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THE GENERAL Paae 2valon Hill Philosophy Part 4

SPARTAN INTERNATIONAL INC.We have seen many wargam e organ izations com eand go in o ur 10 years of publishing the

GENERAL. I t seems as thoug h every year broug htthe birth and death of another wargaming clubwhich was going to b ring peace an d organizationto th e wargam ing chaos. I t was this same instabil-i ty which made us look upon the clubs with aho-hu m here comes another saviour a ttitud e.It was hard t o take them seriously after watchingthem fold left and right; which was why we neverpicked a favorite or gave one preferential treatmentover the others. One such group, however, doesstand out above the rest. SPARTAN INTERNA-TIO NA L, INC. (SII) has been around almost fro mthe start and rema ins the m ost stable and steadyingclub inf luence in the hobby today. So much soin fact that SII n ow plays a considerable role in theoverall Avalon Hill picture.

SII has its roots in a small, four-member clubstarted June 6, 1966 i n Long Beach, California.The founder, Russell Powell, his wi fe Donna, andtwo neighbors began Sparta, at it was known sinceits inception, on the concept that someone oughtt o provide good and com plete service to thoseinterested in simulation gaming. In addit ion,Powell felt that simulation gaming should betreated as more of a sport than a hobb y.From these modest beginnings, Sparta grewslowly in membership and stature. The club wasfirst incorporated on O ct. 21, 1969, and its namewas changed to S partan Intern ational. The originaldirectors of th e cor poration were Russell Powell,Dan and Karl H offbaue r, and Paul Heiser.Spartan lnternational is unique among gamingorganizations and, indeed, corporations, because itis the o nly one specif ically authorized t o regulatecompetitions in wargames and other related items.I t was incorporated to smoo th the way fo r largecash tournaments being thrown through the mailsand t o protect the members and players by sett ingup a legal entity which was responsible for i tsactions.

think of it ompetition is what the games are about. Originally conceived as an orsanization sponsor cash tournaments through the mails, Ssti l l holds strongly to that premise by sponsorinPBM tournaments with prize l ists running into ththousands of dollars. Each entran t is given booklet of off ic ia l SI I rules interpretations to cleup exist ing ambiguities and is subject to a boawhich hears disputes and gives rulings on anproblems which might arise. However, the SII habranched into other competit ional f ields endeavor as well here are 6 divisions in all. Theinclude:

The Spartan lnternational Miniature GoLeague is the second oldest division, a nd representhe f i rs t at tempt o f the corporat ion to divers iouts ide of s imulat ion gaming and into compett ional pursuits in general. The SlMGL operateprimari ly in the Southern California area. Thleague conducts tournaments at various gocourses around the area for prizes on a regulabasis. A newsletter published three times a yeakeeps a rec ord o f seasonal statistics for t he player

The Spartan lnternational Chess League organized to conduct tournaments in chess onlyal though future growth cou ld introduce the pla y ochess-related games. The SCL also publishes iown bimonthly newsletter.The Spartan lnternation al Multi-Player Leagu(SIMPL) is concerned with the play of an

simula tion game which req uires the use of aimpartial gamesmaster. Current activities include bimonthly newsletter, a Diplomacy tournamenand an ORIGINS OF WORLD WAR II tournament. The SIMPL also offers its members thservices of info rma l m ulti-p laye r games and enco uages innova tive ideas of th e members in developinits multi-player possibilities.The Spartan lnternational Miniatures Leagu(SIM L) is the most co lorfu l division of the corporation and is concerned exclusively with the play osimulation s using models and min iatur e figures. Itactivities are entirely face-to-face, and consist oseveral chapters across the c ou ntr y invo lved in th

Coast consumer show.The Spartans have a long history of successfulPBM tournaments uti l iz ing the Avalon Hil l c lassicgames which still form the backbone of their A scene from the naval miniatures f i n a l s a t the Spartan East Coas

existence. For the Spartan creed is basically one of Convention shows East Coast champions from I t o r ) Tony AdamsPa t t y Bovce, and H s ta f f member Dan Evans a t work in the f inalorganized comp etit ion and when you come to of thatcompetition.

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Page 3 THE GENERhplay of armor, naval, air, and Napoleonic eraminiatures. One of its main features is across-country competit ional system in various f ields ofminiatures which is a major componen t of SpartanInternational's many conventions. The winners ofthe various chapter competit ions get together atone of the big conventions to batt le it ou t for areachampionships. The winners are then f lo wn t o LosAngeles for the national championships.

The Spartan International Sports League (SISL)is the newest division of the co rporation and dealswith the playing of Avalon Hil l 's sports board-games in regular league play w ith divisional winnersgoing into the play-offs of the respective sport.Expansion into other sports and games of othermanufacturers is possible.

lrregardless of the medium however, the over-riding consideration is that o f compe tit ion and it isone that the Spartans take seriously. They havedeveloped a series of shoulder patches showingvarious levels of comp etit ional attainment t o beworn wi t h the Spartan uni form (w hi te shi r t andblack pants) w hich gives the g roup a professionaland serious image at their public outings. Thegroup also has its own exclusive l ine of trophiesand medals t o be presented to the winners of i tsvarious events. They are also the on ly organizationauthorized to give out o ff ic ial Avalon H il l cert i f i-cates of me rit and to sell pbm equipment forvarious A H games. A ll o f this has given SII animage which has definitely helped the organizationin i ts ef forts to prom ote the hobby through presscoverage of th eir various events. T o date, the grouphas already ob tained feature articles i n such highcirculat ion journals as the OVERSEAS WEEKLYand ESOU l R E magazines.SlCL Competition Patch line The competitiodal patches forSpartan International are identicalfor every division, with the excep-

tion that each division s initialsare on its own patches. A player sexoerience rating is what is beingmeasured. Rankings are deter-mined on the basis of 3 points perwin, 2 for a draw, and 1 for a loss.Badges are earned on the basis ofthe following accumulated points:Intermediate 21; Pro 51;Expert 93; Expert Pro 143:Master 369; ChampionshipCompetitor 00.

Chief among the attention getters are theSpartan conventions. SI I sponsors a variety ofpublic conventions throughout the nation everysummer in w hich all types of compe tit ions areheld. The just completed 1973 season saw majorcons in the midwest (MT. Prospect), east (NYC),and west (Los Angeles). An importa nt pa rt of theconvention scene is the nationwide nature of the

Spartan efficiency and organization is demonstrated at even/convention they sponsor. This year s East Con I ll was no exception.

events. Nation al championships are played for a tthe east and west coast conventions, withcontenders attending both. Regardless o f the out-come a good tim e is usually had by all.

This year th e Spartans have been prom oting thehobby in a new way by carry ing wargaming intothe ranks of the US Army and Air Force by atraveling team of Spartan officers. SII contactedthe service clubs at various military bases andoffered t o demonstrate wargames for thoseattending the scheduled showing and then ump iregames between those wishing to pa rticipate. Thefee for this was 150.00 per base. SII has visitedabout a dozen mil i tary installat ions this year,including G eorge AFB, Nellis AFB, McConne llAFB, Wright-Patterson AFB, Fort Eustis, FortMeade, V int Hil l Farms Station, Shaw AFB, Fo rtRucker, Altu s AFB, and Can non AFB. They have achapter operating at George AFB which meetsevery weekend, and has issued challenges to otherservice clubs across the nation.

The Spartans, n ow over 700 strong, havebecome an increasingly effective source ofmanpower for Avalon H il l projects. Start ing wi thRICH THO FEN S WAR, the SI I has been a majorplaytest source fo r new Avalon H ill titles. Regard-less of the time element or subject matter we'vealways found the Spartans prompt and reliablewhen the need for a last minute playtest comes up.t is probable that they wil l be involved in al lfuture AH releases. Their membership, includingover 60 devoted off icers who serve without pay,has also been very h elpful in manning A H exh ibitsin fringe areas where we might not otherwise haveattended. This is especially true on the West Coastwhere Spartan membership is especially strong.The Spartans have manned more than oneconsumer show for us and starting this fall gavelive windo w demonstrations of AH games atvarious retail outlets across the nation. They have

already been very useful in this respect in mann ingour Beat the Expert booths at new Brentanostore openings ut i l iz ing FOOTBALL STRATEGYand challenging the pu blic t o w in a free game bybeating the expert. Needless t o say, we did n'thave to give aw ay ma ny games.

Dan Hoffbauer, Rusrell Powell, and Bill Comito are shown at workin a late night playtest session just prior to the release ofRICH THOFE N S WAR. The Spartan group lent a valuable andexperienced hand in the game s final clearance playtest.

The SII is also doing a job of educating theschool systems. Official AH sales rep RussellPowell heads a team of mature garners who visitvarious secondary schools and colleges across thecountry trying t o sell them on simulation gamingas an educa tional tech nique . M any edu cators seemt o share Powell's belief th at simu lation games arethe next breakthrough in classroom involvement.

The who le organization is t ied together b y thhome office. T heir headq uarters are located Bellf lower, California where they have a receptioand sales room, an executive office, game roomand storage facilities. The game roo m is where locchapters meet and playtesting is conducted. Thexecutive offic e is a wo rk area for SI PresideRussell Powell. The FTF chapters report to thoffice, an d each of th e divisions is run fro m thereThe o ffice is also the organizational classroom anthe place where OPERATION CONTACT requesare processed. F or the past few mon ths SPARThas been hold ing classes for those w ho w ould l ikt o become umpires in SPAR TAN events. The ruleused in the miniatures games are exacting on thumpire and they have to be pu t through a rigoroutraining course.

Tournaments featuring the Avalon Hill classics are always thchief attention getters at Spartan conventions. East Con Il l depicteabove offered over 200 in prize money for the AH competition.

For several years the SPARTAN philosophy habeen pretty much the same. SPARTA would l ikt o increase the popu larity, quality of competit ionand prize m oney t o the level of Masters Chess. Thgoal s a lo t c loser now than it was in 1966 whethey started. This is par t ly due to the knowledgga i ned f r om ex pe r i enc e i n r unn ing t horganization, experimenting, and growth. t is alspar t ly due to the closer relat ionship they noenjoy w ith Avalon Hil l . The cooperative ef for t beginning to pay of f now, and promises to get f inresults in the future. Professionalized wargam ing something w hich is coming i nt o being slowly busurely. There wil l come a t ime when professionawargamers wil l compete for thousands of dollaand receive nation wid e pub licity. A t least, that'how the Spartans feel. What do y ou think ?

