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THE SPI QUADS

FROM THE 70's

THIS LIST IS BY NO MEANS EXHAUSTIVE

Simulacrum Magazine published an in-depth review of all the quads but that was 15 years ago at least.

i own at least one copy of each of these.

the mod stuff i own a half dozen anyway, and could be persuaded to sell a few off.

i also made double-sized maps & counters of all the modern stuff, so a visually challenged buddy o' mine could continue to play.

Modern Era

Cold War Battles

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/42256/cold-war-battles-2-kabul-79-pentomic-wurzburg

Pentomic Wurzburg

Kabul '79

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/23378/cold-war-battles-budapest-56-angola-87

Budapesth '56

Angola '87

Middle East Battles

El Arish

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/15484/middle-east-battles-el-arish-67

Mod Quad

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/16185/modern-battles-four-contemporary-conflicts

Wurzburg

Chinese Farm

Golan

Mukden

Mod Quad 2

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/16186/modern-battles-ii-four-contemporary-conflicts

Bindeswehr

Jerusalem '67

Yugoslavia

DMZ

Vietnam Battles

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/11558/vietnam-battles-hue-and-khe-sanh-1968

Hue

Khe Sanh

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/131894/vietnam-battles-snoopys-nose-iron-triangle

Snoopy's Nose

Iron Triangle

Oil War

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5382/oil-war

WW2

Army Group South Quad

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/22509/four-battles-army-group-south

Decision Games is adding to these with

Minsk 44

Dubno

Prokhorovka/Guards Tank

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/67368/guards-tank-battle-prochorovka-july-1943

Westwall Quad

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9151/westwall-four-battles-germany

Arnhem

Hurtgen Forest

Bastogne

Remagen

North Africa Quad

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/11054/four-battles-north-africa

Crusader

Caldron

Supercharge

Kasserine

Island War Quad

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/21411/island-war-four-pacific-battles

Bloody Ridge

Saipan

Leyte

Okinawa

WW1

new stuff being published by Decision Games, some of it updates from previous post-SPI games

American Civil War

Blue & Grey

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4564/blue-gray

Antietam

Cemetary Hill

Chicamauga

Shiloh

Blue & Grey 2

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4848/blue-gray-ii

Fredricksburg

Hooker & Lee

Chatanooga

Battle of the Wilderness

The 'quint'

Road to Richmond

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4021/road-richmond

Continued later with

Atlanta Campaign

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/11476/atlanta-campaign

Olustee

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/11529/olustee

Savage Station

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/11511/savage-station

and a few more

Napoleonic Era

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/12947/napoleon-war-four-battles

Napoleon at War: four battles

the Battle of Nations: Leipzig

Wagram

Jena-Auerstadt

Marengo

There are quads out for more Napoleonic battles, Crimean War, Thirty Years War.

There is a monster quad on the Art of Siege

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3935/art-siege

Published later are a dozen ancient battles, a quad for the dark ages, a dozen dealing with the American Revolution.

MOD QUADS AIR SUPPORT MARKERS

MOD QUADS NEW MARKERS

CHIFARM ISRAELI REPLACEMENT

CHIFARM EGYPTIAN REPLACEMENT

WURZ NATO REPLACEMENT

WURZ PACT REPLACEMENT

DMZ INMUN GUN & PLA REPLACEMENT

DMZ ROK & US REPLACEMENT

2nd DIVISION 60's to early 70's

2nd DIVISION 70's to early 80's

7th DIVISION 60's to early 70's

EYE CORPS, Corps Troops, 60's to early 70's

ROK 'CAPITAL DIVISION' "TIGERS"

ROK 9th DIVISION "WHITE HORSE"

ROK 2nd MARINE BRIGADE

"BLUE DRAGONS"

REPLACEMENT COUNTERS, ADDITIONAL RULES FOR SOME OF THE QUADS

Wurzburg & Chinese Farm from ModQuad

DMZ from ModQuad2

Okinawa from IslWarQuad

I've been involved with wargaming for more than 40 years, and i keep coming back to the quads, they're great for bringing newbies into the hobby, the size and time frame let them fit in where the vast majority won't, both in 'time' (an evening) and 'space' (the dinner table after clearing away the dishes). Plus those of us that want to can build some complexity into them with stuff borrowed from much newer games, adding combat support units, all kinds of things that couldn't have been done given the rigid constraints of the original quad philosophy back in the 70's when they were coined. Time seems to consistently be in short supply, so the quads will fit my bill 'till retirement or unemployment- whichever comes first. I have posted numerous updates, units, additional rules for modern battles, on consimworld, and i have been poking around with IslWar/Oki for a bit now too. Do some research & get creative!

