Almoravid

Reconquista and Riposte in Spain, 1085-1086

Levy & Campaign Series - Volume II

by

GMT Games

  His name was Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, we know him as El Cid. He was given the moniker Al-Sid by the Spanish Moors. It morphed into El Cid, meaning 'The Lord'. The Spanish knew him as 'El Campeador 'The Champion'. What I knew about him for a long time was derived from the 1961 movie El Cid. First things first, he did not resemble Charlton Heston in any way. I must admit to be sorely lacking in Spanish history during the Moors or the Reconquista. I was under the impression that he was from a later century than the Almoravid game is based in. So, I was a little bummed out to find the actual time the game portrays. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the mighty El Cid was actually in the game, and my timeline for his life was completely wrong. I have tried to play the game using a profile look like Heston, much like John Barrymore, but my attempts were futile. You cannot really see the board and my nose was not meant for it. So, just like any good wargamer, at least I hope, my job was to read as much as I could about the times portrayed in the game. As usual fiction beats the cold light of history by a mile, although it is not always the case.

 This is GMT's writeup about the game:

"Al-Andalus, 1085. The western jewel of Islam had broken into pieces. The petty Taifa emirs who inherited the once-mighty Caliphate squabbled and fought, then paid the Christian lords Parias in gold to avoid fighting at all. Alfonso VI, Christian king of a unified León and Castilla, could now put his extorted dinars to work. He would muster a great feudal host—not merely for plunder but to rip out the heart of Muslim Spain. He would seize the ancient Visigothic capital of Toledo and with it the great central plain to declare himself imperator of all Iberia.

But Alfonso would find there was fight left in al-Andalus, as Christian strikes radiating from Toledo were too much for even the emirs in their pleasure palaces to bear. Al‑Mutamid of Sevilla, the strongest among them, would risk the Taifa dynasties’ independence and call to arms a Muslim force unlike any that the Christian Kings had faced. Granada and Badajoz would join him to invite the Almoravid fundamentalists in to save the Muslim faithful. Yusuf, Sultan al‑Murabitun, had secured his Berber empire in Africa and seized a port and fleet just across the Mediterranean strait from al-Mutamid's Algeciras. A titanic campaign for Spain was set to unfold."

This was a promo picture that I just love

 This is what comes with the game:

A mounted game board 22" x 25 1/2" 

• Sixteen Lord cylinders (7 yellow, 9 green) 

• A Lords sticker sheet (apply to cylinders) 

• Sixteen Lord mats 

• One Battle/Storm mat 

• 78 Horse wedges (26 silver [Knights], 23 steel [Sergeants], 10 

blue [African Horse], 19 brown [Light Horse])

• 83 Foot bars (30 steel [Men-at-Arms], 14 blue [African Foot], 

33 brown [Militia], 6 tan [Serfs])

• Three sheets of markers and counters. 

• Four decks of playing cards (26 Christian and 26 Muslim Arts 

of War cards, 27 Christian and 33 Muslim Command cards)

• Two player aid foldouts (summarizing Sequence of Play, 

Commands, Forces, and Battles) 

• A Taifa Politics and Orientation Map reference sheet 

• Two screens 

• Six 6-sided dice (three yellow, three green) 

• A background booklet (not needed for play) 

• This rules booklet. 

Lord Mat

 This game was designed by Volko Ruhnke, who also designed Nevsky: Teutons and Rus in Collision, 1240-1242. That game took the wargaming world by storm when it was released. Sadly, I have not had the chance to play it. However, Almoravid is the second game in the 'Levy and Campaign Series'. It uses much of the same rules and playing as its older brother, but naturally has been fine tuned for this time period in the Iberian Peninsula.

One of many of the Player's Aids

 As mentioned, the map is mounted. However, that is just like saying the Mona Lisa has a frame around it. It is a beautiful pseudo-medieval map of some of the Iberian Peninsula. Movement on it is from point to point, but the points are mostly cities that are done in an elegant style. It looks like a map that might have come from an early edition of Lord of the Rings. The Lord Maps are like army holding boxes from other games. They look like oversized square coasters. They are not overly adorned, but work well with the other components. The four Decks of Cards do not have much art on them, but again work with the rest of the game parts. They are very easy to read and follow. There are three hard stock Player Aids. They are also in full color. Two are a four-page foldout for each player. One page is for Commands, and the others are for Forces, Strongholds, Battle & Storm, and the Sequence of Play. The third Player Aid has a map of the game to see where the Lords from both sides start on the map. The other side is for the Taifa Politics. The Rulebook is in full color and large type. It comes in at thirty-five pages. However, the rules themselves are only 23 pages long with the rest being the scenarios. There are five scenarios and the Campaign Game. The Background Book is worth its weight in gold. The first eighteen pages are filled with Examples of Play. From there until page forty-eight is a history of how the events came to pass. It also has small biographies of each of the Lords in the game. This part of the booklet is worth the price of admission alone. Then comes a separate write up for every one of the Arts of War Card deck. The counters are large sized and easy to read. They also seem tough enough to take a lot of game play. You do have to put sixteen stickers on their respective round Lord wooden pieces. GMT Games was very nice in adding another sixteen stickers as spares. The piece de resistance is the two-fold out screens for each player. The outside of the screens looks like a medieval tapestry. The inside has all of the different Lords on each side and their flags. The separate pieces are excellent, but the entire ensemble is wonderful to behold. You will be playing this game in style.

Picture of some of the Cards

 So as I mentioned, I had some reading to do before actually getting down to playing this game. It is absolutely essential for me to know the history behind the times/campaigns of the games I play. I want wargames to not only play well, but also to put the player into the shoes of the adversaries as much as possible. Nothing turns me off on a game more than feeling that you could put Cataphracts or Tanks on the map and it would feel the same. With this game we have nothing to worry about in that sense.

