Where's My Beer, Where's my Battalion?  Strategy and Tactics 1980

 

Robert Stefanowicz

 

The visit of the CAMMS team did not fully satisfy the war gaming instincts of some of the officers at Daley Barracks during that period.  In retrospect, this may have at least partly been because you could not rest an open can of beer on the CAMMS terrain boards! 

 

The mid 1970s through mid 1980s period represented what is now recalled as the " golden age " of table top war gaming designed for the consumer market.  Many of the officers coming on to active duty in that period had played the games of the major manufacturers, Avalon Hill,  Strategy  & Tactics and SPI while in school.  The Army developed small unit simulation, Dunn - Kempf was not part of Armor Officer training but cadets from both the  Military Academy and ROTC usually recall there were several copies to " goof around " with; exposure to table top gaming was very common.  At both the Border Camp and the BOQ, someone always seemed to have a copy of Gettysburg Day 3,  Panzer Blitz  or  Pike and Archer in their briefcase just in case once the duty day was done, someone wanted to roll the dice and start the bloodshed. Some of the NCOs were involved in this also.

 

The games from that era were more sophisticated than you might imagine, this was both their strength and weakness.  I recall that by 1985, there were over two hundred titles, the average retail was low, maybe $8.00 and you could explore history and warfare from the Crusades well into the future with fantasy gaming series such as Battle for Mars.  There were clubs, magazines and conventions devoted to the hobby.

 

Regardless of the publisher, the games followed a  basic similar framework.  The map board was a very good but not absolutely accurate depiction of the actual terrain.  Even now, the game map sheets  I have retained that show the Bad Kissingen - Fulda - Wurzburg - Hof region are more than passable for recalling locations of the major cities and towns.  Having said this, the maps  were not as detailed as a 1/50 000 scale military map.  There were no contour lines, small towns and villages were left out if the population was under 10 , 000 people.  The major wooded areas, rough terrain, swamps were retained. 

 

Overlaid onto the map was the hex shaped system which, like a more complicated version of a chess board grid, provided the basic organizational framework.  The units, depending on the game being played, could be battalion sized, company / troop down to squad or single armored fighting vehicle.  The designers took great care and were justifiably proud of  the level of accuracy they rendered in the order of battle.  The " modern " games in my attic are a quick reference for what  were the combat battalions in the V Corps.  Likewise, the Soviet forces were modeled as accurately as a civilian game designer might be able to determine from the period, unclassified sources.

 

 

 

A composite image of box art of various 1970s games modeling "modern" combat in Germany.

 

The actual play of the game allowed for one player to move then resolve combat, followed by the same sequence for the opponent.  Each company, troop or battalion, represented by a  counter on the map,  had certain strengths and weakness that reflected the true capabilities of  the actual unit.  A mech infantry company counter had very good " through woods " movement capability, much superior to a tank company, but pair the two in a fight on open terrain and it's see' ya mech!  Allow the mech unit to set up a prepared position in a city and attack with the tank company and it's quite another story. The results might be  further skewed by whether a unit had recently been resupplied, subjected to NBC attack or had previously been reduced in strength by earlier combat losses.

 

 For anyone with an interest in military history, the games allowed you to recreate a historical event perhaps hundreds of years old and bring it to life as no history book could.  The results might not always follow what actually occurred on the battlefield.   A hidden value of the S & T published games was the rule book often  contained a wealth of writing from prominent historians recalling the events and circumstances of the actual battle or campaign simulated in the game.

 

 

 

 

Detail of the Fifth Corps game by Strategy & Tactics.

 

Some of this can be difficult to explain unless you have at least some limited background in gaming.   In terms of modeling battles, the devil is in the details. For example, in a battle everyone recalls, Custer's 7th Cav must be very skillfully maneuvered along the Greasy Grass River game board  to " win " Custer and the Sioux; winning is determined as surviving long enough for Reno and Benteen's columns to attempt a rescue.  The game pieces available to the two players accurately represent what was on the field for the actual event, they move or fight with the relative ability of their actual historical antecedents.  If you play the game exactly as Custer commanded, you will lose 100% of the time. The Lakota Sioux held all the cards in 1876 and in the " modern " game, they hold most of the cards again.  On your table top or on the field of battle, skill is important, luck is important.  I read that even among the most dedicated players, Custer loses about 75% of the time, but every now and then, he salvages his command at the last minute, here's a partial game hint, if CPT Benteen rides his horses into the ground trying to reach Custer ...

 

The war  games of that 1970s and 1980s period were certainly more than games of chance, they were closer to simulations with several accurate possibilities modeled.  The more detailed games became so complicated in the interest of realism and accuracy that even Lts and NCOs with a very good knowledge of the tactics and terms, could easily become lost in the rules. The 11th ACR was a featured unit in many of the games that modeled war in Germany, the unit prominently appears in: Fulda Gap, Fifth Corps and Division Commander.   Of particular interest to members of the Eaglehorse, the S & T game Fifth Corps: Soviet Breakthrough at Fulda, published in Sept - Oct 1980 featured the 2/11 down to the troop level and the game map is very familiar to any veteran of the unit in  Germany.

