South Atlantic Showdown
1982: South Atlantic Showdown
A Falklands boardgame, since those designed by others to date were quite the game I wanted to play.
Why another Falklands game?
I have, over the years, played most of the major boardgames set during the Falklands War. Two of them I love unreservedly:
Where There Is Discord, the venerable operational-level treatment of the campaign, remains for me the gold standard for capturing the strange, stretched geography of the South Atlantic — the way distance itself becomes the central problem of the war.
Mrs Thatcher's War, with its clever mix of political and military pressure, is a masterclass in how a designer can make Cabinet decisions feel as tense as a missile lock.
So why design my own? Honestly, because I wanted something different. I wanted a game that sat closer to the experience of the Task Force commander on the bridge of HMS Hermes — a game that put the carrier group, the Harrier CAP, the submarine threat and the daily grind of sortie planning at the centre of the table, rather than at the edge. I wanted ships I could move, aircraft I could launch, and an Argentine air threat that felt as relentless and improvised as it actually was. I then wanted a game that transitioned well to the land phase.
And more importantly, I wanted a game I could finish on a weeknight.
The first version
I have had several goes at a game.
For my first attempt, I built a full hex map of the South Atlantic, detailed counters for every named unit on both sides, a full air operations subsystem, separate procedures for ASW, AAW and surface combat, and a political track running across the top of the board. It was, on paper, the game I had always wanted to play.
In practice, it was unplayable. Setup alone took the better part of an hour. The first turn took another. By the time the Task Force had reached Ascension, the day was over.
What I had built was a simulation. What I needed was a game.
The Redesign
1982: South Atlantic Showdown is the second design — and a much leaner one. Setup is now a matter of minutes rather than half an evening. The map is abstracted into operational zones rather than hexes, focusing attention on the decisions that actually mattered: where to position the carriers, when to push the amphibious force forward, how to balance Harrier sorties between fleet defence and ground support, and when to commit a submarine to a kill the British government will then have to defend at the despatch box.
The Argentine player has a different problem. Strike sorties are precious; the distance from the mainland eats into every mission's loiter time; and every Exocet expended is one that cannot be replaced. The pressure on both sides is, by design, asymmetric — exactly as it was in 1982.
The political dimension has not been thrown away. It is now woven into a small, sharp event deck that pushes both sides toward decisions of moral weight: a leaked diplomatic cable here, a media outcry there, an unexpected casualty list that has to be answered for. The aim is not historical recreation for its own sake but a game in which the choices feel as the choices felt at the time.
In terms of feel and and where the mechanics have come from – think a little bit about Axis & Allies (I play the online version – https://www.beamdog.com/games/axis-allies-online/ ) but also classic games like Risk and Diplomacy.
Where the project is now
The current version is being playtested on Tabletop Simulator, which has been a revelation. Being able to iterate on counters, cards and the map in software — and then put a fresh build in front of a playtester the same evening — has compressed weeks of work into days.
Once the rules are stable, I will post the full version on TTS via Steam.
I will also be printing a small run of physical copies — initially just for me and a couple of trusted reviewers — to put the game through its paces on a real table, with real components, and to make sure that what works on a screen also works in cardboard.
Screenshots from the Tabletop Simulator build, photographs of the original prototype, and component artwork from the new edition are all included on this page below.
If you would like to play
I am very happy to hear from anyone who would like to playtest, comment on the rules, or simply argue with me about whether the Belgrano counter ought to start one zone further north. Drop me a line through the contact page and we will arrange a session — over Tabletop Simulator initially, and in person if you happen to be in the right part of the world.
1982: South Atlantic Showdown — PC Build
IN DEVELOPMENT
This digital PC adaptation of South Atlantic Showdown is currently in development. Built as an HTML-based strategy experience, the project aims to bring the operational decisions, naval warfare, and strategic challenges of the board game to a playable digital format. Further screenshots and development updates will be added as the project progresses.
AVAILABLE ON KINDLE
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