"Innovation on the wargame table?" Topic

I have been reading about the sinking of the Israeli destroyer Eilat in 1967 by a Soviet-built Styx anti-ship missile that "shocked senior United States Navy officers, who until then had not been conscious of the threat posed by anti-ship missiles".

I am wondering what new bit of technology or tactics you have used on the wargame table that left your opponent dumbfounded because it was unexpected but was nevertheless a legitimate martial development at the time.

Or am I talking about cheating?

Coke cans and coffe cups used to tactically block lines of site…..
🙃

Many years ago my club chums played multi-player games of Necromunda at our club. This was in the days when smoking was allowed indoors.

Anyway, one evening during a game some gang members appeared out of nowhere (so it seemed) and when queried the owning player said they came from behind the cover of a big table ashtray. No-one had paid attention to them up to that point, they could have been casualty figures from elsewhere in the game.

In later games the dilemma was solved after I explicitly made a building designed to contain the said ashtray. It was thereafter called 'Bills Incinerator'.

+1 bc1745

One of my regular opponents would arrange a multiplayer game and a guy I call "The Wringer" would always be on my side. "The Wringer" would then use the most hellish bad tactics and destroy his own command as quickly as possible, leaving the rest of my side in dire straits.

We had a similar player in our group and we called him the "Corps Killer".

We played a four cornered game of Saga, using Irish for the first time. They get to shoot from the woods at nearby enemy units, even if they have no figures in the woods (presumably, this replicates their ability to infiltrate through rough terrain). Anyway, with good dice rolling and use of appropriate abilities, they took out an entire unit of one guy's warband, much to everyone's surprise. After that everyone stayed away from the woods. Also, it quickly became a three versus one (Irish) game.

More than a year later, we are still leery of woods when the Irish are on the table.

Grelber

Actually, SAGA works well that way, until everyone reads the battle boards for each side.

I do recall my surprise years ago when playing Harpoon on the computer when a large salvo of missiles appeared out of nowhere to trash my fleet. Then I learnt how radars work…

Does throwing a vortex grenade at an Eldar Avatar in hand to hand combat count?

I ran an age of sail game and introduced a steamer into the mix, took the layers of the sailers by surprise

Playing a 'Challenger II' game in the 80's the Soviets came on with their recce platoon.

Then my Dutch recce came on. 3 YPR765 (Dutch APCs based on M113) and the ….

LEOPARD 2.

It was in the official list, as a Dutch Recce platoon, not an option, the Dutch Recce Platoon.

What does everybody think was the result – a Leo 2 vs BRDMs?

BRDMs pull back, call in the divisional artillery and the Leo is toast? :)

A few years back I brought a Shadowsword to a WH40K mega game – some of the 40K rules lawyers were pretty appalled at what happens under a large blast template, but I had the rule book with me

wh 40k infiltrater with a teleport homer in comes terminaters behind Ork Command group bye bye orkies

In a 40K game, bringing an all tank army against some unsuspecting dark eldar foot sloggers.

Similar results in Space Marine from an all titan army.

Actually, I'm fairly successful with one of the oldest technologies – Operational Deception. I have frequently put a force into such an oddly vulnerable position that others at the table were suspect of the "big reveal" and moved away from engaging that force into a position that made them vulnerable to my main force. It works about three times in four. But I will admit that I can pull off a "big reveal" about one time in twelve, so that puts some clout behind the OPDEC threat.

So, go ahead. Attack that unit I left vulnerable. I wouldn't be trying to fake you into it … would I?

We tend to use a steadily improving 'technology' -- old age forgetfulness…

"How come you're not moving your unit?"
"That's not my unit, that's your unit."
"No. it isn't."
"Yes, it is."

Both peer at their OOBs…one utters a curse. Aha! Found the commander!

One of the best misdirections I read about was a WWII Normandy hedgerow game. Every time the US spotted a tank, out came a Tiger I. Shermans scattered…until one actually shot at the Tiger and blew it up. Then, the Tiger was replaced by a Pz IV. The GM contended that US troops inevitably said every tank was a Tiger…so, until they got closer or brewed up the tank to see it was a IV or V, every spotted German tank was a Tiger.

