Ahmadinejad is a Hitler Scripted President

My take on this whole nuclear issue with Iran echoes what I have heard and read. The Iranian president cannot be trusted and is an expert of dodging on point questions using deflective language. He does nothing more than dance around the point regarding nuclear weapons. When the BBC contacted me to be on their round table show recently, I was stunned. My views remain that history repeats. In the 30's, Hitler was rising to power. He was in the "friendly stage", trying to woo others, which he succeeded. The other countries all tried to appease him with concessions or by "ignoring him" thinking the problem would vanish! Hitler would then accept them and not really concede anything but continued to be cordial and nice--reassuring the world that he only wanted what was best for Germany. Time went on. Inside Germany, the military had been building up and training all along. The citizens themselves had little clue what Hitler really wanted at the time (30's). It all seemed "Okay", to anyone who simply casually looked. To others, they saw danger and tried to warn an ignorant world.

 

Ahmadinejad is following the same script Hitler wrote and performed. The world today is smarter.  His goal is to destroy Israel. He does have designs on Iraq in a covert manner. Iran could control some of Iraq through covert activity, for instance, control Basra, key to oil and ports. He is not that dumb to do this overtly with military activity- he is a fox. A sly, cunning leader.

 

If the world waits until Iran does do something with even a tactical nuclear weapon, it is too late. With a nuclear weapon, Iran would be a threat to most nearby countries. Instability would increase dramatically. The problem for the West is that no solution is even a good one. They are all only the best of a bad selection of choices to counter this. It is a "damned if you do, damned if don't" situation. We all know that even with pinpoint bombing is inaccurate if the intelligence of the nuclear locations is incorrect.  The best we could do would be to destroy the obvious above ground nuclear facilities, and of course, Iran would keep such material in this obvious place. At least, serious damage could be made along with destroying their oil refineries. Perhaps the Iranian people would then be angry enough to overthrow the regime, for it is their government which has brought this upon them. The common Iranian is no different than the common American in many ways.

 

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said a nuclear Iran could threaten the world. How true. He is also quite correct that unless Iran proves to the world it is "clean", the West will sooner or later use military force.

 

Iran should allow the inspectors in their country, free access to any location they wish to pursue, stay as long as they want, talk to anyone they want. Anything short of this is akin to a person who knows they are guilty when charged with a crime--they dodge questions, confuse issues, and to a policeman, act suspiciously by refusing to cooperate.

 

A person who is truly innocent has nothing to hide. That is the simple clue. Iran is not this person.

Pakistan-India War of 1965-The Battle of Assal Uttar

Currently being designed is a company\battalion level game on a battle that was the largest tank battle since WW2. The Pakistani armor division, armed with M48 tanks, conducted a surprise attack into India near Khem Karan and for the next 10 days, bitter tank battles occurred as the Pakistanis attempted to cut-off the Indian 11th Corps in a Rommel-like blitz!

Democratic Presidential Candidates

As I watch the 2008 election spin and boil, there seems to be little doubt that Hilary Clinton or Obama will be the Democratic candidates. The next question is, will they form a team with Obama as the VP on a ticket. If this occurs, I think the Republicans will have a tough time winning the election. The Republicans have no clear runner to challenge yet. I am like many Americans, I vote for the candidate and issues, not the party. President Bush has really made it hard for the Repblicans to win the White House again.

Remagen 1945, Kakhovka 1920

Since my last post, two games have come out:

Kakhovka: Wrangel's Kursk, Oct 14, 1920. This depicts the largest use of tanks in the Russian Civil War and also the last major battle! The game is very intesting set piece and really was a kind of Kursk in some ways.

Remagen 1945 depicts the battle of luck using a point to point system. Luck because the US found a bridge over the Rhine and despite the Germans tossing V2 rockets, jet bombers, JagdTiger tanks, and sending SS frogmen to destroy it, it was all unsuccessful. The game shows what happened and could have happened had luck turned, even a little, in the German favor! Very interesting. It is nothing at all like the old SPI game. It is way more accurate and tense.

Being tested now is Operation Westindien 1942- a U-boat game on the battle for the Caribbean. This is also a point to point game and depicts how vital the refineries and oil was in the Aruba area.

Bringing New Blood into the Hobby - Mark Woloshen's Contribution!

I have been a wargamer for over 30 years now, and in that time I have seen the Golden Age of Wargaming, the demise of much beloved companies (SPI, Battleline, GDW, Avalon Hill etc.), and the prophesied demise of board gaming as we know it. As a member of the hobby, how can one, lone gamer influence this downward trend?  The doom-sayers saw that computer war games were going to replace our faithful cardboard and paper companions. The hobby was not attracting new gamers, so how can this trend be reversed?

