Normandy Coast, June 6, 1944, 03:20 hrs. Sergeant Murphy moved along the edge of the hedgerow, taking care to remain in the shadows. He hadn't seen any of the other paratroopers from his stick since he hit the ground. He slowly worked his way towards what he thought was the rally point. Every sound and movement seemed like a German soldier to him as a curious cow found out 20 minutes ago when Murphy almost shot it with his Thompson. He couldn't tell where or who anything was in the darkness. Alone, jumpy and lost behind enemy lines was not how he had planned to liberate Europe. Murphy came to a dirt country road as he moved to the edge of the hedgerow. He looked up and down both sides but didn't see any movement or hear any sounds. A quick sprint across the road and he'd be back into the cover of the opposite hedge. He heard the burp of a German MP-40 as he reached the center of the road. "Where did that come from?" raced through Murphy's mind as he jumped headfirst into the irrigation ditch on the side of the road. A few moments of silence passed, before he saw a four man German patrol working its way down the road. He gently pushed himself further into the hedgerow. The patrol moved right by him. "Luck of the Irish" Murphy thought as the German patrol moved into the darkness down the road. He pulled the pin on one of his grenades and threw it in the general direction that the patrol had taken. Murphy took off at a sprint in the opposite direction just as the grenade exploded. He didn't hear any screams or shots fired at him as he ran across the field. "You shot at me from the dark and I threw a grenade at you. I figure we'll call it even". Once across the field, Murphy resumed his cautious advance towards the rally point, hoping for no more surprises before the sun came up. THE "DOUBLE BLIND" GAME How do you simulate this kind of encounter on the tabletop, with shots coming out of the darkness and limited visibility? The fog of war has always been the most difficult to recreate. The most common solution is to have one side mark where its units are on a map. As the other side moves its forces forward, the hidden units are revealed. This does give an advantage to the side with the hidden units as they can see where the other sides' troops are and where the main effort will be. It also takes away some of the hidden players fun in the game, because there are no surprises for them. Some of the best games I have played in have always raised my level of anxiety. Where are the "bad guys", "where is the push coming from" and "what do they have for troops"? If you can see the opposing forces, you know the answers to those questions by looking at the game table and seeing what is coming at you across the board. You also don't get to see your figures on the table until something runs into them. Instead of pushing the figures under your command around the game board, you are moving symbols around on a paper map. One way to re-create the level of uncertainty and confusion for both sides is to use a table called "double blind" where both sides have the benefit of unknowns. The major feature of the game is two identical table layouts, one for each side. The same roads, buildings, woods, walls and all other terrain items placed on the two tables. Then hang a sheet between the tables to block the players' view from the other table. Some people recommended having THREE tables set up, one for each side and one in the center for the GM. Listen to these people politely, nod your head and then ignore them. That is far too much work and too many figures and terrain. They mean well, but let's move on. THINGS THE GAME MASTER SHOULD KNOW: Running a double blind game is a great deal of work for the GM, but it is also a great deal of fun. You watch as the two sides movement may cause them to cross by each other on opposite sides of a high wall or run right into each other as they sprint around the corner of a building. As the Game Master (GM), you will have to keep track of the events on both sides. A bit of "Kriegspiel" (sic) and almost role-playing should be created by the GM. Any amount of confusion you can add to the players will add to their enjoyment of the game. Lie to them on occasion. In actual combat you do not know everything that is going on, so the player shouldn't in the game either. 1) LIMITED VISIBILITY: A key feature to the game is to have all spotting rolls made by the GM without the players being aware of the results. I use a sheet of pre-rolled numbers and cross off the next number as each spotting attempt is announced. This cuts down on dice rolling and doesn't let the players know if they just missed the required number or not. If a result is very bad, tell the player they see something that isn't there or that the enemy troops are friendlies. The opposite is also true. If the results are very good, give the player some extra details about what he sees. I had one German player in a "Battleground" game engage a few Soviet soldiers in a tree line for 3 turns that were not there. His "soldiers" thought they saw something or so I told him. In another W.W. II game, I placed a Tiger tank on the American side of the board, when in reality it was only a Mk III on the German side. To green American troops, every German tank is a Tiger tank. Then in the next game, it really was a Tiger. Never trust a smiling game master. 2) KEEP IT SMALL AND MANAGEABLE: As figures on one side of the game board are moved into line of sight, open fire or do any action that would be seen or noticed by the other side, place the appropriate figures on the other side of the table. This will require extra figures and vehicles for each side of the table. It helps to run games without a large number of figures and also on a smaller table. My table is 12 x 6, so each side's game area is about 6 x 6. Let the players know if they hear gunfire, horse hoof beats, yelling or any sounds that carry over the simulated battlefield during play. For example "you hear an engine moving away from you". The player doesn't know what it is, only that something is near by. 3) ADDING IN THE "ACT OF GOD": Another feature I like to add to a game is to introduce events that are not controlled by the players. Random artillery shell, sudden collapse of a damaged building, routing troops and/or vehicles. Anything unknown adds to the players concern. Make the players think, "1 didn't cause that to happen, so something on the other side must have". In one Battleground game, the sole surviving driver in a T-34 had complete morale failure from an action off the board. Nothing was going to stop him from driving down the road from one end of the board to the other to escape. Not even for the Russian officer who stepped in front of the tank and ordered it to stop. The T-34 kept on going and the Soviet had another martyr for the Motherland. When the German players saw this, they were completely confused and thought there were Germans inside the tank. 4) BREAK UP LINE OF SIGHT: It is import to limit the line of sight in a game. This will add to the players' anxiety by not letting them see what is around the next corner, over the wall or down the road. This can be done in a number of ways. One is to have a great deal of terrain on the board. Like a game in the Normandy bocage. Try not to clutter it up too much, but put enough pieces down to make it difficult to see long distances. Another way is to run night games or poor weather games. Tell the players it is dark out or a heavy fog has blanketed the area. Visibility is limited to 20" or any distance is ideal. The GM can still tell them they hear noises from the fog, but only give a general idea of what direction. Most games I run as double blinds are skirmish level for two reasons. When you add the element of the unknown into a skirmish game (players pushing between 1 to 5 figures) you see a real hesitancy to go charging forward with guns blazing. Also, you need twice the number of figures so it is easier to put on games with a smaller troop level. I usually discard morale rules when a player is pushing only one figure in a game. The actual morale of the player gives a better indication of morale than a die roll. For example, I've seen two players (one pushing a sergeant and the other a private) arguing over who was going to take point. They reached a consensus of opinion when the sergeant threatened to shoot the private if he didn't follow his orders. The private moved off, grumbling about getting every lousy job in the game. Any historical period came be played. The mentioned W.W. 11 actions (paratrooper drops, Normandy hedgerow and city fights), a detachment of Federal or Confederate soldiers foraging for supplies, French cavalry scouting in Spain or Vikings attacking a Saxon village in the early morning hours are all scenarios that can utilize the double blind system. Confusion in combat spans all time. Double blind games can certainly be tricky and use extra terrain and figures, but they also give the GM an opportunity to be creative and devious in a way no other game method allows. Try something running small for the first game, such as clearing three or four farm buildings in a village, before you jump right into Stalingrad. Hope to see you across the table. Back to MWAN # 131 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2004 Legio X 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