Piacenza 1746

by

Europa Simulazioni

 The War of the Austrian Succession engulfed Europe in 1740. The war was caused by many of the same circumstances as the War of the Spanish Succession. Before each of these wars all the European Powers were given a treaty to sign to stop any conflict that might arise from the succession in each country. The War of the Austrian Succession was preceded by the 'Pragmatic Sanction'. This was a law to allow a woman (shudder, gasp etc.) to inherit the Hapsburg lands. Every European power agreed with their fingers crossed behind their back, or with a stone in their hand (extra credit if you understood that last part). The minute Maria Theresa assumed power in the Hapsburg lands, the war drums in Europe started beating. Like buzzards around a dead body, the different Kings of Europe wanted their piece of the Hapsburg pie. The war pitted France, Prussia, Spain, and Bavaria on one side, while Great Britain, The Dutch Republic, and The Hapsburg Monarchy were allied on the other. There were numerous other small allies on both sides. Most people associate the war with the rise of Prussia and the start of the legend of Frederick the Great. The war was actually fought in many places in Europe. The Battle of Piacenza was part of the Spanish and French attempt to take some of the Hapsburg lands in Italy. 

 

Player Aid Cards

 This is what comes with the game:

One Map (roughly 23" x 25")

One Sheet of Counters

Rules Booklet

Complete OOB (Order of Battle) and Uniforms Booklet

Three Player's Aid Sheets

Two Die

Map and Rule Booklet

 I have a good number of games from Europa Simulazioni and I am always impressed by the components and work that goes into their games. The map looks a bit like a cross between a period piece and a new Euro one. The actual paper, or possibly a coating, feels much more resistant to normal wear and tear than normal maps. I believe it will hold up to many years of playing. The map is also easy to read, and the terrain is easily discernable. There are three hard stock Player Aid cards. They are double-sided and are in full color. Three of the pages are in Italian and three are in English. The first has the Terrain Effects Chart and the Turn Record Track on it. The second has all of the Combat Charts etc. on it. The third contains the map and has all of the setup hexes for the different units. The Rule Booklet is twenty-four pages long and is in full color. The actual rules take up just over eighteen pages. This is followed by a Historical Context essay which is about the whole war, but mostly about the Italian theater of operations. Then follows the scenarios and some Examples of Play. The OOB and Uniform Booklet adds a lot to the immersion of the game. It also acts as a manifest to check for missing counters if something untoward happens. I left the Counters for last. They are exceptionally well done. I know I have used the phrase before, but these are really little pieces of artwork. The Strength Points are easy to read, and they are color coded for which formation they belong to. Great Work Europa Simulazioni!

Full Battle Setup. The Wooden Pieces do not come with the Game.

 This is an abbreviated Sequence of Play:

"A) Wing Selection Phase

Each player must choose a Wing Commander. Whoever

wins the die roll (see below), may decide to go with his

Wing Commander OR let the other go. These two Wing

Commanders must activate, one in step A.1 and the other

one in step A.2. Exception: in the first game turn, the

Spanish left wing begins, followed by the Austrian right wing.

A.1) Activation of the first Wing. Activate one of the

two Wing Commanders (see Wing Activation, 3.1 or

below).

A.2) Activation of the second Wing. Same as point

A.1 above.

A.3) Repeat from A1 with other two Wing Commanders

until all WC have been activated.

B) Reorganization and End of Turn 

B.1) Reorganization. Both players may try to restore

units to Good Order. See Reorganization, Par.11.4

B.2) Markers removal. All “Smoke” and

“Changing” markers are removed. Feu de Billebaude

markers are not removed.

B.3) Turn. Advance the current game turn and start a

new game turn.

C) Proclamation of the Victor. If the Austrian

Player does not obtain an Automatic Victory (see 13.2)

before the end of the last game turn, check whether one

of the two players has reached his Victory Conditions. In

this case, he is proclaimed the Winner.

Wing Activation

 a) Removal of Feu de Billebaude markers

Units of the activated Wing Formations may try to

remove the Feu de Billebaude markers (see 9.1.2).

b) Movement

Move all, some or none of the units of the activated Wing

Formations. For details see par.5.

 c) Bombardment

Bombardment by artillery units, as described in par.8., is

performed

d) Combat

Fire, Melee or Charge combats as described in par.9. are

conducted by one Formation at a time for the activated

Wing, in the order chosen by the owning player."

