Creature That Ate Sheboygan 26606v

SCENARIOS & VARIANTS

A DIFFERENT SORT OFCREATURE

Political Terrorism Simulated with CTAS

by Glenn L. Williams

Almost as if driven to extreme by some sort

of diametrical compulsion, gamer/designers take serious games and invent frivolous scenarios for them and use frivolous games to

present

the

most

uncomfortable

of

realities. In much the same way that come dians aspire to play Hamlet (I suppose), a wacky game like Creature is perceived to be a stage for the actors of urban terrorism. But does it keep them off the streets? - RAS

Historically, collective violence has flowed regularly out of the central political processes of Western countries. Men seeking to seize, hold or realign the levers of power have continually

engaged in collective violence as part of their

struggles. The oppressed have struck in the name ofjustice, the privileged in the name of order, and those in between in the name offear.1

This article takes the system, playing

pieces, and map of The Creature that Ate Sheboygan and expands the game to simulate a small scale war in a typical city. The system needs very little modification; therefore, the major innovations are new units. Agent pro vocateurs — the hobgoblin of the House Un-

American Activities Committee many years

ago — as well as small terrorist teams,

snipers, and heavy weapons groups are add ed. In addition, the population may riot. Finally, to provide the municipal government and the terrorists with objectives, counters are used to designate building blocks which contain the critical installations necessary to the life of the city.

[1.0] NEW COUNTERS

The players will have to make these playing pieces from spares counters.

long range artillery and stand-off smart bombs have made them technicians rather than warriors. However, modern technology has produced another form of warfare that is paradoxically both personal and impersonal.

Theories of anarchism and violence reduce the citizen-targei to a cipher, a number, a sta tistic, while the terrorist has regained his per sonal involvement. Psychology and techno logy have produced a modern warrior tilting

at windmills of flesh with lances by Kalishnikov.

Highly (rained, well-equipped and dedi cated teams can wage war amid shoppers and

There is no additional bonus for having two or more agents participate in (he attack.

12.42] Retreat before Combat. Whenever the mu nicipal player announces an attack on a block con taining an agent, the agent has the option of retreating one block. The agent may not retreat in to a block containing or adjacent to any municipal combat unit (police or national guard). If an agent elects to retreat and abandons any terrorist units, the municipal attack against those left behind is shifted one column right on the CRT. (2.5| SABOTAGE

Once each game, an agent may attempt one building destruction attempt with a Building De struction Strength of I. The agent may use its strength only against a block it has just moved

through. Exception to Stacking Restrictions: For a sabotage attempt, the agent may ignore the

presence of Friendly or Enemy units in the block it intends to sabotage.

The Creature thai Ate Sheboygan sim ply and vividly portrays a 1950's B-movie version of violence, but with slight modifica tion it can be easily adapted to portray

another, metaphorical monster — the grim mer form of warfare that has yet to take a firm grip on American cities, terrorism. Warfare was once very personal; combat and its thrills were no more distant than the end of an arm, axe, or spear. Among the frus trations of modern warfare is its intensely im personal nature. For the soldier or airman,

(2.411 Coordination of Attacks. If an agent is stacked with at least one terrorist assault team or heavy weapons team in an attack, the ratio for the entire attack is shifted one column to the right.

|2.6| ESCAPE

Any time a lerrorisi unit (agent, assault team, heavy weapons or sniper) is in the line of sight of no municipal unit, it may be removed from the map. For this purpose, a unit is out of LOS if it is

12.0] AGENT PROVOCATEURS

Each counter represents a single man or woman whose charisma and absolute dedication give them the power to evoke spontaneous violence from an

already dissatisfied public. |2.1| MOVEMENT

Agents are not affected by terrain costs for move ment. All movemeni cosls are one point per block whether street, building, park, or bridge. Thev may not enter river blocks.

12.21 STACKING Agents do not count against slacking limits. They

may never slack with opposing units of any type

(helicopters excepted).

|2.3| LEADING OTHER UNITS If an agent begins a Movement Phase stacked wiih

in a building block and there are no municipal units adjacent to it. The escaping unit is placed on the wind direction rose on 4. At the beginning of each turn, it is moved to the next lower number. When it reaches 1, the terrorist unit may be placed on any block out of LOS of municipal units, unless it exercises an ambush option (see Case 3.2). Terroist units may never reappear on critical installa

tions.

