From: rwstarke@vela.acs.oakland.edu (Ross W. Starkey)
Newsgroups: alt.war
Subject: Re: Greatest Military/War Games
Date: 9 Apr 92 23:54:06 GMT
Organization: Oakland University, Rochester MI.

In article <1992Apr7.030804.19912@descartes.waterloo.edu> sjknell@descartes.uwaterloo.ca (Jason Knell) writes:

>   What are the greatest/best military/war games to play?  I'm more   
>   interested in games of strategy and/or tactics.  Some people have
>   suggested to me that chess is the ultimate.  But what do you war
>   experts think?

I'm not a war expert :-) but here's what I think:

The "Winter Sturm" series put out by Clash of Arms.  The games are "Winter
Storm," "Edelweiss: Campaign In The Caucasus," "The Last Victory: Manstein's
Backhand Blow," and "Prelude To Disaster."  At least two more are in the works;
"Deathknell: Clash At Kursk" and "The Long Retreat."  The subject of the games
are the notable battles/campaigns of Germany's Army Group South in the Ukraine,
from early 1942 to late 1943.  They all use the same rules and the maps can be
joined together into one REAL BIG map of southern USSR; eventually there will
be "link rules" which will allow the players, if so inclined, to refight the
entire war in that part of the world and in that period of time.

The game components are of the highest quality.  The maps are beautiful and
the charts are amazingly helpful and well organized, making clear all cases
having to do with movement, supply, stacking, terrain, command-control and
combat modifiers.  The counters have the unit designation and the divisional
insignia printed on them (an example of divisional insignia is the skull and
crossbones of the 3rd SS Panzer (Totenkopf) division).  The counters also have
a wealth of important information printed on them; the movement allowance is
NOT one of the numbers on each counter, since for each type of unit represented
the movement capability was fairly standard; all units' movement allowances are
printed on one of the charts but it is nevertheless easy to memorize the
movement of  all units, which is fairly intuitive.  The documentation is clear
and concise;  it is divided into two parts for each game; the "Standard Rules"
which are the same for ALL of the games, and the "Exclusive Rules" which apply
to unique situations, units etc. which are found in that particular game.

The best things about the games are the way they handle supply, and Command-
control-communication (C3).  Supply is semi-abstract; a variable number of
supply counters become available every third turn, which must be transported:
FROM the "Ultimate Supply Source";
TO the Army (German) or Front (Russian) HQs;
TO the Corps (German) or Army (Russian) "operational HQs";
and finally, TO any units which will be operating independantly (or to
supply dumps); most of the time the Op HQs keep the Supply Points, and
assume "offensive", "defensive" or "depleted" mode themselves, and any
units under them assume the same mode (As long as they can trace a path for
their communications and are in range).  The counters which represent Supply
Points may be transported by plane, train, automobile :-) ship or, believe it
or not, animal caravan.

The games have many levels of detail but the amount of detail at any level
never becomes overwhelming.  They are all operational level games, where
strategy overlaps with the "grand tactical."  Time scale is two days per
turn, area scale is five kilometers (might be five miles) per hex, and unit
scale is generally German divisions and Soviet corps; the infantry units
have three or four steps each, can generally be broken down into smaller
units such as regiments and brigades (which can be built back up again),
and when units are destroyed "remnants" may escape the battle which can
contribute toward replacing another unit's lost step(s).  

The game has a little of the "fog of war" in the way it handles supplies;
you generally don't know how much in supplies your opponent is getting, 
where he has stockpiles etc.  More important you do not know how he has 
allocated the available supply.  You do not know which corps (or armies for 
the Soviets) have been placed on offensive mode to attack; you do not know
which corps (or armies) have been placed on defensive mode; and you do not
know which ones are depleted and therefore vulnerable.  The only way to
find out the status of a unit is to get attacked by it (note that units in
defensive corps/armies can still attack at reduced capability) or to attack
it yourself.  But if you attack a unit which has been placed on offensive mode
you will probably be counterattacked...
In addition there is the familiar "cheap" rule that a player may not look
underneath the top unit of any of his opponent's stacks.  Cheap, but
effective. :-)  

When an infantry or armored unit is broken down, it is flipped over; the
flip side of the counter represents the divisional HQ (Corps HQ for the 
Soviets).  This HQ is considered a "support class" unit (as opposed to
a HQ class unit) and can support the actions of adjacent "combat class"
units (with artillery for example) to a limited extent.  A number of
smaller units are then placed on the board, including specialized units
such as recon, engineer and/or anti-tank battalions, under the command of
that divisional HQ.

