Appendix C: Sample Design Exercise

You are going to design a wargame. A small one, on a single sheet of paper, with about fourteen counters. The historical research is provided. The design decisions are yours.

You will work through the full process: map, counters, rules, CRT, sequence of play, playtesting. The project is small enough to finish in a weekend. The skills transfer to anything you design after it.

The Situation

Tunisia, November 15 – December 10, 1942

Three days after the Operation Torch landings in Algeria and Morocco, the Allies pushed east toward Tunis. Get there before the Germans. They failed by a narrow margin.

Lieutenant-General Kenneth Anderson’s British First Army advanced along two axes: a northern coastal route toward Bizerte and an inland route through the Medjerda River valley toward Tunis. His forces were light. Two infantry brigades, an improvised armored group, some paratroopers and commandos, and a French garrison at Medjez el Bab with outdated equipment. Reinforcements trickled in over the following weeks, but Anderson never had enough of anything. His supply line stretched 560 miles back to Algiers along a single road and a single-track railway. The forward port at Bone could not handle the volume.

The Germans moved faster than anyone expected. Sicily to Tunis was 100 miles by sea. Within days of the Torch landings, Luftwaffe transports flew infantry battalions into Tunis and Bizerte. General Walther Nehring arrived on November 17 to take command and organized a defense from whatever he could find: replacement drafts formed into ad hoc battalions, paratroopers, Italian infantry, Luftwaffe ground personnel. The improvised force was thin, but it held the airfields at Tunis and Bizerte. That mattered more than anything else in the campaign. German fighters and Stukas operated five minutes from the front lines. The RAF flew from bases sixty miles to the rear.

By late November, Allied spearheads reached Djedeida, thirty kilometers from Tunis. That was as close as they got. The 10th Panzer Division arrived with Tiger tanks (among the first used in combat in North Africa) and counterattacked, driving the Allies back to Tebourba, then to Medjez el Bab. Winter rains turned roads to mud and grounded aircraft. A final Allied push on December 22–25 to take Longstop Hill, the high ground controlling the valley approach to Tunis, failed after three days. On Christmas Day, Eisenhower called off the advance.

The central question for your game: Can the Allied player reach Tunis before Axis reinforcements and logistics problems make it impossible?

The Research

In a real project, you would spend weeks assembling this from primary and secondary sources (Chapter 3). For this exercise, the research is provided.

Orders of Battle

Allied Forces — British First Army (Lt-Gen Anderson)

Formation	Type	Composition	Available
36th Infantry Brigade (78th Division)	Infantry	Three infantry battalions, artillery support	Start
11th Infantry Brigade (78th Division)	Infantry	Three infantry battalions, artillery support	Start
Blade Force (6th Armoured Division)	Armour	17th/21st Lancers (Crusader/Valentine tanks), armoured cars, motorized infantry, artillery	Start
French garrison (General Barré)	Infantry	Colonial troops, brigade strength, WWI-era weapons	Start, at Medjez el Bab
1st Guards Brigade (78th Division)	Infantry	Three Guards battalions	Turn 3–4
US Combat Command B (1st Armored Division)	Armour	Stuart light tanks, armored infantry	Turn 4–5

Axis Forces — XC Corps, later 5th Panzer Army

Formation	Type	Composition	Available
Division von Broich	Mixed	Ad hoc: Tunis Field Battalions, Italian Bersaglieri, improvised artillery, Luftwaffe ground troops	Start, at Tunis/Bizerte
Fallschirmjäger Group (Koch/Witzig)	Elite infantry	Two paratrooper battalions, lightly equipped but aggressive	Start
1st “Superga” Division (Italian)	Infantry	Standard Italian infantry division, southern sector	Turn 2–3
10th Panzer Division	Armour	Panzer regiment with Tiger elements, panzergrenadiers, divisional artillery	Turn 4–5

Axis Air Superiority: The Luftwaffe controlled the air throughout this campaign. German fighters and dive-bombers operated from airfields adjacent to Tunis with five-minute response times. The RAF flew from fields sixty miles behind the front. Your design needs to account for this. How you do it is up to you.

