In the last issue, I described the ground rules we used in a umpired game of Bloody 110th we played at our retreat last April. This article will be a postscript to that one and will give a rundown of how it went and what lessons were learned by us in the operation of umpired games of this sort. I will not give more than a brief description of the operations run by the players, the intent here is to examine the umpired game operating system, not game play.

We ran this game with eight people. I played the roll of judge, fate, and (when required) god. Each team was made up of one off-map player, one on-map primary player, and one on-map assistant. For the Germans, this consisted of Rod Miller, Dave Powell, and Al Wambold respectively. The American team consisted of Sam Simons, Tom Watson, and Ric Walters. Our own Dave "Sticky" Combs played the role of CNN and journalistic pest with a camcorder. (Yes, there is a VCR tape of this game, if Dave Powell hasn't burned it yet.) Wolf Blitzer had better watch out...

Teams were formed Friday night and they got together to thrash out overall strategy for their side. This was a very important period because it was the last time the off-map players could describe what they wanted to the on-map players face to face with a game map to point at. The German team got down to business and laid out a campaign plan that they developed in a committee fashion which actually worked for most of the game without major alteration.

I wondered if Rod would ever take charge of his subordinates during this process-he didn't. As opposed to telling them what he wanted them to do, he'd throw out an idea to see if they liked it. I'm not quite sure how they developed the plan they did. My sharpest memory is of Dave Powell getting aggravated at the process and repeatedly asking Rod, "Well, what do you want us to do..." The major problem with the German plan was its predictability. It looked much like other game plans we've seen in face to face play. Anything unexpected--a deep southern pincer or a hide-away force in a batch of woods--would have given the US team more to chew on and pull their hair out about.

The American team was made of different stuff. Tom Watson, senior US on-map player was to arrive late, so Sam and Ric had to come up with a plan of their own. Ric didn't want the burden of giving Tom a plan he couldn't live with, so he let Sam work it out himself. And Sam set about doing just that. It took several hours. Planning the likes of which the world hasn't seen since Hitler ordered around every battalion on the Eastern Front! We're talking micro-management here, folks, big time. Sam was planning the movements and releases ofindividual AT Guns, etc.

The US plan was set up like a big shotgun--on cue, all reserves would be released to pre-planned positions. The problem was thattheplan was very inflexible. It depended little on the type and location of threat being faced (after Rod and the Germans revealed their hand.) Instead, it deployed the US's meager reserves evenly to each of the village bastions. When Tom arrived he pretty much accepted what he was given, although his understanding of the plan was hampered by not being there for the planning process. As it turned out, his understanding of the plan proved a bonus--he applied very loose interpretations to his orders which were no where near the strict move-by-move way they were planned.

Satisfied with their initial planning, the two on-map teams collected in the playtest room to set up. The off-map players, isolated one each in the front and middle offices, proceeded to twiddle their thumbs. Set up finished with little problem and we broke off for the night.

The Day of Reckoning

Early the next day (around 7:00 am, I think) we all arrived to start play. The off-map players went back to their cloisters, the on-map ones to the playtest room. I started the timer. At first only a few messages started to move, followed in a few minutes by a literal deluge. Calls for fire poured off the map to the off-map players who were quick to allocate resources and fire what they thought was important. Play proceeded at a good clip. Early

n, much friction was apparent in the workings of the US team. Sam would ask the map for information and would get sarcasm or nothing for an answer. It came to a head when Sam asked for a weather report and Tom yelled back at him "Look out your ##% clo@ * window!" They must have noticed that this was getting in the way of efficient play and, somehow, they resolved their differences and by afternoon were proceeding in a much more business-like manner.

By our lunch break several things were evident. There was nowhere near enough bogus information coming from the map to help keep the off-map players in the dark; Sam had lost track of nearly all of his own units; and Rod had little to do since his masterplan was working like a well-oiled machine. It was time to change.

I decided to start inventing assorted phoney intelligence problems for the off-map players to deal with. Reports of tank platoons and other enemy contacts in strange places on the map gave the off-map players more to worry about. I tried to make these "vapor-forces" follow realistic plans and give them coherent stories. A tank report at Roder would be supported by further reports. Answers to clarification questions would be forged, etc. Rod failed to take any of the bait and continued to read the sports pages from his paper. Sam bit on a couple but his op sheet reactions never had time to reach the map.

Some weird orders were issued from Sam to Tom moving some units to counter vapor-force threats, but Tom managed to ignore most of themagain he seemed to be stretching it. The bogus report campaign failed due to my inability to lie effectively and due to some "screening" going on by the on-map players. An on-map judge would have been a valuable addition-someone who could take the time to give official interpretations to op sheets coming in so that the on-map players couldn't take liberties. I was far too busy to be able to do this. Also, the on-map judge could give "valuable" BS reports and unimportant reports to the off-map players. I was, again, too busy to sit down to collect my thoughts and come up with a decent set of bogus reports which would have a better chance of buffaloing the off-map players.

Sam, in order to find out where his guys were, made an excellent move of sending explicit "where are you" questions to each of his commands-and in sending several of each one. In this way, he managed to get at least one positional report from everyone (to the great consternation of Tom who retorted several times "I already told him that twice!!!" (expletives deleted.) By the end of the game, Sam had decent idea of where his forces were.

Derailing Rod's master plan proved impossible since he didn't believe any of my bogus reports and reacted accordingly. On the map, his forces butchered themselves in the taking of Mamach and his northern pincer drive was well on its way to Reuler. Sam's forces (run by Tom with his radio to higher firmly in the "off" position) formed a tight defensive line just west of Mamach making a semi-circle to the north and south from Reuler down and around to directly south of Clervaux.

As play went into the afternoon (game and real time), a curious problem occurred. Basically, the on-map players were slowing down due to burn-out--they had, after all run through half the first day already-and the off-map players went nuts sending artillery fire missions to the map, AND a flood of old fire missions on my desk (held up in transmission) were released to the map. The result? With a thousand-yard-stare with no rivals, the on-map players attempted to get through fire mission after fire mission. My information periods came and went so that each time they were almost finished firing their missions-a new batch of "hot off the presses" fire missions would show up. After some undefined period of this hammering, both on-map players baited the Artillery Fire Segment and went on to the next phaseincoming fire mission orders be damned! The lesson here is to allow the map time to determine the information periods, not to have them separated as I attempted. While the full 20 minute turn is too long for the information period, possibly a mid point in the turn could be selected when play is suspended and the judge runs his orders about. This would allow for two periods per turn plus a brief respite for the burdened on-map players.

All during the game and especially during their most frazzled moments, the off-map players were pinned down by our erstwhile CNN team of Sticky and his traveling camcorder. While no troops from either side surrendered to him for milk and cookies, he was, at any rate, able to document on film much of the inner workings of the minds of the two off-map players. His efforts added to the enjoyment of all concerned, especially when Sam was raving that all was lost (again) and Sticky put to him the question: "Is there anything you'd like to tell the people at home?" While we have yet to get one of Sam's classic rave-outs on film-this came close. If you play an umpired game, be sure to have your own CNN crew-with imagination it's a blast, plus watching the film afterward is great. Nothing will ever beat the scene of the Nazi command post, Rod Miller in charge, with his feet up on my desk reading the sports pages and the "mellooldies" music floating the background as he repeatedly ignored pleas for help against imaginary US tank attacks! As with U.S. Grant, Rod Miller don't scare worth a damn.

We had a lot of fun playing this umpired game, although there are a few things I'd do differently next time. The changes I've mentioned above, plus I'd want to do something other than be the judge! If you can find the time and the people, give this method of play a shot--you'll have a blast, too.