In my discussions of the modern armor rules we generated ... termed ARMOR FIVE, and now somewhere around ARMOR SEVEN ... I've mentioned COMMAND DECISION (CD) once or twice. CD is a Games Designers' Workshop product, published in 1986 and written by Frank Chadwick. In the Designer's Notes section, Chadwick sets forth his reasons for the scale... roughly 1:5 ... for vehicles, guns and infantry, he wanted: ... to concentrate as much as possible on battalion and regimental decision making... (the game) ... must play fast and it must emphasize command-level decision making ... The rules start off by stating: Command control is the most single important aspect of COMMAND DECISION. All, units have specific command stands on the field, and during the first phase of the game - there are, nominally, seven phases - each command stand issues an order, i.e., places a chittie on the field, and this order will affect all subordinate stands that are within 6 inches of the order chit. The field scale is 1 inch to 50 yards, hence the order chit will take in elements up to 300 yards away. Normally, the group toward which the chit is directed must be in the line of sight of the issuing stand. The exception applies to what CD terms a "staff stand" ... staff may issue orders "anywhere on the playing surface." The Designer's Notes state: The long-range command ability of the staffs is not due to their having a radio, but rather to their ability to collate information and form a good picture of the overall situation. Without an order chit, all a unit can do is fire. Chitties are required for movement, rallying, disengaging, etc. One interesting order is termed "Regroup", which: is issued to a pair of eliminated personnel stands and allows one of the stands to return to play... Personnel stands approximately represent a platoon, and elimination of a stand... does not mean that all personnel have become casualties ... The survivors are still out there somewhere ... The regroup order represents a commander rounding up survivors from two platoons and reorganizing them... This philosophy is the essence of the "morale game", wherein a series of "hits" renders a unit ineffective, not because all present are killed, but because unit coherency is lost. The concept is one which I heartily endorse, and CO gets 3 points from me. Using Bob Hurst's extensive 15mm armor collection, we set up what we hoped would be a fairly small size "early WW III' Russian-versus- German action. The Russians, defending the Mother Land, had one tank battalion supporting 4 infantry battalions. In the 1:5 scale, the tank battalion had 6 tank models, and each infantry battalion had around 6 stands. Adding in trucks, Headquarters units, etc., the Russians had approximately 34 infantry stands, plus 6 tanks, or some 40 tokens in all. The German attackers were given 11 tank models and 2 infantry regiments. This gave the Germans 33 infantry stands, plus 11 tanks ... around 44 tokens. Additionally, the German units themselves consisted of less stands than did the Russians ... the Germans were organized in terms of companies, while the Russians were organized into battalions. Since each unit has a command stand, the Germans could issue more orders and disperse their men more effectively. It should be noted that every infantry stand in CD must be tracked; depending upon its status (green, veteran, etc.) from 1 to 4 hits eliminates it. Vehicles, on the other hand, are immediately destroyed, disabled, damaged, etc ... not too much record keeping here, although CD does use "Disabled" markers and so on. Bob and I had prepared a number of items for the game... weapon charts, vehicle capabilities, data sheets for the various units; we had written out each step of the small arms, anti-tank, etc., firing procedures; we had listed the complete turn sequence on a reference sheet; we had tagged every infantry stand, gun, and vehicle so that it could be tracked. In short, we had prepared in every foreseeable way necessary to make the introduction to the game as painless as possible. At the February PW meeting, three participants per side were quickly inducted into our ranks and the game commenced. The Russians were on the defense; they could place their units anywhere on the field as long as they kept some 24 inches from the German baseline on the south. After the Russians were stationed, the Germans came on; their units started out a maximum of 12 inches from their baseline. First Turn Shouting and Chaos The first turn was sheer hell and shouting and chaos and disorder. It took an hour and a half to complete. As with any rules set with which the participants are unfamiliar, there were "Can I do this ... ?" questions, and "How fast does this move?" questions, and "How do I ..." questions, and so on. Coupled with the inherently noisy background at the PW meeting - there were two other games close by - I didn't, at first, think we'd survive, but our volunteer gamers turned out to be exceptionally amiable, and there were no arguments, no bloody noses, no broken limbs ... German armor was kept off the board for the first two turns; only their infantry advanced. On Turn 3, the