The Lords that play in the game

  This is the 'General Course of Play':

"In Almoravid, two players (or teams) take the roles of Christians (yellow) and Muslims (green), respectively. The Christian and Muslim sides are Enemy to one another. The Christians represent the rising kingdoms of northern Spain and their allies. The Muslims comprise the dynasties ruling a patchwork of Andalusian emirates and their allies, including an Islamic Berber army from Africa. 

In turns covering 40 days (a traditional period of military service), Christian and Muslim players will levy lords and vassal forces, gather transport, and recruit capabilities. Each lord’s forces and assets are laid out on a mat. The players then plan and command a 40-day campaign with their mustered lords. A cylinder on the map represents each lord, while markers on a calendar show how much time remains in the lords’ service, influenced by hunger, pay, and success or failure on campaign.

DESIGN NOTE: Christians and Muslims in medieval Iberia warred not only on each other but on their co-religionists. 

“Christian” and “Muslim” in this game refer to the player sides, even though each side features adherents of either religion."

Counters

 You will find a Sequence of Play on two of the Player Aid Cards:

 I never had the chance to play Nevsky, so I was a total tyro to the Levy & Campaign Series. I did not have any problem in learning the rules. It does have some rather simple game concepts. The problem I think people will have with the game is its adherence to history. This is a game where you have to think and play the long game. Getting your different Lords to do what you want is chief among your worries. The game is based on the medieval realities. You will need wagons and mules, and then sometimes when you have them your plan goes poof. The Taifa (Muslim Lord) Politics will also make you lose some hair. Do not get me wrong, these are all good if not excellent points in the games favor. If you are looking for a game that puts you in the shoes of a Lord in medieval times, look no further than this series. If you are looking for a game where you can do what you want with your pieces at any time, then look away. 

These are from the Vassal Module, but the game pieces look the same

 This game is another in a growing line of games that are a cross between a Euro game and a wargame. This does not mean that you get the worst of both parents. The DNA in these types of games seem to mesh only the good parts of both. So, you not only get a 'real' stimulating wargame. The game and its components are a sight to behold to old grognards eyes. Thank you very much GMT Games for letting me review this excellent game. Of course, I also have to thank you for once more giving me another chapter of history to read about. By the way, in reality El Cid was a mercenary who fought for both sides, and this is in the game.

 For those of you who are not aware these two Deluxe Editions of older games have been released by GMT Games:

Great Battles of Julius Caesar - This contains both 'Caesar: The Civil Wars, and 'Caesar: Conquest of Gaul'

Musket & Pike Dual Pack - This contains both 'This Accursed Civil War', and 'Sweden Fights On'

Robert

GMT Games:

GMT Games

Almoravid: Reconquista and Riposte in Spain, 1085-1086:

 GMT Games - Almoravid: Reconquista and Riposte in Spain, 1085-1086

 Storm Above the Reich

by

GMT Games

 In the last part of the decade before The Second World War, in-line engines for fighters were all the rage. Before this was a time when the bomber could definitely 'get through'. Some of the bombers were actually faster than the fighters that were supposed to intercept them. Some of the countries that were soon to be embroiled in the war were still flying biplanes! At roughly the same time, the English Spitfire and German BF109 were being developed. These two designs were to revolutionize fighter aircraft. The one thing both had in common was that they were powered by in-line motors. These depended on a water-cooled radiator to keep the engine running at a safe speed. The only problem with an in-line aircraft engine is that one nick from the smallest caliber bullet on the water-cooling system leads to catastrophic failure very quickly. This would be analogous to your car's engine and the antifreeze. On the other hand, radial engines are usually air cooled; both types also use oil, for the most part. At the time, bombers were almost universally equipped with radial engines for the sheer power that they produce. The only problem with radial engines is the drag that they produce on the airframe. As a plus, radial engines can sustain a lot more damage and still fly compared to an in-line engine. All of the countries soon to be embroiled in the war were working on how to fit a radial engine to a fighter and still get excellent speed and maneuverability. The P-47 Thunderbolt or 'Jug' for Juggernaut is one that comes to mind for the Allies. In Germany Kurt Tank, a designer for Focke-Wulf, came up with the FW 190. When it appeared over European skies in 1941, the Allies were shocked to say the least. Its nickname of 'Wurger' or Shrike, also called the 'Butcher Bird', pretty much sums up how Allied pilots who had to fly against it felt. The amount of armament a FW190 was able to carry was also a leap ahead in the war. Even some of the early ones were able to carry four 20mm cannon MG 151/20E and two 7.92 mm MG 17 machine guns. This was when a good number of other airplanes were carrying two-four machine guns. The Butcher Bird was very soon living up to its name. It was also able to carry even more normal and some exotic armaments, but at a loss of speed and maneuverability. Storm Above the Reich is a solitaire game, with a two-player version built in (cooperative), of you taking charge of a Staffel of FW190s attempting to defend the skies above Europe against Allied bombers and their escorts. This is the write up from GMT Games:

"Storm Above the Reich is a solitaire game depicting a Luftwaffe squadron of Fw190s struggling to deter and destroy the relentless daylight raids over Germany during World War Two. The player’s individual aircraft, each represented by a stickered block, must confront the mighty “combat box” formation of the United States Army Air Force, a deadly terrain of B-24 Liberator heavy bombers. Like its counterpart, Skies Above the Reich, the game is a broad strokes depiction that presents the arc of the desperate air war. Stretching from late 1942 to early 1945, Storm Above the Reich follows that trajectory in a series of missions strung together to make a campaign. Each mission will take a half hour or more to play, while a campaign can last anywhere between 6 to 60 missions."