 

Well here we are, continuing to play wargames of the cardboard and paper variety. The hobby seems as vibrant as I can remember, and the "big" companies (GMT, MMP, Avalanche, Clash of Arms etc.) seem to be offering interesting designs that might attract new gamers. The number of really strong DTP companies (Firefight, Khyber Pass, Schutz Games etc) fills the esoteric void left by the larger companies, and they too might attract new players to the hobby. Is this enough? Well, here is how I have tried to help.

 

As a high school Humanities (integrated Social Studies and English) and history teacher, I am in a unique position to bring new gamers into the fold. How? Not necessarily by what I teach (though that is a bonus), but by starting a games club! That is correct, start an extra-curricular club. On the one hand, it provides a much needed activity for students at lunch or after school - I run mine at lunch. On the other, it gives me a chance to play games with people who may one day want to play more historically accurate board games (more about this later).

 

Our school population is approximately 1600 grade 8 to 12 students in a middle class community. Our lunch "hour" is only about 45 minutes, so getting games that are playable in a short period of time, or the space to store longer play games, become two very important organizational considerations. Assuming you will be using your own classroom, the next steps will help get the club off to a great start.

 

First, you need to get the support of the administration. Usually they will be happy to support (both morally and financially) any endeavor which occupies students during the lunch hour. Second, you need to have a few games on hand to "get things started". Initially, I brought games from my own collection, then augmented those with other games purchased using school funds. After solidifying your initial club game collection, begin to advertise to the school body. This can be done through the school intercom notices, student newsletters, school website, posters, and of course, word of mouth.

 

The third factor to consider is the type of games to be included in the club's collection. Now, I'm partial to hardcore military simulation games. Unfortunately, very few students want to get into those types of games. So, we compromise and bring in games that will appeal to the widest possible student audience. The first games from my collection included: Risk, Axis and Allies, Stratego, Battleship, Shogun (Samurai Swords), Quebec 1759, War of 1812, and Rommel in the Desert. With student government funds, these initial offerings were supplemented with other games like: Carcassone, Settlers of Catan, Civilisation, Age of Mythology, Risk 2210, Lord of the Rings Risk, Star Wars Risk, Monopoly, Clue, Guess Who, Candyland - just to name a few.

 

Finally, you have to consider how you will store games that take more than one lunch period to play to completion. I had a cupboard in my room with four pull out drawers. I could place one complete game on each drawer. After a while, we had to carefully stack more than one game in a drawer because so many games were being played. If you have a dynamic industrial education department in your school, perhaps the student government would supply sufficient funds to have a games cabinet built. It would be a good project for the Industrial Ed. Students and it certainly helps out the games club. Ideally the cabinet should be designed to allow game boards to be stored with all the cards, pieces, dice etc. necessary for play. You'll be ready for action once you have this all set-up.

 

Generally, I keep the club open to any and all students of the school. All grades and both genders are welcome. It has been my experience that the vast majority (98%) of the gamers in our school are male. We do have some girls who show up on a regular basis, which is great! There are also a number of teachers who periodically attend - especially if we have a game of Diplomacy going!! (Recently, three teachers and three students had a game of Diplomacy - the teacher's - very experienced Diplomacy players - got their clocks cleaned by the students! Wait until next year!!)

 

Games that are visually pleasing (such as anything by Days of Wonder, Fantasy Flight, Eagle Games, and Milton Bradley) certainly attract students into the room. Some days there are so many people they have to play their games on the floor! (We average between 25 to 35 students each lunch hour we run the club - Tuesdays and Fridays at lunch.) People (both students and staff) drift into the room and have a quick look before moving on. Some come back, others get a look at a game and end up buying either for themselves, or in the case of some of the adults who come in, their children.

 

At the beginning of each school year, I approach the student government for funds to purchase new games. I usually request between $300.00 to $400.00 for the year. Not surprisingly, this money does not go far, given the price of games these days. But it is enough to add a few titles to the collection. We also get games by donation, so now we have just about every type of Risk ever published (except Godstorm Risk). Currently, there are 65 games in our collection. Popular games this year included: Blockus, Hey, That's My Fish, World of Warcraft, Settlers, Command and Colors: Ancients, Axis & Allies Miniatures, and Memoir '44. A host of other games were also played, not to mention chess, checkers, and great games like Apples to Apples. Next year we will be adding to the collection. Sometimes with modules for pre-existing games, and sometimes new game hot off the press. I might even buy a copy or two of games that I have had published (For Bloody Honor by Firefight Games and Prairie Aflame by Khyber Pass Games), to try and entice students into the more historical realm of gaming.