SlCL offlce staff personnel include (from I to r TournameDirector Gary Rummele, Records Officer Bill Comito, Bill MilleDivision Director Oamian Hourman. SlCL President Russell Poweand V P Dan Hoffbauer.

For further informat ion on the act ivi t ies of Sor i f you'd l ike to request they v is i t your school omiltary base we suggest you write them at theBox 1017, Bellf lower, CA 90706 address.

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THE GENERMOPER TION

Paee

CRUS DERTHE WINTER B TTLE

by Robert GarbischAFRIKA KORPS remains one of the mostpopular o f boardgames, despite its rather long lifeo f 1 years. Its playability and emphasis onmaneuver stand it in good stead among its morerecent contemporaries. However, it does suffer inone respect; i.e. it has only one version. There areno scenarios or mini-games which can be played forvariations o f f the main theme or a quick half-hourgame. Such is the rationale for Bob Garbisch'sundertaking of the feature which follows.An amateur game designer in his own right, Bobhas done extensive research in the African theaterof operations and come up with a fine simulationof the British offensive known in history asOperation Crusader. Utilizing the standardAFRIKA KORPS rules, pieces and mapboard, hepresents us with a very playable and shortalternative to the full campaign game with whicllwe are so familiar.

A SHORT HISTORY

It had now been over four and a half monthssince the British hopes of recapturing the whole ofCyrenaica, with Operation Battleaxe, hadfloundered u pon the Egyptian frontie r wire. Th evital port of Tobruk was still under pressure of ageneral siege and it seemed imminent th at the Axiswere nearing final prepara tions fo r a storm assault.Likewise the impasse at Halfaya Pass still existedwith th e Axis firmly in control there . An increasingnumber of German submarines were cont inuing toinfiltrate the Mediterranean, thu s posing a furthe rthreat to the life and existence of the isolatedisland of Malta. As long as Malta remained inBritish control, Axis supply convoys across theMediterranean would be constantly harassed intheir efforts to provide even the basic needs fortheir fighting comrades. In fact, General Rommelhad hopes of attacking Tobruk early in November,but the losses at sea rose so alarmingly duringSeptember that even Rommel had to express thefears of not being able to atta ck at all .

The situation in general looked pretty grim toboth sides. A desperate race for building up one'scombat units and their supplies of military stapleswas nearing a conclusive point. Despite therepeated British tactics of milking units andformat ions to fi t out one expedi t ion after anotherit now appeared as if the Allies would be preparedfor an offensive first.

However, the British success in being ready firstwas not achieved without some degree ofcomplications. Political pressure was applied tobring about a general relief of the Australiantroops suffering in the besieged fortifications ofTobruk. By October 1Sth, th e third stage of reliefof the Australian troops was completed and therelieving 70th Infantry Division had assumedcommand of al l remaining t roops from the 9thAustralian In fantry.

Although Afr ica is remembered primarily for the highly mobile tank warfare fostered by Rommel the Germans never had many heavAFV'; in action. This typica German encampment shows Only 1 VW, 1 motorcycle. 3 Mark Il's, and a solitary Mk Ill.

In the Red Sea and East Africa theater theveteran 4th Indian Infantry Division, plus othersmaller mixed British and Commonwealth units,were still heavily involved in conducting a militarycampaign there against th e remaining Italian forces.This campaign would not reach a successful Britishconclusion until November 27th, with thesurrender of Italian General Nasi at Gondar.In the meantime, the existing British formationsin Egypt had to be re-equipped and properlytrained in order to restore any degree of tacticalcoherence. Add on to this the increasing pressurefrom Prime Minister Churchill to harass and to

continuously engage the enemy, while the Germanswere occupied with their grand military campaignin Russia, and you have somewhat the vosition

At last, after several frustrating postponemenRommel finally selected the 23rd of November fhis long-delayed final assault on Tob ruk. Since was known that the British were also preparing fan offensive, eventual enemy attacks were givthe co de name 'High Water' for a normal attaand 'Deluge' for a full-scale attack. When choosinthese code names no one had foreseen that a reflood might take place. I t started o n the 17th November not the at tack but the rain. ( ThFoxes o f the Desert by Paul Carell)Thus the careful defensive preparatioconstructed by the Axis were virtually eliminat

in one brief period of time. In a way, it seemkind of sardonic: a natural flood and a full-scaoffensive by the British, both taking place almoGenera l ~uc hin l ec k ad t o cont end wi th . simultaneously.

The Axis troops around Halfaya would nosurely be put to the test. Prior to the offensivRomrnel ha s inoculated his soldiers with the bclithat each strong point was a valuable self-con tainfortress which must have a field of fire in evedirection: and th at even if the German MobiForces were to disappear for days, or for weekthey must hold o ut a t all costs in the firm belithat the Afrika Korps would return to free themOperation Crusader, or (as it is sometime

called) the Winter Battle, was fought over a vasGerman artillery, although often suffering from a shortage ofammunition, served admirably in Africa. Here a 10 5 cm gun isadjusted for use against an advancing British column.

On the 14t h of November, General Rommelflew to Rome for a conference on thetransportation and sup ply problems. During thenight of the 17th /18th, Rom mel was in Athens onhis way back from Rome when a daring attemptwas made to paralyze his Command by a blow atthe brain center. A party of No. 11 (Scottish)Commando was put ashore from two submarinesnear Appollonia with th e objective of attacking thein which t was thought that The Italian 75/18 Semovente was the major AFV of the ltaliansRommel would be headquartered. The raid failed. Africa.

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THE GENER Larea by the largest concentration of armouredvehicles that had yet been assembled in theWestern Desert. Each side had, to be sure, a largenumber of unarmoured formations, but i t wasthought that the armoured forces would dominateand that th&battle would be won or lost accordingto what happened to them. The general terrainwhere the first fortnight's fighting would takeplace, is in a corner of the Western Desert. Thesurface is generally hard, flat, and open, except fornear th e coas t, so that dese rt-worthy vehicles canroam practically unhindered almost anywhere(except after heavy rain ). Draw an imaginary linefrom Bardia to El Adem and here the groundabruptly breaks u p in to undulat ions, with theridges runn ing east and west; the no rthern faces areusually the steeper, forming very difficult, if notoutright impassable escarpments. As if by acciden t,only occasional passes existed whereby a vehiclecould transverse this line. A few miles farth er northand this general area tumbles int o a tangle of wadisto the sea. Only on the narrow coastal road, theItalian "Via Balbia," can one travel smoothly.

The stage is now set for Operation "Crusader"to begin:

THE BATTLEDespite the tactical complexity of the actioninvolved in "Crusader," it can be broken dow n intoroughly fou r major parts to the batt le . Firs t , on the18th of November, when the Bri t ish armour unitsaggressively sought out their arch-rivals: theGerman Panzers. By nightfall, three of thearmou red brigades were in position: the 7th to thenorth of G abr Saleh (hex K-30), 22nd to the west ,and the 4 th t o the southeast . On the fo l lowing day,

the 7 th Armoured Brigade, a long with the 7 thSup port Group, and reached Sidi Rezegh (hex1-28), Still no enemy c onta ct. However, for the22nd Armoured Brigade their immediate objectivewas to engage the Italians at Bir el Gubi (ArieteArmoured Division). Acting in joint support, the1st South African Infantry Division traveled closebehind. As for the 4th Armoured Brigade theywent in to action just east of Gabr Saleh.

Although not a match for her heavier sisters uti lize d later in Russba,the German Mk I ll was feared in the desert.

Already the central theme of the Britishobjectives to engage the Germ an Panzers onfavourable grounds of their own choosing with thebulk of their own arm our had fallen apart. Whatdid follow was a series of tank battles near SidiRezegh, in which both sides suffered heavy losses.Yet on the overall balance, the Germans had thebetter of it by virture of their excellent recoveryarrangements.

When the dawn came upon th e wreckage created and skillfully withdrew to Agheila, not, howeveat Sidi Rezegh, on "Totensonntag" he German's before inf l ic t ing further damage on th e ~ ~ iannual Day of Remembrance for the fallen of the armour units ,First World War Romm el decided to make a boldgamble fo r victory; Rommel's so-called "Dash tothe W ire." By certain military degree s it was amasterpiece of psychological strategic enterprise.Yet, lack of information was to thwart Rommel'spersonal formula. Narrowly missing two importantBritish supply dum ps, Romme was fast persuaded ,by Auchinleck's personal command tactics, toreturn to his own supply bases between Tobrukand Bardia.

Next came the third phase, which saw SidiRezegh again exchange hands with severeencounters th is t ime between the Germans and theNew Z ealanders. Seeing as how the tactical andstrategical s i tuat ion was fast Ro mmel hi^ scene occurred all too infrequently fo r Rommel s undermannrealized that he could no longer relieve his Bardia ,d i ~ ~ - ~ ~ ~ i ~ ~ ~ df ~ i k ~orps. This MK being unloaded in Africand Halfaya defenders, he decided to cu t his losses was a rare occurrence.

Avalon Hill 's At Star t MilitaryUnits: Position: Objectives:

Germ an Afrika Korps (D.A.K.) T o launch an offensive assault on the15t h Panzer D ivision: Tobruk fortlficatlons; provide a mobilereserve for Egy ptian frontier defenses,8t h Panzer Regt H-28 in case of a British attack.15th PzGr Regt 1511 15 PzGr H-2833rd Recon Bn

Supply Unlt No. 221st Panzer Division:

3rd Recon Bn 2 113 Recce 1-30Supply Unit No. 3Afrika Division (later 90th Llght) (*9 )

Savona Division: (Itallan)Savona Inf Dm

Italian Mobile (20th) Corps To prevent B ri tlsh in tervention on theAriete Dlvlslon Ariete L-28 scheduled assault on Tob ruk.Tr~este lv is ion

21st Italian Corps Tw o Divisions to m aintain seige pressuron Tobruk fortlficatlon Ilnes; two Divi-Tren to Divls lon Trenta Inf s ions to part i c~pa te n assault.Bologna Dlvislon Bologna Inf 1-27Brescia DivisionPavia Divislon

Supply Unlt No. 1

Axis Home BaseSabratha Divlsion Sabratha Inf W-3Fascists Divislon Fasclsts Inf W-3

THE WINTER BATTLE OPERATION "CRUSADER"

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THE GENERM PaaeIn the end, the honours had come out fairly

even and the soldiers had fought each other as menof honour. For the oresent. Rommel's chief reerets

Bardia and Halfaya. For them, the Afrika Korps the surrounded Axis defenders surrendered.could do nothing at the moment to relieve them ofthe British stranglehold. On January 12, 1942, the AFTERMATH-

So the Germans, who thought that they had losCrusader due to the handicaps of lack of asupport, lack o f supplies, lack of informat ion, lacof help from Germany or f rom the Italians, hardfelt the cold breath of failure at this momenTheir opportunity for victory would present itseonce more in the events of the breakout f rom thnarrows at Mersa Brega, to the stage setting oOperation Venezia, i n which their 1941 hopewould see some degree of fu lfi llment in the capturof Tobruk and the race for Alexandria, Cairo, anthe Suez Canal.

w r centeredupon the isolated~~i~efendersat final fruits of a British victory were claimed when

*ORDER OF BATTLE: COMMENTS

(1) The units used in this Afrika Korps mini-game are historically correct in as far as might bepossible using the available Avalon H ill unit counters for a November 1st half, 1941, operation.Granted, a few of the lis ted uni t posit ions can not be reached according to Avalon Hill's movementrules. However, what is presented is an accurate positioning of the units involved in this WinterBattle. Uni t combat ratings are not adjusted to their actual reflective strength, at the time of thebattle, because this would only complicate the present enjoyable basic rules and game components.

