Tactical wargame
Encyclopedia
Tactical wargames are a type of wargame
that models military conflict at a tactical level, i.e. units range from individual vehicle
s and squad
s to platoon
s or companies
. These units are rated based on types and ranges of individual weaponry. The first tactical wargames were played as miniatures, extended to board games, and they are now also enjoyed as video games.
The games are designed so that a knowledge of military tactics
will facilitate good gameplay. Tactical wargames offer more of a challenge to the designer, as fewer variables or characteristics inherent in the units being simulated are directly quantifiable. Modern commercial board wargaming avoided tactical subjects for many years, but since initial attempts at the subject appeared, it has remained a favourite topic among wargamers. Perhaps the most successful board wargaming system ever designed, Advanced Squad Leader
, is set at the tactical level.
of Avalon Hill
had developed a wide range of strategic wargames based upon historical battles —the first of these being the 1961 releases of Gettysburg
and Chancellorsville
, issued to coincide with the beginning of the centennial celebration of the American Civil War
. AH issued a wide range of similar games in the years that followed, and established itself as the market leader in board wargames. However, most of these games were at the army
, brigade
, battalion
, or regiment
level. Few were at the more tactical levels.
Tactical Game 3 was introduced by Strategy & Tactics
magazine as a platoon/company level game focusing on tactics on the Eastern Front. In 1970, that game's designer, the legendary James F. Dunnigan
, sold the rights to the game to Avalon Hill, who quickly released PanzerBlitz
. This was the start of the so-called "Second Generation" of wargaming. PanzerBlitz eventually sold 250,000 copies, though it was not without critics (including Dunnigan himself).
In the early 1970s, several tactical games made their way onto the expanding wargaming market, including Grunt
(1971) featuring platoon-level warfare in Vietnam and Combat Command: Platoon-Company Combat, France, 1944 (1972) billed as a western front sequel to PanzerBlitz, and Soldiers (1972) about World War I, all by Dunnigan/SPI. Dunnigan then crossed another boundary and became the first publisher to release a game on the then-ongoing Cold War, called Red Star/White Star: Tactical Combat in Western Europe in the 1970s. While the game was successful, Dunnigan was disappointed with it, citing difficulties in realistically portraying tactical combat in a tabletop board game.
Dunnigan tried to take tactical games into a new direction in 1973 with KampfPanzer and Desert War, which featured simultaneous movement, expanding on an optional rule for PanzerBlitz. Unfortunately, the quest for greater realism was having a price in complexity and "bookkeeping", or recording of moves on paper. Nonetheless, other tactical games on a man to man level were released with simultaneous movement, with Sniper!
being released by SPI in 1973, Patrol
!: Man to Man Combat in the 20th Century and Tank!: Armored Combat in the 20th Century both in 1974. That same year, Avalon Hill released Panzer Leader
: The Game of Tactical Warfare on the Western Front 1944-45.
The problems with true tactical (company/battalion level) games were all too apparent. According to Lorrin Bird, writing in Special Issue #2 of Campaign Magazine
:
This much anticipated sequel to PanzerBlitz was successful, and the next year SPI replaced their earlier titles with games featuring a new "Simultaneous-Sequential-Play-System", eliminating the bookkeeping involved in games like KampfPanzer and Tank and attempting to address the problems described by Bird, above. And so MechWar '77 replaced the earlier Red Star/White Star, Panzer '44 replaced Combat Command, and Search & Destroy replaced Grunt
.
The new Simultaneous-Sequential-Play-System (SSPS) allowed for much greater realism without sacrificing playability, and was considered the new "state of the art" for tactical wargames. The first era of tactical wargaming had come to an end. The new state of the art was extended to Avalon Hill's Tobruk in 1976, as well as SPI's Firefight. But neither game did well, with increased realism in the form of detailed penetration tables in Tobruk and rigid rules for modern Soviet doctrine forced on the players of Firefight making games once again less playable. Tobruk also suffered from an unattractive map surface which depicted basically flat terrain.
Another point for players of tactical wargames to consider was the increasing amount of unit data that was being built into the games. Rather than pieces depicting generic "infantry" or "cavalry" units as in Civil War strategy games, for example, games like Tobruk
were inundating players with tables of complex ballistics information. Firefight came with a separate booklet on "Reference Data" amounting to 20 pages of information, much of it not immediately necessary for gameplay but certainly useful to defend some of the design decisions which restricted game play.
At this point, Avalon Hill approached developer John Hill to "do a game like Tank! (but) a squad level game...." Hill was well known, and had recently written an article in Moves
entitled "Desiging for Playability." He had recently published BarLev and Battle for Hue.
, which went on to become the best selling tactical wargame ever, spawning three add-ons (called "gamettes" by Avalon Hill) and an Advanced version
which produced twelve "official" core modules, several historically based modules, a solitaire version, and hundreds of third party add-ons and variants.
Squad Leader, released in 1977, used a semi-simultaneous system as well, focusing on infantry combat. The physical components for the game were unmatched in terms of quality, using full color painted mapboards on rigid mountings that had the added advantage of being geomorphic. As the Squad Leader game system grew and more boards were added, they could be set up in a variety of configurations and used to represent a wide array of units, as the infantry counters were generic and did not portray specific units. Some innovative rules for such things as leadership and "penetrating fire" (to simulate the ability of automatic weapons on the battlefield to engage more than just one target) were introduced.
Some observers felt Squad Leader was too romantic a view of infantry combat. Bird felt that the game "completely sidesteps the effect of widespread panic and morale breakdowns (contagious hysteria), and treats every soldier as if he were totally dedicated to the cause..." Others felt that games like Search & Destroy received short shrift.
