ABRITISH BOARD WARGAMERS MAGAZINE PHOEN a \ g PRIcI <1"5 Hitler's War NICKY PALMER ALSO INSIDE: BRITON'S STRIKEHOME! KURSK SALADINATACRE COBRA RECONSIDERED CARWARS IRONBOTTOMSOUND THE ANGOLIANCIVILWAR THE BARBARIANS© Simpuds ublisned & ais Simpubs Lid Altrinch Frintee by Bou sbsher M: Watson ‘et Fate asa wa Me Ditectar: Ray Bowden Page 6 FPhocnly i a bimonthly magatne sie at providing UX garners with» a whic ress thew opinion of, suggest improne arose for boaid wargame Page 7 ration anoulg be ent to, JOHN SPENCE, RO. Box 1 GE MIDLOTNIAN TH2S‘aXR SCOTLAND. Ais (0, Page 11 fblcation i this magazine become’ t if ae Slat ftined oh concer. Fumie: Contours a Baaeile include it of toureet compiled: Hew ste the he epaione ‘of nesanaty Page 17 gtr a fhe abe Full Page £65.00 pe issue ApvERTISNG RATE Hatt Page £96.00 per ue Page 21 ‘Quarter Page £22.00 per inue as tenet unt for com Page 23 ‘Gamera renty artwork requited or charged ext SUBSCuIPTION RATES" Tear (6 sues) £6.95, Panay ARTICLES SUBMITTED FOR PUBLICATION: Contibutors are Page 25 sehaeel penn amie Lo tan calm ySowtencony it ‘margins typed on A‘ (11%xb4 ins) paper, Please remember to inclue Page 26 Toei fame nd add roan, ci est .. fative material should be iupred on savas sheets and esty ran age 27 f Titely tobe reprepared for reproasction i po tle and manufacturer showid be incieded | | Page 28 pede iude ate bea hich wil enable meter Pann 30 Spread over sucomsive sues | aye 31 Britons, St (ovtents Drive on Damaseus by Paul King Rivets by S.N.Goodwin Hitler's War by N. Palmer ce Home! by 0.1.A.Mack. Kursk by P, Evans Saladin At Acre by W. Hamblin Cobra Reconsidered by A. McGoe (Car Wars by J. Lambshead lronbottom Sound by J. Lamshead “The Angolan Civil War A. Musson For Sale ‘The Barbarians by P. King Book Revue by H. Wilson Moil Call Readers’ Letters Feedback / Contact! DITORIAL JOHN SPENCE Phoenix is deed, long lve Phoenixlt Sounds dramatic doesn’t i but atthe time of wri ing things ara that way Inclined In the wargames Field ana | couldnt resist an over-the-top comment 1 start this alto. Whilst (eis Iterally ‘rue the ly 20 far reaching Most of you will be aware by the time you reas this column shat TSA took control of SPlin April and ‘that the Naw York company a we have Known It for the past ten years no longer exists Due'ta their premier position for 0 long thie ep shack for most wargamers and throw Us al into’ alittle confusion =the. members ot the industry a well the gamer. The situation Is such that there are stil a number of doubt at to wht this wil taad to. and whet portions of SPI wil Survive. Thus, many of the design staff Nave felt SPI to sat up thet owen company called Vietory Games with possible design problems othe now ‘Aenongst other items in a sate of tux i the future (of S&T and, though I'am In no postion to state {Exactly what wil happen, one could consider future Bubllontion frazen forte time being following the Sppearanes ofthe issues already phystcally in exist nee. SET has been a kingpin in Phoenins costing nd ‘circulation “package!” up. to now the UK Phosnix malling schedules have been closaly liked With S&T appearancas and this occounts Yor the ‘rae sppearanen of our own magazine in the est fon months ~ nothing ese. ‘Couple this with the new stance thet Simpube must {ake now and you can ee tha Phoonix must change 2 Tit sentenea! Simpubs have docided £9 {ate a much more ative part In game production with the formation of a special company to handle thai product: As part of this re-organiation et the statament from Maleaim Watson on page 3 in this issue on the uptodate situation) we have decided to rovamo, renew and’ chonge Phoenix this sue you now have is the last of the old Ryle Betore you fuss too much, we do not intend to throw the baby out with the bathwater, we will tain much of ‘the ‘best of Phoonix, alter our ‘rovare Base philosophy and ever add to the nen package, We will not be able to hide our ties to the hw geme liner nor would we wish to ~ Phoenix ‘mut ‘and wil be Used to bring the ew products to Your attention. is Intended thet one of these Products will" become” part of the annual “sub fcription but rather than go down the S&T path of ‘game in every ieue we hope to tupplement the ‘ort of th subséription with some son of discount Offer ona number of ihouse games. The dealt ff this arrangement have yet t9 be finalised and these will be announced with the first issue of New Phoenix once we have had a chance to asst the situation: | believe thot this will give you both 2 quality magazine and cheap games without the problem of being limited to wher the puDieher Inserts in the mogazine fr YOU. We will continue to run 2 mixture of review and Critique moteral which could lay me open to Eritclem of being bistad in favour of the home grown product. | assure you this wil not be the mre ‘Tintend to tread ths difficult tightrope as fairly as is possible. ‘Those people supplying mater. {al land new authors and material are slays welcome) ore never fnfluenced In thes judgements by myself antes Tknow that what they hove sid It Incorrect and 1 would hope that you would agree that most reviews that spear are fai. edmit that Some mistakes have slipped through dhe net but | dtp a the ier that snyone ha the automatic Fight reply to reset the belance ~ I consider that Fight and proper too. Inhouse material, on the other hand, wil not Appear insight feviws in New Phoenix. Wnat we Wall hev is background information on the pares that dows not appear anywhere ose, ts desig, ht Historical backgroune and even game replays but nothing that is primarily aimed at putting a sub: Joctive aitesiment on the worth of the geme, May te hope that our prosontressanable record of fa ress will continue in future. 1 would lke to het ‘Your views on this dichotomy! Hoving Isid some groundwork for future iste | would like 40 turn now fo anther situation close omy heart» namely historicity Miltary history is one of the Iynchpine of our hhabby"—"sayone with any interest in historical to tear utre Board wargames wil have rome reading fon same aspect of malitary nstory under hi bit Gahic maybe quite extensive Vt some of the lscustions | have had with gomers ix enything to fo byl. It tho histarieal component of the war. Gore that Tirst attracts the potential gomer ond, Ropetully, keeps thom with us. | thus thought that Grou hare some of my current vows On this subject with you and would like to hear your view ‘Any gome review worth its salt will try to ralatea Astoria! game ands" design to the action. or Campaign that itis meant to represent, the pages ff this magazin are, hops you wil gre, wel raced with such critique. The rationale behind ‘ueh an apptooch i of cours, that mort purchasers ‘ah their gome to frthfully represent rely and e's models however ci, through which tay ean Study some of the significant factors that went It to moulding the actions, and their results, of the ‘ppocing armies (or whatever This dows not necessitate games in which every possible factor is represanted. As {Nave sid in he Past, I belive that the designe” requirments fray’ be fulfilled In any number of design phil Sophies ranging. from the broad brush soprosch {in wien such factors as unit uniqueness are sor ficed to produces Tesing af the batle 2 Bate for Stalingrad) to the caraftman sparooch (every and t dotted and erossed — Airwar 80 would oe | Good example ofthis aparaach) ‘Such diversity of approach makes critical dsacton ff historia” arpecte of some, gamer. dificult, Who isto say what aspects ofthe battle hava bean factored into the combat sequence and tables or Whether supply is reflect n apparandy simple ‘move ruler apart from the deign eam ill Tan Continues on page 31The King is dead Long live the people! In April of this year it was offically announced that TSR Hobbies tne, of Dungeons & Dragons fame, had taken control ff Simulations Publications Inc publishers of Ares, Moves and Strategy & Tactics magazines. A second announcement follow: fed this to the effect that SPI had been put into liquidation and ‘2 decision had been made to move the corporate corpse up to the TSR HO lock, stock and staff, The staff, however, were appatently not consulted about these plans ‘and in a fit of uncertainty the ex SPI designers used their good ‘ole American initiative and slipped out from underneath the magic umbrella to form their own games company which they have called Vietory Games | flew out to speak to TSR Hobbies Inc about our future plans as s00n as their position vis a vis SPI was made official and | ‘came home with the distinct impression that we would ‘continue to function as the distribution centre for their games ‘and magazines here in the UK. Unfortunately since then I have been unable to get any concrete proposals from that company and | do not believe that I can wait any longer to make our ‘own plans known to the public. One of the first subjects to which we have addressed ourselves hhas been the future of Phoenix. Since we are not certain when TSR will be able to get future issues of S&T out we feel that the time has come to cut the Phoenix loose from that magazine. The issue you are now reading will be the last of the Phoenix as you have known it to date, issue 37 will be called the New Phoenix and. this will be the first in a series of quarterly ‘magazines with which we intend to fill the current void. The New Phoenix will have 36 pages with a maximum of four pages of advertising. A four issue subscription will sell for £5.98 and the New Phoenix will be available through our mail order service only, Those of you who have sent money in for Phoenix will find a Credit note enclosed for those magazines outstanding after issue 36. We would like to invite you to reinvest this in a subscription to the New Phoenix in the knowledge that response to this move will determine once and for all whether ‘or not we at Simpubs will continue to publish a UK orientated Board Wargamers magazine. If we find that we cannot support such an operation based on the UK circulation then we will stop chasing shadows and acknowledge the fact by winding up the New Phoenix. We are holding money paid to us by Ares, Moves and S&T subscribers pending @ decision by TSR on their plans for this, country. | realise that this may not be satisfactory to many of you and should you decide that you would like to use your Balance towards the purchase of other goods that we carry then we will be happy to accommodate you where possible. | do know that a letter was drafted out in April giving an ‘assurance to US subscribers that TSR would honour SPI's ‘commitments and Ido know that | was given averbel assurance that the same would apply in this country, however action speaks louder than words and |, like you, am still waiting for some action. In fairness to TSR | should paint out that they did inherit @ very messy situation but then they are big boys land one must assume that they knew what they were getting into, ‘As soon as we know for certain what plans TSR have for this country we will circulate the information to you in the mean time please be aware that we have your best interests in mind. Malcolm Watson WANTED The demise of SP! New York hes, not surprisingly, left a rather large hole in the wargames scene. We at ‘Simpubs believe that our 10 years experience in this, highly specialised hobby leaves us well placed to fill at least part of the void by introducing our own line of games internationally. The factors contributing to the SPI crash are vatied and numerous, but one which may have been significant was their insistence on maintaining 2 substantial full time design staff. With this in mind we are following the Avalon Hill example and encouraging free-lance designers to submit their talents to our scrutiny. If you would like to work with Simpubs to establish a Great British Wargames Line then write today sending full details of your experience in this field, your historical/ gaming interests in order of priority and, where possible, a sample of your design work. When sending samples we recommend that you use recorded delivery to ensure that you have a record of your submission. Ray Smith SIMPUBS LIMITED 60 Oakfield Road Altrincham, Cheshire WA15 8EWCAN YOU BEAT NAPOLEON AT AUSTERLITZ? The Wargamer — your chance to make history Six issue Subscription £16; single copy £3.99. From World Wide Wargamers, (Dept, P) Eton Lodge. Highwood, Essex ML SQH.1 : ESDEVIUM GAMES | °°" LOW COST MAIL-ORDER SPECIALISTS @Come & see the BIGGEST & BEST 330-130 230-615 on Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri 9.15 ~5.15 on Saturday salction of posta, places & sete for CHESS, GO, SHOG!, MAM JONG, BACKoauiMton, TRcHESS. RUBICS CUBES, OCTAGONS, PYRAMIDS, SNAKES Selection of Games, Rules & Accessories Ciraveu. nat rants at 81.5.8 Fantas, and Science Fiction miniature at in the South Fantasy - Role Playing wget teenTe® F Cardboard Heroes £2.45 Otmer Role-Playing Gam: FRP Scenarios & Aids ‘The Fantasy Trp (MGO) R ‘SF-Space Opera RS (FGU) : Hees Segarra. cfeStowure Runequest (Ch) R£S.95 eee eemsnrscon Things Gute Soonarge Sata + Specia! otter + New Artival Peat eassatemae a dears ey A Role Playing Rules fun onoencnanoes 17 #0nie 29 8 aoe, pt foe. 5 Plays Solo ‘manutacivrers pices pip 10% (20p mim." 1-20 max}Overseos Bp 30% (00 min. Board Wargames ~ Prexxth Century Board Wargame: xxth Century on. Business Games See bana 5016175 ESDEVIUM GAMES (6F) 185 Victoria Road ALDERSHOT Hants GUI? 1JU “Tel: Aldershot 311.483 ox(erening) Farnham 722269 8 Boardgame Payment in Shri oe M_ Miniature Rules Youre phone orders and pay by ACCESS = NO POSTAGE ON MANY GAMES FOR REGULAR CUSTOMERSpDrive on amascus Where have all the hexes gone? PAUL KING ‘You woule be forgiven for thinking, from the ile that this war a modern Arabia conflict. In actual Yact It covers am unusual campaign ding 4941 in which Vieny and Free French fought one another, The same ie 3 recent offering from W.WW. 4nd if Included in iesue ‘TS. of The. Wargame Brietly the history behind the game sos faltows the Briisn were concerned over the presence of Vieny: neta ‘territory in ‘Lebanon ‘nd Syria. The sea gould provide 2 "baeksoor for Axis forces to the Alicar Camaaign Iraq wae