(2) 22nd Guards Brigade originally formed in Egypt, 11 February 1941, with the uni tdesignation of 22nd lnfantry Brigade. It subsequently underwent the following uni t tit leredesignations: 20 March 1941 22nd Guards Brigade; 14 January 1942 200th Guards Brigade; 6April 1942 200th Guards Motor Brigade Group; 25 May 1942 201st Guards Motor BrigadeGroup. The Brigade was captured in Tobruk on 20 June 1942. However, on 14 August 1942, the uni twas reformed in Egypt with the ti tle 201st Guards Motor Brigade. For practical purposes of this game,only the 22nd Guards Brigade unit will be used.

(3) Tobruk's Defense Perimeter has been expanded to t s listed histor ical lines as allowable byAvalon Hill's game mapboard. A defending unit's ZOC does not extend inland beyond the designatedhexes. However, a unit's ZOC does affect the adjacent Tobruk hexes. Only the Tobruk hex G-25 shallsti ll be considered an independent fortress hex. The other hexes are subject to the normal terraineffects.(4) 70th lnfantry Division originally reformed in Egypt, 17 February 1941, as the 6th lnfantryDivision (pr ior t o 3 November 1939, it was the 7th lnfantry Division). Redesignated as the 70thlnfantry Division, 10 October 1941. Since the 14th and 16th lnfantry Brigades are not available inunit counters, the 7 A11 and A12 Inf Bdes are used to represent the assigned units when the 70th In fDiv relieved the 9th Australian lnfantry Division and assumed command of all troops in Tobruk.

(5) The Oasis area of operation is not completely represented on the Avalon Hill mapboard.Therefore, the delayed turn o f available use is designated to represent this force's completion of theirtactical assignment and the possibility for further involvement in the over-all operation.

(6) 50th (Northumbrian) lnfantry Division was relieved of shore defense duty on Cyprus duringthe fi rst eight days of November, by the 5th lndian lnfantry Division, which had been in Iraq. Therelief was carried out by ten destroyers and one fast minelayer. The Division then traveled by road toIraq. However, i f the tactical situation had warranted it this Division could have easily been re-routedand ordered for active duty in direct support of Operation Crusader.

(7) Armour Reserve In spite of protests from England, General Auchinleck had insisted that ahigh number o f tanks should be held in reserve (he desired a 50% ratio). He believed that only bysteadily replacing his tank losses could he ever hope to maintain his armoured unit's ful l fighting valueduring any prolonged military battle operation. There was no engineering industry t o speak of in theMiddle East, and the only available repair equipment was what the army had brought with it. Inaddition to this, his repair units were handicapped by a lack of towing vehicles and transporters, ashortage of experienced tank mechanics, primitive rail communications, and a vast distance to coverfrom one's base to the batt le front . As for receiving any new tanks it would require several weeks tocome from England and longer still from the United States, and ocean-going convoys were far and toofew between. In brief, the scale of one's reserve became almost as important as the equipment to beini tia lly combat committed in any serious desert operation; as General Auchinleck had outlined in hisdesired objectives for the forthcoming Winter Battle.

8) 5th Indian lnfantry Division even though the defense of the island Cyprus had gained in someimportance with the threat of attack through Turkey (due to the sweeping German victories in Russia)Prime Minister Churchill strongly fel t that any division designated for defending Cyprus could be putto more effective use in support of the Crusader operation. The delayed turn of available use isdesignated to represent the political conflicts of personal interests in the use of this division.

(9) The 90 th Light Division should also have the 155th and the 200th lnfantry Regiments, plus the580th Recce Bailalion. However, at this time the Afrika Division consisted of seven lnfantry Battalions

strong in firepower and quite mobile, but total ly lacking in tanks. Later on this division wasexpanded into a more powerful unit. But fo r now use only the 360th lnfantry Regiment to representthe Division, as per Avalon Hi ll's regular 00 B schedule. Besides, it makes the game more of a balancedmatch and thus more interesting for both players as a tactical challenge.Note:

For those who desire more freedom in exercising a tactical At Start set-up, rather than using thehistorical set-up, the following is presented:Friendly Units can be located anywhere with in the designated areas. Set-up procedure s:

(1) British Tobruk Garrison Units within the four designated hexes representing the Defenseperimeter of the Tobruk fortifications.

(2) All Axis Units North of row L, West of row 35 his includes the designated rows. Unitslisted to start from Axis Home Base must be placed there.

(3) Remaining British Units South of row K, East of row 30 his includes the listed rows. Unitslisted to start from All ied Home Base must be placed there before the unit may move. Army Reserveunits and the Oasis Force units sti ll comply with the historical hex limits.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

At this poin t o f reference i t can be argued ththe morale of the Afrika Korps might have been sat i ts lowest level, but this sort of logic seemhardly applicable when a German officer wrotthese observations: The A frika Korps for thmoment was a beaten force, but not dispirited.saw no signs of wil ting morale among our rearguatroops. We stood and fought wherever there wahigh ground. ( Afrika Korps by Macksey)

Afrika Korps: Major K.J. Macksey, M.C.; Ballantine Books, IncNew York. 1968Australia in the War o f 19341 945: vol. Il l Tobruk and Alamein. Barton Maughen; The Gr iffin Press, Adelaid

Australia, 1966Brazen Chariots: Major Robert Crisp; W.W. Norton & Co., Inc., NeYork, 1960Official History o f New Zealand in the Second World War 1939-4Battle for Egypt, Lieutenant-Colonel J.L. Scoullar; OxforUniversity Press, London, 1955Panzer Battles: Major-General F.W. von Mellenthen; University Oklahoma Press, 1968Rommel The Desert Fox: Desmond Young: Harper & BrotheNew York. 1950Springboks in Armour: The South 'African Armoured Cars World War 11. Harry Klein; Purnell & Sons, IS A 1 Pty. LtdSouth Africa, 1965The Battle for North Africa: John Strawson; Ace Books, New Yor1969The Desert Generals: Corre lli Barnett; The Viking Press, New Yor1961The Foxes of the Desert: Paul Carell; E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc.. Ne

York. 1961The Mediterranean and Middle East Major-General I.S.O. PlayfaHer Majesty's Stationery Office. London, 1 966 (recommend afour volumes)The North African Campaign 19404 3: Official H~s toryof thIndian Armed Forces in the Second World War 1939-45 .'' edBisheshwar Prassad; D. L itt, Orient Longmans Private Ltd ., Indi&Pakistan, 1956The Rommel Papers: Erwin Rommel; edited by B.H. Liddel Har

Harcourt, Brace, and Co., New York, 1953Wt h Rommel in the Deserc H.W. Schmidt; Ballantine Books, NeYork, 1951

OPERATION CRUSADER MINI-GAME

TIME LIMIT: START British Turn: Novembe1941 1st half; FINISH British Turn: Januar1942 2nd half.BRITISH VICTORY OBJECTIVES:MARGINAL Control Halfaya Pass to Bardiescarpment area and Tobruk.TACTICAL Above conditions plus Sidi Rezegescarpment area and contact with Tobrudefenders.STRATEGIC Above conditions plus relieveTobruk of the Axis seige. (No adjacent Axis units.)

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THE GENER In all the Victory levels a surviving Unit Attackfactor ratio of 1-1 should be established. If morethan a four Attack factor difference exists in theAxis favor, then it is considered an Axis Victory.

COMMENTS:BRITISH - Since this operation is basically aBritish offensive the initial attacks must be Britishobjectives; such as the early elimination of theTrieste Division, or t he Ariete Division, or theSavona Division in the opening move. At all times,you should strive to pick-off the small German andItalian units; and if possible, to confine thepowerful German Panzers to the escarpment area.Thereby restricting their tactical freedom of move-ment. Preserve your Armour units from senselessexposures to possible Germap Panzer counter-attacks. Keep up a steady advancing pressure, notnecessarily an attac king pressure, to wards at leasttwo of these general areas: Tobruk, Sidi Rezegh,Bardia, Halfaya Pass.With a little luck and some practical tactics youshould at least ob tain a Tactical Victory level if nota Strategic Victory.GERMANS - The pressure is really on th e Germanplayer. In a practical sense you are forced to reactto the British offensive objectives. However, if aneffective defense det erre nt can be established toblunt the British drive and to survive the steadypressure, a Germ an assault on Tobr uk should beconducted as soon as possible. By eliminating apossible British attack from the rear you can thenconcentrate on breaking up, if not eliminating, themain British attacking units . The only problemhere is the time limit, plus the fact that t he Britishcan get in th e last series of possible attacks.Therefore, a practical counter-offensive planmust be skillfully conducted right from the verybeginning up to the very end. With a little tacticalluck you should be able to prevent the British fromachieving a Tactical level of victory; thereby givingyourself a Tactical Victory. -Contin ued from page 2

One special point: a badly-underrated weaponis the German prop-driven, Twin-engine fighter. Eratings aren't everything, as a quick look at theattrition table will show. Bombers don't have Eratings, as both sides should realize when con-sidering the twin-engine fighters. Especially insmall engagements in the Southern and EasternFronts, a few Me4lOs or Owls will go a long way(in more than one sense).In conclusion, it is my considered opinion thatLuftwaffe is nearly even in balance - quiteclose. Certainly, t he m yriad of targets will keepthe issue in doubt until the very end.The US is disadvantaged as the attacker - hemust reach o ut for his targets. But he is morethan compensated by his replacements, by hisoptions of attack all around the edge, by the factthat, once there, so li t t le is needed to destroy atarget. The German must defend the entire boardwith inferior means (although lett ing him haveMe262s in '44 unbalances things it 's better togive him the grubby but cheap Komets and/orSalamanders); he is hampered by shrinking re-placements in the face of mounting opposition;his enemy can appear almost anywhere. But allhe has t o do is save one city.

