Most war-game generals get as much kick writing about their war games as playing them. For, almost everyone writes up some kind of a battle report after a fight on the miniature table. Notes are usually kept during the battle of major moves or actions and from, this running account, one can easily make his finished report. Even the great Robert Louis Stevenson, who was a war game addict, spent many pleasant hours writing up pre-game propaganda, historical background, and reports on the fighting of his lead soldiers. Through this paper work there are many ways of making- war games more interesting, and pre-game planning is one of them. A week or so before the battle, sit down with your opponent and draw out the terrain of the forthcoming battle. This can be a simple map showing the major hills, roads, houses, etc. you plan on building on the table top. Each player takes his copy of this map and plans out in secret, and at his leisure during the week, his strategy or tactics for the coming action. Many of us work out an entire series of battle plans before games for both a defensive and offensive battle, and some even go so far as to detail out each move of the game. Although most battle plans go awry, still and all often a successful pre-game plan will bring you victory. In any event, it is lots of fun, and certainly will key you up for the big event when it finally arrives. Pre-game planning also helps speed up the game, especially in setting up the troops on game night. Often the armies are set up behind a curtain that divides the table and hides the players from one another so that neither knows where the other's force is being started from If you haven't done any pre-game planning, you'll hesitate countless times in setting up your soldiers, thus elongating the setup time. The player with a battle plan, whoever, knows exactly which regiment goes where, and requires only a few minutes to spread his force out in pre-arranged positions. Campaigns Now, any war game is fun, but it is much more so if you can arrange a campaign a series of battles that can be played toward an objective, the winning of which determines the winner. All kinds of make-believe historical data can be made up to get a campaign started The players then draw out an area map showing the major roads, hills, towns, and rivers involved in the area the campaign is to be fought over. Each player has a headquarters city, the capture of which means the campaign is ended. Then, by using grand strategy, with a whole series of battles being fought. The winner of the previous battle gets the choice of where the next battle is to take place, and gradually, one player or the other will draw a noose tight around the enemy's headquarters city, and will eventually besiege it for the final battle. Campaigns create a great amount of interest, and keep the tension high at all times. Each battle seems to be your most important in your overall strategy, and a loss is sometimes disastrous, throwing your plans out of kilter, and allowing the opponent a chance to recoup his fortunes. Great realism can be added in campaigns too if each player strives to be realistic in his strategy, considering supply routes and all the varied details necessary to keep an army in the field. This realism, for example, makes it mandatory that any river crossing must be fought for, since this is a natural defensive spot. Villages or hamlets present a problem to the attacking player, and must be outflanked or fought for. Forces may be cut off and surrounded and be forced to surrender after a certain period of time due to lack of supplies. Thus, by attempting to stick to the facts as they present themselves on the area map, great realism can be achieved. And both players should work together in facing the situation in a realistic manner when planning for the next battle of the campaign. The area map need not be too highly detailed, and some attempt should be made to coordinate the size of the tabletop in scale with the map. Thus, if your map shows a 50 square mile section on land, your tabletop might be considered to be a half-mile square section on which battles occur. In transposing the terrain then from the area map to the actual tabletop, details of terrain must be added to the tabletop that do not appear on the area map. For example, if a battle was to occur in mountainous regions, the tabletop might only have one of two hills on it, rather than be a mass of mountain peaks, as it would appear on the area map. The player who is keeping a written account of the battles can tie them in together with the campaign. Eventually you'll wind up with at booklet on one campaign, complete with maps, battle reports, pre-game plans, and "news releases," These, if desired, can be Summarized in an overall picture of the entire campaign, so that you not only have detailed battle reports on each action, but have a "historians" viewpoint of the overall campaign and the strategy that was used by the winner. Wars Many war game players, including myself, set up entire wars between two countries, either historical or make believe in origin. This is perhaps the ultimate for those who like the paper work involved in war games. For here not only the military factor, but the political factor may be introduced, and strategy takes on a grand aspect that covers entire countries, including such things as war production, mines, agricultural area, and even sometimes involving naval forces. Chapter 8: Finale That about completes the basic ideas for war games. Here's hoping this booklet has helped the beginner to get started on the right foot so as to derive the fullest enjoyment from miniature mayhem possible. It is only fair to acknowledge that many of the ideas in the section on Basic Rules are not my own, and that I have the "Old Guard" of war game players around the world to thank for most of the ideas herein presented. To name but a few, thanks to: Ted Haskell, Ed Saunders, Charles Grant, Orson Munn, Larry Brom, Blair Stonier, Homer Delabar, H. G. Wells, Capt. J. C. Sachs, Pat Gorman, Vern Longlee, Ken Bastian, Charlie Sweet, John Schuster, and all the many, many others who contribute to War Game Digest, from which publication many of the ideas brought forth in this booklet have sprung. Note: This introduction was written in the 1960s, and although the scales, manufacturers, and rules systems have multiplied, the basic tenets of wargaming remain true to this text.--RL More All About Wargames Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Troops Chapter 3: Converting and Painting Chapter 4: Wargame Set Up Chapter 5: Army Organization Chapter 6: Basic Rules Chapter 7: Campaigns Back to MWAN #106 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2000 Hal Thinglum 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