 

All in all, the club has been a rousing success at my school. The admin are happy because it gives a large number of students something to do at lunch. The students are happy because they get to play games with their friends and school. I'm happy because I get to play games, and some of those gamers have grown up to become wargamers. And that's what it's all about, isn't it! If you are a teacher, try it at your school. You'll be amazed at the results. If you're not a teacher, perhaps check in with your local Boys & Girls club to see whether there might be an opportunity there to begin a club to attract new gamers.

 

The endeavor has been worthwhile and a lot of fun. Maybe we can have another Golden Age of Gaming with all the new blood entering the hobby. I for one hope so.

The War in Iraq and the End Times

Seeing history repeat within my own lifetime is astonishing. I am talking about the mess of the Vietnam war, that I watched as a teenager in High School, and the War in Iraq, that I watch on the TV with the same similar mess. Then, it was President Johnson declaring that we must stop Communism in Nam, otherwise, where will it end? Now, it is President Bush, stopping the terrorists. 

 

In 1983 or so, I designed and published a game called, Locust. It was done based upon a class I had taken on the Book of Revelations in the Bible. I am not a religious person, though I do believe in God, divine intervention etc. Locust is what my instructor indicated would happen in the End Times. I was so fascinated with the subject, interpretations of Daniel etc., I felt the game would be accurate. It was and is. Iran had become a world power because of their nukes. Russian and Chinese interests Iran all were intertwined because of trade agreements, to which all needed and were lucrative. America's reputation had been seriously eroded from past errors. Israel felt isolated, though continued to receive full US support.

 

War breaks out when Iranian nukes are tossed into Israel, igniting the Final War. Russian (the bear in the Revelations) invades Iran to secure its own interests and oil. This action provokes the Common Market nations and the US to counter this thrust and a brief tactical nuke exchange occurs. Arab nations also begin to attack Israel to retake what they always thought belonged to them. The region is ravaged.

 

Of course, Jesus is not used in the game, because all these things are to happen--allowed to happen. One of the most early signs of end times is the weather change globally. The ability to instantly communicate with others across the globe is another. This just recently happen.

 

Anyway, the game was interesting and it should be interesting if it does happen,

Against the Odds Sneak Peek-Paukenschlag U-Boat 1942 Game

This sneek peek is based upon my original never released DTP game, Operation Paukenschlag (Drumbeat)covering the devastating attacks by U-boats off the US East Coast and in the Caribbean, 1942. This is the historical part. The "what if" and the more exciting part is it supposes the Germans had developed some Amerika Bombers and had modified (well within their capabilities)their already exisiting He 177 and FW 200 long range bombers.Further, it supposes that Hitler had decided to seize the Azores (he had seriously considered it in 1940-41)to be used as a launch pad for long range bombing on the US East Coast! It was not that far from reality and actually quite plausible had Hitler demanded it. The German wolfpacks were ravenous against the unprepared and nearly defenseless east coast of America. It was like Pearl Harbor. By May, over 400 transports had been sunk off the US east coast, some two million tons of supplies lost with 5000 lives.

The game is the most innovative and accurate, yet playable, sub-air game ever. Sea and submarine movement is actually based on how German U-boat commanders plotted and tracked surface ships. Very cool!

The game was never released as a DTP because ATO secured it right off the bat, seeking to diversify their gaming line. Sub games, by their nature, are difficult to make interesting and fun (computer sub games excepted). Most sub board games have almost always sunk in their popularity--so, hopefully, this game will change it when Issue 22 comes out.

The counters shown are from the DTP game. The final ATO game will no doubt be more artistic and polished. Each strategic square is 550-600 miles. Each operational square is 55-60 miles. Each tactical square is 6-7 miles. Each turn is three days. Each sub is one submarine. Each convoy is between 10-50 ships. Each US DD, ASW, Cutter naval unit is two ships. Air units are squadrons of 6-12 aircraft. Each US CV, BB is one ship. Each turn is a week.

Excerpts from the Movement Rules:Movement on the Operational or Tactical Grids only applies to those opposing naval units in the same Strategic Zone (on the game map). The rates are the same per square, either 1 or 2 squares. Some ships (DD 11, 12, BB, CV) may move 3 squares. Prior to moving a sub, the German must decide whether it is submerged or surface. A submerged sub moves one square, a surfaced sub-two squares on the OSL\TSL grids. Only the final zone where movement ends and the presence of enemy ships determines if the OSL or TSL grids will be used. If the ending zone has none, nothing more happens. If it does, the involved units are removed and placed in the OSL and each player determines their precise location and units alternate moving until either opposing ships end in the same square or not. If they do, the TSL is used and the same procedure occurs. When opposing naval units end movement in the same square on the OSL, movement continues on the TSL. If the convoy exits the OSL before any subs have intercepted and ended movement in the same box on the OSL, nothing more happens…the convoy has escaped for this turn only.

