LITTLE WARS
One of my long-standing hobbies is wargaming - here are some links to other
useful gaming places and to some home-made games, scenarios and variants I have
cooked up over the years.
The Latest News
21 February 2008
Well, it has been another while hasn't it? Here's some news about what's been
going on, with new and old designs:
New games:
- Balkan Gambit: The
Allied invasions of the Balkans that weren't. One of the great what-ifs of
World War 2 in the Mediterranean theatre, at least to Hitler and the German
High Command, was the possibility of an Allied invasion of Greece or Yugoslavia. In history, the
Allies did nothing of the kind until Operation MANNA, the liberation of Greece in late 1944 after the German
garrison had already withdrawn into Yugoslavia. But the Allies
knew the Germans perceived such invasions as a credible threat and created
several strategic deception plans, leading the Germans to move or keep
critical troop formations in northern Italy and the Balkans when they
would have been much more useful somewhere else. The game comes with four
scenarios:
- Operation BOARDMAN: In summer 1943, the British 8th Army is sent to
liberate Greece and Crete. This was a deception to cover Operations
HUSKY and AVALANCHE, the historical invasions of Sicily
and Salerno.
- Operation ZEPPELIN: In summer 1944, the notional British 12th Army
attacks Greece and Albania while the US 7th Army attacks in Dalmatia, in concert
with Soviet amphibious operations against the coast of Rumania and Bulgaria. This plan was part
of Operation BODYGUARD, the overall deception plan to disguise Operations
OVERLORD and ANVIL (the invasions of northern and southern France).
- Operation GELIGNITE: Actual plans were drawn up to send the British 8th
Army across the Adriatic in late 1944 or early 1945 to cut off the final
retreat of German Army Group F and forestall any further Soviet advances
towards northern Italy. The plan was shelved due to shortages of troops
and landing craft.
- Operation SLIVA (PLUM): Between 1948 and 1955, the possibility of a
Soviet invasion to bring Yugoslavia
back into the Soviet orbit remained the largest factor in Yugoslavia's
perception of external threat. This hypothetical scenario frames such an
invasion as an intervention in support of pro-Soviet Yugoslavs, in the
name of “fraternal assistance”.
The games uses the Autumn Mist system of formation activations and combat
matrix, at a larger scale: 1 week/turn; 30 km/hex; division/brigade;
17x30" map and 280 counters. Many "chrome" rules to cover
the fragmented human, political and physical terrain of the area, for
example the very varied set of combatants: several flavours of Allies
(Americans, British, Bulgarians, Canadians, Greeks, Poles, Soviets and
Yugoslavs) including two flavours of partisans, and varied Axis types
(Bulgarians again, Germans of course, Croat-Serb-Slovene collaborators,
miscellaneous SS nasties). Supposed to be in P500 with Lock n'Load but has
languished unknown with them.
- Konarmiya: The
prequel to Freikorps. This covers the summer of 1920, uses the same
system and map scale as Freikorps, and the maps match so you can play one
big struggle for North East Central Europe. More map (22x17" and runs
from Warsaw to Kiev) and fewer counters (192). Features
the Polish Legion, Polish National Army, the Konarmiya (Budenny’s Cavalry
Army) of course, volunteer Hungarians, Lithuanians, and Ukrainians,
Pilsudski, Trotsky, Major Bartholomew W. Bandy, and the usual mayhem and
chaos. Published in spring 2008 by Fiery Dragon.
- Greek Civil War:
Only game yet designed on the 1947-49 civil war, which was actually the
third and final act of a conflict that began in 1941. One of the few times
a Communist-inspired insurgency was beaten by a Western government. Uses a
hybrid of the Algeria
and Shining Path systems: the situation combined aspects of the war
in
Reissues and Retreads:
- In spring 2008, Fiery
Dragon released updated versions of Arriba Espana, Battle for China, Autumn Mist
and Algeria.
They feature bigger and cardboard boxes (the tin boxes are a thing of the
past), thicker counters and better die-cutting. Battle for China is
also being made available in a "deluxe" version that includes
the expansion kit.
- No movement on getting a French
translation of Algeria
together.
- A revised map-and-counter
version of Green Beret is in playtesting and will be published by
Cool Stuff Unlimited in 2008.
- Battle for China was
chosen by reader feedback in late 2006 to be re-re-published in Strategy
& Tactics magazine, slated for issue #260 (October 2009).This will
be the basic 1937-41 game: the expansion kit is now available as a free
download on Boardgamegeek here.
- Arriba Espana was
chosen by publisher fiat to be in issue #8 of World at War
magazine, a new Decision Games publication, expected to appear November
2009.
- East in Shreds Redux: a
substantial updating and rework of the original variant for The China
War, postulating a seven-way civil war in China in the near future. See
below.
