The following system was devised by Peter Dickinson, a Northern Ireland CDII player, and used at a tournament there. He sent me a copy, and I feel that this may be the long-looked-for tournament/point system for CDII. I like the fact that it used real force structures, and that the bid system allows players to come up with a level of troops they feel are matched to the task at hand. The system is set up for small (1 - 2) players on a side. For larger games, one can increase the size of the fixed force without unbalancing the system, as the bid system allows the players to compensate for the increased force structure. I am very interested in seeing how readers react to this system, as it would be possible to do late war and early war lists, as well as lists for the modern era. RULES OF PLAY 1. Competitors will be provided with a number of force lists drawn from the 1943 organizations of the major combatants in the ETO: Germany, Soviet Union, United Kingdom and United States. The morale and troop quality used will be set by the referee, but will be within the limits stated in the CDII orders of battle. 2. Competitors will be expected to provide an army consisting of all elements on one of the force lists. If a competitor wishes, he may field more than one force list by overlapping common elements (that is, a US Armored and US Infantry Division). If a competitor does so, he may change his commands between games. Games should require historical opponents. 3. All units in the force's field should be clearly and unambiguously marked, either on the model or the base. An example would be Number 1 Company, of the 1st Panzer Battalion, with its three vehicles marked as 11, 12, 13. These markings should only be obvious to the user. 4. For ease of play in the system, only one type is usually listed for a given vehicle. Therefore, all Sherman Tanks used will act as M4 (75), all T-34s still be T-34/43s, regardless of the actual model in use. Infantry must be based in such a way that half stands, stands, and double stands can be told apart. Specialized functions must be indicated on the stand if not already apparent (e.g., engineer, ATR, weapons). Gun crews may be fixed to the stand provided that there is some means f showing gun crews which have abandoned their weapon. It is not the intention of the system to prevent a player from competing because his force structure is from a different period. 5. Players will be free to determine the loads of any supply vehicles %fore the start of the scenario. The items chosen must be part of that unit's normal equipment. Engineer supplies will include mines, explosives and barbed wire. Infantry battalions may only carry ammo for their normal weapons, tank units for their weapons, etc. Thus, infantry battalion ammo vehicles may not carry additional artillery or tank ammunition. GAME SETUP 1. The referee explains the scenario and objectives to both sides. The referee is responsible for setting up the terrain. In the case of an attack/ defense scenario, the referee will state the part of board that is to be defended. 2. The three types of actions are: Meeting Engagement, Hasty Attack/ Hasty Defence, and Prepared Attack/Prepared Defence. Meeting Engagement: The scenario will present an engagement of vanguard forces from the two forces, attempting to seize key terrain features at minimal cost. Any off-board artillery is assumed to have one ton of ammunition on hand. The length of the game should not exceed three hours of game time. Hasty Attack/Hasty Defence: The defending force will be allowed map deployment and will be allowed two hours to prepare its positions. If the defender has an artillery FO/spotter attached, it may have six preplotted points for artillery missions. (Rule 8.64). The defender's objective is to hold its position. The attacker's objective will be to seize ground from the defender without incurring heavy casualties. All off-board artillery is assumed to have two tons of ammunition on hand. The length of the game should not exceed three hours of game time. Prepared Attack/Prepared Defence: The defending force will be allowed map deployment and will be allowed 24 hours to prepare its positions using the engineering rules in CDII. FOs and spotters may preplot as above. The defender's objective is to hold its position. The attacker's objective will be to seize ground from the defender and exit the board with intact units (70% left) in good morale. The attacker may also have preplotted targets, and US/UK units may have one Time on Target Mission plotted. All off-board artillery is assumed to have two tons of ammunition on hand. On­board engineers are allowed to have double the normal number of tons of engineer supplies on hand. Both sides may assign artillery units to Harassment and Interdiction missions, but batteries so assigned must remain so for the duration of the game. The length of the actual game should not exceed three hours of game time. 3. The forces to be used in this scenario are named by the referee, as well as the troop quality and morale. 