Grunt: The Game of Tactical Level Combat in Vietnam was a tactical level board wargame

Board wargame

A board wargame is a wargame with a set playing surface or board, as opposed to being played on a computer, or in a more free-form playing area as in miniatures games. The hobby around this type of game got its start in 1954 with the publication of Tactics, and saw its greatest popularity in the...

 designed by John Young and released by Simulations Publications, Inc. as part of issue #26 of Strategy & Tactics

Strategy & Tactics

Strategy & Tactics is a wargaming magazine now published by Decision Games, notable for publishing a complete new wargame in each issue...

 in 1971

1971 in games

This page lists board and card games, wargames, and miniatures games published in 1971. For video and console games, see 1971 in video gaming....

.

The game featured three different scenarios in which the US player performed "search and destroy

Search and destroy

Search and Destroy, Seek and Destroy, or even simply S&D, refers to a military strategy that became a notorious component of the Vietnam War. The idea was to insert ground forces into hostile territory, search out the enemy, destroy them, and withdraw immediately afterward...

" missions to find Viet Cong units and supply caches. The game's counters

Counter (board wargames)

Boardgame counters are usually small cardboard squares moved around on the map of a wargame to represent armies, military units or individual military personnel. The first modern mass-market wargame, based on cardboard counters and hex-board maps, was Tactics, invented by Charles S. Roberts in 1952...

 represented squad

Squad

In military terminology, a squad is a small military unit led by a non-commissioned officer that is subordinate to an infantry platoon. In countries following the British Army tradition this organization is referred to as a section...

s of men and individual specialists such as artillery observers. The game included rules for leadership, sniper

Sniper

A sniper is a marksman who shoots targets from concealed positions or distances exceeding the capabilities of regular personnel. Snipers typically have specialized training and distinct high-precision rifles....

s, civilians, helicopter

Helicopter

A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...

 travel, artillery

Artillery

Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...

, and air strikes.

The map was 22" x 28" printed in black and tan, and included counters, a rule booklet, as well as game charts and tables. The map

Hex map

A hex map, hex board or hex grid is a gameboard design commonly used in wargames of all scales. The map is subdivided into small regular hexagons of identical size.-Advantages and disadvantages:...

 was divided into hexagons at a scale 100 yards per hex.

Grunt was later redesigned and released as Search & Destroy

Search & Destroy: Tactical Combat Vietnam 1965-1966

Search & Destroy: Tactical Combat Vietnam 1965-1966 was a board tactical level wargame designed by John Young and released by Simulations Publications, Inc. , in 1975...

. The original game is considered one of the very first board wargames to simulate infantry combat at the squad/platoon level

Grunt was later released as a boxed game as well.
The game attempted to place realistic burden on commanders; US players had to be careful to minimize casualties to civilians while also tending to their own wounded. Leadership was also uniquely portrayed. According to Nick Stasnopolis in Number 73 (May/June 1991) of Fire & Movement Magazine:

Instead of flitting from unit to unit enhancing combat rolls (a reference to Squad Leader

Squad Leader

thumb|Squad Leader game package.Squad Leader is a tactical level board wargame originally published by Avalon Hill in 1977. It was designed by Hall of Fame game designer John Hill and focuses on infantry combat in Europe during World War II...

s leadership rules), the leaders (in Grunt) become conduits for information and control. For instance, to use their full capabilities the NLF (National Leadership Front, or Viet Cong) units must be within eight hexes of their cadre. This reflects their lack of modern communications equipment, which produced a reliance on written messages and sound signals, thus limiting operational radius. It also resulted in units that tended to be more autonomous and were less severely affected by a loss of leadership. So the hardcore NLF units retain their full movement when outside command radius or when their cadre unit takes casualties. This is in direct contrast to the U.S. forces.

The (U.S.) Army's more bureaucratic command structure lead to a very different set of leadership problems. Units, because of the myriad radios they possessed, could operate as far from their leaders as their radios could transmit and still be able to get specific instructions. Unfortunately, this also produced a dependence on contact with higher headquarters...Thus a disturbance in the flow of information, either through loss of a radio or loss of a leader, was far more devastating to the Americans. In the game U.S. squads can be paralyzed for up to three turns if the squad radioman is hit or their headquarters takes casualties.

External links

• Grunt at tacticalwargamer.com