ihe end Bu t
fi rst he goes back an d forth along the track
rYlng 10 amass prestige pOint s by bein g lucy,
by answerr ng queslions (300 Simp le true -false
ques ti ons are comalned In Ihe book lel). by
arguing cases belore one 0 1 the ot h r players
as Iwi ge A lew slra legles are possible, but
f110st ly th e game IS ted iously con fin ed to rolling
dice, draWing ca rds and fo llowmg Instruct ions
Then, wh en a SUItable number o f pres lige
pOin ts have been acq Uired, and you draw near
to !t,e goal, you mrgh I eaSil y stu mble on to a
squa re which reads, " Doomsday I Nuclear War
- no winners Game over for all players," So
!he game has a pOin t although It makes the
pOint Wit h boredom

032 , Drug A ({ack (1972, 0 0 1, $800) by Tec hnlcon Med ica l Iniormallon Sys tems, graphiCS
by Robel l Bu ns, dea ls WI tt'l a cornmun ily fi ght
Clgain SI drug abuse , Unlortunately, the game is
(l pure waste 01 lime and elt or!. There are thr ee
positions he mayor , \ll e heal th offi cers, and
na rco ti cs agents, bu t the mayor is sort of a
neulml pl ayer and th e compe tit ion, suct"! as II
I ,I Sbetween Ihe oth er two, The hea ll h of fi cer
IrlBS to go QU i and bring In five users in the
commLlnl y before tile agent can bfl ng 111 live
pu shers. Bu t 'ilnce the pushers and users are
moving slowly and brain lessly while the players
are moving qUickly and pu rposefu lly, COnnec l Ing With the pIece deSired IS easy . Then the
play r has to answer a quest ion aboul drugs in
or der to make tile arres t or bring In the user,
However, any seven -yeaf old cou ld lea rn
er lougll In three minu tes to answer all ques
\Io ns Wi th out any chance o f missrng one, so
Ihat 15 no pr oblem either So the game o ffers
aboul as flluc ll cl'la llenge and excllement as
plaYing Old Maid w ith all the cards Visible,

04. The Wa r of the Sexes

04 1, The Lib Game ( 1971 , CC R, $3,95) by Gin l
SCO\! , graph iCS by LallY Green, IS more of an
opporlu ni Iy for role play ing and diSCUSSion
II,an a ga[11e . There are four players or teams.
E:ach lakes a turn rep resentrng a group
debating Ih ' woman quest ion , Tilere are
" IIPPlty women ," " ma le chauv lfll$ IS," "con
serva live ch Icks ," and " libera l ma les" Each
game hD s tOU I rounds and so each pl ayer or
learn plavs each part once, Th e game element
conSists 0 a vote cas t by each team each
round giving pOints to the other teams, The
team w it h the mos t poinl S at the en d Wins The
9ilm8 ot COllrse depends on a 101 tha t IS ou tSide
115'lf No group would be able to play i t for its
IntereS I as a game Instead It dema nds a great
Interest In he current reat deba l e on Ihe pa rt of
liS pa f tlcipants ,
042 , Woman and Man 1197 1, Psy Qnd DOl ,
$8.001 by John WexD anel Carol Tavris,
graphics by Torn LeWIS and Howa rd Saunders,
IS a game in wh ich th e players are men or
WOl1len (th e actual sex of th e plavers, of
co urse , does not ma tter) w ilo are Irying to
make their ways in hfe , To wrn th o game they
have 10 proceed along a Hack con taining 76
squilres to the end and al I he same ti me
accumu la te 100 Or more POIfl IS The board is
lorgely Slacked agams t Ihe wornen Space 23,
l or examp le, reads "Woman, Back 1, Ma n.
A head 7 " Some spaces enable Ihe players to
draw from der.ks 0 1 ca rds, which are also
we ig hted against the women It is possible,
wil en a confronta ti on occu rs, 10 switch Ihe
S 1r U IJ~1I e to Ihe rea lm 01 superior knowledge ,
where a woman With equal know ledge Ilas an
equ al c ha nce. Bu l In a game for two playe rs
the woman wou ld have li tt le chance W ith
more players more strategy en ters in . The
game encourages players to anack each other
IWl th Blocking ca rds!. ThiS allows Ihe advan
tag d men to gel In to compet itive str uggles
wh ile the women, perha ps, ca tch up With
hem Or , two or thfee wome n ca n use a tac ti c
t~la t IS on ly all owed 10 women team ing up,
wh ich means I hat IWO women can win as a
ea rn more easil y than either co uld sepa ra18ly.
Any krn d o f barga Jlllng IS allowed wh ich also
makes pOSSible a w in by if disadvantaged
person wh o bargains Skillfu ll y, Th e gam e
makes Its pOint w l\h Wit . II depends too much
on pu re luck fo r Its reso lullon, howeve r, and
Ihc relore is fnore of OJ ocia l game tha n a
co mpe titive challenge.
'

os. U .S.

Politics

051 Lie, Cheal and Slealt 1972, 001 $8JX)) by

Don I.tVllson, graphics by Roben Bums, is a
hgh l game whic l1 supposedly re fiecis tile
atmosphere 01 Amencan POlit iCS , II has a
stjua re, cont inuous track board, arou nd w hich
plover s mOve by thr ow of tw o dice , There ilre
hree InSide tra c ks on Wh ICI'1 only one die IS
thrown The players are represented by var ico lored scre ws, which is approprrate sym
hol ism but tempo rary sIn ce the pain t comes
ofl ,A, player w ins by accurnulating 400 or 500
voles depen din g on the number of players, an d
vo tes come prr ma rrly by bUYing them, al $1,000
per VOle, alth oug h they also ca n be won rom
o ther players or I rom Ibe board , Some spaces
on Ihe board allow ca rds to be drawn fro m
vanous dec s, and these ca rd s are tile basis for
Ihe slralegy of Ihe game , One deck contains
ca rds til at re qu ire payments Irom th e pl ayers
or gra nt payments to the player Til lS card 15
re ad and acted on sec retly bu t ke p t in view
until the pla yer has reache d Slart. But if other

pliiyers rcar:; ~l a Press Box squa re tt1ey Ga n

c hallen(J the playe r In see rI he's been hones I
imrl ('lrce him to make l es tlt utlon II he hasn't
tn il gilr ne w ll h five 01 SIX players, almoS I all
draws from th is deck Wi ll be cha llenged be t ore
Ih ' pl ayer has leaclled sale ty Other ca rds
dllow va ri Ous killds 01 att acks 10 be made on
Oilier players, so much 01 the strategy CCH1SISIS
III JUd[J 1I1g wh o's the mosl dangerous oppo nenl at anyone lime The qame is fun bU I tile
elemenl 01 skill 1/1 II IS qUite low .

Ot>2 , Convention 11960, GR, $5001 by Homer

Babbldge, deals w rth an Imaginary cam paign
101 a pa rt V's nomlflatlofl 10 the preSidency Il lS
il Monopoly like tracl< game and the refore the
echanlCS arE; very abslra t, blJt Ihere are
some Improvements over he Monopoly lorI a t. At the beginn ing of the game, all
movemel11 IS bV hance, iJul even tua ll y the
p laye r ~, II they have no t been too unlucky, can
~c C LJm lJ l ate Pr ogress Cards and
Str ategy
Ca rds w hlcb all ow I hem to move stra tegica lly
Th er are three kin ds 01 votes, Fir st there arc
Ihose trom eleven primary sta tes wh ich are
loea led on I he board and are pic ked up
pc rman en ll y by the Irrst player wllo lands on
Iller II , Second are caucuses, the vo tes ot SIX
Irlrge sta tes and on e conl bfrla tlon of states.
These arf! sec ured lemporaroly by ent flng an
InSide track 0 1 the boa rd and landing on the
I lg t sq uare, bul they are only good Llflt il
someone else lands on the winn ing SQua fe anel
takes Illem away The resl of the votes come
fr om unco ll1mllied delegal8s . They f presen l
all Ihn stol es I hal are nO I among tile prim ary
anel ca uc us stal es , an d Ihey il re picked up rn
va nuus ways around the boa rd , Ballo ts are
hetd when a play t lands Oil trl e ba llot square
or pla!, s a ballot card, wh lc ll w ill ha ppen seven
to eleven times dUring a game , Wh en one
player has a malonty on a ba llol thai ta ll ies at
leas t 700 VO les, he wi ns the game , Players wbo
are aherld get votes from o lhers ("bandwagon
sen ll n1en "l, players who have accumulated
somo con roiling cards can Inc rease thelf
advantaye by rloldlng a suc 'ess ful demon s ra llc}n, players WllO are desperate ca n viS it
Ill e smoke IllIed room and ellher get vo tes, gel
Ignored, or gO I Out o f the game 111 a hurry .
COrlVen lion IS lun and reHecl s at least a lew of
tIle elements 0 1wlflfl lng a nomlnal ioo. BUI II is
detrnl lely desl ned more tor l un th an lo r
Sl nlu la1l0n
OS3 The Nexl PreSident 1197 1. HP , $10,00 or
rder fronl SP I, $9,00) by Terence M Holland,
Philip Orba nes and J ames F Dunn igan , deals
Wit h Ihe ac tual pres Iden tial campaign of 1972
or Wl1h varinus anac ron.s tlC posslblli llHS, There
eHe two pa r ts, d nominati on game, to r up to
four players, to deCide trle cand idate at one or
oiller party, and an elec ti on game, l Or two
r lftye rs or tw o rra rln erships, wh ich covers the
ca rnpal gn alter lhe convo ntl[) fl S Or, players
CTlily comb ine the tw o pa ri s l or a comp lete
c3mpalgn 'lea l T he elec tion game may be
pla yed With rea l ca ndld<3t es There are 8
Oem oc ra ls , 6 Republicans and one mave flck
(John Lindsay) ava ilable, Or, historical ca n
d,da tes may be pu llnt o Ihe 1972 situa tion , The
Dem oc rats ha ve 8 posslblll1leS, Includ ing An
drew Jackson, FOR an d Woodrow W ilson,
wh il e Ihe Republicans have 7 possibllilies ,
Incl ud ing Eisentlower, Ab raham Ll llco ln, and
W lillanl Howard T<,l It TI,r
sce narios o ffer
rules l or si tualion s In wh ich there wou ld be a
diVided De mocr il ti C po r1 y, <3 diVided Repu b
11(; an pa rt y, o r a campa ign w it h a si ro ng th ird
par 'I , The strategy th aI IS simulaled IS all
rnoc:h~fl l cill. I fl the nominat ion game, the

18
players can spend money In Ih pnmaries or
"spend" oilices on Ihe cOllven lion fl oo r In
order to ge l slates In The elec ti on game the
players allocale funds, Ihe campa igning e ff orts
of Ihe pres lden lta l and the vice-presidential
cilncllda les, the ef forts o f Ihe campaign team,
an d of local piUty orgalllzCl llons. This all ocation
IS done sec relly in Ihe several reg ions for a six
lurn ca mpaign and Ihen the resu lts are
ca lcula ted . The res ult IS rea liStiC but one -sided.
Th e only co ncel n lor issues is what IS bui lt InlO
lil" Ind iv idual slates ' reac tions to th e can didates. How ever, the game has enough
poli llcil l int res l w ithout worrying about
Issues . The on ly objection one rTligh t have is
tha t the calclii altons to determ ine the w inner
are somew al tedious unless someone is
vitilily inter sted In the detail S of preslden lial
elec Ions Bul then, everyone shou ld be.
054 . Mr. Presidel1l 11967, 3M, $8.951 , by
A non ymous , 15 a SImu lati on o f a presiden ti al
el ectron uSin g Imaginary se ts o f pOl en lial
ca ndi dates . The ga me prOVi des 13 prospects
lrom each party and eacrl player o r team pIcks
a prCSldenltal and a vice-p residential ca ndidate
irom liS stack . Each candidate IS eva lua ted on
live cnteria, Includ ing cam paign abihty, press
an d fmancial support Each can didate is also
Identified w it h IWO to four Issues. There IS a
prOVISion for nomina l Io n but 11 IS sketchy and
Ihe main pari of tile game is Ihe contest
between the two par ties . The prov iSions for
mos t of th ca mpai gn are abs tr ac i and depend
g lea tl y on lu ck Th e players draw ba llot ca rds
fr om a deck, dlff eren l numbels accordtng 10
ca ll 1pa lgn abili ty , and ro ll th e dice to see
exac tly w hich ones can be played . A great dea l
of st rat (!gy IS Involved tI1 pic kmy fro m a deck 0 1
event s cards . There are two ways tha t th e
vo tes can b ounted at the end : in the norma l
way to deterrnlne the w inner 01 the mos t
electoral votes, or by Simply coun ltng popular
va t s, Wil ich maybe is the way il should be.
The advanced game allows much mo re In the
way of stra egy' treer chOice 01 ca ndidates, the
pOSSi bility of spend ing money on advertising,
and co nsequen tly the pOSSibility of raising
money to spend, and the pOSSibility of
cha lleng ing opponents to a tele vi sio n debate.
Or, players may decide 10 play tw O games in a
row Wi th 1~l e w inner of Ihe firSt ga me Irytn g to
Will a seco nd te rm 01 o f I ice Wit h all th e
adva ntages 0 1 Ihe Incumb nl. The game is
re al l~ tt c as lar as re flecttng tile mechaniCS o f
campa ignin g and i t o ffers a Wid vanety of
possiblhtles but Its use 01 Imag inary poltltca ns
rna es I less IImely than o ther preSiden ti al
elec tion games.
055 . Who Can Bea r Nixon? 1197 1, DO l, $7001,
by Robert Myers, grapil lcs by Robert Bu rns, IS,
like The Nexr Presidenl , based on th is year's
el6ct lorl , but w ilh sornew l13t less SO pl1istlcatio n It IS a con ltnuous lrack game like
Monopolv . Th e player ca n buy the states'
vot es II Ihey land on Ihem by the ro li of dice .
The cos t is In terms of nloney and media
point s. The players also pick up media ca rd s
ilild even ts ca rds as tiley land on squares on
l he trac , A player has to pa y if he lands o n
anot ltm playe r's state. PickIng up ca rds and
travelli ng arou nd the boar d gives one more
media points and mOlley, il one IS lu cky . Fr om
ti me to lime a primary ca rd is drawn from the
media deck and tw o of Nixon's opponents are
Obliged to duel 10 tile dea tll of one 0 1 the m.
Only Nixon is guaran leed to survive until th e
end 01 the game. 111 all 01 the ca rds and on tile
bo ar d, there are speCia l reward s an d penal ti es

or Nixon, but all hrs Democra llc opponents

a,e exac tly equal, except tha i each man has a
pnor cla im to hiS own horne state, alt hough he
st ill has to pay tor II. The Ilrst player 10 gel 270
p.lec toral vo tes is the winner. The game is
mostly luck, espeCially for Ihe cha llengers. The
on ly re al strategic chO ices Involved are In the
sma ll amoun I of all the board bargatnin g trlat
IS appr opria te.

