Jack Scruby, who died in 1988, probably did as much for the hobby of wargaming as anyone else and, being the complete hobbyist, he certainly enjoyed his own personal tabletop battles. Many years ago, Jack allowed Don Featherstone to use in one of his books an article he had written; Prelude To Battle, which told of his pregame warming up, ably revealing just how much pleasure the enthusiast can achieve from our mutual hobby. Although written maybe 40 years ago, the article still reads well. To go "cold" into a wargame is akin to an athlete competing without the essential preliminary warming up. Although there is nothing in shorter supply than time in a wargamer's life, no stone should be left unturned to "get into the mood" for each and every battle. Such a procedure could be a bit wearing if the weekly battles are in different periods. To fully assimilate a working knowledge of the Napoleonic Wars for one week, then to do the same for the American Civil War whilst World War II is read up for week three is a task of some magnitude. For this reason, the fighting of campaigns is recommended to the wargamer already up to his eyes in molding, casting, and painting. The weeks of preliminary preparation will allow time for reading all available literature on the period, indeed it will not be possible to even contemplate a realistic campaign in any period without this background knowledge. And, when that campaign is halfway through, the wargamer will be able to consider and prepare for the next one. A few lines back the wargamer was enjoined to read "all available literature" perhaps an amendment could be suggested that will not only save time, but probably permit the wargamer to march towards the battlefield with a clearer head. Frequently, all that one requires to know of a particular campaign (for wargame purposes) can be found in a single selected volume. For example, it would be extremely difficult to think up any facits of the Peninsular campaign that cannot be found in Jac Weller's book "Wellington in the Peninsula" (Nicholas Vane, London, 1962). So, look for that good book on your particular campaign and read it from cover to cover. Prelude to Battle By Jack Scruby To the true wargame general, any miniature battle is fun - whether just an impromptu skirmish, or a gigantic affair with hundreds of lead soldiers involved. But to get all the flavor from wargames, there is much more to it than just fighting a battle. I imagine most "old timers" will agree that half the fun is the pre-game planning, the map reading and drawing - the prelude to battle that any wargame general who enters into the spirit - f the thing will eventually get into. Id like to outline here the way Homer Delabar and I fought battles in past years, for it involves much more than meeting over an 8-foot square table behind lines of miniature troops. Generally we planned our battles for Saturday nights, since we could stay up late and fight to the finish if necessary. At least ten days before the wargame, I carefully laid out the map of the coming battle. On paper (and in duplicate) I drew - to scale as closely as possible - a terrain map of the battleground. Here was shown the heights of hills, the roads, the individual houses, fence lines, wooded areas, etc. Special features were marked, altitudes given, and contour lines shown so that there would be no question but that a hill was a hill, or a valley a valley. One copy of this terrain map was kept by myself, and one copy sent to Homer. We thus had a week or more to study the battleground and lay our plans accordingly. Soon after this was mailed out, the first dispatches were criss-crossing in the mails. In heavily stamped envelopes came pages of propaganda, intimate "secrets" and "leaks" from "agents" whose duty it was to spy. Messages were often "captured" by cavalry patrols and sent to the commanding generals, and often these were misleading in information and definitely planted to confuse the opponent. Great bombastic statements on the morale, strength, and fighting ability of one force or the other were sent out and purposely leaked to the opponent. And in fact, all this news often made me squirm and change my plans, for my opponent, General Delabar, was a past master at the 5th column methods he would employ. Naturally, all this writing, done over the pre-game period, was figments of the imagination, but it lead to a gradual mental build up for the game that had each of us on edge by Saturday night. By the tiem Homer appeared for the wargame, we could hardly wait to get to the battle so realistic had this prelude to battle been built up. Now, aside from these dispatches to one another, a history of the events before the battle was also kept. This might run into one - or several - typewritten pages, depending on the events leading to the battle. If it was a battle during a campaign, there were reams of "historic" background for each battle that had occurred, aside from dispatches, battle plans and the final battle report. On paper, therefore, each battle was at least five to ten typewritten pages long! And every angle, every idea had been well covered. But the heavy work was not all in dispatch writing. For each of us spent many hours pouring over the battle map, making overleafs, moving troops mentally or on paper, as we laid out our battle plans. I soon