or How to Introduce an element of the Fog of War in Scenario Generation.

In wargaming 54mm WW2 scenarios, the Lion's Den club has tried innumerable methods of turn sequencing, command numbers, action points, card turning and die rolling to establish initiative in the simulation of man to man level action our group enjoys best. Our latest "innovation" is nothing new to the field of wargaming-especially if your are a solo gamer or just like to play with yourself. The newest trick in our simulations is to program one side of the fight entirely with chance cards. If you are a role player this isn't that odd--it's what the GM does all the time. If you are a miniature figure gamer this may seem bogus but it works really well. Here is what you do:

Write out a set of encounters that a platoon of infantry may face when advancing on a certain objective. These cards can be graded into a series of "degree of difficulty" factors. For exemple, an encounter could be negligible and not require any immediate action or difficult and require the attention of the entire platoon and off table support as well.

To create a set of encounter cards for Stalingrad I read the book The Battle for Stalingrad: 199 Days by Edwin P. Hoyt, 1993. Every interesting anecdote or recital of battle actions created an encounter card for the scenario. These encounters where written out in as much detail as necessary to transfer into game action. I cross referenced the encounters to a deck of standard poker playing cards, and graded their intensity as follows: Hearts-light encounter, Diamonds-moderate encounter, Clubs-heavy encounter, Spades-very heavy encounter. This gave me a series of 52 encounters with a wide range of possibilities.

The 6'x6' wargame table was divided into nine 2'x2' encounter areas, which looks like a tic-tac-toe board when drawn on paper. A campaign map of an additional nine squares was drawn on paper of downtown Stalingrad. This campaign map/tic-tac-toe board represented wargame tables. As the German forces would leave one wargame table they could enter another simply by referring to the map.

The objective of the German platoon was to cross three wargame tables and reach the factory district on the Volga river. On the campaign map the objective was located and the players starting location was marked. As each 2'~2' table area was entered by infantry or vehicles, a new encounter card was turned over and referenced. Russian troops and vehicles only came onto the table if the appropriate card was drawn.

In essence the game is written as a role-playing event for the German player. The Russian defense is entirely in the control of chance. They are the non player characters. The game referee can still create a very realistic defense by marking the campaign map with areas of tough resistance and only referencing the "very heavy resistance" encounter cards.

Once this body of work is created, club members can test their skills against the scenario. Every time it is played a new game will evolve. The German player must use sound urban tactics. Since no Russian troops are deployed on the table, the German player is moving into the fog of war literally.

What must be assumed by all participants is that this simulation is actually part of a larger military operation. The platoon isn't assaulting the Russian factories alone. They would have friendly forces to their left and right- plus off table artillery support, perhaps even an armor escort. In this manner you can run the scenario a number of times and create a best of five situation or the results of an entire company's assault on the factories.

Mamayev Kurgan!