Other Interesting Bits:
- I alluded below to how Algeria
was being used by some folks in and near the Pentagon as a model for
counterinsurgency warfare. In December 2007, I attended a workshop of the
Military Operations Research Society on "International Perspectives
in Irregular Warfare". One of the four working groups played a game,
a slightly modified version of the Algeria game system with a new
fictional scenario (a civil insurrection in a South Pacific island group,
rife with Gilligan's Island references), and I made a presentation
on Tupamaro and its follow-on designs to the
"Counterterrorism" working group.
15 November 2006
- War Plan Crimson was
released by Fiery Dragon just in time for me to take copies down to the
MonsterCon convention in early June 2006. Not too many takers there, but
there was a certain amount of press coverage here and abroad, thanks to
some sympathetic journalists.
Algeria has excited
some interest too, as a potential model for gaming the current Iraqi
insurgency. Not quite the model I'd choose but I still think it's a good
game, though - am working on getting a French translation of it published,
as that war is still a very taboo subject over there.
- I designed a new game Paranoid
Delusions, for the Third Microgame Design Contest (these things seem
to come every four years), available for free download (see above).
4 May 2005
- Freikorps was
released in May, I got a case of samples. Interesting cover art and the
counters, while still thin, are die-cut, not perforated! This makes a big
difference to some people. Interim website showing what is in the Little
Tin Box is here: http://www.ottographicdesign.com/fiery/freikorps.htm. You
can also see what the other games look like if you poke around.
- Unfortunately, I will not
be going to the convention in Phoenix, nor
to another big one in Los Angeles
to which I had been invited. There's just too much going on right now in
Real Life. Next year.
6 October 2004 Well, it's been a while.
- Autumn Mist arrived
in May, just before I went down to Phoenix
for MonsterCon 4.0, a very nice and proper gaming convention. I enjoyed
myself greatly and found I even had a reputation to precede me. I even
participated in a designer's roundtable on games about the Battle of the Bulge,
a special theme of the convention.
- Battle for China
arrived towards the end of September, and I am told Freikorps will
be out by the end of the year. Right now we are discussing which ones to
do next - I am thinking a double package of Civil Power and Battle
of Seattle. The rules for both games are fairly short and the maps are
small, so why not.
- Unfortunately, I must also
report that the Microgame Design Group is closing down. See here. Kerry
Anderson is going to school for his PhD in Meteorology, and the MDG has
had a good run of eight years and thirty-odd (or should that be thrity
odd) titles. I am sorry to see this go, as I knew I always had an outlet
for my wonky ideas, but it was perhaps time for a change.
22 April 2004
On Monday I got a big heavy box in the mail, containing 20 copies of Arriba
Espana. It has been published by Fiery
Dragon Productions, a publishing outfit in Toronto that mostly does role-playing games
material. The company will be bringing out four of my games in 2004, they did a
very good job on the graphics and production. Perforated counters on thin card.
The games are even packaged in small tin boxes, a first for this kind of thing.
I'm quite proud of the way they look.
10 December 2002:
- Over the period of my
recent convalescence, in response to an opportunity to get several of my
games published in Spanish, I designed a division-level game on the Battle of the Bulge
called Herbstnebel (one of the original codenames for the German
offensive). This apparent departure from my usual habit of covering
obscure topics (note: where I use the term obscure, I mean
"obscure to Americans, who carry on most of the board wargaming in
the world and are the largest buyers of my products") was occasioned
by this opportunity, which has since fallen through, but it was the right
vehicle for me to test a simple system for corps-level operations
incorporating some new old ideas that I had had in the back of my mind for
some time. The game is in playtesting right now, and when it's working I
will see about designing a Manchuria 1945 game using the system, the
obscure venue (see above note; though this campaign was the last of World
War II, it was the third largest and saw truly remarkable applications of
the operational art of war, as well as providing signal lessons in
supporting large-scale operations at the end of tenuous logistical
systems) that I had planned for it all along. I intend for both games to
come out through Microgame Design Group.
- Meanwhile, Red Guard
has finally been published by Schutze Games, complete with die-cut
counters! I haven't seen the actual product yet but it's exciting. Not
much popular reaction to it, and I don't expect much owing to the
obscurity of the topic (again, see above note: the Chinese Cultural
Revolution was perhaps the largest, most wrenching and difficult to
understand political and mass event of the 20th Century).
- Oh, and Operation
Whirlwind was released in September 2002. It has excited some interest
from people who have played it. By the way, can you spot the graphic
boo-boo on the cover? It's there for a reason....
21 August 2002:
- I have been informed that Operation
Whirlwind has won the 2002 Microgame Design Contest, hands down!
Hurrah for me!
