Showing posts with label Dunnigan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dunnigan. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Jim Dunnigan on Boardgame Geek!
Wargame legend Jim Dunnigan takes questions at Boardgame Geek. Check it out!
Friday, October 23, 2009
Drive on Metz -- differences between editions
Drive on Metz is an introductory wargame first published in 1980 inside the pages of prolific game designer James Dunnigan's book, The Complete Wargames Handbook. Since then the book as gone through several print editions and is also available for download at Dunnigan's Website. It may well be Dunnigan's last print wargame to see the market, so in a sense it represents the distilled essence of his design philosophy.
It might have remained a bit of a curiosity, except in 2007 it reappeared -- in not one, but two brand-new print editions!
In one case it appears as a full-fledged wargame inside the pages of GMT's C3i Magazine, issue No. 20., on a countersheet otherwise filled out with variant and bonus counters for more than a half dozen other wargames.
The other edition is a more deluxe. stand-alone version of the game published by Victory Point Games.
None of the games differ substantively in the rules, although the sketchier rules found in Dunnigan's book are filled out a bit in the magazine version and much more in the stand-alone version, which includes more examples of play.
The game itself depicts the attempt by a US corps in Patton's Third Army to seize the ancient city of Metz before the disorganized Germans can react. The Germans forces are a hodge podge of units, seriously understrength, attempt to stop them.
Normally a wargame about a battle at this scale would be set at the battalion level in order to give each player a substantial number of units, but Dunnigan's aim is to keep things simple and one way he does this is by bumping the scale up a notch, the regimental level. This results is just eight US pieces battling 10 German units at the start, plus one reinforcement. Combat is handled with a D6 die roll on a differential combat results table. American units range from a 4 to a 7 in combat strength, while the Germans are 1s, 2s or 3s. The battlefield is full of restrictive terrain, with forests, hills, forts, cities and a couple of major rivers aiding the Germans.
The components:
Counters
Book -- Half-inch counters that you'll have to photocopy, cut out and past onto cardboard to use. The American units are black print on white, the Germans are black print on gray. An optional counter for the US 502d Airborne regiment is mentioned i the rules, but not provided. There's also a game turn marker.
C3i -- Half-inch counters that you can punch out. The American units are multi-colored on green, with two optional units, the 502d and an additional infantry regiment. The German units are multi-colored on gray for the regular army units and white on black for the SS. The German units are backprinted with a combat value one higher than their standard value for use in a variant. Besides the game-turn marker, there are markers to mark the capture of the cities of Thionville and Metz, which are worth VPs.
VPG -- Three-quarter inch counters to punch out. The American and Germans are colored much like the C3i version, but here the German variant units are separate counters. Again there are markers for the capture of Metz and Thionville and for the game turn.
Dice
In all versions the player has to provide a six-sided die.
Map
Book -- The map is on back and white on an 8 1/2-inch by 5 1/2 inch page in the book. To play it will need to be photocopied.
C3i -- The map is in color on a 17-inch by 8 1/2-inch paper surface, with the actual map taking up half the area and the rest being fileld with charts and tables needed for play.
VPG -- The map is in color on a 17-inch by 8 1/2-inch cardstock surface. The actual map takes up about 60 percent of the area, with the tables and charts making up the rest.
Rules
Book -- 12 pages of rules in the book.
C3i -- Six magazine-sized pages as an insert.
VPG -- Six magazine-sized pages
Extras
Book -- Well, besides a 332-page book on the design, history and play of wargames, the book includes a 15-page illustrated example of play.
C3i -- A 48-page magazine with inserts, but nothing else directly related to the game.
VPG -- A four magazine-sized illustrated example of play. A setup map. A small insert about computer versions of the game.
Price
Book -- It's free online, but the map and counters are rather poor-quality scans from the book. The 3rd edition of the book is listed at $23.95, but Amazon lists it as low as $16.
C3i -- Included in the magazine, which is $20.
