The Gamers Designed by David Friedrichs Some games sell themselves by the series of which they are part others sell themselves by their subject. Burma is definitely one of the latter. It is part of The Gamers’ Operational Combat Series (OCS) that started with Guderian’s Blitzkrieg lo those many years ago and has seen such titles as DAK, Hube’s Pocket, and Sicily. I have mixed feelings about the OCS and just about gave up on it after playing this year’s Sicily, more on which later. The Burma campaign just about sells itself, however, so I could not resist buying Burma at Origins in 1999. Who can withstand the allure of mountain and jungle fighting, airborne drops deep behind enemy lines, desperate defenses of mountain-trail supply lines, and elephant, mule, and water buffalo counters? Not me, by golly. WW2 Operational East Front is wargaming’s glamour subject- not for me, I loathe East Front games- and the OCS is The Gamers’ popular entry into the field. At its heart it is a brigade-based system with strong emphasis on supply and combined arms co-ordination. Indeed, the supply rules are quite detailed. They require players to track regular supply points for the infantry and gasoline for the armour, to deliver those points via a dizzying array of conduits ranging from rail and air to mules and elephants, and to spend the points to do just about anything-- movement, combat, fortification building, etc. Combat has just as many wrinkles, working in unit morale, combined arms, artillery and air barrages and competing “Surprise” die-rolls that can cause drastic shifts in the CRT. OCS’ biggest problem -- aside from the long play times necessary; I would warn PA readers to approach these games with great care -- is its schizophrenic nature. Originally created for the wide-open spaces and big old armies of the East Front, the system struggles to zoom the lens down for smaller scale campaigns like Burma and North Africa. The supply system was designed so that one SP equalled one brigade, but in Libya and India brigades are scarce and battalions plentiful, so Dean’s solution was to break SP’s down into Supply Tokens (one Token equals 1/4 of a SP) with a Token equal to a battalion. But since supply lines and supply lift are still calculated using SP’s, this two-tiered system requires a lot of mental algebra from the overworked gamer trying to feed his men and fuel his tanks. I think a better solution would have been to drop the Tokens, make a SP equal to a battalion, and multiply available SP’s by four. The combat system has some odd effects, too. Highest attacker and defender morale is compared for CRT column shifts, but size of the highest-morale unit does not matter, so you have the old caper of stacking an elite Gurkha Airborne company with three weedy Chinese brigades and presto! the entire stack has the Gurkha’s morale. The Surprise rule, wherein both players roll for Surprise column shifts, is good in theory (I am always in favour of making CRTs as unpredictable as possible) but adds two more die rolls to every combat. Add in artillery and air barrage, which is conducted before regular combat, and we have one combat requiring as many as five die-rolls. Aargh. But since I knew the OCS’ essence going in, why buy Burma? It certainly is a handsome package. Counters are many hued-- light khaki Japanese, green Chinese, tan Indians, brown British, other colours for Americans, Burmese, Nepalese, Indian Nationalists (boo-hiss) and West Africans. The map is attractive but with two highly questionable choices: first, the hex grid for some odd reason is white rather than black, which makes is very difficult to read from a distance and impossible at any time on the light grey clear hexes. Second, the jungle terrain (by far the most common) is noted only by a plain light green hex with no special foliage markings while rough terrain is medium green again with no special markings, so unless you’re paying attention It is easy to confuse jungle for clear and rough for jungle. The game covers the 1944 period of the war when most of the dramatic action occurred. The Japanese began their U-Go offensive into India with the ambitious (and in this game, probably unobtainable) goal of capturing Kohima and Imphal and sparking a rebellion in India while over on the Chinese front, “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell finally kicked the Chinese into action along the Ledo Road. Meanwhile the Chindits and Merrill’s Marauders are conducting long hooks around the Japanese defences and, in the Chindits’ case, staging a variety of glider landings to threaten the Japanese supply lines. What immediately strikes the player are the universally high Japanese morale ratings- almost all 5's- versus the Indian and Chinese 3's. I do not buy this. Reading Slim’s Defeat Into Victory and Allen’s Burma we see the Japanese conducting dogged defences but being ineffective and unimaginative on the offensive. I think a better solution would have been to lower the Japanese morale ratings but give them a “Fanatic Defence” bonus. The Indian Nationalists, with