Thomas G Cleaver and Frank Aker are producing devises designed "to be a replacement for the conventional combat resultion systems presently in use....it eliminates chance that is inherent in dice by putting the Command decisions in the hands of the participants. Gone are the days when 20 to 11 was 1 to 1, now it is 20 to 11."

What you get are a pair of "calculators" which come as sheets of printed cardboard and have to be cut out and assembled. This isn't easy because they provide very skimpy instructions and give you no idea of what it's supposed to look like when it's done -- which is two series of three 2 3/4" circles, each being numbered along the edge from 0 to 47; each has a little window to show one number at a time, and these are labled Attack/Defense, Security/Counterattack, Advance/Hold. Instead of reducing combat strengths to an odds ratio and rolling a die, each player secretly divides up his combat strength between the three options on his calculator. The two calculators are then revealed and compared. Say the odds a 20 to 11: the attacker allocates 10 to "Attack" 5 to "Security" and 5 to "Hold" and the defender allocates 8 to "Defense" and 3 to "Hold". Since "Attack" exceeds "Defense" by 3 the defender loses that many defense factors. "Security" exceeds "Counterattack" to no effect (if "Counter attack" had exceeded "Security" the attacker would have lost the difference in attack factors). "Advance" exceeds "Hold" by 2 so the defender is retreated 2 hexes (If "Hold" had exceeded "Advance" the attacker would have been retreated the difference).

So you can see that each player always decides what's most important to him: minimizing his own losses, maximizing his opponent's losses or gaining/holding ground. Also provided are "Replacement Scales" on which to keep track of "change". Say one side is supposed to lose 3 factors but the units involved all had combat factors of 4. He loses one 4-strength unit but gains 1 factor on the replacement scale. If next time he is supposed to lose 1 factor instead of eliminating another 4 he just loses the 1 he had accumulated last time.

Personally I think this whole system is an excellent idea - or group of ideas. The price is $2.50.

Thumbnail Analysis: Mini Game Reviews

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