by Joe Balkoski; SPI 1979.

Components: 1400 die-cut counters, 833 of them markers; two rules folders; charts and tables;

Map: two identical 17"x22" hex maps of an imaginary German town;

Scales: individual vehicles to infantry squads; 16.7 meters/hex; 20 seconds/turn.

Cityfight is described on its box as a "Super-detailed Tactical Simulation Game". Boy, they weren't kidding. There are 42 pages of densely-packed rules describing the Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced versions of the game to plow through before getting to the scenarios. A second 40-page book contains an authoritative essay on the special problems of urban combat, and details down to the organization of a Chinese flamethrower platoon. Basically, this was a double-blind game (hence the twin maps) that took most of the day to play out just a few minutes of tactical action in a small town. Just finding the enemy was an achievement.

There are 20 scenarios included in the game, and three of them deal with urban strife: "Baader-Meinhof," in which a platoon of terrorists attacks the fictitious town of Gerlafingen; "London's Burning", in which a crowd of punks sets fire to the town after a good concert; and "Take the Money and Run", a scenario where some bank robbers have to evade the police and escape off the map. There are also some esoteric guerrilla war scenarios such as an attack by Khomeini faithful on Doshan Tappeh air base during the 1979 revolt against the Shah of Iran, and another 1979 scenario pitting Sandinista guerrillas against Somocista National Guardsmen.

Copies of Cityfight are not common, as the design was never very popular - a pity, because it took a tremendous amount of work to design ($2/$24/$12.21 at auction and $12/$55/$25.17 for sale).

1. Boone, Mark; Internet Wargames Catalog; 2nd edition; 1998. Figures quoted are $low/$high/$average.

More Civil Wargames

Introduction

On Topic Titles

Up Against the Wall, Motherfucker!
The Cities Game
Chicago, Chicago!
Minuteman
LA Lawless
Civil Power

Peripheral Titles

The Creature That Ate Sheboygen
CityFight