- In other news, Canadian
wargamer Bruce McFarlane has designed an expansion kit for War Plan
Crimson called "The Maple Leaf Forever". It involves a
spoiling attack during the immediate run-up to a game of WPC, involving
veteran WW I cavalrymen on horses, tankettes the Canadian Army never had,
and armored buses full of Canadian infantrymen disguised as hockey
players. Like WPC, this variant was also inspired by an actual war plan
called "Defence Scheme No. 1" drawn up in the 1920s. Jeez, what
staff officers with time on their hands will get up to, eh?
- I also see that I failed to
mention that this spring my Green Beret, my card game on the
situation in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, 1964-5, has finally
been published by Simulations Workshop. Sales are reportedly not brisk but
there were a few people waiting for this one.
- And finally, Red Guard,
my game on the Chinese Cultural Revolution, is about to come out Real Soon
Now from Schutze Games. We just have to finish up the graphics. It may
even have diecut counters, we'll see. Peter Schutze has also expressed an
interest in my 1848 game, so that would place my entire oeuvre
in print.
- Friend John Kula has
designed a Petrograd 1917 game and I gave
him a bit of help on it, so I think I've scratched that creative itch. I
might come back to it later, but not right now. Casting about for a new
idea, I am thinking perhaps the Greek Civil War using the Algeria
system. It might work.
- Well, la-di-freakin'-dah...
anyway, it has been a good year for designing, but unfortunately not for
article writing. Have to get back to that.
27 June 2002:
Another new game, submitted to the 2002 Microgame Design Contest and to come
out in August from Microgame Design Group. It's called OPERATION WHIRLWIND.
It is a historical game on street battles between Hungarian rebels and Soviet
invaders in November 1956. Area movement map of downtown Budapest, 140 backprinted counters, 8 hours
per turn, roughly platoon to regiment scale. A tense contest, at least in terms
of player victory. Optional forces include Special Forces teams and the 101st
Airborne Division, jumping into battle! I've been chewing on this idea for some
time, as you'll see by scrolling down the page, but it was the imminent
deadline of May Day for the design contest that set me to finally carrying out
the project.
From the beginning, I had planned to include an abstract Political Game. In
the Political Game, the Hungarian player (representing the new revolutionary
government, committed to political reform) attempts to reduce or eliminate the
domination of Hungary by the
Soviet Union diplomatically. My reading showed
me that this was the only way for the Hungarian player to win a real (i.e.
bloodless) victory, through securing some kind of "separate but
equal" status inside the Warsaw Pact for his country - something similar
to that enjoyed by Yugoslavia. This was not an impossible goal, but if and when
negotiations failed, Nagy could try to win a moral victory of sorts in the
Military Game by fighting the Soviet Army in the streets of Budapest, and the
stances of the players in the Political Game at the point where the Soviet
player intervened militarily would set up the conditions of the Military Game.
However, the abstract nature of the political game was the sticking point -
I did develop a way to do it, but it seemed too abstract and gamey and so I
have shelved it for his game. I might resurrect the idea for use in another
design.
1 February 2002:
I've whipped up a quick variant for my Somalia game postulating a
quick American strike into that unhappy land later in 2002, looking to uproot
Al-Qaeda elements there. At the end of 2001, it really looked as if Somalia was
next on the list, though investigations have not supported the rumours, which
looked good. Anyway, try it out if you happen to have the game: Operation Sword o' Dubya!
22 January 2002:
Short update - over the Christmas holidays I received my sample copies of both War
Plan Crimson and Battle for China, in #42 of Japanese Command. They
both look pretty darn good! War Plan Crimson is raising a few eyebrows
on ConsimWorld, if only because of the zaniness of the subject. Command did a
beautiful job on the graphics for Battle for China - one 16x24" map
and two 16x12" half-maps, 400 diecut backprinted counters, separate rules
booklet with nice illustrations, wrapped up in a glossy 84 page magazine. I
suppose this is as good as it gets... we'll see if we can't arrange more of the
same.
Rash promise: if you go to the trouble of paying 3,780 yen for the magazine
(well, more than that since that's the domestic price, even so that is over
US$32) and its spiffy components, contact me and I will send you the
English-language rules and charts you need to play.
Pensees en passant: kind of stalled on my other game projects. I have
decided to rethink Red Guard once more; it's not quite there yet.
13 July 2001: Well, a few things have happened.
Big in Japan:
In June I was approached by the editor of the Japanese edition of Command
magazine (actually it's a separate magazine, the title is used under license
but the two publications have gone different paths), on the strength I guess of
a very positive full-page review that appeared in their March/April issue.
Would I be interested in licensing them to produce a Japanese language version
of Battle for China plus expansion kit for publication in the Jan/Feb 2002
issue of the magazine? Hell yes. They will redo the maps and the game will have
diecut counters too! So this is my first semi-professional sale, and another
example of a DTP game making it out of the Xerox-and-shirt-cardboard ranks, at
least in Japan.
