Tag Archives: spi

Board Games

Red Star White Star

2 Comments

Tactical Game 3 had an impact that reverberated for years. SPI and Avalon Hill batted the concept around for years. Here is an early entertaining but flawed iteration from the early 70s as the system is applied to then contemporary warfare in western Europe. The game would ultimately be replaced by the ambitious Mech War 77.

As suits a game of this sort where scenarios are ahistorical, the game relies heavily on contemporary military documents and organizational layouts. Scenarios explicitly list on-paper elements as well as idealized conflict situations meant to illustrate doctrine.

The game is a remarkable change from the series games up to this point. Most noticeably, the board is large, with few hills, divided into a number of sections. Infantry and artillery include their vehicular component in a single counter. Ranges for HE weapons can be as large as 72 hexes. Helicopters can move swiftly across the board with relative immunity. TOW offer enormous AP attacks that can guarantee destruction of armored units.

There are also odd rules. TOW units disappear after firing. Units may also triple their fire for single turn then disappear as well. There were a bunch of other complaints addressed in a sheet of errata including the unpardonable sin of missing a counter for a scenario. One complaint was that the Russian forces were modeled on outdated and incorrect data that left the Russians far too weak.

The game of course hints at changes to come. Soon, SPI would introduce their SiMove system while covering a range of WWII theaters. The final iteration of the system would be October War designed by Mark Herman who would go on to rewrite the system as Mech War 2.

Rules

T-34

Leave a comment

https://www.spigames.net/PDFv3/T34-20mm.pdf

During the early 70s, the lines between different forms of simulation gaming remained blurred. Here, one of the leading manufacturers of simulation board games, Simulations Publications, Inc. tosses out a miniatures version of their ground breaking Tactical Game 3. Tac 3 was later redone and repackaged by Avalon Hill as Panzerblitz triggering a new and innovative era of game design.

Redoing the game apparently satisfied neither miniatures gamers who sought more complexity or board gamers who looked for a more inclusive range of materials. In retrospect, it seems like counters would have worked more effectively than the paper figures included with the game.

The rules present a brief adaptation with little extra. There are no scenarios included and the unit list seems too limited. However, the rules note that there are mission cards for both sides listing forces and goals though they do not seem to be included. The design was written by Arnold Hendricks who has crafted both miniature rules (1944) and board games (Star Viking). Scale is 1 turn = 6 minutes, 1” = 85 yards. Of course, the problem at this scale is that tanks traveling on a road can move almost 4 ft along the game surface. Additionally, many weapons including static anti-tank guns have a range less than the distance traveled by a tank in that 6 minute time frame so are likely to fall easy prey to tanks swooping down on them since attacker fires first.

T-34 used to show up near the bottom of SPI reader polls. It was never a hugely popular game. Still, it seemed natural for SPI to try out miniatures and this would be neither the first or last time. I have looked without success for a review based on a play-through.


Board Games

Dreadnought

Leave a comment

SPI continued their exploration of tactical games with Dreadnought. James Dunnigan had earlier created the massive cardboard miniatures game Jutland for Avalon Hill. Here, capital ships are simplified to basic stats encapsulated on the colorful set of counters with simple silhouettes showing the ship from the air as little more than a black or white outline. The game covers naval warfare from 1906 through WWII and is supposed to include every battleship in action during those times. Cruisers and destroyers are presented more abstractly wherein a single counter represents multiple ships. Like so many of the naval games SPI was releasing at the time, this one uses the SiMove pad where orders are written for each ship prior to the turn.

I bought this game in the late 70s when I was frustrated with the limited range of tactical space combat games available and thought that with a little monkeying around this game could fill that role. I played it a number of times but always as a basic naval game.

There is an interesting campaign game where one is presented with 4 different battle situations and must allocate their ships accordingly. Overall, a pretty fun game with limited stacking for capital ships, none for cruisers and destroyers. A note, too, that submarines and aircraft play no part in the game. Maps are simply identical light blue modules.