414 BC Siege of Syracuse

by

Worthington Publishing

 The man named Alcibiades looms over the Siege of Syracuse in 414 BC even though he was not even present. In point of fact, Alcibiades and his actions are the main points in the last war between Athens and Sparta to rule the Greek world. 

Alcibiades: a Roman copy of an earlier Greek work. With the head tilt and the face, it looks like it could be Alexander.

  The different wars for the control of Greece between Sparta and Athens are coming to a conclusion. One of the two is going to be the hegemon of Greece (although do not tell Thebes that). Alcibiades and his supporters came up with the brilliant idea of conquering Syracuse in Sicily. They claimed that the Syracuse was a major ally and impediment in their war against Sparta. Nicias was a conservative politician who spoke against the attack on Syracuse. Athenian democracy being what it was, Alcibiades and his group were able to get enough votes in the assembly to make the excursion a reality. The invasion force was voted to have three generals in charge, Alcibiades, Nicias (who wanted nothing to do with it), and Lamachus (a general with little political clout). The stage was set for the greatest overseas undertaking by a Greek city. 

 Athens had a number of Hermai, statues of Hermes, all over the city for good luck. On the night before the expedition was supposed to set sail, many of the statues were either destroyed or defaced, depending upon the source. Alcibiades and his friends were accused of the act. He demanded to be put on trial, but this was not done, and he sailed with the expedition. After the expedition left, enemies of Alcibiades had charges brought up against him and because of his, and his friends' absence it was passed. A fast-sailing vessel was sent to catch up to the expedition and bring him back for trial. Alcibiades somehow caught wind of this and fled to Sparta. So, the expedition was now headed by Nicias who wanted nothing better than to go home to Athens. However, the size and expectations of what the expedition could accomplish would have meant his immediate arrest and trial if he ordered it to go home. This sets the stage for the Athenian siege of Syracuse. Alcibiades helps the Spartans and their Syracusan Allies by giving them information and some great ideas. Meanwhile, the Athenian expedition is led by a man who has no heart in it and becomes increasingly unwell during the siege.



 This is what Worthington Publishing has to say about the series and this game itself:

"Syracuse 414 BC - The Athenian army lays siege to the great city of Syracuse.

Malta 1565 - The Turks versus the Knights of Malta in the last battle of the Crusades at the dawn of gunpowder.

Quebec 1759 - The siege that won North America for the English.

The Great Sieges game series highlights command decisions for players against a solitaire game engine opponent. They have been designed for easy set up and quick game play. Game unit placement is shown on the game board and units are wooden markers representing troop and ship formations. 

Each game was developed for solitaire play. In 414BC Siege of Syracuse and 1759 Siege of Quebec there is also a two-player version of the game.  Both sides require you to make great decisions based on good strategy, keep your wits about you when orders do not turn out well, and press on to victory.

The Game Map

All three games use a common set of rules for game play, but each game has its own set of unique rules related to specifics of those individual sieges.

Play Solitaire as Athenians and 2 player version too!

Unique to 414 Siege of Syracuse:

New rules for constructing walls and counter walls.

Solitaire Cards are divided into 2 decks to represent 2 Epochs of the lengthy siege.

Aggressive Commander Orders have been replaced by Leader cards that allow high risk/high rewards decisions by players.

As the Athenian side you win the game in two ways:  

Complete your siege walls around the city AND have a ship in a blockade space.

Or reduce the morale of Syracuse to zero.

As the Syracusan side, victory is achieved by: 

Holding out until the siege ends (all cards have been played).

Or the Athenian morale is reduced to zero.

Highlights of 414 BC Siege of Syracuse:

The Athenian player must keep up attacks and deal with Syracusan reinforcements that come into play.  They must also construct siege walls to choke off the city and fend off counter attacks by the city army.   As Syracuse builds counter walls the Athenian must destroy them if he expects to encircle the city.

The Syracusan side is playing for time.  It must defend the city against attacks by land and sea.  Its forces must sally out of the city to drive the morale of the Athenian side down.  Further, as the progress of siege walls is advanced by the Athenian side, Syracuse has the ability to build counter walls to slow down the progress."

