Tobruk, subtitled "Tank Battles in North Africa 1942", is a board wargame published by Avalon Hill in 1975 that simulates tank combat in North Africa during World War II.
Tobruk, subtitled "Tank Battles in North Africa 1942", is a board wargame published by Avalon Hill in 1975 that simulates tank combat in North Africa during World War II.
In 1942, German and Italian forces under the command of Erwin Rommel clashed with British forces at the Battle of Gazala and Battle of Bir Hakeim near the city of Tobruk and succeeded in driving the British forces back. [1]
Tobruk is a two-player game in which one player controls German and Italian forces and the other player controls British and Allied forces. Although tank combat is paramount, infantry, artillery, and air superiority aspects of combat are present, albeit in secondary, reduced or abstract form.
The game box includes:
The game includes nine scenarios. The rules are introduced gradually in order to teach new players a basic set of rules with the first scenario, with new rules and complexity added to each successive scenario.
Each turn represents thirty seconds of real time, and each counter represents a single vehicle or a platoon of soldiers. The game board is a featureless desert terrain, the only defenses being man-made, such as slit trenches, bunkers, wire entanglements and tank revetments. Each round of fire requires dice rolls to resolve a successful hit, location of the hit and the damage caused. [2] The game system uses SPI's Simultaneous-Sequential-Play-System, a more realistic system than the traditional wargame "I Go, You Go" sequential turn system. [3]
Tobruk was designed by freelance game designer Harold Hock and was developed by Avalon Hill staffer Randall Reed, who also provided the artwork. A 1st edition was only sold at the 1975 Origins Game Fair, with a few units also sold via mail-order. Several errors in the rules were discovered, and a 2nd edition with revised rulebook and charts was quickly released later in the same year. [4] The game received little support or publicity from Avalon Hill and did not sell well. In 1987, Avalon Hill sold the rights back to Hock. [3]
In 2002, Critical Hit Inc. extensively revised and expanded the game and released the result as Advanced Tobruk. [3] The game proved popular, and Critical Hit produced several expansion modules. [3]
In Issue 54 of Games & Puzzles (November 1976), Nick Palmer called Tobruk "one of the most innovative wargames for years. It positively bubbles with new ideas and old ideas taken in a new context. Whether all the ideas are good ones is another matter." He noted the graduate learning approach, but warned that "it requires patience to be prepared to play eight games before reaching the full flower of Tobruk, and the early scenarios are not terribly interesting except as learning devices." Palmer found two major issues with the game: the lack of excitement around gradual attrition of units leading to surrender; and "the extraordinary number of die-rolls required." He concluded by giving the game an Excitement rating of only 2 out of 5, saying the game "is less suitable for newcomers [and is] unlikely to appeal greatly to players who demand instant action every turn." [5] The following year, in his book The Comprehensive Guide to Board Wargaming , Palmer confessed that he did not like the graduated system of rules, commenting that "Early scenarios are very simple indeed and not very interesting." He noted that "the most controversial feature is the legions of die rolls required, as each round of fire is checked in exhaustive detail." Palmer concluded that the game was "Impressively detailed, with strong flavour of realism, but some miss the blood and thunder of faster moving games." [2] In his 1980 sequel, The Best of Board Wargaming , Palmer added a further comment about the "interminable die-rolls ", saying, "This aspect of the game is its greatest weakness [...] Tedium can set in rapidly." He concluded by giving the game a very low "excitement" grade of only 20%. [6]
Andrew Marshall, writing for Boot Camp & Military Fitness Institute, noted that despite the use of SPI's new Simultaneous-Sequential-Play-System (SSPS) that allowed for much greater realism without sacrificing playability, Tobruk did not sell well due to the detailed artillery penetration tables, which ironically undercut the new SSPS game system by increasing realism at the cost of playability. Marshall commented that the system "inundates players with tables of complex ballistics information." [3]
In The Guide to Simulations/Games for Education and Training, Martin Campion commented on the possible use of this game as an educational aid, saying, "Tobruk is fascinating, and except for the lack of terrain, fairly accurate. It is a great deal of work, however, for the amount of warfare simulated and probably too difficult for most classrooms." [7]
John Keefer, writing for The Escapist Magazine in 2014, listed eight old Avalon Hill games that he felt deserved to be reprinted. One of the games was Tobruk, which he recalled was "a very tactical game given the openness of the terrain, and it was also very specific with a limited set of scenarios." [8]
At the 1976 Origins Awards, Tobruk was a finalist for a Charles S. Roberts Award in the category "Best Professional Game of 1975."