German long range bombers may also conduct missions against various industrial targets along the East coast.

Aircraft IssuesThe reality was that had the Germans acted upon their first Amerika plans in 1940, the Me 264 long range bomber could’ve been operational by 1942, historically, only a few were done by late 1942. The He 177 was operational in March 1942. While the FW 200 had been modified. All three faced the same problems with aircraft engines being unreliable over the long flight (2-4,000 miles to the East Coast from either island) weather, pilot fatigue, and target recognition were major issues!
The He 177 and FW 200 suffered a 50% chance rate that the engines would catch fire during flights. A rather humbling event.

Flight times would average 7-8 hrs, thus, pilot fatigue would be an issue. Target ID would’ve been almost none existent, as even the U-boats had inadequate maps and generally used tourist maps to sail by along the coast.

Historically, the Uboats totally missed the CV Hornet being escorted from Key West to Norfolk in January 1942. In the game, you can go for it, if you fail, the American player can use it to attack the Azores where the Luftwaffe is based! It could've easily happened. Historically, the Hornet was sent to Pearl Harbor after being prepped in Norfolk.

Hopefully this sneak peek will still your interest!

VOTING RESULTS ON FIREFIGHT GAMES

Interested in seeing what others think of FFG games, click on the link.

 

http://htmlgear.tripod.com:80/poll/control.poll?a=vote&u=perry95403&i=3

Neat item on this ATO Magazine page

 

Hi: You may want to check out this webpage on the Against the Odds Magazine site: http://www.atomagazine.com/game_22.html

OPERATION FISCHFANG AT ANZIO 1944 and KOLTOV CORRIDOR

Both games are now released! Koltov uses a unqiue system where both players issues commands to formations and then are revealed, thus, truly capturing the sense of war without using hidden movement or inverted counters.

 

For details go to:

 

http://firefight-games.com/koltov.html

 

http://firefight-games.com/fischfang.html

 

Feldgrau, Casemate Publisher, Axis History

As a designer, one of the best resources when researching for a game are others!  Some of the most knowledgeable people post on various forums who provide valid, accurate information. The two best are:

 

Feldgrau.com

 

http://feldgrau.com

 

Axis History.com

 

http://forum.axishistory.com 

 

My Goodwood book is available in the US from:

 

http://www.casematepublishing.com/cgi/titleinfo.pl?sku=9781874622734

Agel Vitamins

I recently tried a new product, Agel vitamins. The selling point is that the vitamins are suspended in a gel and a foil pack. They are supposed to be absorbed quicker and stay fresher in this manner. While it is a different method of taking a vitamin, it is not at all new. Vitamins in gel have been a round since the 70's, usually taken by those who cannot swallow a pill. While it is true that the vitamins are absorbed faster, that is the only benefit.

Agel's drawbacks are many. Expensive, a carton of 30 packs for $60 retail or $30 wholesale. The are much larger than a tiny pill one can put into a pocket. The variety is very limited into not more than 10 assortments. You are stuck with vitamin proportions as you cannot simply have 1000mg of Vitamin C, or a specific amino acid etc. While the taste is OK, their appeal is limited despite the launch and money promoting it as a new MLM where one can make unlimited residual income, like Mary Kay, Cookie Lee etc. The other drawback is that while you can buy them on Ebay, usually you can only buy them through a rep who has joined the MLM at the retail price. They are not sold in vitamin-health stores.

Agel has a stiff competition from hundreds of vitamin companies on the internet, mass mailings, companies with hundreds of vitamins to select from such as Puritan or Swansons, to name only two. Their prices are WAY less than Agel's. Yet,Agel is thriving on the wannabe millions in hopes that millions can be made.

Hey, remember the Pet rock? Who would have thought?!.......

Rome's Greatest Defeat-The Battle that stopped Rome in the Teutoburg Forest at Kalkriese, Germany

Firefight's latest, Wicked Narrows, is out and ready for your enjoyment!  The game really captures the whole devastating battle that fateful day in September, 9 AD. The most unique aspect is that the German player decides when the game (the battle) begins. Until it happens, the Roman legions simply march onto the map in total oblivious to their surroundings! Combat is in rounds, with certain types being able to do certain things while others may not. The game, according to playtesters, usually ends within eight turns (eight hours) or sooner, depending on how well the Roman player handles the surprise attack. Moving into the dark foreboding forests is an option for the Romans, but one  steeped in other dangers. Moving through Narrows is truly a "wicked" affair, a mountain and forest on one side and swamp on the other!

 

Check it out: http://firefight-games.com/wicked.html

 

NEW RELEASE INFO

The following games are near ready for release:

The Koltov Corridor July 1944 - Covers the dramatic tank battles between the German Panzer Divisions and the Russian Tank Armies moving through the narrow gap at Koltov south of Brody. A unique game where players issue orders for formations and hope they chose the correct one!