  This is what comes with the game:

one 17” x 22” map board (double sided)

one 22” x 34” map board (double sided)

one 8.5” x 22” off-map display panel

one 8.5” x 11” pad: Pilot Roster & Staffel Log (double sided)

two countersheets (one sheet of 1” counters; one sheet of 5/8” counters)

60 blocks

one sticker sheet

96 attack and continuing fire cards

four bi-fold player aids (11” x 17”, double sided)

one pursuit map (8.5” x 11”, double sided)

one interception map (8.5” x 11”, double sided)

one rule book

one situation manual

one advanced rule book

two 10-sided dice

 For those of you who have played Skies Above the Reich it will be a simple process to just jump into a Basic Game play through of this game. It is only when you get into the Advanced Game Rules and the Optional Rules will you need to read up on things. The Advanced Game Rules add one more part to the game; this is Vectoring. Vectoring is your flight from your airbase to the formation you are trying to intercept. When you are dealing with the 'Friction' of war it becomes obvious how much could happen between those times. Planes could develop engine trouble etc., or you could be set upon by enemy planes. This is a list of what could happen:

Escort - run into enemy fighters

Garble - a radio transmission to you is garbled

Malfunction - one of your fighters returns to base

Radio - you can either be rerouted or rendezvous with other fighters

Straggler - if you are playing the Advanced Game Rules you intercept a bomber that has been damaged

Weather - affects you in different ways

 This is what GMT Games says about Vectoring etc.:

"In Storm, you also get an expanded set of advanced rules that stretches a Mission to include the vector to the bomber formation where your fighters may themselves be intercepted by United States escort fighters. Will you devote some of your fighters to tackle American escort, leaving others equipped to attack the bombers? Will your Sturm 190s be able to fight their way through to the bombers or did you leave them vulnerable? And for those who already own Skies Above the Reich, in Storm you’ll find new Experte skills and green penalties, aft firing rockets for those Sturm 190s, as well as a feature exclusive to that fearsome machine – the “Aggressive Attitude” that augments its Determined Mode capabilities. Finally, the B-24 will be seen in Storm Above the Reich to fly a greater variety of formation patterns than in Skies, reflecting the USAAF’s experimentation with that heavy bomber."

 

Various results to your planes in the game

 The box is a big hefty thing. It is one of the four inch GMT Games boxes and it has some weight to it. It is filled to the brim with game components. The weight is mostly because of the two mounted maps. The maps are, as is the norm with GMT Games, a sight to behold. Even though they are mostly B-24 Liberators in different configurations the style is very nice. I also have an affinity for B-24s, so I might be prejudice. At first glance they might look 'busy' to the player's eye. However, having most of the tracks and information charts on the maps does speed up gaming, at least to me. You do not have to worry about having to find room for tons of tracking sheets along with the maps. The counters come in two sizes 5/8" and 1". The 1" counters for some reason look even bigger than other games I have seen 1" counters in. The blocks are used for the representation of the different airplanes in your flight. They are all the same size and do not have any jagged pieces coming off them. The cards are extremely well done and as a bonus are the same exact ones used in Skies Above the Reich. This might come in handy if you own the first game and have a wee accident. The Players Aids are all of rigid cardboard and have large print on them and are in full color. The game comes with two Rulebooks. The first one is sixty pages long and is in full color with very large print. The next one is the Advanced Rulebook and is thirty-six pages long. It is printed in the exact same manner as the other Rulebook. Taken as one piece at a time they are very well done by themselves. When you spread out the whole ensemble you just want to say thank you GMT Games. 

The four different maps

 For the neophytes to the game series, please do not be alarmed. Even if you have never played the first game you will be in the air in no time. By the amount of components and size of the Rulebooks you think you would be reading for a good long time before playing. This is not the case at all. The Basic game is very easy to get a handle on. The length of the game and the complexity naturally go up if you start using the Advanced and Optional Rules. In the Basic Game you are just trying to use your Staffel and its armaments to knock the bombers out of formation. In the Advanced Game you get the chance to try and gain more points and actually shoot down a lone bomber. If you do happen to own both games there are rules to combine both together. You can even have a Staffel of half BF109s and the other half FW190s. 

Pursuit maps of the single bombers

 

 The one thing about this game is that you have more of a choice of what extra munitions, called attachments in the game, you can add to your FW 190s. Of course, the more that you turn them into flying tanks the more they will fly like them. These are the planes you can purchase to add to help your Staffel in the sky:

MC202 - One of the best Italian fighters of the war.

BF110 - Two engine heavy fighter.

JU88 - Originally a medium bomber. It was also used as a heavy fighter along with everything else but a float plane.

IAR 80 - Romanian fighter.

Me 163 - The only mass produced rocket fighter in the world. In reality as dangerous to its pilots as the enemy.

 With the addition of Skies Above the Reich these two planes can be added to the mix:

Me410

Me262

 The attachments that you are allowed to use on your FW190s:

Cannon

Cable

Rockets

Armor

 The cable was pretty much what hung from balloons used in defense against air attacks. Starting in 1944 you can also arm half of your Staffel as 'Sturm 190s' this is short for Sturmböcke (battering ram). These FW190s will automatically be equipped with armor and cannon. You can also equip rearward firing cannons to your FW190s instead of forward firing ones.

Play Example

 How does it play, you ask? It is just as engrossing and fun as its older brother. One German ace describes the BF109 as a rapier, and the FW190 as a cutlass. The Germans were well aware how difficult it was to take down a B-17 or B-24 in formation truly was. It was perceived as being four times as hard as shooting down another fighter. You as the player will soon learn the same lesson. As great as the game is when only playing one mission, the Campaign game is where it really shines, and you will have to learn to think ahead. It does you no good if you have taken out four bombers, but your Staffel is almost all shot up, or down and you have wounded pilots. Your job is to get in there and do the job while still weighing the life of your pilots against success. Every action on your part does have a consequence for good or bad. 

 

Counters

 Thank you, GMT Games for letting me review another of your excellent titles. This is a wonderful new game in this series. If you liked the first game then you will really like this one, with the additions that have been made to the rules. 

