Ambush!

Ambush! is a man-to-man wargame developed by Avalon Hill. It was released under Avalon's Victory Games label and was developed by Eric Lee Smith and John Butterfield. In 1984, Ambush! won the Origins Award for Best 20th Century Boardgame of 1983. It has been out of print since Avalon Hill was disbanded in 1998.

Ambush! was innovative when it was released in 1983 since it was exclusively designed for single player play. Up to that point, wargames generally required at least two players. This was necessary since a player always had to play and control the opponent. Ambush! solved this problem by having the game scenario itself control the opponent. It accomplished this via tables, charts and a "paragraph book" which the player referred to see how the opponent was reacting.

Having the scenario dictate the actions of the opponent had another advantage: perfectly hiding the enemy. In all previous board based wargames, chits or markers had to be placed on the board representing enemy units. Some chits contained question marks or otherwise hid what was actually on the space, but the opposing player knew where likely areas for the enemy were. With Ambush!, the enemy had no markers on the board at all until they became visible (usually by attacking the player).

Ambush

An ambush is a long-established military tactic, in which combatants take advantage of concealment and the element of surprise to attack unsuspecting enemy combatants from concealed positions, such as among dense underbrush or behind hilltops. Ambushes have been used consistently throughout history, from ancient to modern warfare.

History

The use by early humans of the ambush may date as far back as two million years when anthropologists have recently suggested that ambush techniques were used to hunt large game.

More recently, an ambush often might involve thousands of soldiers on a large scale, such as over a mountain pass. Ambushes appear many times in military history. One outstanding example from ancient times is the Battle of the Trebia river. Hannibal encamped within striking distance of the Romans with the Trebia River between them, and placed a strong force of cavalry and infantry in concealment, near the battle zone. He had noticed, says Polybius, a "place between the two camps, flat indeed and treeless, but well adapted for an ambuscade, as it was traversed by a water-course with steep banks, densely overgrown with brambles and other thorny plants, and here he proposed to lay a stratagem to surprise the enemy".

Ambush (1950 film)

Ambush is a 1950 western film directed by Sam Wood and starring Robert Taylor, John Hodiak and Arlene Dahl. This was the last film directed by Sam Wood. The plot is based based on the serial story Ambush by Luke Short in The Saturday Evening Post (25 Dec 1948–12 Feb 1949).

The movie was filmed on location at the Corriganville Ranch in Simi Valley, California, home of hundreds of western movies and television shows through the decades as well as such outdoor action films as The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and Jungle Jim (1948). Additional location work for the film took place in and around Gallup, New Mexico.

Plot synopsis

In 1878, Ward Kinsman (Robert Taylor), a prospector and Indian scout, has been persuaded by the US Cavalry to find Mary Carlyle, the daughter of a general, who has been taken by Apaches.

Setting out on the trail with a few cavalrymen and Ann Duverall (Arlene Dahl), Mary’s sister, they come across an Apache encampment. Ward learns from an Apache woman that Mary has been taken by an Apache called Diablito. Returning to the cavalry fort with Tana, a captive Apache, preparations are made for a full-scale expedition to find Diablito.