Even the developers of Squad Leader admitted that "our troops assault with a tenacity that would make Kelly's Heroes
proud."
, there was never a follow-on game or expansion product for Tobruk enthusiasts. We now have the benefit of hindsight to point to the years between the release of Squad Leader and its progeny Cross of Iron through GI: Anvil of Victory represented AH's commitment to tactical-level World War II gaming. As most readers are aware, that series led to ASL, followed by its own progeny over the years. Thus, one should not be the least bit surprised that Tobruk appeared to be expendable circa 1987, a year that happened to be the height of the ASL craze."
In fact, Hal Hock (developer of Tobruk) and Don Greenwood and John Hill (developers of Squad Leader) compared the merits of the two games shortly after the release of the latter in the pages of The General. It was made clear that the two game systems were quite different, and as time passed it was clear which game Avalon Hill preferred to support. In July 1987, as alluded to above, Avalon Hill sold the rights to Tobruk back to Hal Hock.
Some of the challenges facing designers of tactical wargames were also made clear in that article, which contrasted Hill's "design for effect" philosophy with the more data-driven philosophy of Hock:
in 1985, other titles also appeared, none of whom managed to gain the popularity that Squad Leader/ASL had gained. Perhaps the downturn in the wargaming industry is also to blame for that, as videogame consoles and computer games became more sophisticated and offered greater appeal than previously to those who enjoyed board wargaming as an intellectual challenge. West End Games introduced Eastern Front Tank Leader (also designed by John Hill) in 1986, followed by Western Front Tank Leader in 1987 and Desert Steel in 1989. The same year, Avalon Hill
offered up a modern tactical game in MBT, only superficially similar to Squad Leader
as it simulated a different era of tactical combat. Another game, IDF, appeared in 1993 that used the same rules as MBT, changing the setting from a fictional World War Three in Germany to the Middle East and the Arab-Israeli conflicts.
Panzer Command
by Victory Games in 1984 tried to address some of the problems Bird had mentioned in the Campaign article mentioned above. Robert Kern reported (in Fire & Movement
Number 49 (Jul/Aug 1986)) that: "Experimentation is the main reason why our games have been so successful. Not only do we try to simplify game systems as much as possible, but we also tear systems apart to see if something new can be created from them. Panzer Command, for example, does not use a strict sequence of play; rather, portions of the game turn are on chits
which are drawn at random."
Other significant product lines appeared by producers GDW and Clash of Arms Games ("CofA")
. GDW focused on the Cold War or World War III
period with Team Yankee, the first product of its First Battle Series line of games. Later offerings moved this system to cover several post-Cold war scenarios, such as Desert Storm, and also back to Second World War
. CofA produced Landships! which covers the First World War
, primarily focusing on the appearance of tanks during the later years on the Western Front
. Subsequent expansions moved the system to cover the Russian Civil War
and CofA intends to move the series up to 1939, covering the Chaco War
, the Spanish Civil War
and the German invasion of Poland in World War II.
Other producers have also produced small unit tactical board wargames covering earlier eras such as the Roman Empire, the Napoleonic Wars and the American Civil War. However, with the exception of Avalon Hill's Siege of Jerusalem, none of these games have met with much success. Note however, grand tactical board war games have extraordinary followings, especially The Gamers series of games covering the American Civil War and CofA's La Bataille series covering the Napoleonic Wars and the Seven Years War. GMT Games
has also had considerable success with its Great Battles of History series. These series though use larger units, usually at the battalion or regimental level.
In 2006, the final component for Advanced Squad Leader
, Armies of Oblivion, went to press, completing the last of twelve essential "core modules" covering every major combatant army, vehicle and ordnance type of the Second World War. It is unclear which direction new projects will take ASL, although there are some indications are that a modern version may be in the offing, other sources suggest more Historical Advanced Squad Leader modules
will be the future direction. The long rumoured World War I
expansion module appears to have been cancelled, however it may eventually be produced by a third party manufacturer. Critical Hit has however recently produced several unofficial expansion modules, introducing the system to cover the Spanish Civil War
, the Arab-Israeli Wars of 1948 and 1956 and the French-Vietnam war during the 1950s
.
Pre-1750
Napoleonic Era (1750–1850)
American Civil War/Industrialized Era (1850–1898)
World War I Era (1898–1930)
World War II Era (1930–1945) IJN (Simulations Canada) 1978
Torpedo! (Simulations Canada) 1979
Kriegsmarine (Simulations Canada) 1980
Ironbottom Sound (Quarterdeck Games) 1981
Destroyer Captain (Quarterdeck Games) 1982
The Royal Navy (Quarterdeck Games) 1983
Schnellboote (Simulations Canada) 1984
Second World War at Sea: SOPAC (Avalanche Press) 1999
Second World War at Sea: Eastern Fleet (Avalanche Press) 2001
Second World War at Sea: Bomb Alley (Avalanche Press) 2002
Second World War at Sea: Strike South (Avalanche Press) 2005
Second World War at Sea: Leyte Gulf (Avalanche Press) 2006
Second World War at Sea: Bismarck (Avalanche Press) 2006
Post-war Era (1945–Present)
game engine designed by Rodney Kinney, as well as Aide-de-Camp, Cyberboard, ZunTzu, and Battlegrounds Gaming Engine are five examples of this. Using Java
or similar technology, graphical versions of boards and counters can be manipulated in cyberspace as if a manual version of the game was being played. Dice rolling, chit drawing, and other game functions are all recreated in these "virtual tabletop" systems, which can be played solo, by email, or live multi-player over the Internet, including the option of spectators. A large proportion of published board games have been converted for play in this manner, extending the lives of old boardgames (to avoid copyright infringement, it is expected that players of these games provide their own rulebooks and other physical components only obtainable by purchasing the games.)
