Explain the History

Since this was a "wargame for the rest of us," I had to assume that many of its players would be non-wargamers who probably weren't familiar with the details of the Battle of the Bulge. I wanted to take the opportunity to teach these people about the realities of the battle, and I wanted to cover every aspect of it: the technical factors, the strategy and tactics, and the human side as well. I came up with a system using some 50 different topics. Each topic had two aspects: a story from the battle and a discussion of some aspect of military matters highlighted by the story. Most of the stories were taken straight from the history books; some were fictionalized versions of real events that had taken place elsewhere during World War II. My system was geared to both time and location; at appropriate times, the game would halt and a particular topic story would appear on the screen, illustrated by a photograph. The player could return to the game after reading the story, or he could press a button that would bring up additional background information explaining some interesting point illustrated by the story. The stories covered a wide variety of topics: People such as Generals Patton and Bradley, Weapons such as Tiger tanks and bazookas, Tactics such as fighter bombers, and so on. The system was also available on demand via a menu.

I take pride in this system. I wanted to show war without the glamour that most wargames depict. No brilliant strategies, bold generalship, or glorious victories for me; I wanted my player to get a clear sense of the dirty mechanics of war. The technical discussions explained the logic of warfare, showing why and how certain techniques or weapons were used. The stories presented the war at the personal level, showing what ordinary people civilians and soldiers alike experienced during the battle. There were stories of luck, courage, tragedy, stupidity, and intense and widespread suffering. I believe that, in the moral sense, Patton Strikes Back remains one of the most realistic wargames ever created.