Sandhurst Wargames

Book

Reviewed by Arnold Hendrick.

by Paddy Griffith. Hutchinson & Co., London, November 1982. List Price 9.95 pounds (UK).

Sandhurst Wargames is a large (91/4 " by 131/4 ") softcover volume of wargannes created by Paddy Griffith of the Sandhurst Wargames club, some of whose members happen to be associated with the famous British military academy. The games have no official status or use at that institution. The game equipment itself is full color, and included in a separate paper folder. All four games are cardtable size, three are boarclgames, the fourth a quasi-miniatures role-playing hybrid.

The book is obviously an introduction to the hobby. The overview of the hobby is excellent and brief, covering its history, boardgames, miniatures, and a page on RPGs (role-playing games). The body of the book (54 of its 64 pages) gives historical background for the four games, and the rules to each.

The historical articles for each game are superb. The reader rapidly gains a view of the period, the situation, and both traditional and "revisionist" historical viewpoints. Each is graced by a number of attractive graphics modules with diagrams, photos, etc., all superbly representative and themselves a fine introduction to various methods of presentation and analysis of military history. Never have I found such a consistently excellent short history. Finding a copy simply to read the articles is well worth the effort (although perhaps not the list price for this alone). As a military historian, the author has a bright future.

The four games, considered as such, are a different matter. Any wargamer with an ounce of historical curiosity would be tempted by the peculiar yet interesting titles, none ofwhich have seen print anywhere before. Unfortunately, the counters are printed on extremely thin, glossy board. They simply cannot be handled unless first glued to heavy cardboard- something best done BEFORE they are punched out (and then requiring good handling of a pair of scissors). The mapboards lack terrain keys, which can cause minor confusion in the first two games, since the book text keys lack color, or misstate it! A flaw even more serious than the counters is the game rules. They are written in "vernacular British English," resulting in a pleasing tone, but little else. They are wordy in unnecessary places, lack strict definitions all too often, and bury key data in unlikely spots. Experienced gamers will find one major stumbling block in every game, plus numerous minor points requiring good will and a desire for "reasonableness." The reviewer suspects the designer always playtested using verbal rules backup, and thus never detected textual flaws. Playtesting games based on the written text alone, without verbal help, is a key step in polishing any design.

These faults are not entirely those of the author. The publisher, in various subtle ways, shows no real experience in wargame publishing (especially boardgames), An editor with such experience could have avoided most or all of the problems. Unfortunately, most potential editors with such ability are found in America, not England. It is small consolation that the graphics and graphic design is first rate, comparing favorably to anything in the publishing industry.

The first game is "Aquitaine," covering a year's campaign with (or against) the Black Prince in southern France, circa 1355-56 during the Hundred Years War. The basic game system is a nice overview of the historical situation, but is too simple to be a good game. One lucky roll can win or lose the entire affair, and a ridiculously straightforward French strategy (besieging the English base, Bordeaux) can often win the game as well. With various adjustments, the game could be quite good. With expansion, the system would make an excellent campaign system for ancient or medieval miniatures.

The second game is "Craonne", a minor battle in March 1814 where Napoleon tested various Russian and Prussian Corps marching toward Paris. The game system is a superb representation of Napoleonic battles in a very simple package. In fact, it is considerably superior to the various efforts of American boardgame publishers over the last decade! Despite the situation, the game is balanced and a good test of skill, provided some of the more unrealistic victory conditions are adjusted or edited out. Rules problems are the least of any here, the major ones being a decision where the set up commanders (you won't find it-I presumed anywhere with their troops), and correcting a misprint on the CRT (I suspect the first two columns should be headed -1:2 or less" and -11 or less, but more than 1:2").

The third game is "Fjord." It covers allied convoys to Russia past the North Cape (tip of Norway) throughout WWII (played on a strategic map), as well as efforts to destory German capital ships in their Fjord bases (played on a tactical map). The game is a very rich simulation with lots of interesting detail, including typically ambiguous "Hitler Directives." The game is rather long (could go 10 hours or more), and makes extensive use of inverted counters or "task force" markers of uncertain (or bogus) composition. Again, various rules problems will cause trouble, and players will probably need a "learning game" first to iron out these difficulties- many of which will only emerge after a season's campaigning is finished, and players discover the enemy had done something they believed to be illegal!

