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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MGibster" data-source="post: 9895129" data-attributes="member: 4534">A little over 30 years ago, a friend and I played one of those old time hex & chit war games of the Battle of Stalingrad.  (It was not Avalon Hill's Stalingrad.)  German victory was achieved by taking the city and Soviet victory was denying the Germans their prize.  At the beginning of the game, the Germans were in a stronger position with better units, more units, and more reinforcements coming. The Soviet units were weaker, fewer, and it would take a few turns before reinforcement in numbers would start to arrive.  Standard Soviet strategy was to go defensive, trying to slow the German advance until old man winter and reinforcements would arrive.  As the Soviet player, I decided to go on the offensive on my very first turn.  This was a surprise to my opponent because every time my unit engaged a German unit the odds were in their favor.  I was extremely fortunate with my dice rolls, destorying most of the German units I attacked and seeing their offense collapse because I punched a big hole in its center.  Life was about to get difficult for the Germans, so my friend decided maybe we should play a different game. If there was an arbiter intead of rules, I would have lost the game right then and there.  Conventional wisdom would have said my poorly trained, equipped, and led units were inferior to the Germans.  And while that isn't incorrect, sometimes in war, as in all aspects of life, the unexpected happen.  You can do everything wrong and still end up winning.  You can do everything right and still lose.  Rules provide you the opportunity to react to the unexpected in a way an arbiter does not.</blockquote>

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