The System is the Mission with COMBAT! in simulating WWII Tactical Ground Combat
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September 20, 1999 - Out of the Wrapper The System is the Mission with COMBAT! in simulating WWII Tactical Ground Combat |
Release date: July 1999In the words of Critical Hit, "The System is the Mission." Critical Hit's new Combat! Game Series sets out on a serious mission - to make tactical level gaming much more accurate, much less difficult AND much less expensive (an obvious response to the Advanced Squad Leader (ASL) system. Begun as a re-thinking and long-term study of tactical warfare, Combat! will now become a series of simulations running across 20th century military history.
The company suffered an initial setback of sorts, as the boxed game was shipped to customers in a padded envelope which — to excuse the pun — suffered several critical hits before reaching the customer's destination. End result; a damaged game box and upset customers. The company is already making good on replacing damaged game boxes, and future shipments are being shipped in proper box packaging.
ConsimWorld members are already voicing their opinion of the game system and, in particular, rules organization itself. It will be interesting to see how the system evolves based on customer feedback, as many other titles are planned based on the Combat! system.
Future Combat! series titles to include:
France 1940 -French tanks vs. Grossdeutschland
Stalingrad - The Tractor Works
Pointe du Hoc - Rangers on D-Day
Wake - U.S.M.C. and the famous battle
Anzio - Beach landing behind German lines
Arnhem - The Red Devils hold out at the famous bridge
Jerusalem - 1948 Israeli War of Independence
Kursk - East Front tank warfare
Iwo Jima - the Marines in the Meatgrinder
According to Critical Hit, the tight, easy to learn (and easy to read) rules are the grease that allows you to ride down the rails into the most detailed, well-researched maps in the history of board wargaming. In fact, much of the chrome in Combat! is provided in the maps themselves. The publisher seeks to transport the gamer back to battlefields that are quite literal representations of their former selves, right down to the last farmhouse and church steeple. This has been no small effort. Combat! battlefields in Normandy, Arnhem and other points of interest have been toured extensively on foot by researchers, veterans have been consulted, and locals from mayors to homeowners have been brought in to the 'game', sometimes in the form of an on-site researcher entering their backyard on foot. It is really the elusive 'feel' of the tactical level battlefield that is being communicated.
The first goal of Combat! is to allow newcomers to learn to play it well. You are not overwhelmed with too many different game pieces to learn and the mechanics are not hard to master. The scale of Combat! is 50 yards per hex. The infantry units are individual squads, weapons crews, Non-commissioned officers and support weapons. Individual tanks and other AFV are also depicted. A basic combined-arms presentation is made for both combatants in the first Combat! module. The American player can wield a force of infantry, .30 caliber machine-guns, Bazookas, 60mm light mortars, 57mm anti-tank guns, M4A1 Sherman tanks and Jeeps. The German player receives game pieces for squads, 7.62mm machine-guns, 50mm light mortars, 75mm infantry guns, 50mm anti-tank guns, PSW 222 armored cars, Opel Blitz trucks and captured French tanks pressed into German service. Both combatants also receive artillery and mortar support that may be called in via radio or field phone.
The time frame represented by an average Combat! turn is just a few minutes, depending on how much activity takes place in a given turn. The game's firefights range from just a few of these turns, representing very short, intense actions, to much longer, larger firefights representing set-piece assaults, resolved down to the last room of close combat.
By presenting a limited combined arms order of battle for both sides its easier to meet the goal of teaching newcomers to play Combat! quickly and well. The basics of what Keegan called, "Tanks-Men-Guns", the crux of World War II-style warfare, can be taught using these limited forces. Larger, more varied orders of battle present larger command and control challenges. But all success will come from a mastery of the basic concepts of commanding the Tanks-Men-Guns that will find their way to your gaming table in future releases.
