Simple Rules

Wargames by that time were putting on a lot of weight; complexity seemed to delight players. I did not want to bury my player in tons of rules, so I was determined to have a clean and transparent set of rules. The basic system constituted no more than the following.

Movement speed was based on terrain impediments: You moved faster down a road than through a forest. Each unit could be in one of three modes of deployment: movement, attack, and defensive. Each mode had its own benefits for movement, attack, and defense. Some amount of time was required to change modes. Units could face in one of the four cardinal directions; attacks and movement could be carried out only in the direction of facing. Attacking a unit on its flanks or rear was advantageous. Combat results followed a smooth simple curve; the bigger a unit was, the better its combat performance. I used the same disruption system I had used in my previous wargames. Units had zones of control (ZoC) that impeded but did not stop motion, and ZoCs blocked lines of supply. One innovation was that ZoCs had variable density; a big unit cast a bigger and more impeding ZoC.

Another innovation was the assignment of control to various towns and road junctions. At the beginning of the game, the Americans controlled all these "landmarks," but the Germans would capture them during the course of the game. The player's score was based on the possession of such landmarks. Moreover, supply lines could not be traced through an enemy landmark.