06. The Stock Market

06 1 Th e 510ck M arkel Game (1970, AH ,
$10.001 by Th omas N Shaw, graph ics by
Shaw and Jean Baer, IS undoubtedly the best
of several stock marke! games I have seen .
Indeed It IS the only one which depen ds on
m llc h beSides luck. Instead of trading In
diffelen named stoCkS, the players dea l in
hree general ca lego lies 01 stocks and also in
bon ds and warrants. Players generally are fme
to buy wh al they ca n afford and sell what they
c hoose 10 , w nhou I w ailing for some c hance
lactar . There are twe lve tu rn s to each game
and the w tn ner IS the player With the most
money al the end . A ll the players publicly
declare the ir Int ention to bu y or sell In th e
val iOllS Inds 0 1 sec ufl tles by plaCing chips on
a boa rd All declara ti ons are fmal w hen a tIIner
runs out. Tl1en a ca rd IS draw n to show [he
genera l tendency of the market and the
c hange in pnces IS figured fr om a co mbinat ion
01 lhe general ten dency and the ac tual
fa ding that the playe ls are comm itted to. So it
IS pOSS ible \0 Influence prtces by stra tegic
deCISions to bu y o r sell . Aft er new prtces are
arrived at lhe pl ayers ca n buy or sell , as
previously Indica ted , al the new pri ces . This is
Game I, wh lcll is only Intr oductory . Fur the r
rules o fl er many mo re cha nces at strat egy.
hey all ow con version of preferred stock or
bonds Into bl ue chip stOck , the use of wa rrants
to buy specula live stock aT a diSCOunt , buying
on margin , and selhng shorl. Th ere is a soli lai re
versio n which is nOl as bad as mos t soli tai re
versions but the mOS t cha llenging par i IS to
playa game 01 1929 with the tren ds secretl y
arrallged to correspond to history. This,
because of the secrecy IS a game th ai can be
played only once , but paler versions 01 1929
ca n be played by ro lling th e trends on a trend
table.
062 . 510cks and Bonds (1964, 3M, $8.951 by
A nonymolls, is a Simpler game than The
5lOCk Market Game above, It IS a bUying and
seil ing game in wh ich ihe players tra de in
fl ti ti ously named SIOC s With various speculaItve or non specula ttve cllarac teristlcs. New
pflces fo r each of the ten rounds are de term ined solely by chance w ith a card drawn to
Ind icate tile general trend and dice thrown to
show the pa rti cu lar varia ti on. The winner is the
plaY81 with th e most m oney a t the end, bu t
unli ke Ih o o th er game, profi t here ca n come
fro m di Viden ds (1% 10 7% per tur n) as we ll as
Irom riSing va lue. The only o th er possibility
Included IS Iha t 0 1 buytng on marg in .

OS. Criminal Conflict

08 1. Th e Godfather Game (1971, 1972, FGI,
$10.00 standard, $15,00 deluxe verslonsl by
DaVid Porter, graphiCS by Kelsey Murphy,
deals w ith orga ni zed cri me on Manhattan
Isla nd . Til choice o f locale, however, does not
seem to be very Slgn lhcan t sll1ce the aciual
c hara cte ristics of New York do not seem to
enter tile game. Th e boar d is divided in to
nelgl'lborh oods an d th e oblec t IS to cont rol
rack ets in th ose neig hborhoods . Th ele are
eigh l neighborhoo ds and !tve possib le rac kets
- bookmaking, extorti on , bootleggi ng, loan

sha rk mg and hllack ing . These are clean gangsters - no narcoti cs and no prost ilu tion. A
lil lie murder IS all rt ght w llhin limits, bu t players
can only elt mlnate their opponents' men on
Ihe boar d, not the ir opponent s themselves.
Each racket in each neighborhood has a cas h
valu e. As a bookkeepin g deVice, each ne igh borllood call support only olle o f the raCkets.
A t th e en d 01 t he game, when all neighborhoods arB In th e can Irol o f one or olher 01 the
players, the game ends. the cash va lues are
realized, an a Ihe riches t ga ngs ter 15 Ihe winner
and declared Godfather. Meanwhile, The play
Involves th e plaCing of men In lhe neighborMods. rh ra re 20 to 63 spaces In ea ch one.
In or der 10 dom inate, ovel hall the spaces mus t
be occ uple(J or surrounded. Su rrounding one's
opponenls' men ge ts rtd o f them This is much
like the ancient J apa nese game, Go, except
that three men can be placed on the same rUin
so a sa fe position in Go IS not sale here. Each
move begins by th e display o f a card from the
playtng deck . Cards gi ve money, men or
oPPorlu nites to eliminate opponen lS' men w ith
It ngerman ca rd s Other cards may also cos t
money or men. Men placed otherWi se mus t be
purchased by type 0 1 racke l, with the men for
the hig h POIn t rackets cos ting more than the
men for low POlf'll rack ers. The game IS a ense
one, wonhy 0 1 iTS name. The tactics o f the
neigh borhood bat tles are rather abstract , but
Ihe game as a whol e IS lalrly rea listiC but
li ml ed ,

o
Book II
S&T nr's 7-12
Book II shows Ch ris W agner' s 5&T eSlobllsh1ll g ItS pr em inence In th e Ilei d In
garrtlllg magaztnes . Lik e Ihe Curl en l 5&T,
nr's 7-12 include a qreat deal 01 Il ls!O fl ca l
ma tert al. But the Ihl"us t o f Ihe magazine IS
service 10 the wargamtng hobby Among
Ihe histoflca l arti c les are Joh n MICha lsk i's
accounl S of th e Brr ttany Campaign III 1944,
and AI No fi' s analYSIS 01 the Bat tle 01
Uisa n, one 0 1 Russra 's naval defeats In the
Rus so- J apa nese war . Sco t t Be rsch lg's
work on the Stallll giad II projec t provides
tile Inl Oima tt on lor a se t 01 cOLIn ers and a
mil p for a 9rea tly expanded vers ion of .AH 's
Sta lingrad . Hie bulk of Book 11 '5 47 allic les
alB devoted to gaming From J ohn Michal s 1'5 humorous game of til e Sinai Cam
palgn 10 Hen rI' BodenSledl' s more selious
se l 01 comp fe te I ules for a ml r) latures game
II led "Slogr: Df Bodenb urg." Omar De WIII ,
Ava lon HIll's rul es expert, wr ites "TIps lor
Players" and " TIps for Game Ma ers." Jim
Dunniga n disc usses tile German Fleet III hiS
Jut land game, and Rod W alker conttnues
hiS Diplomacy senes Book II IS 96 pages
long, bOlt, d In o ne volume With a glossy
cover and comp lete Ta ble 01 Contents by
au hor and Itle Book II IS ava ilable fro m
SI nu latlons Pub licatio ns to r $6,00

19

NEW!

Moscow
Campaign

I n Sep tember, 1941, Army Group Center

lastl ed ou t for M osco w, th e ca pll al ot the
Sovie Union and hub o f the ra il ne two r
for all of Central Russia , Th ensuing
ca mpaign was one of the most despera te
struggles 01 W o rld War Two. As Ihe
Germans massacred RUSSian forma ti ons in
October, th e Soviets cont inued to pour
fres h troops Into th e M oscow Front,
Including female d itc h- diggers fronl the
cap it al and reserves drawn from Eas tern
Siberia. By November, Ihe NaZI armies
were sta lled - oul 01 momen tum and OUI
of supply. In December, Sta li n lau nche d a
W ln ler of(enS lve to push Ihe exh aus ted
German armies but o f RUSSia and end th e
wa r. Army Group Center wa s or dered by
Hiller to " hold at all costs" and resisted
bitter ly , BUI the Wehrmach t su ffe red ils
first del ea t and na r rawly avoided co llapse
as It reeled away fr om Moscow . The
Moscow Campaign sim ula!es the ebb an d
fl ow 01 the Ea stern Fron l dUri ng th iS
massi ve struggle. It IS based on ex tensive
research and prov ides a detailed "feel "
lor Eas t Fron t con dl1l0ns.
Orrgma ll y 1~1e S PI sta ir se t out to revIse
Bailie o f M osco w, a previous S & T game

(5&T 24l. But th e reVISions becam e so

ex tensive Ihat in stead . an ent ire ly new
game was produ ced w ith far more detai l
and a len lion to historical accuracy. The
Iw o-c olor mapshee t for Th e M oscow
Campaign focuses o n the ba tt lefront o f
A rnly Group Cen ler Irom ItS Jumpmg-o ff
point west o f Smolensk to itS objec tive 160
ki lometers eas t o f Mosco w . Scale is 9.6
kilometers to a hex, 50 th e cil y of M oscow
occupies a fu ll three hexes . In additio n, the
comple te rail net is shown and is cr itica l 10
su pply and transpOrt o f Soviet trOOps .
Starting lines lor vano us scenarios and a
co m p le le ly i 11 18gra ted Re in fo rce me n t/
Game -Turn/Weather Ch art are printe d on
Ihe map and greally Simplify sel-Up and
p lay . Til e s imp li ci ty of th e bas ic
"mechan ics" enables players to use many
unique rules witho ut becoming bogged
down In de tail . The Mosco w Campaign is
based on Sim ula tion's W orld War Two
diVISion -level game " sys tem", bUI II is
" cus lomI7ed" fo r the East Fron! 194 1
situa tion by special features. For exam ple,
there are ra Ilroa d unils to transpo rt Russ ian
troops, "over- runs" at 10 1 odds, and two
Combal Resu lts Tables, one German , and

24 Scenarios

Extra-large 22" x 34"

two color mapsheet
400 counters

one Rus sian. Weathe r also plays a more

crUC ial ro le th an III most Simu lati ons '
games. Til ere are th ree baSIC sl tua lions:
Octo ber, November, and Decemb r Tile
for st tw o cove l the lunges 01 Army Group
Cent er and the last IS bas ed o n Ihe Soviet
Th ere is als o a campa ign
W lIl t8f atl ar.:
game which cove rs all th ree months.
W i th in tileS basi c situati ons Playe rs may
experimc nl w llh el gh l varylllg Orders 01
Battle I hal rellec ! histor ica l "what lls". All
III all , 24 d lffe renl Scena ri OS are ava ilable ill
I h . am e Til e lou r hund red unit counte rs
rep resen t Soviet am] Gernlan diviSions thai
lou gh l (or cou ld have fough tl In th e
M oscow campa ign , The weakness 01 the
Sovle l ul1 i IS {rllosl afe 1-4 ' sl refl ec ts Ihe
dtl flcu lnes 01 commanrJ and organ iza ti on
Ihal the Red .lI.r my experienced al the slart
01 Ille war . But th e conce nu ated German
streng th IS o ffse t by tile sheer mass 01
Sov i t unit s, li ve lines of for tlfl ca l ions, and
RUSSian r placemen ts on Ihe tralll from
Vlad lvos1o k The game becomes a tense
lace 8gamsl wlil ter and Ihe burg on lng
slfcn g lli of lhe Red Army The Moscow
Campaign IS ava ilabl e fforn Simulations
Publica liolls lor $6.00

20

hala x

Ancient warfare from Alexander the Great to Rome.

Spearmen , swordsmen, bowmen and elephants .. .
. .. Clash in 15 battles from Marathon to Zama.

Tactical Warfare: 500 -100 B.C.

Phalanx cove rs mili tary tac ti cs Irom A lexander
the Grea t' s inc redible march of con quest to th e
begmn ings of Roma n expansio rl Fi fteen major
batHes of t ile ancie nt w orld are depi cted in
Ph alanx . Famous mi litary comma nders re presen ted include Xe rxes. A lexan der the Grea t.
Dariu s - King o f Kings, Hanniba l, and Scipio
A fricanus , The sca le of Pilalanx allows ba tt les
to be represen led in entlrety_ Batt les th at
sh aped W es tern History pro found ly : Ma rathon, wll ere til e Persia n armies under Xerx es
were smashe d by the Greek all iance; A rbel a,
whe re the trlu mp llant A lexan der routed Dari us
in th e 11eart o f his empire and shatt ered Persi an
pow er; Zama, whe re Scipio Af ri ca nus bro ke
the grea l Ha nnibal and ensured th ai Rome, not
Carthage, w ould rule Ihe ancie nt Mediterra nean, Phalanx rec rea tes the mili tar y systems
thai clash ed In th ese ballies. There are li ve
classes 01 un its, sp ea rmen, sw ordsmen, cavalry , moun ted bowmen, an d m issile troops
Islillgers and jevellners!. Special rules embody
th e "feel" o f ancient tact ics , includ ing the
effec t of c harisma lic lead ers on combat
lDa rlus, A lexand erl , the unpre dictable an d
fearsome ba ttl e elephan ts, and th e great
tactica l tl exibility of the Roman leg ion, one of
history 'S grea tes t. m ilitary unltS_ Phalanx is
available Irom Simu lations Publicati on s for

$6.00

Grenadier
Tactica l Warfare: 1680-1850
Grenadier IS a compa ny I ba ttery I squad ron
sca le game of w arfare in the period o f th e
dominance o f canno n and muske t. The game
depic ts six teen lamous ba ttles from the in troducl ion o f th e bayo ne t 10 the in vent ion of
rdling , Becau se 0 1 the tactic al scale of
Grenadier, some of the ba tiJ es are represen led
by crucial segm ents, isolated an d simulated _
For eXiJmple , th e Ban le of W aterloo 118151 is
repr esen ted by the aHack 0 1 Napo leon 's Old
Guar d on Ihe ce ntel of th e British line, The
Ballie of Pyra m ids 117981 is represenl ed by the
att ack 01 the Ma me luke cava lry on the m ost
ex posed Frend1 infantry , Severa l o ther battles
such as Pa lo Al to 118461 from the M exica n War
are covered en llrely _ Co mm and ers represente d
IIlc lude M arlb orou gh , Fred eri c
til e Great,
Napoleon , Ney , W ellington, and Zacha ry Taylor, Some o f the 16 ba ilies depic led In
Gre nad ier are Blen lleim, A uste ilit2, Marengo,
and Jena Alt acks ar dIVided In lO fire (m uske t
and can no nl and s hO Ck Ibayonet an d sabrel
modes There are nine types o f infantry unl lS,
lilree ca va lr y an d fi v ar li llery Grenadier's
co mbO l resol ul 10n system depends less on
c hanco (d ie rollsl Ihan an y gam ye t develope d Avail able frorn Slrfi ulatlons Publicali ons lor $6.00

r
\

Tactica l game of musket-bayonet warfare .

Sixteen famous battles are depicted . ..
Covering warfare from Blenheim to Palo Alto.

21

Redmond A . Simonsen

'/ill Players are Created~

Virtua ll y all m ili ta ry con fli ct -simulation games
are unfa ir, I, e., one side or the other has a
be!! er chance o f winning . Players la nd some
ame designers} have al!empted 10 deal with
the problem o f imbalance by modifYing victory
condllions, al tering forces Iby providing
addilional Orders 01 Ballle) or by changing
Comba t Results Ta bles (see Bias for Beller
Ba lance, MOVES no , 1). The di fficu lty w ith
these approaches and mos t others, is tha t th ey
usuall y req uire the ma king of quali tative
judgements and are therelore fa ll ible, A lso ,
such ba lancing modificat ions tend to destroy
the hlstorl clly o f the game .
Actua ll y, a very Simple solution exists w hich
requi res no alteration o f history or fidd ling
around With tables: Ma tched games. To
balance any game , Players Simply play the
same game tWice, changing sides for the
secon d game . The tota l performance of a
Player In bO l h games determ ines w hether he
WinS or loses the match. In th is way. the
inherent adva ntage of a given historical army is
ef fec ti ve ly ca ncelled out since bo th Players
are given the opportunity o f using the stro nger
army
Th e following is an ou tline of Ihe Match-game
sys tem wh ich wi ll provide Players w ith the
basis for setting up Matc h rules for most of the
games in existence:

CHOOSING THE GAME

IA) The game to be played shou ld be one wi th
whic h bot h Players are thoroug hly familiar.
I B) II the game IS one with alternate scena fl os
and Orders at Battle, Players should jointly
make l he decision as to wh ich situa ti o n wi ll be
played In th e two -game Malch . II agreement IS
Impossible eac h Playe r shall ro ll the die once.
The high ro ller Will choose the scena rio, or If
the game IIlcl udes alterna te Orders of Battle,
choose one of th e Orders of Battle of one of
th e Sides lan d the low ro iling Pla yer chooses
the Order of Battle fo r the rema ining side I.
(C) Players sha ll deCide by the toss of a cOi n or
Ihe roll ing of the dU3, w hich Player w ill play
wh ich side first.

