PRESRT STD US POSTAGE PAID DISPATCHES BAKERSFIELD CA PERMIT NO 66 FROM DECISION GAMES #39 FALL 2020 (661) 587-9633 | (661) 587-5031 fax | P.O. Box 21598 | Bakersfield CA 93390 | DECISIONGAMES.COM Excerpt from Strategy & Tactics #50 The Last Strategies By Stephen B. Patrick Germany By December, 1944, the Axis existed only in Hitler’s mind. Accordingly, all strategies were Hitler’s. Germany was fighting on four fronts by this time: the west, Italy, Poland and the Balkans. The last two were nominally one front, but, because the two Soviet drives were basically independent, they had to be treated separately. Hitler’s strategy, such as it was, was one of desperation and wishful thinking. He was convinced that the Anglo-American alliance with the Soviets could not endure. Subsequent events proved him right. What he failed to recognize was that the mutual hatred they bore for Nazism was sufficient to hold the alliance together for the duration of the war. Hitler seemed to have few illusions about Germany’s chances to win the war. He now wanted to settle for destroying Communism. Hitler convinced himself that he could work out an alliance with the Anglo- Americans and the three would then crush the Bolshevik menace. To “encourage” the British and American governments to see things his way, Hitler felt he needed a major victory in the west. He may not have seriously believed he could root the western Allies, but he did expect to deliver a blow that would seriously upset the western timetable. He also hoped to so upset morale at home in the western alliance that the German Panzer V Panther on the Eastern Front, 1944. Waidelich, German Federal Archives CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 » Dispatch #39 | FALL 2020 1 Order online @ shop.strategyandtacticspress.com 2020 11 Fall Thirty Years War – Violent Birth of Modern Europe: Modern Europe is the ORDER TODAY! product of the gradual evolution of political, economic, and social institutions, interspersed with cataclysmic events as the old order resisted change. The early seventeenth century saw one of the worst. The Thirty Years’ War of 1618-1648 tore through central Europe, depopulating large tracts of Germany, while subsidiary fights erupted on the high seas, in Available the Americas, and in the Far East. It melded the last of the Catholic-Protestant wars and Now! the first stirrings of nationalism to ongoing dynastic struggles for European hegemony. 12 Winter Dreadnoughts – Big-Gun Era of Naval Warfare: Few weapons have come and gone so precipitously as the modern battleship. HMS Dreadnought, launched in 1906, instantly made every other battleship obsolete. Though only a single major dreadnought battle was ever fought, at Jutland in 1916, the race continued after the Great War. The sheer expense drove the leading naval powers to the conference table to limit the size of ships and fleets, providing an opening for pariah nations, the soon-to-be Axis, to leap ahead in battleship design, only to be overtaken by greater Allied shipbuilding capacity and the maturation of the aircraft carrier. 2021 13 Spring Gettysburg: High Tide or Desperate Gamble? Gettysburg (1-3 July 1863) has ORDER YOUR SUBSCRIPTION TODAY! achieved near-legendary status among Civil War afficionado and non-history buff alike. The story covers not three days but three months, involving decision-making at the highest governmental levels as well as action by quick-thinking individuals on the battlefield. Christopher Perello PRINT ✔ box takes another plunge into these deep waters, examining how the campaign and battle came Send me one year (4 ISSUES) for $63.96 $ 49.99 about, how they progressed as they did, and how one or both might have turned out differently. Send me two years (8 ISSUES) for $127.92 $ 89.99 14 Summer Origins of World War I: The Great War was both inevitable and eminently avoidable, but the mesh of ambition and perceived threats overcame every effort to stave off hostilities. This work examines those interests and the world through British, French, Non-US shipping PER YEAR. SUBTOTAL German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian, Italian, and Ottoman eyes, and how what should have been yet another local dispute in the Balkans dragged the continent into war. $15 Canada (NON-US SHIPPING) + $20 Overseas TOTAL ORDER = 15 Fall Napoleon’s Art of Battle: System or Genius? The rise of Napoleon Bonaparte to the French throne stemmed from a series of battlefield victories over Note: New subscriptions will start with issue #12 (Dreadnoughts) until the armies of every European dynasty. Those battles were sought by Napoleon 30 October 2020. Previous issues can be found in the S&T Press shop after careful planning and maneuver to give him the edge on the contested field. (limited quantities available). shop.strategyandtacticspress.com