German tanks appeared and went straight north, heading for the factory. The map is sketched below: As the Germans came up the field, there was lots of Russian fire. The rules incorporate three fire phases: Opportunity Fire... Available only to units that do not General Fire ...Units that advance half or less of their full move distance may Close Fire ...Units that are within 10 inches of the enemy may fire. The Russians, in their forward defensive positions, fired for all three phases, while the advancing German infantry, in their vehicles, took it on the chin. One Russian Anti-Tank Battalion, armed with armor piercing rifles, made short work of the infantry vehicles. The Germans were forced to set up several guns at their baseline to give the infantry covering fire. In retrospect, we had permitted the Russians to set up too far forward. In addition to being prime targets in the open, the unfortunate Germans had to spot their hidden targets in the woods before they could return fire. Each fire phase is preceded by a spotting phase. A spotting stand is first chosen (usually the one closest to the target). Only one chance per hidden stand is permitted ... if the spotting stand is successful, ALL see the target; if not successful, NONE see it. Once spotted, the small arms firing procedure is fairly quick. Each type of troop (green, veteran, etc.) has a basic "to-hit" number which is modified for plusses and minuses for target visibility, etc. One 10-sided die is thrown per firing stand and the result must be equal to or less than the modified "to-hit" number. Small arms fire can't be concentrated on a single target stand; hits must be spread out across all the stands within a four inch frontage. This rule prevented a complete wipeout of the advancing Germans. Each of their infantry stands, representing a platoon, took 3 hits before it was eliminated; this and the distributive hit rule gave them enough "survivability" to reach the southern edge of the woods. Anti-Tank (A/T) fire also has a "to hit" number; this varies with range. Most of the weapons in this early WWII game petered out beyond 25 inches (1250 yards). In addition to the "to hit" number, an armor penetration modifier (APM) was given; this, too, decreased with range. If the target was hit, a second die roll was modified with the APM and the result had to be equal to or greater than the armor value of the target. One of the first questions that popped up in the game concerned the Russian anti-tank rifle battalion. Mike Kelly wanted to know if his A/T rifles, firing AP rounds, could be turned against the assault gun set up by the Germans near their baseline. We floundered around on this for a minute or so until Michael Montemarano helped us out. Michael has some experience with the CD procedures ("Trust me", he said, "A really great set of rules!"), and it was determined that the gun and crew were safe from A/T fire; only small arms and high explosive (HE) shelling could take out the assault gun. The first couple of turns were repetitive as the Germans tried to secure a foothold. The Germans would advance, the Russians would fire. the Germans would fall down. Perhaps this was all for the best to help us with our learning curve. From a first turn length of an hour and a half, we went to a second turn time span of 15 minutes! Not too much movement, and three rapid fire phases produced this quickie. The Germans hung back with several units, trying to amass firepower to match the Russians on each fire phase. It was rather confusing, trying to ascertain which phase we were in, as some parts of the field finished first and went ahead in the sequence. And remember that every Russian unit that could fire. did, in EVERY phase. And we almost, but not quite, had a close asault, as the front rank Germans reached the woods to engage the defending Russians. After the Orders Phase, the second is Movement, and the next three are Fire!, Fire!, Fire! The Close Assault Phase immediately follows this. and one should not be surprised that the defending Russians, in the three fire phases, were able to zonk the approaching German troops severely enough to cause them to fall back. The fire phases are followed by a Morale Phase ... a morale test of all units that were fire at, not just those that were hit. Each type of troop has a moral e number ... to pass, a 10-sided die roll must be equal to or below the number. Deductions for losses, friendly units blasted, etc., reduce the morale number accordingly. Despite the inability to take the woods by storming it, the German fire sufficiently reduced the defending Russians so that they, too, fell back. And at the same time, the German armor reached the defenses around the factory. The accompanying infantry debarked (disembarked?) from their vehicles and the Russians started to draw back. Turn 5 took 23 minutes. Not too much movement, but lottsa fire in all three fire phases. Each Fire Phase is preceded by a Spotting Phase for "hidden" units, and there was no lack of dice throws ... for spotting, for firing, for morale tests. CD is big on spotting "hidden" units, but the definition of "hidden" is somewhat obscure. If, for