won over to the [Axis cause, so the Brishsttockod rag, Germany ‘was desperate for airbases to help lag and Sogun Using the. Vichy eld air bases, Eritisn empire foress ‘therefore attacked "Lebanon “and. Syria hoping to catch the French off guard, and sso expecting mass desertions to” the Froe. French fnuse. Unfortunately nether happened. The ight involved a hotch poteh of unite on bath sides, ond "month was to elapte before the Btn forces there certain of victory Turing to the game itself the components are of 2 00d standard of quality and one or two features Beer special mention. Included ars rule senrefold {fan organisation “ehort ‘depicting al the tao. hhundredand odd. counters. For setup all the counters ‘ora initially. plsced on this, and very fauiekly" for they ate all numbered and easy to Blac. From here units ean be placa inital map Seployments of let reinforcoments providing at GOODWI RIVETS is 2 sclencefiction game of robotic battles, Bublisne by the American "Metogsming” company’ "Tne stsumption that during the Wucla"/BI0 logical warfare of the fate 213 century the people on Earth did on elieent job of systematialy ‘terminating one another, leaving gang of sm Incalgent mass produced orronete rosming the countryside for desert} lodking for something 10 ‘Although postesing the average inteligence of on flectrie cancopener ‘the robots, or BOPPERS {Gatletietd Orlentated Pre-Programmed Eracieator bots.) managed to more or lem Tend for then salves afer the humane were gone — they could ive off the landy ust to long se there wore @ few Usedear lots on it" and they soon began to fight ‘amongst themselves over the resources alle ‘Tho game. costs around £2 in the UK, and is socked by mast major suppliers, notably "ex ‘cluding. Simpubs. For your maney "you get © polythene folser contining 8 17 page rues book. Ieestzea about 4" 7" with an attractive fl Colour cover, plus a emai Woolsap, 14" fame. map ‘printed in bive on. cream, and 112 Dartollycut thin card counters, rather smaller than SPU sce. it wav designed by Robert Taylor, who lists among is sourees of Inspiration various SE books and’’a real smoooath bottle Bourbon is" aivoreed. totally from the. ules: ‘mechanics, which producer a clear reult although fone feature does sand out os a problem at fist {his isthe ridiculous extreme ta vihicn the current US penchant for abbrevisting the namey of units tnd ether game features to initials is caried 6 ‘easy roferance chart for futura events, Perhaps the ‘most striking feature fs the map ~ there ore no FRoxaganst instead they are suorttuted tor by tiny dots, each dot being the centre of hypothetical hex.’ Units move by eavaring dots instead of exes, “The result exactly the sane end, | must admit {ovour this method if any for a hango. Auded fo this is the fact that it f'8 desert wararé gomme and {he Use of tiny dots eohancer the effect of the ‘wide open spaces". The map hes a 30 quality to in'due to trading of mountain races, am during lay ane gots the fee of viewing situations Mop [SUH.O" However, the result Ie that more thon one Bown shade can mean the seme thing Fortunately fem hazy areas exist and commonsense wil 8 you through’ these. There-are other minor. Guibes, Perhaps the worst being the fact that ater going Bi the trouble ot producing an organisation chert lahich pulls aut, all the other charts and tales are Spread through eight pages of cules thus i is neces Stary to photocopy to be able to use some charts And the cules atthe same time, Firms sue a8 PL ould certainty have gained from some of the leads In this gamo ~ by the same token W.W.W. sil have ‘hing earn rom the games of S.. ‘The sequence of play is sim with reinforcement, ‘movement and mendatory combet For both payers. Reinforcement is rather more complicated for the Vichy player's he must docido on whether oF ot to accept German intervention, and how to get is units trom Groece Is. by limited ir pase, Un Dredicable see transport or even mare unpre Pothope the imited space makes tis necessary, but attest reading ean be Ruanly confusing If 9 BOPC attacks » TB (PTA ABs) and rolls a [AR onthe CRT. do you treat tat NE? Vos) ‘The rules are varied ingenious, ond simple to apply: the Unmanonuvrabilty, of mistes simply ond btfectiely dealt with by « next fing Tul, and Fules for Focket fie, air movemant, different ¢ypae Of unit (thre are twelve types in all ach with a Special iclasyneraey of somesort unit praduction, Te-programming”, neutral Toctory complexes, and so forth, meon that despite is small size the game is one that ean be played repeatedly without bo dom setting in. It could bo aid that some rls are ‘ator simplistic, ab In range attenuation of racket fire Rango-t. power", Rengo~2, power Fange"8, power-t, for examples but bs we are com sidering weaponry” of which we know very Iie this rule's perhaps 8s good as any other, adit har the convenfort advantage that ft should save time that would otherwrae be spent flicking threush te ‘ules st opposed to actually playing the game, | find that the particular advantage of Rivets ae 2 ume. over ‘others in. my. collection ies inte Solitaire” posstalites, due to the ‘Programming ‘ules. Esch of the six main types of BOBPER (Dive BOPPERS, Tiny prongunced ‘weny" aceording ta the ules” BOPPERS, Big BOPPERS, dock BOPPERS, Rocket BOPPERS and Light BOPPERS) fan be programmed to sttoek any single loss of the other side's robot, ond wil hence ignore other lasts. Tiny BOPPERS. alone have wuthent Gomputer power to recogniza all types of them. Hence if tha programming i anything other than mirror image for the wo gee ft ie possible or {9ch to Use an ‘optimum plan’ and yet the syles of play of oach Side must be vifferent, avon if only ‘one person is laying. This moans thot "deliberate ‘stakes to pravent an impose ean be avoided, In the sworplayer game programming is earied secretly By each sie, and obviously the Is imBos slo — Turkish land panage. Added interest a Protded by various train mon artery fe Srmoured units with their advamtagecretone, Blus social tort for the Vichy player whlch ars Stten dificult to, destroy. Poesbly. the: ment tractive feature of the gome fs that whit ite an Sperational ive! yore of battalion company seed Units ie does not ecu in a vacuum. Fohtea cor Sertions are important, special nthe os ff Germen intecennion at ths can slic 2 ponte, {u“rxponse fromthe Britsh player in ters of {einforesmants Turkish agreement san importent ‘ature ond os 8 reauit of tls the game I rather open ened proving ferent vatory conditions oni“ Hacer. Allin all Drive on Damascus isan interesting simu lation. Train and its usage key factor for both ‘the long Impesssble mountain ranges gut the’ map langthaays Into three stipe. The Brith Player's init deployment 's eritieal and his pian Section must be well thought out to gun any aa! Success. Doss he take the historical rose olor the coastal strip with its many datensibe rivers han attempt to capture Beirut, or ty and crock the haviy defended fort of Mbrdieyoun to goin rapid seewst| Up. the. dordan valley, or nek the Syinay Desert and the alveet route to Damaseus with the threat of Vichy fortress garrisons to the eat ready | must admit to being no great player of desert warfare games, but this ane proved most enjoyable nd ‘instructive, Why obscure ilagee wth {tacks through them were important becomes cea when trying to Keep up 9 rapid motorised thru Bnd why solitary mounting become of strategie ale il lear aftr plying the game only fw In conclusion then Drive on Damascus is 2 geme well worth tying. The derigner, Vance Van Borris, fas exrtanly’ dane his homework ta. provige ripping, 26 wall ae obscure, topic — his Watorical ticle nthe tales shows thi. At the sometime the ot idea makes 9 plessant change from the usual ‘map layout and | would expect to see other gomes Use the some sdea in future, but | doubt Hi wl vc replaer the hexagon. ‘ible for solltaire players. The chart shown can be sed 10 decide ‘on programming for each sido Simply” roll 1 die for esch sige the top row Says whieh type of robot i reerrad toa pro ‘Farnmed to attack the type fund inthe particular ow selected by the de Toll, Do notre separately ‘or each type ae this could easly realtime vather ‘Uneven tstibation Overall the game is apparently bug-ree (com rulos point of wew, and athough £2 for an item 0 Small" may ‘toms waste of money° | find Tat Fivets Te quite exceptional value in terms of ts sustained ‘interest salue, ‘The budding designers ‘among. you may like to tanster the gome te Improved counters and a larger board tf cbr tainly worth the effort, as these ere probubly the ‘worst features ofthe gamne, Bm are clear and el Drintad, but hopelessly smal Yor sustained, 63 Chub, play. Ever you don't lke SP, for €2 Why nat give this one a try? Notes TB=Tiny Bopper JB = Jack Bappar [BB = Big Booper DB Dive Bopoer LB= Ligh Bopper LB = Rocket Bopper Fol | ie for each side's programming. “Tiny Bonpers are automatically programmed to avtack anything DIEROLL TS JB BB DB Le RE Re eB Je Te La 86 Je AB Te Le L Re ie 66 Le Te (8 op L Ie bo Re Ta te we Re 8B Le Te Solitaire Progamming chart, (See text.)00 hitler’s War The Strategist’s Masterpiece NICKY PALMER ‘A good gore review, I've always felt, should be fie’ Social Democratic manifesto. onthe one recommendations to make up the readers mind for Iiim. There are very few games which everybody or nobody all enjoy: the feviewer's job fe to steer Biavera co the games which ill met thet tastes tater‘ 9 fnpe om Te ed gn | propose, however, 10 forget this policy in reviow ing Hider’ Wer, Ths Isa very goos game Indeed, poulbly the best to appesr on the market Tor Interested in sratagy you wail be cheating yourself ft rel vest you don‘ sell out the sx pounds tehich it contin this country. t-ahould ike to Thinnee this unseomiy fervour with warnings. anc feearvetions, and one oe fwo wil appear below, but by and ge the praise ir going to be thick and tinted Poke sbarckness pill and read on Hitlr’s War covers the sme ground as Third Reich lord War i from Poland 1899 to Bern (pemapt) 1945, Thor, however he resemblances end. Third istonalcloments as well as strategie coniderations Ithae numerous erica rules to koep history on track; the fet ection of the lee were rditg Sah ambgutn Ieaovng rac the capt of players will put up with all the rex to explore a the fecinating poet te. Tepe rulebook i almost eately. tree from Sra goed ‘weiing. ‘The enphest ik’ stanpsly compared with Third Reich is the intricate quasi Sperationel deta but insteod the players haves ttemendous palette of high evel decisions to make, ‘The basic structure of the same is sally explined There are three protagonists with rules for 2-0 ‘player gamesh: the Axis, the West and the USSR Veriout specialised units ‘cussed. below. There tre deployed on 2 map scaled at 200 km to the tex #9 the Frenen eaeten border is & hoxes fom the Channel to the Med wily the Russons tt points apreson. postonina” you are the Cine, and your 40D i be this turn and what forote are to be committed to them. Each Army corresponds to an offap splay showing sts svengin in ta epartmonts {up to a maximum of 10 strength points per hex) ‘one army moy be ouigned 6 snlantry and 3 mech: ‘mised snotier may. be 4 paratroop and ai fand 30 on. Army counters ore lust shells 0 ve revere ‘those force commitments, and con be ‘deployed and removed to ‘Combat proceeds in threr steps first the delending rey Tees When the otacking army; then the ‘with an "advance" One can continue to advance fo one may decide to try fora Quick blit2krig bY fvancing first and sing one’s fe for targets Ipohind the front (byt tone falls 19 advance tis then too late to fire. Garitone nove no dotansive tte bat reset edvorces, a0 thet eve against Un {fonda errtary ane wil probably onty penetrate ‘armour present (ste bilow!. brought to life by the subtle differentiation bet ‘Seon each typeof strength point {a} Infansry: the boric workorse, cheap to pro ‘ice and te atfectve te anything sein defence, However, infantry points donot count for the vance drat o) Mechanised: more expensive than infantry fiteounted for advances, Canaot use atenswe 16 {el Parstroops: much more expensive than infantry passages (e.g, the Channel!) and count double for (a) Tactical sir: cheap and aor subject to stacking ‘sqval amount of ae or thay rola die greater th ‘the enomy avr point tora. Tactical at therefore against advances inthe defence (a) Amphibian: invasions can be made by armies ‘sith a east 80% of points aahbious (Forts: exnensive,_immobil but each point ‘The uses of these different types will be demon strated bythe game folowing this review, but we fan alrdy” note here that 2 clear Ides of the Statepe. lan is susntial to decide on foro’ Sllocations, The most flexible offenive weapon, if fo emphibious assault involved, fs 3 paraait fry. But infantry ie needed vo tak defensive fie We haven't yet roached the heart of the Unite Use) are shown on the map or in connected fottenap boxes (USA, Canada, dia and Alican Colonial boxes, ll of which are least toretialy Fiabie to invesion by the Axis # they can pet over the problem ofthe Allied ives (In practic this sha dood in one turn and to provide production points each turn. When you conquer a country oF En individual 1U hax, the 1U's ae knocked out, but for priee of 3 production paints vou can rebuild Alter each turn, you can build new strength points ing the new pointe to amie in your Homeland In Submarines (for Asie tvategic warfare: Aled TU ‘re reduced) ASW points (to courte submarines), Unrealistiealy be producra in & month, strategie bombers. (to strike. at enemy 1U'r and’ morale), fanter escorts and air defence. (to excorfatack bombers rae "mii an alternate fate in the game, atomic bombs for delivery bY tombers or misses At the start of the game, a! Impossible, including mest of the strategic weapons By spending 2 production points on 8 category however, you have 81/3 chanee of improving Vout technologies! level and im future producing tht typeof unit more eheapiy. Some weapons ean only be produced at 9 certain evs, the extreme case of {course being the atomic bom which requires lee! Gear a 23% rate the bomb wil therefore take the {tit game