From: Jalmckinley@aol.com 
Subject: Review of TACTICS II (look, you didn't have one, now you do) 

TACTICS II (Avalon Hill Company, 1961 and 1973)

Charles Roberts, the founder of Avalon Hill and the inspiration for the
Charles Roberts Awards, published the first edition of TACTICS II in
1961. This followed his publication of TACTICS in 1954 as a
mail-order-only effort. TACTICS II was an improvement and an early
bridge into true war games. To say that it's simplistic is an
understatement, but let's take a look at its value otherwise.
Personally? It's like macaroni and cheese: comforting. Although I
haven't played the game in decades, it's nice to have it there. 

So, what do you get with this venerable game? A 24"x28" hardback map
depicting two mythical countries on one continent, Red and Blue, and
their contesting army groups. Movement is handled using squares, not
hexes, and terrain is represented as clear, forest, mountain, landing
beaches, river, roads, and sea. Units are divisions (1 factor infantry
and other leg units - airborne, mountain, and marine -- moving at 5
hexes per turn, 2 factor armor moving at 7). No stacking, a very simple
IGO, UGO (exploitation is moving into a vacated square after combat). No
air, no naval units. The earliest Avalon Hill combat table: when in
doubt, try for a three to one odds ratio, and the CRT most of us
nigh-retired grognards grew up on. You've got a variable weather table
too, with the four seasons affecting combat and movement. 

Red's on the left-hand side of the board, with vast plains continentally
and a capital on a large northwestern island. Sort of like a combination
of England, France, Poland and Russia. Blue's off to the right (call it
a mix of Germany and Rumania) and nearly divided in two by a large bay
leading to the centrally located capital. Once past its border there's
clear terrain for movement. For both nations, the landscape leads to
conflict in the center: to the north along the border there are large
forests, to the south an extensive mountain complex. 

It's possible to use specialized movement to seal off both forests and
mountains: infantry in forest areas can foil armor; mountain divisions
can punish any non-mountain troops that advance too far through passes.
The rules for the last two actions are somewhat confused, but the rules
were written for brevity. A little time and things sort themselves out.
Units shipped out of a port are limited by the number of port squares
(indicated by little piers). Irritatingly enough, something not
mentioned in 1961 and only listed twelve years later. 

There are provisions for nuclear weapons too, that can limit the
traditional '3:1 and a soak-off' tactic; concentrate early on and
there's havoc. But once both players seven nukes are expended, it's
business as usual. 

Replacements are based upon the number of a player's cities he retains,
and it's important to deny an opponent his own cities, thereby denying
him a full replacement capacity. Red's got seven cities, Blue five. 

TACTICS II was republished in 1973. Unfortunately the board suffered
aesthetically -- forests were now mottled gray instead of a nice, solid
green -- and the original handbook had a great piece on the principles
of war that was deleted. The weather cards were also nixed in favor of
rolling a die, with some flavor lost as a result. The new edition did
clarify some of the rules and improved on the counters. NATO
designations were used instead of just listing a rather blah 1 MTN/1-5,
although confined to just infantry and armor identification (no
specialist designations here). The counter mix (25 infantry, 2 a/b, 2
marine, 2 mountain and 6 armored) remained unchanged. And finally you
could draw a replacement armor division in any city you controlled
instead of just 'the reserve center'. The seven HQ units (1 Army Group,
2 Armies, and 4 Corps) remained, although circles in the 1961 edition
became a standard square in 1973. 

TACTICS II was lost in the backwash of newer designs such as Avalon
Hill's BLITZKRIEG, but attempts were made through the company's house
journal, THE GENRAL, to revive the game, dividing divisions into brigade
components, adding armored cavalry and artillery, and so on. Suggestion?
Don't go that far. Just look at TACTICS II and chuckle, then admire a
game that didn't come with spinners in 1961.