How many times have you dreamt of playing that epic campaign wargame you own but don't have time to play? How many of you have dreamt of playing it with the added realism, the fog of war, if you will, of playing it double-blind? If so, my advice to you is: "Be careful of what you wish foe'.

For those of you unfamiliar with the term "Double-Blind", its means giving each player a game board and showing him only his own units and those of the enemy that he is currently in contact with. All enemy units that are not visible to his units are left off your board. This can result in a very satisfying simulation of what commonly occurs in real warfare; the lack of knowledge of what the enemy is doing. I have played double-blind many times in naval campaigns for 18th to 20th century naval games such as General Quarters, Seekrieg, and Close Action, and enjoyed it immensely, but there are some pitfalls.

Pitfalls

The biggest problem with this form of our hobby became very apparent to me last Enfilade. Time. A game played double-blind can take two to three times as long as normal games. Players sit and wait while the referee compares the map boards, and moves, places and removes enemy pieces. This may not seem like a big deal for smaller campaigns, say with only a couple dozen units on each side.

However the amount of work for the referee rises geometrically as it goes over that scale. Take my recent experience at Enfilade (we were playing a naval campaign for the battle around Guadalcanal in November 1942). Including all units involved there must have been about 100 to 150 per side. After plotting for the strategic turn in only a few minutes, we then sat and waited for an average of half an hour while the referee analyzed the data and listed the encounters. This was tedious for both the players and the referee.

The other two major pitfalls are the two more obvious ones. First, you will need multiple copies of the same game. Not I problem I suppose if your friends all have the same game as well, but with the soaring cost of games today that is indeed becoming an issue. The last issue you will need to deal with is a reliable referee. This last one hasn't always been a problem.

Usually one of the players on both sides agrees not to give input to the strategic moments of the fleet they are part of and then after contacts are made participates in the Tactical combat. However this now means in many cases that you need at least two more people to play when you are having a hard enough time just finding one.

With all this said, I would like to say that the "fog of war" double-blind system is a great deal of fun adding a new dimension to your military campaigns that will greatly enhance the gaming experience.

Just be sure you have

1) enough extra players
2) a referee (or two) who knows what they are doing and
3) enough time to complete the game or shrink the campaign in scope and size to one that your players and time resources can handle.

A good rule of thumb, "Any game done double-blind will last twice as long as it would normally take, and will need at least one extra player".