[3.0] TERRORIST ASSAULT TEAMS

For movement and stacking purposes, these units

are treated exactly as national guard units. |3.l| MOVEMENT

Terrorist assault teams may be led by agents gain ing a movement poinl bonus (see Case 2.3). |3.2| AMBUSH

Once a terrorist assault team has used escape and has reappeared, it may appear adjacent ut a

municipal unit. Ii must attack thai municipal unit in the Combat Phase of the turn it appears. On that turn only, its Combat Strength is doubled. (3.3| HEAVY WEAPONS TEAMS

commuters. The police teams evolving in response resemble commandos more than

other lerrorisi units, it may carry those uniis. So

Some lerrorisi assault teams arc more heavily equipped than others. To determine how much more heavily equipped they are. ihe terrorist

fellow police.

rorist units may move four (rather than two) blocks per turn and ignore terrain costs, as an

game begins and consults the Heavy Weapons

they do traffic cops. They have more in com mon with their opponents than with their The new warfare is characterized by its youth. The new generation understands the ends and uses of violence, perhaps because in stantaneous communication and rapid transit

are part of their natural heritage.

long as they remain stacked with the agent, the ter agent.

|2.4| COMBAT

Agents have no Attack Strength. They may lend

their Defense Strength to that of terrorists with whom they are stacked. Agents may make building destruction attempts, but not as normal combat.

player picks one of the randomizer chits before the

Team Equipment Table (3.5). His choice musi be

completely random and remains secret until he uses ihe heavy weapons team in combat for the

first lime. The bonuses shown on the table are cumulative with all other bonuses such as ambush Thus, a team with RPG-75 ambushes a tank at four times its normal combat strength.

8 |3.31| Mortar Restriction. A mortar equipped heavy weapons team which is attacked on the municipal turn following an attack with the mor tar does not receive any defensive bonus for being in a building block. The team is assumed to be on

not affected by the movement penalty of a park or roadblock (6.0). (5.4) RIOT ARSON

the roof.

At the end of its Movement Phase, a riot uses its fire breathing ability against one building block adjacent to it. Determine which block by random

(3.321 Example of Team Composition. When a

die roll.

player draws a chit, the team has each weapon marked with an "x" under that chit number. If the player draws a 2, his team has a machinegun, an anti-tank RPG-7, and a shoulder launched anti aircraft missile, the SA-7. |3.4| BUILDING DESTRUCTION

their attempt with other units (including agents).

agent may not lend any strength or use co ordination. Note: Riots always attack fire

Note that because of building destruction restric tion to one per unit per game, players will have to identify units and keep track of their building destruction attempts.

(3.5) HEAVY WEAPONS TEAM EQUIPMENT TABLE (see bottom of this page)

[4.0] SNIPERS

A sniper is a single terrorist equipped with a highpowered rifle, scope, and appropriate night fighting devices. A sniper has no combat ability as such. Its defensive value is one. It is considered to have the creature ability "Fear Immobilization." Snipers have a range of four blocks. If they are in a high building, they may ignore the LOS effects of adjacent low buildings. Snipers have the retreat

fighters, even if no agent is present. (5.6| QUELLING RIOTS Whenever the municipal player has national guard infantry or police patrol cars next to a riot, he may attempt to quell the riot during his Combat Phase. He rolls a die and consults the Riot Table (S.7). If the attempt to quell the riot is unsuccessful, the municipal player may attack the riot during the same Combat Phase. A quelled riot is flipped back over and becomes an ordinary populace counter again. A destroyed riot is removed from play.

tanks.

|5.0] RIOTS

|5.11 RIOT CHARACTERISTICS A riot is a creature for game purposes with a building destruction strength of zero, movement allowance of three, defense strength of two, range of one, and the special ability of fire breathing.

|5.2| INCITING TO RIOT Whenever an agent occupies a block adjacent to or containing a populace counter, it may attempt to incite a riot. The agent does so during either the terrorist movement or combat phase (although on ly once per turn). It may even do so while it is mov ing. The agent rolls a die and consults the Riot Table (S.7). If the populace counter riots, flip it

Die Roll Modifications

;

1. If municipal player has attacked any riot during the game, subtract 1.

2. If municipal player has a unit adjacent to popu lace center, subtract 1.

3. There are no modifications for quelling riots.

[6.0] ROADBLOCKS Any terrorist assault team, police car or national guard unit may attempt to build a roadblock in a street block. The unit must remain in the block un disturbed for a specified number of turns. The presence of other Friendly units in the block has no effect on the length of time it lakes to block a road.

over.

[5.3] RIOT MOVEMENT When incited, move the riot counter immediately into a randomly determined adjacent street block. Thereafter, the riot moves randomly in as straight a line as possible. Use a die roll and the wind table to determine riot movement direction. Riots are

on entering a block containing a roadblock. A unit attacked in a block containing a roadblock defends at double strength, except for riots and (6.31 REMOVAL A roadblock may be removed by any national

guard infantry unit or tank unit which remains on the block undisturbed for two complete turns.

