Wargamers are among the most knowledgeable people in the world when it comes to their peculiar areas of interest. Among what other group can you sit at the bar at one of the conventions, like HISTORICON, COLD WARS, or ENFILADE, and have a conversation that ranges from Custer's Last Stand to air-to-air combat in the Pacific in 1944 and have several people around the table that know enough to talk about each and every one of the subjects?

Knowing the history, both campaign and technical, of the military periods we're trying to recreate is an absolute prerequisite if we want to play games other than thinly-disguised Historical Fantasy. On the other hand, knowing too much about the particular battlefield situation and our opponent makes many game recreations of historical situations virtually unplayable.

Example: Your force is traveling down a road on its way to X. You are going to be ambushed. How can you tell? Well, there's no sense setting up the game if there isn't going to be a fight, right? Hard to hide the fact that there has to be an enemy out there, and specifically on this set of table top! Second example: you have a heavy armored force advancing over open plains. Every square inch ofthe ground in front of you is mined and the enemy is dug in everywhere. Are you going to advance over the mines and into his guns? The point of both of these examples is that most of the advances to contact, or mobile battles, and most of the attacks on a prepared defense, are unplayable as they occurred because the gamer Knows Too Much. There is a much simpler example that, I think, makes the problem obvious: how many gainers, in ANY scenario in any period, have ever seen a flank attack that wasn't set up by the game situation or table configuration? If you can See Them Coming, you face them, and that's exactly why flank attacks on the table turn into frontal slogging matches.

So, what I'd like to do here is show you the one thing you can add to any game, but especially to WWII games, that will improve the realism, play-balance, and nail-biting suspense more than any other single thing you can do to the game: Add Ignorance.

There are two types of information that the gamer or the general needs with which to make decisions, that we can easily deny in a scenario: the terrain and the enemy. Specifically, the commander needs to know how fast he can move through the terrain and how much cover he can get from it, and had like to know exactly where and in what strength the enemy Is on that terrain. let's take terrain first. because that is the easiest type of information to Mess With.

Keep it simple. You could have the gamer dice for every inch his troops traverse, with the "going" varying constantly, but this, aside from being too variable, would be unplayable. So, take only the critical terrain: woods, slopes, streams or other'linear obstacles". Make up several pieces of green index cards for each piece of wood or forest on the table. Label each card as Heavy Woods, Light Woods, Open Woods, etc (however your rules define the various types). If your rules don't differentiate different types of wooded areas, find another set that does, and adopt at least two different sets of woody characteristics. Now shuffle the cards face down, and deal one card to each set of woods. Until someone enters the woods, they cannot examine the card and see what type of woods they are. In other words, the defender that sets up in the woods will know, but two forces moving to contact or one attacker will have to send some reconnaissance types to see, or take a chance on Ugly Surprises.

Slopes can be examined from a distance, so instead of a card indicator, simply define each slope as 'steep" or 'gentle", and then for each vehicle trying to climb it, roll a D10 die (or D6, as appropriate for your rules) and subtract that total, or twice that total on a steep slope, from the vehicle's movement. The "trafficability" of the slope may vary dramatically just inches apart - and thats perfectly normal, given that one tank may hit a steep or muddy patch, and another find the small draw or saddle that leads right to the top. Linear obstacles, such as streams, hedgerows, gullies, ravines, balkas, etc. can be handled the same way: roll a die and check the trafficability at the specific spot you tried to cross - see if your tank driver found the sinkhole or the ford, the firm bottom or the seven-foot cliff in the ravine.

All of this will make it impossible for someone to do the kind of unrealistic calculations that are normal in an ordinary game. You know the type: "-My Mk 11 moves 13" per turn and he can't fire until the end of the phase and the cover is 11" away so I can zip over there..." With variable terrain, you can try that move, and maybe it will work ...

The best way to cover up information about the enemy is not to put any troops or models on the table. Unfortunately, this requires both an umpire and two honest players. Now, the players are bound to be honest, because why would you bother playing with someone who cheats? Life's's too short for that, but unless you have an angelic gaming group, finding someone willing to be a disinterested and non playing umpire all the time is just not likely. Enter Mister Index Card again.