Geography

The operational area covers roughly 200 kilometers from Bone in the west to Tunis and Bizerte in the east. Two main routes:

Northern route: Tabarka — Sedjenane — Mateur — Bizerte. Rugged, wooded hill country. Roads poor.
Medjerda valley route: Souk el Arba — Béja — Medjez el Bab — Tebourba — Djedeida — Tunis. The main corridor, following the Medjerda River. The valley narrows toward Tunis, with high ground (djebels) on both sides forming natural defensive positions.

Key locations:

Medjez el Bab: Critical river crossing, roughly 60 km west of Tunis. Whoever holds this controls the main approach.
Tebourba: 30 km west of Tunis. Scene of the heaviest fighting.
Djedeida: Airfield complex, 30 km from Tunis. Farthest Allied penetration.
Longstop Hill (Djebel el Ahmera): 900-foot hill dominating the valley east of Medjez. The battle that ended the race.
Mateur: Road junction on the northern route.
Tunis: The objective.

Terrain types you will need:

Open/valley (the Medjerda corridor and coastal plain)
Mountains/djebels (the Eastern Dorsal ridgeline, hills flanking the valley)
Roads (few, poor quality, critical for supply and movement)
Key towns (affect combat, supply, and victory)

Distances and Timing

Bone to Tunis: ~200 km by road
Medjez el Bab to Tunis: ~60 km
Historical timeframe: November 15 – December 10 (25 days)
At 6–8 turns, each turn represents roughly 3–4 days

The Weather Problem

Winter rains began in late November and worsened through December. Roads dissolved into mud. Vehicles bogged. Airfields flooded. Any movement in rain was slower and costlier. The rains favored the defenders.

Your Design Tasks

Work through these in order. Each corresponds to skills covered in the main chapters. Do not skip ahead. Decisions in early steps constrain later ones, and working within those constraints is part of what you are learning.

Task 1: Define Your Scales (Chapter 5)

Decide on your hex scale, turn scale, and unit scale. The research above gives you the raw numbers. You need to make them work together.

Questions to answer:

How many hexes from Medjez el Bab to Tunis? (This determines hex scale.)
How many turns in the game? (6–8, representing roughly 3–4 days each.)
How far should a unit move in one turn? Infantry and armor move at different rates. Consult Appendix D for march rates and decide what fits your hex scale.

Constraint: The entire map must fit on a single A4 sheet of paper (210 × 297 mm). With hexes at roughly 15–20 mm across, that gives you a map of about 10–14 hexes wide and 15–20 hexes tall. Your design must work within that space.

A sketch on graph paper is fine. You are making a functional tool for testing your design, not art.

Task 2: Build Your Map (Chapter 5)

Draw a playtest map. It does not need to be pretty. It needs to be accurate enough to test your design.

Requirements:

Two approach routes (northern and Medjerda valley) converging on Tunis
Mountains channeling movement into corridors
Key towns marked (Medjez el Bab, Tebourba, Djedeida, Mateur, Tunis, Bizerte)
Terrain types clearly distinguishable (use colored pencils, hatching, or whatever works)
A hex grid

Refer to: A real map of northern Tunisia. Free topographic maps are available online. Your map should reflect the actual terrain (mountain ridges, river valley, coastal plain) simplified to fit your hex scale.

Task 3: Design Your Counters (Chapter 6)

Create a counter manifest: the complete list of every counter in the game and what goes on each one.

Decisions to make:

What information goes on each counter? (Chapter 6 covers this.) At minimum: unit name, type (infantry/armor), combat strength, movement allowance.
How do you rate combat strength? Raw headcount? Combat effectiveness? A single number or attack/defense split?
Do all infantry brigades rate the same, or do the Guards and the Fallschirmjäger get higher values? The French garrison with their outdated equipment? The Italian Superga division?
How do you represent Blade Force and the 10th Panzer Division? Armor should feel different from infantry. How?

The OOB above gives you roughly five counters per side at game start, with two reinforcements per side arriving during play. That is 14 total, a good number for this exercise. You may add markers for turn track, weather, or other game state as needed.

You do not need to print professional counters. Write the values on small squares of cardboard or paper. What matters is that every counter has clear, consistent information.