got in the habit of taking my terrain map to work with me, and whenever I had a few minutes, would study it over, scratch on the tissue overleafs in an attempt to come up with some tactical movement that would win the game. Many hours of the purest pleasure was spent in pre-game plans, and eventually I would come up with my final plans - one for offence, and one for defense. Since we each had a complete roster of the troops available for the wargame, we even arranged them on paper as to how they were to be lined up for the start of the game. Then, once the plan of action had been made, the troops who were to do the fighting were stationed at their positions (on paper). Since every wargame general has his favorite regiments it is only natural that he uses them for particular tactics on the table. For instance a regiment of the Wdstream Guards had always been a hard luck outfit for me, so they nearly always were in reserve. My highland regiments were usually always a tough unit, and they usually therefore appeared in the vanguard of any assault, or in a position on defense where they alone could hold an important position against expected enemy assaults. Usually by Thursday nights before the wargame, all plans had been made, troop disposition been assured, and the batde plan was ready to be put in its final draft. Here perhaps two typewritten pages would be made, giving plans down to the last minute detail; the exact spacing of troops; the exact position for guns, etc. So complete were some of the battle plans that almost each game move of the wargame had been planned out ahead of time. Of course, the greatest threat to these well-organized plans was that your opponent would not do exactly as you had foreseen he might do - or as you would do if you were fighting on his side of the battleground. Nevertheless you felt that all was in readiness to give your opponent a rude shock when the curtain went up on the table. Friday night was spent - with loving care - in setting up the battleground on the wargame table. Quite often Homer attended this big event, and the terrain was duplicated as exactly as possible from the map. Generally, the appearance was very similar, and after a few battles we became pretty expert at duplicating the map in three dimensions. Saturday was always a tough day to live through. Many times the plans were checked, last minute changes made of battle orders, troops moved around - until the tension became almost unbearable, and we were like young boys awaiting to get a piece of cake or a new toy. Then - at last - 7 o'clock, and Homer would appear - face flushed, heart beating, hands shaking a little - for the tension had almost reached the breaking point. Actually it reminded me very much of when I had been a young man playing college football. The pre-game tension had become almost unbearable - and this feeling was similar to that of years gone by. We placed the curtain halfway down the wargame table, and began setting up our troops in secret. Every regiment "knew" exactly where it was to go, and what it was to do. We followed our plans carefully - for hadn't we worked this out for a week already? And now a new anxiety would arise, causing us to growl at each other if one had to wait for the other to finish setting up his forces. How was the enemy placed? Where were his troops? Would he be on the attack or defense? Had we figured him out right in his plans for this particular battle? AS tension mounted, we finally finished off the troop dispositions, and withdrew the curtain. Then - like the muffled roar of the sea - came a stream of invective from both players as we sat back and checked our opponent's set up. Man, had we figured the other guy out wrong! He hadn't even considered the plan we thought he would. How horrible, he's concentrated on the left, while I'm weak there! God help my troops, look at the mass of soldiers they're going to have to attack! Never had I loused up a battle plan worse than the one I've been working on! These and other horrible thoughts poured through my mind as I sat gasping - looking at Homer's dispositions. And, in the end, over the board, goes all the glorious battle plans and tactical events we had planned, and the battle settles down to a kill or be killed job that keeps us engrossed for five or six hours. You may well say all the prelude to battle - the reports, plans, ideas, etc., - w e a tremendous waste of time. And possibly they were. But without them half the entertainment of a wargame would be lost, and despite the fact that few battles were ever fought out from our pre-game plans, we nevertheless went through this same effort for every game we planned. The result? A tremendous amount of material in our scrapbooks - most of which will be reread someday when we are too old to play wargames with as much enthusiasm as at the time it was written. In conclusion I must add that fortunate indeed is the wargame general who finds a sympathetic opponent who enjoys the prelude to battle almost as much as the battle itself. These types of men are rare indeed - but well worth the effort of attempting to convert a normal person into, by getting him to go all aout in this interesting phase of wargame fighting. Back to MWAN #112 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2001 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