example, on Turn 1, you spot an M/G stand in a bunker. Then is the stand "hidden" again on Turn 2? You know the M/G is there, but does the presence of cover make it "hidden" on every turn? One can translate this to mean that the M/G crew attempts to duck behind their cover each turn and therefore must be spotted as they stick their noses out to view the field in order to fire. We played the spotting rules full blast ... any stand in cover had to be spotted anew each turn. One of the key reasons behind the Russian fallback was not so much the infantry advancing on them, but the covering HE fire of the German artillery. CD treats HE in a strange way. A week before the game, Bob Hurst and I, for the better part of an hour, puzzled over the write-up in the rules which describes the HE procedure. On the surface, the procedures are written in english, but when one begins to translate ... For what it's worth, here's the way we interpreted them: a.First, for each weapon. there's a "to hit" number that varies with range. Roll one die for a hit. b.Second, if a hit is NOT scored, this seems to be defined as a "near" burst ... you still get another die roll to inflict damage/casualties. c.Third, if a hit IS scored, this is termed a "direct" hit, and this time you get TWO die rolls for damage/casualties. d. The damage/casualty rolls are of two types. Some HE firing weapons are given a number... to be effective, the damage/casualty roll must be equal to or below this number. Other HE weapons are noted as treating the HE effect as small arms fire. I couldn't find anything in the rulebooks to explain the different approaches. By the end of Turn 5, it looked like a German victory. I say "looked like", because the entire Russian infantry force, which had been placed in the front lines, was pretty much shot up. One will note, however, that I haven't said a word about the Russian armor, which was still intact. All throughout the game, the Russian tanks sat on the hill in the northeast corner of the field. And they sat... and sat... and sat, and watched the poor foot sloggers get plastered. It was obvious that the men of the elite Russian Tank Corps had no empathy whatsoever for the poor Kulaks who had been drafted into the infantry. As I mentioned, most weapons reached out to 25 or 30 inches at most, so the German heavy guns were well out of range of the Russian guns, and the Russian guns well out of German range. The tanks were about ready to advance around Turn 6, but we all gave up the ghost by then. A German victory, we declared. "Not too bad a set of rules", was one comment. "Once you get going, it flows pretty well", was another. And, of course, Montemarano's: "A really great set of rules!" A GREAT set? I'd say ANOTHER set of modern armor rules. There's not too much innovation here. What CD does with its order chitties is the same thing Featherstone did in his tank battle rules in the early '60's ... when each tank had to confirm its radio link to the command tank to carry out orders. What CD does with its "to hit" numbers is the same thing a dozen other rules sets do. What CD does with its morale procedures is the same thing a dozen other rules sets do. And so on. vThe emphasis on the command structure is interesting, but not overwhelmingly so. For example. in each German COMPANY of 3 or 4 stands, there is a command stand, hence the individual companies can receive orders independent of one another and go their separate ways. In contrast, one command stand is given to each Russian BATTALION of 6 to 8 stands. The Russians. therefore. are less flexible than the Germans and must remain more "clumped" ... remember that an order reaches out to stands within 6 inches of the command stand. As for CD being realistic? accurate? historic? ... I fear that here, I must bow out. If Frank Chadwick tells me that the Azerbajanian P75L50 A/T gun can take out the Lithuanian Z12 main battle tank at 1000 yards, I believe him. That's the kind of guy I am. I restrict my comments to the procedures alone. I thought 3 fire phases, each coupled with a spotting phase, a wee bit too much. Especially so since many of the lighter weapons have a rate of fire that permits them to fire 2 or 3 times per phase. This makes for exceptionally high marks in dice rolling, and in this, CD definitely excels. Lots of spotting, lots of "to hit" throws, even more damage/casualty rolls, lots of morale testing... CD seems to indulge in an above average amount of dice tossing for what is supposed to be a sophisticated, state-of-the-art (dare I say it?) simulation. Another area of excellence lies with CD's charts. This. if anything, is its strongpoint. All the weaponry of WWII is listed; all the unit organizational tables of both Axis and Allies provided. A huge quantity of background data is supplied for campaign purposes ... and if you don't have enough in the CD box itself, you can purchase additional "modules". But in all, gentlemen. I can only repeat: just another set of modern armor rules. Back to PW Review March 1990 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1990 Wally Simon This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com