Stalingrad for Beginners: How to Play

By George Phillies

Stalingrad, the 1963 game from Avalon Hill, is the most intensely analyzed board wargame in the history of the wargaming hobby. Stalingrad for Beginners - How to Play - presents fundamentals at a level suitable for beginners.

Appearing just in time for the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the city of Stalingrad from the Nazi invaders, Stalingrad for Beginners -- How to Play introduces the novice to this the greatest of classic board wargames.

Author and Professor George Phillies is a recognized grand master in the play of Stalingrad. For almost a half century, his articles on game play, game tactics, and game strategy have been eagerly sought out by Stalingrad players around the world. His treatment "Stalingrad, the Middle Game", is widely recognized as the best single article ever written on the game. Now he has given us a volume suitable for complete novices, teaching the rules by explanation and by example.

George Phillies is a Professor in the Worcester Polytechnic Institute interdisciplinary program in Interactive Media and Game Development.

• Language: English
• Publisher: George Phillies
• Release date: Jan 26, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301354269

George Phillies

George Phillies is a retired Professor of Physics. He also taught in Biochemistry and in Game Design. His scientific research is focused on polymer dynamics. He also writes science fiction novels and books on politics. Books by George Phillies include:FictionThis Shining SeaNine GeesMinutegirlsThe One WorldMistress of the WavesAgainst Three LandsEclipse, The Girl Who Saved the WorldAiry Castles All AblazeStand Against the LightInpreparation: Practical ExerciseBooks on Game Design SeriesContemporary Perspectives in Game Design (with Tom Vasel)Design Elements of Contemporary Strategy Games(with Tom Vasel)Stalingrad for Beginners - How to PlayStalingrad for Beginners - Basic TacticsDesigning Board Wargames - IntroductionBooks on PoliticsStand Up for Liberty!Funding LibertyLibertarian RenaissanceSurely We Can Do Better?Books on PhysicsPhysics OneElementary Lectures in Statistical MechanicsPhenomenology of Polymer Solution DynamicsComplete Tables for ‘Phenomenology of Polymer Solution Dynamics’

Book preview

Stalingrad for Beginners

Part 1 - How to Play

by George Phillies

Smashwords Edition

Text Copyright 2013 by George Phillies.

All rights reserved.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Game illustrations in this volume were created using the ZunTzu software, as developed by Jérôme Bonnet, employing the improved Game Box module created by Bill Barrett using the wonderful artwork of John Cooper. The author is profoundly grateful to Jérôme Bonnet, Bill Barrett, and John Cooper for their work in creating and supplying the software that allowed me to generate my illustrations. I also acknowledge Joe Beard, Ed Menzel, and Omar DeWitt for reading earlier drafts of the manuscript. The improvements were theirs; the remaining errors are mine. I must finally express my gratitude to fellow gamers, some of whom preferred to remain anonymous, who also commented on the text of this work, supplied sample games and moves, and in many other ways helped make this a better book.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

To the magnificent horde

of fellow wargamers

without whom this book

would have been

impossible.

‘In the mystery of strategy,

all women and men are initiates.’

Arthur Smith, Supreme Lord of the Hexagon,

Tactical Aphorisms and Reflections,

AWA Press, Northampton, Massachusetts (2092)

Above from George Phillies’ novel The MinuteGirls

Preface

The series Studies in Game Design presents analyses of the design and strategy of games. George Phillies, Professor in the Worcester Polytechnic Institute Program in Interactive Media and Game Development, serves as Series Editor. Professional book length contributions are invited.

Titles in this series are

1 - Designing Modern Strategy Games

2 - Modern Perspectives on Game Design

3 - Stalingrad for Beginners (Basic Wargame Tactical Analysis)

Anticipated future titles include Stalingrad for Intermediate Players and Introduction to Wargame Design.

Foreword

Stalingrad for Beginners has two objectives. The first is to introduce readers to one of the great board wargames of all time, Avalon Hill's Stalingrad. The second is to demonstrate to game designers, a study by example, what is meant by game strategy and strategic analysis when the rules are completely known.

This volume is Part 1 - How to Play. It offers a complete reading experience, teaching you the rules and then letting you watch a game being played out to completion. You may prefer to follow the game on a larger board. Copies of the 1963 title are occasionally found on the internet. You can play on your computer using ZunTzu, Vassal, Cyberboard, or other software products. My illustrations were made with the ZunTzu software with the enthusiastic support of the programmers and artists. As I type, mounted copies of the John Cooper’s ZunTzu board and pieces are available from Camelot Games.

Why play Stalingrad? Stalingrad has passed the test of time. By an enormous margin, Stalingrad has received more strategic and tactical analysis than any other board wargame. It has survived that analysis, the opposite of games for which careful analysis found that there actually is a perfect plan that guarantees that one side or the other is certain to win. Despite careful examination by very clever players and vast amounts of competitive play, Stalingrad continues to be reasonably well-balanced, offering a good chance for victory by either side. Stalingrad offers you, the player, a game with enormous tactical depth, a game which continues to reveal new insights, better tactics, and wiser strategic considerations.

