Playing Pub Battles

Pub Battles was created as a 2 player Kriegspiel game. The object was to create a system that “reffed” the game. 

Playing Kriegspiel requires no knowledge of the rules, you simply write your orders and are told what happens; the refs handle all the heavy lifting.

This makes it similar to playing a fantasy role playing game like D&D. It is essentially playing D&D, except your character is a military officer, and your “world” is the real world.

A good Kriegspiel referee will throw a wrench in the works, and ruin the best laid plans. Not every time, but often enough, that players learn to expect the unexpected.

Pub Battles does this with the chit draw mechanic, and simple and dramatic combat resolution.

As an army commander (player), your role is big picture. You send out your orders (move your units), and await news from the front (battle results). Formations, weapon ranges, tactical maneuvers, and the like, are all details that you rely on your subordinate officers to handle. Napoleon famously led brilliant campaigns, but let his officers and troops fight the battle.

For a wargame, Pub Battles is very simple. This is because it is command focused, not combat focused. In a combat focused game, details are everything, they are the simulation. In a command focused game, such details are inappropriate for the Army General. They hinder the player’s authentic experience. 

In Pub Battles,  what you see on the map, including the map itself, are approximations at best. Commanders are as desperate to know exactly what’s going on, as they are uncertain what’s actually going on! This is very authentic, and very like playing Kriegspiel. 

Wellington himself, said no one will ever know what actually happened at Waterloo. Everyone, even he himself, was only witness to a small slice of the whole battle.

Command is an exercise in managing chaos and uncertainty. In this respect, Pub Battles is one of the most authentic simulations available.