Some companies are now releasing games meant solely for play via this medium, such as Dan Verssen's Special Forces, a traditional counter and hex-map board game played strictly in the medium of Vassal. Furthermore, some long-out-of-print games have been republished exclusively as digital games for use in such software.
Wargaming
A wargame is a strategy game that deals with military operations of various types, real or fictional. Wargaming is the hobby dedicated to the play of such games, which can also be called conflict simulations, or consims for short. When used professionally to study warfare, it is generally known as...
that models military conflict at a tactical level, i.e. units range from individual vehicle
Vehicle
A vehicle is a device that is designed or used to transport people or cargo. Most often vehicles are manufactured, such as bicycles, cars, motorcycles, trains, ships, boats, and aircraft....
s and 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 to platoon
Platoon
A platoon is a military unit typically composed of two to four sections or squads and containing 16 to 50 soldiers. Platoons are organized into a company, which typically consists of three, four or five platoons. A platoon is typically the smallest military unit led by a commissioned officer—the...
s or companies
Company (military unit)
A company is a military unit, typically consisting of 80–225 soldiers and usually commanded by a Captain, Major or Commandant. Most companies are formed of three to five platoons although the exact number may vary by country, unit type, and structure...
. These units are rated based on types and ranges of individual weaponry. The first tactical wargames were played as miniatures, extended to board games, and they are now also enjoyed as video games.
The games are designed so that a knowledge of military tactics
Military tactics
Military tactics, the science and art of organizing an army or an air force, are the techniques for using weapons or military units in combination for engaging and defeating an enemy in battle. Changes in philosophy and technology over time have been reflected in changes to military tactics. In...
will facilitate good gameplay. Tactical wargames offer more of a challenge to the designer, as fewer variables or characteristics inherent in the units being simulated are directly quantifiable. Modern commercial board wargaming avoided tactical subjects for many years, but since initial attempts at the subject appeared, it has remained a favourite topic among wargamers. Perhaps the most successful board wargaming system ever designed, Advanced Squad Leader
Advanced Squad Leader
Advanced Squad Leader is a tactical-level board wargame, originally marketed by Avalon Hill Games, that simulates actions of approximately company or battalion size in World War II. It is a detailed game system for two or more players . Components include the ASL Rulebook and various games called...
, is set at the tactical level.
Miniatures-based wargames
Tactical wargame rules have appeared for every period of human history and even into the future. The first true "miniatures" games may have developed in antiquity, though Kriegsspiel, a command study invented in 18th century Prussia, is generally accepted as the first true miniatures game. Commercially available miniatures, however, only became popular at the start of the 20th Century.Naval miniatures
Jane's published several sets of rules for naval games in the mid-20th Century.Land-based miniatures
The number of land-based tactical miniatures games produced for the commercial market increased exponentially following the Second World War as interest in that conflict and disposable income increased.History
The genesis of tactical board wargaming goes back to 1969. Up until that time, wargaming - which in the modern, recreational form only dated back to 1958 - tended to concentrate on operational and strategic subjects. Charles S. RobertsCharles S. Roberts
Charles Swann Roberts was a wargame designer, railroad historian, and businessman. He is renowned as "The Father of Board Wargaming", having created the first modern wargame in 1952, and the first wargaming company in 1954...
of Avalon Hill
Avalon Hill
Avalon Hill was a game company that specialized in wargames and strategic board games. Its logo contained its initials "AH", and it was often referred to by this abbreviation. It also published the occasional miniature wargaming rules, role-playing game, and had a popular line of sports simulations...
had developed a wide range of strategic wargames based upon historical battles —the first of these being the 1961 releases of Gettysburg
Gettysburg (game)
Gettysburg is a board wargame produced by Avalon Hill which re-enacts the American Civil War battle of Gettysburg. It was originally published in 1958, and was the first board wargame based on a historical battle....
and Chancellorsville
Chancellorsville (game)
Chancellorsville is a two-player board wargame produced by Avalon Hill which re-enacts the American Civil War Battle of Chancellorsville. It was originally published in 1961, and republished in 1974. The game was designed by Wargaming Hall of Fame designer Charles S. Roberts.Chancellorsville was a...
, issued to coincide with the beginning of the centennial celebration of the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. AH issued a wide range of similar games in the years that followed, and established itself as the market leader in board wargames. However, most of these games were at the army
Army
An army An army An army (from Latin arma "arms, weapons" via Old French armée, "armed" (feminine), in the broadest sense, is the land-based military of a nation or state. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps...
, brigade
Brigade
A brigade is a major tactical military formation that is typically composed of two to five battalions, plus supporting elements depending on the era and nationality of a given army and could be perceived as an enlarged/reinforced regiment...
, battalion
Battalion
A battalion is a military unit of around 300–1,200 soldiers usually consisting of between two and seven companies and typically commanded by either a Lieutenant Colonel or a Colonel...
, or regiment
Regiment
A regiment is a major tactical military unit, composed of variable numbers of batteries, squadrons or battalions, commanded by a colonel or lieutenant colonel...
level. Few were at the more tactical levels.
Tactical Game 3 was introduced by 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...
magazine as a platoon/company level game focusing on tactics on the Eastern Front. In 1970, that game's designer, the legendary James F. Dunnigan
Jim Dunnigan
James F. Dunnigan is an author, military-political analyst, Defense and State Department consultant, and wargame designer currently living in New York City, notable for his matter-of-fact approach to military analysis.-Career:...
, sold the rights to the game to Avalon Hill, who quickly released PanzerBlitz
PanzerBlitz
PanzerBlitz is a tactical-scale board wargame of armoured combat set in the Eastern Front of the Second World War. The game is notable for being the first true board-based tactical-level, commercially available conflict simulation...
