Phoenix Military

Battalions in Crisis WWII Rules

by Bill Rutherford

Published by Phoenix Military Simulations, Battalions in Crisis! (BIC) provides a detailed look at armor warfare during the 1935 1942 period. The game comes packaged in a 3-ring binder and includes 56 pages of rules, 64 pages of vehicle and equipment data, two transparent artillery and grenade scatter templates, five scenarios, game charts, and an (!) index.

The scales are 1:1000 (25 meters per inch) on the ground, one model represents one vehicle or individual soldier, and one turn represents one minute. BIC actually covers the entire WW Il era, but troop and equipment statistics only cover the early war period. Five game supplements are planned, covering the rest of WW II and the Korean War.

The sequence of play is interactive sequential: The attacker (designated for a given scenario) moves infantry and cavalry; The defender moves all troops; The attacker moves vehicles; Both sides execute simultaneous artillery attacks and direct fire; take morale checks; and plot future turns' artillery attacks. Next turn, the attacker's and defender's position in the turn sequence is reversed. Movement is standard units may move up to their maximum movement rate, which will vary based on terrain.

Spotting is deterministic and uses an observation table covering most circumstances. Morale is straightforward. It provides for a bit more variation in troop morale classification than most rules I've seen; troops are rated not only for experience and training, but additionally for how good their equipment is, how tired they are (this seems to be a constant for a scenario, however ... ) and what their mindset is. Troops check morale for the normal causes, modified by the usual modifiers, and suffer standard consequences. Vehicle and infantry combat is ranged and depends on the firer (a single gun or soldier!) rolling a die below a given number that's modified for range and other circumstances.

Hits kill in infantry combat. In tank/antitank combat, penetration is compared to effective armor thickness at the point of impact (there're 8 angles from which a vehicle can be hit). Penetration causes varying amounts of damage, based on gun size and a die roll. Infantry melee works similarly to infantry fire. Artillery is preplotted, scatters, and is fairly detailed (for example, incoming salvos may arrive in any one of three patterns). Air-toground and antiair combat is treated with a similar degree of detail. There're two pages of optional rules governing using 1/285 - 1/300 scale miniatures. The biggest change is organization of infantry into fireteams. Given the size of battles for which the designers plan to use these rules (battalion +), this seems a good idea in any scale...

These rules are well thought out and organized. I have my usual qualms about span of command - I don't know that a game addressing individual soldiers has any business addressing battalion level engagements. BIC does recommend using an umpire and multiple players per side, but for a battalion engagement, we're talking about a 10 - 12 player per side game!

I was also a bit surprised to discover that command control is completely omitted. This seems to me to be reasonably important, especially at the unit level portrayed by BIC. I found the scenarios to be particularly nice well detailed, including situation briefings, umpire notes and maps. I'd like to see other rules provide this level of detail.

I had some problems with the vehicle data charts. The game provides statistics for 57 vehicles. The Germans and Soviets are reasonably covered, but coverage of several of the other nationalities (Italy, Poland, France ... ) is woefully inadequate, even for the time period covered. Many boardgames and some other rules sets, faced with a limit on the number of vehicles the game can contain, focus on a given front during a given time period. this might have been a good idea with BIC - it would've given the player a sense of completeness, at least for a microcosm of WW II.

As is, a player will sooner notice what vehicles are missing than what vehicles are present. I understand that BIC will fill things in with suppliments, but better coverage in the core game would've been nice. This and the lack of command control rules aside, these rules provide a nicely detailed low-level (say, a company per side or less) game. They're available for $25.00 from your local game shop, or failing that, directly from the publishers, Phoenix Military Simulations, 12633 Carrington Hill Drive, Gaithersburg, MD 20878

THE AUTHORS RESPOND

by Mike Kelly, Phoenix Military

Our goal was to publish a rules set that created an environment where tactics worked, yet was playable. We wanted a game that allowed battles to be fought to a conclusion in two to four hours depending on the scenario size.