Wurzburg

Pact & nato in colors and with color coding (that the color blind can see), used to ID sov divisions, and shoulder patches for NATO units. C3 rules & problems need to be added, and arty support limited accordingly. Also included are enough counters to set up sov units with BTR-60 equipped grunt battalions, T-62 tank regiments, counters to 'pull' and consolidate the tank regiment from a MRDiv. The separate tank regiment and assault river crossing battalion held at army level. Plus the SP guns the Sovs intro'd in the early 80's btw, this can seriously change the game. Separate doc outlines the new sov counters. Counters for the 12th PG Div, which was historically headquartered in Wurzburg, almost impossible to have a battle fought over that city without involving that unit.

Command and control rules, units making combined attacks that are not from the same divisional organizations- suffer a one column shift to the left, note- artillery firing in support of attacks is not affected, if they are from a parent headquarters, it is affected if the unit (or at least one of the units, if multi-hex combat) is not from the same division.

Combat engineers can cause a one column shift to the right on the attack, and one column shift to the left on defense. nato combat engineers can support up to three, and pact two, combats, within their movement allowance per turn. This can be cancelled out by enemy combat engineers. In the time-honored tradition, they can get sucked into their own battles, and are not available to support another unit. Combat engineers can also improve positions, bridge rivers, working on some cityf(r)ight stuff for them too. (my secondary used to be combat engineer years ago, the 9th engineers in Wurzburg game was my unit at one time).

Chinese Farm

Done some extensive research on this, in the original game the 'Reshev' armored brigade has 3 tank battalions, well there are several sources that have 7 that's SEVEN battalions assigned to that brigade when the battle started. That's one of several large scale OoB changes incorporated with these counters. so here's the Israeli corrected counters. there's some new stuff, trucked infantry (every account of the battle mentions them AND the fact that they had mobility problems), mortar battalions, the idf had tampala 160mm assigned to each brigade. OoB has mostly numerics, except where unavoidable, with patches added for 14th armored bde, 35th paratroop bde, and southern command combat engineers. the two divisions Sharon, & Adan are marked with obvious 'S' & 'A' notations. For the egyptians, the units involved were not as cookie-cutter-configured as the original game has them. A lot more mech troops and separate battalions etc. There are some 'sleight of hand' symbols & colors to show command relationships, ie each of the numbered egyptian armies. Also changing the movement factor of the egyptian wheeled APC units, swap the originals out for slightly slower units (see the note on israeli wheeled infantry above).

Command and control rules, units making combined attacks that are not from the same divisional organizations- suffer a one column shift to the left, note- artillery firing in support of attacks is not affected, if they are from a parent headquarters. NOTE- israeli mortar units can only support attacks or defense if a unit from their brigade is involved

Combat engineers can cause a one column shift to the right on the attack, and one column shift to the left on defense. israeli combat engineers can support up to three, and egyptian two, combats, within their movement allowance per turn. This can be cancelled out by enemy combat engineers. In the time-honored tradition, they can get sucked into their own battles, and are not available to support another unit.

DMZ

For those interested in replacement counters, here they are. i have added the 2-72d armor to the 60's-80's 2d Div OoB along with engineers & the arty i remember. I have also added the 7th div for 60's-to-early-70's gaming. Historical note, all three major ROK units were part of the forces sent to RVN up to '72, so you could replace the Tiger division or White Horse division with the 7th for the early 70's, or take both out & run thorough with the US units, and drop the ROK marine Blue Dragons for some US marines. Patches for all the US & ROKA divisions are on the counters. Still looking for ROKA OoB info for prior to '72. Another sort of historical note, personally i hate it when you have comparable or very similar units with vastly different strengths. If the unit commanders can't get their outfits to meet a standard then they'd be replaced. Now for the other side of the coin, during the mid 70's the 1-9 Lt Inf had all the mortars concentrated in 'A' company and divied up the rifle platoons & scouts so there were four small maneuver companies. some of this was because of the assigned trace of the DMZ the division had etc, and other units were freelanced too. i don't know if this is documented anywhere, but it certainly wipes out 'uniformity'.