Wicked Narrows - The Roman disaster at Kalkreise, Germany in September, 2 A.D. It was at the Narrows where the most wicked bloody battle occurred between four German tribes and three legions. The German attack destroyed all three legions!

Operation Fischfang, February, 1944 - Covers the only near successful German Panzer attack to crush the Allied landings at Anzio. The elements can either be a friend or for in this game at the right or wrong time.

Storm Over Taierzhuang 1938 - Covers the almost forgotten Stalingrad-like battle for the town between the Nationalist Chinese and Japanese forces. This is an area movement game designed by Terence Co, a great design and his first! Most Westerners have not even heard of this battle. It was decisive with aircraft and tanks as the Japanese drive inland seemed unstoppable!

NEWLY RELEASED GAMES:

One German, One Bullet August-Sept. 1944 This is a two map game!

My Great Stumbling Block - Maps!!

I have been gaming for just over 30 years. In that time (pretty much as long as Perry has been designing - he must have been a pup when he started!), I have had ideas that I thought would be great games. Unlike the illustrious duo at Firefight Games, or any other company for that matter, I  never acted on my ideas.

Over the years I tinkered with other people's designs, coming up with house rules, modifications, and possible scenarios for already published games. There were other topics, however, that would never appeal to a main stream company because they were too esoteric - not enough interest in the subject matter to justify the cost of production. This changed with the advent of the computer, and especially the type of software available today to neophyte designers.

Topics that had never been covered before were now seeing the light of day. I suppose I thought I could never do it, but over the course of a number of years I toiled away at a disign for a piece of Canadian history that is littl known in the States, but is fascinating and holds the potential to be an interesting, challenging game. But, how do you translate your ideas - rules, charts, maps, counters, etc. - into a game?

With a personal computer, the rules, charts, and to a lesser extent the counters can now be produced at a fairly high level of quality - in fact the components look as good as some of the materials coming out of the main stream companies. For me, the biggest bug bear is how to produce a decent map on the computer!!

I use a Macintosh, and I have  Illustrator CS. It's a great programme, but I'm an impatient cuss! The learning curve is steep, and my attempts so far have been somewhat ham handed and journeyman like. Making a field or a river or a road is not too difficult, but how do you make your terrain look like the terrain the battle was fought over? One method I've used is by taking a copy of an actual battle map, dropping it into the Illustrator file, then drawing over top of it - making the terrain as I go. It seems to be working for a couple of projects I have on the go now.

Truly, the biggest problem I face is how to make a properly scaled hex grid. One of the functions in Illustrator allows you to make a hex, which you can play with - resize, change the orientation on the map etc. How do you make a hex grid for an 11 x 17 map? or 22 x 34 map?

Yes, you can cut and paste until you have a grid, but there are often gaps between some of the hexes, or they don't quite fit properly! Then there is the problem of putting the hex numbers on so they look legitimate. I know that once you have things the way you like as far as the hexgrid goes, you can just make it a template and use it everytime you need a grid that size, but how do you make it look PROFESSIONAL?

If I can conquer this little problem, I think I would be able to crank out some of my ideas more quickly. I have a group that I game with which provides me with a ready group of playtesters (with almost 200 years combined gaming experience!). One of our group does the graphics for my games - Brian Moore. He was instrumental in providing the map and counter graphics for my games "For Bloody Honor" published by Firefight Games, and "Prairie Aflame" which is to be published by Khyber Pass Games. He's been great, and does a wonderful job. But I hate to continue imposing on him - or providing him with such a shoddy draft map (my own efforts) - he does have a day job and I don't want to "overuse" him.

If you have any ideas - short of taking a course on Illustrator, please let me know. I could knock off a few more games in a more expeditious fashion which I think people would like. It would also give me for of a feeling of accomplishment.

Whew! Glad I got that off my chest - hey, this is a great form of therapy!! (Whoa - that might be my next game! I think I've got a picture of a couch around here somewhere . . .)

Wargaming in the Phillipines

 

 

Wargaming in the Phillipines has always been done by a small group hobbyists though all of us know each other well and play together.

 

Wargaming has never been big in the Phillipines being eclipsed first by RPGs then CCGs.

 

The wargames were procured exclusively abroad with the wargamers going abroad on holiday and buying them from hobby shops in the USA, Canada, Japan and Hong Kong(Avalon Hill wargames were sold in the Japanese Sogo department store in Hong Kong in the mid 80s).