length of 18 ture or 8 years, enough the ‘Americans enter the ar in 1942 with evel 2 tech ology in this etopory. The tick iso start with (hie ange of Feearey and then to speciale nthe‘departments which you most need andlor are Showing the most progress. Technology hae aight endeney to Teak a the other sie” if anotrer player has 2 level higher than yours, you have: 8 Bow chance of moving up yourself Production therefore offers three choice: (i) Fair captured 1U's to eve more production (i) Bulld more units to proseeute the war atfort ‘and capture new IU Ui) Do research 10 gst more mileage from your ‘existing 1U's and gain new weapon. How to ditribute the available resources between thee choleas lean alvaysfascinatng diemma, For ‘xampie, the Axis wil certsly’ bulld a Tot of infantry’ during the full cempargn, so perhaps sr rly research effort should go, nto thie depart tment?" But. than the Russions may get cheep Intantry earlier toy copying your'new rfies), and this ill pore a serious thrent to Barbaroue, Reference was made sbove to morale: this applies to the Axis and Britain only” Nationa morale Starts at 10 and varies betwoen 1 and 0 below the [evel of 8 offensves become hard and at 0 the ‘country surrenders, Morale mainly ‘varie 8 tr Fitory fe conquered or fort, and ene plays” wl ‘sce hie campaign with a view to dliveringa fresh Blow to morale every turn" Atomic. bomb, in facdition to knocking out 1U's permanent. send ‘ovale plunging by & per bomb, 30 Fone get the ‘weapon the mar wl end rapidly, Nowe thet nothing hat been said about political restrictions. Thera arent any, except that 9 Bre 1942" Soviet attack’ on Germany delays the time when the USSR can get its ful wartime production ‘apecity,resoureer presumably going en te #9" \war instead of the economy. This doce away ith ‘hia Reich's ariel Eoxe Front govrson fle, and replaces it with the realitic constraint that Stalin doesn't want an early wae but will certainly ‘walk into Berlnit he given the chancel Simfory, Germany. ane the Allies se uite free to attack different neutrals from those historically snvlved Wit seems. good idea" an. Axis capture of Gibraltar through Spain's one atwactive possiblity Various speci! rules emphasize aeosraphy the fll oF Gibraltar prevents the Allies from sing tet {Susi 2poin Med. navel tenaport capacity they bili havea paint route round the Cape: the fel ot Malte boowt face Med capacity from 2 to 3: fhe fal of Suer cute off Indien production ond hits Grin moras: Lond Loose spose 0s feet only after the USSR ls et war) through 6 Rorthern’ana a southarn entry point to the USSA aie can be taken by the Ast: he Axles eb Bled inthe attack by Russian winters (propres. ‘Thora aro atleast 8 plausible Axis lines of pie, rot neezesariy mutually exe'usive a forces low with ¢ “phoney war land plunge vesourees Into reseacch for'a massive (omtatictve balldsup by sary 1944 (2) launch a iitekreg on France (G)_maximise 1U capture by mopping Up every reutral in sight (@) attack through Spain and take Gibraltar, thor ize Malta and overstelm North Africa (5)_moke an early offensive agsinst Rusia before fhe gets cheap infantry, pathaps supplemented by & thru through Turkey (6) build substantia paratio0p force to throten Briain and Malt, and then use Wt it the Ailes over theve ports) against Russia. (71 10 research tees to the point where you can eaten up with the 6:point Allied lead at the Start, proweting yourselt against the US in the middiegame (8) research the Atbomb and 9 delivery aysts covery tuen with 8 wie to turning the he late the war The Allies hove corresponding counter etrategie: tarly crucial decisions ara how ‘hard to faht for Franca and. North Africa, and whether "0 end ‘maximal Lend Leave to the USSR, So, far lve played the game four times without fealing that {ve more shan eratehed the src Of the problems: each game bringe new idea 9 try fut next time, defy anyone to “creck” Nt quickly, as : ¢ an) eas a Aight e a0 though the besie historical problem of the two: ont war possibly weights the balance sighty the” Allies” given bestpley. Unfortunatly, the Dhyles! production is rather uninspiring! a smal fra flimsy folded! map in en ebay bashed card board Box. Don't let the appearance put you off tht is quite simply, tre some thet Third Rah Hitler's War: Sample game Winter 1939 Axis! At the outset, Germany starts with enoug mechonised forces to be sure of taking, te neutral Nexes, Strategy (3) shove would suggest en ‘attack. on Poland and. Denmark or. Yugoslav, ieoving the Low Countries ag a neutral butter However, the Axis are going for a biltekrieg on France. in this gems, 40°they ‘take cut tre Low Countries to provide a broad front for @ spring offensive, while an Intanteyair army. aka Unsuccessful attempt to take Copenhagen without mech (ean be done Ifthe garrison iy Jstroyed) A, {ow points sty in Badin, reinforeed by the Build, teldetor 8 Sovitatteck, Production/essarch: 1 parstoop point, 1 mech: fanised, and succesful ‘rewsaren on. mechanised {to level 2 trom 2 rarting love! of 1), acti! ait (to 2) ond submarines ita 1. Morale’ aes to 12 sie to conguest of at eas 8 hex, USSR: The possiblity of enveloping Germany's minor allies with their production centres has te ittractione, ut the German countersroKe would te too strong, Instead, the Bate States ae brakly ‘hrorbed and thelr TU immediately. repaired: Intantry is built and veseerch goes into infantry il. Allies: An attack through South Germany against fhe Ruhr is Teosible but unwise: all the efforts of the Allies must be cavoted to securing Pare The Brivah move their infantry aerose the Chonnel to Stifen French defences, weeping mechanised and fmphibious points at home to word off the por inte paratroop landing, Produetion/rseareh: Build 7 infantry in Paris (to Join 2 already there) and do succesful infantry research. Spring 1940 ‘Axis: haly comes in, boorting production to 23. ‘The Axis mass thot Torewe for te Bitzkriep. A 10. point nfantrysrmour arate the, frontline Franch at the Channel, who consist of 3 infantry and I. aie point. The French knock out two stacking points and take ony 1 lone the air point, {eo maximise defense sgeingt mechanised advance! ‘The’ AXls has two reehnnised armies which veers Blanned for use. against Pars pints area bit too much to brush (itting he teeth, the Axis player user the fre ower of ‘the first one in reducing the border force’ (whe cannot tire agoin this turn), Ts Axis lrmy now wheels about and advance” to Bevin {eo avaid the noes for heavy building to keep It Sate. Tho lst Axis army mow advances succeselly into’ Franca: despite 2 vir points In his ormy, the Franen ‘manage to eacape to Parts (2/3 chance), ‘Tho aim. ow attacke Poris, but loses 4 points to 2,vond cannot hope to cverrun the ety. An iponsve offensive! Production/researeh: Repeir two captured U's, build infantry, | mechanised, and reazarch mech nied (as), aff auceaods, level 3 — so air now Just costs 1 pr strength point) and submarines Viale) USSR: rrodueton/emen only: bul 1 fort point in Moscow, reeareh infantry (sucesed, lve 1 ond mechanic (a's). ‘Allie: Since the Axis have left Africa atone 40 far, the Allies do as ell refering to concenvate on ‘the atte Tor Frones. Once again the Ruy Is wi erable, andl this time it seme faaibe to auneh 8 Counteratack without weakening Pars. The Britian ‘mechanised move over fo France and join Allied Intontry stking across Belgium snto the Rr. ‘Axis TU are devastated, whereupon the Allies ‘shee! round and advance” back to Paris Production/vesearch: 3 infantry, t0 top up Paris, 8nd resareh into infentry, mech, amohinns, if,peratroops, bombert, eicorts, end ASW, all of “Table 7: Production aves the sample game (ich fa except paras to level T] and Bombers ete the seme Selentas Axis, ussR Notes, Summer 1960 ve wom (rine softs | a | 8 rection. Homever, inthe position there tant |Sering 40 | 23 | 22 | 9 Axis in Italy, USSR gains Bale States much oe aorescnn pee hte Fa faummrad | 21 | 96 fo Ales rah tr, bt counters tks Ps Taian tlre ep ho Rea an ste Maton Sk ecantanan ‘on |wimer «0 | 2e | xe | 9 2 omepiad Ux bacome practi France hes left most neutral U's out of their |spring 41 | 30 18 9 ‘Another 6 join the network. Submarines inflict damage. Scie Rey ae At drt Tron Serving tey can manage incusing pwrerecrr, [Summers | 36 | 16 | 8 Another 4, and German minor lies eatribute 2 nd sured th taing the cy on a lucky 4d |wineer at | 36 | 32 | 8 Goodbye Birmingham olay ae n Tord Reh), and tre postion ooxs s [Serna 42 1.40 | 17 | 20 US and USSR come in, Britin goes out bit rowley agnin, Morale ‘ge t0°74, wile. British Imoraie drops 108. “Table 2: Balance of expenditure on production, research and IU repair inthe sample game Production/research: Build 4 infantry in Bertin (to ord geet Russe), repre 10's, and rcereh Seth ond abetbotn fam Axis, Allg USSR Notes Mu Mw Pal Home morcom,'T wantty and veearcintannry [Wer 30] 9 6 - [21 2 {ta soring 40]11 6 6 | 616 Allies: with only 1 partroop point and no amphi. {Summerd0] 8 4 9} 412 Sane, the Germanearinat muon ofa tet t |winwr 40] - 6 18 [19 man or best, 40 the Allied playar contents himeel SL a : tyth sanding 2 intantry ta Egypt and replacing [Sorina 41] 18 212/12 3 hom at home. Jsummerat |32 4 - |t4 2 Jwinser at | 20 412 110 2 2.9| 7 Pare intontey 4 = | Allound Altes research 2. - | Allies research drive continues 2 ~ | Building up the Gib fort, Heavy Axis 1U repairs [Axis paralaic army forme, 7 London infantry Massive Axis air built, plu new mech, Landon fort 2 ~ | tore axis at anda para, London fortitying further: Production/research: Build 2 infantry London, fessarch infantry, meen, amphibians, air (all {Secestull end barbers ar ASW (aot fal. ter 1940 ‘Axis, The two mech armies take out Poland and Gv nf hip“ hw mua” sin Soeningthe Prospect ot stratgy (4): the Nort rican campaign after the fll of Gib. AXIS_ARMY_ RECORD SHEET Production/research: 6 1U's repsired, and unsuc- tll renserch on infantry, mach Fie 10-16. Note th (wil not be able to help a neutral (asi certainly the cas for Poland), they con delay the conquest. | CENTER amy cep Co Until the next turn, By! which time wil be ther than plucky OOOOOOO000 - O ‘mechanised fores for other ark USSR: Production/esaareh only: build 1 fort | new point Moscow, t infantry, and research infantry (Gucceeds!. Soviet infantiy. cost is now the optima Allies: A nasty dilemma, At present tha threat 10 Britain is sel minima, but with Axis production {up t0 30 they could ‘quickly build. paratroop fre, Gn the bther hand, f nothing e done about Gibrsiter it wil fall next turn, making the Meditar Faneon 9 permanent headache forthe Allies. Inthe font the lies opt for © Amy LJ LJ LJ LJ coaearei i bie. cte ~ O ie wists 3 ltt tod ve T] LJ L] L] LJ LJ to overwhelm i. Ht the Axis take tha time to Pre frees further and at any rate 4 months of precious | pax Pert ike ‘Axis time wil have bown vated Spring 1941 ‘Axis: The coming Soviet bulldup is 2 damned fuisanes, but having got so far it geome worth Giving. Britain another shove. Portugal and Yagoslvia ae occupied, the former enabling Ai 0 prepere 83 hexausoult on Gib. Submarines rack gut one lied production point, the Ht ‘coe forthe U:boat arm, OOOOOOOO0O QOUOUOO0000 OOOOUOUO00 OOOOOO0O000 Production/esearch: Repsie 4 1U's, build 2 pars a, troop points and 6 air points the latter now 8 — ‘ere 1 production point each), and esearch mec ‘nied (al), USSR: Production/researeh: The rifle factors 90 Tanned One fon night shit 9 infantry points produced A line Pet et gam ge Na hile lee Seas =” | DOOUOOOUUOO ‘ers Gib put it's alo 8 alr points and 3 paras OO |: OO LCade met tm Megan 2 ami cy ata y Sort a ei tans ca 35m Ca ‘avilable against London. Irnically, North Alvca Winter 1941 issu quite peacetal but ever it Skier survives the fail of Gib. will b6 9 bossy nutsance when the Axis: Now what? Malta la sure thing, andl in due ourse Suez should follow, But ithough London is 46 points hammer the London defenders, and only ‘point of dafenders survives to struggle spins Me tain of paraoopr Britain fast Maree, the [Americans rive end want to move on italy Produetion/rewarch: In this situation, research raw the short straw again, giving way tothe con Stuction of infantry in London ang another fort point in Gib, The [U reaieed by submarine wartare Prepaid (presumably this f simulating the loss Sind replacement of merchant shipping) ‘Summer 1941 Axis: More crucial decisions. The German minoe allies have. joined up, and the Axis now have Enough foress to take Gib, or launch a cexpectabie ftfensiveaosinet Russia, I he later i layed the ‘hole outlook will be clouded by the Russian ‘winter next turn and the US entry ito the war Tthe turn after). On the other hand, nies the main ‘Soviet production centres ean’ be quickly {nvloped, their capacity wil leap $028 a8 soon a ‘wor brooks out a Winter Barbaronen i therefore 2 Dorieulerly silly idea, since virally no procuetion fan be taken on that ture. ta tei gare tt was ‘ecided that Lend Lease could only start once var hes broken out, and this tips the scale of the Ait ‘etison: go tor Gib! Three armies with # tote af 536 points mow up. The fret wave reduce the fort iy “the next wave by 2, leaving *re deenders Wulewabie "to the find sigult with 18 pointe Tincluding 8 a1). Two defencing points hold out, bbut now tie tanks ral forward and it a over by» nerow margin, Produetion/research: Preparations for he war with the USSR (building 4 mechanised, 20 a shea dar Side tha resoeren fort (ust infontey and mech, both fain USSR: Produetion/research: Build 4 infantry anda fort point in Leningrad Allies: The paratroops can now take Nlta it thoy {ko but the more werying treat ist Briain fail. A coken infantry point is moved to Att Found whe Cape, but the main preparations ore ot Produetion/research: Build 2 fort points London nad snfancrysai research fae tafe from direct assult, Plymouth can be taken With sase, giving an ever chance at the Wieland. “The chance is just too tempning 10 reest and the ‘eras seize the southwest and i aifleids,enabling the Luftwaffe to. Ming. i massive atteck Birmingham fols as the pave Britain because" of the apsonce ot ampniant ant Dresonce of the Gritsh feet! taker Greece, com: Plsting