. This was the start of the so-called "Second Generation" of wargaming. PanzerBlitz eventually sold 250,000 copies, though it was not without critics (including Dunnigan himself).
Grunt (board game)
Grunt: The Game of Tactical Level Combat in Vietnam was a tactical level board wargame designed by John Young and released by Simulations Publications, Inc. as part of issue #26 of Strategy & Tactics in 1971....
(1971) featuring platoon-level warfare in Vietnam and Combat Command: Platoon-Company Combat, France, 1944 (1972) billed as a western front sequel to PanzerBlitz, and Soldiers (1972) about World War I, all by Dunnigan/SPI. Dunnigan then crossed another boundary and became the first publisher to release a game on the then-ongoing Cold War, called Red Star/White Star: Tactical Combat in Western Europe in the 1970s. While the game was successful, Dunnigan was disappointed with it, citing difficulties in realistically portraying tactical combat in a tabletop board game.
Dunnigan tried to take tactical games into a new direction in 1973 with KampfPanzer and Desert War, which featured simultaneous movement, expanding on an optional rule for PanzerBlitz. Unfortunately, the quest for greater realism was having a price in complexity and "bookkeeping", or recording of moves on paper. Nonetheless, other tactical games on a man to man level were released with simultaneous movement, with Sniper!
Sniper! (board game)
Sniper! was a board wargame originally released in 1973. Some sources refer to "Sniper/Patrol" as a sort of series of games: a similar game by Simulations Publications Inc. was released at the same time as the original Sniper!, called Patrol....
being released by SPI in 1973, Patrol
Patrol (board game)
Patrol was a board wargame released in the early 1970s as a companion to Sniper! in 1974 by Simulations Publications, Inc. It billed itself as "Man to Man Combat in the 20th Century" and simulated combat from the First World War to the present day....
!: Man to Man Combat in the 20th Century and Tank!: Armored Combat in the 20th Century both in 1974. That same year, Avalon Hill released Panzer Leader
Panzer Leader (game)
Panzer Leader is the sequel to Avalon Hill's Panzerblitz game. Like its predecessor, it is a tactical platoon level hex and counter board wargame depicting WWII tank and infantry combat on the Western European front...
: The Game of Tactical Warfare on the Western Front 1944-45.
The problems with true tactical (company/battalion level) games were all too apparent. According to Lorrin Bird, writing in Special Issue #2 of Campaign Magazine
Panzerfaust Magazine
Panzerfaust was a wargaming magazine started by Don Greenwood in 1967 and named after the German panzerfaust, a recoilless anti-tank weapon...
:
The major disappointment with the three major Avalon Hill games (Panzer Leader, PanzerBlitz and Arab-Israeli Wars) was the obvious sequential nature of the whole situation. A shoots, A moves. B shoots, B moves. With a little opportunity fire thrown in. In situations like the Battle of Kursk in Panzer Blitz confronting the enemy meant possible extinction. The hardest part to accept was the situation where three German tanks block a pass and cannot be seen by the T-34s on their combat phase. On the Russian move they move up to the Mark IVs and have to stop. The T-34 move might have taken only a two-hex advance (500 metres) and then they idle their engines for the next 5 minutes. On the next German move, the Mark IVs cleverly dart away, in and out of cover and take position again. The T-34s...move a few hexes, stop and idle, awaiting the German movement which frees up the next few hexes for them. Another funny situation is where a Tiger unit sits in the open and a Sherman comes out of nowhere and ends up adjacent to the Germans. With ideal conditions, the Tiger can decimate the Shermans in no time flat without any "defensive" fire by the M-4s at all, and then move off....While Panzer Blitz, Panzer Leader and Arab-Israeli Wars are wonderful games, and demand a high degree of tactical ability to play, victory can be obtained in a manner very often that runs contrary to reason and a player's intelligence...
Grunt (board game)
Grunt: The Game of Tactical Level Combat in Vietnam was a tactical level board wargame designed by John Young and released by Simulations Publications, Inc. as part of issue #26 of Strategy & Tactics in 1971....
.
The new Simultaneous-Sequential-Play-System (SSPS) allowed for much greater realism without sacrificing playability, and was considered the new "state of the art" for tactical wargames. The first era of tactical wargaming had come to an end. The new state of the art was extended to Avalon Hill's Tobruk in 1976, as well as SPI's Firefight. But neither game did well, with increased realism in the form of detailed penetration tables in Tobruk and rigid rules for modern Soviet doctrine forced on the players of Firefight making games once again less playable. Tobruk also suffered from an unattractive map surface which depicted basically flat terrain.
Another point for players of tactical wargames to consider was the increasing amount of unit data that was being built into the games. Rather than pieces depicting generic "infantry" or "cavalry" units as in Civil War strategy games, for example, games like Tobruk
Tobruk (game)
Tobruk is a board wargame set in the North African Desert circa 1942 and was published by Avalon Hill in 1975. The game is largely focused on the armored forces available to the British, Italian, and German forces of , with infantry, artillery, and air aspects of combat present in secondary,...
were inundating players with tables of complex ballistics information. Firefight came with a separate booklet on "Reference Data" amounting to 20 pages of information, much of it not immediately necessary for gameplay but certainly useful to defend some of the design decisions which restricted game play.
Moves (magazine)
Moves was a wargaming magazine originally published by SPI , who also published manual wargames. Their flagship magazine Strategy & Tactics , was a military history magazine featuring a new wargame in each issue. While S&T was devoted to historical articles, Moves focused on the play of the games...
entitled "Desiging for Playability." He had recently published BarLev and Battle for Hue.
