What is the name of that stick used to push units around a map in war movies?

I know. Very random question. As kind of a joke some of the guys at my office want to buy one. We've set up a "war room". Or rather, management has. So we'd love to go get some of those staffs, sticks, whatever they're called and push some risk units around a domain map or something.

I can't for the life of me, though, think of the name of it and nor can I find it on the interwebs.

It's called a "stick".

Baton? Ummm... swagger stick, perhaps?

ColdForged wrote:

It's called a "stick".

Dude! There has to be a better name. A name that I could Google and then go buy a very well made prop. Yes, I know I could make one myself, but we're shooting for the top here.

I would guess that the aides de camp use a croupier stick to move the figurines and action-figures around the war room map table. A croupier stick is what a craps dealer / croupier uses to move bets around a gaming table.

IMAGE(http://images.jupiterimages.com/common/detail/46/88/23198846.jpg)

A more dilligent search might turn up a better deal, but you can get one for around $40 here.

No idea, but I bet they cost $10,000 taxpayer dollars each.

Warstick

I have spent months and months in war rooms and never thought to get a stick. For shame.

I remember invading France and not being able to find one anyplace. It was a pain in the ass. Don't ever leave the base without the pushy-reachy stick thing.

I just want to comment to say this thread pleases me greatly. Just the randomness of the question.

I want to work somewhere with a war room

Funkenpants wrote:

I remember invading France and not being able to find one anyplace. It was a pain in the ass.

Sounds like you should have been looking directly behind you. It was probably installed when you passed the bar exam.

"Pushy-reachy stick thing". There's your answer.

How about a shuffleboard Cue? Google Image Search

I love these seemingly simple random questions.

Google says they've been referred to as "croupiers' rakes" or "croupier-style rakes." Apparently, they were magnetic.

Now you've peaked my curiousity. They had to have a nickname...

OG_slinger wrote:

I love these seemingly simple random questions.

Google says they've been referred to as "croupiers' rakes" or "croupier-style rakes." Apparently, they were magnetic.

Now you've peaked my curiousity. They had to have a nickname...

The God Poker.

....you can just SEE it in your mind, the scene(s) from the movie "Battle of Britain" where the gals (wargals?) use the sticks to move the planes around the gigantic map of England........

"Large Raid Incoming", vectoring towards Coventry. Angels 15
Vectoring the 7th, 66th, and the 18th squadrons in to intercept."

Heck, now "I" want one of those sticks!!

SamF7

When I was playing Napoleonic we always called it a baton, but that's just French for stick. And googling that won't help you at all. I like the coupier's rake above, though.

Here is a more accurate visual of what I've seen in the movies and such.
Still nothing on the nomenclature though. :/

IMAGE(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/protoleo/uxbridge1.jpg)

The "Mark 14 Tactical Battlefield Map Manipulator."

There are bunchteen links at the bottom of this Wikipedia entry that might shed some light. All I'm finding is the term "rake".

Edit -- This one might also be useful. Wikipedia must be Grognard Central.

It's like an itch I can't scratch...

They didn't know what to call it even in 1945. Stars & Stripes published a booklet called "The WAC", which covered the Women's Army Corp. in the ETO:

The WAC wrote:

Typical drama lived by Wacs took place one day in January, 1944, at 9th Bombardment Division -- just 15 minutes by Messerschmitt from Germany.

"There's an enemy flight coming out of France," calmly announced Pvt. Bassie Moseley, Houston, Tex., as she adjusted her earphones. Before her was an interceptor board, a 12-foot square table marked with German and Allied air fields. Pvt. Moseley was stationed at a Marauder headquarters where she and other Wacs helped plot the movements of all aircraft in the area.

Next, she picked up a metal strip on which she began placing magnetized discs identifying the planes winging over the Channel. With a croupier-like stick, she pushed the marker and an arrow to indicate direction of flight into the Channel section of the map. Seconds passed. Pvt. Moseley moved the red arrow closer -- closer to the coast. She nudged the red arrow to point northward, then quickly swung it back; the Germans had feinted a change of course. Now they were coming straight in.

Pfc Lola McCoy, Rensselaer, Ind., leaned forward to move her RAF markers -- RAF night fighters rising to tackle the invaders. Sirens wailed. Enemy aircraft roared overhead. The tenseness in the flight control boom was broken by a dull boom.

Pfc McCoy moved her RAF marker. "One Kraut had a fighter after him," she said. Pvt. Moseley pushed the enemy marker out over the Channel. Those in the room relaxed, laughed nervously.

"Tomorrow, you'll read in the papers that enemy raiders dropped a few bombs on the coastal area," Pvt. Moseley said.

I struck out with oral histories, as well. This interview of a WAAF calls them "long sticks, like billard cues."

Even the BBC's collection of WWII stories doesn't name them. It does, however, tell an interesting story of how they evolved over the course of the war:

BBC WW2 People's War wrote:

We quickly got quite proficient at throwing the arrows down and pushing them in place with a long wooden pole with a flat piece of wood on the end. Some time later, much later, the bone arrows were changed to metal ones and the poles had a metal end with a magnet in it so the arrows be picked up and place instead of being pushed around.

I, for one, am terribly disappointed that the nation that invented Cockney Rhyming couldn't come up with a better name than "rake". For shame.

Okay, this thread has turned really funny. I'm glad I could help entertain today.

I found something that looks like it may be it (thanks to the efforts of many here).

This looks promising. I wish it were cheaper. And wooden. The picture with all the "rakes" on the table is exactly what I need.

DSGamer wrote:

Okay, this thread has turned really funny. I'm glad I could help entertain today.

I found something that looks like it may be it (thanks to the efforts of many here).

This looks promising. I wish it were cheaper. And wooden. The picture with all the "rakes" on the table is exactly what I need.

Check this one out. No pics, unfortunately, but they are much cheaper and rattan, which will look better than the metal one for 27 quid.

This one is even cheaper, 7.95 for the 36" version. 15 for the 48" version.

Seems like some lowbrow casino folks refer to a croupier's rake as a "dice stick". Sigh.

Such a simple device. No matter what they're called I bet you could build a dozen for a $10 investment at Home Depot. (or any local craft store)

Funkenpants wrote:

I remember invading France and not being able to find one anyplace. It was a pain in the ass. Don't ever leave the base without the pushy-reachy stick thing.

Please, please tell me this is a true story. That would literally make my month.

I doubt it tho

I've been drenched in WWII history and seen these many times, and I've never seen a particular name used for them in any account that I can recall. I think they are like refrigerator magnets - things that don't have a particular name and end up with the simple descriptive as their appellation.

Looks sort of like a strange tally wacker.

A little necro-FYI to let you all know that this thread is the second result on Google for "croupier stick".

Will keep looking and report back if I do find out what a croupier stick in the military context is called.

Edit: Argh, and it's the first hit for "croupier stick war". Useless!

Edit 2: Well, the Internet agrees: a coupier-style stick for wargaming doesn't have a specific name, but should.

Made an account, Just so i could Necro this ten years later to say the answer has been found.

they're called Plotting rods.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plotter_(RAF)

this link doesn't include the RAF in parentheses, but you need it. add it manually.

That term will NOT find you one for sale however, but there IS a word.

Great work, Captain Koala!