the conquest of continental Europe west of the USSH and Turkey Produetion/resarch: pair Birmingham nother 10, bald 15 air and para USSR: Bula 1 fo point Leningrad, 2 intr. Andresearch mech lla ‘Allis: she evisi i at hand although Roosevelt poised to come ia next turn. And now, withthe Gharity of hindsight. the Allied player sous the enormity of his bhuider in sancling ie machanied {roops to France and net repling them, as he could enily have done instead of tying to shore tip the Gibraltar fort, The German forces in Brita consist of an armada of planes and a mere 2 para troop points. The airralt cannot defend apoinst ay ‘advance’ wih’ significant mechanised arm, the Rome foreas could take louesto enemy a stacks In infantry snd over the paratroape wth the Produetion/reaaren: London builds two more fort points, For mant 9! better Uso forthe lst two IU thay. eondiet amphibian resarch: it looks a8 though the US iy going to need great expertise in smphibisna I tai Spring 1942 ‘Axis: Great care still needed: the Russians can attack trealy this ‘turn "aithout any production analy, the Americans arin, and the British are Sl ave and Keking. with Landon too tough & fiat forthe. Bieminaham forces to crack lone Whar too? The ‘Axis player broods for a lang time, then decider: snotnerparaair army [oun te seat on London, whe the land forues tart & limits offensive Is the thinly Sotended touthern Soviet frant. Benzer ermios sweep through the Ukraine to end the turn within striking dietanee of Stalingred ‘The Alles sign, The Axis now has production abercaching 80 and should be sbi to" detest the USSR ‘gute easiy once the paras and sir points favo boen retrieved trom Britan, well bafore the US can propare a sighifcant counter threat With's Dit of hice, the Axi can even outspend the Alles In foots ahd eventually challenge for control of ‘The fora Allied mistake wes noted abow, and his game's thorefore in no way 2 demonatiation of Sound defensive play. What H does Gemonetrate I the Hlexibivty of the game system Paratroope and fi pointe were wial_sgsiat Gib, and. London, ‘ochanised wore decisive inthe fall of France and {he neutrals: cheap infantry procuetion would have saved Russia the two front war could Rave tees ept going, The Axes wom by using all the Unit ‘Bpobilities 19 the full In vesting multiple thee ‘auinst the Allies which diverted them fram ear Soldating te Home Army until it was to9 Ite, In fessareh they ‘concentrated on the lines with ‘uk payaft(mecheneed and nbowe all af the War had lasted to 1945 thie might nave proved an ‘rror. Convorsaly, the Alles overdid the Tong: Yesgareh in springaummar 1940: i's all ery wl A plan for tomorrow, but wee £0 make He that there wil be 9 tomorrowBRITONS, STRIKE HOME! A CLOSER LOOK AT THE BRITISH BATTLEGROUP IN "MECH WAR 2" and a few other observations DONALD MACK In my profile of Mech War 2 published in Phoonix 25," “mode. some comments, anent. the” British Bricegroup es cepicted In that game and intimated that | would return to tis aubject in more dota Having dane tome’ reteoren and atked 9. tow amine vehicle profiles and to comment on some ‘Epects of the Crema! Warfare ules nasmch fe they affect the various Chemical Protection {Gey tat of vehices Finaly thera will bes word The Battlegroup Concept The two mein types of maneouwre units in the British Army” ore. infantry. battalion ‘and the ‘Sommends, both are independent units with life fy part othe word and of being ‘Dugped Ino Staton, However the methods of movarn mechan it ara ec hh gre ot aby Iaith arm can work independently of the other {he infantry need the tanea" pune to help protect ther, expecially when on the move in their organ Srmoured personnel eariare (APC, the tanks need ‘fontty to Tus aut enemy infantry position®, to provide close protection in close country and 10 Fold ground which ther armour, mobility and ire able especially the Infantry battalion) to operate {5 Dura units of thet respactive arms In a mech anised context they ate much more ikely to find Sr combined. semourimashonsedinfenty. forees, grated radio net. This wil often be achieved by detaching. company perhaps 2 reinforced Shroenes 8 squadron tothe botalin’ ut that = The ArmoursHeavy BG: As ite name implies this hat a hig proportion of Tanke 10 infantry and ‘omental heaaquar fact bly an Ine rale is primary offensive (within a stesteie 8G: More infantry thon tanks, of an intantry bataion HA. In ly detoneive grouping although i ha within itis loca! counter attack ability ‘The Balanced 8G: Thar's right, you've gor itl It {wo armoured squadrons and can be under the Commend of ether type of HQ, As 3 battalion hos four le companies and an armoured regiment four bre squadrons, you will realise that the two units can field betwnen them two balanced Boe oe ane ermourheavy and one Infantry heavy BC A BAOR armoured division's manoeuvre units ae Three, mechanised. infantry battolions. and (wo Srmoured rocimonts and it wil hus held fve BGs, two srmoureavy” and the. infantry haw; of {our baloneed and one very much infantryaneayy: intantry-neawy. Tho system ie thus very flexible much more flexible tan using units permanent much the she groupings towether in operations — felatonehipe, Furthermore each BG wil integrate fons but combat wars, 8 CT being tothe company for squadron what the BG is to the bettalion oF ‘esiment. Last but not least, the 86 wil include an {tmouredreconairance lament in the form of 8 troop trom tre Close Reconnaissance Squadron of the divisional armoured reconnelssance regiment, dnd wil almost eartainly inelude Swingfire (ont tank guided weapons] and Blowspipe (surfacetoa rises} detachments of the Raval Arley ‘The Battlegroup in ‘MW 2" ‘The socalled "Third Batiagroun’ see Fg. fin fae Hampshire 8G or 15/19 Hussars BG) \s, a8 you ‘grouping. The battalion has detached one company Flue one Btmm mortar section land Milen, of ‘hich more aterl and hae received an armoured Ehusdrans it has then used the resulting mb t0 {orm four combat teams, ie CT f armour hee, ‘nth two tank tro0ps and one infantry patoon and ‘hill’ be commanded by squsdeon HO! 2nd CT is Infanery‘heavy,consieting. of 8 ‘hort! 1 company fone platoon having been sent to Ist CTH Shae ten of tanks: ard CT #9 fll le company plus 8 tank troop; and 4th CT is virtually @ ‘pure’ file company. Each team also nat 9 siction (2 ‘ehicles) from the diviatonal ant-tank battery, RA, Thmed with Swinghre ATGW mounted on FV 436 3 modified version of re FV 432 APC, The bat: ‘allon’s integral Blmm mortar piatoon, organised In tour sections of two mortars, hr Geiaehed one ‘ection with the ‘not shown’ company an hs de ployed the. remaining three to CTs 1, 2 and 3 {romember thet Tor gore purposes ondioard arti thig does not affect thet fe-CF) Along with Battlegroup (battalion) HO appears the Stached troop oF the Close Rivsce Squadron, in {our actions of two vehicles each: Oh Yes, ond ihe Foland. Heaven and SPI know what the Holand ding theres quite apart from the fact that & Brivan Army doesn't use it our own Rapier Just 8 good, in Tact probably better ar defence fepiments FiA' are. under Corps command and ‘would be most unlikely to bo paresod aut to BGs, ‘They have other roles, Air defonce at 5G level is proviced by ‘Slowoipe detachmens of the lv Sion” AG’ batty, RA thee eno fined sie BRITISH THIRD BATTLEGROUP Batepronp Awe Independent Command ‘0, ene || ore 1m 2ay First Team os cM || rsa |] oe maa = Second Team “=| S| ewe || 7531] ore - oe “Third Tear = = om 2 1 Tar Team Avsts (Independent Commond) 5 77 2 rsa] ors 7five Jaunchers. This is not shown 0 auch but is tlsfactorly‘reprewoned ‘by tho ‘Maio? AD apapiity of te HOLunIe. The general organisation thus depicted is aceurate (Roland. epert)_ond ‘reflect the makeup of the British infantry battalion, the armoured squadron, ‘ang the divisional subunit kay to be made aval: Sle to an infantry‘heavy BG. My sole comment st this lovl Is that the Swingtre detachments would be unlikely to be sllocsted to. CT; thelr use and ark ‘platoon commander (wo Sooke Up the Sntiank defence plan for the entre BG) ang its ‘ch more on the cerde thatthe Svinglite Getch ‘mente nuld simply be in laestion" ane net under Command’ as far as CT commanders mould be con tsirnad. As they fe Independent Command unite Inthe game and can that range freely. the ectus) Ikely situation has Mot been misrepresritad, Detailed Organisation of ‘Third Battlegroup’ Close Reece Troop: ‘That mix of Scorpion and Scimitar is incorect, | fear, The Clove, Reece ‘Squadron ‘consists of five oops each of eight ‘Scimitar tracked reece vehicies (to call them ight tanks fs Hable to arouse quiet laughter in military Circles)" the Scorpions. are to be found. In the Medium Fleece Squadrons of the armoured rect regiment and. wil. be Timly undo” divisions! ‘contra. So"aed och counter ar Scimitar, two Stops tothe ‘counter: this wale you short on manent but {wil be coming to th ate Armoured Squadron: We are siso being sold short here, Each troop ls depicted as having thre ste (insinvee wanks}, "Actually a” Britis armoured squadron conssis of four troops, two of four fanks end two” of three. Furthermore. each srmoured regiment holds enough extra tanke in preservation to Increase the number of operations! fanks to four per troop on mobil would probably but not necessary. be in CT, the armeurneavy CT: (2) i mobilization is deemed to have taken place prior 0 the outbreek of Nos ‘ities, nerese af roope to four tanks. Armament Chieftain Turret MG: The Chieftain tank includes {an externally = mounted 762mm machine gun on ‘the commander's cupola, Tne Vehicle Unit Date (Uk! tabeon Page 34 of che Red Star/White Star Exclusive Rules pemphlet should include the tol Toning: Weapons Systeme ~ Tur MGs; lr Gefonce Sour" Stablised Main Armement: (This section is a: Dlicable to. curtain tanks other than Chieftain British tanks have had stabilised main armament Sines about 1980, enabling the main gun land the eoax MG) to be held trained ‘on a target wile the tank is moving this enables accurate ie Yo be ‘ellered by 8 moving tank and would convey. ¢ particular advantage when Using Short Halt fr | fn vouen for emis: have soon Centurion ts demonstrating fie on” the move and reguarly Iiting ther target and remember vividly teeing 95 ‘Adé new Case (31.0) to Mach War 2 Stan Gard Rules booklet at flows (31.0) Stabilised Main Armament ‘move a¢ well a5 Raving an dwantage wien Gring Short Halt fier UK Chieftain, US MaGA3, Wi German’ Leopard, Tse Cen Procedure ‘Tonk units of the above types with @ Bound command may ire mhile onthe move Bt the owing player's option. Fre combat is Fesolved t any ime during movement. [31.11 Units firing on the move may fre ‘hair main gun and/or coaxially mouoted MG_at any "time. during movement. Each system may be fired once only long a90 28 1953 Centurion doing its ‘party piece" at the School of Infantry by turing rou nd round on its axis, one trek locks, ‘hil {urret and gun stood stl, Meld on an unchanging line at sgh ‘The following tanks should be deemed to have Stanilsed mon ormaments UK, Chieftain; US, GOA; W German, Leopard; laraal (Suez) Golan Centurion. These ae ale to fire while onthe move ‘and have ‘an scvantageous modifier when Using Short Hat (re BOX) arden Cannon: The Scimitar tracked roce vehicle ie'srmed mith @ Rarden cennon which sn my pinion, much underrated im MWB. its clusion noe the general cossication of Medism Msin Gun'3 door not refiect Its eapebilties The Rerden was specially designed to be employed agenst ‘PCs ‘and other lahey-srmoured vahieos. itis 8 SSomm qua with e high mussie velocity (and there. fore flat wajeetory), the ammunition for which includes: stmour percing (AP) shot, AP explosive tnd. AP Incendiary wacer. It is effective up to 4500 merres 7 hexes) but the tracer burns Out ot 1100mn (6 texas). The arden is normally fied os 2 'semisutometie cannon = it ie ciped but Sutomatie fire of up tot rounds at time can be sed I required ‘Tne combination of fit tajectory, sami automatic rida. proportion of tracer avaiable. for rm each lip takes the arden a) very sceurate weapon and the types. of ammunition ‘sed guarantor highly satefactry results againet omy. APCs. Yer at 2 Medium Main gun 3 firing 41.3 BMP hited In the open at O-1 hexes (from ‘ery close vange_ Up 0 300m) 1 hat an attack Sanath of [ust 3. esuming that two vehicles are Firing togetner his Gives exactly 60% chance of hitinot 9 firecfine hi, just it) against a SMP Sanding in ‘he pen 100m anayioat 2 hexes [adorn this erance goes down to 25% and over Shhones (BUOm) fre is rchibited AA letter to SPL about various aspects of M2 emained long unonewored but | have since been in antact with “Stephen Donaldson, then with ‘05G, who was one of the developers; he told me ‘that he has never even heard of the Pardon and f2¥#, "| suggest tat you do the evlustion”. That Is. problem at lam no designer, Ara Main Gun 3 ‘he ‘weapon is being s91d short but amply to Uperade i to Main Gun 1 or 2 would exopaerat® its eoctivenassegsinst ate targets, My sole solution: Rarden counts os Main Gun 2 with te folowing provisos (1) Fire against "A" cats targets Ie rerolved on the "8" eolumn of Table (W021 (2)"When firing “at a Hard target dhe 2. Coss Moaitior of @ Medium Main Gun 3 ll apples (dee Table 122) ‘This stil ends to fall short of Rardon’s capabilites but aot nearly 20 much: nor ean tbe eceused of ‘exaggerating those capabilites, Infantry Anti-Tenk Capebiitie: The ntantry Data Table indicate that 8 UK mechariaed, infantry Biatoon "may. ba armed with sither’ the. Mian ATGW or the Carl Gustav. shouldercontroled ‘Amm antitank gun, The notes res that these (31.2) Fire on the move is at he owning Dlaver's option and need not be plotted it Sdvance, To perform fire on the move the ‘vening player simply stops movement of ‘the unit counter, resolve fire Inthe norma ‘nay, and continies movement, 12 the lt of te unit's ME i cesied 181.) Units defencing against fie on the move receive 3 Lose Mogification of "2 0n ther Loss Mositication de rol. (314) Units which fire on the move may not fire the same system again during the Tmaverent phage in vitieh fire on the MOVE (31.5) Units with stabi rain armament also tie at am advantage wien Using Short Halt fire (Case 