Three considerations controlled our development. First, the rules had to be clear and easy to understand. Second, there had to be enough details to portray combined arms combat, but not so much dirt as to bog the game down. Third real tactics had to work.

In answering Bill's comments, one should keep in mind that the actual combat time covered by a scenario is relatively short. When factoring in exhaustion's effect on morale, we are looking at the long term effects, not how tired a person is from running up a hill. Therefore, a German soldier in the last stages of the Siege of Stalingrad would be exhausted from the constant combat over a period of months and the lack of supplies.

The short time period of each game is also reflected in the infantry combat. Hits on infantry do not mean that they have been killed or wounded, what it represents is that the soldier hit is no longer interested in continuing to fight. He may be hiding in a hole, helping a wounded comrade off the battlefield, or be dazed or confused. Tactical histories constantly point out how troop formations melt away in combat, but that most of the men are not actual casualties.

Our expected span of command for a player ranges from a squad to a company with some supporting arms. If you are playing a skirmish scenario with a couple of squads to a side, then the player concentrates on the movement of every figure. If you are running a rifle company assault, then you concentrate on squads and support weapons. A side may have a battalion or more of troops on the board. This is often needed to allow for the proper inclusion of supporting arms, but within the timescale of the game, the battalion commander has already given his orders, and can only coordinate at the highest level.

Coordination by commanders at all levels was very difficult once the fighting actually started. Account after account of small unit actions show that individual soldiers showed the most initiative, and that they fought without being led or coordinated by their leaders. When every player can see the entire battlefield, to place artificial limits on the players' actions only confuses es the issue. Finally in the many scenarios run at conventions with 4 or 5 novice players each commanding a Btn or more, the games were all completed in 4 hours with a definite winner.

In picking the vehicles and weapons to cover in BIC, we considered several factors. Feedback from miniature players shows a pronounced preference for big tanks and the late war period. Few players are interested in playing Poles in 1939. Models for tankettes and early vehicles are hard to find and in many cases do not exist, so we tried to include vehicles that people could represent on the table. Good data is also rare for early vehicles.

Nor did we include development models or equipment that saw limited battlefield use. Bill cites the French list as being inadequate. The list includes the Char B1, Hotchkiss 39, Renault 35, and the Souma. Although the French had other vehicles, there is little evidence of their use in any major engagements, especially in a way that most players would want to play. Since I have never seen any game that had a Polish tank in it, I feel that our inclusion of one was a major step forward. Based on player desires and help, we will publish more vehicle data. One format we are looking at is including the data in our WWII gaming magazine which will be published in 1994.

Finally, I would like to address Bill's comment on Battalions In Crisis!' relationship to Tractics. Tractics was one of many games that we have played, and one that we played extensively. Not listing it in our partial bibliography was a last minute oversight as we rushed to meet the deadline. However, we have looked at many games and approaches including some of the concepts in games like Panzerblitz.

The methods used for evaluating morale and to hit, among others, are similar to the techniques used in WRG ancient rules as well as Tractics and many other rule sets. Because we are, hopefully, dealing with real facts, the data on vehicles should be close, and where few sources exist, the same.

Since Tractics and Battalions in Crisis! both deal with the same topic, WWII small unit actions at a 1:1 scale, many references must be the same. For example, we use the category Target Type just as Tractics does. How else would you label it, those little plastic things you are pretending to shoot at? In our conversations with other players, each likens the game to the one they know best. Some compare it to Panzer 44, others to Squad Leader, and others to games I don't even know.

Where a physical reality must be mechanically reproduced, such as firing armor piercing rounds at a armored vehicle, the process should be similar. In areas where actions are more subjective, the differences are enormous. Our Moral and air sections are nothing like Tracticss. One other point must be made. Battalions in Crisis! does! not play like Tractics. Battalions in Crisis! is fast moving, easy to learn and play, and has much that Tractics; and other games do not.

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