The last game is "Men Against Fire," set on a Pacific atoll in 1943- 44 and designed to illustrate S.L.A. Marshall's famous analysis of small unit combat. Each player controls one American soldier, while a "gamemaster" creates the scenario, operates the Japanese defenders, and is the only one who sees the tabletop. The players must rely on what they are told, representing their perceptions of reality. Despite the RPG format, notable rules problems arise, especially a rule on how a soldier regains orientation once he becomes "disoriented." More importantly, player roles can lead to boredom, since many soldiers are prohibited from firing or even fighting by their personal aims, while everyone will discover that one hit disables their character for the duration! Many enjoyable aspects of role-playing, such as developing characters through various situations, earning rewards and penalties for oneself, etc., do not appear. The game is an interesting exercise in combat as S.L.A. Marshall saw it, but a disaster as a game per se.

Overall, this volume is a good introduction to wargaming and military history. It has potentially interesting games, if the player is willing to tinker, or ready to experiment and expand. It makes an ideal gift to a potential wargamer, especially someone unafraid to make changes. Teenagers without a full social schedule, and elderly armchair generals may both find this a pleasing gift.

Experienced gamers will be disgusted by the counters, frustrated by the rules, and should steer clear accordingly. However, the reading is so good, it is worth finding or borrowing for that. This is all very sad, because the basic design concepts in the games are truly excellent--far superior to most games now in print! Just a little more expertise in game production could have made all four games smashing first class items, and the folio as a whole a stupendous value.

Reply from Paddy Griffith

I thank Arnold Hendrick for all the nice things he has to say about my book, in his review. I am particularly delighted that he finds the design concepts of my games to be so interesting, since (after the military history itself) it is the basic play structures which I think are the most interesting part of wargaminpr. On the other hand I cannot deny that detailed rule-smithing is far from central to what I regard (in British English!) as "my cup of tea". I am therefore no less disappointed than Arnold himself that the detail apparently needs tightening up in so many places which I seem to have missed.

I can only offer two rather feeble defenses on this point. The first is an 'ideological' one, which many boardgamers may find deeply heretical. This is, simply, that I believe the style of play which ought to inspire all wargamers (including boardgamers) is precisely 11 goodwill and a desire for reasonableness". If you want to play a strictly-defined and formal game, then join a Chess club. You will find it more challenging, as a competition, than any wargame. But if you want to exercise your historical understanding and empathy for the past, play 'loose' wargames. It is precisely the loose ends and the impossibility of making exact rules for human behavior which lead the wargamer into deepening his research and his understanding. It is only by renouncing the idea that real war is a closed and complete 'game system' that any progress can be made in the study of war. Any "perfect" wargame tends to sanitize the idea of war and degrade it into some sort of problem in engineering, which is not my perception of the matter at all.

If that one sticks in your craw, then I must fall back to my second line of defense, which is that 'tinkering' and 'experimentation' are also, to my way of thinking, what wargaming is all about. "Experienced gamers ", whom Arnold assumes not to be tinkerers, are to my mt . nd shutting themselves off from one of the great joys of the hobby if, indeed, they do not tinker. Please tinker with my games! That is what they are there for. If you tinker, then I will love you.

On the individual games themselves I have one or two ripostes to Arnold's critique. "Aquitaine" was supposed to be simple, so of course it lacks some of the depth and flavor of more complex creations! But try it out on the family after the Christmas (sorry Thanksgiving!) turkey, and you may find that it digests better.

"Craonne" I hope does make the point that Napoleonic battles could be very different from your 'archetypal' Austerlitz or Waterloo. In this case you have a frontal assault against a strong hill position by inferior numbers of totally untrained troops-who win! An astonishing passage of arms, which I would not even dismiss as "minor". This battle marked the end of Napoleon: it was downhill from there on in. But I am glad to find Arnold appreciated some of these implications in his review.

"Fjord" is designed to be something of a poor man's "Drang Nach Osten", in that it can become interminable it you let it. But I would be the first to agree that player-honesty has a lot to do with this game, so if you are not organized to trust your opponent, then you had better not start.

"Men Against Fire" seems to draw Arnold's heaviest fire, and maybe he is right at that. But I am not at all clear in my own mind what other attempts have been made in boardgaming to simulate the absolutely crucial psychological conditions and reactions which SLAM described. I have an impression that most other individual skirmish games allow everyone to be a hero, and to react in combat in precisely the same way that the wargamer, sitting in his comfortable armchair, would like his 'superhero' to react. Everyone in wargames seems to be a chief-so where have all the indians got to?

Incidentally, 'A Book of Sandhurst Wargames' is published in USA by Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, New York. I am sorry that I do not know the price in USA. -PADDY GRIFFITH

[ED NOTE: The price for the U.S. edition is $22.95, and is distributed by G.P. Putnam's Sons.]

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