Introduction

Jerusalem! was published in 1975 by Simulations Design Corporation (SDC). It was designer John Hill’s fifth professionally published game, and further served to peg him as a game designer with an impressive bag of tricks. This game is a tactical level game of the struggle for that city in the 1948 War for Independence, with a bucketload of unusual game mechanics and rules to handle the exotic array of units that participated in the battle.

Components

Jerusalem! was released as #9 in the Pouch Game series, and later (with, in my opinion, inferior physical components) by Mayfair Games in 1982. The Pouch Series Game components are as follows:

1 cover sheet, with an Important Notice on the reverse about the restructuring of SDC and their decision to re-release the games previously published in Conflict magazine in pouch format
1 big ziploc bag to hold everything 3 smaller ziploc bags to hold the counters
1 15 1/2" x 30" large-hex map of the area around Jerusalem
1 32-page rules booklet
2 sheets of 5/8" diecut counters with nicely rounded corners 2 setup and reinforcement charts
1 Terrain Effects Chart

Counter Manifest

There is a total of 271 counters, including three white blanks. All counters are blank and white on the reverse side.

Arab Units (131 units)
Arab Legion (white on brown)

armored cars
12 infantry (12-8)x 9; (8-8)x 3
1 other leader
7 artillery [brown on white] (4-4-2)x 3; (3-3-4)x 2; (2-2-4); (12)2-2-2
9 transport [black on light brown] ((1)-24)x 6; (4-10)x 3

Arab volunteers [white on red]

2 tanks (4-4); (3-3)
11 infantry (3-4)x 3; (3-3)x 3; (2-4)x 5
1 other 1-8 HQ
2 artillery [red on white] 3-4-2
4 transport [black on pink] ((1)-24)x 2; ((1)-12)x 2

Arab Irregulars (brown on yellow)

29 infantry (2-8)
30 guerrilla (12-0); (8-0); (6-0)x 2; (4-0)x 26
10 dummies (0-18)
6 leaders (3x-18); (1x-18); (1/2 x-18); (2x-18)x 2; (2-J)
1 KUTUB terrorist [black on yellow]

Jewish units (106 units)

Jewish Regular Army (white on blue)

9 armored cars (4-30)x 4; (2-24); (2-18)
4 other vehicles ((12)2-10) flame-thrower; (2-4-8) armored bulldozer x 3
45 infantry (12-6)x 6; (8-8); (8-6)x 6; (6-6)x 5; (4-6)x 21; (4-4); (2-4)x 6
17 guerrilla (12-0)x 5; (8-0); (6-0)x 11
1 leader SHAL
18 transport [black on light blue] ((1)-24 truck)x 4; ((1)-24)x 8; (4-10 half-track); 2-10 half-track); (3-12 armored bus)x 2; (2-12 armored bus); Jerusalem convoy
8 artillery [light blue on white] (6-5-2); (3-3-4)x3; (3-3-3); (2-2-3); (2-2-2)x2
3 terrorist (2-2)x 2; (1-2)

Miscellaneous units (34 units)

30 road sections (straight)x15; (curved)x 5
1 turn marker [white]
3 blank [white]

Collector’s Value

Not many copies of the SDC version of Jerusalem! were made, and so it is not often seen on sale. Boone quotes low, high and average prices of 9/25/18.38 at auction and 12/50/23.10 for sale.

Player’s Value

I think it’s unlikely that you could get your hands on an unpunched copy of Jerusalem! these days, because it’s a game that was meant to be played. It’s full of unusual rules for the odd units and difficult terrain that affected the historical battle. This starts at the most basic level, the sequence of play: there is no combat phase per se -- each player has an Overland Movement Phase and a Road Movement Phase. In each such phase, the player will move task forces of units that, when they move adjacent to enemy units, must first suffer first fire before attacking. Combat is odds-ratio but you can choose to shoot at selected units within the enemy stack. The hook is that if you eliminate all the units to which you were adjacent, you can keep moving (provided you still have some movement points left) and can engage more units in combat. If you fail, those units stop and you have to go on with another group.

This approach makes sense since the most common operation for the Israeli player is road-clearing, as he tries to run convoys through to embattled Jerusalem. Meanwhile, the Arab player tries to grab the best defensive ground from which to engage the units guarding those convoys, but when the powerful units of the British-trained Arab Legion show up, he can put in some sharp counterattacks. Some of the more colorful units in the game, with rules to match, include: an Arab mad bomber terrorist unit; Jewish special weapons and vehicles (homemade armored cars and school buses, a leaky flame-thrower mounted on a half-track, armored bulldozers that can build new roads through to Jerusalem and Little David, an old Turkish 150mm mortar stolen from a war memorial that might blow up any time you fire it!), the Irgun and Stern terrorist gangs, and leaders (you need the Arab leaders to do anything at all with the masses of Arab irregulars you get at the beginning of the game, while the Jewish leader gives a nice combat bonus). Another nice twist is Bevingrad, a hex in the middle of Jerusalem that houses a brigade of British paratroops and so is inviolable by both sides until it withdraws 2/3 of the way through the game.

As the designer’s notes say, this is a complicated game but not a complex one, and some reviewers have complained about its ultimate play balance and rules loopholes caused by John Hill’s casual and humorous rules writing style. But it’s still a fun match.

Support Material

Fire and Movement 66 had an analysis piece by Joe Miranda.
F&M 35 had player’s notes for the Mayfair edition, while F&M 66 had player’s notes for the SDC edition.
A review appeared in issue 4 (Nov/Dec 1976) of Phoenix, a British boardgaming zine associated with SPUK.

Other Games of this Type

First Arab-Israeli War, designed by Joe Miranda and appearing in 1997 in Strategy & Tactics 185, deals with the entire war.

A game entitled Middle East ’48 allegedly appeared in issue 4 of FGU’s Wargaming magazine.

Jerusalem, as part of the SPI Modern Battles 2 quad, focused on the battle for the city in 1967.

Other games by John Hill

John Hill has not published any board wargames for almost 15 years, but his body of work contains some of the classics of the hobby: Verdun (Conflict Games 1972); Overlord (CG 1973); Battle for Hue (SDC 1973); Kasserine Pass (CG 1973); Bar-Lev (CG 1974); Fall of Tobruk (CG 1975); Yalu (CG/ GDW 1977); Squad Leader; Cross of Iron; Crescendo of Doom (Avalon Hill 1977-78); Battle for Stalingrad (SPI 1980); and East Front Tank Leader (West End 1986).