DETERMINING MATCH VICTORY

General Guidelines:

..,

The vic tory co nditions of most games fal l into

two general catego ries:
(1) Poin t Score Victo ry or number-at-un itsdes troyed, an d
121 Territonal Vi cto ry ,
Usua ll y, the qua illy o f vic tory is expressed In a
hree- tier grading system : Margina l Victory,
Substant ive Vic tory and Decisive V ictory l or
some terms Sim ilar to the foregOing!. In some
ga mes, he vic tory cond itions depend upon a
combina ti on of pOints ga in ed , territo ry
ca ptured and w i th the Level of Victory
determined by a rati o of Friendly vlctorv pO ints
to Enemy Victory Points.
Th e problem presented the n, is tha t o f
developing a cumu la tive two-ga me score lhat
Will tr uly re fl ec t overa ll Pl ayer performa nce

l"

IA) In games which have no graded levels of

vic to ry tile Match is won by w inning both
games . If I he match is splil fane Player WinS
th e first game using side A and th e second
Player wins the second game uSing Side A I
then a tie-breake r m ust be used to determine
the match w inner.

Unless the game is it as t-playing on e, Players

should no t a tte lnp t to lirl lsh a series 111 a sll1gle
day. The fatrgue e ff ec ts resu lt ing frOIll such an
attempt wou ld probably poison the va lidity of
the la ter games. The mos t feaSible approach IS
to playa Single matc h per day (or in the case 01
long-plaY ing games, a Single game per day),

TIE-BREAKERS : if Ihe game has a pom t

SCOfing (or nllmber of unrlS destroyed ) victo ry
condition, compar e the net pOints achieved by
each Vic tor Isubtrac t th e loser's PO ints from
th e winn r's points 111 ea ch sing le game in
order to afflve at th e nel) to de termine the
Ma tch Winn el ,
If th e game hilS a territo ria l ViCtOry con dition ,
award the Match victory to the Player who
ach ieved th e objective so oner, If bo th Pla yers
attained the objeclrve in the same Game-Tur n,
award the match to the Player who su ffered
the lowest losses (In terms of Comba t Poin ts)
In the Single game that he won ; If this also
results in a tie, the Mat ch is a draw.

A I the end o f Ihe se nes, 10l ai up the Ma tch

POints achi eved In each Single game, and
diVide by six , Compare the resLJII w ilh the
Poim Victory Values to determl n th e winner
of th e Serres.

IB) In games w ith graded levels of victory, the

Match Winn er is that Player w ho achieves the
highest ne r level of viClOry. Most graded
Vic tory Conditi o ns all ow tor three levels 0 1
victory - Ma rgina l Victory, Subs tantive Victory ,
and DeCI Sive Vic to ry, The fo llow ing Matc h
POin t Va lues should be assigned such vic to ry
levels :
Draw (If possible) = 0 Match Points
Marginal Victory = + 1 Match PO int (M ar gina) Defeat = -1 Match Poin t)
Substantive Vic tory = + 3 M atch Poi nts
(Substantive Defeat = -3 Match Poin ts)
Decisive Victory =
6 Ma tch Points !Dec isive Defear = -6 Matc h Points )
A t th e end o f the ma tch , ea ch Player tota lS )l is
Ma tch Points and divides by two. Compa re the
resu ltan t net Match POin ts to th e preceding
va lue sca le in or der to determine the Malch
level of v ic to ry a ttained by the wi nner.
Example: Pl ayer A achieves a Marginal Victory
Game One ( 1 Match Point) and a DeCISive
Victo ry in Game Two ( 6 Match Porntsl. This
Yields a Ma tc h Point total of 7 which, w hen
divided by tw o an d compa red to the Match
Point Va lues, indica tes a Substa ntive Malch
Victory ,
III

Example, Play er A achieves a Marginal Vic to ry

Game One and su l lers a Margina l Defeat III
Garn e lwo , his ne t Matc h POints are ze ro and
th e M atch is a dra w ,

111

IC I Some games have graded levels ot victo ry

for on ly one si de. In such a case, trea t a vic tory
by the side which is not graded as a decisive
victory 16 M atch POllltSI.

PLAYING A SERIES AND

DETERMING THE SER IES VICTOR :
The best indication of the relative sk ill of wo
Players compet ing in a given Sim ula tion game
,can be attained by Playing a Series of three
Mai ches, Th e six games w hich comprise a
Series w il l begin 10 prOVide th e Players w ilh
stalis lica l Info rmatron about the ir re lative
playing abili ties anel wi ll also have a leveling
et fect upon any streaks at luck exp errenced in
a given game .

In games w hic h have Simp le w ln-or-Io se

victo ry cond iti ons, co un l eac h victory as 6
M atc h Poin ts, and each loss as -6 Match
Po rn ts. DIVide th e Serres total by SIX In order to
obt all1 th e grad ed Seri s Vic tory Level

DEVELOPING HANDICAPS
So far , Ihe techn lQlJ8S given all ow a game 10
be ba lanced . What foll ows is a me thod
wh ere by the Players dlffenng abilities may be
balanced
As IS oft en the case, one's regular opponent
may be a substan ti all y be tter lor wo rsel Player.
To prevenl boredom fr om se tt ing in an d to
allow tw o Players 01 dispara te abil itres 10
co mpete on an equal ro o ti ng, a hand icap can
be developed by using the in l ormation derived
Irorn plaYing on e or more Se fl es .
Ta e the 10tal Ma tch Points achlev d by the
w eaker Player In a g iven Series and subtract II
from the to tal Matc h POints ach ieved by the
str onger Player , Divide the difference by th ree
to ob tain Ihe Match handicap l or Ihe w eaker
Pl ayer In every subsequen t ma lch be tween
IhoS8 tw o Players thi S hand icap should be
add ed to th e Ma(Ch Poin t tota l of the weaker
Player.
Afte r plaYing one Seri es using the handicap ,
Players shou ld revise Ihe weaker Player's
handicap upwa rd or downward dependrng
upon the resu lts 01 tflat series , To do this,
Players should develop a weigh ted averag e
(one w hi c h favors I h
mos t recen t
Informa tlon l Evaillate the score of the Serres
IUS; played In Its raw form IWllhout uSing any
handIcap) and dev lop a han dicap based solely
on llie results o f tll at Serres. Take Ihis new
rlandlcap number, double II and add II to he
old handicap number Divide Ihe tota l by th ree ,
Til e result IS th e new handicap to be use d in
1118 nex I series
Players sh ou ld keep carefu l records 01 the ir
Match and Seri es histories, payrng special
atten ti on te) raw scores and handicap trends.
Play rs should keep In mind that th eir relative
handica ps apply only 10 play o f the same game
(or game systeml between the same two
p la ye rs T o d eve l o p ge nera lly app li ca ble
ha ndIcaps, Players would hav to par ticipa te in
a la rge number 0 1 Series With a w ide va riety of
Players.

22
110w ever, wrHle a play able and enjoyable game,
as lal I rom sim ulat ing a politica l co nven tio n
01 the 197 0's as Chess IS from Simu latlllg a
mOd81 rl w al .

IS

Power Politics
Bemg i;i column concerning games o f non mil/lary cQ nlfic l, including bUI nOI tim/l ed ro
mremalional diplomacy, eleclions, big busi
ness and olher forms of grand larcenyThe quad rennial rec urrence of a president ial
elecuon In the Un ited States o f Ameri ca
provides an e Guse for game ma nufact urers
to br1l1g for th Simulati on games based on the
poillica l process The c hang ing charac ter of
the pOli llca l scene has so lar not pa m cular ly
affec ted these games, although th e new
direc ti ons In Ame rican poli tica lil le In dica1ed by
the Democla tl c COnven11On of 1972 show tha t
I eVlsi on is soon gOing to be necess ary.
From porsona l experience alone I CCln assert
tl1al SUdl games we le In eXi stence at least
thirt y yea rs ago . As a boy I had a board game
based on a president ial elec tion . a game tha t
cou ld no t Ilave ori ginated belore 1940 since it
used elec tora l vote all oca tions based on the
1940 census. On this board th e states w ere
deplc; ted In Slles proporll onate \0 the ir electoral
votes, iln d co lored red 01 blue as I hey w ere
regularly Republicat ion 0 1 Democril ti c . II IS
some Indication 01 th e distan ce w e have
tr aveled In Am eri can polit ica l life that NeIl raska, w i lich gave Richard Ni xon hiS largest
vOle percentage In 1968, and MISSISSIPP I,
wh ich gave Barr y Goldwa ler his largest vote
percen tage Ir1 1964, w ere bl ue. Co nllarrw iS8,
M ichiga n and Ore gon w ere then co lored red .
F'lay ers bega n III the middle of til e board 111
"Pob\lca l OIJIIV IOn," and traveled arou nd on
rail road tracks ma k lr1~ the the n traditiona l
'whl$t les to
tour ." I Long range aff lumps
11 0m on e par of th e board 10 ana l her co uld
also be ma de. I As you passed Imes from the
\l ack to vall OUS Cities. you look th ose c ities . A
su ff ic ien t number o f cit ies In Iha t stat wou ld
give YOlI the 5ta III Wlll1 Its electora l vOles .

In fac t, C017vemion is on Its way 10 be comrn g

an exerc ise III nos talgia lor older pl ayers, an d
Irrelevance for you nger ones. It has been 20
years Sll1ce a Democ rat ic Na l iona l Convention
weill to twO ballo ts for a preSldenlial ca ndldal e, and 24 yea rs since the RepubJ icans did
~o. It is 32 years since eit her party' s con vention
has gone beyond 3 ballo ts; we w il l certa inly
never see another 100-ballot convention such
as the Democ rats held in 1924 . Furtherm o re.
Ihe difference be t ween the tw o pa rti es, and
amon g fac ti o ns Wi th in them, has narr owed
g reatly since t he classica l era o f co nven ti on
pollllcs. This tact has produced a great body o f
{l pimon outSide the slrLIc ture of the " two -party
system ", to wh ich It does not res pond and
w hich does no t res pond to it .
ThiS became painf ully eViden t In 1968, wh en
th e two co nvenllons proceeded With business
as usua l w hile the America n people allemp ted
10 call th eir at tent Ion to th e rea l issues.
Significant ly, the only game to co me out 01
tllese events was Jim Dunnigan's Ch icago,
Chicago - a Simula tion game not 01 the
co nve ntlQ l1, bu t of th e urban riot ing that took
place ou tside (an eve nt Wllich had fa l mOle
8r rec t on the elec ti on Ou tcome than the
conve ntion 1\s8lfl It is not ve ry well know n, bu t
sllch oo ting also accompanied th e Repub lican
c onven ti on 0 1 l hat year. and was cons iderably
wo rse. On th e nigh t Ri c hard Nixon gave his
accepta nce speech in M iam i Beach, three
peo ple w ere kill ed in Miami rio ling.
As a resul t, Con venrion as a game does not
simulate lhe modern nom inating process, but
m ac s it by holding It s pas t up as a mirr or.
Unanimously pledged delegations,
fl oor
demons trat ions,
"How
long
0
Lor d"
speeches, an d lhe rest 01 the parapllernalia
have been ret ired . As the smoo th operation' of
th e McGovern mac hine showe d, the on ly thll1Q
tha t re mall1s co nstant is the Ilow of o rders
going au fro m the backrooms to the fl oor, to
be disobeyed at peri l of you r patr onage.
Though the odor 0 1 Ihe smoke c hanges, the
smok e-lilted rO Om remains the same .

As I reca ll, the game seemed quite evenl y

ba lance d. I played it Irequently - by myself.
uSilally . bu l wlt l1 an opponen t w hen I cou ld get
one. I even, undel th e Inspiration o f th e
mu lti party elec llo ll 011948. deSigned a va nalion t hat in cluded mlnOl part ies.

Under these Circ umstan ces, Convenlion may

be we lcom ed by many players as a glimpse of
tile America tha t used 10 be. In it, tra m two 10
SIX players travel around a board th at looks like
a cross bet w een Monopoly and Careers , trying
to pi c k up comm itted and uncomm il\ed
delga tes by va riou s means. From Monopolv It
lakes the peri metric path around th e boa rd, the
"State Primal ies' in wh ich delega tes may be
wo n by lan dlllg on the appropriate squa res,
and 20 more delegates to eac h player as he
Ian d s 01I 0 I passes th e s tani n g -place. T he deb I
to Careers IS even greater. The "Progl ess
Report" cards, like the "Experience" cards of
Careers, may be used in place of a ro ll of the
cllce . lhere is lhe "Credent ials Commi tt ee, "
corre spond ing to Monopoly's " Jail " but m ore
c losely to th e " Park Bench' of Careers . As In
Careers, one can get ou t by throW ing 7, 11 or
do ubles, Wll ic h mak es the odds aga insl th e
player a mere 11 to 7. A lso fro m Careers are
th e IIl terio r pa th s, along whic h a player moves
Wltll a Sing le die as he attempts to win large
slale delega tions in cauc uses .

