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

John Antal (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 10, 1998

You are the combat commander in this innovative interactive book.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Antal is a US Army lieutenant colonel at the Army War College at Carlisle Barracks in Pennsylvania and the author of the acclaimed Armor Attacks: The Tank Platoon.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Presidio Press (March 10, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891416358
• ISBN-13: 978-0891416357
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,240,395 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review from Parameters Magazine, December 17, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Combat Team: The Captain's War: An Interactive Exercise in Company Level Command in Battle (Paperback)

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.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Realistic, detailed, thought provoking, March 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Combat Team: The Captain's War: An Interactive Exercise in Company Level Command in Battle (Paperback)

Should be required reading for all Army officers. If you want to be able to save "Private Ryan" someday, Captain, then you'd better start working on this book. Antal is a master of leadership and tactics and excels in his ability to teach the reader these difficult subjects. He is also a fascinating storyteller. His characters and the events they experience are vibrant but ,unlike other novels, you don't just observe the action you live it. Your active participation in the decisionmaking process lets you come as close as possible to truly experiencing the leadership challenges faced by today's young commanders. A must read for anyone who wishes to improve their leadership skills and to better understand America's Army.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Once again an interesting work!, June 22, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Combat Team: The Captain's War: An Interactive Exercise in Company Level Command in Battle (Paperback)

The third interactive exercise by this author deals with tank warfare at company level: Two Abrams platoons and two Bradley platoons are tasked to fight through difficult terrain in order to assist surrounded friendlies behind enemy lines. The reader can experience different phases of combat and make decisions which determine the outcome of a whole operation. The book teaches some basic military tactics, because obvious tactical mistakes will immediately lead to friendly losses.For professional soldiers (especially tankers) this exercise should be no challenge. Nevertheless it's more interesting and colourful than most of the decision games I faced so far. For people with military interests this book is worth reading anyway.

By the way: The author seems to like quotations. Every section starts with one. I wonder why you can only encounter German sources here if you choose the wrong decision somewhere. As a German officer I don't mind - as long as that doesn't mean anything...