Victory is not necessarily winning a war, asthe victory conditions quite rightly show.Q

T H E WINTER BATTLE OPERATION CRUSADERORDER O F BATTLE: ALLIED UNITS

Avalon Hill's A t Start MilitaryH ~ s t o r ~ c a lnits. Units: * I ) Position: Objectives:3 0 t h Corps T o advance northwest, find and destroy7 th Armoured Division: t h e enemy's a rmor , and protect the left

7 th Armd Bde 7 7 Mot Inf K-30 flank of the 13 th Corps.22nd Armd Bde.~ a a -. .4th Armd Bde Group7 t h Suppor t Group is.

p , q wmaB8 ma4th S.A. Armd Car Regt 714 S.A. Motor L-301s t South African Division: T O protect the c o m m u n ~ c a t ~ o n sf the7 t h Armoured Division o n the west andsouthwest, later t o capture t h e S l d ~1st S.A. Inf Bde S A / l Inf N-30 Rezegh r ~ d g e .5 t h S.A. Inf Bde 1 SA/5 Inf P-323rd S.A. Armd Car Bn 1 SA/3 Recce N-3022nd Guards Brigade (*2) 22 GD Inf N-32 T o protect the c o m m u n l c a t ~ o n s ,upplySupply Unlts No. 1 & 2 N-32 d u m p s and landing grounds In 3 0 t h

1 3 t h Corps Corps area.New Zealand Division: T o pin down and cut off the enemy's4 t h N.Z. Inf Bde 2 NZ/4 Inf M-33 troops o n the Egyptian f r o n t ~ e r ;ater5 th N.Z. Inf Bde 2 NZ/S Inf M-33 t o advance west.6 t h N.Z. Inf Bde 2 NZ/6 Inf M-33 HmmT @ = . 4th Indian Division:5 t h Ind Inf Bde 4 115 Inf L-36 Same objectives as New Zealand Divis~on.7 t h Ind Inf Bde 4 117 Inf11 h Ind Inf Bde 4 I /1 1 Inf1 t Army Tank Bde 1 ArmdSupply Unlt No. 3 N-3 5

Tobruk Garrison (*3) F o r t ~ f ~ c a t i o nexes are G-24, G -25 8 2 5 ,7 0 t h Infantry Division: (*4) and H-26.

14 th Inf Bde G-24 T O make a s o r t ~ e hen ordered.16 th Inf Bde23rd Inf BdeP o l ~ s h arpathIan Inf Bde32nd Army Tank Bde 3 2 Armd H-2 5Supply U n ~ t o. 4 G-2 5Oasis Forc e (*5) T o secure the Jarabub Oasis, advance t oprotect land-ground 125, and seize the

2 9 t h Ind Inf Bde Group 5 1/29 Inf Ava~lable hzrd British t u r n along the6 t h S.A. Armd Car Regt 5016 SA Motor southern numbered hex row, east ofhex No. 38.Available a t start . can be placed any-

3rd S.A. Inf Bde4th S.A. Inf Bde6 t h S.A. Inf Bde7 t h S.A. Armd Car RegtAllied Home Base2nd S.A. Inf Bde SA/2 Inf 5-62 Available a t start . 5-62Available Reinforcements: Must start f rom Alhed Home Base only. No u n ~ t s an be sea transferreduring t h ~ same.50 th Infan t ry Division: (*6) Available second B r ~ t ~ s hurn.

150 th Inf Bde

Armour Reserve (*7) Available thzrd B r l t ~ s hurn.F o u r Armour factors-use 1 2 Armour Bde

5th Indian Division: (*8)9 t h Ind Inf Bde1 0 t h Ind Inf Bde

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THE GENERM PaaeA DEFENSE

lert J BeymaSea or Pas de Calais. This leaves a weakenGerman army, one that is already out-numbereto face the Allied forces on the main froAdditionally, this second invasion threat can maintained effectively for IS to 25 weeks.

Another serious disadvantage is the Allied SAattack capability. Besides the destruction German units it has these three serious effecOne, SAC attacks destroy or immobilize potentcounterattack units which is especially damagion the first or second turn of an invasion. SeconSAC attacks can destroy certain key units indefense line and make that line easier to attacThird, the German player cannot afford to staseveral good units for fear of attracting a SAattack.Besides having a superior force, the Allied playhas vastly superior mobility and has the initiatito decide when and where to fight. Unless thadvantage can be checked, the German player is for a rough game.There are several minor disadvantaes that effethe employment of the German forces. Initially, static units must be placed on coastal squares. TGerman player must constantly guard againAllied paratroops landing in his rear. The Germplayer is faced with a very large front and few ficlass troops to defend it. Because static units cnot be gotten as replacements the German playfrequently is short of small units after about t20th week. These units are particularly useful fparatroop screening and river line defenses.The beach defense is a gamble on the part the German player. He will either be in a very gooposition or a very poor one by the fourth turn the game. The initial set-up is of prime importan

and the die plays a major role in the outcome the game. The game will usually reach a decisioby the 20th week.The beach defense is a stop the Allies on thbeach type strategy and is historically known the Rommel plan. This defense is characterized ban all out attempt to defeat the first invasion. Thbeach defense will defend all six Atlantbeaches and force the Allied player to gamble iorder to get ashore. An immediatecounterattacklaunched if the Allies get a foothold on thcontinent. A successful Allied invasion north of thSeine will probably win for the Allies. A successfAllied invasion south of the Seine will force German retreat. The game will then revert to

Seine defense type game with a significantweakened German army. Defeating the firinvasion, however, will put the German player invery favorable position. He can stay in a beacdefense posture and rush all of his troops to thsecond invasion area, or he could revert to Seine defense and have his entire army waitin%forhe Allies at the Seine.A beach defense can lessen some of the Allieadvantages. The Allies must use a good portion otheir SAC attacks in their attempt to get ashore, well as risking their paratroops during the initiinvasion. Allied initiative and mobility are usualrafier limited during the critical turns of thinvasion. A defeat of the first invasion wieliminate the much to be feared Allied seconinvasion.

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THE GENERGILBLIND

Realism and playabil i ty buffs have long beeodds over th e issue o f h id d en mo vemen t and mI have been the articles which put forth poss

solutions t o th e problem a ll to n o avail. It sethat the land batt le games are destined t owi th o u t th e exc i temen t and suspense that feature provides in MIDWAY. Ian Straus preseus wi th a good alternative for those blessed wiwilling third party t o a c t as referee.

Panzerblitz, still Avalon Hill's best game, larealism because the players can see all thopponents ' units. I am far f rom the first t o suggrefereed hidden movement: see Riley R. Geaarticle in The General Mar-Apr 1972. But Geasystem of hidden movement rules is t o o ticonsuming for face-to-face play, complicated,requires unlearning large parts of the standPanzerblitz rules.

In contrast, the refereed-hidden-movement rubelow were developed with emphasis on simplicand playability in face-to-face play. As for realithe players are p u t in the real position of modcombatants: the enemy is usually unseen. But ymust still fire and maneuver against his probaposition.SET-Up: T h e players need a referee and two setsgameboards. The boards are oriented in the sadirection and separated by a divider (such asgame boxes) SO the Opponents cannot see eaother's boards. The referee sits where he c

both boards

Play is as usual, using the standard Panzerblrules with non-optional indirect fire, except

Invasion success probabilities are computed in t h~ smanner. Set1-1(LA ROCHELLE) up what you think are the best possible invasion attacks. List all123

4b 56

FRACTIONAL CHANCE= OF ALLIED WIN = ALLIED WIN X = GERMANWIN

B A Y O F B l S C A YI D ~ I ~ h i b i ~ ~ ~ ~ n..nst ~. t=. not~uibl~iblut1 PO U~U ~ns B ~ ~ ~ M U X I

ARMOR INFANTRY PARACHUTESecond Turn t 2Third Turn on 4 0,rirlonr per ~ v r nhereafier tncudng HQ i l

This depicts the best course of action for a landing in the Bay of Biscay. The British infantry divisions and the 13th ~ i ~ b ~ ~ ~ ~onduct a 11surrounded on L a Rochelle with the airborne advancing in the event of an exchange. The Canadian attacks the 272nd at 1-1 merely in anattempt t o put another unit ashore. The invasion hangs on the outcome of the surrounded attack at La Rochelle and as such has a 50 chanceof success barring a low odds German counterattack on that city. Success of the SAC attacks is also vital if the invasion is not to bog down in atime consuming battle for Bordeaux. A host of variables make further analysis unlikely but a number of hairy things can occur if either playerrisks low odds attacks for an all or nothing position.

indicated in this rules addition, ~~~h player mohis own units on his board, referee makesboards interact,SEQUENCE O F PLAY: In each player's tu rn :a. He (Attacker) may fire.b. Each player is next told of visible effectsfire (which differ for At tacker and Defender).

c Attacker moves and makes overruns and cloassaults.d. Both players are told what they can see.any time, players may mark suspected enempositions wi th unit counters,

The referee the whthey can see and combat results o n their own uniHe calculates odds and rolls the die bu t reveals tcombat results (o r lack of visible results). He keetrack and makes the game

VISIBIL'TY RULES: There are threein format ion given t o the players: ordinafire, and movement.Ordinary visibility:a. Only undispersed units can see, unless specically excepted below. They can only see whthey could fire o n under the standard Panzerblirules.

T h e Seine defense keeps the German player in defense. If You are an exacting defensive playerthe game for a long time. T h e game tends t o be and desire a long tough game try the ''Seinelong and drawn o u t with one side n o t winning until defense. You might also want t o consider yourabout 3 5 t h o r 4 0 t h week. A good defense requires opponent. T h e type of game h e plays and his levela lo t of tactical finesse and patience. In the final o f ability may determine how much of a gambleanalysis the Allies probably have t h e advantage but You should take. T h e choice is Yours.the Germans can always put u p a good fight.

l-his article has presented the two basic G~~~~ I personally prefer t o play the ''beach defense.defense strategies for D-D~,,. N~~ the question is It has been my experience that a Seine defense,which defense should you as the G~~~~ player 0 matte r how well played, will usually lose to ause. ~f you have worked o u t a really good initial good Allied player. It will be a 10% tough fight bu tset-up and do not mind gambling, try t h e beach the GemIan player will slowly, bu t surely, lose. Ifigure tha t i t is better t o go ahead and take my

possible results and their associated probabil~ties. hen consider thebest German counterattacks and their associated probabilities. Thetotal invasion Success probability is computed by summing theindividual probabilities of each of the possible results.