 This is what comes with the games in the series:

Each game includes:

Box

Hard Mounted Game Board

2 sets of troop markers (one set per army)

2 sets of solitaire cards (one set per army) *Only 1 set of solitaire cards in 414BC Syracuse

Command Decision Cards

2 Field Order Books (one per army)

Rule Book

Custom plastic storage tray

Dice

Complexity: 3 of 10

Solitaire Suitability: 10 of 10

Playing Time: 30 to 60 minutes

Players: 1-2

Two cards

 The components are as follows. The map is not a hex or area movement one. There are places where you can put your walls, troops, and ships. Worthington has released a few of these games. They include the other Great Sieges games and Freman's Farm etc. The map is stylized because of just having the placement areas. However, the map is colorful and incredibly easy to read all of the different things on it. It is also mounted, which seems to be a feature of all of Worthington Publishing's games. You get pieces that represent either troops, ships, or walls. These are just rectangles etc. that are color coded for each side. The Rulebook is full color and is only 12 pages long. The solitaire rules take up the first nine pages and then there is about two pages of the two-player rules followed by Historical Notes. The Rulebook is easy to read and very simple to understand. The Field Order Books are made of card stock and fold out to be 11"x17" in size. These are also in full color and are easy to read. They also come with a small version of the map in the center. The different card decks are the real artwork that comes with the game. Most of the cards come with a nice piece of artwork dealing with ancient battles. The information on them for play is very easy to read. As you can see, the components pass muster easily.

 The sequence of play is very easy for the single player game. It follows the Worthington Publishing KISS thoughts on game rules. It is as follows:

Select one order to play.

Reveal the solitaire counter order card.

Resolve the action portion of the solitaire counter order card first.

Apply the results of your order using the solitaire counter order card portion.

Repeat the above.

Two more cards

 The game might seem a bit strange to some people because it does not have the usual siege tactics we are used to. There are no rams or other siege engines at play. One has to remember that this is 414 BC. The only siege techniques that are known are to surround a city and starve them out. This is why it is crucial to the Athenian player to complete his walls around Syracuse. This is also why it is imperative for the Syracusans to build their counter walls. The Athenian must also have a ship unit blockading Syracuse. There is no real turn length to the game. If the solitaire cards run out so has the Athenian time to win. These are the victory conditions:

The Athenian player wins if:

You complete all eight segments of your wall and have a ship in a blockade space. 

You reduce the Syracusan morale to zero.

The Athenian player loses if:

You run out of cards in the solitaire deck.

You also lose if your morale reaches zero.

 I did not have the ability to play the two-player version, but the solitaire game is a blast. Because of the rules, it plays quickly and easily from one phase to the next. Worthington Publishing has the game length as 30 to 60 minutes and that seems right on the money. The way the game is structured some things have to be simple and a real ancient nut like yours truly, might want more meat on its bones. However, there is enough history and plausibility built into the game to keep even me really happy when playing. Thank you, Worthington Publishing, for allowing me to review this very well thought out game on one of my favorite parts of history. With this game and 1565 Siege of Malta, (my review is linked below), my siege gaming appetite is definitely assuaged for now. 

Robert

414 BC Siege of Syracuse:

414BC Siege of Syracuse — Worthington Publishing

1565 Siege of Malta review:

The Siege of Malta 1565 by Worthington Publishing - A Wargamers Needful Things

Worthington Publishing:

Worthington Publishing

The Cruelest Month: Air War Over Arras, April 1917

by

Against The Odds Magazine

 The game that comes along with this 2020 Annual from Against the Odds magazine is about 'Bloody April'. In a war that saw so many bloody months, April 1917 saw the Royal Flying Corps (it would not become the Royal Air Force until April 1st, 1918) almost bleed out. British pilots' lives were counted in hours and days during Bloody April. This being the Holiday Season, one is reminded of Snoopy and the Red Baron song. Unfortunately for the British, the lines in the song "Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or more, the Bloody Red Baron was rollin' up the score", are quite apt for Bloody April, if not for the Richtofen himself.  

 This is what ATO has to say about the game:

"The average flying life of an RFC pilot in Arras in April was 18 hours in the air. Our whole picture-- from movies like "Dawn Patrol" or "Aces High" -- of young men going straight from flying school into combat (and straight into the ground shortly after) comes from this six-week period, preparing for and supporting the "spring offensive."

