| Lookingglassman | 23 Dec 2009 5:54 p.m. PST |
Back in the 80's the US Army had these micro armor systems called "Dumkopf". Does anybody remember this? The terrain boards were long and wide plastic rectangles that were painted green with roads and trees molded onto them and had places for little houses to sit. They were also made to look like hills or low areas and I think they were modeled after an area in Germany, but I am not sure. This game also had some micro armor and rules and was used by the Army to teach tactics. I saw a complete few sets when I was in the Army and right before I got out I was lucky enough to grab 20 of the terrain boards that were headed for the dumpster. I cleaned them up and use them for my battles. Has anybody ever heard of this game system? I tried looking it up on line, but so far I have had no such luck. |
aecurtis  | 23 Dec 2009 6:06 p.m. PST |
Dunn-Kempf, after the two US Army captains who adapted the WRG moderns rules. I'll find you the link to John Curry's site; he made a project of recovering these rules. There were also local modifications; I have the ones the III Corps Battle Simulation Center used in the early '80s. Here's the history of Dunn-Kempf, among others: link Here are the rules: link Allen |
| Cosmic Reset | 23 Dec 2009 6:20 p.m. PST |
There used to be a guy that ran them at Capcon at Ohio State U every year. I'm pretty sure that he wore a Soviet uniform at least on one occasion, and I think his last name was Marsh. Thanks for the links Allen, a chance to trek through the good old days. |
| Rich Bliss | 23 Dec 2009 6:33 p.m. PST |
I used to play it in college. The local ROTC had a set. We used to joke that the Soviets better not attack through Fulda becasue we all knew the terrain so well. |
| Major Mike | 23 Dec 2009 6:39 p.m. PST |
Terrain was modeled on a actual piece of map from Germany, IIRC. Last copy I have seen, and it was incomplete, was at the Middle Tennessee State ROTC building. The boards were abused and most of the troops were missing as were the bulk of the rules.
I have a copy of "First Battle" laying around the house somewhere. They were used to do Division level war gaming. |
| Ivan DBA | 23 Dec 2009 6:47 p.m. PST |
I saw one of these layouts at Fort Leavenworth back in the early 90's. It was awesome. My buddy and I were doing WWII and modern microarmor at the time, so it was quite inspiring. |
| Dances with Clydesdales | 23 Dec 2009 9:10 p.m. PST |
"There used to be a guy that ran them at Capcon at Ohio State U every year. I'm pretty sure that he wore a Soviet uniform at least on one occasion, and I think his last name was Marsh." Sgt. Bob Marsh. I remember him as well at Capcon. He ran Dunn-Kempf and always seemed to put on a well attended game. Now that was many moons ago. |
 Legion 4  | 23 Dec 2009 10:15 p.m. PST |
Yep … remember Dunn-Kempf … We "played"/used it a few times while I was on active duty … No bad for the time … |
| Hastati | 24 Dec 2009 2:59 a.m. PST |
My big regret was not buying a set of the terrain in 1989 from the local national guard (or was it ROTC?) detachment. At the time, I was a starving university student and could not afford the 100 bucks or so they were asking for it. |
| Lookingglassman | 24 Dec 2009 7:19 a.m. PST |
Thanks for the info. I'm sorry I didn't know the exact name, but I was close! :) Also thanks for the links! I got about 20 of the terrain boards sitting around my garage. The edges were cracked and frayed on about 10 of them so I cut off the edges and taped them up and they are as good as new. The rest had bird poop all over them. I "rescued" them back in the 90's from the dumpster. My garage is the only place I can really lay them down to form a huge battlefield, but even then I can only lay about 7 or 8 down at one time. It is pretty fun having a massive battlefield to conduct micro armor battles on. |
| jfleisher | 24 Dec 2009 12:18 p.m. PST |
Lookingglassman, You wouldn't want to part with a few of those boards would you? I remember playing in Bob's games back in the 80's every year at CapCon… |
| Acharnement | 24 Dec 2009 4:39 p.m. PST |
I would just like to say that I am delighted the rules have been remembered as "dumkopf." I guess I am saying what everyone else was thinking. ;> |
| Lookingglassman | 24 Dec 2009 7:56 p.m. PST |
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| Editor HistoryWargamingProject | 22 Jan 2010 4:43 a.m. PST |
Any chance of a picture of those terrain boards for my website Dunn Kempf was, according the Dunnigan, the most popular manual military wargames of modern times. It spawned many variant in the US and its allies. John Curry johncurryevents.co.uk |
| Lookingglassman | 22 Jan 2010 6:53 a.m. PST |
John, I will take some pictures for you this weekend and send them to you. |
| Lookingglassman | 22 Jan 2010 3:46 p.m. PST |
John, Can you please send me your email? For some reason my computer wont open the "Contact" button on your website. |
