NASHVILLE NEOPHYTE

By S. Craig Taylor, Jr.
June 5, 2006

At the last minute Debbie realized she was too snowed under to get away, so the bunker crew jumped me, tied me up and tossed me in the back of the van and I ended up on a road trip to Tennessee and my first NASHCON Convention with Jeff. NASHCON is the yearly Miniatures Convention of the Historical Miniatures Gaming Society Mid-South. Although the convention site is within easy driving distance of the Civil War Nashville battlefield and was actually located in Franklin, site of the climactic battle of the notoriously weird 1864 Duck River campaign, we simply lacked to time to visit either. Maybe next year…. Since most of the trip followed I-81 through the Shenandoah Valley and I was the co-designer (with Steve Peek) of Battleline’s SHENANDOAH board game back in 1975, I was able to make up for the lack of any battlefield tours by boring Jeff with endless accounts of the Shenandoah Valley campaigns of 1862 and 1864, both coming and going.

 Since the Mid-South region of the HMGS includes Memphis and Atlanta gamers, I ran into a nu mber of old gaming buddies, including Terry Mills and Tim Mullin from the old Atlanta Miniatures Battlegaming Society of the early 1970s, when we used to meet in a Decatur hobby shop and later in the annex of a Baptist Church. Organizer Baxter Key was a genial host and all the dealers got good home-cooked grub and chance to mix at his home, in addition to being attacked by his pride of cats. The BRAWLING BATTLESHIPS STEEL tournament was small, as its listing had been inadvertently dropped from the convention booklet, but everyone involved enjoyed themselves and certificates for custom t-shirts were awarded as prizes (we needed to get the sizes, so the actual shirts are sent later). At the booth, Jeff and I both demonstrated the new TASK FORCES AT WAR card game to anyone unwary enough to make eye contact. As it turned out, our big seller was PANZER and its three PANZER PaK modules – could it be that 1/285th armor is making a comeback? All-in-all, it was a good show for us and, although attendance may have been down a bit (gas prices?) from last year, we actually did a bit better than in 2005. This is an excellent venue with lots of interesting games run by knowledgeable gamemasters and should be on your to-do list for next spring if you live anywhere near Nashville.

Now, some more on that new card game, TASK FORCES AT WAR, which we were demonstrating at our NASHCON booth. In the past, we’ve done some fairly simple, "beer and pretzels", card games (BRAWLING BATTLESHIPS STEEL, BATTLEGROUP) and some fairly complicated card games (BATTLELINES, COMBAT SOLDIERS). This is our first "introductory" card game and is aimed at people who are not war gamers but do enjoy an interesting and easy-to-learn game that is based on history. A young child just starting to take an interest in your hobby or that buddy who says it all looks interesting but too complicated can both be shown the game for a first look at war gaming. To be honest, TASK FORCES AT WAR is based on history about as much as MONOPOLY is based on the real estate business but can be used to draw players further in to this messy history stuff we all love so much.

This diceless card game is based on World War Two (1939 – 1945) naval combat. It looks great; with the same full-color Liz Billings pictures of American, British, French, German, Italian and Japanese capital ships of the Second World War that were used to illustrate BATTLEGROUP and we reference players to the same historical articles on the ships at our website. Components include a 32-card Allied Ship Deck, a 32-card Axis Ship Deck, a storage box and the rules. The game retails for $9.95. Briefly, the game is played as follows:

The Axis player uses the Axis Deck and the Allied player uses the Allied Deck. Each randomly deals five cards to form a playing hand. After examining their hands, each player places a face-down "task force" of three cards on the table. Both task forces are turned up simultaneously and compared. The number of ship cards of the two types (battleships and aircraft carriers) in the two opposing task forces determines the nature of the coming naval battle.

a) If, in the two task forces, there are four to six aircraft carrier type cards on the table, the action is a carrier battle and combat will be resolved by counting and comparing the total number of aircraft symbol numbers on the cards of the opposing task forces.

b) If there are five or six battleship cards on the table, the action is a surface battle and combat will be resolved by counting and comparing the total number of big gun shell symbol numbers on the cards of the opposing task forces.

c) If there are three to four battleship cards on the table, the action is an air-surface battle and combat will be resolved by counting and comparing the total number of torpedo symbol numbers on the cards of the opposing task forces.

Count the total number of the appropriate symbols on all the cards of the opposing task forces and compare the number of these symbols on both sides. For example, if the action is a surface battle (five or six battleship cards in the opposing task forces), the big gun symbols on a side’s three played ship cards are counted. In the surface battle (5 battleships involved) shown below, the numbers "4", "3" and "2", appear for a total of "9" big gun symbols on the Allied task force and the numbers "3", "4" and "1", appear for a total of 8" big gun symbols on the Axis task force.

If both sides have equal numbers of the appropriate symbols, the combat ends with no losses on either side. Otherwise, the task force with the smaller number loses a "sunken" ship. For example, in the battle shown above, there are "9" Allied big gun symbols to "8" Axis big gun symbols, so the Axis task force loses one ship card. Normally the losing player chooses the ship to lose but the winning player chooses if the weaker side’s total is doubled or more. Sunken ships are kept in a victory pile, their victory points to be counted at the end of the round. Remaining task force cards are discarded, three more cards are dealt to each player and new task forces are deployed, etc. as a "round" continues.

When the last card from either deck is dealt, the "round" ends and victory points are counted. The side with the most victory points wins the "round" and all cards are shuffled and another "round" begins. The first side to win two "rounds" wins the game. See, it’s fast and simple and no dice are needed. Playing time is normally under a half hour.

There is one optional rule but it has a surprisingly profound effect on play and game strategy. The player who just sank an opposing ship card may return one of his or her face up task force cards to his or her hand. If this is done, that player draws only two cards instead of three to fill the hand. Further, keep in mind that the two decks both have 23 battleships and nine aircraft carriers. Otherwise, the decks are different. The Axis Deck is slightly better for surface battles, the Allied Deck is slightly better for carrier battles and the decks are equal for air-surface battles.