 

Map detail showing Bad Kissingen, blue, Bad Neustadt, red and border, black arrow. During the play of the game, not much goes on in this corner but it is fun to see the area recalled.

 

 In this game, you are playing the Fulda Gap scenario of a Soviet attack targeting Frankfurt.  Bad Kissingen, Fulda and Bad Hersfeld appear on the eastern 1/3 rd  of the map sheet. The individual unit "counters" are at the company and battalion level with most of the Corps represented. All of the combat units of the 11th ACR are present as Troop level counters.  There are no markers for the individual HOW batteries, they are modeled as a  single FA battalion.  There are no counters for the headquarters units, logistics are heavily modeled into the game but there are no individual counters to represent the assets.  This is a game of maneuver and combat, with logistics built into the rules but not widely represented on the map sheet. 

 

The game is controlled by a "clock" consisting of nine 12 hour blocks or turns.  Within each time block, the Soviet player may move his pieces in the attack, he is limited by the types of terrain he is on, the types of units he is moving and their logistic strengths.  If a Soviet unit moves into a hex adjacent to a NATO unit, it must stop until the combat is resolved.  Combat is resolved by a roll of the dice and then determining results against a rather complicated " combat results table ".  Results vary from complete annihilation to partial loss of combat power for the units engaged to no loss of power but either attacker of defender forced to move back one hex.   Once the Soviets move and combat is resolved, the NATO player may move his pieces and the next round of confrontations is resolved.  Once both players have had their move and combat phase,  a single 12 hour block is completed. Sequenced against the " clock ", various reinforcements become available at certain turns.

 

 

 

Here's were the cardboard carnage occurs, Fulda and just above and to left, the cork in the bottle, Schluctern.

 

In many ways, all this resembles a much refined version of Kriegspiel played by officers at the War College prior to WW 1, with the exceptions that there are no umpires and both players, by being able to see the full map sheet and location of all units, have the God's Eye View of the battle. If you are a true enthusiast and attend a convention to play on the tournament level, the fog or war is introduced by umpires controlling a master map board while the two opponents play in separate rooms with only their own forces and enemy forces in contact visible, the " double blind option ".  What worked in 1900 is still the logical solution one hundred years later.

 

As the game progresses, "victory points" are accumulated by both sides by achieving certain tactical goals; for the Russians, seizing certain key terrain areas, destroying specific NATO units and so on.  NATO victory points are accumulated by defending certain areas for specific periods of time and attriting Soviet tank strength. Very infrequently is the game decided by a dramatic " sweep from the map of all enemy forces " usually it is a matter of a  few last additional points squeezed out in the last 12 hour block. 

 

 

 

Unpunched cardboard unit counters showing what the V Corps commander has at his disposal. The units of the Blackhorse are found in the right column.

 

For novice gamers,  the problems arise with a rule book which for this game consists of 17 pages, each page containing three columns of data and information broken down into paragraphs and sub paragraphs. Just to have a general familiarization with the game requires  a 40 minute careful read of instructions and rules.   Obviously, with more experience, the lower the learning curve, but as games go, and V Corps was typical of many, to play required a lot of work; it was detailed and complicated.  Here is the one funny story related to the topic from my days in the Eaglehorse.

 

One Saturday night in 1980, a group of the usual suspects were at the "group home" a bunch of  other Lts shared.  We were casting about for activities and one of the gamers suggested a simulation he had just received that he thought would be interesting to play.  The game was called Wurzburg and modeled the 3rd Infantry Division's defense of the city against a Soviet attack focused on the Gramschatzer Wald region just east of town.  It was infantry in paradise, fight in the woods-fight in the city.  I think the game was modeled to the company level and the map detail was astounding, particularly when compared to our military maps.  The US player won if he successfully bogged the Soviets down for nine game turns, Sovs won by pushing the US out of the woods and then taking all or most of Wurzburg. 

 

 

 

Just to give you an idea of the rules and procedures that govern the game, here is an excerpt.

 

About ten minutes into the public reading of the rules, one of the Lts who later went on to a very full career to include command at several levels announced in command voice with eyebrows arched, " Well!  I have another idea.  Lets play a game involving cards ... and involving poker chips ... and involving beer!  And if we can't find the cards or the poker chips ... well that's OK to!! "  Needless to say, the usual suspects indulged in the usual activity.

 

 

 

... and the sub paragraphs discussing nuclear weapons. Like golf, some work must go in prior to finding the enjoyment of the game.

 

There are any number of good web sites devoted to table top war gaming, a good place to start is this site, just explore unitl you find the niche you are looking for:  http://www.boardgamegeek.com/