Squad Leader
The result was Squad LeaderSquad 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...
, which went on to become the best selling tactical wargame ever, spawning three add-ons (called "gamettes" by Avalon Hill) and an Advanced version
Advanced Squad Leader
Advanced Squad Leader is a tactical-level board wargame, originally marketed by Avalon Hill Games, that simulates actions of approximately company or battalion size in World War II. It is a detailed game system for two or more players . Components include the ASL Rulebook and various games called...
which produced twelve "official" core modules, several historically based modules, a solitaire version, and hundreds of third party add-ons and variants.
Squad Leader, released in 1977, used a semi-simultaneous system as well, focusing on infantry combat. The physical components for the game were unmatched in terms of quality, using full color painted mapboards on rigid mountings that had the added advantage of being geomorphic. As the Squad Leader game system grew and more boards were added, they could be set up in a variety of configurations and used to represent a wide array of units, as the infantry counters were generic and did not portray specific units. Some innovative rules for such things as leadership and "penetrating fire" (to simulate the ability of automatic weapons on the battlefield to engage more than just one target) were introduced.
Some observers felt Squad Leader was too romantic a view of infantry combat. Bird felt that the game "completely sidesteps the effect of widespread panic and morale breakdowns (contagious hysteria), and treats every soldier as if he were totally dedicated to the cause..." Others felt that games like Search & Destroy received short shrift.
Few tactical games during (the 1970s) are comparable to Squad Leader ... which is quite popular and is of a similar scale (to S&D), but has a needlessly complex combat system, leadership rules that would be more appropriate for 18th Century combat and ridiculously simplistic casualty rules...The wargame industry has basically ignored the more accurate portrayal of company level combat in S&D for the more glamorous version portrayed in Squad Leader.
Even the developers of Squad Leader admitted that "our troops assault with a tenacity that would make Kelly's Heroes
Kelly's Heroes
Kelly's Heroes is an offbeat 1970 comedy/war film about a group of World War II soldiers who go AWOL to rob a bank behind enemy lines. Directed by Brian G...
proud."
Squad Leader vs. Tobruk
The Tobruk game released by Avalon Hill prior to Squad Leader got little support from gamers or AH. "With the exception of a few articles and scenarios in The GeneralThe General Magazine
The General Magazine was first published in 1964, as a bi-monthly periodical devoted to supporting Avalon Hill's line of wargames, with articles on game tactics, history, and industry news...
, there was never a follow-on game or expansion product for Tobruk enthusiasts. We now have the benefit of hindsight to point to the years between the release of Squad Leader and its progeny Cross of Iron through GI: Anvil of Victory represented AH's commitment to tactical-level World War II gaming. As most readers are aware, that series led to ASL, followed by its own progeny over the years. Thus, one should not be the least bit surprised that Tobruk appeared to be expendable circa 1987, a year that happened to be the height of the ASL craze."
In fact, Hal Hock (developer of Tobruk) and Don Greenwood and John Hill (developers of Squad Leader) compared the merits of the two games shortly after the release of the latter in the pages of The General. It was made clear that the two game systems were quite different, and as time passed it was clear which game Avalon Hill preferred to support. In July 1987, as alluded to above, Avalon Hill sold the rights to Tobruk back to Hal Hock.
Some of the challenges facing designers of tactical wargames were also made clear in that article, which contrasted Hill's "design for effect" philosophy with the more data-driven philosophy of Hock:
Hill's is the artistic approach akin to the impressionistic school of painting where subjects are abstracted until the overall effect on the viewer is such that the artist can will his impressions upon the viewer. Hence, an artistic designer studies history with concern for the overall battlefield environment and how each specific weapon relates to it, as opposed to proving ground statistics. Regardless of a weapon's value, if the soldier wielding it has confidence in his handling of the weapon and its overall effectiveness, his performance will be greatly enhanced. He subscribes to the opinion in vogue these days in battlefield research that technical differences of weapons is not nearly as important as the psychological perception of the individual using the weapon...
Hock is the scientist and indeed has been employed in such a capacity by the government. He believes that since a battle is primarily a clash of technology, it can be measured. Proving ground data is his bible. Armor actions can be studied by careful study of "projectile penetration" vs. armor....The artist responds that this shell vs. armor test does not always hold true in the battlefield environment...The artist concludes...that when shell hits armor, anything (such as hits on vision ports, slung equipment, oblique angles, variable metal quality of cast armor, etc.) can happen and that only a most generalized statement of probability can be made.
Other land-based wargames
Nonetheless, while Squad Leader progressed into Advanced Squad Leader ("ASL")Advanced Squad Leader
Advanced Squad Leader is a tactical-level board wargame, originally marketed by Avalon Hill Games, that simulates actions of approximately company or battalion size in World War II. It is a detailed game system for two or more players . Components include the ASL Rulebook and various games called...
in 1985, other titles also appeared, none of whom managed to gain the popularity that Squad Leader/ASL had gained. Perhaps the downturn in the wargaming industry is also to blame for that, as videogame consoles and computer games became more sophisticated and offered greater appeal than previously to those who enjoyed board wargaming as an intellectual challenge. West End Games introduced Eastern Front Tank Leader (also designed by John Hill) in 1986, followed by Western Front Tank Leader in 1987 and Desert Steel in 1989. The same year, Avalon Hill
Avalon Hill
Avalon Hill was a game company that specialized in wargames and strategic board games. Its logo contained its initials "AH", and it was often referred to by this abbreviation. It also published the occasional miniature wargaming rules, role-playing game, and had a popular line of sports simulations...
offered up a modern tactical game in MBT, only superficially similar 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...
as it simulated a different era of tactical combat. Another game, IDF, appeared in 1993 that used the same rules as MBT, changing the setting from a fictional World War Three in Germany to the Middle East and the Arab-Israeli conflicts.