 Robert

Storm Above the Reich:

GMT Games - Storm Above the Reich

GMT Games:

GMT Games

Skies Above the Reich my review:

Skies Above The Reich by GMT Games - A Wargamers Needful Things

 Bayonets & Tomahawks

The French and Indian War

by

GMT Games

 I believe it is time to sip some tea and watch 'The Last of the Mohicans' one more time. I will give 10 points to anyone who knows Hawkeye's real given name. I believe he is called more names in the book than many rap sheets have aliases. 

 The French & Indian War was not, strangely enough, a cut and dried English and Colonist victory from the start. As a matter of fact, the French were winning pretty much right up until 1759. This is pretty amazing when you look at the population figures:

French Colonists in North America - 50,000

English Colonists in only the 13 Colonies - 1,000,000

 If it had not been for the parsimoniousness of the Colonists it would have been a walkover. Oddly enough this ultimately led to the loss of the Colonies to England. The English government finally realized that to win in North America they would have to bring large amounts of troops and supplies. To do this meant spending an enormous amount of money. After the war, England tried to make the colonies pay for some, if not most, of the war which led directly to "Taxation, Without Representation". 

 This is really a great historical time to create a boardgame out of. You have the Colonists and the English on one side. Then you have the French and most of the Indians on the other one. You have Montcalm and Wolfe, let alone their famous death scene paintings, along with Amherst, whose own penny pinching leads to Pontiac's Rebellion. The only real assets the English have are their population and the Iroquois Confederacy. So let us see what comes with the game:

22" x 34" mounted map

54 cards

135 unit counters

8 Commanders

17 Vagaries of War tokens

1 small fabric bag

6 custom dice

1 sheet of markers

1 Player Aid sheet

5 Scenario Information sheets

Rulebook and Playbook

Complexity is listed as a '3'

Solitaire Suitability is listed as a '6'

Game Scale for Units is:

300 - 1,500 Men

16 Cannon

5 Ships of The Line

Each Round is approximately 3 Weeks

Playtime is listed as 2 hours per Year

 This is one of the new breed of games that are truly wargames, but are presented as Euro games as far as their components. It is a wonderful time to be a grognard, except of course, for most of our ages. As long as we still have our wits about us and our glasses handy, we will be fine. The map is mounted, and is extremely colorful. The way the territories are presented are a bit different, and it takes a bit of time to get used to. Canada is situated on the left, and the rest of the Eastern part of North America is on the right. There are no hexes, and it is a point to point movement system. In area, it goes from Louisbourg in the North to the Cherokee Nation (roughly South Carolina) in the South. It has all of the major, and some minor, of the points of interest in the French and Indian War such as Le Detroit, Ticonderoga, Montreal, Quebec etc. French forts and towns at the start are blue in color, and the English ones are red. All of the tracks, victory, turn etc., are on the map. The Rulebook is in full color, and is twenty-one pages long. The last two pages is a large two page Unit Reference Chart. The Playbook is forty-eight pages long. The last two pages are a Counter Manifest and one page called "Easily Forgotten Rules". The latter is a nice touch needed in a few other games as well. The Counters are very large and easy to read. They also have pre-clipped edges. Their shape is either triangular for light troops, square for normal troops, and round for artillery and fleets. Leaders are square shaped, and forts are circles. There are three decks of Cards. These are Indian, French, and English. Some have instructions on top, and all come with a combination of triangles, squares, or a combination of the two. There are six Die that were made especially for the game. There is a black pouch included to hold the Die. The game comes with two four page Player Aids. The lettering is large enough to read easily and they are set up in a sensible manner for checking rules etc. It also comes with two full page Scenario Setup cards for all four scenarios, double-sided, two for the English Player and two for the French Player. There is also a fifth setup card, one-sided, that is used for the Indian Nations setup in every scenario. The game also comes with a good amount of small baggies for the counters. As usual with GMT Games, the presentation of the game is excellent.

 The Scenarios in the game are:

Vaudreuil's Petite Guerre 1755

Loudon's Gamble 1757

Amherst's Juggernaut 1758-1759

French & Indian War Full Campaign 1755-1759

There are three Scenario Variants:

Early French & Indian War 1755-1756

An Ambitious British Offensive 1758

French & Indian War with historical reinforcements 1755-1759

Also included is an Optional 1760 Campaign Year 

 Do not let this game's look deceive you. Yes, it is manufactured in the EURO style, but it is a real wargame nonetheless. It forces the player to answer the same question wargames did fifty years ago. First, what is my plan of operations, and once my plan is shredded by my opponent's 'friction', what do I do now. The game is pretty much a two in one game. If you are playing the one year scenarios you do not have time to think about the long haul. In those scenarios it really just becomes a victory point grab free-for-all between players. With the longer scenarios you are able to build up your forces and really concentrate on winning a much longer war. France has the edge early on, but England is able to build up a much larger force given time. The Indian Nations are an invaluable asset to whomever swings the most of them to their side. This is the first game I have played that really gives the Indian Nations the credit they deserve in helping or hindering each side. Without the Indian Nations that were on the French side, the war would have been much shorter historically. One thing you have to remember is that your playing field is mostly wilderness. The contested ground between both sides was not what most of us probably imagine. Twenty years later Burgoyne was still hamstrung trying to go from lake George to Albany by the wilderness. As the French Player I would strike hard and often with raids. Remember, the English Player has to come to you to win the victory points he needs. Louisbourg is exactly what it was historically, the gateway to the St. Lawrence and Quebec and Montreal. The English Player, in the long game, can afford to wait and build up his juggernaut. He cannot run all over the map trying to stop French raids etc. It would be like playing whack-a-mole. He has to decide on a strategy and stick to it.

