1. Just read an interesting book by a fellow named Nicholas Palmer, called THE BEST OF BOARD WARGAMING. This was published in 1980, and contained a summary of the table-top boardgames available at that time (20 years ago), plus a brief look at the potentials of computer gaming. Avalon Hill - now gone - had just started a division to develop computer games, and the author foresaw good things for the industry. One particular item of interest in the boardgame book concerned the review of the boardgame CITADEL, published by GDW. This is a tactical game, focusing on the battle of Dien Bien Phu. The reviewer mentioned that the movement procedure was revolutionary... there were no limits to a unit's movement. Movement is infinite! All units can move as far as they fancy... until they are pinned down by enemy fire. Opportunity-fire rules ensure that this will gradually happen to everyone if they move on enemy positions, so this elegant rule gives an excellent picture of the Viet Mihn net closing on the French as the guerrillas press ever closer to the defending strongpoints. Note that this appears to be the same type of procedure used in Artie Conliffe's modern WW2 rules, CROSSFIRE, published a couple of years ago.... units move until an opposing player states that one of his own units saw the moving unit and can fire at it. CROSSFIRE focuses on squad movement... one stand represents a squad, and the player with the initiative moves and fires one squad element at a time, until the opposition successfully fires at it, at which point the initiative switches. Ever since CROSSFIRE appeared, Fred Haub and I, on various occasions, have been attempting to apply the concept of "infinite movement" to a multi-unit game... i.e., more than one unit moving until stopped by the opposition. No success yet. 2. One thing I've noticed in my wanderings amongst the wargames internet sites. Many times, I've seen someone review a set of rules and use the expression "These rules are really a hoot!" As soon as I see a "hoot" mentioned, that just about kills the rules for me, sight unseen. I want nothing to do with a "hoot", nor even less with the guy who uses the expression. 3. I recently spoke to Frank Chadwick, of COMMAND DECISION (CD) fame. I asked him about CD III, concerning which someone had told me that the original three fire phases per turn in CD had been done away with, and that, in CD III, a single fire phase instituted. Frank stated that this was true... too much dicing, he said. I haven't seen CD III... I would assume that because the rate of fire was reduced drastically (by an order of 3-to-1), the to-hit tables would also have been radically changed, so that fewer hits would disable a given target. Back to PW Review August 2001 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2001 Wally Simon 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