The use and reaction to firepower in Combat! is centralized within the Firepower Tables. These data came from years of detailed ballistic analysis, including unpublished government sources and others such as the analysis of US Army Firepower Scores. Using these many sources of data, we cobbled together our Firepower Table, noting the relative lethality of indirect fire, airstrikes, and mines of the AP and AT variety. From the raw data we crunched the numbers down to be relative to the average squad/single AFV. From that point, it was quite simple to quantify things based on our choice to use percentile dice in the design of Combat! Again, chrome is inserted through the use of research and data without intentioned verbiage or complexity.
The essence of combat on this scale is impossible to portray without a representation of command control. Picture if you will yourself in the role of platoon leader, striving to get your men or tanks onto their objective. Enemy action and random events are intervening. You, the platoon leader, are reacting. The challenge is to provide functionality to simulate this process without a burdensome set of rules. Command control is an intrinsic part of the play of Combat! Units in Combat! support each other, as in reality, through proximity and non-commissioned officers - NCO's. Of course, each side may also declare Rally Points where their troops can gather after a patch of hard luck. In Combat!, everything revolves around command control and the Command Phase is the first phase in each game turn.
Combat! is played in a streamlined set of three phases. The game does not qualify as an EYE-GO-YOU-GO game as the three phases in each turn; Command Phase, Fire & Movement Phase and Melee Phase all involve both players. Initiative is determined every turn, and may shift from one side to the next during the course of play. The use of initiative delineates which side may choose to fire or move first during the Fire & Movement Phase. After that, players switch back and forth taking one 'impulse' each to move and fire. The result is a chess-like give and take that pits players against each other both squad-to-squad and force-to-force. You have to win the little battles, impulse by impulse to win the complete firefight.
Combat! was designed for an instant 'port' of 1/285 or 1/300-scale miniatures, which fit neatly into the map hexes. By containing the relevant data on combat cards, the use of miniatures in Combat! maps, or using any hex-based miniatures is feasible without any game related oddities taking place.
Solitaire play is also an important assumption in the Combat! rules. The rules-set was designed with a nod to the reality that many board wargamers spend at least part of their time enjoying a game by pushing the counters around on their own. One needs not gather up another player, or take the time to travel to a gaming event to enjoy solitaire gaming.
Critical Hit decided to combine the contents of the first two Combat! modules into one monster 82nd Airborne in Normandy release, including three linking mapsheets, and 15 scenarios depicting the intense fighting in the Bocage. You also receive one 24 page rule-book, one sheet of 100 1/2" counters and all of the specific charts for the soldiers, tanks, Jeeps and weapons-systems presented in the Normandy game.
If you already own our ALL AMERICAN - Timmes' Orchard and Kellam's Bridge releases you may order a limited edition of Combat! Normandy which includes the game pieces, rules, Combat! Cards, and Play Aid at a special low price. See our ordering page for more information and to place an advance order for Combat! Normandy.COUNTERS: 100 full-color, die-cut counters
MAPS: three (linking) full-color mapsheets, 50 yards per hex
MATERIAL: 24 page rulesbooklet, three charts and tables, "Firefight" Scenario Booklet
TIME SCALE: Two days per turn (Except for the June 6 turn)
UNIT SCALE: Squad-level, vehicle, guns
PLAYERS: One or two
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COMBAT! NORMANDY is now available for $39.95. To place your order, please use the Critical Hit Order Page or call (914) 278-9125. You may also send your ordering inquiries toinfo@criticalhit.com.
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Copyright © 1999-2002. ConsimWorld.COM. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited. Web Masters are encouraged to link directly to this page, this URL is not subject to change. For general site information: kranz@consimworld.com
Headline News | Archives | New Products
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Copyright © 1999-2002. ConsimWorld.COM. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited. Web Masters are encouraged to link directly to this page, this URL is not subject to change. For general site information: kranz@consimworld.com
Headline News | Archives | New Products
Game Ratings | Clubs | Events | Discussion Board
Copyright © 1999, 2000 ConsimWorld.COM. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited. Web Masters are encouraged to link directly to this page, this URL is not subject to change. For general site information: kranz@consimworld.com
