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I. The Reason Why
There is always a reason that starts the design process. In my previous game, Conflict of Heroes: Price of Honour - Poland 1939, I wanted to tell the story of the Polish heroic stand against Germany in 1939. Thanks to Uwe Eickert, my story became a part of the one of the best tactical game systems ever published, thus available for players from around the world.
Here, in Days of Honor the story is also the reason.
Did you know that the first photo of Earth from space was taken by the camera riding on a launched V-2 rocket? Yes, the same deadly V-2 with which Hitler wanted to destroy London at the climax of World War II.
This photo was taken on October 24, 1946, when the V-2 missile was launched from White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, USA, just two years after September 8, 1944, when the first German V-2 missile was combat launched against Allies!
Thanks to "Operation Paperclip" and other similar operations carried out after the war, the Allies successfully gained the technology of how to construct and use V-2 rockets, as evidenced by the photo above — but as is known by only a few, they knew all the secrets of the V-2 weapon before its first combat launch on the 8th of September, 1944! More precisely, the Allies had this knowledge from the night of 25/26 July 1944 when all the secrets of V-2 weapons left the sway of the Third Reich and were transferred to the Allies. This was done by the Polish Home Army, during the bold "Operation Wildhorn III".
This is the story that hides in the game box.
II. The Beginning
On February 28, 2011, Wojtek "WRS" Sieroń asked me whether I would be interested in creating an educational board game (on behalf of the commune Ostrów) about Blizna, a small town near Ropczyce in eastern Poland. Why did he ask me about this in particular? Maybe because this place went down in world history for an extraordinary reason...
Today, the media often informs us about the development of ballistic missiles in Iran or in North Korea – countries that want to join the club of world powers, that are able to launch a missile towards a target thousands of miles from their own territory. But the same media rarely mention the huge rocket arsenals of the United States, Russia, India, France, Great Britain, China, Israel and Pakistan, the presence of which prevents the world powers from being at each other's throats — and that would be something to talk about!
A modern intercontinental ballistic missile is a real marvel of technology. It pushes a charge of several tons outside the Earth's atmosphere. The warhead travels into space, where no forces can stop it, at a distance of thousands of miles, then it falls on a target located on the other side of the globe, flying at the speed of a meteorite and hitting with impressive accuracy the intended point of impact. The launch of a modern ballistic missile looks like this:
And this idea isn't new – its story began in the interwar period. Already at that time people dreamed about reaching the stars, escaping outside the atmosphere, defeating gravity. But the war broke out, and the dreams of space conquest gave way to the necessity of defeating the enemy. Germany — deprived of the navy and geopolitically enclosed in Eurasia — had to create an alternative system of power projection over a long distance, and they did create such a system, developing a fully mature technology of ballistic missiles. Although they ran out of time to create an intercontinental ballistic missile, as the ultimate goal would have been a direct attack on America, the technology for its development was invented and successfully tested in battle.
Every history textbook mentions the development of the technology related to the Second World War. Several words pop out at you, such as radar, nuclear weapons, and...rockets. The first of those technological miracles can be allocated to Great Britain. The second to the USA. The third to the Third Reich. It's almost like a game of Through the Ages, with each of those countries taking one card from the invention track and developing it successfully.
And now let us think for a minute: Where would a reasonably-thinking person place a research center for this epoch-making technology that could change the course of the war, the course of world history? In his own capital, or the main industrial area? No, because that would place it right under the watchful eye of the enemy's reconnaissance, intelligence and bombers. This research center had to be located away from everyone, at the end of the world, somewhere where no one would go searching for it — for example, in Blizna.
III. Vergeltungswaffe-2, or "What have the Germans achieved with this missile technology card?"
The name of this legendary German weapon was V-2 (Vergeltungswaffe-2, or retaliatory weapon 2). It was the first successful ballistic missile powered by rocket engine, designed and built during World War II by a team of German engineers under the direction of Wernher von Braun. In 1943, Germans started the mass production of these rockets in the Peenemünde research center. Until 1943 Allies had no idea how deadly the German V-2 rocket project could be.