21.0). Enemy units detend. ing agsinet them receives Short Hat modifier of only taf their Lote Mod iestion ai roi fare whats available and that the seensrio notes al Speci whieh is earned. This is an incorrect rendering of the armament actuely avaiable, The Milan i operated bythe Battalion antitank platoon, which gan deploy four Sections each of "wo detachments, nach tach- ‘rent having two firing ports ts. launehera; but ‘the countersmix falls to provice there detachments. ‘ach of whlch sould be shown ae an infonty ‘ATGW detachment complete with APC. Further ‘more the mechanised infanty platoon Ws equipped (ith three Cer Gustav lor LAW, ‘The best way round this misrepresentation it as fellow: (1) Mian wl raqunny be delayed on the aie fof one section par infantry heavy” combat team ‘Therefore in "Third BG" teams 2/3 and 4 haves Milan section wth thm. (2) Designate two platoons in ach team as having ‘2 Milan detachment with them; each sich patooy fan fire Min as a two-step weapon. Lows of one ‘rom the piston dost not affect Milan ca ‘bility but on the loer of second step Mil goes own to one step; hen the platoon love it hd ‘Stop the Bilan detachment i eliminated too (3) Milan is aiwaye fired separately trom the platoons own weapon eves end in addition to ‘hem, (a), All mech platoons alvaye have Car! Gustav and LAW and fire thes in the normal way Vehicle Profiles 'B Class Vehicles A faity important point on ‘whieh I remarked in-my profile. of this game it The fact that Soviet tanks in detllade recive 1 ‘modifier ‘on the Lose Mocification Table, 3: ‘Seposed 10 "2 forall other tanks. Thi etect the ‘ct, proven In combat. that becalte of the Very mal angle of depression of their main guns owe 3 dearee — {the penalty for having such low {rete} Soviet tanks cannot make or eeetve ee ot Geilade postions. ar can tanks which can Seprest their gune farther: this puts tiem at Sieadvantage in tank-to-tank iin, Unfortunately the modifior which penalises Soviet tanks, all of which, have 9 "8" profile, applies ally to aif other "8 voici, a eaagory wien Inoludes all Bitty APCs and THs and most West German nes, even though these most certainly do fot" sutfer from the Soviet problem, this can rocuce some diffcuit situations for the NATO layer m scanarios which do not elude US unis, {Tne simple, sonable end justifiable solution is sirmply ths loss modifier of “1 In defile spolig ‘ni to Soviet tanks and ail other vehiles receive the standard 2 moditer“You take the high ones and take che low ones cuerouse and crouse, dy of the counters ‘age It pain that US vehicle had no uch troubles ‘yer dfilade ae al the APC, whieh sre variants Of the MIT3. are clased "A. Thus, it would Sppear, they have a fower protie than the British Fve33; wen ir ox, very odd, becouse the ght (Of the FV432 Ie 0°2" uiereas that of the MTS SE given (The US. War Machine) as 82". Even Slowing for tho fact thet this figure indudes the Bistlemaunted machine gun the hull of the vehicle [robviouly higher than that of ts British counter para compan of photograph of theo To cut along story short | have done 2 fair amount of comparison of vehicle heights with their given fotay, with the aid of the data given in The ‘Krmed Forees of the United Kingdom (Devid ong Charts}, “The US Wer Moenina” (Salamander), and ‘Mlodorn Soviet Armour (arms and Armour Pres) [Mad intended to compile 9 table whorewith to ‘ecorate this article and to imprest you with my Sigence and erualtion, but have decided to spare ‘you this opus, Suttie to eny that the folloming Tush yardstick sooms 1 opp Height “Game! Profile Up 068" a se" 36 e 86" — 66 c 8'6" and up D Big tun e (On this rating, 1 suggest that UK APCS are re ‘signetad "A vahilet,excopt for the Swinglir tint and US APCs ar'B's realy do mupoct thot there was a bit of fudging over US vehicle protles 1, Patriotism, what erimes sre committed in thy ame) aithougy the tonke are firy rendered 'D wehials (the NGO i 10'S" high specially 3s ‘he brager US B13 war depited bs having a lesser profile than the F321 Chemical Warfa Fre in my profile that | found vome aspects of the chemical wearfore rules puzzling. In parcula | ould. not understand why APCs in. Chemical Protection Stawe 2 fully provected) could not i: fount ther infantry; and interrogation of fiends {nmy regiment, now in BAOR, showod that there if ma. obtace 10, or doctrine forbidding, #0 ‘aunting you just open the doors and gat out "Bt course you dot in'agarcloud youl have to decantaminaté ths inside ofthe vehice afterwards, buttmat'syour rough Tuek" wes the general verde, Since then Stephen Donaldson has produced infor mnetion which helps elanty the CP rales ond which tiso inaleates 9 miscaneeation made when these {ules wore, formulated. For personnel, CPt Is {otalv ‘unprotected, C2" ‘tultedup” but "not Inatkad, and GP2 ie “suitedup", marked, he lot For vehieles, CPI meang open ports and hatches taereas CPS (no CP2 for APCs, remember) Sossa'down and over premure system gpeating {ira prosure ieide'the vehicle Ie higher than si. All wel so far and & fair simulation of rea! con ‘itions and precices, However it slo appears that ton the rules were watten it wee not Gonce ed that men in'a fully protected APC would go to the nvr inconvenience of wearing CP suits. "APCs ate txtremely crowded”, rote Stephen, "and I find it hard to picture everyone geting into suits when ding buttoned down’. es right on bath counts bot the facts that f there i chemical threat you ‘ready have your Nagy sut on and you stay in it Your section's APC ie nots mobile changing Tom) This is ah ‘exercias In BAOR regularly include CW" phasoe when averyone i ‘ited’ for ‘erode of up to 48 hours or even Tonger: ici also the reason why means of making ful CP geo less eduous to wear pre constantly being sought — 8 fnew and better design of CP suit dread being [sued to Brith troops and some other NATO ountris are buying trom us \ consider, therefore, that that part of ule 106.11 tahich forbide the mounting and dsmounting of IMtentry into. and. from wehicles in CPS. ts best iGnored ast is bated on a maconcaption ond docs ot squore with actual practice. In addition that Bert of Rule 103.39 whieh says thet infantey may Ehange from CPS to GPS only wen in the sme hex asa vehicle should likewise be ignored a¢ this ction represents the donning of reepiratore and Shacial gloves Ut the latter are not siready being (worn), both tema caried on the man 88 part of fis persona equipment Whether or not TOW would stl be fired by US Unite during cherie! stack is outwith my Know {edge but it a2 wall to point out thatthe BMPs ‘Sooger system eannot be reloaded while the venice ir'elosed down. 10 place a tesh missile on the lunch rail sequires the gunner to.apen up and *9 topos the upper helt of hl body, Indeed 2 sp rowed BMP would be unable. to reload for the Same reeson. Neither of these dieadvantaper of the BP mounted Sanger system are mentioned inthe Soviet Vehicle Data; perhaps you may waht In Axtllery Spotting and Fire Control here is how one actually spots for artilery. (1h [omtfy the location of the target on your map a: tccuretey os posse and note the pideference {2} ‘Take a compass beoring on the ta'get and Convert it from a magnetic to 4 grid bearing. This Eeering ocomes the Observer/Taract (OT) Line Fa) Note the height of the target above so016v0 {a} Pas this information geet to the gun position. {5} The battery mow ranges. on the target with 3 single gun while you, the spotter STAY PUT and correct the fall of shot in relation to the OT tine {his Int is pasonil as, although tt immer to that the OT line romaine eonatant. For example if the OT Hine is at 90 dogroee tothe line of fire, "Up 200" from you outa be “Lett 200" to ths Gun Position Officer. 16) Once the ranging gun is spot fon ge the gun position "On Target” the targets ow regieteed andcan either be engaged there and then or nated bn “on eal” target the gunners ‘anges its locaton ean engage that tara, at wil ‘man ful accuracy However this procedure requires the spotter to be ‘ble to talk iret to he gun postion onthe art tery radio net: 359 result spotting is normaly done by she battery commancer of the battery indirect fupport of the bettegroup of By one of the three battery observation posts (OP) — the commander Shd the OPe ae "up front” with the batleg*oup, thusly. deployed to combat team Hs, “Other Sim’ ‘offen receve practical treining in ort Tery snorting but this ie orvisnaee at an emorgency Drocedure if the OP personne have bean mcap tote, and il requires one to have accots to the OP radio; 1 stese that there leno direct link raween the battaaroup's own radio nat and that (of the gunners, nor would ths be practicable a 100 That isthe aystem generally used by NATO armies nd it means that arilery spotting anno be done Itst like that by anyone who has aracho and who fan see ‘the enemy. The Soviet oyster i Test fiexile stil each battery having only one OP and ‘that able to talk only tits parent unit (the Briih OP con Mick" to the artillery regimental net necessory) ~ abe the article ‘Soult Arallery" In Sat 98, As a rewult Soviet atilery plotting i fruch ‘more rigid shan thet of NATO, a known Inthe wong place ft cannot be swtched at easy Yor in MW2 not only can any unit spor oard'artiiary (OBA) but the Soviet artery ie Ikst os flexible ss thot of NATO in addition to the following amendments nee 1) Spating for OBA con be done only by any Ha aint or by 2 unit of s company or compan ‘uivlent; this euts out the se of motorvelt, Sore reece vehicles or van unemployed engines! Sr sadetonce units ar natant OPE. undorsand thot a ruling ov there ner hae boon included In City £21, Spotina unite rut have an vera coe (3). Soviet OBA fire, once it impacts on 8 target, fannot be switched (although it may be corrected {nthe unas! way} unt the next gamoturn But one tn ther words an OBA eoneantration Plottad on fy, Turn 3 will mpact on Turn 4 and must con tine to" impact on Turn 8; wen it voplotted on ‘Tain 4 canmot be switched before Turn 6 ‘These additions would be a better tetletion of the deployment of avaiable arilery Py with com panies Combat teame and would sito do something { vetiect the greater rgity of Some fire conta they do tomething to counter the prégent instant thunderbolt use of artillery ay permitted by the ‘les and alsa tend to cimingh the present cs Eoncerting effects of giving. the Soviet. player Epilogu hehe organisation of the Brith barteproup In awe" snd on some ways of making the. rep feventation more sczurate es regards organisation tnd firepower, srpecally antitank iepower. It the wrtng i ascured a few appendages of more feneraleppiiation, ut | hope that these prove %) [=| [B Bry 6Considering that Second World War Russian camer take up tve most popular section of SP's range, {Peurprising that “ne worlds greatest tank bar’ et nad ta walt 0 long. Stil, thas arrived — after ‘any reports in “Outgoing Mall". These reports ‘mentioned. that_the *PanzerGruppe” Guderian™ fyetim had ‘been discarded. a Ineppropriee. for {his bate, so" was quits intarestod in eoing how ‘he. game turned out. At frst sight however, Tooke much the seme es other SPI somes, ‘The map i the standard 22" by 34” and covers the free “wound Kursk at 10 Km to the hex. This Siow various famous ancmaerks tobe Incorporated Inlucing the ities of Rorow), Ore! (Orval what It'should be 1 think), Kursk and of eouree Knerkov ‘the mort foughtover city In the history of at ‘gaming! ‘The map is covered withthe now femlar Erie colours of reoant SPI games ~ green plod: ges for woods, blue lines for river and roach {Na Panzors ctive on road oniy/, brown sop and beck railway lines, all ovrield mith: ma fnd masses of reo and Blue tangles laregen'e teeth) marking te opposing sides” entrensrments Incidentally, the terrain effects chart dost not mats clear shet_any hex containing ® aregar’t footh symbol isan entrenchment hes, Wel Be having one or more dragon's teeth hexsiges, This s Important’ as defending. troops. get a bonus for boing in an entrenchment hex and anathes one for Bing attacked seror dragon's wath nesses “The pieces are colourful 100. The units are Garman Divisons folus the twa battalions of Heevy Tonk Destroyers without which no gome of this bat ‘woul bo completa! and Russian Corps (Corpses?) and. Divisions, These are ‘grouped into. Core (German) and Armies (Russin) hich ore then grouped into “Armies. IGermant and Fronts Fontan). The counters of each German Army anid tach Russian Front are 9 differen colour shades of prey and green for the Germans and rod, pink Sand orango for the Russians. This manne that ie Immediately obvious which ormatione are where and which formation a.unit Belang to, Armoured Mechanised units are alsa obvious av ihey havea band of 8 liferent ‘colour serose the bottom third to half of the counter, My only complaint bout this system is that some of the German Srmour" unity in" different formations. use "the same pair of colours na diferent order“ which moker them dificult to tll apart at fist gance ‘As well’ the units, there are markers for sg nifving. various ‘things, These incuge step. lors markers for the lager tnfantey units which donot deployment dlaplays Tor unis to be laid out In ‘harts ond table. These etter include 2 section ‘de bits ang pieces of the rules that ane normaly forgets | found this a great help, especially wien laying the game for the fist ime, so plese rape ot The Sequence of Play ie reasturingly familia: atte an" loptona) "Air Wa para, te. Germa Player" Kicks off. his turn consisting of; Ae Serative phase; iovemant ‘phase; Combet phase (Gun sagment and two. Combat segments): Mech tnised Movement nhase; Disruption Removal phase tnd Organtestion have, The Rusian player tren fies nis turn, made up of the sre phate, to com plete the gare tar, “The Air War allows ether or both players to try 10 Inereapt the oppo tion's arcratt If tls succes {ly the two ides shoot It out surviving aera or Unintercopted ones are then avalabie for ground stack in the Combet obese ‘The Adminisvative phe introduces the fret new Concept moder ‘this «more compllsted ‘errion of what wos Uted in “Operation Star Daring this phase beth players decige whieh mi to ‘place their unite im, hist done