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womzillaBack in 2000, the wargame designer Gary Graber published (as part of his magazine Panzerschreck) a solitaire game called First Day of the Somme. You, the British commander, plot out a plan of attack, and then your units follow it (with a few opportunities for modification when you see how badly it's going). You win or lose based on how many objectives your troops capture, but you are also required to keep track of the total killed.
In his designer notes, he says (and I'm paraphrasing), "When I tell people that I'm doing a game on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, they ask me why. I think a better question would be, why was there a first day of the Battle of the Somme?"
And bonus Jim Henley:
In his designer notes, he says (and I'm paraphrasing), "When I tell people that I'm doing a game on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, they ask me why. I think a better question would be, why was there a first day of the Battle of the Somme?"
And bonus Jim Henley:
But the truth is, the perversion of Armistice Day into an opportunity to fetishize (American) soldiery and aggression has been successful and permanent. The true meaning of Armistice Day is the unshakeable grip the mania for war maintains on our culture, the taste it must bring not bittersweet but plainly bitter. Season's Greetings.