Panzer Command
Panzer Command (board game)
Panzer Command is the name of a board wargame released by Victory Games in 1984. The game is a tactical level game depicting armoured operations south of Stalingrad in the winter of 1942-43.-Design:...
by Victory Games in 1984 tried to address some of the problems Bird had mentioned in the Campaign article mentioned above. Robert Kern reported (in Fire & Movement
Fire & Movement
Fire & Movement: The Forum of Conflict Simulation was founded by Rodger MacGowan in 1975, and began publication the following year. The magazine is devoted to covering games from a variety of manufacturers, specializing in wargames, both traditional board wargames and also computer wargames Fire &...
Number 49 (Jul/Aug 1986)) that: "Experimentation is the main reason why our games have been so successful. Not only do we try to simplify game systems as much as possible, but we also tear systems apart to see if something new can be created from them. Panzer Command, for example, does not use a strict sequence of play; rather, portions of the game turn are on chits
Chit (board wargames)
Chits are a type of wargame counter that are generally not directly representational but used for the following purposes:* Tracking, being placed on a numeric runner to indicate turn status, as in some rule variants for Squad Leader...
which are drawn at random."
Other significant product lines appeared by producers GDW and Clash of Arms Games ("CofA")
Clash of Arms
Clash of Arms Games is a wargaming company best known for a high level of graphics quality and moderately to highly complex games, often focusing on the Napoleonic era, but with offerings in most eras of military history...
. GDW focused on the Cold War or World War III
World War III
World War III denotes a successor to World War II that would be on a global scale, with common speculation that it would be likely nuclear and devastating in nature....
period with Team Yankee, the first product of its First Battle Series line of games. Later offerings moved this system to cover several post-Cold war scenarios, such as Desert Storm, and also back to Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. CofA produced Landships! which covers the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, primarily focusing on the appearance of tanks during the later years on the Western Front
Western Front (World War I)
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...
. Subsequent expansions moved the system to cover the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
and CofA intends to move the series up to 1939, covering the Chaco War
Chaco War
The Chaco War was fought between Bolivia and Paraguay over control of the northern part of the Gran Chaco region of South America, which was incorrectly thought to be rich in oil. It is also referred to as La Guerra de la Sed in literary circles for being fought in the semi-arid Chaco...
, the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
and the German invasion of Poland in World War II.
Other producers have also produced small unit tactical board wargames covering earlier eras such as the Roman Empire, the Napoleonic Wars and the American Civil War. However, with the exception of Avalon Hill's Siege of Jerusalem, none of these games have met with much success. Note however, grand tactical board war games have extraordinary followings, especially The Gamers series of games covering the American Civil War and CofA's La Bataille series covering the Napoleonic Wars and the Seven Years War. GMT Games
GMT Games
GMT Games, probably the most prolific of the wargame companies in the 1990s and 2000s, was founded in 1990. The current management and creative team includes Tony Curtis, Rodger MacGowan, Mark Simonitch, and Andy Lewis...
has also had considerable success with its Great Battles of History series. These series though use larger units, usually at the battalion or regimental level.
Land tactical board wargames published 1969-1994
- Tactical Game 3 (Poultron Press, 1969) - later published as PanzerBlitz
- PanzerBlitzPanzerBlitzPanzerBlitz is a tactical-scale board wargame of armoured combat set in the Eastern Front of the Second World War. The game is notable for being the first true board-based tactical-level, commercially available conflict simulation...
(Avalon HillAvalon HillAvalon Hill was a game company that specialized in wargames and strategic board games. Its logo contained its initials "AH", and it was often referred to by this abbreviation. It also published the occasional miniature wargaming rules, role-playing game, and had a popular line of sports simulations...
, 1970) - Grunt (Issue 26 of Strategy & TacticsStrategy & TacticsStrategy & Tactics is a wargaming magazine now published by Decision Games, notable for publishing a complete new wargame in each issue...
, 1971) - Combat Command (Issue 30 of S&T)
- Soldiers (Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) (1972)
- Red Star/White Star (SPI, 1972)
- KampfPanzer (Issue 41 of S&T, 1973)
- Desert War (SPI, 1973)
- Sniper!Sniper! (board game)Sniper! was a board wargame originally released in 1973. Some sources refer to "Sniper/Patrol" as a sort of series of games: a similar game by Simulations Publications Inc. was released at the same time as the original Sniper!, called Patrol....
(SPI, 1973) - Battle for Hue (Simulations Design Corporation, 1973)
- PatrolPatrol (board game)Patrol was a board wargame released in the early 1970s as a companion to Sniper! in 1974 by Simulations Publications, Inc. It billed itself as "Man to Man Combat in the 20th Century" and simulated combat from the First World War to the present day....
(SPI, 1974) - Tank! (Issue 44 of S&T, 1974)
- Panzer LeaderPanzer Leader (game)Panzer Leader is the sequel to Avalon Hill's Panzerblitz game. Like its predecessor, it is a tactical platoon level hex and counter board wargame depicting WWII tank and infantry combat on the Western European front...
(Avalon Hill, 1974) - Search & Destroy (SPI, 1975)
- Panzer '44 (SPI, 1974)
- MechWar '77 (SPI, 1975)
- FireFight (SPI, 1976)
- H-Hour (Balboa Game Company, 1976)
- Tobruk (Avalon Hill, 1976)
- SuperTank (Strategic and Tactical Studies, 1976)
- Squad LeaderSquad Leaderthumb|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...