Index cards come in, among other colors, tan and green. These are reasonably realistic when scattered about a model landscape, so chop up a bunch of index card stock into pieces about the size of your troop stands. Now mark the pieces on one side as if they were troops, vehicles, units, etc.

This is a good, mindless project for some evening when the only thing on the'IV is Bowling For Hamburger. Add about one blank card for every marked card. Make up one set in tan, one in green, so you can tell which side is which by color, even when the identity of the actual unit is still unknown.

When you set up the game, either both sides will start off-board or, more usually, someone is on defense on the board and some,one is arriving to remove him. Set up the defenders with the cards, blank sides up and plenty of 'd markers included. Set up the attacker, either as off-board columns or behind their start line. Move units and dummies until they are spotted, then replace with the models/figures or remove the dummy card. For this you need that honest opponent, because dummies shouldn't be legitimately spotting anyone. There are all kinds of nasty and nifty things you can do with the cards:

1. Mark some cards with a Registration Mark or bulls-eye. These cannot be spotted, which means the enemy will either assume it's some kind of dug-in camouflaged sniper or a dummy. In fact, they represent aiming points for preplanned artillery concentrations or barrages, to be enacted when the enemy comes sniffing up to them. 2. Make up some cards with an arrow and a number. These mark a minefield, which is located so many inches/centimeters (the number) in the direction of the arrow. You can use this same technique with the registration points. Even if the enemy tries to avoid running over your cards, he can still run into an unscouted mine or into a sudden artillery strike...

3. Mark some cards as bunkers or other improved positions. When they are spotted, put the position on the board, but don't put any troops or gun inside - they can't be spotted until they fire or the enemy Is right on top of them. And, of course, some of those positions may not have anyone inside! Neat variation: add dummy minefield cards as well, that the enemy has to start clearing as if they were mines, or run over them, before discovering that there's really, a(~R nothing there.

4. Vary the number and percentage of dummy cards based on the camouflage ability of the army. For instance, Russian troops might deploy 50% dummy markers, while German or US troops who aren't as experienced or trained in hugging Mother Earth might be allowed only 25 - 33% dummy markers. You can also vary the percentage according to terrain troops in jungle, forest, town, or other terrain that's easy to hide in increasing the numbers of dummy markers they generate. Don't be afraid to scatter dummy counters around a lot: the Soviet Arrny rule was that every weapon should have at least two prepared positions plus at least one dummy position so it could keep shifting to avoid being targeted. You could, therefore, legitimately have 2 - 3 dummy markers for every real unit card on the board! Uncovering extra Dummies alone could realistically and painlessly recreate the agonizingly slow advance characteristic of troops "feeling' their way through heavy cover looking for the enemy ..

All of these Ignorance Factors should encourage some realistic reconnaissance and scouting on everybody's part. If you regard the "little was of scout and counter-recon as being too insignificant to mess with, or you just haven't bothered to paint up a bunch of scouting vehicles/troops, there's a way to speed up this process realistically. Give each side a number of "scout" markers. The number can depend on the battle, on the nationality and organization of the opponents, or just on what you think you need to balance the scenario. Before the game starts, but after all the marked and dummy cards have been laid out, each side can "scout'. If both sides are moving (an encounter battle, which is rare but can be a fascinating scenario), roll to see who goes first. The player with the scout initiative then places one of his scout markers next to one of the cards in the enemy front line and turns that card over. If it turns out to be a dummy, the scout keeps going, into the second line or along the front. As soon as he turns over a troop, vehicle, or unit card of any type, the scout card is removed. This doesn't mean their destruction so much as it indicates that they feel they've done enough for the day and are going back to report and rest! At that point the opponent, if he is also deploying scouts, goes through the same process. Alternate until both sides have done all their preliminary scouting, place the revealed units out, and have at it.

This procedure "abstracts" the prebanle attempt to 'develop' the situation that was so much a part of real combat, and does it fast enough that you can get into shoving lead with little delay. If you have painted up combat recon units, with armored cars, tanks, heavy weapons, et al, then of course you'll probably want to deploy these and fight it out as part of the scenario. Even then, you might want to start out with a "scout card" or two, representing the first foot patrol venturing out with orders to '- don't fight, or even take a prisoner, just see how much fire you can draw!"