In the Bay of Biscay example shown, the invasion successprobability can be calculated with the help of a 6x6 matrix.

I f the Allies roll an exchange on the 1-1 against L a Rochelle, theGermans will have either A 1-1 or A 2-1 counterattack against L aRochelle.

I ~ V S I O NSUCCESS (12) (11361 14 (113) (1136) 29 = 40.3PROBABILITY (112) (1136) (213) (11361 72

1 2 3 4 5 6

PROBABILITY O F A SUCCESSFULALLIED 1ST INVASION:BEACH PERCENTAGE

NORTH SEA 40 7PAS D E CALAIS 36 6LE HAVRE 43 7NORMANDY 40 7BRI'ITANY 41 8BAY OF BISCAY 40 3

THESE PERCENT GES REPRESENTWHAT THE AUTHOR BELIEVESTO BE THE BEST POSSIBLEALLIED INVASION ATTACKSAGAINST HIS DEFENSE.

d

chances on the beach. I have developed an initialset-up which gives the Germans a better than evenchance of defeating the first invasion a t any one ofthe six Atlantic beaches. (A bottled up Allied forceon the Normandy peninsula is considered avictory.) The chart gives the chance of success ofan opt imum ~ l l i ~ dttack at each beach. R ~ ~ ~ ~ -ber that it is of little value t o have a 70% chance ofdefeating the invasion a t five beaches and only a30% chance of stopping the Allies a t the sixth. T h eAllied player will invariably pick your weakestbeach. These percentages include possible first turnG~~~~~ counterattacks. If I crush the first invasionI then conduct a strategic withdrawal to a thenvirtually impregnable Seine line. If fail t o defeatthe first invasion I conduct a fighting withdrawalt o the Seine and give the Seine defense my bestefforts.

@

11

11

d l

d 2 / 3 d x

d

xxxXX

xxxxXX

XXX

xXX

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Page THE GENER

b. Minefields are invisible. Obstacles (blocks)and fortifications can be seen as if they are troopunits.

Results of fire:a. Attacker is told of motorized units destroyedin Line Of Sight (th ey burn ); of dispersals of unitsadjacent to his (he gains fire superiority); and ofdestruction of visible units.b. Defender is told of any fall of shot (ofnon-I-type weapons) in his Line Of Sight (LOS).c. Defender is told the general type of anyenemy units firing 2 squares away in LOS (theirfiring draws attention to them).d. When his units are fired on, Defender learnsthe type(s) of fire if (1) The unit survives, evenwith a dispersal; or (2) there are adjacent friendlyunits.

Results of movement:a. Units moving ?h their Movement Factor in

b. When units cannot move as far as ordered,fo r whatever reason, they move as far as they canand then pile up. Exception: If units move o n t o aminefield, only t h e first unit moves on unless theunits are specifically ordered o n t o the mines.c. The referee does not indicate blockage ofmovement until the movement tu rn is over. Hethen rearranges Attacker's un i ts to allow for theblockage.

COMMENTS:When you play Panzerblitz blind, y o u are n o tquite playing the same game. The spotting rule ispartly cancelled: which is reasonable, since toriginal spotting rule was a compromise betweenrealism and the two-player game. I t tu rns o u t tha tmost changes are toward realism. A few tacticalhints are appropriate:

1. Antitank guns (formerly worthless) suddenlybecome valuable because you can ambush.view of, o r moving a t all next to , an undispersedhostile unit will be repor ted to the hostile 2 The armor o f armored vehicles seems t oplayer. become more important.b. Tracked vehicles may be heard moving at arange of 4 squares, counting forest and slopesquares double. Direction is given but range is not.

F IRING:

a. Any unit may fire o n any square in LOS.Units capable of indirect fire d o n o t need LOS.b. When units fire o n unspot ted targets, theirattack factors are cu t : (1 ) by if the target squareis in LOS but n o t spotted. (2 ) t o ?hfor targetsneither in LOS of the firing unit nor of an observer( CP ) unit. In addition, such unobserved firestrikes any of Attacker 's units in the 6 hexesad jacen t to the target hex. (Explanation: with noone adjusting it , this fire may be off target, hittingfriendlies; and being shelled by your own guns isdemoralizing. This rule also keeps people honesta b o u t n o t using optional indirect fire.)

3. Outpos t lines and reconnaissance becomuseful, as they are in reality.4 It is dangerous t o send your assaultininfantry in on trucks.

5. You can fire an artillery preparation befoan attack. You can also fire counte rba t te ry fires.6 In normal Panzerblitz a 2-1 advantag(measured by the Oleson poin t system ee h

General May-June 197 1) is sufficient fo r victoryPlaying blind, you need 3-1 or better.7. Lower defensive t roop densities are practicaIn view of (6) above, you should balance thsituations by weakening the defender.8 Mines become fearsome. Normally yoshould value them a t 10 Oleson points; bu t if theare invisible they are wor th 25.You have seen that there is n o referee's contrboard. Control boards double playing time, sinc

every unit must be moved twice; b u t in return fthis boring slowness they only give marginal heto the referee. Since speed is a major component oplayability (and since you get away with itPanzerbiitz; and you can't with, say, aBlitzkrieforget the control board.

-c. Indirect fire directed by observer units( CP ) is observed fire, just as if the firing unit hadLOS.d. Mines fire automatically a t the beginningof fire.e. In unspo t ted hexes all units combine in EXAMPLEOFPLAYdefense: Only combination attack is used. Given this situation on the number-one board segment at the beginning of the Russian s turn: German sees the SU-152; Russian sees nothin

f If odds are less than Or if there is o unit but his rifle company had heard the rifle platoon s I-type weapons firing last turn:in a target area, the referee should avoid giving theattacker tha t in format ion and should roll the dieanyhow.

MOVEMENT:

Russian fires at the r ifle platoon s square wit h the SU-152 and T34c. That is 46 factors (halving the T34 for the s oft target); halved becauRussian is firing u phill 23. Halved yet again because the square is observed but n ot spotted, = l1 . The referee calculatesodds o f 1-1; rolls tdie and gets a 2 (add 1 fo r the forest and it s a 3). Dispersal. He inverts the rifle platoon counter and tells German that H- and A-type fire hthere and the SU-152 fired, but Russian is not told of the dispersal.

Next, Russian moves his rifle company to 1 - L 6and close assaults the rif le platoon s square; moves the T34185 t o 1-M-4. End of movemeThe referee tells Russian he can t get to 1-M-4 and places the T3 4 company on 1-L-4 . He rolls the close assault (odds are 5-8 = 1-21. Die r

is 1; and 1 for the forest and subtract 2 for the CA and you get DD : German platoon destroyed.The referee tells German he can see the T34185 and the SU-152; and since the SGl I1 is nex t to the destroyed infan try, announces that t w

destroyed by Close Assault. The Russian is told that he destroyed the infan try plato on and that he can see the SGI II.German suspects the location of the Russian infan try, b ut has no identifi catio n. He marks the suspected location wi th a un it counter a

intends to mortar that square in his turn.a. Units are moved individually along indicatedroutes.

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THE GENERAL Paae 1SERIES REPL Y

ST ILINGR D

Of all the games to pick for a SERIES REPLAY,STALINGRAD appears the most obvious. It is byfar the most discussed and oft-played wargame o fthem all among the true hard core wargamer. It isonly natural then that we present a replay on it.Indeed, not just one, but many ny game able tohold the fascination of our cult as long as this onehas deserves widespread coverage and analysis.Our first attempt, printed below, might well besubtitled How Not to Play Stalingrad. A t leastthat's what our neutral expert George Phillieswould have us think. George is probably the bestSTALINGRAD player in the US. and is definitelythe most widely read authority on the game. Butthen, after several hundred games against the kindof competition one finds at M I T. you'd kind ofexpect that.George makes no bones about evaluating thequality of play. All we say in defense o f theparticipants is that even good players would pale incomparison to such expert analysis. Let there beno doubt about it; both players made mistakesbut then, that's what makes the game interestingisn't it 7PARTICIPANTS: Dan Evans: German Player, l omOleson: Russian PlayerBACKGROUND: Boardgamers with 2 0 years com-bined experience in b o t h PBM and live play; AHstaff members.RUSSIAN INITIAL PLACEMENT:

I have given a lot of thought t o m y startingset-up. This is my reasoning: FINLAND: Themaximum Axis force here is 22 a t tack factors, sothey can just barely make a 3-1 attack by denudingthe rest of the front. Generally this attack will no tmove towards Leningrad because it is a doubledposition, so as the Axis units advance, they leave

timed for the Fall or early winter. Jus t oneexchange cripples the attack capability of the Axishere, because they can not reinforce, while I can. 1want them t o attack, and will fall back. If I haveto , 1 can hold the entire front with only 3 units(53 1 H36,D40) until the lakes freeze.Of course, some players prefer t o concentrateforces on this front a t the outset, t ry t o get it o u tof the way, and release the forces involved just inthe nick of time t o stem t h e German advance o nthe main front. T o d o this, I figure tha t you needa b o u t 8 infantry units. I would rather use thoseunits t o deny the Germans good odds in thesummer of 1941 o n the main front.T o confuse my opponent as t o my intentions, Ihave some units a t the start o n the Leningrad frontwhich are required in July along the Nemunas.BALTIC/CARPATHIANS: I t seems t o me thatevery STALINGRAD player should have this littlechart:Soakoffs 2Hexes1 24 1 6 82 4 6 3 9 3 23 6 4 58 52As will be obvious t o anyone familiar with thegame, this reminds you of the number of a t tackfactors which the Germans can possibly concen-trate against the Russians from 1,2, o r 3 hexes, andwith no, 1, o r 2 soak-offs. For example, f rom 2hexes even the most powerful German units cannot get a 3-1 on a pair of 5-7-4 s behind a river,because with two defending units, one soak isrequired, leaving the maximum attack factorsavailable a t 3 9 ( 3 x 14=42 required).This is why there is no need t o have a 7-10-4 a tS18 a t the start , since with a sacrificial 2-3-6 a tU18, the best German odds t o cross the Nemunas,bn the first tu rn are 2-1. Of course, they may d o it,

t o concede t o the Germans, and eventuallyshould pay off. A few doubled exchangesGerman armor will h u r t them more than tRussians. In fact, I think i t is better to defendthis situation with two 5-7-4 s, because it requiresoak-off, which a 7-10-4 alone would n o t , abecause you are likely t o have o n e uni t surveven if you lose.Further south, some players stick their nose oa t X15, bu t I don t th ink tha t it is any better thX16. Sometimes I like t o p u t a 4-6-6 here t o mait a little bit harder to destroy. I like t o lose themovement factor pieces first, so they ll get backthe front faster as replacements.I have never tried this defense wi thou tsurprised reaction from t h e German player. Tnor th looks naked, bu t it isn t. No good odds aavailable, and enough units can be brought uphold the line in July, while a t the same timreleasing units t o really p u t u p a stiff defenfurther south.Here are the defense factors facing t h e Germaas they go south :

