Military Modelling Guide

To Solo Wargaming (Booklet)

Reviewed by William A. Greenwald

The latest in a series by Stuart Asquith was not what I hoped for. Maybe I had too much desire to find a publication that contained charts and tables that would allow one side to be played 'by the book 'and the other by the gamer. Having random but somewhat logical responses to stimuli, governed by the tables and the dice.. Something that would have its army unit do "this' when I did' that'. It seems that I was asking fort so much. if you are looking for such a book, this is not it.

Asfor the book itself, Mr. Asquith has covered the Solo aspect of the ,wargaming hobby adequately. His writing style is accomplished, as is his coverage of the topic. Discussed in the book areall scales of play, from skirmish to campaign to postal games. A full chapter treatment of solo siege gaming is also included.

One of the early chapters deals with Solo systems. The Chance Card, as Mr. Asquith suggests, can add a degree of uncertainty to any game. The usual random development of terrain and troop deployment is covered along with random reinforcements, pre-written enemy orders and resupply. All things to think about when designing a solo game.

Later chqpters provide concepts for scenarios that are suitable to Solo Gaming. Limited rules are also included in the text, as are orders of battle for each 'scenarios Chapter 6 was an excerpt from Charles S. Grant's Programmed Wargames Scenarios, an excellent book in its own right.

One very interesting idea is a historical beach landing battle of Sulva Bay 1915. In this Solo game no real enemy exists on the table. Random artillery fire and small arms fire are all that show an enemy is just off the table edge. This, I felt was a most unique concept and something I might wish to try. Available from Argus Books Limited, Wolsey House, Wolsey Road, Hertfordshire HP2 4SS

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