Now, Paul Rohrbaugh's The Cruelest Month looks at this struggle, with the focus primarily on-air operations and ground battle abstracted (something like he did in Chennault's First Fight.) As the British player, you will marshal your limited numbers of fighters to help secure the skies for 2-seaters that would be better suited to training planes. As the German player, you will employ your well-armed modern fighters against waves of RFC planes that simply keep coming, regardless of how many you shoot down."

This is what comes with the Annual 2020 issue:

Maps - One full color 22" x 34" hex mapsheet

Counters - 176 full color 5/8" die-cut counters

Air Displays - 2

Rules length - 16 pages

Charts and tables - 2 pages

Complexity - Medium

Playing time - Up to 3 to 4 hours

How challenging is it solitaire? - Average

Designer - Paul Rohrbaugh

Development - Steve Rawling

Graphic Design - Mark Mahaffey

Very nicely done counters and map

 As usual, this issue of ATO is filled with excellent articles from all ages of military history. These are:

THE CRUELEST MONTH:

The Arras Campaign, 1917 

 by Paul Rohrbaugh

Appendix 1: Dramatis Personae 

Appendix 2: Aircraft of Bloody April 

A TALE OF TWO PLANES by Kevin Duke

Some Other Plane Stories 

Rules of Play for The Cruelest Month: Air War over Arras 1917

 by Paul Rohrbaugh

Rules of Play for Backlash! An Expansion for The Lash of the Turk

by Andy Nunez

THE TRIPLE ENTENTE TAKES THE DARDANELLES:

What if Britain and France had won the Dardanelles Campaign? by Matthew Adams

A FURIOUS BACKLASH:

The Holy League invades occupied Hungary, 1685-99 by Andy Nunez

THE ROLE OF RACE IN PACIFIC WAR PROPAGANDA by Sam Sheikh

These are from 'Backlash' an add-on for "Lash of the Turk'

 

 As with any issue of ATO, you get a huge dose of history and a well-designed game. The Annual issues give you more of a dose than the normal issues. The articles that come with any ATO issue, at least the ones I have read, are as well written as a military history book. They should be, because a lot of the article writers have written their own books.

 At the end of the article, The Cruelest Month, are two appendices. The first, Dramatis Personae, has bios for Major General Sir Hugh Trenchard (the father of the Royal Air Force), Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, commander of the British Empire's troops in France, General Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff, usually considered the brains of the Great General Staff for the second half of World War I, General Ludwig von Kalkenhausen, German general in charge of the defense of the Arras Front. Appendix 2 gives us the information on all of the aircraft on either side that fought the battle in the air. The next article, A Tale of Two Planes, is a deeper dive into some of the major aircraft from both sides and how they were used in Bloody April. 

Some of the two-part map

 Just so you understand, this is not a game of air-to-air combat above the fields around Arras. This game puts you in the general's seat of either side. Here is more information about the game:

"While losses in the air were puny compared to the thousands dying on the ground, those aerial actions had great impact on how things worked out on the ground. The Cruelest Month will give you a full selection of aerial operations, including balloon busting, ground attack, bombing, and the all-important photo-recon and artillery observation missions, plus the fighter dogfights that center around protecting or stopping all the others. You'll use a Air Battle Board for these fights, and your planes will interact with ground forces on a map of the Arras area.

On the ground, your gray-suited soldiers will face mines, tanks, and the newly adapted "creeping barrage," in trying to maintain your hold on key defense lines. Can you hold the line? For the British, your objective is not so focused on the big "breakthrough," but now working with the idea of biting off chunks of key landscape and holding it. Can you equal the magnificent Canadian assault on Vimy Ridge?"

English Air/Ground Display

 This is the game's Sequence of Play:

Random Event Phase

Airbase Construction Phase

Initiative Phase

Air Operations Phase

Ground Operations Phase

Supply Determination Phase

Regroup Phase

Allied reinforcement Phase

Victory Points Phase

 The victory levels are determined by subtracting the German VP total from the Allied VP total. The victory levels are:

19 or fewer VPs: German Victory

20-40 VPs: Draw

41 or more VPs: Allied victory (historic result)

 The victory points are received by either forcing your opponent to abort air missions or by losing air strength points. At the end of the game, you also get victory points for losing or gaining ground hexes, specifically for the Allies to take Vimy Ridge and parts of the Hindenburg Line or for the Germans to keep them in their control.

