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Are there any wargames that focus exclusively on the operational level, the more modern the subject the better, but at any rate C20 or C21? Type of game – computer / board / miniatures / committee – isn’t important.
It depends how you define “operations”, but if you mean games which cover military operations at a level where differences in the direct fire ranges of weapons are not significant, then there are far more than can be usefully listed in an Internet post.
I tend to regard this sort of thing as the province of one base/counter per battalion or Brigade type things. Once you are pushing Corps around it starts to spill over into Strategic, although games such as Panzertgruppe Guderian and Drive on Stalingrad are clearly operational. Not sure how to classify D-day or Afrika Corps. They are probably operational too.
"Mistakes in the initial deployment cannot be rectified" - Helmuth von Moltke
I was thinking of a game which dealt-with theatre/campaign-level decisions, but had no tactical decisions at all. So I guess War in the West is operational in that it covers all aspects of one campaign, it isn’t what I’m looking for in that there is lots of movement of individual divisions / brigades / regiments. The game I am looking for would need to be very tightly focused on what Eisenhower and his staff would do.
Just take any boardwargame and swap out the counters for miniatures. Not being facetious here:there are some excellent games that could benefit from this treatment.
We get slapped around, but we have a good time!
If you want a game that makes things as much like being on Ike’s staff as possible, two titles I’d suggest are Mark Herman’s “France 1944” (Victory Games) or Joe Balkoski’s “Against the Reich” (West End Games). As you can probably tell from the titles, the first covers the liberation of France, the second (a two-mapper) the whole NWE campaign. Both use dvision-level counters, but “France 1944” emphasises the role of HQs, and “Against the Reich” is big on logistics.
For more modern topics, “Gulf Strike” (Mark Herman and Victory Games again) puts a significant emphasis on logistics, and might do something of what you want.
All the best,
John.