by. eve: ‘uartare —esch unit In's formation isin tne mode Gf Its HG. There are three modes Assault; Mobile ‘nd Static (units mey slso be Dierupted at result overrun). All the modes have advantapes and di ‘Sdvontopes withthe exception of Disrupted which In lust a diadvantege. Aeeaut moge slfows @ unit to"atack in both comet segments but halves Movement and prohibits overrun. bile mode inthe ‘est combat. ségment. Stati. mace ives lending unite an scvantage when attacked, but ‘nite in Static mode cannot attack and may onty ‘move half of their movernent allowance. Moe can {iso affect combat. Some combat reste consain the lenter A, rather than © sash, sepa Stackers and defender’ combat fests, I there fate, the attocker' and ‘tenders lasee ae ‘nereaved by one it the attacker sin Assault mode tnd the Getender in Stat educes them by fone If both sides are in Mice made. Ohwously, Sinee you have to know what you're going todo it made, ‘Woe betide va player who forgets what ‘way through Nie turn! As mode ls governed by HO, father thon by indiviia’ units, players have @ good Movement follows orthodox princinis: each unit Temoves from hex to hex, cfferon terrain costing Aiforent omaunts to enter or passthrough, The hae yet been made of tuoply considerations. ha Is becouse supply for movement purposes i fudged for each individual unit when if begins to. move This coat away with all the “Out of Supply ‘marker, However 't does allow some interesting manoeuvres, sch as moving H's up to the front inorder %0 put unite back Into soppy. befor ‘moving tem At normel, Supply traced 10 H's ang thence 10. e""tiendly” map edge va ‘oads and raliweys. Out of supply unite have tele ‘ovement allowance halved attack atrengt i Seti apply ot the stant Fil movement is allowed, but i very limited. Both Blavars are only allowed to move the unite per fumn on thelr own side of the sar line, Further more, oaly. ‘wo unite may. pass through sven Singlearack railway hex and’ na_more than four k ‘quite ciffieut te. move large ‘Owner points about movement iaclude the Germ: Players ay to "iva move dvecty ives the Germans © meons of rolling up lines of hn basn made, Wile ov th subject of movement Trmust not forget overuns (asf anyone could) Unite stacked together and in Mobile mode may have, Overrun ig fought like. normal combat, bttacked. Zones of ‘control, By the wa, can be Stacking i limited by stacking points. Up to sx stocking points can be in the sme hex. Rutsan Corps hove tacking vlue of tree, HO, Kamp. gruppen snd ‘Divisione have. two. and everything ise one, except Fussian artillery, ant-tank and this that you can put two Gorps oF three KURSK HISTORY'S GREATEST TANK BATTLE, JULY 1943 PAUL EVANSPee RU i roars tee the worse tne result for the sttacker_ ‘The result is the number of Tower for both atteckar and de Sraiohtformard, fr lite different from usual. It get 3:11, The ottacker simply piles in whet he's got Sialbie {up to72 points ana, trick to set hopes for the best! There is then a second combat the presence of antictonke and artillery units, These fre only. separate units for the Fussian player tank tie fs rxoived in whe Gun segment of the the Ruseans, any defending stack that contain find any" lower' "onthe defender are. taken fimaured units fist Ibye, bye, Panzerst) ~ only ‘ied to barrage in support of an attack ~ adding its Units Hacked with or adjacent to the HO, This Headquarters in the front line where he can use ‘counter-attacks. Russian HO's have no. fir which supply is chennelied, As a result Russ For all sficianados of PGG ot al, there isthe re ‘hese units — Russian Divisions ~ have a stendard uncvied strength and at least one stea when flipped over they reves! new sirength whieh mey or much as tne orginal strength There is 80 jchonited"movernant phase. This givet the armour @ chance 0, move saan ond elo ay the Disruption removal phase. At this point any Up bottered units ~ the German player ean even co Subord ‘dependent Command means tha {> exploit any. rankthrouphs, but ite wats ar printed on th Bot ides oe svictly Independent Command or Alternate Subordination and. recombined. The German player changes Infantry Dvilons for Kamprgrupaen or vice ors, the Russian maps Rifla Corps and File Divisions ‘No game of the East Frant would be comple wuthout some Husson partisans, This game ino Sesigneted as reserves, This means that they cannot the German player one victory point per turn and ‘Apart from the activated rverves, the players get Victory points for the usual good deeds li Inating. enemy unite and. capturing. geographies) shjectves” The lavel of victory depends onthe decisively. | say attacking side because in one of Sie! The three scanargs cover tho historeal Settle, in duly. the Ausnian offensive. in August the origin!" German High Command plan to atiack In Moy." wich Hiter would: not alow at ha ‘ooking much the some asin July, but the Russians io without many of the reerves and neary hat of the entrenchments that were prevent in July. The out he needs more vietory points to. Win, TheSee egee, mest er ater spat by the pea las 2 chance: Tae prime example oF thsi the ru {tye German player makes more attacks than The umber of the gome turn lie. one in gore turn fe, wo In game turn two te), tae extra ate fuller") column shift of four eolumne the Setender's favour. | san sep ttnowe No, no, Field Marshal, tie August 3rd you can only atack {ho Fésion Corpel". What ths seems tomes 6 {hat the game ot stands bleed towards German ‘stackers and’ Russian. defancers and). Verefon® hoods" moaifiction if the Russians ace one Stfensive. This rather apois the August sepnsto, ‘There it one other piace of innovation in connect ‘on with the scnarior, and that i the ure of code letter to denote hich scenario a unit ie present in, whether on the map, oF ws reinforcements snd at what strength” Each unit counter has ane oF mmore code tettrs. The" letterte) says. which Scenario(al the un fnusedin and whether ison the ‘map or 9 reinforcement. The unt atthe strength Shown on that face of the counter — a uni ean fave wiferent letters on ifferen sides showing that ‘tig et “different atrengins. in diferent fcanaros, This makes it essy enough 10 100K up 8 Dertculer Units code Intter/s) and discover which Seenatote) t tekst port in. Howover, fis 3’bt ‘more dificult Yo pick out niien units ae requied letters to look for and they could be on any of the Counters or facts ofa unit So, while the dace save Space in ‘he rule (ay you dan't noed 3 section ving wnere cach unt goes), dont think .2 So much for the rus, now 0 deseribe what he game is like to play For ths purpose | am going 2 Sick to the historical, July, teenario. The Bro edure is thot the Aussian ‘payer sets out his forces ist, then the German and'thon she Russian ‘adcr tA bs antitank and artery units: Bot idee fave an area asigned to ach formation and must trol The German player moves fst. s0 the Russian Player is under great pressure to” get his initial Discement right. Ta be able to stand up to attack by unite in Asso mode, Russian stacks must Contain at least five steps! — the equivalent ot 4° Corps, The Russian plaver aso nas to cover ht nso frontline, with each formation ines te feigned area. This Is'no easy tank. eis probable that there will be weak spots and whe German layer will stampt t0 exploit them, The Russian Plover it best ble to cefend the shoulders of the fallont where tho historical ‘attacks came, and Where, the. Gormen "armoured spearheads are located “leaving a weaker crust around the rat. ‘The German now gels the chance to set his troops ‘out. He has more feeway than the Russian as he ‘an’ move hit troopr before sctually” stacking. However, ti wl worthwhile daeiding where your attacks ore going to be and etting up as close at pombe. The Flssian then adds im his ertlery and fint:tank unite, reneting to the German threats a: ‘uch as he can. Both prayers will have decided the Feder of their unite whon setting Up. For the Hissin thi i relatively simple” Stave mode for ‘everybody (wth one or two exceptions posse, tovgue 9 mobile reserva In order to gain the de {onsve bonus. The Gorman has ta be move cares ‘The seta! tacking units need to be in Aseault ‘ode to get both atseks, However, this wil have their mevernont £0 they need to clove to what they've going to attack In adcition ft fe wortuie keaping some armour in Mobile mace anc osibly i adapendent” Command = in order {o exploit ony gaps that open up in the Ruse Tine. The rest of the troops guarding (Ne Vlanks ean be put into Static mode in cae of Husson counter sesck, atnug eray be worth lenin Cigna retreat by. the Musians. With al thie to fink about, you vl not be surprised that just {ating up. the game can take. some tims | Tecommend & cronnword or 2 9000 Nook For each ‘layer while the other guy's doing his stu. Game Turn one: the German panzors rol fone frat the defending avitank gun take Sher ol of the advancing tanks this generally ony 9 6D ‘or wo, but every lide helps — and get killed in piv then the Tull werght at ho assur lands on the ‘defending Russians, modified by. both sides Srtilery land airerafl. In general, a Russian ie Stop unit (Corps) or stack, attacked by the max ‘mum 72 pointe of German unite, wi to three owly four stepe (the Russian should not rake eres ho can avoid i that sows the German to sovance aerost the enttanchmente and ana ster any remaining antitank or atery unis). The German lope a step or two off his talanty_ ane miles. The second! combat segment wipes out the Uorcing Russians, Luckily for the Russians the German player cannot make many attacks of this size" im'a turn, but tho result wll stl be several Hoes inthe ‘Russian line, Inthe. Machanied movement. phese the German player gets the Ghancs to exploit his gaps with any units in Mobile ‘mode. If the Russe hes set up hit troops wall there will be ¢ second row of sefending units bring this advance up short: f got he's in trouble Trig now the Russion players turn. His major eeision is Row many. and whieh rete for motions to activate. This it not an easy question To answer ae even wihen activated, reserve ants con take eevera turns to get £0 the scene of he action Signore ae a few formations in any reach wien are'te firet'to be aetvated though. My gen find move them in towards the Not apts. Ths har 9 Eastin victory points, but will aso. slow the ‘German advance,” stopping him from petting 50 ‘mony territorial sictory pointe “Aswming that the German player dovs not make ny spectacule breakthroughs, the game progress in'much the same wey ~ German attacks knocking holes in the Flstion lines which the Russian then luge a best he can, slowly retreating across his renchenonts Bl the time The outcome of the {ame wil! gonorally depend! on th eare with whieh {he Fussan player deoloys he troope and. the ttutones of the Ger ployarn choosing where ‘with 2 By. large number of towne that the Gorman hat Dr captured. All the abow gots by the oad it the Germans maname 2 breakthrough. In this cas, Isamod scramble by the Russians to pul 9 ey Unite a» poesia back out of any potenti pockett fort ol ine against further incurelons, tn feet ‘aim the signa honour of having lost the sore Krak salient in two gome turns folowing aarot German ettacks on some major flaws in my sn ‘deployment. And thir n spite of the warning that she deed ten '19 min when both yer ‘The romsit of this is that the game plays sow The Fusson cannot afford many mistakes, and No major ones. The German is always loaking for his best advantage; so. each turn is fll ot planning ‘nd pondering. Ths, Fm afrad rather puts me ol {he game profer my games fay ast ond urioue ‘The seme contains an impressive ammount of det 4nd realism — the comprehensive O8 for one thing ‘and is really excellently done. The system works wel with the odd Meoouph, and fetes 3 very ‘0d fimulation af the bat, However can ony fy that | find 12 Bit dull somehow lacks thet Bringing one back to play a gama again and again ‘This game Is certainly one I'm pla to have payed ‘bath om the point of view ofthe system, ane at a histonea! simulation of an important hate, but iis mot a game that | think will be ployed very[AVAILABLE FROM SIMPUBS, £7-95 INC PAP ENTER a world where ‘magic really does work! ‘This book provides a gateway to the Supernatural, | explaining how fantasy games ‘work and how to devise your ‘own adventures. Playing rules ‘are accompanied by sections con cultures, myths, magic and religion, monsters, aliens, armour, weapons and combat. A200 £10.95, Ani00 8 £995 Poss 2100 Bf 995 ‘Kom00 OF 9.95, ‘Asoo 10835, oso £1095, tooo £9.95, ‘Kes00 £9.95, ‘oso © £1095 Xs100 8 L185, ‘A320 8 £9.95 ‘A300 £10098, Ao 8 £10.95 ‘Ass00 £7.95 ‘i600 ate ‘Aslo0 7 995, BOOKLETS, aig 3.40 Non-SPI AVALON HILL GAMES 176 fra Korps Air Avauion Crete Alexander ‘Armee Ware Ara ‘Ara acacli Wars Battle ofthe Bulge Bumarck Blake Cacia (Asia) Gacsar Legions ‘Chancellrsiie ‘Crescendo of Doom (Crom of fron Diba Dantes Games Down wath the King Dane’ Portes Europa Ft Top France 1940 Gerysbure Gindiatoe Guns of Aug Hexapoey qusians 73 inamaker Lange Day Laltwalle Magic Real Nid Moon Siar Napoleon ‘Orteine of WW Panzer Panzerleader Richiboen's War Ruslan Campaten Source othe Se Scuad Leader Stalingrad Stantip Troopers Sutmarine Tae Third Reich Tobruk Victory in Pacific War and Peace War at Sea Waterloo Wiss Ques Wood Shipeiron Men Pager Manual GAME DESIGNERS WORKSHOP D6i9s 92 Lin ia Li 140 {Glee 1 [01.95 5h Frontier War Giseo £795 A Howe Divided Goor £495 Ascroid Go100 1 £1785 Ashanti High Ling Com Bf 285 BarLev Bf 185 tate of Agincourt 21 105 ale of Lobontz 45 Bae of Raphi 410) Battle of the Alms 400) BedasFomm Hos Betee 195 Case White 505 Ghadel {ay Dark Nebula RSs Double Star 795 Bylaw Misi alo France Fall of Tobruk Giiford Courthouse 7.99, Imperwm Aa tne Kaserine Pass Tee Bate In Moskowa Mayday Metta Merkur Neri Operation Crusader Orerlord wal Harbour Refs : Red’ Siar/White Eagle Road tothe Rhioe Snapehor Sucr73 ja060 BoooODoooo0n! 