 

Very few wargames were actually designed in the late 70s but early 80s starting with:

 

 Threat in the late 70s which was actually two games where in the game, players played Power Blocs such as NATO, Warsaw Pact, China, India etc. And the start of the game was a build up to the war with the players gaining alliances, weapons, money and if war happens in the first game, the second game shifts to a strategic map board of the world and a strategic wargame similiar to risk/Superiority occurs and the last one standing wins. I remember having fun playing this game many a time but now it is quite rare...This game was actually designed by a regular board game company and was marketed to be a regular family boardgame and anti communist propoganda.

 

There was also a game called Military Strategy which was quite simliar to Avalon Hill's Blitzkrieg. Cheap production values but again designed as a family game.

 

I also did see a game on Macarthur's invasion of the Phillipines 1944 but again I think that this is a very simple wargame/family game.

 

The designers of these games were unknown and the companies who published them quickly folded afterwards.

 

Interestingly, a slight wargaming renaissance occured in the mid 80s spurred by a hobby shop chain aquiring huge numbers of Dungeons and Dragons books also acquired large numbers of Strategy and Tactics magazines and wargames as well as the line of TSR/SPI wargames.

 

This is where my interest comes in. I have already been introduced to wargames in the early 80s playing Titan Strike(SPI) and Red Star White Star(SPI) actually been started with Strategy and Tactics games. My first wargames were S&T games such as Manchu, Kanev, Nicaragua, Tigers Are Burning really introduced me to the hobby.

 

This is true among many of the current wargamers in the Phillipines.

 

Wargaming in Phillipnes is currently undergoing a period of growth similiar to the mid 80s with it being spurred on by GMT games as well as Fantasy Flight games and German games.

 

Hope it gets better and inspires more gamers from the Phillipines in designing their own games.

 

Terence Co(aka. Joserizal).

ONE BULLET, ONE GERMAN Warsaw 1944 Nears Release

Firefight Games long awaited two map game on the battles for Warsaw (the Uprising and tanks battles east of the city) is nearly done.  Gamer vets like Dennis Bishop and Paul Rohrbaugh have been hammering away at the game since early December.

 

The game is unique. One map covers the Warsaw city uprising in detail (sewers included!), while the other maps depicts the area east of the city where the last Panzer victories occurred, however fleeting it was. Over 300 counters. You have your hands full as the German player with the Polish uprising and the tank battles east of the city, which would spell success or failure to the Uprising! The title is a shortened version of the Polish call to arms, " One Bullet for every German" during the uprising.

 

More later.......

Storm Over Taierzhuang: Samuari Stalingrad!

My name is Terence Co and I am the designer of Storm Over Taierzhuang, the Samurai Stalingrad which is going to be published by Firefight games.

 

I was born and raised in the Phillipines and started my wargaming there. I have been wargaming for more than 20 years.

 

This is my first wargame design and hopefully not my last as I intend to bring esoteric topics to the wargaming field. By 1938, the Second Sino-Japanese war was not going well for the Chinese. Since July 7, 1937, the Japanese conquered huge swathes of Northern and Eastern China and were steadily pushing deeper into China.

 

With the conquest of Shanghai, Beijing and Nanjing in 1937. Jiang Jie Shi(Chang Kai Shek) had moved his headquarters to Wu Han. The Japanese seeing an opportunity would strike to capture the important rail junction of Xuzhou thus endangering Wu Han and forcing a Chinese capitulation.

 

The KMT generals also seeing an opportunity would lure Japanese forces to a cul de sac and then encircle them with numerically superior Chinese forces.

 

The town of Taierzhuang was chosen as the site for this trap as it was an important rail terminus on the way to Xuzhou.

 

Li Tsung Jen, the KMT general of the 5^th war area(with around 100,000 men in 9 divisions) which was given the task of defending Xuzhou was familar  with the area and terrain would channel the attacking Japanese into attacking Taierzhuang. The terrain and populace would then cut tenous Japanese supply and communications lines then when the time is right, the Japanese would be encircled and destroyed.

 

On January 26, 1938. The Japanese launched their offensive towards Xuzhou and by the evening of March 24, 1938, the Japanese 10^th division(with around 25,000 men and around 100 tanks and armored cars) had reached Taierzhuang.

 

The Japanese opened their attack on Taierzhuang on the evening of March 24, 1938 with a massive artillery bombardment on Chinese positions. The Chinese defenders weeks before had heavily fortified the town and the villages in the Taierzhuang district. In addition to the fortifications, the heavy rock which was used in the construction of the building in Taerizhuang made them virtual castles. Confronted by this grim defense, the Japanese were forced to slog through these heavy defenses and incurred horrendous casualties in the process while being constantly harried by Chinese forces in their flanks. The Chinese casualties were probably worse as the huge Japanese advantage in artillery, air and tanks caused large number of losses.

