Back in 1974 Research Games Inc. published Major Battles and Campaigns of General George S. Patton. In 2006 I was lucky enough to pick up a copy for a good price on eBay (thank goodness for eBay!). I didn’t really expect to get much of a game but I have been an admirer of George Patton since seeing the movie Patton when it was first released nearly 40 years ago. It is one of the few Sid Sackson designs that I have in my collection.


The box says, “Three realistic, historical World War II games for ages 10 thru adult…You command armies at: Sicily, Normandy Breakout, The Bulge”.

Are the games realistic? – Yes, in as much as there are U.S. and Axis forces, there are infantry and armoured troops, and the games are played on maps of Sicily, Normandy and the Ardennes.

To be honest, this system is not the most accurate simulation I have played. However, it is a great game.

I had serious reservations after having read the rules. The core of the game system is a deck of 24 cards called The Movement Deck. In each scenario this deck of cards (numbers from 1 to 10) is shuffled and then split between the two players. The American player turns over a card and the number on the card is the number of movement points he has that turn. The Axis player will turn over his top card and the sum of the number on his card and the number on the U.S. players card is the number of movement points that he has. And so on. Each player, at the start of their turn will flip the top card from their face down deck on put it on top of their face up deck. The number of movement points they have to use for the turn is always the sum of the top card in the U.S. and Axis decks. This system ensures that both players will get around about the same number of movement points during the game, regardless of the cards that they have in their individual decks. Despite this card system the game actually works really well.

Components
Map – mounted, folding map – two pieces that fit together like a jigsaw – Sicily on one side and Normandy/Ardennes on the other side – rather garish colours but functional – movement is conducted along one of three different types of road (solid line, dashed line or dotted line).


Cards – thin cardboard printed with the word ‘Patton’ in red on one side and a large black number or the words ‘game ends’ on the reverse. These are very cheap and tacky cards but the game is good enough that you will probably get over it. You will notice the quality (or lack there of) as you set up – you probably won’t notice once the game has begun.
Counters – thin cardboard with very cheap and tacky illustrations – counters are generic and the same symbols for both sides – US have a soft blue background with a navy blue for the symbols – Axis have very soft pink background with a bright red for the symbols – infantry have a soldier silhouette while armour have a tank silhouette.
Rules – cheap paper and cheap printing – 8 pages long.
Box – cheap art work – blotchy photos of tanks, planes and airborne troops in colours of red, green and blue with a rather handsome photo of George S. Patton.


Mechanics
Positioning of Units – units are place in towns with no more than 10 units per town.
Movement – as mentioned before, each turn you are given a number of movement points determined from a random deck of cards. To move a unit on a solid road to an adjacent town cost one movement point, to do this on a dashed road costs two movement points and to do it on a dotted road costs three movement points. There is a maximum of 5 units allowed along a road during a single turn.
Combat – if you move into a location occupied by units of the other player combat will occur. For each armoured unit you have you will roll one die and for every two infantry units you will roll one die. The maximum number of dice each player can roll is five. If you are throwing one die you will inflict a casualty if you roll a ‘6’. If you are rolling more than one die you score casualties for rolling multiples of the same number (if you roll doubles you score one hit – if you roll triples you score two hits – if you roll four of the same number you score three hits). After casualties have been removed you add up each players dice and the player with the smaller total retreats. This means that you may win the battle even though you suffer more casualties than your opponent.

Game Play
As you can see from the description of the mechanics this is not a simulation. It is really an abstract game with a theme pasted on – but despite this it is fun to play.

There are three scenarios and each one has quite a different flavour so you get great variety and replayability. The Sicily Campaign scenario starts with an allied invasion and the object of the game is to occupy all of Sicily and destroy all Axis units. Capturing particular cities will have an effect on the number of Axis units in play. The Normandy Battle Scenario starts with a lot of U.S. units in the North-western corner of the map. Victory revolves around the occupation of several cities which are spread around the German rear areas. The U.S. have many options regarding how to play this one – to they make a solid and concentrated effort to push the German front-line back and spread the Germans thin before making a break-through and risk running out of time OR do you play fast and lose from the very start and take advantage of the small number of German units that start on the map, even though this gives the Germans the chance to concentrate their forces against you as you are spread out. The Bulge Battle scenario already has Bastogne surrounded. As Patton you are responsible for relieving the siege.


It really is a very enjoyable, fast-moving game that takes around about 70 minutes for the two battle scenarios and maybe 120 minutes for the Sicily Campaign.

Would General George S. Patton play this game with his son? I hope so because I DO play it with mine!

"Dead Men Tell No Tales!"