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Box 38, Stadhuisbrug S, Uuecht TIALY: Citta Del Sole SP-A., 20123 Milan, Via Camperio Tater Hobby, Via Cavour 18, $0129 Firenze SCANDANAVIA: Hobby Huse, Box 2003, $-75002, Uppsata, Sweden ORI O ANA NARY Fantastic Shop, Postfach 3026, Kichfeld Str. 143,4 Dusseldorf 1 ELD ROAD, ALTRINCHAM, CHESHIRE, U.K. SIMPUBS LTD, OAKFIELD HOUSE, 60 OAKFI Te VAT Reg No 150 8824 65 061-941 4371salavin at acre WILLIAM HAMBLIN The game ere: Richard Lionheart’s Sig 1191 fawilabie trom ‘Simpubs inthe Ouad pa The Art of Sige) fe recent atompt to nmol the important sioge of Acre by ‘the Crusaders In which they were oppored by’ the” fel army ff the. Muslim Sultan Saladin. His one of the few’ "examples in pre-techoteal military story ‘whore 9 oge was succesfully cared out while the Destogers were themselves surrounded. by tevting features regarding medieval warare “Tho slope bapan when King Guy camped outside of Are on the 2th of August 1189. Inthe follow Normone, Sian, and Leventine Franks gathered te partiipate in the sage and the naval blockade of fhe city, Saladin arrived before Acre with some ‘this forces in September of 1189, A Iorge number ‘of battles took place beeen the opposing eres ‘uring the following year end hat, wah some ‘otable Muslim victories, culminating nthe ava (8 large Franch sray under King Philip on 20 ‘Apri 111, and an English army under Richard ‘on 8 une, With these aedtional forces the balance SF powar shifted to the. Crusadors, who, thovsh Unable to taka the ety by storm, received tNe sur piso only 34 days after Richar's The game only attempts to recreate these last 24 days oF the sige llthough with some simple mod fenton, scenarios covering other phew of the Sioge ould leo have been oveloped) Miltary, the" fighting Included catapult” bombardments ‘mining the storming of walls romen by the garrison, attacks Ta Bere mnt necastoriy reconstruct the organisation, ‘ppesing fore. A wargame mill be “emulation” ef hstory ‘only to the dogree tht the rules and Stueture of the gama accurately raleet the hie torial capabilites and difficatien of the opposing Srmies. Untortunately, Acre fas to" adnauately neatly all espects. The following will be.> om parton between ihe historic reality of Salacin's Friary forees with the way It portayed in the ule and commentaries of Acre, fn doing 20 only udiee and translations in Englitn will be used {the one exeaption bring a Franch aritey al of Wl could ave bean incorporated inthe desin oF Acre Organisation The first problem area in the game ie in the pro: ported organisation ivan for,ghe: Muslim armies Recording to the ruleuook "The basic Moslem infantry unit was the Toylag,« division of about 5000: men.” (p. 14 col. 2)'Tho Tirst point that ‘Should "be made | that nesry al of Seladint ‘Wooas were mounted (more on this later). The Use af the torm "Teylag” at refers to the basic ‘Muslim organisational unital presents @ number (of dificaittes 1 assume it refers to the Arable word "tavlag” which indeed was "a body of 8000 armed men.” (Scanlon p. 124) However, It was not the Basie orgensationsl unit of Sslain's army at the Fulebook suggests. Indeed, | have never voen the term sed 19 relotion to Iomic armies of period by any” Arab) Wer poem By al-Mutenabi praising Say! Uresebat ot Aleppo 944-967). | slso saeraned two mejor dietionaries of Medieval Arabic, but vst Unable to fina the term lates in ether” “ayia Would seem’ to be an Arable trantiterstion of the ‘Greek word ‘Pralenx’, and could well be now the ‘Arabs refertes to Byzantine intantry formations, but Tam at a lose to dcover ite furndemental mificance in relation to Islamic warfare fn realty, the bate unit_of organization for Ssiodins my. wat the” Tulb" plural Aap) (Gibe p. 76:77, Humphreys p. 78.80 where he calls the Tulb ‘the’ mest important parade and field Unit. According ta al Magra fan Arab historian, {quoted in Gibb, P. 76) the Tuly hed a number of Forseman ranging from 200 to. 100.0r-70." This 2 5000 men of the supposed fayan, they were all caviey. In 1184 te ‘army wes composed of 111 Tolle vaitn 8640 men, excluding Arab irregular, who Rumbered an additional 1300 horsemen, and 2 few Fatimid infantry (Cibs ps. 761) who would howe ‘ert likly boon phased but By the tog of Aero in Trot. Having the uns ef the game stctured round the larbe favlogs misrepresents the ane ‘ondoncy of Selacin’s forest bein smal, mob Inaopondent ‘tactical_unite which were. general ‘organised. Into. lager unite ‘ither"acording "0 ‘2oraphicel location, or by ned in oach bol. Geography and Troop Numbers The geosraphical origins ond numbers of the vatious units of Ssladin's armies se aleo praronted Incorrectly in the game. Before deseribing spite ally the gsographical Tcatians given to Mastin tints Inthe game, t would be useful to brey out Tine the numerical organisation and geographical origins of Soladin’s armies bs reconstucted By two of the leading historians for Muslim ores oft period, HAR. Gibb, and. Stephen” Humphrey, Bothof these scholars havo dame detail studs of many of the sualooie Arabic tnd Latin souret, 4nd although thay differ in some particulars, they ‘rein general agreement om mont sues Seladin himself commanded the troops from ‘The Egyptian army consisted of about 800 (armoured morse ‘archers. ne Oelow vera, totaling 9,000 armoured . Syria wae divided into a number {Sf rogions ath with a separate governar and army. Damascus’ and’ Aleppo, the two mojor cities of thelr dependent ities, each fielaed “armies” af 3000 sskarie each. Home and Hama mobile an additions! 1000 sekart each bringing the Syrian total to's further 8000 seta NNorthorn Iraq, known to the Muslims a a-aira, 4000. ‘Another posi source of tracps. for Saladin’ armies whieh is not sicomed by ether Gib or Humahreys would be Stasin’ dominions fn the West coast of Arabia and Berga (Cyrenniea) im modern Libya. Although Ihave been unable to Aiscover eny enact data for troop strength from ‘hoes regions, mould estimate that nether would be capable of fielding more than 1000 asker In foalty It would seem that most of the tr09p8 Of Borge remained there os border guarde Ut aor | have been unable to contin any contingents from that region im action agenwt the Grusades). Therea8 coningen rom Meee of unknwn sang fighting with Saladin during his compaign of 11 ‘This would give 2" tots" foree of comme 27,000, regular atkars (excluding auxiliaries) bs Saladin's {otal avaliable force In actual practice, however, only about half of tho svelsbie askais were ever mobili for fore!gn fampsions from any province at ane time (Gibb B78). The rest of the askaris remained on the ‘Sefensiv, serving 38a bais fer troop rotation. The Units would fight fora certain period then return Rome and be replaced by the askaris who hod hod home duty. In addition so these figures we could ‘230 48,000 auxileres? Turkoman, Arab bedouine fe. ‘These toops Would be “divided. Into. two lasses. Fist there were. tribes which Yecelved fegular yearly stipends trom Saladin (out not full laos ee ald the stkars) and who could be fallod on to seve ae scouts, raiders, ond ight ‘oops ‘on any. occation, ‘These numbered. rom 1300 Arab cavalry ‘rom Egypt and possibly similar fumbers from Syria and alvztra, ving about 44000 suxilarios with stipends. Adaltionlly, there Were. the Mutowwa'n or voiuntaor, ites, Soldiers of fortune, or brigends who would serve ‘without gular salaries for ore season in retun for Whatever booty. they. could collect during. the amaaign. I appears that Franks were occasionally Included in their numbers. Finally there. wer various specialist corps, Siege "Crews, naphth ‘Woops, mountaineers, ste, who were caled Up at the need arose. All of these types of troop and their relation to the playing uns of Acre ll be ‘Siscsted below. ‘The total svaileble troops in Sladin’s empice was 25,000 askaris from Gayot, Syria and iraq, with Berens 2000 more from Arabia and Barge, plot Suslarie. Only halt of the 27,000 askaris woul fave portcipated at the siege of Acre at ony given time “although all may havo soon action Through {oop rotation) giving 2 total of perhaps. 14,000 ‘men, with an additional 4000 auxiliaries bringing the number up to possibly. 18,000. There may ‘lio "have been several thousand regulars and militia, but such ‘woops would be disinclined to orve long at. protracted siege where there was ite booty to be gained, and no salaries from the Sulten to tupport them. uring the siege Of ere which wes 2 mejor elfort on Saladin’s part, more “han halt" The availble arkarin may tmebitied, potsisiy bringing the toa! oa {2 20,000 men. We must ota remember, weve ‘hat perape hail ofthe sorron Inide Acre would have contited of askaris ot wall whieh might have owered’ the total number of possible. rooss ‘utside the city; Mobiiing more warriors than this Would” have left Saladin's Borders unde{anded in Anstolio, Southers| iraq, Persia, Arabia, Nubie and North’ Africa, 0: wel 9s Inereasing the potential for internal unrest \nithin his domains. These figutes can now be cor ‘elated with thor given in Aer, From the sbove detcription it should be evident that Selagins rey at Acte should be divided nto {our roughly qual parts, the regular forces of Egyet, Syria, Ir and the uxilianies, numbering 3 ‘mort total of 20,000 but probobly somewhat less. ‘ere hes Ssladin with 8 faylags or 45,000 men, ‘abich is over twice too many AAlenough iam ere dealing mainiy with the Muslim armies et Acro, It might be well to point ‘ut 2 lificity.eloting| to. the Hosptaller and ‘Tompor units epresented in the game. Each Order it gion 3 "knight" units which are odaly classed fe infantry and would represent about 1800-2400 men, according to the seal given in the rulebook {pcos vl a6 2 "Knight Cavalry” equal Ing wbovt 1200°1600 mon. Historically hunareds Df knights of the Orders had been killed during the ampatane preceding Aere (nearly 100 at Creston, 250" Tempio st Hettin, Seladin executed 100 Steer Hattn Runciman pp. 485, 490, Gabriel . 138) and many others were compelled to Gefend ‘hee cates. Te clear that their numbers haa been (gently diminished during the campaigns preceding he \wera at ful strength. Furthormor the turcopoler Tight cavalry) are'not represented as being ert of ‘the’ ‘Orders. The. numbers of the Templars and ospitalors in the gare soom 10 be grossly ®a ‘erated. ‘The geoaraphical regions given inthe game as the ‘rigine of the Muslim troops ae. ao. ineoract ‘The Muslin armies nthe gore are divided into three’ major divisions” the armies of Sinjon, Covet ‘and. Mosul. Mosul is takan to represant the ‘armies of ‘Northern Iraq es 2 whole although Motu! setully tieided only one helf of the treope ff that region] then the sections of Egypt. anc Mosul are faiiy accurate. The Army af Sinjan, however, i dificult to Gea! with. am unfamiar with this. term being used for Sia, whose armies tre otherwise not roprarented in the game, nor 3m Manare of the rm bring Used for anyother teglan of Saladin’: empire. ft could be referring to Sinjr, a city in Northern iraq, but the contingents ff Northern Iraq are apperantiy represented by the Army of Mosul, At any rate, wherever Sinan is ‘Aipnosad {0 be, Saladin certainly didnt come from there. Hewes warily associated with the Egypilan contingents, and his Halge Gusrd had ‘hel fel in EB Officer Corps Noting that geographical designations and troop umbers are wrong and tnat the Syrian Army and {he Aunilarioe ate not properly represented, the Gesignations ot the commanders of aach Muslim the major soures for the following let of com: Imandors of the Muslim Army ae] [zat | [tomes | [ rome | [ x? aoe || toons || HE Bay 2228 || 2119 || os || Ge || 9 The commander of the Army of Morul is lated os Zahir. "This is appbrentiy. Zahir” ad-Din ibn SBulunkan who was indeed om officer of the Mesut “ine other Mosul “foylag haw the ‘Als tho is Alo od-Din of Mesu The Mosul Army, 26 noted abowe, however, hould be oniy.one halt of the Army of ras tien would make ft one eighth of all of Salon's ‘oops, wharaas in the gama is 1/4 of the entre army. St] [tae] ian | roan | [ene rons || svt || tone |] HE |] SS anaa || 2728 || 2148 || os | |Qie Sayt ad-Din is listed o_o commander of the Egyptian army. He was actually a Kurdish prince iho was commending, Kurdish troops who. Mad fiefs in Egypt ana part of the Egyptian arkaris However, Outb ain ‘ws the commander of th regiments of Hien Kaife Inireg, not of Egyptian units, and Husem oa Din, also sted as an Egyptin Inthe game, was actually commander ef the troope of Nablus which formed {Smal part of the Syrian army. roa |{ toe |P ae | ] [om Bi || scans | soos ff sons || A #5 || 3238 || 523¢ || 3238] |_ os ‘There are » number of problems with the army of Sinan’ se wel. The game aves Tag, Zain, fa and Saladin ‘as the four generals of "Sinjn” Tag S6:Din commended the oskais of Hams in Syria. Zayn"se-Din cormmandes Kurds fram Arbol in fonthern ag. ls wer Governor of Jerusalom an (pould neve bean included withthe Syrian asa Selagin’s gerd oF halga was stationed in Eovot. ‘Thus cach of the commanders who are listed 95 being from the ‘Sinan’ army setualy come from 3 Sitferent "province in Saladin’s empire “rmpartant Muli commanders, Saladin’ two sons, ‘AlMalik ab-Afcal lEpyption) and ALCMalikoz-Zahir ‘eho commanded of the Aleppan contingants, are ‘iso not included even though they. were more Important than some ofthe leaders used in Acre emt | mmer ]f om [fee | ee {| in || om || we || 9 [Los || or || its || aio ‘The description of the Muslim eavalry forces in the Acre rulebook, and the correspending format {or the Muslim cavalry Units inthe game cortae 3 umber of inaccuracies. First, there is the prex Sisiy mantoned prose ofthe log he wai aso claimed that "The light Rorse archers. were Uinarmoured and avoided melee combat; they had swords for defensive ute." Ip. 14 col. 3). This de Gription raises a nurnber of questions. Fs, inthe {ame al the hors archers, which include nal al {he Muslim cavalry, are represented ar being light Sndlor mace, and. generally wore chain mai Wall (Gibb p. 81). Regular cavalry ware designated te ascare (one GibD and Humphreys throughout) ‘The eskai warrior wos a horseman who wat uaa of Turkish or Kurdish origin and often 2 amish, ‘ur wat nearly always. rained oe” @ Turk mounted hores archer: Inthe Egyptian army there Wore two. types the "tawashis” and the ‘Geraghulars’ (Gibb p. 76-7) The Tewashis wore heavy cavalry and, according te Moar, rach had