Guy-Ernest Debord (28th December 1931 to 30th November 1994) was a French Marxist theorist, philosopher, filmmaker, critic, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situationist International. He was also the designer of a gridded wargame.
I first became aware of Debord’s wargame in 2014 as a result of reading Richard Barbrook’s CLASS WARGAMES: LUDIC SUBVERSION AGAINST SPECTACULAR CAPITALISM. He and others in his London-based situationist ludic-science group had recreated Debord's Le Jeu de la Guerre and taken it on a tour around parts of Europe, Asia and South America.
As I have a great interest in any wargame design that uses a gridded playing surface, I sought out more information about the game’s mechanisms. The internet proved to be very useful in this quest and I was able to see several still photographs of a game in progress. I also found a page on the Class Wargames website that not only showed the various components required to play the game but also several very useful links that included translations of the rules into English and French as well as Radical Software Group's Kriegspiel computerised version of the game.
I downloaded the latter onto my iPad, and it has proven to be a great way to fill the wargaming void I am currently in whilst I am immobile, The rules are simple to learn and the online version has a variety of solo scenarios one can use. In solo mode the role of one’s opponent is taken on by the games built-in AI, which I have found to be less predictable than I would have expected. The program also includes the option to play a remote opponent.
The one thing that I particularly like about the rules is the need for players to maintain viable supply lines. If units are not able to do so, they cannot move although they can defend themselves against enemy attacks. This is certainly something that I may well use and/or adapt in any future strategic gridded wargames that I design.
On the screenshot shown above, the fixed supply depots are shown as tents …
… and the mobile supply depots are indicated by icons that combine a flag and wheel.
Lines of supply are indicated by dotted lines.
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Thanks very much for sharing Bob, hope you are well and getting batter daily? Quinn
ReplyDeleteGlory to Ruritania (Quinn),
DeleteI’m glad that you enjoyed my post about Gut Debord’s game. As to my health … well, I’ve got at least two more weeks in a plaster cast, after which I may progress to wearing a boot. In theory, I should them be able to get about on crutches … but who knows?
All the best,
Bob
Oh wow worth looking into will have dig when I get the chance, although Morschauser’s has really caught my fancy at present.
ReplyDeleteDemitri Ioannou,
DeleteThe game has some interesting mechanisms which might well have a wider application.
All the best,
Bob
PS. I see that you’ve caught the Morschauser ‘bug’! It’s a great pity that he only ever wrote a single wargame book as I think that his ideas deserve far greater recognition.
It's been a while since you made me aware of this game. I read the book (which was mostly about marxist discussion of how the goals of the revolution were betrayed to preserve the new state) but never actually played the game. IIRC those lines of supply, like movement and attacks, must be straight orthogonal/diagonal routes, which struck me as an odd and rather chess-like limitation.
ReplyDeleteI must get round to actually playing the game one of these days.
Look after yourself and hopefully keep making steady progress toward recovery.
Pompey Dave,
DeleteAs you say in your comment, the book does tend to concentrate on the dialectic of the class struggle. Interestingly, its author - Richard Barbrook - has been developing a variety of games for the Labour Party that focus on preparing the party for government. The games concentrate on crisis planning and role-playing various scenarios that may occur after a Labour election victory.
The use orthogonal and diagonal supply lines does produce a chess-like restraint on what players can do, but it also forces players to think several steps ahead. For example, moving a mobile supply base can enable a player to develop a particular offensive at the cost of leaving some of their other units unable to move. Likewise - and I’ve done this myself in several games - using cavalry to raid into enemy territory to destroy an enemy supply base can have a devastating effect on the enemy. Suddenly, parts of their army cannot move and can only fight defensively, and this can easily result in their units being picked off and destroyed one by one,
All the best,
Bob