 

By April 3, 1938. The Japanese were in possession of four-fifths of the main town of Taierzhuang. The  Chinese defenders had by this time been reduced to one fourth its strength and had clung on the important west gate of the town which was only means for communication between his force in Taierzhuang and the outside. The Japanese themselves were in no better shape, General Sun Lien Chung(the commander of the 2^nd army group) defending Taierzhuang had launched the majority of his forces in attacking the Japanese flanks and rear to divert and lessen the Japanese frontal attacks on the town of Taierzhuang. This was compounded by the arrival of General Tang En Po's 20^th army which proceeded to close the noose, completing the encirclement of the Japanese 10^th division. Japanese supplies were also rapidly dwindling and air drops mostly failed to make it through to their recipients. Most important of all was the general collapse of Japanese command, the Japanese units were stabbing in the dark since they were cut off from accurate intelligence but they still fought on since they had nowhere to go.

 

On April 6, 1938. The Chinese forces launched a major night assault and crushed the Japanese defenders in the town of Taierzhuang in several hours of desperate and furious combat.   At the same time, units of the 20^th army starting crossing the grand canal, drawing the noose tighter on the Japanese. The Japanese seeing their predicament chose to flee the town and its environs. It was all over by April 7, 1938. Taierzhuang looked like a scene of utter carnage as tanks, armored cars, trucks, and thousands of dead Japanese were strewn around the landscape like so many toys.  The Japanese had lost 16,000 men(including all of their armor) at Taierzhuang and the Chinese lost around 30,000 men. General Li Tsung Jen did not pursue the Japanese since not only was his army severely depleted but ten Japanese divisions were pouring into the area. This action of non pursuit saved a good portion of his army so that it would fight again another day.

 

The battle of Taierzhuang is considered the first major Chinese victory in the Second Sino Japanese war. Xuzhou was eventually taken by the Japanese on May 20, 1938. The Battle of Taierzhuang was significant since not only did it seriously delay the Japanese but it broke the Japanese air of invincibility(their first major defeat in 300 years). and proved to the Chinese that they can win the war against the Japanese invaders.

 

The battle of Taierzhuang nagged me for a long time. It nagged me that in the thousands of wargames published, nobody has done a wargame on a battle in the Second Sino Japanese war(apart from a few ASL scenarios). This war is one of the most important wars in the 20^th century. Inspiration for the system came to me after reading and playing Tetsuya Nakamura's Storm Over Stalingrad. After this, I became immediately convinced that this is the system that I wanted to use for the game. I wanted a game on the battle to be easy, to learn, simple to play but effectively showing the flow of the battle.

 

Now some players might ask why the subtitle: "Samurai Stalingrad"? I answer that the Battle of Taierzhuang eerily resembles that ofStalingrad, . It is interesting to note that Vasily Chuikov, the commander of the Stalingrad defenders was sent to China to be a military advisor to Jiang Jie Shi in 1940. Its not substantiated, but its rumored that Chuikov got the inspiration for his strategy at Stalingrad from viewing records on the Battle of Taierzhuang.

 

Some players may be mystified on how a lone Japanese reinforced division could hold off, led alone do an offensive vs. hordes of Chinese divisions. Japanese divisions in this era were large square formations of 20 to 25,000 men. A Chinese KMT division on paper has 10,000 men but  usually had 5,000 men(or less). The Japanese also had huge advantages in tanks, aircraft and artillery. For the KMT, it only had a few of these and these were reserved for the best divisions. In Taierzhuang, the Chinese defenders had no tanks and air support and had little artillery.Anti tank capabilities were only limited to a few German Pak 36s(which were really effective vs. the Japanese tanks) and fanatical "Dare to Die" units of men equipped with bundles of dynamite and grenades charging at oncoming tanks. The  Chinese main advantage was in manpower. The Chinese heavily outnumbered their Japanese opponents. Also China has a huge landmass and the Chinese forces had room to retreat and maneuver. There are two views on the battle, the Japanese sources portray this battle to be a minor one with the Japanese forces having only 10,000 men and few tanks. The Chinese and U.S. sources are the official historical sources. I based this game on the official sources which are backed by eyewitness accounts by American and German officers but I also wanted to give the Japanese account their due as an optional rule( as you will see when you buy the game).

 

Hopefully this game opens up the floodgates for more designers to do more wargames on battles of the Second Sino Japanese war, so as Paul Rohrbaugh would say, let the dice roll!!!!!

 

OPERATION GOODWOOD ARRIVES IN THE USA

Perry Moore's detailed account of Operation Goodwood is now available in the USA from Casemate Publishing (use link). The pricey book ($70) provides some of the best maps of this key battle to breakout of the Normandy area. Filled with great photos and pages of detailed Orders of Battle. The Helion edition of the book is a VAST improvement of the paperback version printed by Infinion over 18 mos. ago. The maps and photos are clear, bigger. The quality is superb and Helion has edited the book. The format is much bigger 9x12".