4. The referee should set up victory conditions in all three scenarios based on the following: a. Terrain held at the end of the game. Specific terrain features should be awarded points based on their importance within the game being played. Both sides should be aware of the point totals that these specific terrain features are worth. It is suggested that 60 victory points be assigned for terrain. b. The percentage of the player's force that remains at the end of the battle. Each stand of a module is worth 1 point, with the exception of soft transport, which is worth 0.5 points. (Recon jeeps, staff radio vehicles and similar vehicles are not considered as soft vehicles.) To determine the percentage of stands remaining, divide the number of stands at the end of the battle by those present at the start of an action. A command which had 50 stands at the start of the game, and 35 stands remaining at the end, would have a percentage remaining of 70%. To determine the number of victory points, take the percentage of remaining stands and divide by 5. Thus, a unit with 70% of its force remaining would be awarded 14 victory points. c. The percentage of the opposing force that was destroyed in the battle. Compute in the same way as before, but divide by 10 for the number of victory points. A side that had 40% of its stands lost to enemy action would give the opposing side 4 victory points. d. Last, the referee should have ability to use the remaining 10 points as he wishes. It can be used to reward units for exiting the board in good order, or used to increase the points assigned to an important element of terrain. All players should be informed before the game starts as to how this points will be assigned. 5. All issues not covered may be handled by the referee as long as the system remains constant throughout the tournament. Bidding System 1. The two sides roll a die, and the winner picks which force will attack and which force will defend. (In the case of a meeting engagement, the winner will decide which force enters on which board edge.) The other side picks which force will be the "bid" force and which will be the fixed force. Each side secretly picks one attachment from the force structure and gives a note of it to the referee. 2. At this point, the bidding process starts to determine who will play the fixed force, who will play the bid force, and the actual makeup of the bid force. The size of the bid force starts as the complete force list, and is gradually decreased by both competitors until one player is willing to take the fixed force against it. The players roll off again to see who goes first. The winning player may either: a. Accept the fixed force. This stops the bidding, and the other player takes the remaining modules of the bid force. Or he may: b. Make an offer for the bid force. In order to do this, he must reduce the force by one module. This reduction is in addition to any other reductions made either by him or by the opposing player. Note that some units may not be deleted by the bid force but must be included. At this point play reverts to the other player, who may either accept the fixed force, or make a bid on the bid force by reducing it by one module. This procedure continues until one player is willing to accept the fixed force. The goal of the bid process is to allow the two sides to feel that they have an equal chance of winning, since each side had a chance at each force. EXAMPLE OF PLAY The referee sets up a game between Bob and Al, with the forces being a German Panzer Grenadier Division, Veteran, Morale 8, vs. an American Infantry Division in a Hasty Attack/Hasty Defence scenario. On the first die roll, Al wins and chooses the Americans as the defenders. Bob then decides that the Panzergrenadiers are the fixed force. This is made up of the following modules: Module 1 Panzer Grenadier Regiment Headquarters, with: Headquarters Company, with: 1 command stand, 1 kubelwagen, 1 staff radio truck, 1 medium ammo supply truck Module 2 Elements, 1st Panzergrenadier Battalion, with: Headquarters Company, with: 1 command stand, 1 kubelwagen, 1 staff radio truck Heavy Company, with: 1 command stand, 1 kubelwagen, 1 engineer flamethrower stand, 1 75L46 AT gun, 1 gun crew stand (ds), 1 81mm mortar stand (ds), 2 medium trucks, 1 Maultier/medium truck Module 3: Elements, Motorized Panzergrenadier Battalion 1st and 2nd Companies, each with: 1 command infantry stand, 1 weapons stand, 2 infantry stands, 2 medium trucks Module 7: 3rd Panzergrenadier Battalion Headquarters Company, with: 1 command stand, 1 kubelwagen, 