This work examines the nature of that process, both in the weeks and days leading to the collision and the hours during which it was brought to fulfillment. NAME 16 Winter China: The Next War: China has been expanding its reach economically, politically, and militarily. The US remains its chief adversary on every level, but what strategies will be most effective in containing the burgeoning superpower? China’s long history gives it a wealth of political-military principles to direct its likely moves; the failure to understand them ADDRESS could doom its opposition. This is an examination of the potential for war, and of its disparate battlefields in the air, on land, at and under the sea, in space, and in the digital world. 2022* CITY, STATE ZIP 17 Spring Alexander: A fresh look at the history, life, and campaigns of one of military history’s great commanders, Alexander the Great. COUNTRY 18 Summer Korea–After Chosin: Korea is often referred to as the Forgotten War. Even among military history enthusiasts, not much is known about the battles PHONE and campaigns beyond Pusan, Inchon, and Chosin. The issue goes in depth from the First Chinese Counteroffensive to Pork Chop Hill and the Armistice. EMAIL 19 Fall French & Indian War: This issue will dig into the details of the French & Indian War, a remote corner of the Seven Years War where small battles and campaigns determined the outcome for a continent. VISA/MC/DISC (ONLY)# *SCHEDULE AND TOPICS SUBJECT TO CHANGE EXP. & CVV SIGNATURE 2 Dispatch #39 | FALL 2020 » CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Dear Fellow Wargamers: respective citizenry would be receptive to his offer. The result of all this wishful thinking was the Ardennes Offensive: the Battle of the Bulge. We hope this Dispatch finds you healthy and returning to normal activities. With the failure of the Bulge, Hitler had to do something about the We appreciate everyone who participated in our various summer sales to renewed Soviet attacks. This resulted in the last two major attacks on the highlight the conventions we were expecting to attend. We are looking forward Eastern Front: Guderian’s mini-offensive in Pomerania was agreed to to next year and anticipating conventions will be returning to normal schedules. reluctantly. His major attack was around Lake Balaton, in Hungary. We’re also glad to report that most of the retail game shops and bookstores The failure of these attacks left Hitler no cohesive plan. Aside from the are open for business and stocking up on our new games and magazines. discredited “stand-fast” policy. In April there was the tragi-comedy plan for the relief of Berlin, to be accomplished by Wenck’s non-existant 12th Army, Welcome to our 39th issue of the Dispatch. We’ve released four boxed games Steiner’s non-existant Army Group Steiner and Busse’s skeleton 9th Army. over the summer. Lucky Forward covers Patton’s Lorraine Campaign. During What he would have done had they broken through to Berlin is not recorded. development, the GOSS system rules were updated along with all of the exclusive In Italy, Hitler had no plan other than to hold the line. rules for the previous games—all of the updates are in the E-rules online. D-Day at Omaha Beach was released with no changes from the third printing. The third The Allies release is a deluxe edition of the four D-Day folios we published last year for Allied strategy was based on the agreement formalized at Yalta. the 75th anniversary. This D-Day Quad deluxe edition features a mounted game There it was agreed that Germany would not be partitioned, but board, full-color rules booklet, and a game box reminiscent of the SPI quadri- would be occupied and the zones of occupation were laid out. games. Finally, we published Battle for Germany. This deluxe edition includes In the west, Eisenhower was still wrestling with Montgomery, who favored the SPI counter set as well as the DG/MOVES counter set so players can play with a single drive on Berlin, led, coincidentally, by himself. Eisenhower favored a either counter set, a mounted game board with an expansion up to the Courland broad front advance, pressing the German line at all points so that it would peninsula, a rules booklet with rules for two, three and four player scenarios break in several places, rather than just one or two. Eisenhower did agree to give as well as scenarios for Red Star/White Star and the eastern front, plus bonus Montgomery priority in getting over the Rhine since Montgomery would have the counters and optional rules from Donald B. Johnson for adding offensive supply clear terrain of northern Germany as his area of operation. However, once across markers and some other small amendments to add even more realism to the the Rhine, any strategy was of little meaning since the broad front strategy finally game.