I was introduced to wargaming in 1969 when Van Siegling invited me to go to Cogacon. My first World War II miniatures game was all it took. I was hooked! I was bothered, however, by the complexity of the rules and the time needed to complete each turn. I decided to compile my own rules that I liked and began looking at as many sets as I could find.

"Tractics" and "Angriff" were not bad, but still complex. The "Fast Rules" were too simple. During this search, which lasted a number of years, I found an interesting set of rules at The State Library of Ohio: "Operation Warboard," published in 1976. It was written by Gavin and Bernard Lyall and was subtitled "Wargaming World War II Battles in 20-25mm Scale."

What was interesting about this set of rules was the order in which it was written. The book opened with the description of a small combat action, including sketches and photos. Chapter two describes what gaming is, the background of the rules, and in general "sets the hook." The next three chapters give suggestions on acquiring the soldiers, vehicles, and scenery needed to play. At the time, Airfix, Matchbox, and Minitank were the only real sources. The author describes several simple conversions to both man and machine to fill gaps in what was then available, and gives suggestions on unit size. Chapter six describes the creation of the machine-gun and artillery grids used for play.

In chapter seven, "Playing the Game," another small game is presented, this time an ambush. Chapter eight continues with a larger game -- a D-Day beach landing. These two games are presented turn-for-turn and many of the rules are described in some detail. The author also describes military and gaming strategies and conducts an after-the-battle debriefing to explain what was done right or wrong. The final 90 pages are divided into two parts. The first half is "Notes on the Rules." Here, in 12 sections, are descriptions of military tactics related to gaming tactics. These seem to cover most every common problem a novice gamer can run into. Even an experienced gamer can pull out some useful and interesting information.

Lastly, we come to "The Rules" in 13 sections. Movement is measured in centimeters with all infantry moving the same and tanks being divided into three classes. Armour statistics are given for the American, British, and German vehicles available at the time. All firing is done using six-sided dice, with machine guns and artillery using the grids mentioned earlier. Other sections include Command, Airborne Forces, Air, and Invasion/Surprise.

I very much enjoyed reading these rules and borrowed from them as I wrote the set I currently use. The format of the book makes sense when you consider that, in 1976, wargaming with World War II miniatures was still a fairly new hobby. The author realized that he needed to catch the interest of the future gamer before he loaded on the rules. I don't know how widespread this set of rules was but it makes for quite interesting reading.