Zones of Control are different from most games; different units have 
differently rated Zones of Control (from zero to, I think, six).  A stronger
unit is not very affected by a weaker unit's ZOC, but a weaker unit may still
move from one ZOC to another, providing that it pay (in movement points) 
TWICE the strength of the ZOC it is moving through, plus normal terrain costs
(this is a very significant penalty and tends to mean that only mechanized
units may move this way (I think stronger units must still pay this movement
penalty when moving through the ZOCs of weaker units)).  ZOCs are also "Support
Ratings"; a unit attacking enemy unit A and in the ZOC of enemy unit B makes a
weaker attack against A because B is presumed to be making small scale,
diversionary counter-attacks against the attacking units flank.
Even a ZOC of zero will be enough to cut supply, and remember that in this
game supply is crucially important!

Stacking is handled by giving each type of terrain a limit to the number
of "combat factors" per hex; there are very helpful and easy to follow 
charts that make it all clear ("combat factors" represent a units strength
and each units rating is printed on the counter).  This also makes it easy
to break down and build up units; just make sure that you neither add nor
take away combat factors, otherwise you can break a unit down pretty well
any way you want...

After taking care of supply, command-control and artillery barrages, the
two players take turns resolving movement and combat; the active player
defines an "engagement group" of units, generally under a single ops HQ,
and resolves their battle(s); they are limited not only by supply, but also
by the "command rating" of the officer in command; they may move both before
and after combat.  The active player concludes all operations with one group
and then goes on to another group.  But the enemy player may be able to
COUNTERATTACK during any engagement; armored counterattacks against attacking
infantry can be deadly.  This gives the game fluidity and a certain sense of
simultaneity, while keeping things simple.

If my rambling is confusing, rest assured that the rules are a model of
clarity, beautifully organized (the best written and least confusing game
rules I have EVER seen) and there are a number of very helpful charts, 
which account for just about everything and keep rules lawyering to a 
minimum.


Optional Rules:
There are rules for partisan guerilla warfare, and for anti-partisan patrols
and outposts.
The rules for the air force and, when present, the Black Sea Fleet are
relatively very simple and non-time-consuming, keeping the focus on the
armies.
There are also rules for a political system which makes it a whole new
ballgame!  The Political Leaders (Stalin and Hitler) have attitudes which
vary throughout the course of the game, from "reasonable" to "outraged"
(In twelve increments).
The Germans have a timetable which they are expected to keep; both leaders
tend to view any retreat as a failure, therefore before initiating any retreat
(as defined in the rules), even a tactical retreat from an isolated bridge or
town must be approved.  To do this you add the "command ratings" of the
officers involved, including German Panzer leaders, the number you get
determines the column you consult in the "Weight of Opinion" table, which
represents the opinion of the General Staff.  After rolling on this table to
obtain a final drm you roll against the Political Leaders present attitude,
which is represented by a number; success means approval for your proposed
operation, failure means that permission has been denied AND the political
leaders attitude changes for the worse!
Minor operations, such as relieving an officer or transferring a unit,
are relatively much easier to get permission for than, say, a strategic
withdrawal :-)  Each officer represented in the game has a "command rating"
number (9 for Manstein, -4 for Beria, everyone else in between) which not
only adds toward the "Weight of Opinion" but which also determines whether
he can "get away" with "exercising initiative", and how long the High Command
will put up with his complaining before they get tired of him and relieve him
of command (It's a long time before Manstein has even a chance of being 
relieved!)  In addition, when the High Command gets outraged, officers with
low command ratings may be "controlled" through fear and intimidation; they
can not try to exercise initiative and their command rating is always 
SUBTRACTED from the Weight of Opinion number, rather than added to it.

Remember that these are optional rules and do not directly contribute to
the complexity of the game system itself, which is surprisingly easy to
master.

The game is along the lines of a simulation but plays quickly, considering
the amount of detail.  A game turn of Edelweiss will last about as long as
a game turn of Rules in Flames, maybe even go more quickly!  This is largely
because of the way that information (both on the counters and in the charts)
is organized; everything is instantly accessible and questions are quickly
answered.  Game concepts are intuitive and are just what a student of World
War Two would expect.

I hope this has helped.  I've been having problems with my newsfeeder so
if anyone has actually seen this please acknowledge.  If anyone would like
more info, or to be put on Clash of Arms' mailing list, please e-mail me.  I
do not speak for CoA or represent them in any way, nor am I affiliated with
them in any way.  But I know someone who is.  :-)

-- 
Ross Starkey                         "Of course you know, this means WAR." 
rwstarke@vela.acs.oakland.edu        "This whole thing is goony, I shou'da
                                      stood in bed!"  "Gruesome, isn't it?"
FIGHT DICTATORSHIP!  VOTE!!!!                                  --Bugs Bunny