VPG -- List price is $19.95, but currently on sale at $12.95.
There's not much to choose from in price between the different editions, although I think the Victory Point Games edition is probably the best value unless you also own some of the GMT games featured in the magazine, like Asia Engulfed, Flying Colors, Command & Colors Ancients, Down in Flames, etc. The book version is free, of course, if you download it, but more work to prepare.
It might have remained a bit of a curiosity, except in 2007 it reappeared -- in not one, but two brand-new print editions!
In one case it appears as a full-fledged wargame inside the pages of GMT's C3i Magazine, issue No. 20., on a countersheet otherwise filled out with variant and bonus counters for more than a half dozen other wargames.
The other edition is a more deluxe. stand-alone version of the game published by Victory Point Games.
None of the games differ substantively in the rules, although the sketchier rules found in Dunnigan's book are filled out a bit in the magazine version and much more in the stand-alone version, which includes more examples of play.
The game itself depicts the attempt by a US corps in Patton's Third Army to seize the ancient city of Metz before the disorganized Germans can react. The Germans forces are a hodge podge of units, seriously understrength, attempt to stop them.
Normally a wargame about a battle at this scale would be set at the battalion level in order to give each player a substantial number of units, but Dunnigan's aim is to keep things simple and one way he does this is by bumping the scale up a notch, the regimental level. This results is just eight US pieces battling 10 German units at the start, plus one reinforcement. Combat is handled with a D6 die roll on a differential combat results table. American units range from a 4 to a 7 in combat strength, while the Germans are 1s, 2s or 3s. The battlefield is full of restrictive terrain, with forests, hills, forts, cities and a couple of major rivers aiding the Germans.
The components:
Counters
Book -- Half-inch counters that you'll have to photocopy, cut out and past onto cardboard to use. The American units are black print on white, the Germans are black print on gray. An optional counter for the US 502d Airborne regiment is mentioned i the rules, but not provided. There's also a game turn marker.
C3i -- Half-inch counters that you can punch out. The American units are multi-colored on green, with two optional units, the 502d and an additional infantry regiment. The German units are multi-colored on gray for the regular army units and white on black for the SS. The German units are backprinted with a combat value one higher than their standard value for use in a variant. Besides the game-turn marker, there are markers to mark the capture of the cities of Thionville and Metz, which are worth VPs.
VPG -- Three-quarter inch counters to punch out. The American and Germans are colored much like the C3i version, but here the German variant units are separate counters. Again there are markers for the capture of Metz and Thionville and for the game turn.
Dice
In all versions the player has to provide a six-sided die.
Map
Book -- The map is on back and white on an 8 1/2-inch by 5 1/2 inch page in the book. To play it will need to be photocopied.
C3i -- The map is in color on a 17-inch by 8 1/2-inch paper surface, with the actual map taking up half the area and the rest being fileld with charts and tables needed for play.
VPG -- The map is in color on a 17-inch by 8 1/2-inch cardstock surface. The actual map takes up about 60 percent of the area, with the tables and charts making up the rest.
Rules
Book -- 12 pages of rules in the book.
C3i -- Six magazine-sized pages as an insert.
VPG -- Six magazine-sized pages
Extras
Book -- Well, besides a 332-page book on the design, history and play of wargames, the book includes a 15-page illustrated example of play.
C3i -- A 48-page magazine with inserts, but nothing else directly related to the game.
VPG -- A four magazine-sized illustrated example of play. A setup map. A small insert about computer versions of the game.
Price
Book -- It's free online, but the map and counters are rather poor-quality scans from the book. The 3rd edition of the book is listed at $23.95, but Amazon lists it as low as $16.
C3i -- Included in the magazine, which is $20.
VPG -- List price is $19.95, but currently on sale at $12.95.