Quote:
TECHNICAL AND TACTICAL DATA OF V-2 MISSILE:
• Length: 14 m
• Weight of the rocket ready for launch: 13000 kg
• Warhead weight: 975 kg
• Fuel weight: 8700 kg
• Maximum speed: 5500 km/h
• Maximum range: 380 km
• Length: 14 m
• Weight of the rocket ready for launch: 13000 kg
• Warhead weight: 975 kg
• Fuel weight: 8700 kg
• Maximum speed: 5500 km/h
• Maximum range: 380 km
Allies were warned by the Home Army — that is, the Polish underground army and resistance movement — which opposed Germans in occupied Poland. The value and location of the Penemünde research center was discovered by Polish intelligence and transferred to the Allies. Subsequently, Peenemünde was bombed by the RAF in August 1943. The facilities were destroyed and the Germans had to find a new location for their V-2 testing ground.
After the Peenemünde test center was bombed in 1943, work on improving V-2 weapons was moved out of the reach of Allied bombers. The Germans decided to move them into occupied Poland, to the Blizna artillery training ground (Blizna Artilleriezielfeld). Germans built the new testing ground with slave labor, using thousands of prisoners from the SS labor camp located near Pustków (SS Truppenübungsplatz Heidelager).
The Polish Home Army quickly located the new testing ground, and in 1944 its soldiers managed to collect many pieces of V-2 rockets. On May 20, 1944, a Home Army unit managed to capture a nearly undamaged V-2 rocket and hide it before the Germans arrived. The rocket was dismantled and its parts were examined by Polish scientists in secret Home Army laboratories. After capturing the most important part of the rocket, Poles decided to send the parts and the results of their research to the Western Allies, to allow them to develop effective methods of dealing with this threat.
Captured parts of the V-2 rockets were carried out of Poland to England (via Italy, already liberated) in an operation code-named "Wildhorn III" by the British and "Most III" ("Bridge III") in Polish. This was done by a Douglas C-47 Skytrain aircraft (piloted by RAF crew) that took off from Brindisi and landed in occupied Poland. The operation took place on the night of July 26, 1944. The landing and takeoff were dramatic as the area around the airstrip was heavily patrolled by the Germans, but the operation was successful, thanks to the excellent work of the Polish intelligence and partisans and the Allied airmen.
Thanks to Operation Wildhorn III, the Allies learned about the construction and outstanding performance of the V-2 rockets. With this better knowledge of the threat, the Allies gave up attempts to intercept V-2s in flight and focused on finding and destroying launch pads, which ultimately proved to be the most effective strategy to combat this weapon.
The first combat launch of a V-2 rocket took place on September 8, 1944, more than forty days after the V-2 secrets fell into the Allies' hands!
During 1944, the Germans used the V-2 rockets to bomb London, Antwerp and Brussels. In all, 5,500 rockets were fired, of which about 70% hit their targets! London itself was struck by V-2 missiles 2,894 times, which caused significant damage and 2,757 fatalities.
IV. First Design
I started the design process in 2011 with Adam "Sankti" Goździelewski, who has worked with Phalanx Games Polska. Adam started with the idea that the game would not tell the history of the military base, but instead would focus on that single, very interesting operation by the Polish Intelligence on May 20, 1944, during which the Home Army seized a complete and undamaged V-2 rocket. How did we accomplish something like that in a country occupied by an enemy that had absolute domination? The story is remarkable...
The V-2 missiles, launched during tests from the military base in Blizna, were flying — to put it mildly — around the entire country of Poland. After all, how else would you test a weapon with an operational range of 380 km (200 mi)?
The rockets, as often happens in tests, were deflected, exploded during the flight, etc., causing the German searching troops a lot of problems. The Home Army's Intelligence followed those activities and found various missile parts ahead of the Germans.
