There is one way in which miniature gaming is more limited than boardgames: while cardboard markers represent units from one man to entire armies, miniature figures or models represent tactical-level units only. In other words. while there are boardgames at levels from tactical to strategic, and the most popular are at the operational-strategic level, almost all miniature gaming is tactical. For the WWII gamer, this means that most of our tabletop actions represent only part of the historical battle: in modern military terms, we are playing an "action" which is part of an operational "battle" which is part of a strategic "campaign."

While I have seen miniature games representing the tank battle at Kursk or fighting at Arnhem, I have yet to see the entire Market Garden or Kursk on one tabletop. This means. all too often that our tabletop battles existin a vacuum, delineated by artificial victory conditions to make them playable and balanced. On a real battlefield, the force driven from the part of the field may have won the strategic victory by delaying the enemy or inflicting unacceptable casualties. Thus, warped victory conditions are used in order to place the small action in context. Thus, we graduate to campaign games.

I think that campaigns are the most fun you can have in wargaming. On the other hand I know too well how time-consuming and administratively exhausting a really detailed campaign system can be, having devised and run several such. The great feat, then, is to devise or steal a campaign system, a framework for the miniature battles that doesn't require much work before laying lead on the table. Enter boardgames Given the majority of WWII boardgames are set at the next level up from the tactical, they provide a set of systems to "surround" the with an operational or strategic framework.

These is an almost bewildering variety of world war two boardgames on the market and an overwhelming number of of out-of-print or rare WWII boardgames around -- it has been the most popular topic for cardboardery since boardgaming started. For our purposes, however, the most useful campaign games divide into two groups: Operational (divisiojna nd brigade sized is the smallest unit) and Operational-Tactical (regiments or bttns). Below, I'll list the most useful game systems available.

1. Europa: The series from Games Research/Design covers all of the European Theater in WWII with titles such as Second Front (France, Germany 1944-45 and Italy 1943-45), Fire in the East/Scorched Earth (East Front 1941-45), Balkan Front (Balkans. 1940-1), and Torch/Western Desert(North Africa 1940-43). There are games in the series covering Poland 1939, Norway 1940, France 1940, and a current game, For Whom The Bell Tolls covering the Spanish Civil War. The Europa series has good to excellent maps at a scale of 25 km/hex, orders of battle covering divisional level, and every separate unit down to individual support battalions. Although labeled an Operational game-set, the actual scale is Operational strategic, since the game turn is 2 weeks and most of the games cover entire campaigns or strategic theaters.

2. Operational Combat Series - This series of games is from The Gamers, and includes one title, Tunisia covering North Africa in late 1942-early 1943, and several titles on the Eastern Front: Guderian's Blitzkrieg (Sep - Dec 1941), Enemy at the Gates (Stalingrad 1942), and Hube's Pocket (Spring 1944). These games are much smaller in scale than the Europa series, with 2.5 to miles per hex and units representing divisions down to individual tank battalions.

3. Clash of Arms Games and 3W have both issued games on Eastern Front battles that are much the same i.e. Clash of Arms' Prelude to Disaster (Kharkov 1942) and 3Ws Spires of the Kremlin (Moscow 1941). Both have maps at 5 miles/hex and counters representing units from division to battalion, and time frames of 2 days/turn: about one third of the game turn that the Gamers Operational System uses.

But, you say, I don't want to play with battalions or regiments, so how do I "translate" the boardgame es to the table? For this answer I am indebted to Frank Chadwick, as so many of us are for so much. Back in 1988, Frank published Barbarossa 25 and introduced the concept of "Bathtub" campaiging. What he did was simply take the Europa game maps and scale for the Eastern front operational/strategic games, and reduce them a ratio of 25: 1. 0 hex on the Europa map became 1 foot (approximately) on the wargame table, and each of boardgame turns became a half-day in the miniature battle (played of course, with Frank's Command Decision miniatures rules). Orders of battle were scaled down to 1/25, approximately one battalion plus supporting troops of miniatures for every two divisions in the cardboard array.