There's not much to choose from in price between the different editions, although I think the Victory Point Games edition is probably the best value unless you also own some of the GMT games featured in the magazine, like Asia Engulfed, Flying Colors, Command & Colors Ancients, Down in Flames, etc. The book version is free, of course, if you download it, but more work to prepare.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Dunnigan and The Drive On Metz
Charles Roberts may be the founder of modern board wargaming, but no one individual did more to expand the reach of the hobby than James F. Dunnigan. Under his leadership SPI and Strategy & Tactics magazine produced a flood of wargames tat shaped the direction of the hobby for years to come.
From a player's point of view Dunnigan's designs were definitely misses as least as often as they were hits. Dunnigan clearly came down on the realism side of the realism vs. playability debates that raged in the 70s and 80s. Still, some of his games were really quite good.
Dunnigan left active boardgame design for the most part when he left SPI just before its collapse and purchase by TSR. He found a second career as a military analyst and popular author on military affairs. He wasn't completely absent however, returning for a brief stint as editor of S&T at one point and authoring the Wargames Handbook, which is still one of the basic works about the hobby.
In the Wargames Handbook Dunnigan included a sample wargame, Drive on Metz, although not in ready-to-play format. The player would have to photocopy and cut and paste in order to actually play the game from the book. Recently, however, the game has appeared in ready-to-play formats in two venues C3I magazine and as a standalone from Victory Point Games. I recently picked up a copy of the latter edition.
As a writer Dunnigan has a pithy style, so it seems appropriate he's designed a pithy little wargame that makes his design points in the most economical way possible. With a battlefield of just 99 hexes The Drive on Metz is on the small side in the wargame universe, but more notably it includes just eight U.S. pieces and 11 German units.
In many ways the game is standard hex-and-counter wargame, with zones of control, combat and movement factor counters with NATO symbols and a simple IGO-HUGO turn sequence.
Yet clever victory point assignments, an unusual disparity in combat strength between the German and American units, a bloodless CRT and careful terrain design turn a minimalist design into an interesting little contest between quality and quantity. (In this case, the U.S. forces represent the quality and the Germans the quantity.)
The Victory Point Games version adds a few optional units and rules, but leaves the game's nature unchanged.
The Americans have enough power to do anything they want, but too few units to do everything they want. The Germans have the challenge of fighting an economy of force delaying action, trying to minimize U.S. progress while also freeing up some combat power for use elsewhere.
Recommendations:
(Yes) For wargamers: A fun little wargame that is good for introducing the hobby to newbies.
(No) For the collector: Not rare
(Yes) For eurogamers: A great sampler of wargaming principles in a tight, inexpensive package.
From a player's point of view Dunnigan's designs were definitely misses as least as often as they were hits. Dunnigan clearly came down on the realism side of the realism vs. playability debates that raged in the 70s and 80s. Still, some of his games were really quite good.
Dunnigan left active boardgame design for the most part when he left SPI just before its collapse and purchase by TSR. He found a second career as a military analyst and popular author on military affairs. He wasn't completely absent however, returning for a brief stint as editor of S&T at one point and authoring the Wargames Handbook, which is still one of the basic works about the hobby.
In the Wargames Handbook Dunnigan included a sample wargame, Drive on Metz, although not in ready-to-play format. The player would have to photocopy and cut and paste in order to actually play the game from the book. Recently, however, the game has appeared in ready-to-play formats in two venues C3I magazine and as a standalone from Victory Point Games. I recently picked up a copy of the latter edition.
As a writer Dunnigan has a pithy style, so it seems appropriate he's designed a pithy little wargame that makes his design points in the most economical way possible. With a battlefield of just 99 hexes The Drive on Metz is on the small side in the wargame universe, but more notably it includes just eight U.S. pieces and 11 German units.
In many ways the game is standard hex-and-counter wargame, with zones of control, combat and movement factor counters with NATO symbols and a simple IGO-HUGO turn sequence.
Yet clever victory point assignments, an unusual disparity in combat strength between the German and American units, a bloodless CRT and careful terrain design turn a minimalist design into an interesting little contest between quality and quantity. (In this case, the U.S. forces represent the quality and the Germans the quantity.)
