Published by Phoenix Military Simulations, Battalions in Crisis! (BIC) games armored warfare during the 1935 - 1942 period. The game comes in a 3-ring binder and includes 56 pages of rules, 64 pages of vehicle and equipment data charts, two transparent artillery and grenade scatter templates, five scenarios, game charts, and an (!) index. Production values are high. 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 II era, but troop and equipment statistics only cover the early war period.

Five game suppliments 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, varying based on terrain. Spotting is deterministic, using an observation table covering most circumstances. Morale is straightforward, providing more variation in troop morale classification than most rules I've seen; troops are rated not only for experience and training, but also for their equipment quality, their exhaustion level (this seems to be a constant for a scenario, however...) and their mindset. Troops check morale for the normal causes, modified by the usual modifiers, and suffer standard consequences. Vehicle and infantry combat is ranged; the firer (a single gun or soldier!) must roll a die below a given number, modified for range and other circumstances. Hits kill in infantry combat.

In tank/antitank combat, if penetration exceeds effective armor thickness at the point of impact (there're 8 angles from which a vehicle can be hit), a hit causes varying amounts of damage, based on gun size and a die roll. Infantry melee works similarly to infantry fire. Preplotted artillery scatters and is fairly detailed (for example, incoming salvos may arrive in any one of three patterns). Air-to-ground and antiair combat is treated to a similar extent. 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...

BIC is well 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 10 - 12 players per side! I was also a bit surprised to discover no mention of command control. This, to me, is important, especially at the unit level portayed by BIC. The scenarios were particularly nice - well detailed, including situation briefings, umpire notes and maps. I'd like to see other rules provide scenarios like this. I had problems with the vehicle data charts. BIC provides lots of Germans and Soviets, but coverage of several of the other nationalities (Italy, Poland, France...) is woefully inadequate, even for the time period covered. Many boardgames rules sets, faced with a limit on the number of vehicles they can detail, focus on a given front during a given time period to ensure adequate coverage.

This would have been a good idea with BIC, giving 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. BIC plans t<%5>o fill things in with suppliments (Module I: 1943, the first suppliment, is now out, though I've not yet examined it), but better coverage in the core game would've been nice. This and the lack of command control rules aside, these rules provide a well detailed, low-level (say, a company per side or less) game.

While reviewing BIC, I looked at other rules that I own and play. After extensive study and comparison, I have come to the conclusion that BIC traces its roots directly to the old Guidon Games/TSR rules set, Tractics, with considerable re-editing and redevelopment. Most of the game mechanics (I've not compared the engineering or air rules...) are virtually identical; by contrast, these same mechanics are adequately different from any other rulesets I've played to disallow coincidence in their similarity to one another. Spotting procedures are quite similar in both games, right down to the names given the various spotter and target types. BIC adds one spotter and several target types, though, which plug several loopholes that any Tractics player's encountered, and spotting ranges are altogether different. The same situation exists with the fire to-hit tables.

The direct fire base to-hit number differs but the hit modifier categories (Target Type, Movement, Shell Type, etc.) are, with two exceptions, identical in type and in name. BIC uses several modifiers absent from Tractics. Several of the modifiers' values differ though numerous others are the same. The table has a "tuned" look when compared to Tractics that generally improves the game. The gunnery tables are identical in format, but the ranges and armor penetrations do differ significantly. Infantry fire combat is likewise very alike. To BIC's credit, the indirect fire to-hit procedure, while similar to Tractics, is much simpler and elegant in execution. Likewise, melee resolution and morale determination, clearly traceable to Tractics, have both been streamlined, again improving play.

The hit location procedure is almost identical, differing only in that BIC has deleted two of Tractics' hit angles. Tractics accounts for three frontal glancing hit angles. BIC simplifies this to one. The likelihoods of hitting various parts of a target from a given hit angle are the same other than to compensate for the two deleted hit angles. Tractics addressed armor weakpoints on a table. A hit received from a given angle had a certain chance of hitting, say, a gun barrel or a periscope, etc. BIC resolves this chance, for the same vulnerable locations, by tying the table die roll to the specific part of the vehicle (upper glacis, mantle, etc.) hit, regardless of the angle.

With or without successful armor penetration, damage resolution is identical in method and result, with few exceptions. For example, with either rule set, a 120mm HE hit will knock the crew out for two turns while a 150mm HE hit will do the same for four turns with a chance to kill the crew (ok; the likelihood to kill differs, but you see my point). A penetration will produce an identical set of results ranging from temporary compartment knockout (BIC provides for 1 - 4 turns KO, versus a flat 3 turns in Tractics), up through permanent compartment KO, vehicle disablement, and explosive vehicle destruction. Lastly, though BIC lays out vehicle data in a much improved manner over Tractics, much of the vehicle data - specifically the armor thicknesses - looks as if it came from Tractics, or at least interpreted the same source materials in an identical manner.

Of 57 vehicles, 10 don't appear, 16 have very different stats, 16 have similar (some values the same, some values different; again, "tuned"), and 15 have identical stats, to those in Tractics. The identical vehicles tend to be those for which armor data is less readily available, for example, the two Italian vehicles and the four French ones. I know; I've attempted to research this myself, with frustrating results. <%5>In summary, the authors appear to have done a good job of updating the classic set of armor miniatures rules, Tractics. Most, but not all, of the mechanics, by and large, remain the same, while much of the actual data has been updated. Throughout, I found the changes in BIC to reflect what I thought should have been done, as a longtime Tractics player. I spoke with the authors before this went to press. Hopefully, you will find their comments elsewhere in this issue. Battalions in Crisis! is available for $25.00 from your local game shop, or if unavailable there, directly from the publishers, Phoenix Military Simulations, at 12633 Carrington Hill Drive, Gaithersburg, MD 20878.- BILL RUTHERFORD.

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