GIVE US VICTORIES

FROM

DISSIMULA EDIZIONI

Once again it's many thanks to Dissimula Edizioni for providing this review copy of Give Us Victories.  Having greatly enjoyed their previous game From Salerno To Rome, I was enthusiastically waiting to see both the contents and the system involved in their latest production.  Most periods hold an interest for me, but the ACW is one that I have always enjoyed.   Chancellorsville has been covered in a number of ways beginning with the very early Avalon Hill edition in 1961, which was reissued in 1974. No surprise that, considering their time of publication, both were very conventional hex and counter treatments.  My most recent encounter has been with Worthington's Chancellorsville, a markedly different approach at a strategic/operational level using a small number of kriegspiel-type wooden rods to represent the individual corps and division-sized units and hidden, off-map displays for recording strength levels.  Enjoyable though it is as a game, I was looking for something more substantial with Give Us Victories.  I'm glad to say that I haven't been disappointed, though there were several surprises when I opened the zip-lock version of the game that Dissimula Edizioni generously provided.  As ever I'd like to thank the company for this.

The major surprise was that the package encompasses three separate games.  Added to these is a substantial solo play component, as well as a Variable Placement Map and a number of optional forces.  The latter two items give great additional replay value to the main game that will be the focus of my review.

Maintaining the quality established in From Salerno To Rome, the playing area is a similar two-map product of crisp, thick paper and visually very attractive.  The overlapping alignment of the two is perfect, with good-sized hexes that accommodate the equally impressive counters.  Even more impressive is the provision of two sets of counters: pictorial icons and standard NATO symbols.  A tough choice, as both look look splendid.

As you can see, my personal choice has gone to the icons.  Whichever you do prefer, they need some counter clipping, but the result as seen below is highly satisfying.

What is equally satisfying is the comparatively low unit density for the whole campaign game and the pleasingly simple set of rules that take up a mere 11 pages of the rule book's 27 pages.  Though it has to be said that the print size of the rules is very small, I have had no difficulties reading them.  The full campaign consists of five days with five turns a day.  Despite this 25 turn length, this is no monster.  Instead it can be easily completed in a half-day's play.  In part, this is because each side has a limited number of action points meaning that each turn you can activate only a portion of your army.  The other reason is that the rules, though containing a number of innovative elements, can be easily assimilated after little more than a single read and the quick play of a couple of the very short mini-scenarios.  You won't find your head stuck endlessly in a rule book, but be concentrating on the action

Sequence of Play

Players spend their turn's activation points to place formation leader chits into a suitable cup/bag.  Each point allows a Confederate division or Union Corps to be activated.  Each player also has an Independent chit that is automatically placed in the draw cup.

Activation 

When a formation leader chit is drawn it's placed on the map and all units of that formation within range can move and have combat.  When the Independent chit is drawn, it is placed on the map and any three units that have not yet been activated in or adjacent to the chit's hex can be activated.  The use of Higher Commanders and a single detachment marker for each side add a little extra flavour and choice. That is the essence of a turn in a nut shell. 

Based on this framework, all the rules are very clearly explained and illustrated with good graphics and examples highlighted in blue boxes.  Above all, the two most important areas - Movement and Combat - are easy to execute while introducing unusual features. 

For Movement, three major points combine to create a very fluid and simple to execute situation.  There are no ZOCs, there is a +1 MP cost to enter any non-woods hex adjacent to an enemy unit and all types of enemy units are allowed to retreat a hex when you move adjacent to them.  This combination, especially the lack of ZOCs, immediately eliminates a whole range of rules that can often bog down game play.  

Combat too is wonderfully simple with no need for any charts. Work out the strength ratio between the units in a particular combat [e.g. 3 to 1] add 1 to each number and that's the number of dice you roll, scoring hits on 5 or 6. [e.g. that ratio of 3 to 1, becomes 4 dice rolled by one side and 2 dice by the other.]  A limited number of modifiers may be made for such things as terrain, breastworks and fortifications, elite units, encirclement or events.  Most involve adding +1 to a die roll or a player getting one less die to roll or an automatic attacker step loss.  Once again all are easy to remember and execute, as are retreat, advance, disorder and demoralisation.

Rules for the two major rivers, the Rappahannock and the Rapidan, pontoons and supply linked to roads introduce further flavour to the game.  Yet all do so with a simplicity that means the game retains its refreshing clarity and speed of play, even when engaged in the full campaign scenario set out below.

The Union start with the burden of attack and both sides have the bulk of their forces lined up north and south of the Rappahannock on the eastern portion of the map.    This can be better perceived in the following close up, which appears to present a tough fight for the Union.

However, further west are more Union troops poised to unhinge the Confederate position with a slim Confederate cavalry division attempting a delaying action.  How the Confederates respond will be perhaps the most crucial test.  They have the edge in the number of activations and must in part seek out swift counter-punches.  Neither side has an easy, obvious path to victory and the Variable Placement Map extends the potential replay value even more, allowing you to explore different dispositions for each side.

As a prelude to the full campaign, there are four short scenarios that act very much as rules learning exercises.  Frankly, the rules are so easy and well explained that I feel they are hardly necessary.  on the other hand they do make the package all the more appealing to a beginner as well as a died-in-the-wool gamer as myself. They also allow you to explore small historical moments in the battle, especially as the full campaign may well play our differently from its historical course.  The area used for the Jackson Attacks scenario is typical of the compact size of these scenarios.

My views on the rest of what the game provides are mixed and none more so than with the solo game which allows you to play the campaign as the Confederate player against the Union A.I.  This solo component, entitled Hurrah For Old Joe, significantly dwarfs the simplicity of the core game's rules.  First of all the last 6 pages the main rule book cover the A.I. rules and then has its own separate solo book that is essential for game play.

All these elements combine together with the further addition of the display map that you see below.

I have found it both confusing to understand and that it confounds the very ease of game play for which I strongly commend the core game.  In addition, you are playing with two markedly different sets of counters; the normal Confederate ones from the main game and a totally different set of Union ones.  I know how popular and fashionable it is to include a solo system, but for personal enjoyment I'm having a much better time playing both sides to the best of my ability.

On the other hand, more bonus material provides two further light games that sit at the the two extremes of strategical and tactical play.  Of these two I personally prefer the simple strategic game, A Perfect Plan.   With a mere 6 turns, the A3 strategic map shown below, 17 formation units and 10 minor units and 2 pages of rules, it is very much a lunchtime's interlude and a very pleasant one.

Variety certainly seems to have been uppermost in the designer's mind for the tactical game, with its title, The Red Die of Courage giving the nod to one of the most famous novels of the American Civil War!  Here we move away completely from the specific battle of Chancellorsville to present a very simple introductory skirmish system, with 48 cardboard standees and a sheet of cardboard terrain and three pages of rules.

 

The set-up guidelines are that it be played out on a table top of minimum dimensions 120cm x 80cm, with as many obstacles and terrain features as possible and with at least 20 figures per side.  These all suggest the miniatures gamer as its target. Yet the brief rules mix with its avowed focus on the main mechanic being based on "calculated risk" of a push your luck type seems to head off in a very different direction.  If the intention was to draw the conventional hex and counter buyer of the main game off in a new direction, I'm not sure that it will serve its purpose.  

So overall be prepared to be a little [even a lot] surprised by the package in its entirety.  Whether the unusual additions will appeal to you, I'm not sure, but I can strongly recommend the main game for its quality, its highly accessible rules and swift engaging game play.