Task 4: Write Your Sequence of Play (Chapter 10)

Decide what happens each turn and in what order. A simple sequence for a game this size might be:

Weather Determination (if applicable)
Allied Player Turn a. Reinforcement Phase b. Movement Phase c. Combat Phase
Axis Player Turn a. Reinforcement Phase b. Movement Phase c. Combat Phase

But you need to decide: does the Allied player always go first? Does initiative shift? Is there a supply check? Where does air power fit?

Keep it simple. Every phase you add is a phase you have to write rules for, test, and balance. For a game on a single sheet of paper with fourteen counters, three to five phases per turn is probably right.

Task 5: Build Your Combat Results Table (Chapter 9)

The CRT determines whether your game works.

Decisions to make:

Odds-based CRT or differential CRT? (Chapter 9 explains both.)
What results are possible? Retreat, step loss, exchange, attacker back?
How many columns? For a game this small, four to six.
What modifiers shift the column or modify the die roll? Terrain? Unit type? Air superiority?

Test it on paper before you test it on the map. Set up a few hypothetical combats using your unit values and roll through the CRT. Does a 78th Division brigade attacking Division von Broich in mountains at Medjez produce a result that feels right? Does 10th Panzer counterattacking in open terrain feel devastating? If not, adjust the table.

Task 6: Write Your Rules (Chapter 17)

Write a complete rulebook for your game. For a game this size, aim for three to six pages. Two is ideal but tight once you add examples and a terrain effects chart. If you find yourself writing past six, that is a sign your design may be more complex than this exercise calls for. Use the case-numbering format described in Chapter 17.

Required sections: 1.0 Introduction (one paragraph: what the game is about) 2.0 Components (list of what is in the game) 3.0 Sequence of Play 4.0 Movement (including terrain effects) 5.0 Combat (including the CRT) 6.0 Reinforcements (when and where) 7.0 Special Rules (weather, air power, supply, whatever your design requires) 8.0 Victory Conditions

Victory conditions deserve thought. Chapter 12 covers this in depth, including scaled victory structures for conflicts where one side historically lost. The Allies lost at Tunis. If the Allied player almost always loses, your game is broken. If the Allied player almost always wins, your game is dishonest. You need conditions where both players feel they have a chance, and their decisions determine the outcome. One approach: scaled victory (decisive, marginal, draw) based on how close the Allies get and how many turns it takes.

Task 7: Your Signature Mechanic

A wargame worth playing has at least one mechanic that belongs to its specific conflict and no other. A generic system would miss it.

This campaign has several distinctive features worth modeling:

Axis air superiority that degraded every Allied operation
Allied supply strain that worsened the further east they pushed
The reinforcement race, both sides feeding units in through different bottlenecks
Weather that shut down operations without warning
The ad hoc nature of both armies, neither side had a proper order of battle and both were improvising

Pick one, or find your own, and design a mechanic that makes the player feel it. A modifier on a table does not count. A rule that says “subtract 1 in rain” does not count. You want something that changes how the game plays, something that forces the player to plan around it the way Anderson and Nehring planned around it.

The mechanic you choose says something about what you think mattered most in this campaign. That is your thesis statement as a designer. Be ready to defend it.

Task 8: Playtest (Chapter 16)

Play your game. Solo is fine. Play both sides. Play it at least three times.

What to watch for:

Does the game end too quickly or drag on?
Is one side consistently winning? By how much?
Are there meaningful decisions, or does the game play itself?
Does your CRT produce reasonable results, or are there columns that never get used?
Does your signature mechanic work? Does it create interesting decisions, or is it just bookkeeping?

Take notes. Write down what happened, what felt wrong, what you would change. Then change it and play again. This is the development cycle (Chapter 19) in miniature.

What You Should Have When You Are Done

A playtest map on A4 paper
12–14 counters with unit values
A CRT that produces historically plausible results
A one-to-two-page rulebook in case format
A sequence of play
One mechanic you designed yourself to capture something specific about this campaign
Notes from at least three playtests documenting what worked and what did not

That is a wargame. Not a published game, and not meant to be. But you have now done everything a wargame designer does: research, mapping, counter design, system design, rules writing, playtesting. Small enough to finish. Large enough to learn from.

Your next design will be better because you did this one first.