To tl18 bes t o f my kn ow ledge, th e fi rst game

t hat Simulated a pOli tical conve n tion was
broug ht out In 1960 by Games Rese arcll Inc. ,
th e pub lishers at Diploma cy. Co nvention,

A ll ogeltler the re are 1400 delegates - a

number al ready ou tdated by th e monstrous
co nven ti on o f 1972. About 200 of them can be

Here, again. the d iffe ring politi ca l histor ies o f

each state w ere taken trl to accou nt. A
Rep ublica n co uld wtn Indiana With only two of
it s four Cities; a Democra l w ould need three
Moves w ere ma de with a spin ner, half o f
whose spa ces read th e max imum va lue o f five
Wit h a li ve, you also drew a "campaign
co nse quence" card , w hidl migllt g ive you
additiona l Citie s not Jotne d by Itnes to ti le
ra ilroad tr acks, 01 m igh t send you ba ck \0
.. Poll1<ca l Obli vi on." For e ample, "YOli
smasl'ed the !--Iague Jersey CI ty machine; take
Jersey City , or "You deleated til e O'Connell
Albany ma chine, l ak e Albany" ThiS las t
rl amed organization , mirabile dicll1, ,s sti li Wit h
li S , th e most durab le 01 lhe claSS ica l Demo
clatt e urban a gan llaHons

picked up in state primaries , and 500 in th e

ca ucuses; the res t are "Uncommi\ted" and in
pla c llce are ha nded arou nd very muc l1 li ke the
plCly n10ney In Monopolv. The delegates wo n
In primaries are practica ll y inal ienable
another unrea li stic rule - but If you go
1I1rough a cauc us an d land on th e right squ are
you can grab the delega tes th aI are alre ady in
another play er's hand. The "Uncommitted"
delelJates are If1 a sort of ba nk, but once 1hat
bank 15 emp tied, players wh o win th em ta ke
th em fro m o the r players. In pra ctic e, this
means thal the lea dmg player is 11il by tile
oth ers for cOfllr ibulions on such occa sions.
A I any lime alt81 he has made one CirCU it ot
th e board, a player may 110Id a "DemonSlrallon " T hiS beg lllS wit h a declaration of
Inten t . w hereu pon th e player must go thr oug ll
the next three moves wllh out 105111g delega tes
or a turn The car ds are help fu l In get1 ing
ttlrough a Demo nstrat ion, but the thi rd turn
must be taken w ith the dice. If a player w ins his
Demons tra ti on, he not only gets 30 votes from
each other player . but can also move to any
sq uare on the outSide track . Thi s makes it
possible fOI hi m to decl are a Ball ot. A player
wh ose Dem onstrallon lai ls loses 20 votes to
each of Jl1e o th er players.
W hen a Ballo t is decla red, by th is or thro ugh a
"s trateg y" ca rd, each player COurl tS up his
votes. The leader gets 50 vDles of "Bandwag on Sentimen " from each o th er player's
uncom m itted Delega tes, While the player wi th
th e fewest vo tes becomes the " Dark
Horse ' an d mal' under cer tain circumstan ces
benellt from a show 01 "Dark Horse Sentiment. "
The "Strategy" ca rds play the same ro le as the
' OpPo i tunit y" cards in Ca reers. W ith th em a
pl ayer ca n move ro the en trance 0 1 a caucus,
cal l for a Ba ll ol , block a Ball ot. Dr make a
despera tion play in the Smoke- Filled Room . In
th,s last man euver, a player stakes everyth ing
0 11 trl e throw of one die. If 1he bosses approve,
1113 w illS half th e "U ncommi l ted Deleg ates" of
the oth er players. II they disapprove, he IS out
o f tr'e game
Convenrion lends it self easil y to g rudge ti gh ts,
as players clloose Irom w~lom they w ill take
th e "U ncomm itted Delegates" wh ich th ey
w in 01 course, an opp onen l goaded too tar by
lhls tec hnique wi ll not only strike back at you
th e sam e w ay, bu l Will also seek out and en ter
stClte CClucu ses whic h yo u have already w on.
For those who lind most slmu latlon games toO
long . Converllion IS shorter and JUSt as w ild.
Though i t lacks vertsim ili tude, it is a thoroughly
en joy able li ght game . Proper strategy involve s
knOWing w hen to ca ll a Demons tra tion and
how to expl oit L11e w in ni ng of one. Proper play
of the ca rds, parll cu larly in th e ca ucuses, is
also Imponan t .
The Next President di ffers trom mos t oth er
el8c llon games In that It Introduces specillc
an d actua l ca ndidates, and th en tr ies to reckon
how tl1ey w ould do aga inst each ot l",el. It also
Inco rpora te s th e economiC Side of preSident ial
politics.
To w in Nom lnatioll . a player must slog his way
hrough 27 pr imary electi ons aga inst up to
three rivals. IT hese are played in th e ac tual
order 01 the 1972 prima ry electi ons, With New
Ha mpshire Itrst. ) A "Pro fi le Chan" gives th e
extent 10 w hich a state nlay be fa vo rable to
various cand ida les For ex ample, Ca liforn ia IS a
"g .' for Humphrey . '8" for Ken nedy, lindsay ,

23
McGovern, or Mu skl e, "7" fo r Jac kson, "5"
fo r M ills, and "4" fo r W allace. IOn the
Repub lican side it wo uld automal ica lly go 10
the favor ile son, This is a bit o f an an noya nce ,
Since under th e rules you can not run Ni xon,
Rea gan, and McCloskey agains t each other.)
Li ndsay may run as a ca ndidate of ei ther party,
dependIng on whether he is a Democral or
Republic n this week ,
In the Nom ination vers ion of th is game, a
player can deCide whe ther or not to enter a
primary, an d how much money he wa nts to
spend on II. Mo ney can be raised by sell ing
ambassadorstllps to co ntributors, wh ile poli tica l influence can be generated in a sta l e by
promisin g cabi nel pos ts or ledera l fu dgeships
to ItS poli ti Cians. Winn ing a prima ry gives you
.. Bandwagon Poin ts" hat wi ll help yo u in the
next one . Based on his basic profile, money
spen t, and appointments promised, a ca ndi
date has a ce rtain poin t tota l In each primary
he enters The man Wit h the most POints gets
that Sla te's enti re delegat ion; l ies are resolve d
wi th diCe
Once at th e convention, the players have to
deal with each o ther's pledged delega tes an d
also w ith five " FaVOri te Sons." Appro priate
wheeling and dea ling w ins unpledge d an d
"Fa vor ite Son" delegates, and th e ba liOls
determine the Wll1 ner , If no player has a
majority , low ma n drops out an d play con tll1 ues.
The Election game IS a two-man con test , an d
may have histOrica l overlOnes , Fam ous polit ica l fig ures fr om Ihe pas t, wit h pro files appro
prlate to the 1972 Situa ti on, may be used . If
you like to speculate abou t history, you can
see how well Franklin Roosevelt would do
agalnSi DWigh t Eisenhower, or whe ther John
F. Kennedy could have beaten Barry Gold wate r, IApparently on the theory that all
members of tha t family are iden tical , J oh n and
Edwa rd Kennedy have the sam e proflles.l
Since the pro hies 01 hislOrical ca ndidates are
assumed to have 1972 connotations, The Next
Pres/denc looks a li tt le odd at first glance.
Fra nklin Roosevelt IS given a very low pr ofi le In
th e souther n states, ranging from 1 In
MISSISSIPPI to 4 111 A rkansas. Yet in actual
history Roosevelt wa s ex tremely popular
among poo r southern wi ites. The answer to
Ih ls apparent paradox lies in the fac t that the
game relers to 1972, not 1936. In hiS day, the
bigges t problems Roosevelt faced were eco nomiC, and Civ il righ ts were less nnponan t than
f ull employm enl. Bu t the re ca n be little doubt
th ai, w ere he alive today, he wou ld be strongly
III lavor of Civi l ri ghts. Furthermo re, his fo reign
policy wa s Originally non-interventionist, and
chan ged In the la te 1930's only In response to a
European situa tIon that could not be ignore d.
Such sentiments wou ld probab ly make him a
Dove today.
Accordi ngly, the game is deSigned so tha t
can dida tes o f the pas! are ludged acording \0
the preva iling Issues of our own times, an d the
pOSitions they would likely have taken on
them. It also means th ai in fu ture years the
proltles of Th e ca ndida tes w ou ld have to be
changed to keep up w ith th e times ,
The dl fler nl char aCTers 01 th e Republican and
Democra IC Parties are taken Into account In
The Next President. The Republtca ns begin the
cam paig n WIth $7,000,000, com pared to
$6,000,000 for th e Democra ts, On each of th e
fo llOWing fiv e tu rn s, th e Republicans get an
additional $1,000,000 w hile th e Democrats get
onlyS800,00Q. How ever, slOee the Democ rats

generally have more volunteer wo rkers, they

have Two "Pa rt y Organ izaTi on" counte rs to
one I or the Republicans .
T he six turn s o f the presidentia l campaign
Invo lve alloca llng "Resource Markers" \0 th e
nine regions in to wJllch the cou ntry is diVIded .
The Reso urce Markers inclu de the presiden tial
and vice-p residential candidates, th e Cam pai gn Team, th e Party Orga nizat ion coun ters
already described, an d Promotional Units - 6
for the Republicans an d 5 for the Democra ts.
(" ThIS re llecls the mo re effec tive amoun t of
fi nanCing that Republican ca mpaigns have
enloyed," the rules read , In a class ic undersla temen t. J These are distri buTe d among th e
reg ions as th e players wis h, but th e Prom olional Un its must be pai d for at a ra te
depending on th e region, tram 5240,000 for th e
No rt hwest to $800,000 for the Cen tral, Sout h
and East. Thi S has the interesting etlecl tf,a t,
towards the end of the campa ign, the Repub li ca ns are m ore li kely than th e Dem ocrat s to
run shor t 01 mO rley for placing Promo llona l
Units,
Campaign even t cards. turned aT the rat e of 3
per turn, Introduce elemen ts of chance.
Foreign News, Do mest ic News and Ca mpaIg n
New s may " fl ec t circumstances With slich
repo rts as:
"R epu blica n accuses Democrat o f an 'Eas tern
bi as', ga ins 2% In We st, Nort hwest and
Sout hwest; ~()ses 1% In East. "
"Republica n Admlillstra\lon pledges m il itary
suppor t fo r any ASian cou ntry threatened by
Comm unism. Democrat ga ins 1% III any 3
regions
"Democra tic prec inct mac hillery IS wea kened
by In tern dl di sputes Th e Party Organlza lion
un it does no t co un t on th iS tu rn ."
There is an add itional rule governing the play
o f th ese ca rds. " If Nixon is th e Repub lican
cand idate, Ihe Republican pl ayer may 'Voi d'
any 1 Ca mpaign Event It.at occurs in the ca rds
dUlIl1g th e game
Nixon 's powers as lhe
in um ben l Presiden t accoun t 101 this rule."
W hen the six turns have been played ou t, the
two can dida les w ill have advantages 01 various
numbels of perce ntage POliltS In th e nine
regions. These are compa red w ith th e ad vanta ges their profi le charts give them In different
sta tes. The Player w ith a majori ty usually takes
that slale and its electoral votes, though lor
c lose states a throw of the dice makes up for
possible inaccuracies in polling . There IS even a
variant for a pOSSible th ird par ty, prov iding th aI
the game might be thrown in to the Ipresumably Democra uc l House of Represe ntatives under Ihe XII Amendmen t to th e
Constitution .
Two days after the Democrat s nominated the
Mc Govern -Eagl eton llcket, it wa s ma tched
agalils th e Nixon-Ag new licket In the game In
th e of lices o f Sl ra tegy & Tac tics. Under the
assumption that a Wallace ticke t is not en tered
Ihls year, McGovern defeated Nixon by 328
electoral votes to 2 10. McGovern carried all the
large sta tes except California and Flori da , and
might have gotten California except that The
NeXI Presiden( assu mes a ma n w ill ca rry his
home state.
While In teres tin g, pa rti cu larly In liS use o f
hlstoflcal c harac ters , The Next Pres/dem as It
sta nds is a game lor one season. It could,
how ever, be updated in successive election
yea rs by designing new Profi le Cha rts for new
can didates , and chang ing Pro lile Charts fo r
present cand idates as th e pOlitica l Situa tion
cha nges.
- John Boardman

M OVES is a two way street. Unlike

S&T, MOVES is wide open to contributions
from the readership as well as the SPI staff,
It provides a forum for the discussion and
ana lysis of conflict simulation games on
every level : historical, theoretica l and
tactical li.e. as games]. MOVES is less
structured than S&T. Designers Notes and
the issue's Game Profile are the only
article s that have become "regu lar
features."
The rest of the magazine is open to any
articles on the field of conflict sim ulation
tha t our staff or readers hip feel inspired to
write. MOVES generally shies clear of
straight historical materia l unless it can be
directly related to a game. Another type of
historical article that can be used in
MOVES is one that provides the data basis
(orders of Battle, tactical doctrines, etc.' for
a conflict simulation . That is, the " raw
material" of game design.

MOVES aims at integrating historical and'

game approaches. Thus articles on games
are particula rl y welcome if they t reat the
games as models and learning devices that
illuminate rea l historical conflicts. This
approach tri es to avoid the puerile tone of
many gaming magazines.
There is a whole range of articles that can
be w ritten on games themselves, criticisms,
revisions, additions, new scenarios, new
rules, (i .e. new rule modules for existing
games) and suggestions for changes. We
w elcome articles that catch our errors,
because as games are revised we can
correct them.
One final inducement to all potential
authors: MOVES pays. We pay 5c per
co lumn inch per 1,000 subscribers. W ith
2,000 subscribers this means we pay lOt a
column inch for material Iro ughly comparable to most fiction magazines) . These
ra tes are rising as MOVES subscription lists
grow. Contributors can opt to receive twice
as much in SPI products (games,
subscriptions, back issuesl as in cash.
Arti cles for MOVES should be typed on a
forty-five unit line and double or trip le
spa ced. (This gives us room to "edit" your
copy as we choose.' All contributions
become property of SPI. Please include a
stamped self-addressed return envelope
with your article so we can quickly return it
for any necessary revisions or additions.
We ' re expecting to hear from you soon.

24

BLANK DIE-CUT
COUNTER SHEETS (%")

BLANK HEX SHEETS

r

le':,'1 1,1.111>, hp <;1 1 PIS ,If, Il le lifl SI

<iil,'11 oIr' I IW 11I <J ~1' I COpl ~ w er DICPiHCd
IJY n COlllpuwr plol , (~r Clno arc Qeome l"ca ll y
:"'r l", I. I IH.', il l" PII "if'i.J o rl specoa l hi h
rILl"III,., l'edvI' IXlpc'r SIOC' rh,s paper - ,~
1''', IJ\Jl;! ,1 II v sUited 10 1 dr ilwlng, c lth er wit h
PC'I ' ,'IIH I Irlk 01 (Iry marker Th s . hcx
,h 8 1'> w ele .lIdrlp Po ~llJs .ve l v lOr ur OWIl
115l' In pre pilllfl q iJ ll Olll fl e w games Hex
sll,,1s Il tlll<; qual, I Y ale aVilllillJlp. n()VVl crp
else We wil l rll,1 11 Illc he). sh el s 10 vou
Parcel Pos t, In a pro tec tive malling tube.
The price is $8,00 per dozen; $5,00 per
half-dozen . You may order anyone type, or
any combination, of the following si x types.
,J

T .ese InexpenSive components solve one

o til e nagging problems of Ile amateur
game deSigner - making nea l , playabl .
(ounl is Eac h dH'J cut ca rdboard cou nier
sheel COn loll15 255 Ilall' lnC COll n lers l ex
aC lly II ' Il,ose In S&n T e s ee ts come
Ir two baSIC yoes

A. 225 counl ers IIT1Dn ni d Will a m ix

m ilil ary Ulli t symbols plus Ihlr y com
plete ly blan co un er5.
Type

hexcs l r hl5 is
l ie ~ l allcJd l Li ,," '-'lei u~e dlr1 l nos t QiJllIt<S , I h
mw~ "I Iwxos I lJlO au ()SS I h e sho r din lell SIIJl I u l Ihf' 73x2c ,ne l , sh el I

lomm ',!lnlj 91dll1 10/16 mt.

Tvpe B' 135 coun l r<; rmpnn led Wi th a

blank symbo l box, plu 120 co m pi tefy
blank coun lers,

IOllg yrdlll 1(j/ Hi Inch hexe ITh '

n l h.-'x ~ l un dCruSS Ihle I()ng dim 'n
SIOII 0 1 I Ill: 23x2D Inc h stlee t.l
lIillrl l l

I" W S

19r1lfll ,,> h Or[ glain

/')111111

2:1Il1l1]

long

qldm

{Illig grilli),

12/1 6 Inch hexes.