For game designers, Stalingrad for Beginners has a different purpose. I will demonstrate that under certain conditions modern board wargames can be subject to deep serious strategic analysis. A critical condition is that the players have to know exactly what the rules are. If the rules are secret from the players, as seen for many computer games, opportunities for strategic analysis are greatly reduced. Indeed, when rules are kept secret, as in many computer games, the response of the game to player actions can be mysterious, frustrating, and pointless. The other critical condition, of course, is that the rules have to support depth of analysis. Light wargames in which combat consists entirely of rolling dice and terrain is divided into large irregular areas generally do not support deep analysis.

Are tactics important? Why do people play games? Jim Dunnigan once reported that more than two-thirds of the people who played the games in his magazine Strategy and Tactics played the games solitaire. Many of those people were using the games to understand better the history about which they were reading. Stalingrad was designed to be a game, not a historical teaching tool.

Some people want to buy the latest thing in board wargaming, play it a few times, and move on to something completely different. Stalingrad was published a half-century ago. The play-and-move-on set has long since played and moved on.

If you play Stalingrad, you will surely meet people who claim that that some other title has more historical accuracy. These people think that historical accuracy is good. The author’s opinion is that the ‘historical realism’ perspective has not led to better games. Stalingrad presents an alternative point of view. The virtue of Stalingrad is that it presents challenging playing opportunities for beginners, intermediate players, and grand masters of the wargame table, something that many ‘historically accurate’ games do not.

Why else do people play games? If we look out to the wider gaming hobby, there has been much serious analysis of why people play, notably in the pages of The Wild Hunt and Alarums and Excursions. The late Glenn Blacow proposed that rolegame players and gamesmasters have four motivations, namely Roleplaying, Storytelling, Powergaming, and Wargaming, while others have identified Sightseeing, Social Gaming, and Collecting as additional motives. A Roleplayer focuses on the internal consistency and personality of each of her characters, so that the characters choose to do what would have made sense to them, even when their choices do not make sense to the players. A Storyteller participates in a plotted event, in which the broad course of events has script immunity, and will happen regardless of what the players do. A Powergamer pursues enhancing his character’s strengths, as by acquiring armies, magic amulets, and better armor, simply in order to have a more powerful character: The archetype was the well-known Los Angeles rolegamer of 35 years ago and his 250,000th level magician, a creature who created universes every day in order to loot them. A Wargamer is interested in choosing excellent strategy and tactics, whether on the field of battle or in a cooking competition. A Sightseer is there simply to admire the world and enjoy events, the way Casanova presents himself in his twelve-volume autobiography. Often overlooked in this mix are Social Gamers, people who play games but who are actually there to socialize, compare chocolate brownie recipes, or enjoy the company of their significant other. These six motivations are not exclusive. Many players have several at once. The motivations may be inconsistent, in that the player whose character is a Chess International Grandpatzer (like Grandmaster, only backwards) is supposed to play chess incompetently, interfering with the player’s wargaming motivation that she wants her character to win chess games.

Then, of course, there are the noble Collectors, people who buy wargames, magazines, or other trinkets primarily to have them. Collectors overlap with Powergamers, for whom collecting in-game items of great power can be very important. A Collector, however, will be delighted to add to his collection items of no or negative value, whether within the context of a rolegame or in the real world. In collectable card games, collecting is used to construct a more powerful playing deck. In collectable sports games, figures representing particular players are collected by sports enthusiasts following the players or team. Some people, of course collect board games for their own sake. The collection of the late Sid Sackson included more than 20,000 different games. Your author’s humble board wargame collection barely approaches 5000 titles.

Computer game design theory proposes that people play games because they are fun. Indeed, there are entire treatises analyzing what are said to be theories of fun. Curiously, no other branch of the strategy gaming hobby has ever proposed analyzing fun as a way to understand why people play games. Indeed, in the above list of types of rolegame player, fun-seeker is prominent for its absence.

Chapter One - Introduction

The classic wargame title Stalingrad was first published by the Avalon Hill game company in 1963. While the game box and contents give no indication of authorship, the game’s designers are now widely believed to have included Charles Roberts, Lindsley Schutz, and Thomas Shaw. A 1974 Second Edition made slight changes in the rules, based on decisions and writing by Don Greenwood with significant input by myself. The discussion here is based on the 1974 edition.

Readers who want to follow my discussion may wish to have the game in front of them. While Stalingrad is, tragically, out of print, used copies remain available on internet markets. Computer modules supporting game play via email automatically give the reader a display image of the game. Modules are available for the ZunTzu (ZunTzu.com), Vassal (VassalEngine.org), and Cyberboard (CyberBoard.Brainiac.com) computer systems, among others.

Why do we need a book that teaches people how to play the game? Computer play by internet is a wonderful innovation permitting players separated by continents and oceans to compete, without any of the delays attendant to playing games via paper mail. However, these wonderful innovations do not introduce new players to the hobby, because they do not supply the game rules. You can only use the computer platforms to play if you already know how to play.

Without new players, play of Stalingrad is fated to wither and die. This book supplies the remedy.

Part I of this book teaches the reader how to play the classic Avalon Hill boardgame Stalingrad. If you already know how to play, you can skip Part I, or skim it for reminders on fine points in the rules. If you are learning how