Wargames Illustrated 065

During the Seven Years War the British wished to overthrow completely the influence of France in the "New World". In 1759 Louisbourg had fallen to the British and the Redcoats continued their war of conquest by laying plans for the swift seizure of the city of Quebec, which dominated the St. Lawrence River. Learning of the British plans, the French commander, the Marquis de Montcalm, organised a force of 14,000 assorted regulars, Canadians and Indians for the defence of the city. But Montcalm did not have a free hand, due to the interfering Governor General of Quebec, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, who wanted to command the army himself and mistrusted the sophisticated and experienced general from France. Strained relations also existed on the British side between the Commander-in-Chief, General James Wolfe, and his leading brigadiers, Murray, Monkton and Townshend. The last named general was a gifted cartoonist who openly lampooned his chief. The slightly built and ailing Wolfe tended to keep his plans to himself and rarely shared information with his subordinate commanders.

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Wargames Illustrated 063

In creating our miniature armies we go to a lot of trouble. We spend money that our better halves assure us would be more productively spent on wallpaper for the spare bedroom, we devote hours to researching the uniforms, the organisation, the weaponry, and the tactics, and take meticulous care in painting our microcosmic offspring. We then take them to the club, throw a few bits of terrain on the table, line them up and issue the general order "Kill". It always strikes me as such a waste, all that research to produce a game that often resembles chess more than any military operation. Whilst initially enjoyable, this type of game can swiftly become repetitious, and even boring. In Kriegspiel von Reisswitz states that "the umpire has responsibility for devising a situation which is of a realistic and interesting nature, and which will permit the possibility of either side winning". So how do we achieve this goal? Fortunately the answer is, with relative ease. A little more time and effort given to preparation can make all the difference.

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Wargames Illustrated 060

During and after the Vietnam War the US Army carried out a number of behavioural studies of soldiers in combat situations. These studies have ranged from investigating the behaviour of troops in actual combat, to controlled experiments where ''guinea pigs" are placed in "near combat" conditions to compare their actions with controls. A number of conclusions have been drawn from this work, some of which are not obvious. They show just how ineffective the average soldier can be and how totally untrue the Hollywood image of supermen who advance without fear and hit every target actually is. At a serious level these studies have influenced low level organisation of Western armies, most notably dividing rifle sections into fire teams. They also provide raw material for writers of small action wargame rules.

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Wargames Illustrated 056

Kursk was the major tank battle of the Second World War and provides the perfect setting for a mini campaign based on Major General F.W. von Mellenthin's book Panzer Battles in which the offensive and defensive actions of the XLVIII Panzer Corps at Kursk over the period 7 to 17 July are described. The aim of this mini campaign is to provide an easy, workable game which captures the flavour of the time without becoming too bogged down in detail. It is in a modular form and is played out on a table 5' x 5' with each side set victory conditions so that a winner or loser in each module can be assessed. In each module the German player must fulfil a specific condition for play to advance to the next module. Failure to meet the condition means that the module must be replayed; this probably means that the initial assault force was not strong enough, but will mean that valuable time has been lost. It is intended that the German is the main player and that the Soviet forces are controlled by an umpire, or the German player if playing solo, and they are therefore activated by a series of event cards.

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