12 / 1 Inc ll t c )<'os

1511 6 "1 (.11 tl CXC'i

Kursk

Fil Ch he x shee t IS 23x29 In hes WI h no

IJdr llai hexes The hex ,eld IS 22x28In(:hes .
Pl ease be extreme ly speCi fi C wh en ordering
,J~ I" 11", I1 r~~ I ype and quail lt v you want.

Grand-tactical game of 1943 in Russia .

Complete rules for tactical air support.
Pioneered our basic WWII combat system.

Operation Zitadelle. 4 July

T he dest l uction o f th e Germ an S ixt h A rmy al
StallnQ l ad d clded th at Ihe NaZI's wou ldn' t
Win Ihe W ar in Ihe Ea sl , the disas tro us
o enslve a Kursk deC ided Ihey wou ld lose It.
tn he S prIng o f 1943, t
Germans prepar d
OperalionZiladel/e, tli eil fas t majo r of fensive in
RU SSILl . T he RUSSians also prepar d, forl ifYlrl g
th e mos l vulnerable sector 0 1 thei r fro nt, the
K U I S~ sa lient. wllh rank lra ps, mlrle l lelds, and a
massrve conc Il tra li ol1 of armor an d in lan tlY
The Germans knew IhlS, and deCided to
gambl e Sui IIley walled. and kept wai ting,
w hll Sov iet s f n glh bUIlt up fas ter than th eir
own, Kllrsk proVide!) SI X vary in g Ord ers o f
Ba ttl e so lhal players can launch th e German
o ffenSi ve in M ay, J une or July aga in st Ihe
IncreaSing ly po wel lu i and dug-In Sovie ts , Or
til Germans may choose 10 wa lt lor a Sovie t
o ffenSive and ligh t a mobile, de fenSive b alll
Thc d lc -cu t
unters In Kursk represen t
Gelma n diVISions and Soviet Corps; eae hex
equa ls len m d05. and Ga me Turn s are two
days 01 cOmba l A ll un ll S are included, and
1l1010117cd Ul1I ts use a dual M ovement Pha se
sys tem Kursk was a brea kl ,oug h in game
deSig n " th p ar nt oj France '4 0 and the Bailie
of S/almgrad. Ava Ilable from Simulalio ns
Publ icati ons fo r $6.00

Filc sheel Iype IS avail able In anv of lour

CO lors Whil e, G,f/y, Tan. or Olive CO LIn er
5 hec t ~ may lll, ord ered in Se ts 0 1 S'x 1$4,00
for 7030 halfmeh coutllersl 01 sel s of
Tw elw I,~ 700 to r 3060 flall in c h counlers J
Sets may be ally ombtn81 10n of c lors
an dl o r ype Please be spec llre on orders,
for example " a ile m tx ,~ d se l o f SIX - 2
W ~lil e type A, 2 Tan I yp e B, 101,v I ype A,
1 W h"" type B "

25

Perhaps the finest strategic game available.

Four yearly and one campaign game include .. .
.. . Barbarossa , Sta lingrad, Zitade lle , and Berl in.

Barbarossa
The Russian Front (1941-45)

From HIli r's invasion to the Battle of Berlin,

the Wehrmach l and th e Red Army fo ught the
most ti tanic stl uggle in lhe his ory of wa rfare.
Barbarossa recrea tes til lS struggle. As a game.
Barbarossa is Widely considered 10 be one of
the easlest-to -play, fast moving an d mos t
r allstic available. Devefoped ill 1969, ma ny of
the angina l Ideas fou nd in Barbarossa have
become standard featu res In numerous olher
games_ T 1e double-movemen t phase system
was ilrs t used in Barbarossa. This, co upled
WI h flUid zones o f con trol . allow the Germans
to creale ttle huge " pockets" tha i occu rred In
the [I inal campaign . Barbarossa was Ihe firs t
game w it h "scenarios" w hich produced he
"rnany -games-In -one" featu re. A series of four
Barbarossa scena rios each depict one year of
the wa r III RUSSi a. Each year was dif ferent. In
194 1 the RUSSians ha d 10 fall back befole Ihe
rapidly advancing German panzer arm ies. In
1942 the Germans advance on Sta lingrad , in
1943 Sial ma te occurs at Kurs k. an d In 1944
the Russians are on the o ffensive. The fift h
game lies the other ow together_ Each move
represents a mon th _ Units represented are
armies (100,000 to 300,000 men ). A fa st,
accura te, easy-lO -play game . available from
Simulations Pub lications for $6.00

Korea

....'"
:;;
'5

III

jJ",

!l1fid

Division level game of the Korean "p olice action "

Naval gunfire and amphibious invasions offset . . .
. . _Special infiltration tactics of Chi nese armies .

The Mobile War: 1950-51

The Korea n W ar is be t known as a btoody,
indeCISive sta lema te remin iscent of th e Firs t
W rid Wal But for almost a year, a (he height
of rhe Cold War, a dynamic, see-saw stru ggle
was waged 111 Iha small ASIan peninsula
be tween U ni t d Nations and Commun ist
forces Korea covers this early mobile stage of
the war. The Invasion Game (25 June to 21
September. 1950) begms WIth the North
Korean Peoples' Army drivm9 ItS South
KO lea ncou n terpar t reeling tow ar d thevl ta l pall
a t Pusan. The Intervent ion Game i26 Novem ber to 27 Ja nuary 19511 show s the star ling
Illlpac of the Chi nese counter -o ffensive tha t
drove United Nat io ns fo rces from o r 10 Ko rea .
The Stal male Game (28 January 10 23 June,
195 11 shows th e development of tile sllUati on
Iha t las ted unt il tile end of th e war, as U
forces sl w ly rind the Communists back
awa rd the 381h par al lel. The Campaign Game
Inclu des all th ree . Ole-cut coun ters represen
all the forces that tooK part in the Orig inal
campaign. Th ere are coun ters provid ing for
naval gunfire. sea trans por t, amphibiOUS landIngs, fort ilicalions and suppl y. A speCia l rul
accou n s for lhe CimazlIlg In fi ltration tactics a
the Ch inese armies. Availab le from Sirnu la ions Pub" alio ns for $6.00

26

ALL NEW!
2ND Edition

1918
Germany's Last Chance in the West
Fully integrated 2-color map
Stormtrooper Infiltration Tactics
Unique Artillery Rules

'I

rIii

,,

In 1918 th e Germa n General Staff planned

Combat Results Table has a fearful number

10 Win

01 "exchange" results, Wll ich fo rces ' the

Th ey plan ned a c rescendo 01 allacks

caels-name d " Die Kaisersch lacf ' , " Th e
Eill peror's Ba il ie," designed to shaner Ihe
dea dlock 0 1 tile Wes tern FiOn l , bre ak t il e
link lJelween Ihe Frenc h and Br iLish armies
an d end the Great W ar with a German
victory bef ore I he Ame ricans arrived in
lorce
The 2nd edllion 01 1.918 Simu lates lhe lirsl
and mas! Significan t "hammer lJ low" of
the Stoss tr uppen, th e dflve ag ains t the
Bnt lsh Expedl\ionary Force in North France .
ThiS attack cos t th e Bmish c lose to 400,000
cas uailies and gai ned mOle ground tha n
any auack since I he dig ging o f Ihe W estern
From ,
191885 8 game, IS 8 co Illes t between I he
Germ arl ability to " lfIfi llrale" ami destroy
Bn llsl1 uni ts ve lsus th e Brillsh re-lI1 lorcemen t fa le The "feel" 01 trench w al la re IS
bUil l in to rules th at make It difficu lt and
" oxpenSlve " to elim inate Enemy un ls The

Germ an to be conserva ti ve In attacks Wi th

hiS valuab le Stossl rupp divi Sio ns. ISOlated
Units may not move, but are never elimin,ned by lack 0 1 supply alonF., and they
conim ue to exert a Zone 0 1 Contro l th aI
In hibits German movemen t. Much as in the
rea l battl e, til e German's di ff iculty is largely
keep mg the Stoss tr uppen in supply, and
mo ving up art illery support. Ironica lly one
of the w ors t obsta cl es 10 rapid break Ihro ughs IS th e area devas ted by Ihe
Germa ns wh en they w ithdrew 10 the
I-ilndenb urg L'll e. ThiS "Oevasted Zone"
,:o<; IS two M ovement Poin ts per hex , These
problems force th e Germa n to str ike qu ick ly
an d deCISive ly but economicall y. He can 't
alford to lose 100 ma ny Sioss tr uppen m
" exc hange s" an d he m ust conse rv e artrllery 1O deal w itt1 Britis h rein forceme nts. As
a w hole, the 19 78 game sys lem presen ts a
remark ably good model of Ihe o pporlurli lies and dilficullies of the new "in filtra ti on" tac ti cs,

'!

7918 re m ain s a Simple " clean" game in its

se co nd edi ti on' there are no op tiona l rules,
no "advanced" ve rSions. There are lhll'teen
va ri a lions in Or ders o f Bail ie Illa t refl ect
"a ltern ate his tories" bu l these are easily
In teg rated with the IllslOri ca l version.
The mam c hanges in the secon d dition are
grfl phic 1918,5 In fini te ly beller -look ing and
easier 10 play th an the lirst edition, It is
pri nted on 11 igl1 qua lity cardSlOck In shades
01 blue an d black . Rules and componen ts
Ila ve been brough t up to standa rd SP I
qua li ty , The mapsheet IS now "fu ll y In te g ra ted," I.e, virtually all game "mecha nics"
I recording losses, re lfllorcemen l'S etc .! are
performed on th e mapsheet eaSily and
wlthou "paper wo rk." The set -up time is
cut in hal f by these grap hiC impro veme n ts,
l in the origlflal version J im Dun nigan
scribb led th e mit ial placemen t of uni ts on
he mapsheet With IllS Blc pen; by the
second edition, SPI had ac quired a profes Sional an department , I 19 18 is availa bl e
10m Sim ulations PubliC(J llons for $6.00.

27

Playback
READER REVIEWS
Play back IS ba sed o n read e r eva luation 01
gam s that IS acqu ir d thro ugh S&T an d
MOVES Feedback sec t l ns. Re d ers h ave
been asked 10 ra te a spects 0 1 g am es o n a
sca l a 1 ( oo r! to 9 (ex c elle nt) , A l ter the
rank ing 0 1 eac h g am e here are a few
com men ts Irani th e SP I sta tl.

Ouesllon A - Whal did you Ihink of lhe

physical qualil V and layour o f rhe maps/leer?
Qucs /l on 8 - Wha l dJ(J you Illink of (he
pi wsica I qualit y dill) laVou ( of rhe r ules
loleter?

Player Review: Lost Battles

Publisher: Simulations Publications,
New York City
Designer: James F. Dunnigan
Subject : Tactical si mulation of warfare
in Russia, 1943-45.

A (ma psheet )

. 646

B - (rul es)
C . (c o un tersl
D - (ease o f p lay I

. 6.71

E - (comp le eness l
F . (balance )

G-

lI eng t~')

H - (sel- u p l
J - (com pl eXi ty )

K . (rea li sm l
L - (ov rail )

7 '17
.6.27
645

. 6.00
. 6.50
6.45
6.65
6 .53
. 6.46

Comments' Los( Ballies IS a " hIgh" tac tical game

O rt i e reg Ime I t/ ba talton level I s rules leave a
10 1 10 be deslrs d m lelms o f clarny and ease of
~ I ay M ost o f I he silUali ons are IJnba fan ced Ibu l
the n Ihe E 5 ern Front w as 110 1 e xa c tl y ba la nced
rom 1943-45 ) and Ihere are no res t, ic ions that
w fleet the lactieaf inl eriOfltv 0 Ihe Red Army In
spite 0 1 hiS, LOS I Sallies has ma ny design
11\110\l8 11011S il nd Ihe lessons learned w ill be
<lppl led tow ard SP l's developing Wo rld W ar Tw o
reglmenlal level sys em.

SPI Game Questions

Quost lon s eoncern lnq Ihe rules ul pliJY and game
proceourp. Will be answ ered II su bmit ted III the
fO' low,ng m nner
Allques lions musl b asked In il " yes-or no" formal .
or in;, "m ult iple chOIce " for lal O in such a way Iha t
Ihey leqUll ll a simple one or w o wo rrJ answ r.
Qu estIons requ lrL ll \l elf1 " essay" answ cl will no t be
cOlls icJerod l/II e simp ly do no t have Irle si af irne
8"a"~b!e 10 " " gw er leng th y, essay type ques tions
nOI do we have Ihe time to olfectly answer Ques tIon s
pel ld"""9 t " game deSIg n" 01 his oneal ralionale
We're sorry Ihal we can ' l spend Ime WI h cOllversa llonal I II rs coneer inC) I
game:;, bu w e feel
Ihat you 'd rattler Ilave us devo e he time sav ed 10
Ihe deS ign n l new gilme~ and prod UCIS .
IMPORTA T All g,lH I8'Q u8s tlon Ie tNS Inus! be
ilccompailled by a stamped , sel l -ad dressed 8l1 vel -

Ques{/on C - W har did yo u rh ink o f Ihe

p h ysical qualiry and /avour o f (he unit
co umers )
Quesrion 0 - Wha l did you rhink of lhe
game 's " ease 0/ play" [ho w well lhe game
"moved along " l?
Ques iion E - Wha t did you /hink o f lhe
"comp leteness" of rhe game 's rules [was
everYlhing rhoro ug llly exp /ain edl ?
Ques lion F - Whar did you lh ink o f rhe
game's plav balance [was lhe game in{er eSling for bo th sidesP
Quesl/on G - Whal did you [Ilink about
rh e leng rh of lhe average game?
Ouestion H - Wha r did you thmk of lhe
amOU1l1 o f " set -up lime " needed.'?
Ouestion J - Whar did yo u think of [he
complexily o f Ihe game?
Ques lion K - Whal did vou lhink of l he
gam e 's realism?
Ques /ion L - Wha r did you tll/nk of rhe
game o verall.?

