Reviewing Stand

Sword Beach (WWII Campaign Game)

by Rod Burr

SWORD BEACH is a campaign game for microtanks. It covers the initial day of British landings on Sword Beach on D-Day. The game is intended for 1 strategic commander for each side, and a separate umpire. Several tactical commanders should also be available for each side ideally.

The scale used represents individual tanks and infantry sections with individual models, but has eliminated 2/3 of the units at about the battalion level. The time scale used for turns is one minute bounds. There can be as many as 720 turns in the game, with some accounting, as well as spotting determinations, to be done on a turn by turn basis even when no combat is occurring

The game includes rules for tactical combat as well as for the campaign. The interface between these is well defined. It would be possible to substitute another set of tactical rules with a similar scale for those supplied in the game, with some modifications to the strategic interface. The tactical rules include the IKB (I Know Better) factor which may cause units to move in directions other than intended, similar to some boardgames' "panic" rules, but in a less purely random fashion.

At the strategic level there is a fair amount of bookkeeping necessary, most of which is done, bY the umpire. Areas included in this are ammunition and exhaustion levels of forces, aircraft, and unescorted resupply convoys. Two areas that look particularly messy to resolve are: 1. determining the time necessary for an unopposed force to exit a beach, and, 2. British barrage fire which requires exact specification of positions of affected units on the tactical scale.

Overall, the rules are reasonably well written and seem to have no glaring holes. Playing the entire campaign looks like an ambitious undertaking, even competed with most large board games Separate use of the tactical rules is restricted bv the fact that data is given only for equipment in use at Sword Beach.

The fact that the German reinforcement arrival is randomly determined will prevent games from repeating themselves. The tactical and strategic sections of the rules are intermixed. This is confusing as distances are given in mm instead of in scale distances, so that it is not clear which scale is meant, the strategic or tactical.

Besides the 58 page rule book, the game includes 2 ungridded maps for the supreme commanders and one "ridded map with staggered boxes for the umpire, order of battle charts for each side, and counters to be cutout and used to mark the positions of forces on the strategic map.

The game is available from No. 1 Wargamers Command, 22 Old Cote Drive, Heston, Hounsslow, Middlesex, England or from Alnavco, Inc., Box 9, Belle Haven, VA in the U.S. The price was not given in the review copy.

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