The C3 and combat engineer rules from Wurz & Chifarm are operable here too.

Thanx to Keith Rowe on Consimworld for the NKA OoB info!

With some more time, i'll work out a 90's set of counters.

Okinawa

There's no room at all for 'customizing' or tailoring your attacks in IslWarOki. Most fo the units are 'homogenized' blatantly so for Uncle Sucker's troops. So the majority of the units that were 'sythesized' in IslWar are separated out, and added to. Plus the really large question of the Japanese Imperial 9th Infantry division, if it was present, can be addressed. It was transferred to Formosa immediately prior to the battle. That's one big if, a crack division, from the pre-war Imperial Army would have not stopped the eventual American victory, but the cost would have gone up, dramatically.

Command and control rules, units making combined attacks that are not from the same parent organizations- suffer a one column shift to the left, note- artillery firing in support of attacks is not affected, if they are from a higher headquarters, such as marine units & 3rd MAF artillery, or Army units and 24th Corps or 10th Army artillery & engineers. although 10th army artillery can support any US units. Japanese 5th Artillery group units can fire in support of any Japanese unit.

This will throw a lot of dirt into the game ranged direct fire units, differentiated by the 'ranged' factor displayed in parenthesis. It becomes much more 'tactical' as caused by line-of-site rules to be introduced. the units, Japanese heavy machine gun battalions and anti-aircraft units, were used during the battle to support the grunt units in the line. each battalion can support one unit in the defense and one unit in the attack. these units are stackable, and if a unit between them and the enemy is forced to retreat through them, heavy gear can't be packed up in a hurry, they are destroyed, even as the other retreating unit can get away.

Combat engineers can cause a one column shift to the right on the attack, and one column shift to the left on defense. combat engineers can support up to three, and egyptian two, combats, within their movement allowance per turn. This can be cancelled out by enemy combat engineers. In the time-honored tradition, they can get sucked into their own combats, and are not available to support another unit.

Additional units not mentioned above- the US can bring in the 81st Infantry Division, and the 2nd Marine Division, historically they were not committed, (BUT the 8th Marine Regiment was). General Buckner considered it his "favorite regiment of 10th Army". The Fleet Marine Force Recon Battalion is here, historically it was attached to the 77th Infantry Division for the its battles and amphib landings taking the outer islands, Kerama Retto, etc, and Ie Shima (where Ernie Pyle was killed). As mentioned previously- Imperial Japan can add the 9th Infantry division, which historically was moved to Formosa prior to the battle. 

What else? Naval Fire Support rules, and air support, but the ranged units of the Japanese can defend and score victory points against air power strikes. Some type of bookkeeping on casualties for IslWar, that i have not finalized yet. Feel free to freelance & post your own, maybe something grafted from OpOlympic?

OKINAWA REPLACEMENT

Several of these markers require special combat engineer rules.

COMBAT ENGINEERS- Special rules (some examples of units above)

Combat engineers can cause a one column shift to the right on an attack, and one column shift to the left on a defense.

NATO combat engineers can support up to three, and PACT two, attacks or defenses or special missions (fortify, minefield emplacement, bridging, obstaclesetc, as outlined below), at half their movement allowance distance from the counter location, per turn, to the target hex.

The combat engineers must be stationary and not have moved, with the counter becoming a way to note the location of the battalion headquarters. The combat engineer modification to the column shift can be cancelled out by enemy combat engineers participating.

In the time-honored tradition, they can get sucked into their own battles, by being attacked, and are not available to support another unit.When the unit has had sub-elements deployed on remote missions (ieup to half the movement allowance distance) it defends at half-strength.

Combat engineers can emplace minefields, improve/fortify positions, clear obstacles, clear minefields, demolish bridges (one or more turns stationary & no other uses), and bridge rivers (various turns to complete missions, see below)

All-AROUND FORTIFIED POSITION - 

Must be declared. Created after unit stays stationary for 4 turns with engineer support, not engaging in combat, at ½ movement allowance from engineer counter location. Light units only, doubles defensive strength.

FORTIFIED POSITION - 

Must be declared. Created after unit stays stationary; for 2 turns, light units, and 4 turns mech/armor; with engineer support, not engaging in combat. The top edge of the block (see counter),MUST be pointed at a specific hexside, even though it is considered in a hex. Doubles defensive strength for any attacks coming from the indicated hexside and the two hexes, one to either side.

