Attack of the
Flesh Eating Romero Zombies

Free Kreigspeils on a Personal Perspective

by Tom Barnes

Tom Barnes' Romero Zombie game is a homorous revival of a most time honored wargame method - the free kriegspeil. This was one of the first methods for running games back a hundred years ago. What it is, and why it is coming back says something about where gaming is today and what might be coming down the road.

It seems like the hobby is looking more to its roots recently. Newsletters about free kreigspeil, and early naval games seem to be gaining more interest. In addition there have been recent articles about the early pioneers of "for fun" games such as Robert Louis Stevenson and HG wells. This is of course nostalgia, but I believe it is also more. It seems like the hobby is searching for its roots. The last twenty years has seen an explosion in gaming activities: Miniatures, SPI board games, Role. Play Games, Computer Games, and now Matrix Games. It is natural for us all to be a little confused about what it is that we are doing. Looking at our collective roots seems to me to be one way that we are trying to make sense out of the present chaos. My hope is that as a result of this new synthesis a whole new batch of gaming activity will come out.

Free kriegspeil is certainly not the oldest way of running wargames. Chess (and even earlier boardgames) has that honor. Not is this one method of gaming the most widely played. It has some major virtues though, that make it an excellent historical precedent to almost all the branches of gaming done today.

Kriegspeils used wooden blocks with soldiers painted on them (the anticedent of both miniatures and cardboard counters). They used maps, like boardgames. Players represented commanders, like RPGs, and they used a lot of interplay between the referee and players, like a matrix game.

Free kriegspeil can be claimed by all the genres as an Inspiration. Once we realize this, then secular arguments between the genres of the hobby can be lessened, and our energies directed towards future games that use the best of the last twenty years. Tom, seems to be doing this with his present game. So what is it that he is actually doing?

WHAT IS A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE BATTLE?

Tom's game is a sample of a type of free kriegspeil game that has been run In Southern Indiana for around six years. The basic idea is the same as any free kriegspeil. The difference comes from the perspective that the players assume. Each player chooses one commander that he choses to run during the game. For the rest of the game the player is only allowed to know what his commander could actually see and hear. The birds eye view of the gaming table is ended and the fog of war takes over.

Before the game begins, the referee draws up the needed maps. He also draws lists of forces and tables that set down march rated and simple combat factors. When the game begins the referee keeps track of where the various forces are and what orders they are acting on. The players only job is to make decisions based on completely inadequate information.

While the commanders are in the same place on the map, their respective players can sit together and talk freely. Once they go their separate ways though, the players are separated into different rooms and may only communicate by messages.

One quickly learns that messages are often more confusing than no information at all. Garbled signals and late dispatches lead to more friendly fire, and unexpected casualties more than anything the enemy does.

The referee spends the entire game going from player to player, describing what his commander sees and hears, so that he may respond with new orders. This requires that the referee be both fast on his feet and well versed in story telling and lying. It is important that these descriptions be complete and clear, but there must be built in limits to what Is said. Sometimes information is purposely distorted and altered in light of what the commander is trying to see. Details are naturally made fuzzy and Impressionistic. This is very hard for beginning referees to do, and is the reason why this kind of game will likely never be too popular or wide spread.

The referee can often be aided by a helper who runs messages between the players. Shorter distances to run, or maybe radios could also speed the rate of play up.

Often time it seems as though Personal Perspective games work best right up until the battle is joined. Then the fog of war really sets in and players become frustrated from a lack of information arid control. It almost seems to work better at that point to throw away the formal rules and handle combats as more an Interaction between the player and the referee.

For example ...

The player decides to assault a house. His men move forward and start to take enemy fire. The referee tells the player how many casualties have been taken and asks for orders. Depending on what the player says the referee describes a new situation and more casualty reports. Some players frustrate quickly and do not press on despite loses. They may go prone to avoid more fire (i.e. the unit is now pinned down). And then their are the players who are willing to hold the course. Strangely these are often the same guys who are lousy in standard tactical games. They use simple plans from which they do not swerve. They either lead their men into utter disaster or glorious (if bloody) victory.

The built in problem of personal perspective battles is the complete dependence of the game on the referee. He must run and gun for the entire battle. This makes such games slow and confused for everyone. on a small enough scale though (and in PBMs) they work marvelously.

TOM'S GAME

I played in Tom's game as one of the zombies. In fact I had a whole lot of zombies (complete with little girl, Civil War officer, and hell fire preacher). We were told upon rising from the grave, that we were hungry. Unfortunatly zombies don't see to well, move to fast, or understand a whole lot. Consequently the game mainly consisted of stumbling in to hysterical victims (horror movie style) and being ambushed by the "food" that was fighting back.

The towns folk players had a very different experience of perspective. They started the game with very accurate maps of the terrain and knowledge of where most of the local resources were. They moved faster and saw more than we could even when well fed. Even so, we zombies won. Judicious zombifying of most of the "victims" we encountered eventually created overwhelming numbers of mindless dead that were able to overwhelm the less cooperative "food."

To be honest this scenario reads better than it plays but it includes all the basic elements of a free kriegspeil and is hopefully entertaining enough looking for you to maybe try out one of your own.

More Attack of the Flesh Eating Romero Zombies

Back to Experimental Games Group # 12 Table of Contents
Back to Experimental Games Group List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 1991 by Chris Engle
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com