Razor’s Edge: The Falklands War 1982 - Designer Diary #1

What is the razor's edge?

I was wee when the Falklands War happened. Except for the headlines, I knew little about it. That changed a few summers ago when I participated in a professional wargame run for Royal Marine Commando officers. 

In the game the officers controlled the British task force, and had to gain air and naval dominance before an amphibious landing, climaxing with a land battle for the hills outside of Port Stanley. The crux of the exercise was the choice of amphibious landing site.

The professional wargame. Despite appearances, no F35s were involved.

I quickly saw the potential for a commercial game. There is no hobby game of note covering the totality of the Falklands War. I think because it is - wrongly - considered to be a one-sided affair, with little for the Argentine player to do. 

It is also a design challenge. Such a game would ideally cover air, naval, sub-surface, land, logistics, and special forces. It would need to explain why Argentina lost. A lot can go wrong with such a design, especially in the form of complexity-creep.

I thought this professional wargame could be reworked to overcome the challenge. Its designers Graham Longley-Brown and Jerry Smith agreed, and so work on what has now become Razor’s Edge: The Falklands War 1982 began at the start of this year. 

Lee Brimmicombe-Wood, a highly respected designer of air warfare board games, came on board to help work on the air warfare system and create the map and counters. It’s the next major release planned for Sapper Studio. Hopefully you’ll be able to pre-order it sometime this autumn. 

That’s how we got here. Now, what have we got? 

Firstly, the name. As I began researching the subject matter, I was directed to a book called Razor’s Edge: The Unofficial History of the Falklands War.

A 'behind the scenes' account of the war, written by a former British spy based in Argentina.

As much a polemic as a history book, the title grabbed me. As you learn about the Falkland’s campaign, you realise the many, many ways it could have gone terribly wrong for the British. 

I loved the front cover image too, which I believe was originally made by an Argentine tabloid. But my game was not about Mrs Thatcher, so while the book’s title was co-opted, the image was replaced on the game box cover by an artistic rendering - specifically created by Shayne Logan - of a famous photo of HMS Antelope exploding at night in San Carlos Water.

So what is Razor’s Edge: The Falklands War 1982 about? 

Simply: you are the commanding officer of the naval forces, air forces, land forces of your side. 

You will make the critical decisions they were required to make. You will make them with the same constraints they faced, but you do need to make the same decision. That's why I call the game a ‘sandbox’.  

Of course there are a myriad of smaller decisions to make too. But what the game is not about is operational detail. You will not need to arrange the position of individual ships in your fleet, or worry about the range of your artillery. You could call it ‘grand tactical’ in scale, 'grand operational' in mind set.

How then does the game play? 

The action is across two maps, both on the same board. There's an Operational Map and a map of the Falkland Islands. 

The prototype board. The Operational map is on top.

The first half of the game mainly takes place on the Operational map, where the British Carrier Task Force of 15 or so ships has five or six turns - a turn representing four days - to try and secure maritime and air superiority before the Amphibious Task Force arrives. 

This can only really be done by the Carrier Task Force putting itself in harm’s way - i.e. within range of the Argentine air force - and hoping that it can destroy a sufficient amount of that air force without losing one, or god forbid both, of its carriers. 

Of course, it takes two to tango, and the Argentines may not want to dance.

A key decision for the Argentine player is how much to focus on the Carrier Task Force. An alternative strategy is to keep the air force grounded and its powder dry until British land forces arrive. The Argentines must also decide what to do with their Navy. It has ships armed with Exocets, and the potential to cause a lot of damage to the British fleet. But it will also be easy pickings for the British nuclear submarines if it does not return to port (as historically happened). 

The British Amphibious Task Force has embarked the initial, and largest, of the British landing forces: 3 Commando Brigade, and logistical supplies for the entire land campaign. 

Shortly after it arrives, the British will need to land at their preferred amphibious landing site. This is a difficult operation that the Argentines can make harder by targeting it with air, submarine and/or land forces. 

The second half of the game then turns to the Falkland Islands map as the British land forces first consolidate then move towards Stanley.

The land campaign is as much a battle of logistics as of assaults. 

Argentine supplies can be targeted throughout by British special forces, air strikes or shore bombardment. If they are sufficiently depleted, the Argentine side will struggle to sustain its forces in the field, which will already be suffering from both weather and operational attrition. 

The British face similar problems, and may win a battle but in the process lose the war if they are not able to re-supply their forces as they fight their way to Stanley. 

Throughout, the weather will make life difficult for both sides, while random events each turn add more historical flavour and uncertainty to game play.

I will be exploring the details of all of this in future diary posts, but I’ll end here with one final point about game play: it does not use tables or charts! 

A single, simple D20-based system is used to resolve all the tests, and the information required to resolve a test is in front of you, on the board. It does have to be played by Marines after all… 

A sample of prototype game counters.

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