We continue our series of Monthly Debrief Videos with October 2021. This tenth video in the series saw us discuss the various Air War games that we have played. We also discussed the end of our Guns of August Event, which lasted much longer than the actual whole of World War I.
-Grant
The Players' Aid 
Hello Grant,
I have stayed away from Bomber Command for exactly the same sentiments you expressed. Although Alexander tried to elide your remarks, I believe what he said is more true of the American Bomber Command, at least in the beginning years. The British objective was to “de-house” the workers, a euphemism for killing them. They knew what they were about. After Hamburg, they tried to replicate not avoid a firestorm. I find it horrific to think of that kind of bombing –some civilian casualties are different from the loss of entire families. It’s the only time I can feel genuine sympathy, or view the Luftwaffe as heroic, as I would anyone’s efforts at defending their cities, homes and families from from annihilation.
Ironically, I got back into gaming, or rather purchasing AVALON HILL and SPI games which I had I bought when I was 12-16 and new games when I began working for the American Battle Monuments Commission in Europe. I resigned from the post, but am still living in Europe (Belgium) on my pension as a former Coast Guard Officer, and doing some substitute teaching. Bomber Command is clearly a great “game.”
But more recently or perhaps I suppose I have always had an ambivalence– fascination yet moral reservation with war, which I could balance as a naval officer in a service that is primarily focused on saving lives.
Also, I have a son who is about the same age I was when I got started in wargames and we have played Greg Smith’s solitaire Submarine games and London’s Burning (excellent game) the two player “cooperative’ variant together, but I hesitate about many topics, e.g. East Front, etc.
Like building model kits, which we have started too (the planes in the Battle of Britain) I think these are immeasurably better hobbies than many, with much to offer and learn from in ways you can’t or don’t from books. In fact it helps you understand what you’re reading.
Anyway, in brief as I am afraid this is overlong, I very much appreciated your comment and would be glad to hear more from you and Alexander about your and others feelings, what do you do when you have these kinds of thoughts, reservations? Skip these themes, only play one particular side? If I have to donate five dollars to toss this question in the hat, let me know. Again, thank you Grant and Alexander
Best wishes
Adam William Epp
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Hello Adam,
Bomber Command is an exquisite title in my opinion specifically BEACUSE of the interplay between the mechanics and the theme. There’s a thousand other wargames you can play to put forces against eachother with warring ideologies. But there are very few which really challenge you to think about the morality of the subject.
Bomber Command is (generally) mechanically extremely interesting; planning raids, defending against night fighters, or conversely hunting the bomber stream and sowing confusion etc. But you can never get away from the fact that at the end of the day the good guys are doing something generally immoral, and the bad guys are doing something moral. For sure not a game for everyone, and we never hold that against people. But I’m always keenly looking for games that lay out more than just tactics.
If you want to suggest topics for future video discussions you can absolutely head over to Patreon (and then cancel after the first charge, it’s not big deal). We also have an active slack channel with a great community chatting all things wargames and beyond you would gain access to.
Thanks!
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When I started designing Bomber Command the night raids were one of the great ungamed subjects. Oddly enough, Duel in the Dark came out while I was late in development of the game, and though it is a far simpler game, it’s also an interesting example of parallel development. You will see similar mechanics.
When covering the night raids you can’t escape the fact that until the final phase of the war you are area bombing. I felt the desire to hammer that home by the depiction of civilians on the map and the very clear way in which the player dumps HE and incendiaries on them. I didn’t want the player to be able to turn their face away from that. Precision bombing in the war was imprecise – and that goes for day bombing too. The USAAF garnered much publicity for their daylight ‘precision’ bombing while eliding the fact that exactly half their bomb tonnage for the entire war was dropped through cloud.
I wonder whether you guys have tried the Bomber Command late war scenario scenario at all? To be honest, it’s not a lot of fun. The Nachtjager are greatly depleted and the nightime bombing was beginning to achieve levels of precision not far from (and in some cases exceeding) daylight bombing. As an exercise in history I think it’s worth giving the other scenario a go.
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