[7.0] SUICIDE ATTACKS

Terrorist assault teams and police car units may also make suicide attacks.

[8.0] BERSERK NATIONAL GUARDSMEN

If any national guard unit is attacked and destroyed by a riot, all national guard units go berserk for the rest of the game. They must always move toward and attack the nearest riot, popu lace, or terrorist unit in that order of priority. A berserking national guard unit may never withhold an attack.

[9.0] CITY INSTALLATIONS

before combat option of agents, with the same morale effect on other terrorists they abandon. Snipers may not .be attacked with artillery or

Populace counters may be incited to riot by agents and quelled again by police or national guard, in fantry.

Any counter except a riot or helicopter must stop

helicopters.

(5.5| RIOT COMBAT A riot will not enter a block containing a police or national guard unit. However, if slacked with an agent, the riot may attack the municipal unit. The

All terrorist assault teams have a one time building destruction strength of 1. They may not combine

(6.2) EFFECTS

I6.1| TIME REQUIRED Terrorist learns and police cars require three turns lo build a roadblock. National guard units require iwo turns. Use a web counter to symbolize the roadblock.

The municipal player must create seven coumers representing the critical installations in the city: three radio-tv stations; two power plants; one water treatment plant; and one city hall. (Note: A Siarship Troopers game has the first six of these counters, requiring the player only to create a city hall.)Before the game begins, these installation counters are placed in any building blocks on ihe map. They may never be closer than three blocks to another installation. The installation counters do not affect the defense or building destruction strength of the building blocks they occupy. They simply mark which of those blocks are these in stallations. (9.1) CITY HALL POLICE GUARD Cily hall must always have at least one police car or helicopter on it.

(9.2) EFFECTS OF CAPTURE OR DESTRUCTION BY TERRORISTS Control of any radio-lv station at the end of the game doubles terrorist victory points. Control of additional stations has no effect. Power or waier treatment plants are worth 8 points, while city hall is worth 10 points.

[10.0] RIOT SCENARIO 110.1] MUNICIPAL PLAYER The municipal player receives 44 points and deploys installations first, then police and national guard. The municipal player moves second. 110.2] TERRORIST PLAYER This player assumes the monster role with two agents, four terrorist assault teams, two heavy weapons learns, and iwo snipers. He deploys se

cond, and may deploy adjacent to municipal units but noi adjacent lo critical installations. The lerrorisl player may withhold units and use as rein forcements later in ihe game.

110.3] FIRST TURN AMBUSH RESTRICTION The lerrorist player may use ambush on (he first lurn only if he rolls a I or 2 after deploymeni.

|10.4| VICTORY CONDITIONS The lerrorist victory level is 55 points. Each lime he incites a riot, he earns 3 points. For each rioi quelled, -2. For each assault or heavy weapons learn killed, minus double the combat strength.

Designer's Notes tmntimtdjnm

For each sniper killed, -5. For each agent killed, - 10.

Installations captured or destroyed at the end of the game: see Case 9.2.

For destroying municipal units, use the regular Creature point schedule.

[11.0] COUNTER-TERROR TEAMS (Optional Rule) The municipal player may exchange two police car units for two counter-terror teams. These have the movement advantage of agents, as well as the escape and ambush capabilities. A counter-terror team may be carried by a helicopter which picks them up simply by moving through their block and then depositing them anywhere along the helicopter's movement path. A team may not be dropped in a block it could not otherwise enter. Each helicopter may carry one team per turn, and a team may only be carried by one helicopter per turn.

Creature is a classic "beer and pretzels" game whose system is ideal for expansion and experimentation. Sheboygan could represent a medieval town with a bow and pole-armed militia and peasants with bill hooks. Alterna tively, the riot rules in this article could be us ed to simulate the chaos on with an extra-terrestrial civilization. Probably foremost in the minds of most public and private officials who deal with public protest and violence is: What are the relative merits of concessions and coercion for maintaining an orderly and reasonably contented .community? A case can be made for the development of either policy approach and any combination of them, by selective choice of examples. The careful study of comparable cases, historically and comparatively, needed for a judicious answer

has scarcely been started.2

It is my hope that an entertaining expan sion to The Creature that Ate Sheboygan

might also be a thoughtful one.

the battle consisted mainly of probing attacks on British shipping and would have required an extensive system for convoy movement, which would add complexity and playing time without much effect on the out

come of the game. After the game is

published, perhaps an enterprising Battle over Britain enthusiast might want to con tribute a July expansion system to MOVES magazine.

