Grunt (board wargame)


Grunt: The Game of Tactical Level Combat in Vietnam was a tactical level board wargame designed by John Young and released by Simulations Publications, Inc. as part of issue #26 of Strategy & Tactics in 1971.
The game featured three different scenarios in which the US player performed "search and destroy" missions to find Viet Cong units and supply caches. The game's counters represented squads of men and individual specialists such as artillery observers. The game included rules for leadership, snipers, civilians, helicopter travel, artillery, and air strikes.
The map was 22" x 28" printed in black and tan, and included counters, a rule booklet, as well as game charts and tables. The map was divided into hexagons at a scale 100 yards per hex.
Grunt was later redesigned and released as . The original game is considered one of the very first board wargames to simulate infantry combat at the squad/platoon level
Grunt was later released as a boxed game as well.
The game attempted to place realistic burden on commanders; US players had to be careful to minimize casualties to civilians while also tending to their own wounded. Leadership was also uniquely portrayed. According to Nick Stasnopolis in Number 73 of Fire & Movement Magazine: