Battle in the Vietnam War: Including Buckle for your Dust! and Other Wargames

By Greg McCauley, Dr Paddy Griffith, Paddy Griffith

Paddy was the UK's tactical historian of his generation. He was particularly interested in the face of battle, what happened when forces met on the field of battle. He tried to understand the decisions of the operational commanders through close reading of primary sources. Unlike John Keegan and others who used narrative reasoning to explore battles, who visualised war as some form of contest of wills, Paddy supplemented the standard academic historians' methods with the use of cultural wargames, where operational analysis met roleplay. Of course, this methodology was not uniformly appreciated, as he had introduced a new tool that most historians could not use, namely that of wargaming.

Paddy assembled in the ranks of Wargame Developments (and other organisations such as the South Manchester Tactical Society) a formidable team who contributed expertise ranging from academic historians, to those with military experience, foreign office, operational analysts and a large number of hobby experts. He researched military history, analysed it, ran wargames to explore history, then analysed again. He was of course a lecturer at Sandhurst, where he used professional wargaming to explore far more serious issues than mere military history. He used the mix of historical research and wargaming to develop a deeper understanding of war. He published a number of books around the operational and tactical level of war, for example Battle in the Civil War: Generalship and Tactics in America, 1861-65 and Battle in Africa, 1879-1914 (with Howard Whitehouse).

This book is an attempt to assemble his key writings and wargames around the Vietnam War into a single work, published posthumously. Written over a number of years, most of it was never published. Along with this material are three sets of wargaming rules that allow the reader to explore some of the challenges that the commanders on both sides faced, supplemented by some of Paddy's scenarios. Also included is an account of Memphis Mangler IV, the first hobby megagame. From the perspective of wargaming history this was the game that launched the new genre of megagames; multiplayer wargames that attempt to represent a piece of history including command and control issues. These games are more than just a large toy soldier game, with lots of players and toy soldiers playing over a large area. Megagames were routinely a way of developing a deeper understanding beyond that of a standard wargame (or just reading). Close reading of the detailed briefs for the roles in this first megagame is an excellent way to learning about Paddy Griffith's understanding of the Vietnam War.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0BXNBD9HN
• ISBN13: 9798385617982
• Release Date: March 2023
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 196 Pages
• Weight: 1.03 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 8.5" x 11.0"