The second game, the Basic Tactical Game, returns to my first idea of a raid-byraid portrayal of the battle. Each GameTurn represents three hours of time during the day and six hours during the night, for a total of six Game-Turns per day. In one even ing, the players should be able to play out five days of the battle. Scenarios will allow the players to recreate critical periods of the battle in single play sessions, or they may play the entire campaign "monster" game. The third game, the Advanced Tactical Game, is a more detailed approach to the game system and time scale put forth in the basic tactical game and increases playing time by about 50%. More on this one later. The three games are organized so that concepts learned when playing the Strategic Game also apply to the Tactical games. While easing the sometimes painful learning process, this will also allow players to switch back and forth between the tactical and strategic systems in mid-game. For example, if the players have completed four turns of the Strategic game and suddenly feel like us ing the tactical system for a seemingly critical five-day period, they simply alter some infor mational counters as outlined in the rules, and off they go. Conversely, when play of the tactical game reaches a point in time that matches the starting point for any Strategic Game-Turn, they may switch to the simpler system to get through a "lull" in the battle.

How are we abfe to achieve this inter-

NOTES:

t. Tilly, Charles, "Collective Violence in Euro pean Perspective," Violence in America, The Complete Official Report of the National Com mission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence, June 1969, New American Library, New York, NY, 1969. 2. Graham, Hugh Davis and Gurr, Ted Robert, "Conclusion," ibid., p. 794 BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Daly, Charles, Urban Violence, The University

of Chicago Press, Chicago, 111, 1969. 2. Luitwak, Edward, Coup d'Etat, Publications, Greenwich, Conn. 1968.

Fawceti

3. New Mexico Quarterly, Special Issue on Violence, University of New Mexico Press, Albu querque, NM, Winter, 1968.

4. Violence in America, op. at.MM

changeability of game systems? Let's begin with the map, which is reproduced here for your perusal (p. 29). The map is a full-size 22" x 34" representation of England, Wales, southern Scotland and part of northern and Holland. As you can see, the hexes are big. There is no movement perse in the game; the hexes act more as area bound aries than a movement regulation system. They are used to determine range and the ex tent of detection and reaction to a raid. Within each hex containing British soil are a number of named targets for the Ger man Player to bomb. These are color-coded as to type, including radar stations, fighter

command airfields, other airfields, aircraft factories, other factories, ports, military bases, towns and cities. Hexes along the British coast, in the Channel, and along the coast of contain radar values, which the British Player uses to detect incoming German raids. Hexes containing mainland Europe have bases for German aircraft. Ad ditional bases located off the hex field are represented along the southern and eastern edge of the map and are coded to show their distance from the hex field. German units

operate from their bases on the game-map, whereas British units are placed on the gamemap only when actually intercepting German units. At other times they are kept on the

British Player's Airfield Dispalys, as explain ed further on. In the Strategic Game, the hex is the basic area*of action; ail German raids into a particular hex are resolved at once. In the Tactical Game, the six sub-divisions in each hex facilitate resolution of individual raids in

a detailed combat system. These sub-divi sions, along with altitude levels assigned to all planes in the hex, create a threedimensional air-space that presents the players with subtle tactical considerations in an elegant way. Hidden displays are used extensively in Battle over Britain. The British Airfield Dis play is used by the British Player to keep track of the current status of all his units and to keep the German Player in the dark about the whereabouts and strengths of the RAF. Almost 80 airfields, including all those used in the Battle of Britain and many that were not used (but the Germans didn't know that), are shown. Each is represented by its own track, and all are organized by sector and fighter group. In the Strategic Game, the British Player records any damage incurred by each airfield as a result of bombing here, and all squadrons that are operating out of the field are kept here. Each airfield is limited to a maximum number of squadrons it may

service at any one time; this capacity may be altered by bombing and repair. In the Tac tical game, the squadrons are moved along the track of their base airfield to show their current state of readiness: just landed; pre paring; resting; delayed; available; or in

flight. Damage incurred by the airfield will affect the smooth "turnaround" of its squadrons. Each squadron is assigned to a par ticular airfield at the start of play. If the British Player wishes to change the base loca tion of any squadron during the game, he uses the Squadron Location Log Sheet to record the change. The German Player uses a similar form, the Gruppe Location Log Sheet, to note any changes he may wish to make in the deployment of his forces. The German Player has no hidden air field display, since intelligence as to the deployment of his forces in , the low countries, and Scandinavia does not do the British Player much good. Airfields used by the Germans (historically) and the capacity of each (in game ) are listed on the game map in the boxes the German Player uses for his bases. Keeping the British Player guessing about the employment of these forces is im portant, however. Therefore, the German Player uses the German Raid Display to secretly plot all his air operations at the beginning of each Game-Turn. The display includes a miniature map of England and a number of boxes, each used for an individual raid. The German Player places numbered chits on the mini-map to denote target hexes for his raids and places the units that will carry out each raid in the correspondingly /continued on page 28.'