Operational scale

Moving up a bit from tactical scale and battle scale, we have operational games. One clue that you may be playing an operational game is that there are suddenly supply rules. Units can generally only fire into the next hex. And the units are larger, maybe brigades and divisions, even corps. The turns may be half day or full day or a week. The hexes represent a greater distance, maybe from 5 miles to 50 miles. It gets pretty fuzzy here as designers try to stretch either the time or the space. Games from MMP’s Operational Combat system fit here as do Mark Simonitch’s ZOC bond games. Generally these games encompass more than a single battle, but more like a campaign. The Battle of the Bulge is a good example. Though we call it a battle, it lasted for 5 weeks. Or these games can cover months.