On the 20th of May, 1944, however, an opportunity occurred that nobody would have ever dreamed about. One of the launched rockets fell in a single piece into the Bug river, near the village of Sarnaki. Poles arrived at the scene before the Germans. They weren't able to pull the huge rocket out of the river, but they came up with a brilliant solution — sinking it instead! The German patrols didn't find the slightest trace of the rocket, and they left the place after a few days.
Once the Nazis left, the Poles pulled out the rocket and dismantled it so that they could send the rocket parts to the leading Polish scientists and engineers who would investigate the structure and the parameters of the weapon. A couple of weeks later, Polish Intelligence became the knowledge owner of the most important and most carefully hidden weapon project in the Third Reich!
Adam had developed an initial prototype of the game in which the Polish and the German players were separated by a river built of cards. Somewhere amongst those cards was a single one that had a rocket on the reverse side. The players needed to find this card with the help of other cards that featured different characters, who possessed diverse and individual characteristics. The concept seemed interesting, bud Adam did not have the time to continue his project and it got abandoned.
V. Second Design
In September 2011, Wojtek "WRS" Sieroń handed over some more information: Ostrów Municipality sustained its interest in the release of the game about Blizna, and we started to talk about the details. In this situation, I picked up the abandoned work, but I completely changed the basic concept of the game because Adam's proposal lacked...Blizna! My idea was to firmly embed the project in this place so that the secret missile base and the forest full of partisans could be shown. That said, I didn't want to skip the operation near the village Sarnaki or the bold "Operation Wildhorn III". I needed a more abstract conceptualization of this subject from a broader perspective so that I could feature in the game more elements of this fascinating story. This project earned a nickname of "Cichociemni" (Unseen and Silent), for a Polish commando unit from World War II.
VI. Crisis
I prepared a new concept of the game, made the prototype components, and carried out the first tests. Then we made a preliminary evaluation in the printing offices as Ostrów Municipality had included our project in its budget for 2012.
Everything went well until March 2012, when Ostrów Municipality had to withdraw the order because of a financial crisis. After all, it was easier to cut a project related to culture from the local government's budget than to touch more important positions from the point of view of the residents.
So the project died...but it was soon to be born again.
Today the Ostrów Municipality develops History Park in Blizna, where it presents the story of V-2 rockets in Poland. For details, head to its official website.
VII. The Long Weekend Filled with the Destruction of the Prototypes
In 2012, making use of the long May weekend, we arranged our annual Diablos Polacos meeting in the picturesque Danubian town of Zebegeny.
We drove there with the intention of accomplishing three goals: integration, sightseeing and game testing of the designs on which we were working. The weather was good and the border between Hungary and Slovakia was a great place, seeped in history, so we fulfilled the first and second goal with great pleasure and success.
We spent the evenings focused on the realization of the third task: the testing of games. We sat in the living room, which had a beautiful view over the wonderful Danube River, and in the light of the setting sun, while tasting the excellent local wines, we began destroying our game prototypes.
Sometimes we get questions like these: "Why isn't Carolus. Great Northern War available yet?", "How's the situation with Teutons?", and "Is 1st Blitzkrieg going to be released?" And our answers follow these lines: "Because the game is not ready yet", "The game is waiting to be released, but with a changed concept", and "Not yet because we're not satisfied with the duration of the game". And just by a whisker, the year 2012 did not change the situation as we still weren't fully satisfied with our games. Well, with all except one...
We started with Carolus. Too long, too many details, too little action — the project actually went into the trash. The only little light at the end of the tunnel was a long list with entries on how the game was and clues as to how the game should be.
We spent the next evening over the 1st Blitzkrieg board. Too long, unreadable, still likable only by wargame fanatics, although in the latest version we've used a lot of Euro-mechanisms. Again, we made a list of what-we-already-have and what-we-want-it-to-be.
Teutons. In this one we don't have problems with the mechanisms; the game is ready and we are satisfied with it. Instead of tests, we were having long discussions about the pricing of components and various manufacturing variants. We already know what to do with Teutons, but the amount of work we have to put into this game exceeds our capabilities right now.