  The Designer states " I have more fun moving armies on the map than managing logistics". Then he goes onto explain that is why he designed the cards the way he did, and how much work went to get them to work the way he wanted. He was trying to get as many historical outcomes as he could, or at least match the history at different times. He goes on to write about how much work was put into the Die also. Then he shows how his system of using the Die does actually mimic historical outcomes. Every time a Player destroys an enemy  Metropolitan Brigade (French or British Army Regulars) the Player gets a WIE (War in Europe) chit. These can count as Victory Points at the end of your chosen scenario. The way the Designer writes he seems a bit proud of himself for this game and its system. I agree with him. He should be proud of what he has given us in Bayonets & Tomahawks. As someone who has read as much as possible about the conflict, I believe the game gives the Players much of the same goals, forces, and starting off point as in history. You can use/suffer these different strategies or events in the game:

Build Roads

Raid

Build a Fort

Lose Commanders in Battle

This is only a taste of what you can do.

This is actually a shot of the game on Vassal

 Thank you very much, GMT Games for letting me take a test drive with Bayonets and Tomahawks. I am very pleased with the historical accuracy and gameplay that is built into it. 

Robert

Bayonets & Tomahawks:

GMT Games - Bayonets & Tomahawks

GMT Games:

GMT Games

A Time for Trumpets

 The Battle of the Bulge, December 1944

by

GMT Games

 'Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein' (Operation Watch on the Rhine), or the 'Ardennenoffensive' (Ardennes offensive) it is called in German. The Ardennes Counteroffensive is the official Allied military name. Please do not call it the 'Rundstedt Offensive'. He had nothing whatsoever to do with the planning. In fact, his answer when he was asked about the plan after the war was, "If Old Moltke had thought that I had planned that offensive, he would have turned over in his grave." Neither Rundstedt or Model, fanatical Nazi that he was, believed the plan had any merit. Josef 'Sepp' Dietrich (who commanded the 6th Panzer Army during the battle) said of the plan "All I had to do was the cross the river (Meuse), capture Brussels, and then go on to take the port of Antwerp. The snow was waist-deep and there wasn't room to deploy four tanks abreast, let alone six armored divisions. It didn't get light until eight and was dark again at four, and my tanks can't fight at night, and all this at Christmas time!" As a side note, Rundstedt said Dietrich was "decent, but stupid". So why is this battle so much in demand many to so many wargamers? It seems that you could find five to ten different company's versions in each wargamers hoard. Well, this was the largest battle that Americans had ever been in (the English were involved also, but not too deeply). The Allies were completely taken off guard by this attack in an area that was considered 'safe' because of the terrain. The German plan was pretty much thought of in Hitler's mind even as the Allies were dashing across France, and it looked like the war would be over by Christmas. The Allied offensive was hamstrung by the lack of supplies, and came to a halt at the German border. The Germans used their phone lines instead of radio chatter etc. So, the Allies did not have their usual Ultra intercepts or much else to judge German intentions. The offensive took the Allies very much by surprise. The German Army was considered a spent force. The schwerpunkt was supposed to be with the 6th Panzer Army at the top of the Bulge. In actuality the U.S. troops, some of them green, mostly fought the SS to a standstill. The greatest penetration into the Bulge was done by the 5th Panzer Army. I will list out the number of troops and AFV's etc. that have to be modeled in the game. These numbers are from the start of the German attack:

Allied

Troops - 229,000

Tanks  - 486

Tank Destroyers & Assault Guns - 499

Other AFV's  - 1,921

Anti-Tank Guns & Artillery - 971

6 Infantry Divisions

2 Armored Divisions

Casualties at the end of the battle - 90,000

German

Troops - 406,000

Tanks - 557

Tank Destroyers & Assault Guns - 667

Other AFV's - 1,261

Anti-Tank Guns & Artillery - 4.224

13 Infantry Divisions

7 Armored Divisions

Casualties at the end of the battle - 98,000

So, GMT has brought this battle once more to the wargamers' table. Let us see what we get. This is what comes in the weighty box:

5 full size game maps (65"x48" total playing area)

12 counter sheets (2304 playing pieces)

1 Rules Book

1 Scenario Book

1 Play Aid Manual

Four 11"x17" player aid cards

Five 8.5"x11" player aid cards

2 dice

 This is GMT Games information on the game from the Rules Book:

"A Time for Trumpets (or ATfT) is a one to five player game depicting Germany’s last offensive in 1944 known as the “Battle of the Bulge.” The Campaign Game includes the period from 16 to 26 December when the Germans had to achieve decisive results.

Game Scale

Each game-turn represents approximately 6 hours of real time.

Each map hex represents a distance of 1 mile across and an area of

about one square mile. The units consist primarily of battalions and

companies plus a minimal number of other sized units.

The Map

The map shows the Ardennes including portions of Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, and France where the Battle of the Bulge was fought. The map illustrates the most prominent terrain features of this region. A grid of numbered hexagons (hexes) has been superimposed on the map as a means of regulating the movement and positioning of the playing pieces. Also located on the map is a Game Turn Record Track, Off-Board Movement Areas, German Bridge Holding Boxes and depictions of the Terrain Features."

 The map scale is at one mile per hex. The 65"x48" size makes it a monster, but a monster that has a lot of scenarios that only use one, two, or three of the five maps. The maps are not rehashed ones and have been completely reworked and checked and rechecked against wartime topographical maps. The colors are nicely done, and it is easy to see what terrain is in each hex. The twelve counter sheets (my thoughts are with the grognards that are compelled to clip counters) are very well done and use the typical green for U.S. troops, Grey for the German Army, and Black for the Waffen SS etc.

The counters are larger than you would think for such a big game, and are easily identified. As with any 'monster' game there will be a large amount of counters on the map. The Rules Book is as large as one would expect with such a game. It is sixty-four pages long, including the index. It is in full color and looks like other GMT Games Rules Books. At the end of it are some examples of play. The Scenario Book is sixty pages long. Pages thirty-three to forty-nine have on one side the German and Allied setups for the different parts of the map. Unless I am miscounting there are 13 scenarios in total (they will be below). Each scenario seems to build on the other as far as sticking your toe into this deep pond. The Play-Aid Book is forty-eight pages long. It is filled with full color Reinforcement Charts, Area of Operations, and setups for the End Game Scenarios. The three books are made up of paper pages with no lamination. I assume the cost would have been prohibitive. There are a total of nine Play-Aid cards. These are made of thin cardboard and do have some lamination on them. One has the Allied and German chains of command. Four of them are one-sided and have the German Artillery Park information for each corps. If you want to see a grognard's eyes light up just open up the box in front of him.