Of course, some actually were Tigers…

One Normandy game I saw had all German tanks as Tigers until they were spotted, at which point they would usually change into a Panzer IV, or a Stug, except for the one that really was a Tiger. Certainly kept the allies' nerves on edge.

Disguised scenarios often work – San Juan hill as an ACW game, Blenheim as a Napoleonic scenario, and so on.

The most elaborate mechanism for surprise in a game, and in retrospect, one that may have been pushing the envelope a bit too far, was the deception involved for one of the week long Newquay megagames about 10 years ago.
The game was set up as a early 45 "Race to the Rhine" campaign as a multi division, multi corps campaign with both British and US forces trying to cross the Rhine. Obs and maps were sent out to both German and Allied teams (about 15 to 20 a side), planning web groups were set up, plans were laid, commands allocated, several months went by etc etc.
Unbeknown to anyone (apart from the organisers and the German CinC there was no Rhine Game…the German Cin C alone planned a Bulge campaign, with only a few senior Germans eventually being let in on the secret about a week or 2 prior to the game. The Allies were left totally in the dark until they arrived at the hotel for the game, whereupon they only had a few hours to sort out their plans etc.
In some respects it was a brilliant idea, in others terrible…it certainly achieved the desired effect, there was massive surprise upon the US commanders as the panzers slithered their way through the snowy Ardennes into unsuspecting US divisions, while the German players who weren't in on the secret also had to adapt somewhat. It created the right sort of atmosphere…but…some of the Allied players were REALLY annoyed and didn't get the joke at all (to the extent of "I'm going home" style threats). Which was a shame, as it turned out, it worked fine…initial German success, then as the US get their act together, the Allies stop them, but it upset a few people.

It's good to read these stories.

We introduced a U.S. Commando unit to infiltrate and destroy some German 10.5s that had been wreaking havoc on a bridge approach, which evened the score. All permissible. Opponent got a bit puffy until he realised he was going to win the game.

Not so much innovation as re-adopting old tactics. I like to use MMG's and HMG's to do indirect fire at pre-registeted positions in WWII games. The shock on the hapless enemy commander's face can be quite gratifying. I also like using British 2" mortars in a near-horizontal, short-range, direct fire mode for house and bunker busting.
In more modern games using incendiary or WP grenades or flares to dazzle attackers at night using night-vision equipment the instant before your technologically challenged troops launch a blind counter attack is a momentary equalizer.
Cheers and good gaming.
Rod Robertson.

When playing a colonial campaign a few years ago over a number of weeks we ended up having a bit of an arms race as after each battle we'd frantically paint up something else to surprise our opponent with. Thus one week mortars on barges towed by a steamer would appear on a river and the next week a hot air balloon enabling observation of the whole battlefield.

In my modern Imagi-Nation game "The Shattered Century" one of the Imagi-Nations is Bandrika, an 'omage" to Hitchcock's film "the Lady Vanishes." The best way to conceive of this country was a rump of the nations that once made up Austria-Hungary, coalesced into some sort of working state. It was a one-party state. One party, one day, 24 hours a day, all day all the time. Anyway, it had almost no armor but it had a well run and highly successful R&D department. This came up with such wonders as "Blitz Fritz and friends," a pack of genetetically enhanced "Wunderhunds" who could tear the armor off a Sherman tank with their teeth. Anyway, one of the things they had in their storerooms was a Martian fighting machine (from War of the Worlds). The Orson WElls Invasion took place, but in Bandrika, not Grover's Mill N.J. So one guy decides he wants to use the machine in a game. Everyone is advising him not to, but he's determined. So we let him have it. The other side, the defenders, ran for the hills when he used it! Of course so did his own sub-commanders. Then he discovered the "Breakdown Table" that went along with it.

A buddy of mine 'hid' a Soviet tank brigade under a paper mache hill and then attempted a real surprise flank attack on my German forces, after rolling up a fair chunk, the Soviets were stopped by a Panther company……Isaw the funny side then….!