A copy of Tobruk is held in the collection of the Strong National Museum of Play (object 117.956). [9]
Richthofen's War, subtitled "The Air War 1916–1918", is a board wargame published by Avalon Hill in 1973 that simulates aerial combat during World War I.
PanzerBlitz is a tactical-scale board wargame published by Avalon Hill in 1970 that simulates armored combat set in the Eastern Front of the Second World War. The game is notable for being the first true board-based tactical-level, commercially available conflict simulation (wargame). It also pioneered concepts such as isomorphic mapboards and open-ended design, in which multiple unit counters were provided from which players could fashion their own free-form combat situations rather than simply replaying pre-structured scenarios. Over the next ten years, it became the most popular board wargame of its time.
PanzerArmee Afrika, subtitled "Rommel in the Desert, April 1941 - November 1942", is a board wargame published by Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) in 1973 that simulates the World War II North African Campaign that pitted the Axis forces commanded by Erwin Rommel against Allied forces. The game was revised and republished in 1984 by Avalon Hill.
Blitzkrieg is a strategic-level wargame published by Avalon Hill in 1965 that simulates a non-historical attack by one major power against another using blitzkrieg strategy. It was the first commercial wargame that did not simulate an actual historical battle, and with almost 400 counters, it was a precursor of the "monster" wargames of the 1970s featuring more than a thousand counters.
1776, subtitled "The Game of the American Revolutionary War", is a board wargame published by Avalon Hill in 1974 that simulates the American Revolutionary War. Its release was timed to coincide with the bicentenary of the Revolution, and for several years was a bestseller for Avalon Hill.
Battle of the Bulge is a board wargame published by Avalon Hill (AH) in 1965 that simulates the World War II battle of the same name. General Anthony McAuliffe (ret.), who had been commanding officer at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, was a consultant during the game's development. The game proved popular and sold over 120,000 copies, but was dogged by criticisms of historical inaccuracies, and was finally replaced by a completely new edition in 1981. A third edition in 1991 was released as part of the Smithsonian American History Series.
Afrika Korps is a board wargame published by Avalon Hill in 1964 and re-released in 1965 and 1978 that simulates the North Africa Campaign during World War II.
Air Assault on Crete is a wargame published by Avalon Hill in 1977 that simulates the Battle of Crete during World War II.
The Arab-Israeli Wars, subtitled "Tank Battles in the Mideast 1956–73", is a board wargame published by Avalon Hill in 1977 that simulates various battles during the Suez Crisis, Six-Day War and Yom Kippur War.
Sniper!, subtitled "House-to-House Fighting in World War II", is a two-player board wargame about man-to-man combat in urban environments during WWII, originally released in 1973 by Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI). After TSR purchased SPI in 1982, TSR released an expanded edition of Sniper! in 1986, and followed up that up with releases of various "companion games" and a videogame.
Tactical wargames are a type of wargame that models military conflict at a tactical level, i.e. units range from individual vehicles and squads to platoons or companies. These units are rated based on types and ranges of individual weaponry. The first tactical wargames were played as miniatures, extended to board games, and they are now also enjoyed as video games.
Panzer Leader is the sequel to Avalon Hill's PanzerBlitz game.
Panzergruppe Guderian is a board wargame published by Simulations Publications, Inc. in 1976 that simulates the 1941 Battle of Smolensk during World War II.
Dreadnought, subtitled "Surface Combat in the Battleship Era, 1906-45", is a naval board wargame published Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) in 1975.
Barbarossa: The Russo-German War 1941-45 is a board wargame published by Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI) in 1969 that simulates the conflict between Germany and the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front of World War II. This was only SPI's second game produced during a preliminary round of "Test Series" games, and proved to be the most popular. Despite the title, taken from the German operational name for their initial invasion of the Soviet Union, the game covers the entire Eastern Front campaign from the German invasion in 1941 to the Fall of Berlin in 1945.
Island War: Four Pacific Battles is a collection of four board wargames published in 1975 by Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI) that simulates various battles between American and Japanese forces during the Pacific Campaign of World War II.
MechWar '77, subtitled "Tactical Armored Combat in the 1970s", is a board wargame published by Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI) in 1975 that simulates hypothetical tank combat in the mid-1970s between various adversaries, using the same rules system as the previously published Panzer '44.
Atlantic Wall, subtitled "The Invasion of Europe June 1944", is a board wargame published by Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI) in 1978 that simulates Operation Overlord during World War II, when Allied forces landed on Normandy beaches and attempted to break out into open country.
Westwall: Four Battles to Germany is a collection of four board wargames published by Simulations Publications (SPI) in 1976 that simulate battles in Europe in late 1944 and early 1945 during World War II.
Four Battles in North Africa is a collection of four board wargames published in 1976 by Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) that simulate various battles during the North African Campaign of World War II.