Player Review : Flying Circus

Publisher: Simulations Publications,
New York City
Designer:
James
F.
Dunnigan /
Redmond A _ Simonsen
Subject: Tactical air combat in France
1915-18

A . Ima pshe e I
B (ru lesl
C - (co u n tersl

6.22

o - (ease o f play)

7.80

7. 66

(comple tenessl
F ! balancel
G - lI e ngth l
H - [se t -u p l
J . Icomp le x lt yl
K - (rea lis ml
L - (O V ra ll l

7.33
7.14

7.77
7.65
. 7. 65
7 16
6. 14

7.47

Player Review: USN

Publisher: Simulations Publications,
New York City
Designer: James F. Dunnigan
Subject : Strategic warfare in the
Pacific 1941 -43
A- (m ap she t l
B (ru les l
C - (co u nlers l
D [ease o f p layl
E - !completeness)
F - ! balance I
G - (I en g thl
H (se upl
J - (compleX it y )
(realism)
L - (over all )

ope PI8Q~" w rite your name and a dd re~s al t e lOp

o f 'lour lette r Please do nm m,x game ques ion
le ll ers wrth <l ny other type 01 co rreSll on dence l i.e.
orders, comp laint s. tov -tetters. etc.). Please head
your leI ter Wi l l 11e name of he game Iha yuu are
lf1q ull ll1g il Dou t If more than one game IS being
"sked about, categon7e and fabel YOUI Questions by
game-lIl le Remember, mo st questio ns can be
~ n.,we r "d simp ly by rereading Ih e rules la nd you can
Ihoroby save us and yoursetl J lo t of ,iga oro lel . All
ame q eS lions and sugges tions aUl omalicall y be
':Orn8 Ihe p opert y t Si mulations Publrcal ion s In c;
A dd l eS5 y.our le ll e r - 0 :

Game Ques lion Ed/l or

Simula 1lons Publ/ca lions, Inc.
44 Easl 23 Simer
New York, /II. Y 70010

6.24
6.71
4 .9 1
5.24
6. 14

7 31
6.57

Cummem s' USN " toyed 1110re Lfev lopl"e" l

lime Iha n any game In the I'I rs l ol V 01 SPI
Neve rt heless it need, a grea l deal lTlore w ar to
rna e It more p laya ble Th e di ff icul ties 0 1
Imegra ing land, sea and air wa r are Into one
sys tem are answ ered In USN by rules w hich " re
techmcally corr ec t bUI far too complex

Player Review : Combat Command

Publisher: Simulations Publications,
New York City
Designer: James F. Dunnigan
Subject: Tactical Land Combat, Europe

1944
A - il11a p sheet l
B - (ru les)

5.95

6 .93

(cou n t rs)

7 41

0- (ea se of play l
E - (com p le tenessl
F - ! balance l

6.65
7 06
6 69
7.17
7.02
.92
6.92
6. 92

G (l englhl
H - (se l -u p)

KL

Comm ems. Flying Circus is simple, fres h and

short The game system is the l irst 10 effec tive ly
simulale tac ti cal plane-Io -plane co mbat In any
period , and Will serve a i:l ba sis for o ther tac air
games righ; up to Foxbat and PhantOm (1 970'sl.
1 he game IS one o f Ihe besl halallced a any SP I
game, and the se l -up and play ing time are
conven ien tly 8asy an d bri ef. It 's a refreshlll g shi f t
from USN .

7 11
629
7.36
4.56

(comp lex. y )
(rea lis m )
(o v ra ll l

Comments Cornba( Command was inl8nded

10 ctean up the complex, ti es a nd ambi
g i ies 0 PanzerBII17 In lI11 s I: w as success l ul
Rules arE! clearer, especiall y Ihe Lone of Sigh l!
lU1e o f File . BU I Combar Command locks some
o Ihe Ire8-wh eelrng actro n o f PanlerBlill play is
more ri gid and some sce narios are aimos l
Imp OSS ible

part iv

Changing Your Address?

. . . if vou are, y ou ' ve gOI !O let us know at
least SIX weeks i n advance in order to insure
safe delivery of your magazine (th e Post O ffice
does not forward magazines). Send us your
complete new address i ncluding Z ip Code, an d
the date of effect. IMPOR TANT: Send us (he
address label from vour last magazine ... it
contains vital account-number information
which will expedite the Change-aI-address procedure. If you don 't have an old address label,
then at least send us your old address (and
clea rly indica te it as being the old address and
Zip Code). We need your help in order to keep
o ur subscriber records accurate and up -lo -date.
Th anks.

28
DESIGNER'S NOTES
(continued ffom page 2)

people. The "i rregu lar" people are play lesters.

One of th e SP I people (the team lea der ) IS
responsible for ac tually putting lhe ru les
togel her. A I Ihls POIn I the game enters a six
wee k lon g "development pipeline." During this
jJenoel the game w ill go Ihroug h a live step
proce ss lead ing up to a comple te game bein g
deli vere d to a gam edit o r. Th e li ve jJa rt
process beginS with th e game's deSigner (who
"in lcgra ted" the researc tl and game co ncep t
uHO he Ilrst playable proto type) ve rball y
passing on 10 the development crew the
9i1me's " rules ." Th is IS a ralher c rl llcal period.
It IS the ga me's designer w l10 usually carnes up
w II I'I ally Innova ti ons 10 be found In lhe game .
Also, 01 course, il is the gafTI8 designer w ho
co mes up w lll1 lhe new game "syslems" , The
problem ClI th iS stilge IS thai the developmenl
leam, a ratt ler pr o feSS iona l and hardened
bllncl l, 11as a naSl y lendency tow ar ds la in g a
game places Ihe d e~lg n er hadn' t planned on.
n 'e deve lo ~rlI e nl people are co m pelled fa get
Ih game fin ished In SI)< weeks and usuall y
h,we II In prel ly good shape atte r a few w eeks.
PLlsJll ng tile prOject Ihis fast Inclines tl1em
towards mak ing I helr own solutions for any
problems tha i arise In thai time These
solu li ons usuall y produce a playable ga me. BUI
unless Ih(;! designer keep on op of things
from Ihs sta rt II Will no longer be " hiS" ga me
lIer I he developmenl crew IS fini shed. It's
qlllie lik e TrYing 10 COl1lrol a learll o f wi ld
hor ses. Given I he pro per direcl/on, I he team
Will do wo nde rs, Lacki ng direct ion you oitel)
get a stam pede in a nu mber of w rong
ellrec ti ol)s. IFor a de tail ed desCl lp ll(HI o f how
aile game "wenl th rough th e mil l" al SPI see
Lenny Glynn's ar Icl e in Ih ls issue on Soldiers .)
Once the development team ge ts th e ga me,
IIlFJV first debllg It. Tha i IS, ma ke sure the damn
thin g plays li ke Ihe designer la id them II wO Llld .
Of ten l he ga me doesn' l No one's perlect. BUI
ttl deSig ner beller be there to ge l things
straight or else someone else w ill do i t lor
somel 11111g li ke " it") lor him . The game ge l s
ex pose d 10 some play tes ters. SurvI vin g I hat
Iwhic h Isn' l loa dl ffi c ul l because th e developmenl crew COnl aln S some prelly goocl player s)
a rules ouil lne IS w nllen . Back to play tes lers
aga in. M ore bugs are irone d out. Mo re goodies
added 10 th e game laddilional scenariOS, better
rules 01 cOllcepts) . Then comes the firs t d raf t
o f 1I1e rules Final touch es are pul on the olher
components. The art deparlmenl may be
consul led regarding certa in aspeci s o f co m
po nent des ign . More play lesting . Then the
flnill dra ft. M ore lOuchmg UP (trying to catch
lhose [h lngs which herelOl ore got IntO pnnl ).
More tes llng . The fin al manuscrip t is prepared .
Ol her components are made ready lor delivery
to tile art de partment. Some more fin al tes ting.
A t Ihis pl1 inl w used 10 tum Ihe game over 10
th o all deparlmen l . BUI w e have since lea rn ed
that 11 fun her stage IS needed. Edlli ng.
Someone wilo ha s had no thing 10 do w ith the
game up 1111 now is given w llal th e develop
rll(" r1t teil rn prod uced . The edi tor's Job ? To go
Ovp,r Ihe game Dne Jils t time. lI 's arnallng wha t
u\-I ly Ihln gs Will l urn up il l Ihis slag .. II's Ihe
edi lOl 's job 10 fi X Itlrngs up belore the ar t
depar lm .nl goes to work on designing the
physica l compon 1115 o f I he game . Here tofore
Ihc arl dlrec lo r lRedm ()n d Simonsen I had th e
"flnil l CUi" ledl on all y l. TrI IS w a~ partia ll y
be cCiu se , w r, en designing the game cornpo nents, cerialn organiza ti onal c hanges had to
be ma de-Ill the game . An d the n Illere w as the

fact I li al Simonse n plays games qUi te a 10\ and

has a ga me player' s bias tow ar ds clear ru les
and smoo thly func ti oni ng game mechaniCS.
ThiS was fine. rf Simonsen had tli e ume.
Unlorl unately he didn 't. Being one of the few
pmnemovers at SP I, hiS time w as needed for
rTlarlY dlfferenl hlngs. Expeclln g hi m to do th e
final edl\l ng fo r games w as a needlessly
excessive bur den Once w e bega n to produce
2 + games a monlh it became physi call y
Impossible 10 do everythin g . At tIl at poin t w e
kn ew we had to add an add ilional step lan d
m ore people I to the game development
pr oc ess
There were sti ll more reasons for adding the
edi ting slep . Fi rS I and foremost Ihere w as the
constantly lisln g quali ty a our game rules.
T liS was no a cidenl an d was not entir ely the
result 0 grea ter experience. M os tly II was
Simp ly Ihe application o f more ti me and [al enl
10 Ihe prepa rati on 01 game ru les. M uch of th iS
ad dilio nill time and talent goes to wards
coo rdi na llrl g th e efforts of the large number o f
en lhuslastlc and lalen ted people involved. II' s
on e Ih lng to get a lot of cap able and en ergelic
peop le w ork ing on a gam e. It's someth ing else
to get henl to do things Wi th each other and
nol al cross-purposes. Adding an " Edit ing"
stage 10 the proceedings does add more
res traln lS 10 the plocess. HaVing too litt le
res lrain t mak es il diffi cul t for Ihings 10 take
forrn . Too many restraints throttle progress .
The IflCk , as always, IS to strike a balance. ThiS
is wha we are tryrng 10 do. So far the resu lts
have suppo rt ed Ihe eff on ex pended .
To be anno unced In issue 34 of S &T will be
I barrin g t il e 5011 oi lasl m inute disaslers w e've
come 10 kn ow an d expec t) 7872, Th e Marne
and perhaps La Grande Armee . One of Ihese
games is qU ite uniqu e. The 7812 game is
act ually IwO games In one. Two co mple le
g;:lmes Two rnapsheels. Two set s 01 game
corllp omm s. Two sets 01 rules Two radicall y
different game systemS. A nd bo th on exactly
t l e same his tOrica l event . The Fre nch InvaSion
o f RUSSia In 1812. The scene of Napoleon' s
flr sl malor m ilil ary disaster, As Phil Orba nes
wi ll expl;:lI n in th e next issue of MOVES . th ere
ale man y com pellrn g reaso ns fo r di ffe rent
deSign conceplS fo r any single Ilis lOrica l
slluali on. In tllis cas e, It w as originall y lelt th at
I he 18 12 SIlua tlQn co uld be ha ndled Wi th the
same game sys lem developed for Leljuiy. At
Ihls pain l, we oughl to digress upon some of
I he personahles. J im Du nnigan has developed
nearly all of Ihe game systems used In SPI
games . He rese rves the fi ght to decide which
ganl e syslem is to be used, or w he lher or not a
new system has to be developed . When w ork
on 18 12 was begun , Dun nigan w enl over the
lesearcl1 rTlalerral wl1 h lhe devel opmen t an d
deSign peo ple (PIlil Orbanes and Jo hn Young)
and It was deCided Ihat th e Leipzig sy stem
w ould pr obably ti l. Later Dunn igan carn e up
wi th adcfi lional informa tio n {and so me Interes t
Ing queslions) rega rdlflg th e supply situa ti on .
1 his Intormatlon led Phil Orba nes (the only
olh er perso n at SP I w ho ac tually designs
gan,es) to co me up w llh a new game sy slem.
BUI at the saine tune , John Yo ung was able 10
adap t Ihe Leipzig sys tem to the un usual
sl1 ua lion In Russia. Neither game had a clea r
supellorlly over Ihe o 1her. ConSidera ble eHon
hLlCI been put in to both ga mes . Bo th games
were qUite good . The obvious deCision w as
rea ched . BOlh games w ould be pu bli she d
together In il $10 package . Tll is approach had
O llfO addili onal ad van tage . Til e Orbanes version
used an alea syslem o f movemen t, pl us man y
oth er unu sua l mec hanica l leatu res. One w ay 10

lest Ihe effec tive ess 0 1 one "sys tem" over

Ihe oi ller wa s I publish wo games on the
same sublecI, each using different game
sys tems.
Th,. bri ngs us 10 our lat est method 01
cvalua l ing games Th e Pl ayback Review. W e
haven' l gotten Ihe Fee dback results back for
Ihis ye l , but other mdica tors Ima lnly our
lett ers) mdlca te thai w e have Ima lly hit upon a
reliab le mel hod of evalual lllg games . Soon
Iperhaps in MOVES 5 ) w wi ll begin using Ll
much larger teed bac k card w hich wil l all ow us
to su rvey just abou t every game in print in a
silorl time . Lack of space in MOVES wi ll
prohibit us from publlshmg all but the mos t
recent game ra ti ngs immedialely. W e w ill
probably publish all Play back da ta In MO VES 7
lFebrua ry '731. Tliat issue Will proba bly be
lurned over to a review o f w ha wen 01 1 in
games during 1972. W e are already " fil lmg up "
his speCial issue and II looks to be the annual
I llg h poml tor MOVES .
M ea nw hile, th e Plavba ck re sults, as we ll as all
.he other playe r roec llon in fo rm ation w e have
rece iveeJ , ha ve given us some ra ther del in it
design gurdelines to follow. First, some "profr le" Informa tion . It seems that 10% o f you
prefer very simple games lIike Nap oleon ar
Wa rer/ao) Tile bulk of you (62%) pre fer games
01 moderale com pleXi ty III e France '40) while
Ihe ol her 28% pre fer very com plex games li ke
USN One migll l assurne Ihat Ihe Irend should
lean to w ards more com plex games. That
proved no t to be Ihe case. Games on a
co m plexily level be tween Napo/eon ar Warer
100 arid France 40 (Borodino an d FIVing Circus,
lor example) seem 10 ~ a ti sf y the most people.
Borodino and Flying Circus tp lus very "clean"
games like Com hal Commandl cO I~s l s le n lly
co me out very hig In player popu lal'lty polls.
BUl hln g~ ar no all Ihat sim ple .
Between 20% and 30% of yOl l are "cornplexlly
Ireaks" I lor wa nt 0 1 a beller name ). At the
o her end o f the speCirum you have about
10% who w ill lolera te nolil ing bUI the most
Simple games. The ca lch is lhat Ihe people "In
tile rrliddle" 18 50% group ) can more easily
han dle an d apprecia te a Sim ple game th an a
/TIo re co mplex one. In elfecI, we have two
(Ii stin ct groups of ganl ers Th e sim plic ity
g roup and th e comp lex ity group. One soluti on
I til e one w e are curren ll y uSlllgl IS to deSign
pfl llliln ly Simple games. No rn herenlly comp lex
games should be designed, bUI as ma ny gLlmes
as pOSSible should have "corn plexll y rules"
ilva ilable In Ihem ThiS is nOI always possible
~v l lh every game, but we can manage il w ilh
m os t.
ThiS bn ngs us to Ihe ques ti on at playability . In
any ga rl le, no matier how silllp le or comp lex,
th e l u l e~ must be clea r. Th e play mecha niCS
most lIow srnoo lflly and wi th a m inimum of
effor t. All 11113 player should have 10 concen Ir ,lle Oil IS "playin g" lhe game . W e are
cons tanlly ra iSing th e standa rds o f " pl ay
abri ll y " And we ha ve fou nd thai thi s pays of f.
Playe rs ~ppre c l a t e games thai " wo rk"
smootil ly Even a ITl nster like USN, for all ils
co mplexll y, ad a vel y cleal se l o f rules . ThiS is
pa rt ic ularly true w hen you conSider the COIl1plex lty o f the game. TI1e more complex a
game, the mo re difflcu ll II IS 10 conS lruct
plaYilble rules . ThiS rlIay be belabOring th e
ObV IOUS, bu l Our mo re "playable" ru les of la te
have been responsible for m uch of th e
popu lority 01 our rec erl l ga mes.
La Grande Armee game (t o be an nounced in
ISSUf1 34 of S & 71 w ill be very Sim ilar 10 LeipZig