1 staff radio truck Heavy Company, with: 1 command stand, 1 kubelwagen, 1 engineer flamethrower stand, 1 75L46 AT gun, 1 gun crew stand (ds), 1 81 mm mortar stand (ds), 2 medium trucks, 1 Maultier/medium truck 7th, 8th, and 9th Companies, each with: 1 command infantry stand, 1 weapons stand, 2 infantry stands, 2 medium trucks Module 9 Elements, Sturmgeschutz Battalion, 2nd and 3rd Company, each with: 1 command StuG IIIg, 2 StuG IIIg Module 15: Attached Recon, with: Recon Infantry Company, with: 1 command motorcycle stand, 3 recon motorcycle infantry stands, 1 motorcycle weapons stand Module 18: Light Artillery Battalion, with: On-Board Elements, with: 1 FO stand, 1 kubelwagen Off-Board Elements, with: 3 105L28 field howitzers Each player notes one additional module to add to his force. Al chooses Module 8, while Bob chooses Module 19. Both players secretly note their choice on paper and give it to the referee. They then reroll the dice to decide which player will start the bidding process. Bob wins the die roll and starts. The entire American Infantry list, all 17 modules, makes up the bid pool. As this is a Hasty Defence scenario, the one unit that cannot be deleted from the American list is Module 6, the 3rd Infantry Battalion minus the weapons company. Both players know that the attacking force has two battalions of Veteran troops with supporting elements. They will need to bid, keeping in mind the size of the force they must have to stop this attack. The bidding process starts with Bob, passes to Al, and continues until one player accepts the fixed force. Bob: I'll delete Module 17, the Auto Weapons Battery. AI: I'll delete Module 3, two infantry companies. Bob: I'll delete Module 12, an Engineer Company. Al: I'll delete Module 2, the rest of the 1st Battalion. Bob: I'll delete Module 16, the recon troop. Al: I'll delete Module 15, the Tank Destroyers. Bob: I'll delete Module 14, the medium and light tanks. Al: I'll delete Module 10, the 155 howitzers. Bob: I'll delete Module 5, part of the 2nd Battalion. Al: I'll delete Module 9 the 2nd Field Artillery. Bob: I'll take the fixed force. As Bob has the fixed force, now he adds to it the unit picked by him before the bidding started. He gets the following as his extra unit: Module 19: Medium Artillery Battalion, with: On-Board Elements, with: 1 FO stand, 1 kubelwagen Off-Board Elements, with: 2 150L30 field howitzers 1 15cm Nebelwerfer Al gets all of the remaining modules of the American command, which are: Module 1: Headquarters Elements, with: Headquarters Company, with: 1 command stand, 1 jeep, 1 staff radio light truck, 1 recon infantry stand Regimental Antitank Company, with: 1 command stand, 2 gun crew stands, 1 bazooka stand, 1 jeep, 2 light trucks, 1 light truck with ammo trailer, 2 57L52 AT guns Module 4: Elements, 2nd Infantry Battalion, with: Headquarters, with: 1 command stand, 1 jeep Headquarters Company, with: 1 command stand, 1 jeep, 1 gun crew stand, 1 light truck, 1 57L52 AT gun, 1 bazooka stand Companies E, and F, each with: 1 command stand, 3 infantry stands, 1 weapons stand Module 6: Elements, 3rd Infantry Battalion, with: Headquarters, with: 1 command stand, 1 jeep Headquarters Company, with: 1 command stand, 1 jeep, 1 gun crew stand, 1 light truck, 1 57L52 AT gun, 1 bazooka stand Companies I, K and L, each with: 1 command stand, 3 infantry stands, 1 weapons stand Module 7: Elements, 3rd Infantry Battalion, with: Company M: 1 command stand, 1 jeep, 1 81mm mortar stand (ds), 2 jeeps with light ammo trucks, 2 MMG stands, 2 medium trucks Module 8: 1st Artillery Battalion, with: On-Board Elements, with: 1 FO stand 1 jeep Off-Board Elements, with: 3 105L23 howitzers and crews Module 11: Engineers, with: Engineer Company, with: 1 command stand, 1 jeep, 3 engineer stands, 2 medium dump trucks, 1 medium truck with AAMG and engineer supply trailer Module 13: Attached Tank Battalion, with: Headquarters, with: 1 command M4 tank, 1 staff radio halftrack, 1 recon jeep with AAMG, 1 M4 HTMC, 1 M8 HMC (75) Medium Tank Company, with: 1 command M4 tank, 2 M4 tanks As this is the Hasty Attack/Hasty Defence scenario, Al has two hours to prepare his position. This will allow him time to construct emplacements for his stands, and for his engineers to place mines and/or other engineering duties. His FO may preregister artillery at six different points. DESIGNER'S NOTES I have been a player of Command Decision since it was first published. This year, Dragonslayers, the roleplaying and wargaming society at Queens University Belfast, hosted a convention, Q-Con, and we decided we would like to run a Command Decision competition as part of the event. Com­mand Decision does not have a points system, and I would like to describe the non point-based system we designed and used to run the competition. The