Big things have small beginnings, sir

Last month I decided to finally get started on an Arab Revolt project, and made a few purchases online. A few of the purchases I made have arrived, and today I took one of them out for a little test drive.

Now while I also own the Strategy & Tactics Arab Revolt game, it is an inelegant game for a more civilised age. I wanted something lighter as a basis for my (eventual) tabletop battles, and I found it in this game from Decision Games.

The game is one in a series of 32 games, with a core rules system (designed by Joseph Miranda, who also wrote the S&T Arab Revolt game), and a set of module-specific rules for the featured conflict. There are modules for conflicts ranging from ancients to sci-fi, and I must say that the Lawrence of Arabia module is based more on the movie of that name than on history. However, this little solo game seems to be just what I am looking for as a basis for my tabletop games.

The game comes with the rules, 40 cardboard counters, an 11" x 17" map, and 18 tiny cards. The game featured hidden opposition strengths - a Turkish garrison counter may contain zero to six units, and the combat strength of each unit is also randomised. Add to this random event cards which are drawn for every stack of your troops every turn, it means luck plays a great part in the game, as we shall soon learn...

The complete campaign comprises four scenarios, the first two of which I tried to play today. Here is the board after the first turn of the first scenario: Lawrence has captured Wehj, and must now take Aqaba.

After traveling to Prince Faisal's camp, Lawrence recruits more Arabs, and travels to Aqaba... which is lightly defended, and taken without a fight!

Lawrence leaves the Arabs in Aqaba, and travels to Cairo to report to British High Command... and find that Allenby has taken command. He requests for aid in the form of intelligence, some demolition charges, and prepares to return to Aqaba to start a new mission: sabotage the Hejaz railway.

Meanwhile, the Turks mount an attack of Aqaba, which the Arabs manage to repel, taking some losses.

Lawrence returns to Aqaba, and find a larger Turkish column on their way to retake Aqaba: this time the Turks come with a full strength battalion, and the German Asien Korp! The Arabs are defeated, and Lawrence is killed.

A failure on my first outing, but the event cards give enough flavour to the whole process and allows some sort of narrative to be formed. As you can see, the battles involve small number of units, which hopefully means they can easily be translated to tabletop battles.

Over the next few weeks I hope to share other components of the project as they arrive. Stay tuned.