29
but will (;oV(~r Ihe Napol on ic ,arnpaig ns In
Germany bel ween 1805 and 1809 The Marne
"vii i cover Ihe crucial ballie In 19 14 w hen the
Germa - were stopped and throvvn back Just
ou side Paris , It w ill be one Wolld Will I game
WI h a I 10 movement In ii , Op tiona l scenallos
allow you to explore the numerous "mlQhl
have beens" of tile cam paign ,
Tile ollow lng games are fini shed or ill the
"plpellne" at 11 18 momen iJnd are due to be
ar,noullceu In 58 I 35 I Novembel '721 , BreakOlll allf! PurSUI/ I IVISlon level, France 19441,
MBT ltar.I IGll levcl, Europe III IhcI970'si, The
Wilderness Cafl'f./algn I Ivil Wa l , 1864', Tile
Amcf/can Revolulion ISlra teglc, area movement, 1775 1782) In issue 35 [here w ill be Year
01 (he Rae a regimenta l, grand-tac lical level
game of tle North VICI amese oj ensiv w hl h
began earlier his yea l Now Iha 's a dif ferent
game T le cam paig n won't even be over when
nle qalTle IS pu bl ished . You can try tinlshi ng It
yourself

And Just to whet yo ur appetlles , the fo llOWing

me planned lor release III Issues 36
IJanuclly '731 1I1rough 40 ISeptemb r '731 of
5&T G- mes slaled fOI publlcali n in 5&Twlll
be Indica tee The Des/ruc/ion of Armv Group
Center IRussla, 1944 , divisio level - S&n.
Blue & Grey (tacl ical, Civil W ar and o lhers,
185019001, Spllflre Itac tlcal air , 1939-421,
Muskel & Pike (tac ical, la le 161h to late 171h
cen ury), Ausrerlirz (briga de level apoleorHc
bill Ie), Scnmmage I"tactlca l" level, ma to
man, fflO IJall - S8T1, Srurmovik ( aC lieal all',
RUSSI;; 1 84 1 - 4~'i1 , Coin Waf (diploma Ie warfa re,
POSt WWIII, The Bulge Ithe Ardennes 1944
again, a new re9 1m n tal comba l systeml,
1:jCllnf)S

Book I
The first six issues of
Strategy & Tact ics
S ,- T 11 qan pu tJll S l ing I ) 1967 Like mOSi
hiS (11Y m lell cd magil7111"s, back ISSu~S Q
Sh 1 never rea lly become dated. Book 115 a
t,n11l- cl volume of 76 pages tJl al lnClu es the
I " ~I "di ll )11 0 1 S& T I-,rllhe "PX I I,vt; Issues
shOW lI lg It s cOllce pllon all d developfTlel11
.-is ti e "Journal o f A'llerIC<ln WarfJarnlng "
f'lIull sh,ng !=]anles In a magaz ine was
nillated In 5& Tit 7 wh ich begll1s Remagen
tillrigeh('ad. il m lnliltu res gar r- of he
American uleaklh l ough ov I 1 RhIne
011!1; 1 ''''!Jul,) lea ures 01 earlv .'5& T's
Inci llrip I ( rnrrlrrllmy cH lel and lys S of AVD
,on Hill D"m';~ (r'specla lly Sidlinqrau and
Bill Lk Tiel), thell 111e mOSl adva need ga mes
iJvcIl IDIJI,, ), ilr llCles Gn games by d()SIQnr.fS
';UL'h a5 JalTlt:s DUlln lCjan allu Ph il Orbanes,
hlstOIlCi.l l udckll rou'-Id ai l icies all th~ Reel
A 1'1 I,!, Alnlo ted wada le, anel rnlll ary lar
11% l'le IIIs1 SIX ,sstJes 11f S (' T Irlc lude
ru tes or Iwo comple le rTllfliature ,li nes
Clflrl fl Un,,' rrJlJ<; var lilnlS on Avalo'! HIli
' jclPk'~ 1 "(0' 1 5~lIeS ale ph io- replod uccd
i)flcl c' Ise t I)flflled III Ihe or igina l olm [lild
bound IOgelll ,')1 In ~eq u encE' All ilrllcles arc
l/idexecl fur easy re erence by dU lhor and
HI la A peciDI Ini oductory essav by
CiHl"iupllPr WilCjne l , S& T's origina l ed, tol
clnd lou l lder ~I' ves a " behind Ihe scenes"
account 01 til e genesIs of S& T, Ava ilable
I'orn Slinu latl or;s Pub lrca l lons Iw $5,00

Foxbar & PhanlOm (tacllcal ail, the 1970's),

CA (sur face naval comba l, aCl lcal , Ihe Paclilc,
1941-45 - S&n. The Wars of Napa/eon
(s tra eglc level, area 1l10veme , the NapoleoniC Wa rsl, Verdun IreglmCnl /d lvlslo level,
19 161, Tile GellVsburg CiJmpaign (g rand tactical level, '18631 , The Guadalcanal Campaign
(a ll, lan d, sea campa ign, nle Paci ri C 1942-431 ,
"House 10 House Fighni1g Conrinues in
Sialil/qrad. " (rndn-IO-miln le ve l com ba t,
RUSSliJ, 1942 - S&Tl, Zero I actical air, Ihe
PaCIfiC, 1940-431,30 YeiJ rS War (s trategi c level,
area movelTl-'nt, 1618, 16481, Napoleon a( Bay
I~lran d lac heel I vel, 1814-151. Ba llles m [h e
Ukrame (diVISion level, RUSSia 1943-441 , Fnedlrinn (brigade/di vision level Na po leon ic ba tie)
S{)anisil Civif War !strateg ic level , area move
men t, 1936-1 939), Remagen (regimen tal I ve l,
Germany 19451, Arnhem Ireg lr'nenta l ai rborne
opera lion , Holland 1944) .

New games current ly in the workS arc MB T

and Austerlill. MBT is ano hel cha pter in th ai
contlllU lng ques for a game as fas tmavlng as
PanzerBlllz yel no t so com plica ted . Combar
Command was an al templ The play "ilawed "
muc'l mo re smoo l hly, bu t t ere wasn't a
milch treewheell ng aCl lon as In PanzerBlilz
Unfortu nately (for all you mov me nt frea sl
Comba{ Command was being more realis ti C
Ihan PanzerB/i{z, In MBT (Main Ba tie Ta'lk)
we r duced the scale to 300 melers per hex
' "0m 750 meters for Comba/ Command). nllS
IS cl se a the 250 meters of Pan7erB!iIZ , we
have k p mos t of Ihe good ru les mechan ics
and con s ruct ion a ComiJal Command A nd
hell we have added so me mOle " improvemen ls" (you nevel now un til peo ple have

pl(lyec Ihem for a whllel , MB T is a tac t Ical level

gall\t; coverin g hypo t1e tlcal ac tion s III Europe .
Tile tnne IS Ihe 1970's and the antagonis ts are
West Germa n and Am ICcHi forces versus
RIiSSIDn lorces. New developments til w Dponry acid D nu be, o f ew problems , The wo
OS I I1l1pOrlant changes are le w ire gUided
itrl ll liJn
missile and Ihe helicop ter Th e
'Nl re-gUldr.d m issile was a probleln iJecause no
one IS r8DIII' ~ure just how ellec ti ve It is If th a
we rr.n' Gnoug h tlouble th ere are a numbel oi
"gen ,rations" o f rnls!) iles, W e hink we've
<;olvcCl mos l o f Ihe pr ule
, bul we'll never
know for sure I)n II the dam n things are
ctual ly useeJ all a vVlde scale "10pelully, Ihls
WIll nevel happen ) Helicopters proved 10 be
less o f il problem The rea l problerns were
ge ling II Ihese ch rlerent "parts" to work
togethe r ill Ihe Silme game We've develope(j a
Ilew "bloodless" comba t resol ution system
wt'li ch "00 ns ur" the game conS iderably.
COll i rary to wha I Dppeared 10 be tile case in
PanzerBli'L Idnd to il cer laln ex tell! , Combar
Commandl mos l ac110ns 031 ~'Ie pla toon/com pany level ale rather slow and spasmodiC No
one wan ts In ge hemselves killed. It's casler
10 aldel
ril visloll mto bal 18 Ihan a pla toon
The /\us{eriirz game has much In common
witll Borodmo 0 e major change IS lha tl t's n
118 br lgad level IWlth sacki ng allowed) Th
ru les are very ~Im ll ri o Borodino i most o ther
respects. One lnaJor ch nge IS e Sltu;;JlIO n,
II's a 101 mo re "on n" Ihan Borodino hi more
lesembles Naloleon al Waterloo in th iS re
spec II It looks II. e a very playa bl e, exci Ing
(jil III e ,

We'v e beell "skr.d qUl le a lo t 10 r port on wha l

rJt her gDme publishers are dOIn
These

30
requests are based on th e prerrllse lIlat th is
co lum n IS supposed to Gover game develop men ts for all publishers. W ell , we ' ve sa,d It
be t ore , A nd we'l l probably ha ve to say it again
every so otten , DeSigner's No tes co vers only
the progress at S,mutatlons PubllCa1l0ns, Tha t
alune covers the ma jo ri ty of game design work
belrlg done It 's also the one area 01 deSign
work w e kn ow the mos t about, Ho w ever, w e
can t II yo u wha t we kn ow about what's goin g
on III other areas ,
Ava lon H il l iS going through some ch anges, As
we have grown , and gi ven Visible proo f tha t a
fu ll time R& D elton ca n support Itse lf, two
tllings hilve happened at A H because of th is,
First, our stancli ng o ft er to let tllem publish
games tram SEtT has gone a bit sour as our
crrcu lallon In creased , Taking any ga me pub
Iished In 1972 {they co nsidered Combar Command lor awh llel wou ld have tl1em publishing
a game ttla t wo uld have alread y sold 20,000
co pies In t tl e SEt T versio n by I he ti me th ey go
It Into the stores. Assum ing that peo ple would
wanl to pay $900 fo r so meth ing they've
already rcc ,ved lin a less laney package) for
less lfl an half Ihal priCe was some hing A H
wa s not qu il e prepared to accep t. II' s a moot
point. An al her problem bo thered A H, Tile last
two ga mes they did " In house" we l e Guadal canal an d Krlegsplel. On our surveys the se two
games co me au t near the bott om every time .
Eve r since 1966 A I-I has depended on "Ollt Si de" sources for th err games , Trl e only source
to produ ce conSI51ent ly good games was SP I
(J ,m Du nnigan l. Anzio {Da ve W ilharTI S) ha ~
be n Withd rawn from th e marke t for poor
sa les, Luflwaffe I Lou Zocch i I had mixed
reViews, althougll I he sil l e~ w ere good. Bu t
wh en AH w en t to Lou for an Ame nca n
RevolUtion game I hey found co nSidera bly less
tl,an the y were lookin g for, A I-I IS no t an xI ous
to become dependen t on a Single source aga in ,
The y leel th at I here M UST be enough game
plJyers out Ihere to plovlde th em With
su ft lc lent games FollOWing thi S Irac k th ey
have Illled one 01 the mO l e vi sibl e, re liable an d
ex peri enceci game "fans" around , Don Greenwood (who edited Panzerfaus{ for nearly SIX
years l Now in Ilis early 20's, Don was hired
rec ent ly by AH , HIS jo b IS mul tllold. One pan o f
It IS a be Tom Shaw' s "un ders tu dy" !Tom IS
curren tl y v ice president of AH and the one
ma n w ho holds il all to getherl . Don was also
hired to take some 0 1 th e adrninlS tra[ IVe load
Iro m Torn, This Includes edi ting A H's game
magaLlne Th e General Edit ing The General
has been male o f a pari time Job for Shaw of
lale And II ~how s . A yea r ago The General had
IWlce Ihe Circulation of SEtT. Now SEt T has
[1 1r81] l imes Til e General's circu lat ion. Dan's
experi ence and dedi ca ti on In editing Panzerfaust was to have been applied to The General.
Whe l her or not thiS Will help In any way
remai ns to be seen AH's biggest pro bl em is
slI ll 9 uing games, This IS to be ano th er one of
Don Greenwood'~ jobs. To eva luClte (no r
design ) " ou lslde " games U p un til now A H
dldn'l even have Ih ls capabi lil y , Th ey wou ld , in
a pinch, enl,sl the adVice o f a few local ga mel's
w hen an IntereSllng game came in The plan is
o Ilave gooll " 111 tl0use" evalua ti on and th en
wa ll l and /o r encourage I garners to submit
games W ~lat IS sti ll lack ing IS qua lity ed it ing
an d pro duc ti on capabilities. For L uflwaffe AH
did Ihe edil lng and produc ti on "in house," But
til e rul es had to re-w rl tten by Oma r Dewitt m
Buffalo, ew York w hile Ihe game co mpo nents w ere copie d from SP I's Pa nzerBlirz
componen ts. W Ila t il all bo ils down to is that
AH IS unwill ing and/or una ble to put to gether

an In -house design capab il ity, Put tin g toge ther

~UC ~' a team wou ld be expenSive, an d ri sky, It's
taken us yea rs to develop su c h a capab ili ly ,
W e've fou nd tha t really competen t people in
I he game deSIgn fi eld are few and far be twee n,
In effec t, the Dunni gan/S imonsen team have
had to lit erall y tra in all the peop le on Ihe SP I
R8D staff And the tra ining prog ra m is ha rdl y
fi nished, Ava lon Hi ll IS appa ren tl y unwilllflg to
even try It should be obvious to all but the
slow Ico rn ers tha t the more "professional" tile
peopl e work mg on a game, the more "pro fes
Siona l" Ihe game w ill be . Garners, or groups o f
garners, are qUi te capab le of com ing up w it h
playable gaines. Wi th good and in novati ve
game ideas. Bu t people wh o pUI the ir w ho le
e l ort int o it on a tull time basis can do much
be ller We've proved that. A H wo n' t take the
hint and II looks li ke the ir futu re games,. and
the peo pl e w ho play then-I, w ill "pa y" for it.
AH has one more ga me from SPI to pub fis h
The game is Outdoor Survival and it 's due fo r
publication in the Fall of '72 , It wa s aClUa ll y
done for S ta ckpo le books (who publ ish a fa rge
nu nlber 0 1 "ou td oo r" till es l thro ug ll Ava lon
H ill. W e deSigned it, Ava lon Hi ll w ill pu blish l or
at leas t rnanu fa clUr el It w hile Stackpole wi ll
se lt th e game. The subject of th e game IS
rnd lca ted by its title, It turned au! to be quite
iln eff ec ti ve " conl lr ct sim ula ti on," Our testers,
w hose usua l diet is wa rgames, liked it enor m ously , A ft el that (Spring '73) Avalon Hill's
p l an~ are less firm . They co nsidere d an
Ame l lcan ReVOlu tion game by Lou Zocchi bu t
relec ted it. The re are oth er grou ps designing
games. Do n Lowry run s a comp any calle d
GUidon Games wtli c h 11as broug ht out some
ga mes tr. at try for A H 's physi cal quality bu t fa ll
far sha ri T he deSig n quai ll y is ye t 10 be
eva luated Iwe are in the process of doing th is!.
A H may go here fo r a game, or to some of th e
other semi-pr ofess io nal garn8 publishers, Th e
Iro ny of It all LS th ai A H has less R&D ca pa cit y
ha n m uch sma ller out fits. W here Will AH go?
Based on pas t per formance
DeCide for
yourse lf ,
FEED BACK: MOVES 2
Rank