evsquite 1o-cary his armour” (Gibb p-.87 note 31). In 1181. AD, 6,976 of the 8,640 stkars In Seladin’s Egyptian simy were Tawashis, oF, in ‘ther words mailed mounted horse sraners with Tanees and sworcs for charges tne molees, Sense" (though swith important difference) they etaphract. the reat of the troops were arog: huloms. oF light covelry. However, the major Gitfeence between the Tawathis “andthe raghuiams was in pay and the Oaraghulome pro. ably also hed armour of some sort There ie no aah er ete acest eee eeemehe Tighe and heavy atkars the armies of Sys and Northern iraq butt probably ci From the above discussion it becomes apparent that the sentence trom the rulebook, “A heavy ‘avalry faylag. was heavy only by. Mosier str dvds forthe men and hore Tacked. armour ‘Armed with swords and lances 0" (p.1a5) is wrong on all counts. The cavalry unit wos not 3 faylag, the askris did wer armour an they were Brmed with composite bows ts well gs swords ond 1 may be that the msjority of Mui cavelry ere etignated as ight horse archers in the game bared n'a cocription given by F.C. Sail of Turkish ‘oops in Crusaing Warfoe: 1097-1193 pp. 75.63, However, despite the fact that in general the work Is 8 super reconstruction ‘of Latin. crusading Bemis, there are a number of difficulties (as he Fimali ‘admits on pv) 19 relation to his ces Eptions of Muslim” Woops. First he. dosribes Turkish’ tseier “using simost exclusively Latin sources, whieh, although useful naturally give 3 Sistorted vow of Muslim srmiae (would ikenise bse imposible to gain 0 eorret understanding of Frankih armies snd tates from teeing malay ‘Arobie sources). "Second, he is foresd 10 rly Sclely on translations of extrcte, which are often Feally “abridgements. or" summaries of "Arabic Souteas. In doing s0 the possibilty of ‘under Standing technical Arabic military terms is often fost: Finally, hi desertion fails clerly make the. important. cstinetions between the Tight ‘Turkish’ nomadic” auxiliaries whieh e basically what Small is describing) the Arad ond atin heavy laneers {the famous’ Usomah eons of these who. were exently ike Latin. Kegs) tnd. the armoured regula sekare, ll of hich ought in iflrent armies different ties during the vst century of the Crusaces, ‘But oven If Smal's description Is accopted and used ft face value, the representation ofthe cavalry of the Muslims in the game Aera Is inadequate The horse archers are given a defensive melee strength nly (and thot only of ane point) while itis clear from both the Latin and Muslim yours, ag painted fut in Sms book. pp. B2 St. that the Turks oul ae a fice f0 irene enemy ranks cloge melee combat. The point system of the horse Sreners inthe gome deme the Turks the important Charging and melon casei. woe | [some] [eee | [seme owe || es || we || it ‘et || 46 || is | [104 Since the batte of Acre was soge, the infantry Slage Corps would certinly have been present, but they would have consisted of few thousond men Sst'mort. According tothe number of pincer nthe fame. Saladin’ besieging army was composed of ‘ver 25,000" infantry. (8 Tayo) and 16,000 Cavalry (2 faylegl, pas Saladin’ Guard faylog of ia5000 mixed cavalry and infantry. Despite the fact that these numbers are excessive, ihe proportion of ‘troops is slsa completely incorrect, 1 ars pone tht Sas dripon of the Fetimi armiet (p. 83:7) wat used to som ‘nformulting the rules eating Yo the Muslin troop This would be mistake, however since Simalis describing the Fatimid forces of the frst half of the 12th eancury. When Seladin Became Vizier of Eovpr In 1169 he Immadieely started the “Turkificstion” of the army of Egypt, bepianing with the massare of the Fatimid’ Sudanese and ‘Armenian infantry in Cairo (se A. 8. Ehrenkreut Seladin gp. 76 = 801. He continued to reorgnt the military of Egypi, developing It Into «syste ‘aed on Turkish tekrie and mamiaks which has ‘eon doseribed. In fact thse militery reforme cone stituted one of hle major policy bjectiver of hit ferrule nludingorinae repreon and ‘hating out of all Fatimid troops (Erankreuts, Saledin pp. 68:96). To try to draw any comperion Detour the Fetimis army of the frat half of the T2ih century, which Indeed had large contingents of infantry, and Slacin's army of 1191 is very Shachronite Toe? | aE | [a = - s/s Ge || ae || as || Bie || as Archery There are ato & numberof questions relating to {ha systam for raprasenting arehery ‘ipower in the goma” According to the rules there or four tyoet of atchers Which are represented ‘on the ‘ollowing repreduction ofthe Fire Combat Tabi “Target distance (in hexes) Firing unit 4 2 Archersottmegver = 23 Croabowe 79203 4 Bowmen + 2 3 Howse archers : 204 ‘Thote are 8 numberof problems with tht system, First, only Crusegers are gen crossbows wile al Muslims are either bowmen or hore archers. In the erobon wat used exonily by Seladin’s troops, especially during sieges (Thies lear even in tho Latin souress, abe Itinerary 35) 5:49 etc Furthermare, the Muslime In Aer tel would have special high powered crombows les: entially miniature balsas) mounted on the walle Which Would certainly have exeseded the serge and Power of the crusadar’s hend weapons (Cahn, . 128.36 and his comments: he cscusses 9 number of iferant types of crossbows and thelr uso). It ‘8 crue that most Musline dian’ cary crossbows os ‘mort Muslims were. mounted, but the infantry artainly dig, especilly in besieging or defending ty walls. At least a portion af the Muslin archers Should tecotore be eratbowmen, In dition, there it stil @ debate concerning the comoarative stfectiveness of the 12th century ronibow ond the somperte bow ‘used by the Muslims. tt is for from eortain thet the erombow was more effective st the Fire Power Table mould Inleate, his gives the crossbow a one point aevan ie level (eee Latham, & Faris Po. 145.53). For one thing, the composite Dow, thot tom horseback hi a rroch higher sate Than the erossbow (Paterson pp. 694 fon alo cusses the fact that modern {the compote bow Ma en shown tobe abe to effectively penetrate medieval European armour at 100m. ‘The numerous dicriptions of unharrsed Knights with « number of arrows protruding from {age at each Tran {to a maximum of e.240m which would give the Muslin bows a range of 8 or 8 insted of Zend 3) ‘rovore the knights into 2 charge ahd to S¥O1d fewurn lire from. Crusader crossbowmen and Srohors At those longer ranger the bows wr? ‘turaliy ase effective. ft wos not until the 18th antury uth the development of the steel rove ‘bow that it wae able to surpass th composts bow in'tange and penetrating power (Payne-Gallonny 1p. 20:30. Therefore, athough tf mot provably to make the crossbow more affective in me than the Composita bow, it highly problematic ‘An additional, problem is the fact that not all Crusaders used "the crosthovt. Many were armed sim shordbow the long bow diet pre no Widespread. use in” England until the following ‘contury] as is made clesr by the Latin rourcar {itinerary 4:18). What the proportions were bet: ween crusader archers and erossbowmen feherd to iy, although it dons teem that the erossbowinen %® || || & on || 10a) | 3 Armout ‘The rulabook gives the impression thatthe armour ‘of the Muslim troops was, forthe mort part, either onexistent or very light (p18 col 3) whieh ik ‘born out by the fect that all Nusiim trope exeent Beloain’s guard are inferior in meloe value tothe Crusaders” ‘This. interpretation of tho rolaive {uality'of the troops not sustained by the hi ‘rica evieonee. It fe possible that the mail of the Muslim mignt have "been. generally lightor than that of the Christians” However it should lea be recognises that Muslim stel was superior to Christian at this time, and therefore a fighter Muslim mall sult would ave been stronger and afforded more pra: fection” then ite Christian counterpart. The Ghritian ‘armour had tobe heavier f0 provide Whichever armour was superior, (end it should be Noted thet captured armour of the enemy” Steen worn by Both sides! there sno doubt thet most Muslimy troops were armoured to. sme ogres. The "Treatise on Armament” written for Salaain doscribes three types of armour used by Muslim froope, First the Jaushan” hich wa & {orm of scale armour composed of small plates of ‘ther ton, horn or leather. This i described as 3 Persian’ form of armour, and since at that ti Turks "had ‘come to. compltely. dominste the military of Persia, it i Ikely that aushan’ was Seed” by" the Turks, pathape mostly by the Turkomen ‘nomadic titermen’ who Gide" have the metalurgical expertise to form good mail, The Second type isthe Kezghend” mase by he Arab ‘and asthe ‘common cost of mail, Thi armour Was used extensively by the atkars. Finally ‘es the 'Kimukht” or lesther srmour, sed by Wight ‘Woops and perhaps the Oaraghulom scars (Cohen, Po. 1360)" In addition, there are 8 number of Fetorences ia" Muslim “historier to where. the Muslim troops are amid 10. have plundered the Coat of mail of? dead “Chretien soliers tor ‘xample, there ‘so fascinating tale of Turk ‘wearing the armour of 8 Christian Knight whom he Ihe ills, wo hima killed by 2 crossbow bolt from Richord "Lionheart einerary 3:13) ‘Thousands of mail comts and other types Of armour \would have been included inthe plunder from the Bettie of Hattin which would then eareainiy have ‘been ‘worn by the Muslims at the spe of Acre Sbviousiy, hen, many If not mart Muslims were armoured: “The Muslim sourees mentioned above make it clear that chain mall was widospreed, which the Latn Soutess confle. For example, describing the Turks Getending Aere the Kinerary stator “nowever close the [Turks armour fitted, or whethor the cost of nail was twofold, it availed Tittle to resist the farts “from their (the. Crusaders) arbalests {BIT3). In othor word, not only did the defenders Bf Aete heve mail costs, many of therm used double ‘oats, much like many haavy Christian knights In addition | have. seen, handled and worn an Isle coat of mail, and from my examination (Githough admieediy not felentifie)t war of very igh quality. There aces large numberof euch ral sults in any altar museum in the Mido Eat Seladin’s Guard The rules loin thet “there was a faving known 4 Saladin’s Guard». A heavy armoured infantry intanery contingent witha longer spear and sword Sand shlela it nas basialy 9 capy ofthe Chetan infantry t faced” (p. 16 cold}. Saladin's only persons! Guard unit wae the “alga” oF ice, £0 calls because. they surrounded the Sultan fn times of danger. They, were the troops personally Commended by. the’ Sultan in batle, were. a sskerit (i.e, armoured horse archers), and num: bored ‘some 1000 men, not the 8000 ‘en fen the rules imply (Humphreys p. 82-3)-They wore so ‘usually Mamiuks (is. treed. sieve voldiers) 4nd wore specalyallow uniforms, Willam of Tyre Staten thot Saldin’s bodyguard wos A thousand (of the most valiant knight", They certainty svere ‘hot trying to copy Chritian infantry, although the Hale ‘often fought on foot protecting the tents of the Sultan ‘The rulebook also states that part of Saiin’s Guard consisted of, lite archers known o¢ “The ‘Rechors of the Eyat" In actuality auch @ unt never tired In Saladin’ army. it eee powle that the Inetusion ofthis unit comer rom 0. misinter Bretation of @ pesage in fan Heath's Armias ofthe Bark Ages, whore it lacus Fatimid Socnnets Archer, an relates them, somewhat mi {to the Nubian “"Atehert of the Eyer (p. 104 Historically, it wae only: Nubian archers who were ‘ver called “Archers of the Eyer" and this wos ‘alniy In relation 0 one Bate where the Nubian renee Beladhuri p.380; Avalon, Mamluk, . 201). The problem comes fram squsting Suess chert In General aden! being the Arable generic term for rare, of which Nublane were oniy one group), wih’ versed many bythe Fat rather than ‘Saledin, with one specific group of Nubian Naphtha Another unit included in Solain’s Guard inthe ferra'is 0" special nophthe cope. Sua. gener {Glow spect corp of Salsinsarmy were not tinder the personal commend of the Sultan but tore aw rom any ume of ites in Slain’ Spire. depending on Teal conditions and ile (Gibe'p, 854, 89. 90 note 71, Tony knowedae the Npitha voope sere neve gphefed together into one large nit ‘but were gnerly in amall Bstoons. when. would. Ue avached Yo various ‘ube for Specie action. nates of having one apr rit ft would be mere realistic fo hive umber of naphce unt which woul be tached {o Tesiar unis and serve to Incense thir msee vais in some. way. Astor, Nephthe” wet Sted ontemaivly bythe Musi troop In Are Ise, "and "Greek. Fires often given atthe Treason the Crusaders were foreed to retreat from the walls Uintinerary 315). This fotor fe not rep: ‘resented inthe gama, ‘Mititia “The rulebook state that "The rest of the army {other than Salodin’s guard} wae» mili, aied ‘eeded! and. raturned home’ at harvest time, ‘Tht interpretation of Saladin's army te reflected by tho general inferiority of the Muslim nie in the game. However, the eskaris of Salain's army wore by. '90. rears militia, They were highly {tained stending’ my. They dd, on occasion, Faturn vo their base ot hervest because thy owned fiefs and wanted to be there to supervise thelr afi, but this was often Sy. meane of ‘r00p fatation. Calling ther militia, with the ime. Heation "that they” were’ on untrained rabble os ‘Thore wore militia units In Muslin armies at this time, but they. were generally resed only for ‘eters whon 3 specific cy was attacked, ‘Gibo (p83) states that “local or militia troops, iwerel sstingishod trom the askars in tht they were hot mounted archers but fought with spear and ford. By this time, (01180) however, hicely {hat the old. militia, organisations of ‘Syria we faling into suse "For elang term soge such at Acre, itis unlikely thet the mide unite mould hhove ‘bean able to remain in'the field as could the ‘egulerly paid oskar Wasa | [Osama | [tram] [See | [Sager fans || Soran |] Hit na Pp 3337 || 3237 || 6s || wo} | wie The Garrison and Fleet at Acre AAs mentioned above, Saladin stationed lage foumber of Eayption askaris In Acre in order Bolster the defenses of the focal Syrian askart ariton and the city militia. Fe would be impos Sibie to estimate accurataly what portion of the {Woops were kari, but there could have been