basic system involved the players fielding at least one brigade-sized formation based on the armies of 1943. The players had the scenario and the objectives of each game described to them. One side (attacker or defender) was chosen as the "fixed force" of known size and drawn from the player's force lists. Starting with the full list of the opposing army, both players now entered a round of bidding in which each had in turn the option of taking the "fixed" force or offering to take the "bid" force minus one sub-unit. The effect was to bid down the force until one until one of the players felt he had a chance with the "fixed" force, stopping the bidding, and leaving the other player with the force they had last bid. The beauty of the system was that markedly different armies and troop qualities could be accommodated, while at the end of the bidding both players should have entered the game feeling they had a reasonable chance of victory. Players could make their decisions based on their own beliefs about the relative merits of the forces within the opposing armies. The competition had 14 competitors out of a possible 16, with seven of them making the journey from England or Scotland (a remarkable act of faith considering it costs about $100/150+ in transport and accommoda­tion). For a first attempt, things ran remarkably smoothly and with little of the acrimony sometimes associated with competitions. (Personally, I be­lieve this has a lot to do with the type of wargamer attracted to the Command Decision system.) Most players had few problems understand­ing the bidding system, although some problems arose with the victory conditions. First and second place went to two local gamers, Ian Smith and Rick McCammon, and third place was Stephen Clark from England. All of the mainland players want to come back next year and bring their fellow gamers, so it seems the system has potential for future years. System Origin Now if I may, I would like to describe how the system came about. Originally, the competition was to use a conventional point-based system based on factors for armor, weapons and mobility. I had worked out a lovely little formula which gave nice looking numbers so that M3 Stuarts and T­70s were similar, M-4s, T-34s, and PzIVg were close, as were the Tiger I and SU-152. However, during a brainstorming session with one of our club members, Ian Clarence, who does operational research for Shorts (the aircraft and missile manufacturers), it was realized there was a very basic flaw in the system. Although we had produced points for the weapons system, it merely gave us a ranking of vehicles relative to each other. What it failed to do was to determine in absolute terms if a Tiger was truly worth five Shermans, 10 Shermans or 2.5 Shermans. (The figure that we ended up with was similar to that in a number of commercial rule seas.) We also found that we were creating a lot of basically arbitrary "fudge-factors" to allow for troop quality and morale. (The problem is not ours alone, as a reading of Col. Trevor Dupuy's work, Numbers, Predications, and War, revealed that even with the resources of the Pentagon, a lot of basically rather subjective values and factors were bandied about to get a supposedly quantitative result.) While discussing giving players fixed armies, choices from lists, and other choices, Ian mentioned the TV game Name That Tune in which competitors undercut each other in order to name a musical tune in the fewest notes. In a blinding flash (I get these sometimes, but the doctor tells me to keep taking the tablets), I saw a viable competition system, one which became the bidding system described above. One last point: While preparing and running the competition, a number of players commented, independently of each other, that the bidding system was an abstract yet effective way of representing the decisions at higher levels with regard to commitment of forces to a certain part of the front. Thus, a poor result of the bidding stage was rationalized as a poor apprecia­tion of the forces that the front line commander (the player) would need to carry out his mission. As a wargamer, I am sceptical of "competition wargamings" as a concept, so this exercise was something of an exercise of "supping with the devil." However, many wargamers feel they need formal competitions, and if this approach can change perceptions of competition games away from the current use of 1000-point mix and match armies, then it surely it is an improvement. Command Decision Tournament System Overview Force Lists: Allies Force Lists: Axis Fixed and Required Forces Back to Table of Contents -- Command Post Quarterly # 8 To Command Post Quarterly List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1995 by Greg Novak. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com