Overall a football (soccer) game was all right; just the final scores were coming out bad. I mean, we thought like that back then, so the game followed a similar fate to the other mentioned games. But after the last Poland-Ukraine Euro 2012 match, it turned out that the results offered by the game weren't that wrong. They were even quite realistic! Probably it's about time to dust off that game...
We could mostly summarize that long weekend as a weekend filled with the destruction of prototypes, but the fifth game, "Cichociemni" — the most modest one that was left until the end — turned out to be liked by everybody. Of course, some changes had to be done, but those were changes on the developer's side, not the destructive side.
And so in May 2012, at the beautiful, deep blue Danube River, we decided that we would publish "Cichociemni" in 2013, and that game over time became Days of Honor.
VII. Prototypes
After we decided to release the game, we started to work on preparing a prototype for a wider range of testers. After performing that next wave of tests, we were able to develop the graphics.
The first prototype was a simple text file in which we wrote down the content of the cards. We printed out such a chart, cut it into pieces, and put them into card sleeves (with regular playing cards inside) to give them the size and shape of future components. Each new edition of such cards is very simple; you just have to replace the cut-out piece of paper with a new version.
The game, prepared like this, successfully passed various tests that changed some rules, but didn't affect the overall concept. First and foremost, we shortened the game time. At the end of the day, we threw out half of the cards that existed in the first prototype. The actions from those cards were transferred to the remaining cards, contributing to an increase in the weight of decisions taken during the game. We changed the combat mechanism so that it became less random. We added a mechanism to modify the results of the die-rolling so that players could affect it with their resources. Along the way, a balance between the sides was forged, as the game is played differently with each side.
At this point we were ready to develop a second prototype. Here, we got help from the irreplaceable Studio conTEXT, which made the prototype for us. The cards took shape, graphic elements were added, and somewhere pictures were even added. The game ceased to be a "battle of anonymous white paper pieces" as the combination of text and background now supported the testers' imagination. At this stage, some more changes in the mechanisms were added, but they were just of cosmetic nature.
Evolution of the Polish Cichociemni card
Evolution of the German SS card
After we tested the second version of the graphics of the prototype, we started to develop the final artwork. At this stage the rules of the game should be ready so that the graphic designer can concentrate on designing the illustrations and not have to subsequently apply adjustments made by the author as the result of further changes in the mechanisms. Again, Studio conTEXT got down to work and over time we received from the graphic designer the first design of the future look of the cards. The idea was to our liking, and while of course a number of changes were necessary, the good thing was that we already knew which way we were going and what kind of effect we expected.
Further changes were the result of constant playing, this time only to test the graphics. Are the symbols clear and intuitive? Does the color palette assure a quick grasp of the situation on the table? Or maybe the colors are tiring on the eyes? Thanks to remarks from the testers, the final version of the prototype was made.
Sample German cards
Sample neutral components
Sample Polish cards
VIII. The End
After finishing the graphics, rulebook, and box, all files were sent to the printing house. When you get back samples to test the quality of the printing, you have the first opportunity to touch and smell your game. Believe me, it is a great moment...
...but the better one is when you receive a final box!
The game's premiere was on August 31, 2013 in Warsaw, involving historical reenactors. The photo below shows the first playing of the final game: Germans vs. Poles, of course!
There were many other important issues, like finding a photo for the game box cover, changing the game title from "Cichociemni" (Unseen and silent) to Czas Honoru (Days of Honor) due to cooperation with Polish Public Television, and even making the video trailer and the video rules teaser for the game — but that is publisher's work, not author's work, so here my story ends.
Thank you for your time spent reading this diary. If you want to know more about Days of Honor: Operation Wildhorn III, please visit the Phalanx Games Polska booth (2-B130) during Spiel 2013 in Essen, Germany. I'll be there, happy to answer all of your questions.
Michał Ozon
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