I retain the copyright so the game is still available in English through
Microgame Design Group. Another nice review of Pusan Perimeter appeared
recently in Games Journal, another Japanese-language magazine, and
perhaps there will be more to follow. Board wargaming is even more of a
minority hobby in Japane than it is in the USA: Japanese Command has a
circulation of about 1,000 copies, no more. But otaku are otaku,
and they will not be denied, and that makes my pathetic little ego happy.
Do-over: I've also gone back and done revisions to two of my earlier
games, Red Guard and Tupamaro. These were two designs I liked but
the systems just didn't seem to work out. I made a substantial revision to Red
Guard in getting rid of the map and cleaned a lot of grit out of Tupamaro,
as well as tightening up the rules language. I think I will also include short
articles I've written on the Cultural Revolution and the Tupamaro movement with
the games, as was done with Shining Path, due to the obscurity of the
subjects (to Americans, at any rate).
New ideas, stupid moves: Other projects I have hatched in the last
2-3 months include an attempt at designing a four-player Barbarossa game where
the players are in limited competition with each other, still too much of a
numbers-and-hexes wargame so no chance of using those cute little "German
game" wood and plastic components. I'm stalled or to too busy to with
mundane things to make much progress with the Petrograd 1917 and Budapest 1956 games. But
they'll come when they're ready.
14 March 2001:
Gee, it's been a while but I have stayed busy. Algeria came out in December
2000, and we have, as always, had positive feedback, as well as confirmation
from a couple of French gamers that this is the first strategic simulation game
on the war ever designed in any language. I was also struck with the idea of
doing a hypothetical US-invades-Canada-1930s game in February, and it came
together very quickly (one good thing about these alt-hist games is that you
don't have to be too anal-retentive about the Order of Battle). See below for
details.
I didn't have much time in 2000 to do much else besides Algeria,
since I was busy editing Strategist, the monthly zine of the now-defunct
Strategy Gaming Society. It was fun but one year was enough. If you want to see
what it looked like, go to Magweb and some
back issues ought to be on display.
So what should I do in 2001? Here are some ideas I've been thinking about
for games, normally to be done to Microgame Design Group physical standards:
- WINTER
PALACE - a card game on the
situation in Petrograd in 1917, between
the Tsar's abdication and someone (not necessarily the Bolsheviks) getting
a grip on power
- EOKA - British vs. Greek
Cypriot terrorists, 1955-6
- ALAS HELLAS - the Greek
Civil War, using the Algeria
system (please help me think of a better title!)
- ???
30 August 00:
The Microgame Co-op has been forced to change its name. Basically, the Alberta
provincial government (the Co-op is based in Edmonton) has legislation
concerning the use of the term "co-operative" or derivatives thereof:
Kerry could have continued using the name but only if we got things together
like a ten member board of directors, annual general meetings, bylaws,
registered status, and hefty and expensive tax-related changes. The game wasn't
worth the candle so we renamed our organization the Microgame Design Group
(MDG). Perhaps not the most titillating name (there were many suggestions)
but this shouldn't get us in any more trouble. Too bad we had to give up on
five years of name recognition, though.
10 August 00:
Reorganized this page with anchors as it was getting a bit long to scroll down.
31 July 2000:
Peter Schutze of Schutze Games in Australia has just released
full-colour DTP versions of four of my designs! The lucky four are Power
Play, Pusan Perimeter, Somalia,
and Tupamaro. The treatment he has given these closely resembles
Microgame Design Group's- you are getting a quality item for not much outlay.
Prices are variable: US$5-7 including airmail postage to anywhere in the world.
He also takes credit cards. These are the first four offerings from Schutze
Games, but Peter will be putting out more designs by other people later. GO
THERE NOW and check it out! Schutze
Games
30 July 00:
posted Desert Leader and Steppe Leader, two comprehensive
variants for the Panzerblitz/Panzer Leader/ Arab-Israeli Wars series of
games, to cover the war in the desert 1940-43 and on the Manchurian steppe.
1 June 00:
Posted Battle of Seattle on the site for free download.
Gaming Links
Simulacrum
Irreverent and quarterly magazine
for board wargame collectors and other obsessives. Edited by big buddy John
Kula. I have written more reviews for this periodical than I have grasping
members.
The
Maverick's Classic Microgame Museum
Nice commentary on the Microgame
fad of the 1980s, the precursor of DTP, and a good gallery of covers.
Microgame HQ
More stuff on Microgames. Some
good links, too.
Web-Grognards
Probably the best all-around
resource for gaming links, errata, sources, etc..
Gamer
Cadre
The home page of Joe Miranda,
game designer and editor of Strategy & Tactics magazine.
Consimworld.com
A good place for discussions on
many gaming topics, news, contacts and more.
Hey!
Lemme outta here, you warmonger!