TARGET BESTATTACK: SOAK-OFFREQUIREBrest 2-1 vs. 60 factors6615 1-1 va 62 factorsCC14 2-1 vs. 7 factors*EE12 2-1 vs. 42 factorswould requlre two 7-7-Ws, and would not breach the line of

Bug River.So, there are no attacks nor th of tCarpathians, except fo r the necessary sacrifice ofsmall units, which present the Germans with bettthan 2-1 odds. In order t o achieve even that, thhave t o risk impor tan t elements of their a rmor ,well as a costly soak-off in the majority of cases.HUNGARYIBLACK SEA:

DEFENSE SOAKOFFNEEDEDHEX FACTORS BEST ATTACK DEFENSE FACTORJJ12 2 2 1 0 but noth~ng o be~ ~ ~ % ~ % ~ d 2 ~ p & l &ained hereLL14 19 1 1 46NN 3 9 7-1

The German attack in the center 1s made to break the rail line at 6615. H ~ W V C V . ~ ,, = r8accrnent wasfaulty. The exchangecostthe German his foothold at BB14. He should have switchedhis exchange piece with the 14th Armored.

desperate try to eliminate a piece. By making the 1-4 attack firthe German can dictate a retreat route north of Leningrad makingimpossiblefor the 3rd to reach 518 in its turn.

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Paae 13 THE GENERM*The a t tack must extend two hexes sou th t oundouble the LL14 position. This position isintended as bait. In order t o get 3-1 odds, theGerman must concentrate armor in Rumania whereit can be easily bottled u p , as well as risking anexpensive soak-off.GERMAN J U N E MOVE:

Rather than make a normal wait and see turntha t is common t o my normal initial move inSTALINGRAD, I've decided t o gamble o n thedefeat of t h e Russian 3rd Infan t ry near Leningrad.Should any result other than m y elimination orretreat occur (50% probability), the 3rd Infantrywill be unable t o meet its commitments a t S18 andext tu rn I should be able t o storm tha t positionith success. I am expending quite a few troops inhe center which will be wasted if the Russian 3rds not defeated.However, it is wor th the gamblesince i t further weakens the center especially inerms of transportation to the area near S I 8. TheThe Russian June move shows the gravity of the error perpetrated by the German at BB14. The now vacant square allows several

Russian units to withdraw to 3 1 proof positions behind the Nemunas.

outh is strictly a wait and see affair. Thingshould be much weaker there after the first tu rn so GERMAN .IULY 41 : will alleviate t h e pressure o n Finland and will applI have committed enough force t o present a threat great pressure on the Nemunas River line. Onchen he cuts b ck on his defensive commitment Needless to say, it seems I spent longer o n m y again I am attacking Brest-Litovsk t o cu t the rai.. comments than o n my move. The failure t o cu t the which will insure tha t t h e Russian will be unable t o

RUSSIAN J U N E MOVE:The German's unexpected and successful 1-1ttack o n m y 3rd infantry in Finland insures theall of the Nemunas this turn. It was an interestingove, but had he been eliminated in the a t t e m p t t h eemunas would have been truly unbreakable withhe large amounts of troops released from Finlandwhat would have been record time. The attacksFinland are forced by his disposition of m y-10-4. Hopefully, I can destroy his 5-5-4 andhim from holding u p in Helsinki.The counterattack a t Cernau t i was au tomat ic . Ittake more of an effort than a mere 4-4-4 t oPrut although he will probably d o so this

urn. Fortunately, I block the railroad line so hean n o t hit the LL14 area very hard. Theof the 3 7 t h and l l t h a t DD14 is tothe 6 t h Armored's position. Despitelost b o t h 1-1 attacks I am not in too bad aoffering only one delay piece this time.ortunately, my opponent misplaced his exchange

rail a t Brest-Litovsk was unforgivable. This turn counte ra t tack a t S18.

in his a t t a c k i n the 14th Inf so the rail line The success of the 1 1 attack on the 3rd Infantry last turn now makes itself felt as the Germansget a 3 1 on the 5th Infantry andunbroken. force a crossingof the Nemunas.

lnfantry by concentrating their attack on the largest German plece.nfortunately this meets with an exchange while FX2 escapes a 6 1.

exchange on the 12th lnfantry was met with glee by both sides.

RUSSIAN JULY MOVE:The breaking of the Nemunas was expected.However, it is anticipated tha t we can delay infront of and hold behind the Divina-Minsk frontuntil the Finnish situation is settled. The 6-1 on

the 3-3-4 was to knock off the strongest Finn unitat no loss. Losses in Finland have already beenhigh.

The attack on the 48 th Inf a t BB14 wasdesigned t o once again preserve the integrity of theposition at EE12. Barring an exchange i t risks littlemore than the delaying unit I would have lostanyway and forces him to soak-off and savesground as well. The Dnestr is 3-1 proof as he cannot obtain 36 factors on 2 squares in the sou thwhere he has considerable force doing nothing.Should he chance another 1-1 I still have thestrength t o counterattack.ho~ina o Drevent it from fortifying in Helsinki. There is little.danger of the other Finns scattering as they can cause no readamage by doing so unlessthe Russian fails to pursue.

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THE GENERhL Paae 1GERMAN AUGUST MOVE:

By removing two 4-4-4 s from my center force itcan be seen that what I need is volume of troopssince I already have sufficient power so I broughtback another 4-4-4. Despite the exchanges I stillseem t o be in good shape but the losses must slackoff or will have t o cont inue t o leave armor offand draw o n small dead units for volume. Thea t tack o n the 3 6 t h Inf will assure the breach of theDnestr River nex t tu rn a t either GG 14 o r HH16unless he puts two 5-7-4 s there which, of course,he will do. T h e Russian is in good shape now sincehe will have sufficient units in the sou th for winter.I may gamble around Minsk to reduce his forcesunexpectedly bu t no t until winter when the fulleffect will be felt. Finland is still doing fine b u t thesituation there is still in the dark. The rails are cu tto give the majority of the force their best odds. Ifan a t tack is made in Finland then the units nearKaunas will have t o hold their own. I expectFinland will hold for if the Russian does not stripoff aide from there soon either Riga o r the river a tKaunas will fall, o r both.RUSSIAN AUGUST MOVE:

My opponent correctly figured that I wouldignore Helsinki t o destroy the Finns menacingLeningrad from the north. He will probably retreatt o Helsinki nex t tu rn where I ll leave himgarrisoning Leningrad waiting for him to ventureout. The big move is in the sou th where if m y 3-1o n the 5 7 t h Armored works I ll n o t only havereduced his armor considerably, I will have gainedground in the sou th from which t o delay. If itworks he may be disheartened in to an earlysurrender. I realize my chances of winning arebetter if I fall back but would ra ther win in 41than 43. The 2nd Infantry is at CC16 t o deny thePripyat crossing, as I want to delay from thissquare nex t turn. With my reinforcements due nex ttu rn and the ending of the Finnish front I shouldbe in good shape for a fighting withdrawal t o theRiga-Minsk and Southern Bug lines, barring ex-changes.

A delaying movement is used on the Northern Nemunas while holding the rest of the river w i t h 3-1 proof positions. The Russianattack on the 4 8 t h Infantry shows the aggressive nature of the Russian player whlch wil l later cost h im the game.

The attack on the 3 6 t h Infantry caught the Russian y surprise and signals the beg~nning f the end for the Russian s southerndefenses. good attack.

The Russ~anplayer 1s forced to ignore open Helsinki by the threatening posture of the Finnsmarching on Leningrad. In the south the Russian makes h ~ sinal error by counterattacking against the57th armored. The exchanger which fo l lowed only made the next German move less spectacular.

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Page 5 THE GENERA

GERMAN SEPTEMBER MOVEThe time has come for an all-or-nothing gambleto win the game. A 50 chance of winning thegame is too much t o pass up. An advance againstt he 17th and 7 t h will t rap a t least 6 uni ts and hewill be unable to close the gaps. If I lose the 2-1 Iwill probably lose the game.

AFTERMATHThe shock of losing 9 corps in the space of 1game turn proved t o o m u c h for the Russian. Hesoon conceded the game al though his reinforce-ments and t h e German s weakened conditionallowed him to put u p a viable, if no t strong,defense just south of the Bug and between theDivina and Minsk. However, when the encircledRussian corps were eliminated in October itappeared t o be only a question of time before the

Russian line would break. T h e coming of winter inthe south would almost assuredly have led to aGerman breakout.Had the Russian attacks not been met with somany exchanges and the Germans n o t comethrough with a perfect four for four, 1-1 and2-1attack record, the result might have been just t heopposite. Russian strength in the south might havebeen just strong enough to counterat tack theGerman bridgehead across the Dnestr and resultedin a bled-white German army.

The German sees a chance to end the game quickly with two low odds attacks which will encircle 4Russian units in addition to the two attacked. I t was a risky decision, and one which might not havebeen made considering the Russianexchanges on the previousturn.

Both defending units were eliminated, trapping the bulk of the Russianarmy onthe Bug. The successful German attack on the 42nd Infantry which affected an easy crossing of theDnestr seals the Russian s fate.