 The magazine itself is 53 pages. It comes with the articles listed above. It is its usual beautiful full color self. There is one full counter sheet for The Cruelest Month game. There is also a smaller counter sheet for use with the add on scenarios for ATO's earlier game, The Lash of the Turk. The counters for The Cruelest Month are 5/8" in size. The plane counters show an above view of each plane that is in that group. The counters are all very nicely done. The ground campaign counters are not little works of art like the plane ones. However, they are easily read and some, like the artillery, tanks, and balloons are made as well as the plane ones. There is an Airbase Display for each player. These are made of thin cardboard. You may want to copy them and use the printed sheets. The map is split into two separate sections. One is a map for the ground war and the operations of the air groups. The other contains the Air Battle Board for resolving aerial combats. Printed on the map are also the Turn Record Track, Game Record track, Random Events Table, and the Sequence of Play. All of the components are well done. Be careful when unfolding the map. I fat fingered it and ripped a small hole in it. Fortunately for me, where I damaged it has no bearing on the map's usefulness at all. 

German Air/Ground Display

  I very much like the game and its play. Please remember that you are not dogfighting separate planes but groups of them. This is an operational look at the air and ground war around Arras in 1917. If your play is bad enough you can call in reserves. However, like a lot of games, you will get penalized in victory points for doing so. The Allied player will also be penalized if there is clear weather, and he does not execute a bombing mission. This gives the German player a whopping +4 victory points. So, try to avoid this at all costs.

Another look at the counters

 This large annual edition is also filled with excellent information on other times and wars. The issue also comes with rules and counters for 'Backlash' a few scenarios to add to one of ATOs earlier games Lash of the Turk. The scenarios look interesting; however, I do not own that issue so I cannot give you a rundown of them and the game.

 Thank you, Against The Odds for letting me review this close look at Bloody April from a totally different view than the cockpit. 

 They also have a surprise for we grognards. ATO is doing a reprint of 'Stalingrad Verdun on the Volga' in an annual issue format. This game originally only came in a boxed version. It sold out incredibly fast and is now as rare as hen's teeth. This is what comes with the Ziplock version:

 Maps - One full color 17" x 44" hex mapsheet

Counters - 230+ full color 5/8" die-cut counters

Rules length - 24 pages

Charts and tables - 4 pages

Complexity - Medium

Playing time - Up to 3 to 4 hours

How challenging is it solitaire? - Average

Designer - Mikael Rinella

Development - Kevin Duke

Graphic Design - Mark Mahaffey

   Just a few pics to wet your whistle.

Robert

Against the Odds Magazine:

Against the Odds (atomagazine.com)

The Cruelest Month: Air War over Arras, April 1917:

Against the Odds (atomagazine.com)

Stalingrad: Verdun on the Volga:

Against the Odds (atomagazine.com)

 

 

 The Fate of All

Strategikon Book I: Alexander's Campaign Against the Persian Empire, The First Diadochi War, and Other Deeds

by

Thin Red Line Games

 When I saw that a new Alexander game was coming out my eyes perked up. However, once I saw the part of the title that says 'The First Diadochi War' I started to drool. The Diadochi (Successors) Period is my favorite in all of history. I cannot pass up the chance to say Antigonus "the oldest and greatest of Alexander's Successors" (Plutarch).

 This is an interview with Fabrizio Vianello about him, his company, and the game.

Please tell us how you got into wargaming?

I think I was 14 years old, already reading anything I could find about the Punic Wars and the battles of World War Two, when I stumbled on a magazine article about “War Games”, played with miniatures or paper maps and counters. In a matter of weeks, I was the youngest member of an Italian wargaming club and I had bought AH’s “Panzer Leader”, costing me a fortune. They call it the golden age, but at the time to obtain most of the games in Italy you had to put together a group order and have someone going in the US.

What games did you play the most?

I was (and still am) primarily an SPI fan, so we played a lot of War Between the States, The Next War, Global War, Fulda Gap, Sniper! and so on. Later on, I spent at least a couple of years playing only Squad Leader. I’m also an avid player of role-playing games, with 30 or more years gamemastering Dungeons&Dragons, Traveller and Vampires 

Tell us about your 1985 series of World War III massive games.

