"Unfair!" Topic

How would you feel if you were playing a game and the umpire did any of this to you?
You'd cry unfair, not realistic, etc. Check the answers.

You're playing a double-blind operational game and out-foxing your enemy with risky moves. Then the umpire says a set of your orders have fallen into enemy hands, several days ago. Answer: A

You narrowly win a hard fought battle. After the battle, an enemy prisoner lights a pipe while on a powder cart. The ensuing explosion decimates your small army and badly wounds you, the commander. Answer: B.

You cleverly march your force to a place on a river where the enemy has only a few scouts. Then you discover that the pontoon train you had ordered there is nowhere to be seen, and about a week's march away. Answer: C.

You order 3 batteries of howitzers to follow a corps-sized infantry attack and then go to check on another matter. When you come back, as the attack steps off, someone else has moved the guns elsewhere, with no notice. They might as well be on the moon. Answer: D.

At the end of a large strategic game of a long war, the umpire tells you that the enemy has been reading more than half of your orders. Answer E.

After a large strategic game, the umpire tells you that a large number of the enemy's army was on strike for two months before order was restored. But you were unaware and remained on the defensive. Answer: F.

A. Lee's order 191 in 1862, before Antietam.
B. Hopton after Lansdowne, 1643.
C. Burnside before Fredericksburg, 1862.
D. Pendleton, Pickett's Charge, July 3, 1863.
E. Ultra, WWII. Also the Red Orchestra, WWII.
F. French mutinies, 1917.

I would be annoyed.

Sounds like some power gamers at work! That or miserably broken rules….

Nice list :)

I'd mutter about mysterious secret enemies stabbing me in the back. Oh, wait…

After holding off your enemy during a light battle. You set up camp on both sides of the turnpike and "across" and somehow in the middle of the night your opponent with 2 Corps and 800 Wagon supply chain moves through your lines to the other side and moves to prepare entrenched works for the next day; deftly avoiding your battle plan. Answer G

Hood waking up after the Battle of Spring Hill, Nov 1864

E also works for the U-Boat campaign in the North Atlantic.

Sometimes, life is unfair.

Your enemy is on a large island holding positions that defend one of their major cities. You cleverly land your troops, make a brilliant flank march and in the ensuing battle the enemy is decisively defeated, losing 20% of their army and only holding on to twilight because of a heroic last stand by one of their units. You have total naval superiority and anticipate scooping up the rest of the enemy's demoralized army in the morning. In the morning you discover that, under cover of fog, the enemy has used small boats to evacuate their forces across the water – under the noses of your warships – without losing a man. Answer H

Washington's escape after the Battle of Long Island, August 1776

I would rejoice that my entire force was not eliminated in the first turn, and that my failure to win was a result of scenario and circumstances.

Real life has lots of Gotcha issues that are unfair so a game will too. The surprises should be outlined an possible before the game starts. Command control in games used to almost always be gotcha stuff.

I think it would be fun. Adding a little history to the game.

Kind of reminds me of a scenario from TFL that I ran. The German player had a mixed force of infantry & ATGs set up hidden behind a railroad embankment. After a pre-game bombardment the Soviets attacked with a large force of infantry & T-34s which were pretty quickly devastated only inflicting light casualties on the Germans. Unknown to the German player that was only the first of three equal waves each of which was preceded by a increasingly effective artillery barrage.

I had been a little worried about how the German player would handle the realization that he really couldn't win. But not only did he handle it ok but he loved the scenario and it turned out to be one of the most fun games we've played.

These are nothing out if the ordinary when I look back at some of the campaigns I've played in over the years

I would rant and rave about 'balanced' games and the lack of a 'points system'. Then I would rail against the miserably inefficient education system that allows people to put on games such as these. Then I would pack up my toy soldiers and go home. Or maybe, I would thank the presenter for putting on a game, help him pack up and get on with the rest of my life…maybe.

Point based balanced games…blech! Some of the most fun I have ever had was holding a position vs. overwhelming odds, or reconning a board.

This just point out the fact that life isn't fair in general, or to generals for that matter.

You are camped in a city and facing an army twice your own size, but allied reinforcements are apparently fast approaching from the capital.

You lose lose 6000 men from a corps of 16000, but the reinforcements are still on their way.

Another corps takes repeated beatings. Your superior officer suggests sending all 6000 of your cavalry to assist, which you know is suicidal. Your superior overrides your order, causing the cavalry to be sent out, where it is reduced to a mere 11 squadrons by the time it reaches the corps it was supposed to be relieving. Still, reinforcements are coming.

The 8000 remaining men of the battered corps surrender, allowing the enemy corps to capture 500 wagons and ambush another corps of 12000, who are captured as well. Reinforcements should be coming soon…

But they don't, because they haven't even left the capital, apparently because they're using the wrong calendar.

"The unfortunate General Mack" at the Battle of Ulm, 1805.

In other words, a category F where you're assured of the arrival of reinforcements who aren't actually reinforcing you.

"Fair" is where you go to eat fried dough and ride the Ferris Wheel.

I assume that if this kind of thing can happen in a game, you might be the beneficiary of some of them, too. I'd be OK with that, as long as they didn't rule the outcome so much that they ruined the value of making any effort in the game.

andy

Another: Your strong corps is pursuing a large enemy army that has been beaten a couple days ago. You've bumped into their rear guard which has been getting steadily reinforced. Still, you've been holding your own. On the second day of the fight the umpire tells you another enemy corps fleeing from other parts of your army has just arrived from a mountain pass in your rear. Answer: I.

I. Vandamme's Corps at Klum, 1813.

Yeah, I wouldn't want this done to me in a game but the whole point of this thread is how often real actions are not "balanced".

You are outnumbered 35,000 to 24,000. Your opponents are primarily armed with rifles and you have smoothbores. You have one battery of artillery to seven and theirs are much better. Your President orders you to march all night for a surprise attack and you arrive at 10:00 am on a beautiful, clear day and charge across a kilometer of open ground.

Result? 12,000 casualties to fewer than 5,000. Tuyuti, May 1866.

Why do I mention it? Because I have put this game on five times at HMGS conventions and everyone loves it. Sure, the Paraguayans routinely get the kicked out of them (though they did win once). But hey – you go home to your club and tell everyone you commanded Paraguayans. How cool is that?

assume that if this kind of thing can happen in a game, you might be the beneficiary of some of them, too.

You're outnumbered about 4:1 because you are a token rear guard away from the "real front". But the enemy generals don't get along, splitting their forces. In fighting the two separated 2:1 enemy forces, they can only trudge on foot while you have rail. Oh, yeah … you're reading all their orders because they are transmitting them over the radio unencrypted.

Tannenberg 1914

I love playing this battle. Lots of fun.