LIMITS OF GLORY
SANTA MAURA & CAPRI
FROM
FORM SQUARE GAMES
This recently released game is the third in the Limits of Glory series produced by Form Square Games. Sub-titled Campaigns III & IV, the box contains two mini-sized games covering what are very, very small engagements in what can only be considered a minor side-show of the Napoleonic Wars. Both involve naval attacks and landings to capture small islands. Time-wise Capri is the earlier being the French's attempts in 1808 to recapture Capri from the British, while Santa Maura, which sees the British on the attack, occurred in 1810. What they mainly provide are two very low unit density games ideal for when time is short and you need a quick fix of the Limits of Glory system. Though their brevity also suits them for introducing the system, all its elements are covered including the naval elements introduced in Maida and additionally brings shore batteries to the mix. The latter drew a rare request from me for clarification which the designer, Andy Rourke, as always was swift to reply to. His answer served to confirm my view that it's a risky business attempting to disembark land forces before eliminating shore batteries!
A single double-sided map is all that is needed to cover the very limited geographical area of each battle and the now familiar Event Clock and Combat Charts can be handled with back printed versions of each. This adds to the compactness of the package. Lavish though it is to provide a separate rule book for each game, the amount of duplication is such that it would seem easier for once just to have the very slight differences presented as Special Rules. Still this is hardly a criticism, especially as it allows for the space to include an even wider range of the superlative reproductions of Cruikshank and Gillray cartoons that are a stand-out feature of presentation in the Limits of Glory games - as illustrated below.
It's rare for me to relish a rule book for its art work. Or for my wife to ask to leaf through a set of my game rules - just to look at the pictures!
What drew me to the Limits of Glory system in the first place was the sheer innovative qualities of this game design, all centring on the concept of Glory points, the leaders who possess them and the ability to spend them to influence the dice rolls of virtually every aspect of game play. Key aspects include: area movement, the success factor for all actions based on rolling 5s or 6s, combat based on the roll of three dice on a simple matrix of the Leader's nationality and the strength of his troops, an Event Clock tailored to the historical situation of each campaign and which ensures the unpredictability of the end of each game and a momentum system designed so that each player will have a maximum of only 4 actions per turn
Santa Maura & Capri continues this in fine style, but for a more detailed consideration of how the essential Limits of Glory rules work, I’d refer you to my review of the very first campaign in this series, Napoleon’s Eastern Empire and I've included a number of illustrative photos and explanatory examples at the end of the review.
In this review now I want to concentrate on what makes these two campaigns individual. The first is the predominance of sieges. Though these have been there from the beginning of the series, they haven’t so far played such a major part. In Santa Maura, retaining control of the fortress of Santa Maura until the end of the game is the sole French victory condition, while the Allied player’s major goal is to capture the fortress, though they can also win by forcing Camus, the French leader, to surrender.
Santa Maura Set-Up
This all or nothing outcome drives the game and, perhaps, makes it the less varied of the two games. That said, the situation is enlivened by the small idiosyncrasies that I’ve also come to expect from the quirky historical contexts. Here it is the inclusion of a contingent of Albanian troops fighting for the French and the presence of one of the Greek independence leaders, Kolokotronis, whose map counter can once per turn attempt to entice those Albanian troops to desert their French allies! [I’m still waiting for Form Square Games to seek out a campaign that allows an opportunity for Lord Byron to crop up in the fight for Greek Independence.]
Capri Set-Up
Capri too introduces a number of new allies: for the French there are Neapolitan Infantry, while the British contingent contains a Maltese regiment and Corsican Rangers. The situation here is more varied; both sides have sudden death victory conditions. For the French, it is the control of Ana Capri and Capri town; for the British the destruction of 10 of the French gunboats. Should neither player achieve their sudden death victory condition, victory at game end depends on who gains the most VPs from controlling BUAs [Built Up Areas]. As such areas can only be captured from your opponent by siege and, in the Santa Maura campaign, the siege and capture of the single major fortress wins the game, you can see why I consider SIEGES as the prime factor in this latest game.
As I've implied Capri is my favourite of the two games with its wider ranging situation and more varied units and victory conditions. Both, however, are excellent for those wanting a shorter playing time and smaller playing area (which the Set-Up illustrations show) while retaining all the elements of the system...
Below are a just few close up shots to illustrate a range of rule points.
A typical impression of the map, with each number indicating how many dice you roll in order to activate units in that area - remember a success is always a 5 or 6 and you are allowed to spend 1 pt of Glory from a Leader who is present for each die you want to reroll.
So, in the town on the right, you would roll 3 dice and provided you rolled at least one 5 or 6 the area would be activated. Should you fail to roll any, then you could spend from 1-3 points from Leader Lowe's Glory in order to reroll from 1-3 dice.
However, if you were trying to activate the area to his left, then you could roll only one die and if you failed, there would be no chance for a reroll, as there is no Leader in the area.
Also notice the zero in some areas - a new feature which makes the area impossible to be activated.
Here you get a clearer image of the small fortresses which add to the defence strength of the units located in the area and also mean that the enemy must besiege you. The banners (typically red for the British and blue for the French) show the number of VPs each side would gain for controlling that area.
Where you have two (or more leaders) in an area, you must use the most senior leader's Glory points for rerolls. Seniority is shown by the small number in the black circle - with 1 being the highest ranking leader. So, if Hamil and Nichols were in the same area, you would have to use Hamil's Glory pts for rerolls.
If a battle were being fought in an area, the highest ranking leader can designate a subordinate leader to be used for rerolls, but then at the end of the combat the subordinate leader would have to roll to see if he becomes a casualty!
Here you have a small section of the Event Clock for the Capri game. At the beginning of each Turn, the appropriate number of dice are rolled to see what Event occurs. At the beginning of the game you will roll only one die, but some Events will change that to 2 dice and eventually to 3 dice. Notice that many involve a change in the weather e.g. from Wind to Calm - this is a new rule introduced to the system for this particular campaign. Finally the R indicates that this Event may happen repeatedly. If you roll for an Event that does not contain an R, then you carry out the Event and then there will be a new Event tile to place on top of the existing one. I hope these illustrations will have helped to give you a little more flavour of the game.
And finally, just as a teaser for the future, I can guarantee that the next campaign game Donning The Sacred Heart ( which is well under way) takes us to a very different situation, played out in the counter-revolution period of the 1790s in the Vendee region of France and brings new twists to the Limits of Glory system.
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