The 1985 series started as an air and ground simulation with an abstract naval element, and developed during the years into a full naval, air and ground simulation taking into account strategic and logistical problems on a planetary scale.

The 15 maps cover central Europe from France to Poland, Scandinavia, Iran and the Persian Gulf. Moreover, a Lines Of Communication area map covers the whole globe and allows to organize (and fight for) the supply and reinforcement lines. The three combined modules include 1700 land units at battalion, brigade, regiment and division level, 1000 aircraft units at squadron level, 300 helicopter units at squadron and regiment level, 400 naval units at single ship and task force level, and 90 submarine units. Practically most of NATO, US and Warsaw Pact armed forces are represented, plus a number of other countries like Austria, Sweden, Iran, Iraq, and several Middle East countries.

Given the scope and complexity of the scenario, we tried our best to include every important aspect of a high intensity conflict set in the ‘80s, without an excessive level of micromanagement. In the end, every possible weapon system, problem, and option is on the table, with a particular attention to air warfare – probably the decisive battlefield in a full-scale war between NATO and Warsaw Pact.

So, your newest game takes a right turn and goes to ancient wargaming and Alexander the Great. Why the change from the Cold War to ancients?

Well, I’ve been busy with the Cold War Gone Hot for the last seven years, and I really needed a change, no matter how much I’m interested to the topic! As my other great passion has always been the Classical Period, Alexander the Great looked like an obvious choice. Also, there’s a lot of space for new ideas in one thousand years of history! In any case, Cold War warriors do not have to worry. We still have 2 modules of the C3 series to develop, In a Dark Wood and Bavarian Rhapsody, not to mention the insane 1985: Mutual Assured Destruction project, containing all the three 1985 modules and delivered in a nuclear-resistant box.

I am a big sucker for anything ancients. Please tell us everything you can about the new game.

I’ve also played a lot of ancient games to the consumption, and with a very few exceptions I’ve found that ancient warfare is represented in an excessively simplified way. The main culprits are area movement, making a march from Greece to Babylon a trivial matter, and logistics, usually limited to a single die roll and a generic “winter is bad” rule. The Fate of All tries to give back to ancient warfare its operational, realistic traits and problems.

The first step in this direction was the use of a traditional hex map, opening all the possibilities when planning a move. A march from the Aegean to Cilicia could use dozens of different routes, each one with its own advantages and problems. Having a detailed map (30 km per hex) also allowed to assign a distinct supply value to the different regions, and to have realistic and precise march rates, taking into account the size of the army and its baggage.

The second step was to analyze and reproduce the logistics problems of an ancient army. This has been the research part that surprised me more, as I’ve discovered aspects and tricks that I never suspected; a good example is the number of draft animals needed to carry provisions beyond a certain number of days…you may find all the details in the Designers’ Notes.

When the map and the logistic constraints are put to work together, you find yourself with the same problems faced by the Macedonian and Persian commanders 2400 years ago, and suddenly some previously inexplicable choices made by them start making sense. Even the apparently simple, 20-days march of Alexander from Therme to Abydos requires some planning in order to be completed without incidents and in the same number of days.

Of course, movement and logistic are only the tip of the iceberg. Players must face money problems, difficult sieges requiring a bit of creativity, army morale problems that could be solved or worsened by the military events, revolts of cities and whole regions, treasons, and of course naval and land battles.

Asia Minor in May 334, just after the Battle of the Granicus

The land battles deserve a more detailed explanation, as they can be decided by using a faster “strategic combat” method, or by physically deploying the two armies on the tactical map and using the Tactical Combat rules. Both systems take into account factors like combined arms, morale, leadership, and terrain, but the Tactical Combat is of course the ultimate tool for a decisive battle and offers a detailed but not overwhelming insight of the tactics, advantages and weaknesses of the various troop types.

The Macedonian right flank in the final phase of the Battle of the Granicus

Last but not least, defining the order of battle and the exact characteristics for each unit and troop type was a fascinating research work. Here too, there was a lot of surprises, as it was immediately clear how much uncertainty there is still today about the equipment, the tactics and the numbers of both sides – Much more than I’ve ever thought.

