This Hard & Calcined Earth

A Card Wargame of World War II V1.0 October 2016

© Neal Reid 2016 Published by Vexillia Limited

www.vexillia.com

This Hard & Calcined Earth V1.0 October 2016

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1 Designer’s Notes

The core mechanism in “This Hard & Calcined Earth” revolves around the use of two types

of cards, strategic and operational to model the complexity of the North African campaign in

WWII.

1.1 Strategic Cards

Historically, the Mediterranean theatre was a complex mix of competing and contrasting

lands, peoples and politics. The commanders of the desert campaign had to deal with many

strategic events as best they could whilst moulding their own strategy to gain an operational

advantage.

I think the commanders in the desert had little direct influence over strategic events

elsewhere but were affected by them. Therefore I wanted the game to create an

environment based on historic events to surround and influence the desert battles

themselves.

At its heart “This Hard & Calcined Earth” is a game and it must be playable over and over

again. This means that the impact of the strategic events must change with every new game.

I could have handled strategic events simply by use of a chronological list. Dice rolling

would then invoke an event and move the campaign on. I rejected this approach because it

is too random and because I wanted the game to be played with just the cards.

Likewise I could have represented strategic events by a deck of cards. Each turn would then

see so many events applied from the deck on the turn of a few cards. Again this has an

element of randomness but benefits from being a simple mechanism with a simple effect. It

also helps make the game different each time it is played. Even so I still felt this gave up too

large part of the game to luck.

I wanted this to be a wargame where the players exercised some influence at the strategic

level. I believe luck is all very well in a game but if there is no player input into the game

players will soon lose interest. Most of all I wanted a way in which luck had some traction but

the players could still attempt to manage strategic events whilst playing the campaign with

the cards and forces they had; much like their historical counterparts did.

In the end I settled on the idea of dealing the strategic cards to both players at the start and

then allowing the players to decide in which order their strategic events occur. Thus they

would have some influence on the order of events and could attempt to guide the

background to their campaign. I also decided to use all bar two strategic cards to stop

players working out what cards the other has.

In all this a split card design was crucial. I wanted each strategic card to have an Allied half

and an Axis half. During development I found that, by altering the pairing of the half cards,

key events could be denied to the opposition simply by owning a card and some could be

used to negate other strategic cards played by the opposing player. The split design also

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meant that almost all of the historic events surrounding the campaign could be included in

the strategic cards.

I also decided to make some cards permanent whilst others were immediate and for short

term advantage. The latter rotate through the game deck and add an additional nuance to

the flow of strategic events. Certain cards, like the “Recapture” cards, slightly favour the

Allies and, as they are not paired with permanent Axis halves, they will eventually fall into

Allied hands even if they start with the Axis player.

Overall, I think I have settled on a mechanism for the strategic cards which balances luck

and player involvement. I think it also reflects the limited influence the historic commanders

had on events happening around them. The hand each player receives will be different each

time the game is played but a lot will depend on how the cards are played.

1.2 Operational Cards

In “This Hard & Calcined Earth” there are two types of operational cards: convoy and tactical

cards.

For any game about North Africa supply is always an issue. In the desert if you don’t have

petrol or water you stop moving and die. I wanted convoys to be the key factor in the ability

to attack and advance along the coast.

So I set up convoys as separate operational cards designed to rotate trough the game deck.

Players have regular chances to run convoys across the Mediterranean but they have to

judge when to run a convoy as well build convoys into their combat plans.

It proved simple enough to design a mechanism to determine the success of a convoy. A

convoy’s fate is governed by a player’s control of the convoy routes, strategic events and the

strength of the convoy. Even so, if the strategic situation is against them, players may have

to rely on a reduced supply strategy.

The tactical cards began life as simple force cards. The Africa campaign is well known for

the Desert Rats, the DAK and the Italian Ariete Division. I started with cards representing the

divisions involved on both sides but soon ran into problems. For example the British and

Commonwealth forces evolved and improved so much during the campaign that reflecting

this in the game became over complex.

I considered using abstract combat factors that would differ over time but the complexity of

this approach soon became apparent. Imagine trying to represent a division in a single card

through a campaign when its equipment improved every so often as did the equipment of its

opponents. For example the Allied anti-tank capability varied from 2 lb guns to 17 lb guns

with the former replacing the latter. Not to mention their different armour of the Axis tanks

they faced.

I did not think this was the way to go. I felt it was impractical. Building complex combat

matrices whilst using force cards would lead to problems and contradictions in the logic

behind the game. I have played too many games where the level jumps from strategic to

tactical and back again with no regard for consistency of approach.

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After a little experimentation I realised I wanted to reflect battles not as individual units, but

as tactics. Instead of force cards I decided on a set of tactics that can be grouped together to

create a battlefield strategy that defeats the enemy. This is simple and no less abstract then

combat matrices.

2 Closing Remarks

I have tried to create a game where the interaction of strategic events, logistics and battle

tactics combine to give an absorbing game using simple mechanisms.

More importantly, I have tried to design a game that presents different challenges each time

it is played.

I hope you enjoy the game.

Neal Reid

October 2016

ALSO AVAILABLE

The Somme Series Refight the first day, 1 July 1916.

Full games with: rules, cards and illustrated examples of play.

Extension packs using the same rules as X Corps.

Buy online - http://bit.ly/20bk1Br

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