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Article

Limited Intelti gence

Game Profile: Battle of Sta tingrad
Ad ding Rea lism to Armor
Some Panzer Btitz Optional Rules
Anschlu ss
PanzerB litl Rev ised
Game Review: Leipzig
Gamespeak
9 Simulations an d Erlucalion
to Why Games Never Materialize
, 1 Gustavus Ad olphus
12 Idiocy or Re<l tity
T his Issu e l overa tll

Raring

7.46
7. 26
6.91
6,82
6,77
6,7 1

6.50
6.13

5.98
5.92
5.91
5, 76
7,05

Tl1 ere are some in teres tin g com parison be Iw een MO VES subscribers and SEt T sub scrrbers las a grou p I Everyo ne la bou t 99 % I
who ge ts MOVES subsc ribes to SEtT, of
course . A gewlse, the MOVES group IS somewha t older. To be pr eCise, more of the MOVES
subscribers are co ncen trated In the 18-27 yea r
group With few being ofder or yo unger th an In
5 & T as a w hole. Mo re MO VES su bsc fl bers are
s till studen ts. MOSI fe lt th at MOVES 2 w as a
conSlder able im provem en t over MOVES / ,
On ly 27% felt tha t MOvES / was all they
ex pec te d w hile 42% fe l t th at way w ith M OVES
2 While 20 % thoug h t th at MOVES I wasn ' t
wha t they expec ted only 12% fe lt th at way
abol1t MOVES 2. USing Fee dback result s we' ll
con rn ue to wo rk on the s1l1l iarge "undecided"
group,

Feedback
MOVES nrA published August 1972

How ro Use [he Feedback Response Ca rd:

Atter you 've fi nish ed read ing th is issue of
MOVES, ptease read t he Fee dback questions
below, and give us y'our answers and opin ions
on the Feedback Response Card Th e most
convp.nlenl way 10 use Ihe ca rd IS to hold it
direc tl y alongside the list of questions and t hen
w flte your answer-n umber in th e respo nse-box
on Il1e ca rd whi c h cor responds to the question
num ber, Please be sure you r answ er numbers
are leg ible, and be ce rtain tha t tile number of
t he response-box ma tc hes Ihe number of the
ques ti on you are answering.
Please be sure to answer all the questions
asked , Cards w hich are II1co nipletely fi lled out
canno t be processed , W hen a questio n-number has " no question " afte r it, do nOI w rite
any thin g In th at pa ri icu lar res ponse- box ,

Whar rh e Numbers Mean.' Genera lly speaking,

th ere are two types of questions asked in the
Feedback sect ion : 11 1 Ra tin g questions and 121
"yeslnolno o pInion" type ques tions
Ra ting Dues tions ' W ilen answering a rati ng
questlon (such as w ha t you though t of a
par ti cu lar ar ucle In thiS Issue) write one
number from "0" t~rr ough " 9" : " 1" is the
WorSI Ra li ng , "9" is the bes{ ra trng , "5"
means an average rallng , and all numbers
belween express vario us shades of approval or
disapprova l "0" ind ica tes No Opinion or Nor
Applicable
Yes/ No Dueslions.' W hen the qustion is a "yes
or no" ques tion , " 1" means Yes , "2 " means
N() Inrld "0" means No Opinion or Nor
Applicable ),
W e hope you w ill use yo ur Feedback Respo nse
Cald as your direc t- line \0 the editors.
Questions:

I 2 3 -

No quesl lon
No quesl lon
No quest ion

Dues tions 4 rhrougll II ask you ro raEe Ihe

arricles li7 Illis issue on a scale of I = poor 10 9
= excellent.
4 -

DeSigner' s NOles

5-

Sold iers: The Developemen t Pr ocess

6 -

Soldiers The H istori ca l Ba c kgro un d

7 - War and " Peace"

8 - No ques ti on
9 -

[) quest ion

10 - "All Plave"fs are created equa l. "

11 - Power Poli ti cs
12 - TillS .Issue {o ve ra ll l
13 -

W as th iS Issue bet te r than th e last ?

14 - On the baSIS of th iS Issue wou ld you

resubscribe right flOW?
15 -

W as thi s your firs t M D VES'

16 - Your age: 1 = 13 years old or less;

2 = 14- 17; 3 = 18-21 , 4 = 22-27; 5 = 28-35;

6 " 36+ .

31
17 -

Yo ur sex : 1 = Male : 2 == Fema le.

18 - Educallon : 1 = 11 yea rs o r less; 2 = 12

years; 3 == 13- 15 years; 4 = 13- 15 years and
s til l In school; 5 == 16 yea rs ; 6 = 17 + years .
19 - How long Ilave you been p laying Ga m e
Slm u laiJons ' 0 = less th an 1 year ; 1 = 1 yea r,
2 = 2 y ars;
9 = 9 + yea rs,
20 - Wh at IS the average n u mber of hou rs
yo u spe nd p lay ing Ganl e- Simu lations each
m o nl h?O = none, 1 = 1 hour or less, 2 == 2-5
hou rs, 3 = 69 hou rs, 4
10 - 15 h ou rs,
5 = 16-20, 6 = 2 1-25, 7 = 26-30, 8 = 30-40,
9 = 41 +

21 - How many game sim u lations do youpossess? 1 = 1 on ly, 2 = 2-5, 3 = 6-10,

4 = 11-15,5 = 16-20,6 = 21-25;. 7 = 26-30,
8 = 30-40, 9 = 4 1 T ,
22 - Did you sen d In a feed back car d for yo u r
last Issue 01 MOVES ? 1 = yes, 2 = no ,

Quesrions 23-25 ask yOU to ra re types of

wargame "environmenIS" lland. air and nava!J.
Rate the game "environments " on a scale of I
ro 9. 1 = dislike rhe games in rhis "environ mem" [a 9 = eniov very much this game
" environmenl, .23 -

Na val Games

24 -

A il Games

25 - Land Games
26 - W hich pe riod 01 p re -World W ar I history
wo uld you mos t preier t o see more games and
an lcles on? 1 == Ancien l 13000BC-400BCI,
2 = Greek
1400BC-100BC),
3 == Roma n
1100BC-600AD), 4 = Dark Ages (600AD1200AD ),
5 "" Ren aissa nce
11200-1600),
6 = 30 Years War 11600- 1700) , 7 '" Pre -Napol eo nlC 11700 - 1800!, 8 = Na po le onlC (1800 1830), 9 == Civ il War (1830-19001
27 - W h ich of Ihe fo llowing modern "perIod s" wou ld you mOSI p refer 10 see more
games on? 1 '" W or ld War I, 2 = Wor ld Wa r
II Europe (1940 & 1944), 3 = W orl d WEIr II
Russia, 4 "" Wor ld Wa r II T he Pacifi c,
5 = W orld W ar II No rth Afr ica , 6 == Wor ld
War II Iialy B The Ba lkans, 7 '" Korea,
8 == Vi ei nam, 9 = Th e Pl8senl {jus l about
anywll e re Ihere is a pO l ential 101 con fl ict ).

28 - No q ues t io n

The resu/{s of I/le 10110 wing survey are used in

our new PLA YBACK system This sVSlem
reviews games by stlOwing Ihe response of 1/7e
people who plav {he games. Ques rions 29-80
are parr of PLAYBACK.
For each game [here are thirteen questions
lletrered "A" rhro ugh " N " !. Unless otherwise
noted, rhese questions are answered with a
" /" [poo rl through "9"(excellem] rating,
Quesrion A - What did you 117ink of [he
physical qualilY and lavout of rhe mapsheel?
Ouestion B - Whal did yo u rhlnk of the
physical qualiry and layoUt of the rules folder?
Ouesrion C - Wh ar did you rh ink of the
phYSical qualify and lavour of the unit
co umers?
Ouesrion D - What did you rhink of the
game 's "ease of plav " (how well rhe game
"moved along "]?
Ouestion E - Whal did you Ihink of Ih e
"compleleness" of the game's rules (was
everything thoroughlv explain ed]?

QuesrlOn F - WhBf did you think of [he

gam e's play balance Iwas rhe game interesring
for bOlh sides p

65 66 -

Quesl!oIJ G
Wha! (iid vou think abOIJ/ Ihe
Irmg rh nf the average game?

67 -

Ques lion H - Wha l did think of the amounr

of "S81 up rime" needed before you co uld
begin plaving th e game?
QueSlion J - What did you
complexilV of [his game.?

rhink of [he

Ques/ion K Wha r diet you think of rhis

game's realrsm?
OuestlOn L overall?

Wha t did VOU lhint of rh is game

Oue sll o n L (overa ll l

OU 8S l1 0 ll M Ilhe n EJ now!
Iyes o r no on lyl
Ques l ion N (mon ey's wort h )
Iyes or no on ly)

Luftwaffe (Avalon Hill)

68 - Qu eSTi o n A (mapshee l )
69 - Ou es tio ll B (ru les )
70 - Ouesli on C (co un lersl
7 1 - QU 8sli on D (ease 0 1 pl ayl
72 - Ou es!ion E (com plete ne ss 01 ru lesl
73 - Qu est ion F (ba lan cel
Ques ti on G (leng th!
75 - Ques tion Hi sel-up li me !

74 -

Queslio n M - Would VOU srill have bough!

rIllS game if vou knew rhen whal you know
now about ir 11 == Yes , 2 = Nol
Ques lion N - Do you Illink you received your
money 's wonh will) [his game [ 7 = ves;
2 = no , )
II\/e will ask VOU 10 ra re four games. If Vou ilave
nor plaved rh ese games, or have nOi played
[hem enough /() be al.Jle ro evaluare rh em, then
.I'linpiv place "0 's" In th e boxes_

76 - Quest ron J Ic omp lexityl

77 - Question K I rea li sm!
78 - Ques li on L (overa ll l
79 - Ol les ti o n M 1\l1en & nowl
(yes o r no o nl y)
80 - Oues ti on N (money's worth!
(yes o r no only !

1914 (Avalon Hill)

29
30
31
32
33

34 35 36
37 -

38 39 4U 41 -

Quesl! o n A Imapsheet)
Ques l io n B (ru lesl
Quesl lo n C [C oun ters)
Ques tiofl D (ease 01 playl
QuesHo n E (co rnp le teness of ru les )
QueS tion F (ba lance)
Ques tion G I lengthl
Ques l ion H Iset-up ti mel
Question J {comp lex ilyl
Question K (rea li sm I
Ques tion L lo ve ra ll l
Ques l ion M (Ihen B now)
Iyes o r no on lyl
Que SIlon N [rnon ey 's wort h )
[yes or no o nlyl

France,1940

Barbarossa {SPII

42 - Ques ti o n A [m spsheet!
43 - Ques ti on 8 (rul es)
44 - Ques ti o n C (coun ters!
45 - Ques li o n 0 l ease 01 p lay)
46 - Question E (c o mpl eteness of rules)
47 - QueSTi on F Iba la nce!
48
Question G (length)
49 - Qu es ti on H (set -up t im e!
50 - QuesTi on J Icom plexit y)
51 - Qu es tion K (rea li sml
52 - Questio n L (ove rall !
53 - Questio n M (t hen & now)
(yes o r n o o n ly)
54 - QuosT lo n N (mo ney's worlh)
(yes or no o n ly)

Grunt (S&T)
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64

Qu esTio n
Qu es li o n
Question
Ques tion
Questio n
Qu estion
Question
Queslion
Quest ion
Qu est ion

A [mapslleel )
B (ru les l
C (co unters)
D lease of p lay!
E [co mple te ness o f rules)
F [ba lance!
G lI eng th )
H (set -up lirnel
J (comp lexity!
K (rea lism l

The German Spring Offensive

Between May 10 and Ju ne 25, 1940, til e
Germa n Army drove th e British o u t to sea
al Dunkirk, smashe d t il e French Army, and
forced t he su rren der of the Fren c h govern men t. France 1940 simula tes the events of
th iS Il gh tlling camp ia g n .
Designed by Sim ul a tio ns and pub lished by
Avalon Hill, France 1940 in cludes 11 A llied
and 6 German Orde rs Of Battle, Players can
c reate up to six ty-six scenar io s o f th e first
m ajor cam pai g n of World Wa r Two,

France 1940 is based o n Simulat ions' basic

WWII mode ) wi lh d ua l M ove m e nt Phase
fo r armored and mechan ized uni t s, and
comp lete rules for alf missio ns, It is
pa ckaged in high qu ality book case form
sim il ar to PanzerBlirz, France 7940 is
ava il ab le from Simu la ti o ns Publications fo r
$8.00 a sav in gs o f $1 00 compa red to re ta il
p ri ce,

SIMULATIONS PUBUCATIONS, INC.

East 23rd Street
NewY",k, NY 100 10

4~

ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED

S&T 19, featuring

the Blitzkrieg Module System game
The ult imate va riant for A H's Blirzkrieg ga me, Includes new
sel of counters (a ll unmounted ) for both major powers as well
as minor coun tri es, New set of "modularized" rules coveri ng
such subjec ts as ratlroads, differen t movemen t systems,
se quencin g, different OB's. production , supply, naval forces .
lak, atr forces. weather. gueri llas. artil lery, and va riable
scenartOs. Numerous cha rts , tables and oth er play-aids are
included. Our surveys have shown Ihis va riant to be more
popu lar Ihan the origina l game. Also In issue 19 is Ihe first
Installment of ou r articles on Nonh Afrr ca, rhis one on t ile
Ita lian Army. Also an article on Hanniba l, plus our regular
features . Th ese include an article on miniatu res. letters.
Diplomacy and more. $3.00 from Simu lati ons Pu blica tions.

S&T 20. featuring

Bastogne and Anzio Beachhead
BaslOgne comes co mplete With 22x2S" ma psheet, counters
(unm ounted) and other play-atds. It is a com pletely new game
on the Ballie o f the Bu lge using new and original movemen t,
supply, comba t and un it -breakdown systems. Also included
are vanable Orders of Batt le. thus mak ing th e game
"selfbalanClng." A lso In issue 20 is the Anzio Beachhead
game. co mplete w ith 1'1 17" map counters (unmounted) and
other player aids. This game also contains numerous design
innovations In Issue 20 are articles on the Lu flwa fle Land
Army (a comp lele survey with numerous char ts, diagra ms,
etc ,). Other features include letters, If Looks Could Kil l (by
Redmond Simonsen . on how to deSign. mount and cu t you r
own coun ters). Diplomacy. Games and minialures. $3.00 from
Simulations Publica ti ons.

Air lisslln Tll'lettllI

=L !-~--~--