These are the scenarios, with maps:

7th Army Scenarios - 3 - 2 maps

6th Panzer Army Scenarios - 2 - 1 map

5th Panzer Army Scenarios - 2 - 3 maps

Campaign Game 

End Game Scenarios:

3 - 1 map

1 - 2 maps

1 - 3 maps

 So, the main point I want to get across is that this game type is as hard to find as a rare gemstone. It is a playable monster game. There are Advanced and Optional rules that bring more chrome or make it easier on the player. Let us look at the game's RuleBook:

"There are three types of rules: Basic, Advanced and Optional. If a

rule is not identified as Advanced, then the rule is Basic. The Advanced rules impart significant, historical facets to the game; they

are intended to loosely drive the progress of the game by interjecting

intelligence as it was known in 1944. By mutual consent, players

should add advanced rules as they become familiar with the basic

system. During the extensive playtesting of the game, the advanced

rules were usually used. Optional rules are provided simply to facilitate ease of play—they are found in rule sections as applicable."

 The game's pedigree goes right back to the earlier days of wargaming. The designer Bruno Sinigaglio was involved with three of the greatest wargaming titles: Battle of the Bulge, Siege of Jerusalem, and Bitter Woods. A Time for Trumpets is an opus that he has been designing for more than forty years. The only thing you can really say derogatory about the game is its sheer size. To set up the maps alone you need a space roughly 6'x4'. When you add in the extra space needed for the Player-Aids etc. it is a sizable area. The beauty of the system and the scenarios is that there are enough scenarios that only use one, two, and three maps. Players will be able to learn and play with any setup they have now in their house. Then if you wanted to, you could join in at a group play at a convention etc. if you wanted to (whenever they happen again).  

 One of the biggest pieces of the game rules is command and control. The Area of Operations rules for the allies ensures that they cannot just willy-nilly advance across the map, and overwhelm the Germans. All of the different Areas of Operations makes it so if an Allied force moves into another Area of Operation it is immediately out of command. The Germans are similarly stopped from bunching together in a large mass. The Allies were incredibly worried about Liege. This city was the linchpin of the Allies' long tenuous supply line. In the Campaign game if the Germans occupy any of the six Liege hexes they win a Substantial Victory. In most of the other scenarios the Germans must occupy different key points on the map. If at any time a German Tactical Victory in the Campaign game happens, a German AFV enters a hex across the Meuse River from Givet to Liege City. If this happens the Scenario Book remarks "The German player should heed Field Marshall Models's words and "get down on his hands and knees and thank God." You can see by that that the German player has to have all the die rolls and luck on his side. The Allied Victory Conditions are to stop the German from getting to any of his Victory Points. This game has everything in it that you want in a game. Some examples are:

Bridge and Combat engineers

Anti-Tank and Heavy Tank Units

Motorized Infantry

Nebelwefers

Tactical Aircraft

Strategic bombing

Improved positions

Bridge Demolition (The Allies best friend)

Leaders

Artillery of all kind

I am very grateful to GMT Games for allowing me to review this game. I was tentative at first because of its depth and size. However, the design of the scenarios makes it very easy for a grognard to play out bits of it before trying to swallow the whole game at once. The other point I made, but need to stress, is that this is a playable monster. This is not a game that will sit on your shelf and you will look longingly at it for years before it gets bequeathed to an unsuspecting child or spouse. The game is fine to play solitaire also (very few games are not) for one of us mostly lone gamers. The price for some maybe a sticking point. However, we are now used to paying 2/3 of the cost for A Time for Trumpets for games that do not give you anywhere near the actual components, let alone game play. I was very ambivalent in the past about Battle of the Bulge games. I am not anymore.

Robert

Thank you to Marty Sample and Tom Stearns from BGG, for the use of their pictures.

GMT Games:

GMT Games

A Time for Trumpets:

GMT Games - A Time for Trumpets: The Battle of the Bulge, December 1944

 Men of Iron Tri-Pack

by GMT Games

Including the Games:

Men of Iron, Infidel, Blood & Roses

 This set of games is pretty amazing. It goes from the rebirth of infantry, to the acendency of the English longbow, and finishes with the armored knight having to deal with gunpowder weapons. The list of battles is very long and a delight to Middle Ages boardgame fans. This is what comes with the game:

Five double-sided 22x34” maps and one 11x17" map

Seven and one half counter sheets

One series rulebook

Three battle books

Eight player aid cards

Two ten-sided dice

 This is the list of battles:

"Dorylaeum – Northwest Anatolia, 1 July 1097 - The Crusader line of march, including the people’s Crusade and Peter the hermit, as well as all the great 1st Crusade Leaders, are “ambushed” by Kilij Arslan and his crack Seljuk cavalry.   

Antioch – Northern Syrian, 28 June 1098 - The exhausted, starving and depleted Crusaders – they had few horses left – have just taken Antioch and are now faced with a large Turkish army, under Kerbogha, sent to retake the city.   

Ascalon – Southern Palestine, 12 August 1099 - The Crusaders, having seized Jerusalem, turn south to fend off the suddenly active large army of the Fatimids, with their crack Mamluk heavy cavalry.   

Harran – Crusader Kingdom of Antioch/Edessa, 7 May 1104 - Baldwin II of Edessa seeks to maintain control of his little kingdom in northern Syria, something Soqman, Atabeg of Damascus, is not happy to allow. One of the first major Crusader defeats.   