(Avalon Hill, 1977) - Arab/Israeli Wars (Avalon Hill, 1977)
- October War (Issue 61 of S&T, 1977)
- Trenchfoot (Unknown, 1977)
- Raid (Issue 64 of S&T)
- Cross of Iron (Avalon Hill, 1978) - Squad Leader expansion
- Commando (SPI, 1979) - role playing game
- Panzer Battles (Issue 73 of S&T, 1979)
- Panzer (Yaquinto, 1979)
- 88 (Yaquinto, 1979)
- City Fight (SPI, 1979)
- Mech War 2 (SPI, 1979)
- Crescendo of Doom (Avalon Hill, 1980) - Squad Leader expansion
- Armor (Yaquinto, 1980)
- Beachhead (Yaquinto, 1980)
- Storm Over Arnhem (Avalon Hill, 1981) - area movement game
- GI: Anvil of Victory (Avalon Hill, 1982) - Squad Leader expansion
- Combat (Game Forms, 1982)
- Up Front (Avalon Hill, 1983) - card game
- Close Assault (Yaquinto, 1983)
- Commando Actions (Yaquinto, 1983)
- Rapid Deployment Force (Yaquinto, 1983)
- Assault (GDW, 1983)
- Ambush!Ambush!Ambush! is a man-to-man wargame developed by Avalon Hill. It was released under Avalon's Victory Games label and was developed by Eric Lee Smith and John Butterfield. In 1984, Ambush! won the Origins Award for Best 20th Century Boardgame of 1983...
(Victory Games, 1983) - Firepower (Avalon Hill, 1984)
- Boots & Saddles (GDW, 1984)
- Move Out! (Victory Games, 1984) - Ambush! add on
- Panzer Command (Victory Games, 1984)
- RangerRanger (board game)Ranger: Simulation of Modern Patrolling Operations is a tactical solitaire board wargame released by Omega Games in 1984. It was billed as a "game of modern patrolling"...
(Omega Games, 1985) - Advanced Squad LeaderAdvanced Squad LeaderAdvanced Squad Leader is a tactical-level board wargame, originally marketed by Avalon Hill Games, that simulates actions of approximately company or battalion size in World War II. It is a detailed game system for two or more players . Components include the ASL Rulebook and various games called...
(Avalon Hill, 1985) - rule book only - Beyond Valor (Avalon Hill, 1985) - ASL module
- Streets of Fire (Avalon Hill 1985) - ASL module
- Purple Heart (Victory Games, 1985) - Ambush! add on
- Paratrooper (Avalon Hill, 1986) - ASL module
- Air Cav (Victory Games, 1986)
- Eastern Front Tank Leader (West End Games, 1986)
- Battle Hymn (Victory Games, 1986)
- Battle Cry (World Wide Wargamers, 1986)
- Bundeswehr (GDW, 1986)
- Sniper! 2nd EditionSniper! (board game)Sniper! was a board wargame originally released in 1973. Some sources refer to "Sniper/Patrol" as a sort of series of games: a similar game by Simulations Publications Inc. was released at the same time as the original Sniper!, called Patrol....
(TSR/SPI, 1986) - FireTeam (West End Games, 1987)
- Soldiers (West End Games, 1987)
- Team Yankee (GDW, 1987)
- Western Front Tank Leader (West End Games, 1987)
- Yanks (Avalon Hill, 1987) - ASL module
- Silver Star (Victory Games, 1987) - Ambush! add on
- Glasnost The GameGlasnost The GameGlasnost The Game is a strategic board game, produced by a company in Cyprus, YL Games. It was invented in 1989 by Cypriot Neuroscientist Yiannis Laouris, with help and inspiration from his daughter Romina and his friend George Vakanas in Tucson/Arizona. Glasnost The Game is a turn-based game for...
(YL Games, 1989) - Desert Steel (West End Games, 1989 - Charles S. Roberts Award for Best WWII Wargame)
- Battlefield: Europe (GDW, 1991)
- Sands of War (GDW, 1993)
- Landships! (Clash of Arms, 1993)
Advanced Tobruk and Advanced Squad Leader
In 2002, Advanced Tobruk was released by game manufacturer Critical Hit, Inc. This game was a makeover from the original, and Raymond J. Tapio, who had been designing third party ASL add-ons for sale by his company Critical Hit, conversed with original designer Hal Hock in 1998 and decided, with Kurt Martin, to re-release the game. Tobruk was expanded into a system covering the entire Second World War at the tactical level, with a game scale similar to Squad Leader, 50 metres per hex and counters depicting individual squads and vehicles. The Advanced Tobruk System ("ATS") proved to be very popular, with several expansion modules being produced. Graphic quality of the components was high. The system has gone on to cover battles from the Spanish Civil War through the Korean War, with rumors of a World War I expansion, and even a version of the American Civil War.In 2006, the final component for Advanced Squad Leader
Advanced Squad Leader
Advanced Squad Leader is a tactical-level board wargame, originally marketed by Avalon Hill Games, that simulates actions of approximately company or battalion size in World War II. It is a detailed game system for two or more players . Components include the ASL Rulebook and various games called...
, Armies of Oblivion, went to press, completing the last of twelve essential "core modules" covering every major combatant army, vehicle and ordnance type of the Second World War. It is unclear which direction new projects will take ASL, although there are some indications are that a modern version may be in the offing, other sources suggest more Historical Advanced Squad Leader modules
Historical Advanced Squad Leader module
-HASL modules:Historical Advanced Squad Leader modules are addons for the tactical wargame Advanced Squad Leader intended to depict actual historical events using maps produced from actual terrain maps, and featuring linked scenarios...
will be the future direction. The long rumoured World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
expansion module appears to have been cancelled, however it may eventually be produced by a third party manufacturer. Critical Hit has however recently produced several unofficial expansion modules, introducing the system to cover the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
, the Arab-Israeli Wars of 1948 and 1956 and the French-Vietnam war during the 1950s
First Indochina War
The First Indochina War was fought in French Indochina from December 19, 1946, until August 1, 1954, between the French Union's French Far East...