In conclusion, I hope that The Fate of All will help understand how incredible Alexander’s campaign was, and why he really deserves to be called the Great.

The four maps in very low resolution

 Thank you for taking the time to write this up for us. I hope your ancient game will become a series like your '1985' games. I will keep my fingers crossed that it happens, and the games go at least until Antiochus the Great's time.

Thin Red Line Games:

Thin Red Line Games - (trlgames.com)

The Fate of All:

The Fate of All - Thin Red Line Games (trlgames.com)

 Combat Mission Final Blitzkrieg and DLC Downfall

by

Matrix/Slitherine Games

 This is the final Combat Mission game in the series, and its release will also coincide with the release of a DLC for Final Blitzkrieg. The Combat Mission series is one that has been one of, if not the, best tactical games on the PC for a long time. The different games have spanned the time from World War II to the present. 

 This is what Matrix/Slitherine Games has to say about the dual release:

"Combat Mission Final Blitzkrieg (CMFB) follows the Western Allies through the battles along Germany's border and into the heart of the Reich itself. The game covers the October 1944 through January 1945 timeframe with a focus on the American sector of the Battle of the Bulge.

The Sturmtiger

Combat Mission Final Blitzkrieg allows you to revisit the famous battlefields along the German border, with the wintery Battle of the Bulge as its main focus. It was a time and place where the Wehrmacht was still highly capable at the tactical level, yet fairly evenly matched against the American forces arrayed against it. The mix of harsh weather in an unforgiving rugged environment ensured the fighting was challenging for both sides.

Two expansive campaigns offer two very different experiences. One focuses on American forces pushing into Aachen, the first major German city to fall into Allied hands. The other portrays the famous drive of Kampfgruppe Peiper deep into the American lines. Also included are one training campaign, 25 standalone scenarios, and multitudes of Quick Battle maps that will test your tactical acumen and give you easy access to the full range of weather, terrain, and forces from this period and place in time.

Close-up shot of a German 88

Features

Tactical warfare at battalion and below scale in a true 3D environment

Command individual vehicles, teams, and squads

Expansive simulation of "soft factors" such as Morale, Experience, and Leadership

Innovative systems portraying Fog of War, Spotting, Line of Sight, Command & Control, and Objectives

Unmatched realistic physics, ballistics, and battlefield effects

Fight in a wide range of weather and lighting conditions, all of which realistically impact fighting abilities

Unique hybrid system for RealTime or WeGo (turn based) play

Full featured Editor for maps, scenarios, and campaigns

Quick Battle system sets up deliberate or randomized battles based on player specifications

Single player and head to head play, including Play By Email (PBEM)

The final array of German heavy armor makes its first appearance in Combat Mission

American forces also have much improved armor, including the M36 tank destroyer

Organizational changes in the formations on both sides give even the most experienced CM player new tactical challenges and opportunities

The winter weather and forested terrain set the tactical experience apart from all other CM games

Three Regions within the game help set the mood with Dutch, French, and German accents

Expansive maps with 1m x 1m resolution allow for short and long range action across complex terrain

Buildings have explicitly simulated doors, windows, and floors

Weather and ground condition modelling systems allow for everything from dry sunny days to muddy stormy nights, with visibility and mobility dynamically affected by the conditions. Some Combat Mission games include the full range of Winter, Spring, and Fall weather as well

Line of Sight and Line of Fire are separately calculated, which means sometimes you can see something you can't shoot and sometimes you can shoot at things you can't see

Soldier posture (prone, kneeling, standing) affects everything including spotting, cover, and ability to engage enemies

The way a nation organizes its units has a huge impact on how they perform in combat, therefore great pains are taken to accurately portray formations as they are in real life for a particular point in time

Lighting affects combat in no small way in real life as well as in the game. The correct lighting conditions are simulated based on time of day, time of year, and weather."

Allied Forces 

 They are also having a sale right now on the other Combat Mission games:

The Matrix team is thrilled to inform you that this week, from January 15th to January 22nd, our entire franchise Combat Mission will be participating in the Midweek Madness Sale, off up to 50%. For example, you can now find Fortress Italy, Shock Force 2 or Battle for Normandy at half price.

Matrix/Slitherine Games:

Welcome to Matrix Games

Combat Mission sale:

Games on Sale - Matrix Games