Montgisard – Frankish Kingdom of Jerusalem, 25 November 1177 - Saladin attempts to destroy a small army from the Kingdom of Jerusalem with an army more than five times its size. Though there are only 400 knights, the Crusaders are led by the remarkable Baldwin IV, The Leper King. The outcome - one of the greatest Crusader victories. See if you can carry off this stunning upset!   

Arsuf - Ayyubid Kingdom of Jerusalem, 7 September 1191 - The classic battle between Richard I Lionheart and the Ayyubid Army of Saladin highlighting the major facets of each army in an unusual moving battle.

Falkirk - Scotland, 22 July 1298 - Wallace's great disaster, despite his massive schiltron. Good infantry is fine, but it needs support. The ultimate solitaire scenario. 

Courtrai - Flanders, 11 July 1302 - The Battle of the Golden Spurs. The Flemish shook the elite French army with one of the earliest displays of the power of solid infantry using defensive positions. 

Bannockburn - Scotland, 23-24 June 1314 - Robert the Bruce's famous triumph over a numerically superior, but literally bogged down English army. 

Crecy - France, 26 August 1346 - The first great battle of the Hundred Years War. It showed that infantry, supported by archers, could defeat the best knights in Europe. 

Poitiers - France, 19 September 1356 - The French fight dismounted this time and almost win. But the longbow, and solid English infantry prevail again. 

Najera - Castile, 3 April 1367 - The Black Prince goes to Spain with a marvelous combined arms force to further English plans of "expansion". 

Agincourt – Artois, 25 October 1415 – Henry V wins a mighty victory against the flower of French chivalry. 

1st St. Albans – Herefordshire, 22 May 1455 - Marks the first major engagement in the Wars of the Roses. Richard, Duke of York and his ally, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, defeated the Lancastrians under Edmund, Duke of Somerset, who was killed during the battle. York also captured Henry VI and forced Henry to appoint him Constable of England  

Blore Heath – Staffordshire, 23 September 1459 - Greatly outnumbered Yorkist infantry used the longbow and a defensive position to drive off the Lancastrian Men-at-Arms. 

2nd St. Albans – Herefordshire, 17 February 1461 - The Lancastrians drove the Yorkists out of the town and then destroyed Warwick’s strangely deployed army, even when sturdily defended by hedges, caltrops and spiked netting. 

Towton – Yorkshire, 29 March 1461 - Easily biggest battle in the box and the biggest in the entire series. It uses over 200 combat units and, much like the actual battle, will probably take a long time to play. It is mostly crash and bash, with little room for maneuver, all fought in a blinding snowstorm!!  

Barnet – Greater London Area, 14 April 1471 - A classic battle of planned deployments, but overlapping wings, cries of treason in the lines, fog of war (actual fog), and the excellent use of reserves. 

Tewksbury – Gloucestershire, 4 May 1471 - A battle that shows one of the key terrain features of the battles in this era, extensive hedges and thick underbrush in otherwise clear fields. 

Bosworth – Leicestershire, 22 August 1485 - The best-known battle of the wars and the tragic (I think) death of King Richard III in a battle he should have won. Using the latest information as to where the battle took place, let’s see if you can cancel out the Tudor dynasty."

Falkirk Setup and Map

 This is a list of some of the historical commanders in the game:

"The great English King, Edward III and his son, The Black Prince, William Wallace and The Bruce, Captal de Buch.  Crusaders Stephen of Blois, Bohemond of Taranto, Raymond of Toulouse, Bishop Adhemar of Le Puy, the leper King Baldwin IV, Raynald of Chatillon, and King Richard I. Saracen leaders Kilij Arslan, Kerbogha, Atabeg of Mosul,  Fatimid Vizier al-Afdal Shahanshah, Soqman the Artukid of Diyar-Bakr and Aleppo, and Saladin. King Henry VI, Richard, Duke of York, King Edward IV, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, King Richard III, and Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond (and founder of the Tudor dynasty)."

 The Men of Iron series was originally produced as four separate games:

Men of Iron

Infidel

Blood & Roses

Arquebus

 This is another in a long line of GMT Games giving the gamer a big package of previously released separate games and/or add-ons that were produced after the original game was put out. In this case the Battle of Agincourt was only released in the C3I magazine. So, you get all the battles of the three games with the bonus one Agincourt, and for an excellent price. Please understand that this is not just a rehash of the older separate games. The tri-pack has all of the errata added in along with updated counters and maps.

 The maps are very well done, even if they are mostly empty or devoid of different types of terrain. Almost all Middle Age Battles, and Ancient ones, took place of flat featureless areas. The counters are smaller at 1/2" (except for the Agincourt ones that are 9/16"), but even my old eyes can read the names and data. The European leaders have their heraldic sign on their counters, while the Islamic leaders have a crescent moon on their counters. There are two of each of the player's aids for Blood & Roses, Infidel, and Men of Iron. Men of Iron and Infidel are both four pages, while Blood & Roses is six pages in total. Each game has its own full page Flight Turn Track and General Track on one full page. The Rules Manual is in full color, and is twenty-eight pages long. Each of the three games has its own Battle Book (in full color). These contain all of the setups for the different battles, along with some historical information, and any special rules for each scenario. All of the components are up to the GMT standard of excellence.

 I already own, and have played, the original release of Blood & Roses, and Arquebus the fourth title in the series. I really like the system and both games, so I was excited to see what this release was going to add. This is the sequence of play:

"A. Activation Phase

• If this is a Free Activation, choose a Battle, Army Activation

(6.1), Standard (15.2), or Pass (6.1). If Pass is chosen, the

non-Active player gets a Free Activation; the Time marker

may be moved (16.1).

• If a Standard is Activated skip to Phase D or move the

Standard and skip to Phase E (15.2).

B. Move/Fire Phase

During Army Activation, Activated units may only Move (7.0).