The Victory Point Games version adds a few optional units and rules, but leaves the game's nature unchanged.
The Americans have enough power to do anything they want, but too few units to do everything they want. The Germans have the challenge of fighting an economy of force delaying action, trying to minimize U.S. progress while also freeing up some combat power for use elsewhere.
Recommendations:
(Yes) For wargamers: A fun little wargame that is good for introducing the hobby to newbies.
(No) For the collector: Not rare
(Yes) For eurogamers: A great sampler of wargaming principles in a tight, inexpensive package.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Featured Game: PanzerBlitz
Few games have had an impact as big as PanzerBlitz. It's probably the third most important commercial wargame aside from the very first Roberts game of Tactics (which invented the idea of the commercial wargame) and Gettysburg (which was the first wargame based on a historical battle). PanzerBlitz opened up entirely new ground for wargamers and it had an immediate impact.
I remember seeing it for the first time on the Battleship Massachusetts during one of the Spartan International conventions held there (I believe it was 1971 and PanzerBlitz had been out for just a few months). Everything was new back then, but even then PanzerBlitz stood out.
PanzerBlitz either introduced or first popularized many features that became standard fare in wargames, such as multiple scenarios, ranged combat, different classes of units and weapons, "geo-morphic" boards, extensive historical notes, terrain elevation and line of sight rules. It did this within the familiar framework of hexagons, cardboard counters and and odd-based Combat Results Table, providing just enough continuity to the Afrika Korps-style game for acceptance.
It did usher in an explosion of new design approaches, prompted in large measure by PanzerBlitz's designer, the prolific Jim Dunnigan. Dunnigan had already started to shake things up with his more analytical approach to wargame design with his earlier Avalon Hill games Jutland and 1914, but those were hindered by being set in the less dynamic First World War and uninspired graphics. In PanzerBlitz Dunnigan's design skills were teamed with Redmond Simonsen's graphic design talents and the synergy was electric.
PanzerBlitz still boasts one of the most striking wargame box art ever published.
Since PanzerBlitz was published there have been probably a hundred games on the same or similar topics, nearly all inspired by designer's attempts to fix the "flaws" of PanzerBlitz. Some were even done by Avalon Hill itself. Panzer Leader, which moved the action to the Western front changed the artillery rules in order to discourage the unhistorical game tactic of crowding units together in the same hex to dilute incoming fire and got rid of the ability of trucks and wagons to spot for other units which had resulted in some pretty bizarre game tactics as well. The biggest PanzerBlitz problem fixed in Panzer Leader was the infamous "PanzerBush" syndrome, where units scooted from one covered spot to another across open spaces that were literally "under the guns" of the enemy. The "Opportunity Fire" rule in Panzer Leader has been in the standard toolkit of tactical wargame designers since. Avalon Hill's later Arab-Israeli Wars further refined the game system by gutting down the range and speed of units, which the original game formula has miscalculated. This was noted early on, but a desire to make Panzer Leader fully compatible with PanzerBlitz meant to older game's incorrect values were retained. Dunnigan himself felt no qualms about starting over based on new research and his Combat Commander and later SPI games used different factors and different game mechanics as well.
For face-to-face play most players retrofitted the opportunity fire rule (and ban on truck/wagon spotting) to the earlier game but many play-by-mail games skipped using opportunity fire because of the complications it introduced to the turn sequence. Unlike most of it successors and imitators PanzerBlitz was well-suited to PBM because of its IGO-UGO turn sequence, in contrast to the multiphase and interactive turn sequences that followed. The advent of Internet-based play has reduced that consideration, and more recent designs are more sophisticated with improved historical research, leaving PanzerBlitz behind. Although once wildly popular, and still played a bit, it's a game design that does seem dated now and is most likely to be played between two old-timers than by someone new. Although Squad Leader, for example, is only seven years younger than PanzerBlitz, a lot happened during that seven years in game design and Squad Leader still seems much more modern. ASL, which came along just a few years after basic Squad Leader is still very much alive and winning over new players.
