Postscript
People at the Strategy and Games Magazine were reading the recent weekend history post on the Luzon Campaign and write that their next issue is about the Battle of Manila, the Stalingrad of the Pacific. The rules of the game are unique.
Historically the Japanese fought to the last man (literally, not metaphorically), and the game's victory conditions represent that brutally absolute mindset. To determine the winner, both players examine the map at the end of Game Turn 10. If at that time there's one or more Japanese units still in play anywhere, the Japanese player is declared to have won the game. If there are no Japanese units left on the map at that time, the US player is declared to have won the game. Of course, if all Japanese units are wiped out prior to the end of the last game turn, play stops and the US player is declared the victor. No draws are possible.
Yup.
Nothing follows.
posted by wretchardthecat at 9/24/2007 02:13:00 PM
2 Comments:
It would be interesting to know their rules and homework.
Three more comments on the excellent history work to date.
*History is what is written, not what happened.
*Kamikazie casualties to the Navy were as severe as the Marines suffered in the same campaigns.
* Truman may have been right about the Marines having a propaganda machine second only to Stalin.
The Philippines could have been the 51st state, but for numbers and politics.
Interesting. Joe Miranda is a veteran of historical wargame design and he knows his stuff, so I would assume that the historical research on that project will be quite sound. As to how he will interpret that research — designing an historical wargame is every bit as much an interpretive act as writing a book — I assume that that is, by nature, subject to discussion.
Wargame designers are underestimated as historians, but the good ones may have an even keener grasp of the fortunes of war than their purely academic peers. Generally, the good ones are very widely read and their public reputations rely on the savvy with which they weigh the "might have beens" — the probabilities, and not just the causes and effects — in any given situation.
Joe Miranda, BTW, got his start in the industry when Strategy & Tactics was in its heyday and it was edited by Jim Dunnigan, now of Strategypage fame.
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