The stunning simplicity of this concept deserves to be better known and used. It allows us to convert virtually any boardgame system to whatever scale and number of miniatures have available, simply by using the same basic concept and varying the reduction ratio used. For instance, if you prefer single-figure skirmish with no more than a platoon company on a side, you could reduce the Europa system to 1 hex = 100 yds or whatever in your ground scale represents one foot of table), each turn to 10 - 15 minutes, and each infantry division in cardboard to a rifle squad and each tank division to a single armored vehicle. Moscow on the cardgame map becomes a village the Germans are trying to reach by nightfall, instead of a city they are trying take before winter!

The less reduction you have to do the better, so as a general guideline, I'd suggest using the Clash of Arms or 3W games for skirmish actions, because they have a lot more detail on their maps and so provide a "realistic" battlefield for individual figures on the table. If, on the other hand, you are playing at the platoon level with rules like Command Decision or Spearhead, the Gamers, 3W, or Clash of Arms' operational level counters can almost be converted without scaling: It is quite possible to put an entire division on the table, especially at the platoon level in microarmor, and play the battles generated by the boardgame out in miniature. Of course, the printed strengths on the counters become irrelevant after the battle, when the actual miniature ses in the tactical battles will have to be carried over.

The 'linking' rules for casualty-recovery, replacements, etc. between miniature battles can be as elaborate as simple as you like. Almost all of the boardgames have rules for replacements and reinforcements which could scaled or used "as written", or you can substitute a simple 'saving throw" of one die per model/squad/figure after game to indicate replacements or repaired equipment returned to service.

Remember, the whole purpose of these games for us is to provide a framework for the miniatures battles you get off into playing the boardgames themselves, while that can be very interesting, its another part of the historical gaming hobby: keep it simple, and they can provide a ready-made framework for victory or defeat on the tabletop: if the German company never got into the village of Moskva, it doesn't matter that all three Russian platoon leaders got shot dead in three consecutive skirmishes! One final note on boardgaming, which has nothing to do with using them as a framework and everything with the state of miniatures rules. As I mentioned in the last column, I'v gotten some letters from groups and individuals gaming WWII in parts of the US, Canada, and Great Britain, and one constant is the number of people either writing their own rules or converting boardgame rules to miniatures. The most common set of boardgame rules mentioned was Advanced Squad Leader, which I have personally seen played as miniatures in both 1:200 scale and 20mm. In addition to ASL, which is marketed by Avalon-Hill, I'd like to mention a couple of board candidates for conversion into Miniature rules.

1. Tactical Combat Series This is from the Gamers, a companion, if you will, to the Operational Combat Series mentioned above. The titles of individual games include GD'40 and GW41 (Gross Deutschland Regiment in I 1941). Maleme (Crete 1941), Matanilcau(Guadalcanal 1942-43), and Black Wednesday(Russia 1942). The sc of these games is single vehicle and squads of infantry, which matches what a lot of people have said they are interested as an alternative to the larger, platoon-level games. Since the titles available range from the Pacific through France in 1940 to the Eastern Front from 1941 to 1942, there is a lot of variety of rules and equipment that can be converted and used. In fact, in microarmor the ground scale could almost be taken straight from boardgame maps. since a 1:285 tank will just about fit into a 1/2" hex!

2. Sniper This is an old Simulations Publications game, which I believe was reprinted and reissued by Victory Games a couple of years ago. I remember it fondly in its original form as a man-to-man skirmish set that played much "cleaner' than the Advanced Squad Leader rules, so even though I'm not certain how easily available it is, I'll toss it out there. The scenarios were all built around individual patrols of 5 to 15 men with various missions in a built-up city area. Counters represented individuals, and the entire map, if approximately doubled in size, will be perfectly scaled for 20mm figures. This would make a good conversion set for someone who wants to do Stalingrad, Aachen, or Cassino scenarios. Using a city scenario for small unit WWII actions has one disadvantage: you can have a realistic isolated squad or platoon action at close range, since that was the normal course of action in city fighting. Also, for those with the skill to make them, city battlefields can be very spectacular. Cassino battlefield at HISTORICON 96 was probably the most eye catching display of any of the WWII games there.