German-June 41 THE ATTACKS . HOW THEY FELL 41,14057Arm 7X 4-1 DB2 EE141. FX4 2.6 Cav 1-5 A Elim - 4. 34.38.43.55.52.35X 36X 3-1 EXCH -2. F Grp 0 FX7.26X 3X 1-1 DB2 H~~ 4. 56.47.41.39 Arm 5X 3-1 EXCH - 44.46.6R Arm13.7.20 X3. RX1, l lX 35.29X 1-6 A62 CC124. 1.6X 28.14X.3 Arm I - 5 A Elim - 5. RX2.RX1.12.8.11 X 3 Arm 3-1 rurr. D Elim -

Russian-August 415. 2RX.14.41.47 Arm 14X 4-1 EXCH - 5 Gren 1. 8,9,10,11,37X 57 Arm 3.1 EXCH6. 10 Gren; 4.3R X 11X DB2 LL157.8.9. Automatic Eliminat~ons s. 2.7.15 Armor 6. 53 Gren 9X 1 4 AB2 CC12 2. 6 Arm 14.41 Arm 1 4 A Elim -

7. 49.23.6.48.28 X 13X 3-1 EXCH -Russian-June 41 24.57.14 Arm 3. 1.4 Arm; 6 Cav FX2.FX6 3.1 EXCH -1. 22X F Grp O,FX7 1-2 Exch German-Sept 41- Russian-July 412. 12.3X.2 Cav 26X 3-1 Exch - 1. 37.10X R Cav 5-1 D Elim - 1. 56.470X Arm; 9.11.13, 4X 4-1 D Elim -3. 1.4 Arm; 6 Cav FX2 6-1 DB2 2. 17.3RX48X 3-1 EXCH - 4 Cav 1-2 A Elim -H29 2 16.17.11X4. 16.17.2.42.65X 4X 5-1 D Elim - 3. 55.38.35.34X3. 1.4 Arm:6 Car, 29X 30X 6-1 D Elim - 17X 1-1 EXCHGerman-July 41 4. 6.23.48X X 2-1 D Elim -53 Gren; 41 Arm1. 29X 24,BX 1 4 A Elim - German-August 41 5. 5 Gren; 14 Arm 35X 3-1 D Elim -2. IR.4R.17.2.5RX 64X 3-1 EXCH - RX2,11,20,13,9 X 28.R1.3 X. 56.47 Arm; 3 Gren 2 Cav 6-1 D Elim46.6R.44 Arm

11X 1-3 AB2 CC12 6. 4R.lR.54.RX4.43X 42X 3-1 D Elim -3. 9X 4X 1 4 A62 Konigsberg 43 Gren; 46.6R Arm

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THE GENERflL Paae 6

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THE GENERALTHE SIMPLE MANEUVERS Y~rhapi not

thought o s such bmbmg,dlvlng m d h"il/ontaln.ht m 5traipht ihnrr are tho must baucmansuvsr,. Baslc udnatluns 0x1 these ti rmei allowEuldanie maneuvsr., banks, turns of varlauidegees, and even cu'lrng

THE COMPLEX MANEUVERS- Keeping mm n d fhe above ar f l u men e we herom off ir hefo l ior~ng exoilc maneuvers. some of the morecharactensflc urcraft affltudes are not r lvb lr (orpreresenabe) due to t he rather large reale of the LMMELMAN T U R N wo itagcsgame ( I hrx=S0 metershonronfal and one verticalun,t=so meters itrfudc) (escape endlor frrepus~rnonl

TLGHTT URN (ueiflcal Bank)

Half loop

ONE FINAL NOTE- fame u s r a f t do not havthe perfarmancr capnbrllfre. to execute f hcmantuuer. With any drgrea of fire-poutlo" flexlbl~ t y Spec flcdly, those awcraft with MsneuvScheduler A and Max speed8of 7 and 8

alttfude loss lerl fhan SO m

. .THE HAMMERHEAD STALLdtrtude loss less fhan 50 mTin po.lilon maneuver)

SPIRAL \

ARCHIE A. PLACEMENT:All rules governing placement of MG AA unitsapply t o Heavy AA counters with the followingaddition: Heavy AA counters must be placed aminimum of three hexes from each other.B. F I R E PROCEDURE:Heavy AA fires in the Defensive Fire Phase ofthe owning player's segment:1) Select Target:4 ) Target Acquisition: if the intended targewithin the HAA's field-of-fire, two dice mustrolled t o determine if the target is 'plottaccurately by the gun directors. Each couindicates the 'acquisition range' for each typegun which is the dice roll number required t o hthe target properly plotted. For example,British 13 pdr. requires a dice roll of '3' o r '4';British 3-inch gun requires a dice roll of '2', '3',or '5'. Two dice are rolled for EACH HAA counif the proper number is rolled, the HAA counteallowed t o roll on the HAA-TDT (below)ascertain damage.5) Effect of Fire: Heavy AA TDT:a)Heavy AA guns may only fire onHAA-TDT if the target has been propplotted via Target Acquisition.b ) Heavy AA-TDT procedure is the sameused for any other AA uni t : roll two dcross-index dice roll with proper typeHAA.

a Richthofen s War varientAnti-aircraft fire in RICHTHOFEN'S WAR waspurposely played down t o conform t o scale limita-tions and t o reduce the amount of 'distraction'from the airborne aspects of the game. Heavyanti-aircraft weaponry is completely excluded inthe original design and with good reason: playerswill find tha t using the following 'heavy' anti-aircraft artillery in the game will be a bit like using

an over-and-under shotgun t o kill a canary in acloset: a bit much. A great deal more could havebeen done with target acquisition (leading thetarget, fuse-delay, fire patterns, etc.) but we willleave this as a task for the readership if anyonefinds it necessary.These guns are represented by the followingtypes of counters, included in the Readers'Response Page, containing game-relevant data:

a) targets must be below maximum verticalrange of gun.b) no heavy AA can fire a t targets a t less than1500 m. altitude.c) heavy AA guns have unlimited horizontalrange on mapboard: i.e, the entire mapboard.2) Field-of-Fire: targets must be within theHeavy AA unit's field-of-fire t o be fired on. T h efield-of-fire for all Heavy AA guns consists of allhexes within the front facing TWO hexsides of theAA counter. The facing symbol indicates whichtwo hexsides define the field-of-fire. ADDITION-ALLY, Heavy AA units may not fire a t targetswithin four hexes (inclusive) of the HAA counter.

c) T h e entire process of determining field-of-rolling Target Acquisition, rolling on HAA-TDT, is completed for each HAA unturn before proceeding to the next.field-of-fire (traverse) arrows

symbol

+3) Traverse: once placed o n the mapboard,Heavy AA guns may never be moved from theiroriginal placement hex. However, they are allowedt o c h a n g e their facing ONE HEXSIDE in either

direction a t the beginning of the owning player'smovement phase. Facing indicators must alwaysconform t o the mapboard hexes as in the regularRW rules.

6) HEAVY ANTI-AIRCRAFT TARGDAMAGE TABLE:

maximum vertical range acquisition range(in hundreds of meters)HORIZONT-IL VEKI'ICAL MUZZLF

-- - TYPE NATiOPiALITY RATE O F FIRE RANGE RANGE. VELWI Y- -- -- -.- . -13 pdr. British ('16-'18) 6-10 rpm 8,20 0 yds. 13,000' 1,700 fps3 1 n ~ , h Brttisl1('17-'IR) 15 rpm 10.5UOytls. 18.000' 3 . 5 0 0 t p s C. USING HEAVY AA IN THE GAMET o facilitate t h e creation of original scena75m111 Fr.ench('l.7-'18) 15 rpni 10.000 yds. 16.400' 1 .700 l ps elnploying IIeavy . \ A w t offcr the iollowing b ~

77 mni. G e r ~ n a n'1 6 1 8 6-10 rpln 8 ,700 yds. 11,000' 1,500 fp5 i n i o r ~ n a t ~ o n .1 1)on.t h c > ~ t a l eo use H C ~ I V VA ( a n d io r t

\matte r regular AA and MG units) in o t

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THE GENERAL Page 2One note: although not ail versions of the rules More US aircraft will require sending He219s orBasic, Tour nam ent, Advanced require that l 10s to helo cover.all units take off and land in unlson, I find ittactically expedient to keep them together and ECONOMIC DISTRIBUTING BY SECTORSconcentrdte all of d giv en t y pe ~ n t o ne or a few arO.%* m m s Factories:o l aircraftlocal attacks. in ot her w ords, hlt them with the fZ fj&~&~&~&~@~&~J ~ &j&~ ~~$~mostest.Back to the Mdin Fron t the Me l09s cdn't nd 10 1 9q&&$g~&f2~p~&~ $gT;~*g@ ~6operate anywhere else The Main Fron t has the T -- - nairfields; the 109s should be concen trated in .

Hesse to be in the center of all of them. TheFwl90s, formidible but with a lmost as short arange, should all be based in the Rheinland.There they can assist the 109s or be shuttled t othe south if necessary. These aircraft shouldhandle defense of all Main Fr ont sectors; nosector should have its own units. Defense here, asin the other fronts, should be a front-wideoperation. If it becomes apparent that one groupor more of bombers will get through, the Germanwill have to decide which sector to sacrifice forthe sake of the other areas.Hansa is secondary: most raids will be to thesouth . To keep the Me109 school units out oftrouble, though, it might be advisable to postthem along Hansa's exposed Baltic coast wherethey can defend or act as a reserve.In the open spaces of the Southern Fro nt , theGerman should post his M el lOs, Me410s,He219s, and any other twin-engined fighters (asneeded) in a wide belt extending from Munich toGyor. If the US comes after soothern Germany inforce the Fwl90s can a lways be cal led down;othe rwis e, the twin-engined figh ters are suitable.The area is not worth anything else.

Usually the US won 't bother t o post morethan 1 or 2 factors of bombers in Russia - aserious mistake. One Dornier group stationed inthe Lodz area will adequately defend against this.

Po meran ~a 3 0 0 2t tg&ds& i&&~~q& @~&ria s gNetherlands 0 0 1Aircraft, oil, and railroad targets are, respec-tively, the most important targets - and the onlyones directly affecting German tactical strength.

The Baltic is usually the main scene of actionon t he Eastern Fr ont. Assorted school units andJu88s will suffice, placed in Pomerania; a fewother twin engine units may be sent in to help.The pivotal airfields for the entire Eastern Frontare Kolobrzeg and Torn, for obvious reasons.Particularly in the Baltic area, but on allfronts , the Germans must take care not t o le t theUS slip through and reduce the Interior Front.l 'emplehof especially must be guarded; Anahltand Bohemia are more forward and the Berlin-Sorau area is usually the final target area onwhich the whole game will turn - unless it is hitfrom behind.

