Battleground (BG), by Scott Gray, is a down-in-the-dirt tactical infantry game. Designed for use with 20mm figures (though any other scale will work...), BG scales at 10' per inch, 30" per turn, and a 1:1 figure ratio. The 39 page rulebook includes rules, three platoon-level scenarios, fire templates, play charts, sample unit rosters, and lots of equipment and weapons data. The basic maneuver element is the squad and a big game might have a reinforced platoon per side.

A game turn consists of two parts, the first of which is the unit activation phase. Each squad or vehicle in a scenario is represented by a card in a deck. A player turns over a card randomly activating a unit from one side or the other; that unit or vehicle may move or fire or both (in either order) and may also attempt to spot enemy units. Units doing NOTHING during their turn may conduct defensive (opportunity) fire during an enemy's phase. This continues until all cards are drawn, at which point the unit activation phase is over and play moves on to the morale phase.

Troops' morale is central to play. Troops come in one of four morale grades (0 - 3). Leaders have leadership ratings (also 0 - 3) they can use to favorably influence their units' movement, fire, and morale (during checks). All fire combat (small arms, HE, AT) is conducted in basically the same way. The firer casts 1D10, modified for the weapon type, range, target cover, etc., less than the firing unit's morale grade to hit a target. If the fire's AT, an additional die roll is made for armor penetration (I didn't check ammor stats; it is, after all an infantry game!). All hits except AT are subject to target saving throws based on the targets' cover (troops in the open are out of luck...), for which BG includes a comprehensive S.T. Iist, with modifiers.

There are rules covering weapon jams (appropriate, at this scale!), pinning fire (-3 to S.T.s, but casualties are only pinned down, not KIA...), flamethrowers, sustained fire, and other details. Morale is rolled by unit (vehicle or squad) and is checked for a number of reasons including casualties, incoming fire, flamethrowers attacking, etc.. Players detemmine results by casting 1D10 for the unit and adding it to the unit's morale grade, modified by various situational factors. Results range from Good, down through various degrees of hesitancy, to rout/surrender. Oh the Soviet player MAY have a commissar summarily execute a troop to raise the others' morale (!?). Several optional rules expand play detail and include snipers, high level morale (i.e., platoon level morale), berserkers, minefields, a bit more detail to the armor rules, and importantly, a simple but very usable spotting table.

There are no explicit command control rules beyond use of an "operational zone" based on unit morale grade, which determines how spread out a squad may become. Looking at the rules, I suspect the rationale is that BG's scale is too low for normal command control rules. At this level battledrill (and a good deal of hollering on the SL's part) dictates what a squad does, not command control (e.g., orders, coordination of manoeuver elements, etc.). I wondered about BG's using S.T.s - they work fine in BG but add a lot of unneeded die rolls that slow play. If you like rolling lots of dice, though, fine; I don't like rolling dice...

The scenarios include detailed orders of battle, a map, and simple setup and victory conditions. They suffice though I'd have liked more detail and flavor in them. All in ail, an easy-to-play, straightforward tactical game that, due to the pervasive dependence of everything on a unit's morale grade, does an excellent job of illustrating the importance of troop quality in low level engagements. Available from your local gameshop for $20, or, failing that, from the author at 762 Fairly Street, Apt. 26, Laurinburg, NC 28352.- BILL RUTHERFORD