Combat Team : The Captain's War: An Interactive Exercise in Company Level Command in Battle

Rating:
Summary: Review from Parameters Magazine
Review: An  unusual book that deals with leadership at the tactical level.  "Combat Team: The Captain's War, An Interactive Exercise in Company Level Command in Battle, is by John F. Antal, an Army officer presently serving in the office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The premise of the book, which the author describes as a "scrambled text"; is that the reader commands a company-sized combined arms team and leads it through a series of combat situations. The "scrambled text" requires an action at the end of each section of the book. Readers will jump to specified sections of the narrative based on a roll of the dice or decisions they have made while working through each section. This replication of a profoundly nonlinear process illustrates the passage from Clausewitz's On War with which Antal introduces the Foreword: "Everything in war is simple, but the simplest thing is difficult. The difficulties accumulate and end by producing a kind of friction that is inconceivable unless one has experienced war." From PARAMETERS, US Army War College Quarterly, The United States Army's Senior Professional Journal,  Winter 1998, pp. 143-44.

Rating:
Summary: Combat Team; effective leadership both teaches and learns
Review: Few Americans will ever actively lead a combat unit, like the combined tank and mechanized infantry force led by the fictional Army captain in John Antal's COMBAT TEAM, yet almost anyone who must direct the efforts of others, whether it be in business, education or healthcare, can and should learn the central lesson of all the books in Colonel Antal's series of three interactive combat scenarios. To succeed, a commander at any level must develop and consider all reasonable options, then delegate authority enhanced his or her expertise, augmented in turn by what the teacher gains from the student. As the captain commands he also learns from his lieutenants, sergeants and privates. This principle should guide us all, regardless of uniform, or mission in life.

Rating:
Summary: Binary and limited
Review: I read Antal's other book (Infantry Combat) a number of years ago and felt like I actually learned some valuable insights (albeit as an "armchair" expert). This book however seemed too binary and simple. I finished it to the "best" outcome in one pass and most of the potential for bad outcomes relied on a dice roll. By binary, I mean that if you made the right choice (which seemed obvious) things went very well, if you made the wrong choice, you were dead within a couple of pages. Overall, I would say that this text oversimplifies the decision making process in combat too greatly by limiting the number of choices and with the abundance of information available. The best plans are truly simple (overly complicated plans almost never work), but if you've read anything about armor tactics, this book isn't worth much for educational value. There is no real information quandary and the fog of war seems very thin in this text. I would expect that any commander would make the right decisions in these situations, thus the limited value of this book. It would seem obvious that sometimes in combat, there is no perfect solution with an ideal outcome, just a choice about how to deal with a deadly situation in the best possible way.
That being said, I did enjoy reading this text and it was a nice entry-level exam that, in my own mind, validated what I felt I understood about armored combat.

Rating:
Summary: Binary and limited
Review: I read Antal's other book (Infantry Combat) a number of years ago and felt like I actually learned some valuable insights (albeit as an "armchair" expert). This book however seemed too binary and simple. I finished it to the "best" outcome in one pass and most of the potential for bad outcomes relied on a dice roll. By binary, I mean that if you made the right choice (which seemed obvious) things went very well, if you made the wrong choice, you were dead within a couple of pages. Overall, I would say that this text oversimplifies the decision making process in combat too greatly by limiting the number of choices and with the abundance of information available. The best plans are truly simple (overly complicated plans almost never work), but if you've read anything about armor tactics, this book isn't worth much for educational value. There is no real information quandary and the fog of war seems very thin in this text. I would expect that any commander would make the right decisions in these situations, thus the limited value of this book. It would seem obvious that sometimes in combat, there is no perfect solution with an ideal outcome, just a choice about how to deal with a deadly situation in the best possible way.
That being said, I did enjoy reading this text and it was a nice entry-level exam that, in my own mind, validated what I felt I understood about armored combat.

Rating:
Summary: Review from Parameters Magazine
Review: This book is fun and interactive. You are thrust into an immediate combat situation and are given a company of tanks, you have very little time to organize and to get to know your men. So how do you find success? Who do you rely on? What kind of information do you need before you can make your decision? This book will challenge your assumptions, preconceptions, and your skill in making sense out of information in battle.

Good luck and Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: An effective teaching guide on decision making
Review: This book is fun and interactive. You are thrust into an immediate combat situation and are given a company of tanks, you have very little time to organize and to get to know your men. So how do you find success? Who do you rely on? What kind of information do you need before you can make your decision? This book will challenge your assumptions, preconceptions, and your skill in making sense out of information in battle.

Good luck and Enjoy!