''The Sword and The Flame'' is a

wargame A wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a realistic simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to s ...

based on British

colonial war Colonial war (in some contexts referred to as small war) is a blanket term relating to the various conflicts that arose as the result of overseas territories being settled by foreign powers creating a colony. The term especially refers to wars ...

s (in particular, the

Anglo-Zulu War The Anglo-Zulu War was fought in 1879 between the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom. Following the passing of the British North America Act of 1867 forming a federation in Canada, Lord Carnarvon thought that a similar political effort, coupl ...

) and, more generally, a set of rules applied to a variety of wargames. These rules for playing colonial wargames were first drafted by Larry Brom in 1978. The rules have gone through several revisions, but still have the same basic characteristics that they had when first written.

Design Concepts

When Larry drafted the original set of ''The Sword and The Flame'' rules (usually referred to as ''TSATF'') he had 5 main objectives.'The Sword and the Flame'- Birth of the Rules
/ref> These were: * Enjoyment: in that the game itself was oriented more to being fun than as an accurate historical simulation * Playability: a reference to the fact that some rulesets are noted for the complexity of their phrasing and the minutiae of their amendments; Larry favoured simple rules * Drama: Larry wanted to ensure that every game had a chance of being won by either side, and that a player could not exactly predict an opposing player's movement distance. * Excitement: linked to the idea of drama, but Larry also wanted to ensure that both sides were involved in all stages of the action. Larry's system of resolving combat by matching off opposing models rather than calculating a mêlée en masse was intended to achieve this. * Historical Flavour: the game should appear to be what happened in the time being simulated although it would not seek to be an exact recreation—in ''TSATF'' both sides have an equal chance of winning, whereas in history the

colonial power Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their relig ...

was usually dominant over the indigenous population.

Randomness

The rules included some interesting innovations, particularly the use of playing cards to randomise movement and firing (Larry refers to this as the 'random move card innovation'). At a time when movement and firing was either alternate ('you move, I move') or simultaneous, this represented a major change in thinking amongst wargamers.

Derivatives

In 1979,

Yaquinto Publications Yaquinto Publications was the wargame publishing arm of the Robert Yaquinto Printing Company of Dallas, Texas. History Yaquinto Publications was started by Robert Yaquinto Printing early in the year 1979. In March 1979 Robert Yaquinto hired S ...

released ''Supplement 1'', which went along with their edition of the game. This first variant included answers to frequently asked questions, optional rules and three alternate gaming periods, including: The

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by ...

French and Indian War The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...

, and

French Foreign Legion The French Foreign Legion (french: Légion étrangère) is a corps of the French Army which comprises several specialties: infantry, Armoured Cavalry Arm, cavalry, Military engineering, engineers, Airborne forces, airborne troops. It was created ...

periods. The rules have proven so popular that they have generated a whole set of variants which adapt the rules from their original

British colonial The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

(and especially

) focus to other historical periods; the names of the variants usually incorporate the words "the Sword", although the variant that simulates the establishment of the White Rajahs in Sarawak is called ''The

Kris The kris, or ''keris'' in the Indonesian language, is an asymmetrical dagger with distinctive blade-patterning achieved through alternating laminations of iron and nickelous iron (''pamor''). Of Javanese origin, the kris is famous for its disti ...

And The Flame''. A

fantasy wargame A fantasy wargame is a wargame that involves a fantastical setting, and employs rules for elements such as magic and non-human intelligent creatures. History The rise in popularity in wargaming of the 1950s through to the 1970s largely coincide ...

variant ''Awaken The Storm!'' was released in 2007.

Title

The title is derived from

The Widow at Windsor The Barrack-Room Ballads are a series of songs and poems by Rudyard Kipling, dealing with the late-Victorian British Army and mostly written in a vernacular dialect. The series contains some of Kipling's best-known works, including the poems "Gung ...

, a poem by

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...

, part of his ''

Barrack-Room Ballads The Barrack-Room Ballads are a series of songs and poems by Rudyard Kipling, dealing with the late-Victorian British Army and mostly written in a vernacular dialect. The series contains some of Kipling's best-known works, including the poems "Gung ...

''. This poem talks about Queen Victoria and how the empire she rules is so powerful because of the sacrifice that her soldiers make; the relevant part reads:

Walk wide o' the Widow at Windsor,
For 'alf o' Creation she owns:
We 'ave bought 'er the same with the sword an' the flame,
An' we've salted it down with our bones.

Reception

Steve Winter comments: "''The Sword and the Flame'' is the closest thing that any historical period has to a universal set of rules. Even the rare colonial wargamer who doesn't use ''The Sword and the Flame'' for his own games has certainly played with them at some point. At wargame conventions, the vast majority of colonial-themed games use ''TS&TF'', not only because it's fast moving and fun but because everyone knows the rules." ''Sword and the Flame'' was awarded the Origins Award for "Best Miniatures Rules of 1984".

Reviews

*'' Jeux & Stratégie'' #27

References

ttp://africanhistory.about.com/library/weekly/aafpr-TSATF.htm ttp://africanhistory.about.com/library/weekly/aafpr-TSATF.htm ttp://africanhistory.about.com/library/weekly/aafpr-TSATF.htm ttp://www.angelfire.com/games3/jacksongamer/TSATF_variants.htm

External links

Sergeants 3
home page

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sword and the Flame Miniature wargames Origins Award winners Wargames introduced in 1979 Yaquinto Publications games