.
Sea board-based tactical wargames
Several game manufacturers have produced tactical wargames covering naval warfare. Due to the scales of these battles, most games tend to be minitaures-based without boards, and several popular rules systems have appeared. However, several board versions have been produced over the past 40 years, with most games focusing either on the Napoleonic Era or the first half of the 20th Century.Pre-1750
- Trireme (Avalon Hill) 1974
- War Galley (GMT Games) 1999
- Salamis - expansion for War Galley (GMT Games) 1999
Napoleonic Era (1750–1850)
- Frigate: Sea War in the Age of Sail (SPI) 1974
- Wooden Ships & Iron Men (Avalon Hill)
- Enemy in Sight (Avalon Hill)
- Close Action (Clash of Arms) 1996
- Rebel Seas - expansion for Close Action (Clash of Arms) 2001
- Flying Colors (GMT Games) 2005
American Civil War/Industrialized Era (1850–1898)
- Ironclad (Yaquinto Games)
- Ironclads: Hearts of Iron (Avalanche Press) 2007 (not released yet)
World War I Era (1898–1930)
- JutlandJutland (game)Jutland is a wargame designed by Jim Dunnigan and published by Avalon Hill Game Company in 1967. The game covers the Battle of Jutland, fought in May and June 1916 between the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet off the Jutland coast of Denmark.The game is unusual for an Avalon Hill...
(Avalon Hill) 1967 - Dreadnought: Surface Combat In The Battleship Era, 1906-45 (SPI) 1975
- Great War at Sea: Vol 1 - The Mediterranean (Avalanche Press) 1996
- Great War at Sea: Vol 2 - The North Sea (Avalanche Press) 1998
- Great War at Sea: U.S. Navy Plan Orange (Avalanche Press) 1998
- Great War at Sea: 1904-1905: The Russo-Japanese War (Avalanche Press) 1999
- Great War at Sea: U.S. Navy Plan Black (Avalanche Press) 1999
- Great War at Sea: 1898: The Spanish-American War (Avalanche Press) 2000
- Great War at Sea: U.S. Navy Plan Red (Avalanche Press) 2002
- Great War at Sea: Cruiser Warfare (Avalanche Press) 2004
- Great War at Sea: Jutland (Avalanche Press) 2006 (New version of Vol 2)
- Great War at Sea: U.S. Navy Plan Gold (Avalanche Press) 2006
- Great War at Sea: Cone of Fire (Avalanche Press) 2007) (not released yet)
World War II Era (1930–1945)
Post-war Era (1945–Present)
- Missile Boat (Rand Games Assoc) 1974
- SSN (Game Designer's Workshop) 1975
- Raketny Kreyser (Simulations Canada) 1977
Air tactical board wargames
Several board-based tactical wargames have also appeared for aerial warfare, although popularity for this genre is low due to the amount of rules and plotting required.- Fight in the SkiesFight In The SkiesFight In The Skies, also known as Dawn Patrol, is a board wargame written by Mike Carr which models World War I style air combat. Carr began working on the game after watching the movie The Blue Max....
(also known as Dawn Patrol) (Guidon Games) 1971 - Richthofen's WarRichthofen's WarRichthofen's War was Avalon Hill's board wargame treatment of the air war over France during World War I. It was published in 1972.The First World War marked the dawn of modern warfare and the first use of airplanes in combat. Richthofen's War was also one of the relatively few World War I...
(Avalon Hill) 1972 - Flying Circus (SPI) 1972
- Foxbat & Phantom - Tactical Aerial combat in the 1970s (SPI) 1973
- Spitfire (SPI) 1973
- Air Force (Battleline) 1976
- Dauntless (Battleline) 1977
- Air War (SPI) 1977
- Sopwith (Gametime) 1978
- Air Superiority (GDW) 1987
- Air Strike (GDW) 1987
- The Speed of Heat (Clash of Arms) 1992
- Over the Reich (Clash of Arms) 1993
- Achtung Spitfire! (Clash of Arms) 1995
- Spitfire! (WWW Games) 1996
- Whistling Death (Clash of Arms) 2005
Tactical computer wargames
Fusion
An additional category of tactical wargames would be direct translation of board wargames for play on the computer, but with manual input by players. The VassalVASSAL Engine
The VASSAL Engine is a game engine for building and playing online adaptations of board games, tabletop games and card games. It allows users to play in real time over a live Internet connection, and also by email . It runs on all platforms, and is free, open-source software...
game engine designed by Rodney Kinney, as well as Aide-de-Camp, Cyberboard, ZunTzu, and Battlegrounds Gaming Engine are five examples of this. Using Java
Java (programming language)
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
or similar technology, graphical versions of boards and counters can be manipulated in cyberspace as if a manual version of the game was being played. Dice rolling, chit drawing, and other game functions are all recreated in these "virtual tabletop" systems, which can be played solo, by email, or live multi-player over the Internet, including the option of spectators. A large proportion of published board games have been converted for play in this manner, extending the lives of old boardgames (to avoid copyright infringement, it is expected that players of these games provide their own rulebooks and other physical components only obtainable by purchasing the games.)
Some companies are now releasing games meant solely for play via this medium, such as Dan Verssen's Special Forces, a traditional counter and hex-map board game played strictly in the medium of Vassal. Furthermore, some long-out-of-print games have been republished exclusively as digital games for use in such software.