Chatter Behind the Bike Sheds - The Cult of the Black SS

Has any period of war ever had such a polarising effect? Possibly the Roman's given the popularity of the Roman armies but the difference is that other than the misconception that all Roman's wore red (Thanks Hollywood) you don't get much outside comment on your Roman army when you get it out in public.

The SS on the other hand can get ugly real quick. I would hazard a guess that their is more SS armies for Flames of War than any other single formation and I am willing to bet that if you take a cross section of teenage players that ratio shoots right up. To start off with the SS are always depicted as being super efficient and add the bad boy image and you have wargames gold.

Not that it starts or ends with FoW, no sir not by a long chalk. The SS are a big draw not only in FoW, not even in figure gaming nor all of wargaming but in anything that has something to do with them. Be it historical memorabilia, reproduction or real, books reinactments or hobby related it's always a big draw and as such it's always a commercial opportunity. 

Germany with good reason has banned the swastika and as far as I know is the only country where denying the holocaust is a crime. But still the cult of the SS remains strong around the world. My intention is not to actually discuss the actual SS nor the relationship it has with far right movements even today, that is other than to say that it's wrong and very misguided. No what I want to talk about is the Cult of the Black SS, both in games and the supporting industry.

Way back when board wargames was the bigger of the two wargames arms (computer games being not yet thought of) the first strike for special treatment was the use of black counters to represent the SS. Special rules were introduced to represent the extra discipline or combat effectiveness of the SS and a star was born, even if it was a dark one.

I am not saying the SS did not need special rules, nor am I saying that supplying their own colour counters was a bad thing. What I do believe was that in doing so a precedent was set and a fashion was created. Why black? well for a start it's striking and would stand out against all other national counters and black and bad can go hand in hand just as well as black and sexy which is fortunate as I am sure different folks see them as one or the other.

Of course it has become more fashionable to address all German's fighting in WWII as Nazi's I think your hard pressed to get a book published in the last five or so years that does not constantly refer to Nazi soldiers with the term German Soldier failing to be used more than a few times through the book. Books being the chief misuse of said catch phrase. The idea that every German soldier (or probably even the majority) were of Nazi persuasion is clearly wrong and ignores that the typical German soldier was as much a victim as Tommy, Comrade, Buddy etc. It's a trend that actually I fear is more dangerous and damaging than most would consider. How long will it be till it's accepted that the only evil or wrong doing was those Nazi's and forget that every major nation played it's part in making WWII not only possible but inevitable.

But I digress, lets get back to the books, the books pictured above is simply a few pulled from a very large collection with four of the books from the same author and given that they are all from the same publisher it's not too surprising they have the same look.

However this is another book from my collection and surprise surprise it's also available in black. So obviously I am drawn to such books but a quick search shows that you are hard pressed to find books on the SS that are not dressed so, for example.

Lots more volumes from this series, again note the use of red on the cover, seven books out of seven so far.

This book lacks the red, the first one so far but keeps with the fashion of black and white and the stark relief it gives.

The black is somewhat more subliminal but it's still there and the red is back. Red of course is another colour that is seen as sexy, just sayin'.

Full house here, not that all the images of SS books were fitting the pattern I am showing here. I found TWO books under the search of SS Book Images out of over twenty that did not conform to the formula I present here. That's quite worrying that so many books share such a narrow design style.

My favourite board game Advanced Squad Leader launched with special rules for the SS and as such has counters just for the SS and have the SS lightning ruins in the top right corner to remind you they are SS. The counters were still the same colour blue as standard Germans but when Avalon Hill released The Bridge to Far historical module it released the first and last official black ss counters for ASL. That module now commands around £400 on Ebay due in part to being out of print but also because of the ss counters!

Not that other providers of ASL have not also provided black counters for the ss, I personally have at least five sets of ss counters from other packs.

The rarest of these third party producers counters can really increase the value of a pack when sold on ebay. Rarity itself pushes the price up but the fun using such counters at an event you can have as the debate rages over your game on their use adds a few pounds to the final bid I am sure.

Not that ASL or Avalon Hill have the monopoly on the black ss counter. Avalanche Press released a scenario book and counter set covering the SS and their involvement in the battle for Normandy.

Again the pack comes with the black counters that so often are used to depict the SS but in this case the Nazi emblems are missing which seems more tasteful.

So it's clear that the ss get special treatment either from the marketing department or based on the historical use of such things as black counters but is this a bad thing?

Yes and no is the answer I think. Yes in the fact that the wider audience and more importantly the less informed onlookers get exposure to the special treatment and as such can and often will come to the conclusion that somehow the ss are being looked up to and admired. It's fortunate that unless you have direct exposure to our hobby you don't see the even greater fan base that the ss have. More so as the chance of them understanding that special treatment and it's context within wargameing. much easier to brand all that wargame as warmongers and secret Nazi's. Something we have had to deal with in the past and still have to explain away at times.

No because any informed gamer is aware of the fact that the fighting units of the ss tended to be tougher than the army equivalent, was better armed and trained and was an elite formation. However all this could be done without their own special coloured counters and the downside is very often not worked into the units such as the high casualty rate often received on accomplishing the objective.

As for me I still use the black counters, still get a little satisfaction from knowing it pisses some people off and whilst that should not make me smile it still does. Black ss are sexy and I know it.