The Fwl90s, under th is system, are the onlunits that can move from one front to anotherit is somewhat wasteful to keep far-flung defensebut the German must prepare for a l l contingencies - if he clumped his forces in the centehe would give the US a free crack at thouter-lying areas and hasten an awful reckoningThe only way the Germans can expect to u t i l izthe principle of mass is locally.Which brings me to tactical doctrine . To makthis defense work the German must hit hard anoften in all areas. To stop the bombers, the besbet is to gather the entire front's forces togetheand jump on the enemy in one big smash hegive him an 'escort. ' By the same token , thAmerican's best means of blunting the Luftwaffis to kill their fighters in the same manner - hhard with everyone available.Often, the American player will make thmistake of using his entire fighter force as aescort . True, the weaker f ighters are good fonothing else. Also, it is somewhat true that a 14facto r escort will slow the Germans dow n. Buthe latter case, with most or all US fighterchained to their big friends, will allow thGermans to advance in to bases in the Ruhrefuel, and get at least one extra turn of the bismash. Also, a big esco rt will discourage weaattack s but a determined Germ an will gathehis forces and hit so hard that he will break thescort's back (he must, for if he doesn't, retaliation will be swift and terrible).US heavy figh ters P47s and P51s arbetter-used in hunt oper ation s. Aggressivsweeps will intimidate or blow the German out oforward airfields and will bite big chunks ou t oanybody molesting the bombers.In fact, attrition is a key factor. US fighteare expendable; the German, however, does norise like the phoenix from his own ashes. Oncaircraft factories begin to go (about mid-'44) thGerman's accumulated replacements will start tdecline. The German is over a barrel - he musstop the bombers, but with minimal losses.And the bombers themselves are a weaponKept together as long as possible (especially itargets are a l l in one sector or on the way therea fo rmation will extract i ts own p ound of f leshSector-strike planning will mean that the bomberwill stay together t o within o ne tur n or less othe strikes, and th us gain the maximum defensivfirepower from their massive umbrella formationsThe US should s tudy the sectors to see howthey are important to his own planning. This ieasy in the southern, eastern, and Baltic regionsand is best left to the individual. Some suggestions in the Main Front are necessary, howeverEarly attacks on the Rheinland may be mortrouble than it 's worth . There are 1 0 targetthere, but most or all can easily be eliminated i'45. B etter t o spend the effort neutralizing thSouthern and Eastern Fr ont s before '45. Obvously Hesse, the Ruhr, the Netherlands, anHansa will go before '45 also. Any deeper forayshould be directed at Tempelhof and AnhaltTemplehof is reachable from the Baltic anshould b e cleaned out as early as possible; Anhawill be fiercely defended but its early loss wimean much in a battle of attrition. With Anhaland Tempelhof part ly o r wholly e l iminated , thfinal missions on Bohemia should be a mop-upTheoretically

Continued on p ge Column

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Paee 2Dear Sir:As I am sure you are aware, the biggestdeparture f rom reality i n wargames is that theopposing players can see the entire dispositions ofthe enemy forces. The secret "at sea" dispositionsof forces permi t ted in TACTICS II, and thefundamental character of games such as M IDW AYand JU TLA ND are the c losest anyone hascome tosolving the problem.One solution to the prob lem of forces visibil i tyis to play th e games on three mapboards, using areferee for the third board. Naturally, this wouldrequire refinements in the rules to increase therealism. The problem in locally developed andapplied rules of this nature is the unwillinsness ofcertain kin ds of players t o accept the rules as finalauthority for arguments thay may develop. Inaddition, many o f the players of wargames havenever been shot at in anger by anyone else andtherefore have no feel of what it means to beintervisible, with in optical range, or within fir in grange of a un its weapons. Often I suspect that thestaffs of the wargames publishing houses havenever experienced the "feel" of combat.

I have played TACT ICS I I wi th f ive p layers on aside. One of these is the principal player whorepresents the A rmy Group Commander and whomoves the pieces. One player is the personnelofficer (G-1) who advises the CG on friendly un itsavailable and replacement considerations. A nothe rplayer is the intelligence officer (G-2) who advisesthe CG on weather, terrain, p robab le enemy plans,identit ies and strengths of enemy un its in contact,and the probable reactions of the enemy tofriendly courses of action. Another player is theope rat io ns of f icer (G-3) wh o advises thecommander on the courses of action t o be taken toachieve friendly forces objectives, and writes theplans to cover the various operations the frien dlyforces are to conduct. The fou rth other player isthe logistics officer (G-4) who advises the CG onsupply percentages available on all classes ofsupplies; the effects of s hortages of food, gasoline,and ammo on the capabil it ies of the friend ly units;t r a n s p o r t a t i o n p r o b l e m s a f f ec t in g f u t ur eoperations, and other logistics problems. Thecommander provides staff the guidance necessaryand gives then information about which enemyunits are in contact, etc.

Playing TACTICS I I in this manner usuallyrequi red qui te a b i t of wr i t ing on the par t of thestaff officers, and requ ired us to devise sets ofpersonnel, intelligence, and logistics cards similarto th e weather cards already included in TACTIC SII. The purpose of the additional cards was toinsert the element of chance into G-1, G-2, and G-4plann ing and operations. These added cards boreinformat ion extracted f rom per t inent Army f ie ldmanuals and other sources. Under qese rulesTACTICS II u sually lasted six to eight hours. I twas fine f or teaching certain fundamentals ofmil itary operations to my NCOs.

Anoth er p roblem area in wargaming is thematter of real t ime. Each turn in AFR IKA KORPSrepresents two weeks real t ime. Supposedly, theuni ts cont inue thei r miss ions thru a two weekperiod, and then receive new orders. In reality, allthe Arm or and Armored Cavalry unit commandersI have ever known changed their unit orders atleast every thre e days This was necessary becausethe situations changed so rapidly in armor warfare.This applies to the Armo r and Cavalry unitcommanders of France, Germany, and Britain.Presumably, Romme l was equally as flexible inhis planning.All Armor units, no matter whose they are orwhat size they are, have organic reconnaissance

elements. The l ighest of such elements operatedf ive to seven km ahead of i ts parent uni t r twoto f ive k m o ei ther f lank. Each Armor d iv is ion hasan organic cavalry squadron capable of operationson 12 observation points stretched over 12km pert roop or 3 6 k m for the squadron. The squadroncan operate ten or more miles ahead of thedivision. Each Arm or C orps has organic CavalryRegiments which are equivalent to l ight battlegroups and can conduct norma l operations 25 to50 miles ahead of the Corps. For such a unit t ooperate completely surrounded by the enemy unitswas normal, and surrounding rarely debil i tated thefighting ca pabil i t ies of the regiment. N o US cavalryregiment (except the 7th at the Battle of the Litt leBighorn) was ever lost because it was surrounded.Some were lo st because of poor leadership. Thepoint here is that the Avalon Hil l games need tospell out mo re the role of the cavalry units infinding the enemy and reporting their f indings tohigher HQ.

Letters to the Editor . . .PANZERBLITZ comes c losest to employingrecon units properly. But the game needs to insistthat the hidden deployment and ar t i l lery l l ine ofsight rules be permane ntly a part of the rules andnot optional, as written now. Only a potentialConsressional Medal of Honor winner would evertr y t o manuever forces over clear terrain where

armor u nits are known to be operating. Therefore.Cavalry (or scout) units should play vital roles inwargames. They should be assigned extra MF forperforming courier duties in reporting enemyoperations to the ir HQ. Their ranges should dependon their sizes, and they should be permittedmovement defensively, as in a delaying action.Al though cavalry units used in WW II lost tanksand other vehicles, no unit was lost because ofenemy action, because they were able to delaysuccessively. I n a wargame, an enemy un it shouldnot have the idea it can go into he zone of controlof a cavalry un it and expect to destroy it. I nreality, the cavalry unit would no longer be thereto be defeatedBernie MagelkyMajor, US CavalryBangkok, Thailand

Sir:I have never written for The General before,and perhaps with good reason. I cannot boast ofthe same credentials of other authors I have readin these pages. However. eel that Origins is oneof Avalon Hil l 's best efforts and would l ike todefend Mr. Dunnigan in layman's terms (whichpeople like me can un understand).The national objectives chart of the historicalgame shows that German policy wil l not causewar unless one of two things happens. First,Germany collects many territories, or second.Germany takes con trol of Austria, Poland, Czech,and Rhineland. Either of these wil l net 15 pointsand start the war. The first option is veryimperialistic and would cause trouble under anyconditions, thus, a war. The second opt ionduplicates what actually happened. I t should beobvious to everyone that this also caused war. Iconsider this parallel of reality a poi nt in favor ofthe game as designed.ltaly has been m uch discussed. It is true thatl ta ly "pres ided at Munich. But af ter that , l ta lyhad l i t t le ef fect on what went on unt i l the lastdays before the invasion of Poland. A t tha t t imeHitler asked ltaly t o keep her intentions in theevent of war secret. l taly had already told Hitlershe would be neutral and Hitler asked Mussolinito keep the French and Brit ish guessing. A t thispoint (1939) ltaly did not have her armed forcesbui l t up t o a point at which she could "rattle hersabre," and thus assumed the role of a secondarynation i n diplomacy. However, please notice thatMr. Dunnigan has included ltaly as one of thetargets of the diplomacy of the m ajor players.This is accurate as Germany continued t o pres-sure lt aly fo r m il itary supplies and supportguarantees and the Western Democracies con-tinued to press Mussolini to get him t o "preside"over another M unich to settle the question of thePolish Corridor. ltaly had n o intention of doingso nd this worked to H itler's advantage. Thus,in the national objectives chart, l ta ly is wor thmore to the French and Brit ish player because ifthey had been able to get an understanding withMussolini, it would have made a considerabledifference.On one important point, Mr. Dunnigan's com-ments led me to believe he considered Hitler tobe in purs uit of war. I would disagree up toAugust 1939. August 31 t o be exact. On June18, 1938 Hitler told General Keitel. "I shall onlydecide on any a ction against Czechoslovakia whenI am absolutely sure, as when I occupied thedemilitarized zone and invaded Austria, thatFrance wil l not march and England wil l notinterfere." (This quote is from documents used inevidence at Nuremberg and put forth in LeonardMoseley's On Borrowed Time.) This statementsums up Hitler's procedure rig ht up to th e end(or should I say the beginning). He continuallysent Herman Goring to talk to the Brit is h beforeand after the Czech issue was decided. When thePolish Corridor and Danzig became the issue,Hitler went so far as to offer wha t nearlyeveryone concerned considered a reason