How to Train Your (Non)-Grognard – Take That Hill!

RockyMountainNavy, 16 March 2026

As a long-time grognard wargamer, I see Take That Hill! by Philip Sabin from Fight Club International (2022) as something of an introductory wargame. That is, however, not the intent behind Take That Hill!. This small wargame is not for introducing gamers to wargames but instead is a tactical training aid. As the introduction to Take That Hill! explains, “This is a short wargame primer to introduce non-wargamers to basic wargame concepts in the context of a simple dismounted platoon attack” (1. Introduction). Take That Hill! certainly meets it’s design intent and in doing so also serves as an excellent introductory wargame.

Take That Hill! is published by Fight Club International which advertises itself as:

“…a Global Wargaming Network dedicated to the development and popularization of wargaming as a professional discipline.  Our members come from a diverse range of professional backgrounds including serving military, the defense industry, and the games industry.” (fightclubinternational.org)

It should be obvious that Fight Club International is not a commercial wargame publisher but a wargame practitioner organization dedicated to using wargames—tabletop or computer—for training and education. Take That Hill! is what Fight Club International calls, “a manual wargame primer” (box cover). The game is downloadable for print ’n play or Tabletop Simulator from the Fight Club International website or available for purchase for $20 through Amazon. I paid for my own physical copy.

The Fight Club International motto is, “Think, Fight, Learn, Repeat.” Take That Hill! leans into that motto with a small-footprint wargame that is specifically designed to be easy to learn, easy to play, and equally easy to teach—that last one perhaps being the most important of all those attributes.

Physically, Take That Hill! comes in a roughly 6”x9”x 1” box. The rulebook is a mere 16 pages (plus covers) and the mounted map folds out to about 13.25”x7.5” with 1” square units on the counter sheet along with other markers.

In many ways the simple components of Take That Hill! invoke memories in older grognards like myself of microwargames from wargaming’s early days with titles like Ogre (Steve Jackson Games, 1977)—though admittedly much more colorful!

The rules for Take That Hill! are covered in the first nine (9) pages of the rulebook. Play is head-to-head or soloable; the enemy “bot” is a simple “when fresh shoot at the nearest fresh enemy unit in line of sight.” Almost all the rules used in play are also found on the game board.

Take That Hill! poses a simple tactical problem to it’s audience:

“You command an Infantry Platoon made up of three sections and a Pl HQ. Your mission is to DESTROY an enemy section hastily dug in on the hill 500m away as quickly as possible. The ground in front of your position is open and offers no cover from view or fire. To do this you will need to fire and manoeuvre your platoon into an assault position adjacent to the hill whilst keeping the enemy suppressed.” (1. Introduction, p. 1)

Take That Hill! relies on tried and true wargame design mechanisms; nothing fancy is used. Turns are IGO-UGO with Move-Fire-Rally-Enemy phases. Units move a single hex at a time. Fire combat is roll-under range to hit using a d6 with slightly different to-hit rolls for machine guns and mortars (all are clearly found on the game board and in the rule book). Units that move or fire are “spent” and must rally to keep going. Smoke missions are useful for creating cover. The most complicated game mechanic I found was the use of the Turn Track as a countdown timer; each turn the Turn Marker advances but every hit also advances a Hit Marker. Blue wins if they destroy the enemy before the combined total of Hits+Turns equals 10. If the combined total is 16 or greater then Red wins (everything in between is a Draw).

To a grognard wargamer like myself, Take That Hill! appears as an overly simplistic, narrow tactical problem that can be played out quickly (<20 minutes) with little apparent replayability. That attitude, however, ignores the intent behind Take That Hill! which is to educate non-wargamer students on basic tactics. That is where the second part of the rulebook, called “Instructors’ Corner” on pages 10-13, shows the immense educational value of this “simple” wargame primer.

The Instructors’ Corner in Take That Hill! explains a seven-game teaching series of gradually increasing complexity. The rulebook recommends setting aside at least two hours for the series.

• • Run 1 – run the wargame with base rules.
  • Run 2 – run the wargame with base rules, second attempt.
  • Run 3 – run the wargame with base rules but blue deploy in column 3 hexes [two closer than the base setup].
  • Run 4 – run the wargame with the addition of the flanking platoon in fire support.
  • Run 5 – run the wargame with the addition of a flanking machine gun position.
  • Run 6 – run the wargame with the addition of a mortar fire mission.
  • Run 7 – run the wargame with the addition of low light night rules.

After each run the Instructors’ Corner has recommended discussion questions to get players/students THINKING about what they LEARNED as they get ready to FIGHT again as they REPEAT the process.

The Instructors’ Corner of Take That Hill! pretty much assumes that the early runs of the mission will end in failure for the Blue players/students. That is not a bad or unbalanced game design but a reflection as to how Take That Hill! teaches. Players must THINK how they will FIGHT in order to LEARN the value of mutual support and supporting fires in a series of games that REPEAT in order to reinforce learning. For myself, I played (solo) through the seven recommended runs. It took me about two hours. Each run reinforced key tactical lessons. Each run was fun. Each run was educational. Each run made me want to try again.

Take That Hill! is certainly no Advanced Squad Leader: Starter Kit #1 (MultiMan Publishing, 2004) nor does it try to be. If you are a grognard wargamer looking to introduce ASL to other wargamers the starter kit is a great on-ramping title to explore. But if you want to teach a non-wargamer how to start wargaming; well, ASLSK#1 may be a bit too much.

Take That Hill!, on the other hand, is designed for non-wargamers as a teaching aid that leverages the teaching/learning power of wargames. It is one level of learning to read about tactics and another to see it visually in a movie or the like. Take That Hill! goes beyond those passive learning methods and actively puts YOU in command as YOU move YOUR units across the board and immediately see the results of YOUR decisions. While one theoretically can play the recommended seven-run series in about two hours, realistically I see it taking longer in a classroom setting with extra time needed to discuss “lessons learned” after each run. Additionally, extra planning time likely will be required before the next runs as players/students take more time to THINK about how they will FIGHT as they LEARN with each REPEAT run.

Going back to Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit #1, in many ways Take That Hill! can serve as an onboarding tool to introduce newbie wargamers to ASKSK#1 or maybe even a Tactical Combat Series game like Goose Green from The Gamers/MultiMan Publishing. Those later games are certainly more complex to learn and play but the fundamental tactical lessons from Take That Hill! are eminently applicable.

Regardless of your grognard-rating, Take That Hill! is a good introductory wargame even if that is not the original design intent. It is even better, however, as a wargame primer for non-wargamers to learn tactics. Truth be told, even grizzled grognard wargamers almost certainly should find Take That Hill! helpful in reminding them of fundamental tactics. Filler wargame? YES! Too simple? NO…just back to the basics!

[I easily can imagine grognard wargamers turning Take That Hill! into a drinking challenge. Every hit? Take a drink! Not that I advocate (excessive) drinking with wargame play but…]

You can chat about this game in the Modern World section of our discussion forums

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