I still have some copies of the book available for sale at $35.00 US\Canadian only payable via Paypal through the Firefight-games.com website. A great deal, 50% off the retail, shipping is included!

Perry Moore, Author

For Bloody Honor - Its Genesis in the Classroom

I am a high school teacher with 25 years teaching experience and 35 years gaming experience. There are a number of commercial educational games that teachers can use to enhance the learning opportunities in their classes, and of course there are a wide variety of war games on a host of interesting topics that are also available - some are even appropriate for a school setting. The problem is trying to match the curriculum one must teach, with the type of students one has in the classroom, with a game that is: easy enough to learn, doesn't take up
too much time, and has some educational outcome consistent with the
learning outcomes set by ministries of education.

As part of the History 12 curriculum here in British Columbia, we are responsible for teaching students about the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War. I know that using games in a classroom setting is a powerful learning tool, one that students remember long after they have forgotten the "facts" we try to teach. When you can marry the facts to a game, well - you really have something that will stick in their brains!

At the time of its inception over 10 years ago, there was only one game on the Russian Civil war that existed, SPI's old Russian Civil War game. Given the constraints of the classroom, I could not take the time to teach the students about this game - it was too complex and required a level of interest that could not be sustained by 32 diverse individuals. I decided to fuse my two passions - gaming and education by designing a game of my own to be used in the classroom.

The first versions of the game were called "Civil War: Russkaya" (which doesn't mean anything, but I thought sounded cool). I found map of Russian in one of our textbooks, enlarged it on a photo-copier, divided it up into regions with a Political value based on population and resources, grabbed some old, square, plastic pieces from a Risk game, came up with a set of rules and voila - I had a game. The mechanics were pretty simple and the sequence of play was very rigid. The map was black and white, the rules and charts were word processed and the pieces and dice were readily available from old games (and the local dollar store).

I wanted a game that up to six students could play at one time - in other words instead of having one game that the whole class participated in, I would run 4 or 5 games simultaneously. The rules were simple enough that sharper students figured things out pretty quickly - others just went along for the ride. It took one 60 minute period to play the game to completion, then another part of a period to debrief the experience and make the links between the game and history. Ultimately, I wanted to show the students why the Reds won the Civil War, when most of the cards seemsed stacked against them.

In the original game, each White faction rolled a die to determine if they could move. If they succeeded, they moved then engaged in combat if they ended the turn in a space occupied by Red forces. Once all the White factions had moved, there would be combat. Then the Red player would move and have combat. Political points were scored by occupying territories which then allowed players to return any eliminated pieces back into play. This kept the Whites in it, provided they held onto their territories. The rolling a die to move was problematic, because the Whites had a 50/50 chance that they would not move at all. In many games, over the years, certain students spent most of their time waiting around after failing a movement die roll. In some cases, certain factions did not move at all during the game!

Despite this drawback, the students overwhelmingly loved the game. The tense die rolling to see whether the last Red unit would be eliminated from the Moscow Zone, or the anticipation of a successful White drive to the capital has kept student interest for a decade.

What lessons did I want them to learn? Well, the Whites did not cooperate in history, and they could not cooperate in the game. The Reds had better mobility and motivation, and this was reflected in their central position, greater chance to move, and the cohesive nature of their forces. What came out of those discussions and my own thinking is the game we have today - "For Bloody Honor: The Russian Civil War". I also happened to notice on Consim that Firefight Games was taking outside designs. I contacted Perry, made my proposal to him, sent him what I had (a very rudimentary version of the map and counters, the rules, and charts). He said he liked what he saw, but would have to do some work on the graphics.

Our gaming group happens to have a talented graphics guy, Brian Moore, who agreed to give my map a going over. He also spruced up the counters and we chatted about how to organize the various charts and format the rules. Much of the current product (with the exception of the counters)
is a direct result of Brian's work. We playtested the hell out of it, made some tweaks, and submitted the revised game to Perry. He liked it, made a few additions to the counters (which I didn't notice at the time, so some units were not explained in the first edition of the rules - that problem has been rectified and any games purchased now will include the updated rules and charts. If anyone has the old rules and charts - which did not explain how armoured cars worked or what the Denekin
Volunteers were and how they worked - contact me through this blog and
I'll get you the proper rules etc.)

The game presents a tense situation for both sides. Both sides also have a chance to win. The chit pull system works really well, and adds to the replayability of the game. If you haven't tried it yet, visit the Firefight web site and give it a gander - I think you'll be pleased - hey, hundreds of students can't be wrong!

Mark Woloshen, Game Designer