There are plans for Multi-Man Publishing to offer a new edition of PanzerBlitz, but this is not a straight reprint of the old game. Instead it appears it will be a completely new game, which may include some updated elements from the old one, but probably many new concepts as well. As such, it's really just using PanzerBlitz as a "brand name" similar to what Hasbro has done with "Avalon Hill" and "Axis & Allies."
I remember seeing it for the first time on the Battleship Massachusetts during one of the Spartan International conventions held there (I believe it was 1971 and PanzerBlitz had been out for just a few months). Everything was new back then, but even then PanzerBlitz stood out.
PanzerBlitz either introduced or first popularized many features that became standard fare in wargames, such as multiple scenarios, ranged combat, different classes of units and weapons, "geo-morphic" boards, extensive historical notes, terrain elevation and line of sight rules. It did this within the familiar framework of hexagons, cardboard counters and and odd-based Combat Results Table, providing just enough continuity to the Afrika Korps-style game for acceptance.
It did usher in an explosion of new design approaches, prompted in large measure by PanzerBlitz's designer, the prolific Jim Dunnigan. Dunnigan had already started to shake things up with his more analytical approach to wargame design with his earlier Avalon Hill games Jutland and 1914, but those were hindered by being set in the less dynamic First World War and uninspired graphics. In PanzerBlitz Dunnigan's design skills were teamed with Redmond Simonsen's graphic design talents and the synergy was electric.
PanzerBlitz still boasts one of the most striking wargame box art ever published.
Since PanzerBlitz was published there have been probably a hundred games on the same or similar topics, nearly all inspired by designer's attempts to fix the "flaws" of PanzerBlitz. Some were even done by Avalon Hill itself. Panzer Leader, which moved the action to the Western front changed the artillery rules in order to discourage the unhistorical game tactic of crowding units together in the same hex to dilute incoming fire and got rid of the ability of trucks and wagons to spot for other units which had resulted in some pretty bizarre game tactics as well. The biggest PanzerBlitz problem fixed in Panzer Leader was the infamous "PanzerBush" syndrome, where units scooted from one covered spot to another across open spaces that were literally "under the guns" of the enemy. The "Opportunity Fire" rule in Panzer Leader has been in the standard toolkit of tactical wargame designers since. Avalon Hill's later Arab-Israeli Wars further refined the game system by gutting down the range and speed of units, which the original game formula has miscalculated. This was noted early on, but a desire to make Panzer Leader fully compatible with PanzerBlitz meant to older game's incorrect values were retained. Dunnigan himself felt no qualms about starting over based on new research and his Combat Commander and later SPI games used different factors and different game mechanics as well.
For face-to-face play most players retrofitted the opportunity fire rule (and ban on truck/wagon spotting) to the earlier game but many play-by-mail games skipped using opportunity fire because of the complications it introduced to the turn sequence. Unlike most of it successors and imitators PanzerBlitz was well-suited to PBM because of its IGO-UGO turn sequence, in contrast to the multiphase and interactive turn sequences that followed. The advent of Internet-based play has reduced that consideration, and more recent designs are more sophisticated with improved historical research, leaving PanzerBlitz behind. Although once wildly popular, and still played a bit, it's a game design that does seem dated now and is most likely to be played between two old-timers than by someone new. Although Squad Leader, for example, is only seven years younger than PanzerBlitz, a lot happened during that seven years in game design and Squad Leader still seems much more modern. ASL, which came along just a few years after basic Squad Leader is still very much alive and winning over new players.
There are plans for Multi-Man Publishing to offer a new edition of PanzerBlitz, but this is not a straight reprint of the old game. Instead it appears it will be a completely new game, which may include some updated elements from the old one, but probably many new concepts as well. As such, it's really just using PanzerBlitz as a "brand name" similar to what Hasbro has done with "Avalon Hill" and "Axis & Allies."
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