their 0 morale ratings, have the distinction of being some of the worst units in OCS history. What you notice next is the dearth of armour and air units- the Japanese have only three air units for the entire game- reminding you once again how far removed you are from the Russian steppe. This is actually a plus since the OCS air rules for sorties and fighter interception always seemed very clunky to me but you do not have to bother much with them here as the Allies thoroughly rule the skies. I will give The Gamers credit for one thing-- their games always offer a wide range of scenarios. Burma has 3 campaign scenarios and 6 short ones covering various important dust-ups. Being a manly macho sort I of course opted for the longest campaign scenario, which begins March 5, 1944. March 5 is a strange date to begin the campaign since it is like starting a boxing match in mid-punch. The Japanese are in the process of surrounding the retreating 17th Indian Division and the Chinese-Americans have just enveloped the Japanese 18th Division; the combat and initiative die-rolls on the first couple of turns can thus have drastic effects for the rest of the game. OCS is like ASL in that it is much better if you have an old experienced hand to teach the rules to you. In my case the old hand was the mild-mannered Andrew Fischer, whom I thank again for the hours spent at Origins ‘99 infiltrating the Japanese through my defences. Andrew told me that if the Japanese player is launching lots of attacks he is playing the game wrong. The Japanese will lose stand-up fights to the stronger Allies with their more plentiful artillery and air support, so instead they must turn into a shadow boxer using their superior mobility and forage ability to slip around the Allies, cut the Allied supply lines, and envelop the isolated defenders. This is easier to do in the rough terrain around Kohima than in the Imphal valley where the British armour and dive bombers will pound the Japanese if they ever emerge into the open. I might even advise the Japanese player to forgo Imphal completely and launch a light pinning attack there while committing the bulk of his troops towards Kohima. Meanwhile, up on the Ledo Road, the situation is quite different. The heavy Chinese brigades galumph down the road with Merrill’s Marauders providing crucial morale combat shifts. Since the Chinese-American advance is limited to the rate at which the American engineers can build the road, the Japanese player on this front is advised to fall back slowly and wait for the turn track to run out. The best Allied option here is to bring the mighty Chindits to bear. The Chindits are by far the most neato part of the game and are really about the only fun the Allied player will have. He can drop them like rain behind the Japanese to plink at the enemy supply lines, or create mule-supplied caravans to strike at the Japanese flanks along the Ledo Road. The Chindit companies, with their high morale factors, are also useful for bucking up cowardly Chinese or Burmese units and really show the combat morale effects at their silliest. Speaking of supply, It is imperative that you have a strong grasp of the OCS supply system before playing Burma, because supply bestrides this game like a mighty colossus. The Allied player spends 80% of his time trying to scrape an extra hex onto a suddenly crucial supply line along some steep mountain trail. The Japanese are a little better off, being able to forage and thus operate off the roads and trails but must still rely on capturing Allied supplies to keep their spearheads going. This is utterly historical as a reading of Allen or Slim will prove (indeed, Slim seems to have spent more time worrying about feeding his men than fighting the Japanese). Whether you want to be burdened with such concerns as a wargame player is the more significant question. I will admit to having not finished a game of Burma, despite several attempts, always becoming frustrated by the supply system and putting the game away in favour of something else that usually involves Cuirassiers. There is an Aide De Camp disk available, which I have recently received, and so hope to run an ongoing game on my PC. So what are we to make of Burma? I think its whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Unlike other OCS games you are not forced to grapple with the system’s combined arms and air rules, but you do have the bifurcated supply system coming at you with a vengeance. It is the only game that I know of on this subject, so if the Burma theatre appeals you’ve probably bought the game already. It does teach you the supreme difficulties faced by the two sides as well as the strengths and weaknesses of both armies. But man it can be such hard work to play and takes a llloooonnnngggg time. PA readers would probably be best advised to give it a pass. Back to Perfidious Albion #103 Table of Contents Back to Perfidious Albion List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by Charles and Teresa Vasey. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com