During a Battle Activation any or all units of the Activated

Battle may Move (7.0) and/or Fire (11.0).

• Place any replacement leaders (5.5).

• Before any unit is moved or fires, first the Non-Active

player plays any Battle Cry or Unsteady Troops Seizure

counters, then the Active player plays any Battle Cry or

Unsteady Troops Seizure counters (6.3).

• Before any unit is moved or fires check Command status

for all Activated units (5.2 & 5.3).

• A foot unit armed with missile weapons may fire only at the

end of its move. Light Cavalry Archers, Medium Cavalry

Archers, and Genitors units may fire before, during, or at

the end of their move. A unit may fire without moving.

• Each unit must finish its movement/firing before another

unit may begin to move/fire.

• The Non-Active player’s units may qualify for Reaction/

Return fire (11.2) or Counter-Charge (13.9) depending on

the Active player’s actions.

• After movement in an Army Activation skip to Phase E.

C. Shock Phase

During a Battle Activation, after all movement/firing for the

activated Battle is complete, Shock combat (12.0) and Charges

(13.0) may be initiated.

1. The Active player designates which of his units are

attacking which defending units, including Charges (13.0).

2. Pre-Shock activities:

a) One at a time, the Active player places each Charging

unit adjacent to its target. Any Reaction Fire caused by

this is resolved (11.2).

b) Roll for terrain-induced Disorder checks for attackers;

apply automatic terrain-induced Disorders.

c) Roll for Shock/Charge Reluctance (13.5).

d) Any Retreat Before Combat (12.2) by the defender is

resolved.

e) The defender attempts any Counter-Charges (13.6) of

which he is capable.

3. The Active player resolves all his Shock and Charge

attacks, in any order he wishes. The Charge Table is used

as long as at least half of the units in an individual attack

succeeded in Charging (not Disordered by Reaction Fire

or Counter-Charged); otherwise the Shock Table is used.

Continued Attack (14.7) markers are placed and Advances

(12.4) are taken.

Exception: Attacks by a single attacker against multiple

defending hexes are resolved at the same time, and they are

considered to be going on simultaneously, with results (which

can be cumulative for the attacker) applied after both attacks

are resolved.

4. All Continued Attacks (14.7) are now resolved. Begin again

at Step 1, except that only units marked with Continued

Attack markers Shock and they must declare a Shock attack;

Charging and Counter-Charging are not allowed.

D. Rally Phase

During Battle Activation, Rally (15.0) any Disordered units that

did nothing for the entire Activation and that are currently not

adjacent to an enemy unit. If a Standard was Activated, Rally

(15.0) any Retired unit belonging to that army in or within one

hex of the Standard, and not adjacent to an enemy unit.

E. Continuation Phase

Make any Battle Flight rolls, and then any needed Pursuit rolls

(14.8 and 14.9). If the completed Activation was a Free Activation, both players make a Loss Check (3.0). If the game does

not end due to Loss Check, Pass or choose to Continue with a

Battle or Army Activation (6.2).

• This cannot be the Battle that just Activated, unless the

Active player has only one Battle.

• Army Activation can only follow an Army Activation. A

Battle Activation can follow Activation of a Battle, Army,

or Standard.

• The Non-Active player may attempt to Seize Continuity

(6.3). If so, he plays a Seizure Opportunity counter

and chooses one of his Battles to Activate. The Active

player may play a Seizure Negation (6.3) counter and the

Continuation attempt is then resolved, otherwise the NonActive player makes a Seizure DR attempt. If successful,

he Activates that Battle and proceeds from Phase B with

that Battle. If not, the Active player gets a Free Activation,

proceed to Phase A; this Free Activation may even be used

to Activate the Battle that just completed Activation.

• If no Seizure attempt occurs, make a Continuation DR attempt

(6.2). If successful, Activate that Battle or Army and proceed

from Phase B. If not, or the Active player Passes, the NonActive player gets a Free Activation and proceeds to Phase A"

 As you can see, there are no real 'turns' for each player. The first player can continue to activate his troops if he is lucky enough with his die rolls. The second player can attempt to stop him using a 'seizure counter' to begin activating his own units. However, the first player can also use a 'seizure negation counter' to stop the second player from taking initiative control. Victory in each battle is achieved by eliminating named leaders and enemy units. One very interesting Special Rule is that of 'Timed Engagement'. This is meant to make one side act historically and force them to attack within a certain time period, rather than maneuver about the battlefield. During many of these battles knights became 'fire and forget' weapons that just launched themselves at the first enemy they saw. This would include complete loss of brain function and force the knights to attack at the worst possible time and place. Roughly this equates to when a male elephant goes into 'musth' from a huge testosterone boost. The knights would only think of striking an enemy and being the first to do so. Hence, the wall of dead seen in front of the English archers in many of the Hundred Years War battles. 

Do you like Long Odds?

The individual Battle Books are amazing in the historical detail and all of the information needed for setup and play for each battle. There are also some funny quips added to the mix, "Say goodnight Gracie" being one of them. To say that I really like the series is a complete understatement. I think that this is one of the finest designs that Richard Berg ever came up with. I would love to have an ancients game using this system. I normally do not mention prices, but this game is a true steal at under $100. All three games were probably in the $70 range when released, so you really get some bang for your buck. Even if you do not know a York from a Lancaster these games will be an excellent addition to your collection. Easy rules, relatively short game times, and a small map footprint mean that you will have them on your table in no time. The choice of battles in Europe and Outremer is incredible in its scope. Thank you so much GMT Games for letting me review this new edition of this Berg masterpiece.

Robert

GMT Games:

https://www.gmtgames.com/

GMT Games Men of Iron Tri-Pack:

https://www.gmtgames.com/p-718-men-of-iron-tri-pack.aspx

Men of Iron Tri-Pack Rules:

https://gmtwebsiteassets.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/miv1/MOI-3P_Rules_Final_Lo-Res.pdf