IMPROVED POSITION - 

Must be declared. Any unit can execute. Must remain stationary for one turn, not participate in combat. Shift defensive combat results one column to the left.

MINEFIELD - 

Effect on a unit- trying to cross, a unit must expend half it's movement allowance (round up), with active CRT “0” column applied against the unit, before continuing movement. (ie may become disrupted).

Can be placed by engineer units to any city, town, clear, wooded, grove, or broken hex, within ½ movement radius from engineer counter location. Engineer unit must not move or engage in combat or any other mission, for one turn.

Engineer units can clear a minefield, spending one turn doing so, within ½ movement radius from engineer counter location. Engineer unit must not move or engage in combat or any other mission, and cannot be providing support elsewhere or being involved in combat.

If the minefield is adjacent to an enemy unit, then the time for removal is doubled. For a friendly unit to 'advance after combat engineers MUST support an attack on a minefield hex occupied by that enemy unit.

(Available as of the 1980's)Artillery may emplace minefields as a firemission. Only to open or wooded hexes.

Ruble, fortifications and minefields can be cumulatively applied to a hex.

OBSTACLE(S) - 

Road craters, abbatis, other hard obstacles. Constructed by engineers, at the rate of 2 per turn, standard engineer task rules apply. Friendly engineers can clear at same rate. Can be emplaced in any terrain hex. Unit expends half of movement allowance to move through hex.

BRIDGE - 

Placed after engineer unit stays stationary, the target hex being adjacent to target (planned bridged) hexside. Withinthe half movement allowance radius ,to the target hexside for one turn, provides no other support and must not engage in combat. This marker is applied to the hexside. NOTE- light engineers cannot build bridges to support mech/armor units.

DESTROYED BRIDGE-

To demolish a bridge, an engineer mission of 1 turn duration, within the half-movement allowance and no other support or combat restrictions.

This marker is applied to the hexside.

RUBLE/RUINS ON FIRE - 

Applied to town or city hex. Time sensitive, after artillery impact or combat occurring in the hex. Lasts one turn. Light units may not enter during that turn.

RUBLE/RUINS - 

Replaces the above after one turn. All units doubled in defense. Additional point for light unit movement, 2 additional movement points for mech/armor movement.

H &I Fire - 

Harassing and interdiction fire. Applied by indirect fire artillery units. Unit must remain stationary, pre-plotting the impact.

A unit movement through the hex so marked, requires half of movement allowance (round up), and apply active CRT “0” against the unit before continuing movement.

ATOMIC DETONATION TARGET HEX - Rules from MQ2, Jagdpanther mag, or some of your own house rules.

ATOMIC HEXSIDE BLOCKED - (tip o' the hat to Brian R. Train in S&T 263)

Guess you could consider this the Davey Crockett impact.

DISRUPT ONE & TWO - bookkeeping

AIR/GROUND SUPPORT MARKERS- 

Bookkeeping, possible missions, modifications & effectiveness rules can be applied, based on aircraft type, and other variables.

SOVIET TANK DIVISION

Three Tank Regiments, three BMP equipped Motorized Rifle Battalions, towed artillery, katyusha rocket launchers.

ADDITIONAL/REPLACEMENT COUNTERS

Recon Battalion (PT-76's), T-72 replacement Tank Regiments, SP Artillery. (70's for recon, & T-72's, 80's for SP Artillery)

SOVIET MOTORIZED RIFLE DIVISION

Three Tank reinforced BMP Rifle Battalions, six BMP Rifle Battalions, Towed Artillery, Katyusha Rocket Launchers.

ADDITIONAL/REPLACEMENT COUNTERS

Recon Battalion (PT-76's), Combat Engineer Battalion, independent Tank Battalion. (70's for recon & engineers, 80's the tank battalion)

SOVIET REPLACEMENT COUNTERS

3 reinforced BMP battalions and the 2nd & 3rd BMP battalions (the other 6 in the division), are replaced with tank regiment and three BMP infantry battalions.

second & third infantry regiments can be replaced with BTR-60 equipped infantry battalions

(60’s era OoB’s mandatory, into 70’s & 80’s as the BTR-60’s were not phased out right away, most Soviet Divisions usually had one regiment of BMP's)

replace towed artillery with SP guns (80’s era)

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