Play Close up

 This is a pretty amazing game for its size and length of rules. It manages to catch the feel of 18th century warfare as has been described to us in books. It has many rules that you do not see in other games of the same era. These are a few:

Wing Movement and Activation

Commanders in Chief

Capture of Commanders

Line Formation

Cavalry Refusal to stay next to an infantry unit

Stacking

Presence of Smoke

Cannon Failure

Infantry Changing of Ranks 

First Volley

Second Volley

Feu de Billebaude - It means 'Firing at Will', which in 18th century warfare is not a good thing. The unit would be firing haphazardly in any direction.

 These really add to the immersion of the players. 

 The game comes with four scenarios of varying length:

Full Game - 12 Turns

Scenario One - 5 Turns

Scenario Two - 5 Turns

Scenario Three - 3 Turns

 The smaller scenarios take place on smaller portions of the map. 

 The game has a little twist to the victory conditions. The Franco-Spanish player has to choose four geographical locations out of a possible eight. The Austrian Player is not told which of the four he picked. So, he has to assume that everyone might be needed for victory. If the Franco-Spanish Player only holds onto one, it is an Austrian victory. If he manages to hold onto two, then it is a draw. Three or more of his chosen geographical locations means he has won.

Another Closeup

 I am very impressed with this game, really a simulation, of a battlefield from over 150 years ago. You can really see the change of warfare from the charge of the pike to Napoleonic warfare. The battlefield is now ruled by firearms and cannons, but not that much has changed since the Campaigns of Marlborough, etc. Playing this game is like gingerly strolling through a minefield. Will your commanders activate? What happens if some of your cannons are no longer usable? What happens to your well-made detailed plan after the smoke of an 18th century battle obscures everything? The Friction of War is here in droves. I absolutely love historical simulation type games. Oh sure, a pundit or two will argue about the finer points. Let them; I will be busy having a great time playing the game, not discussing it.

 Thank you very much Europa Simulazioni for letting me review this very good looking and playing game.

Robert

Europa Simulazioni:

Europa Simulazioni (italianwars.net)

Piacenza 1746:

Europa Simulazioni (italianwars.net)

Cockpit of Europe

by

Red Sash Games

 

 The War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748) is a war that not many people know about. Oh, you have history buffs that because of Frederick the Great know about the war in central Europe, but not many people know anything about the war in the Low Countries. The English Army did not always have things their way against the French. In another war that is even less known about, The Nine Years War (1688-1697), Marshal de Luxembourg consistently had the upper hand. It is true that during the War of the Spanish Succession, Marlborough beat the French Army whenever he faced it. Now we come to one of France's greatest Marshals Maurice de Saxe; as an aside, he could bend and snap horseshoes with his hands, just like his father Augustus the Strong of Saxony. Neither a Frenchman nor a Catholic, he became Marshal General of France's Armies during the War of the Austrian Succession. I believe his writings helped to bring about the Corps system that allowed Napoleon to rise to fame, and it is still used today. de Saxe was also able to beat the English whenever he faced them. This simulation is focused in the Low Counties in the years 1744-1748. So, for those of us who have longed for the day, we now have an operational simulation of the war that featured the Battle of Fontenoy. So, let us see what comes in this oversized box. These are the contents:

1) One 24x18 inch map representing Northwest Europe from the Channel to Metz, and from Paris to the Zuider Zee, derived from a mix of modern cartography and period maps dating from 1715 to 1750. Scale is 8.5 miles per hex (roughly 4 leagues per hex).

2)  1080 die cut counters representing contingents from France, Britain, Holland, Austria, Hesse, Bavaria, and even Russia! (The Dutch army itself contains Swiss, Saxon, Bavarian, Walloon, and Scottish mercenaries, not to mention forces from Holstein-Gotthorp and Hessen-Philipstahl).

3) Rules, charts, tables, and display cards.

4) An historical commentary.

 Opening the box is like looking into a cornucopia. You do not know where to start first. The map may seem kind of small for anyone who is used to monster games. However, if you have played any games about the campaigns of Marlborough you will notice it is exactly the same area. There is a reason it was called the Cockpit of Europe. France and her allies and enemies alike had been fighting over this area for centuries. The next thing you will notice about the map is how colorful it is, and the fact that it is covered in fortresses. Again, if you are not used to wargaming this area during this period, sieges and battles to stop sieges were a way of life for the military in the Low Countries. Movement on the map is point to point, although the rules, to follow wargame norms, call them hexes. Looking at the map, you can easily see how easy it is to fight a defensive war, and how difficult it is to prosecute an offensive one. The map might seem 'busy' to some, but the actual space between points is only 8.5 miles. Barely a good stretch of the legs (if you are into old movies). The game comes with two rule books. One is the 'Lace Wars' rulebook. Lace Wars is the series of games that Cockpit of Europe is part of. Lace Wars is based on the War of the Austrian Succession and the different games are based on the different parts of Europe during the war. The second is the actual Cockpit of Europe rulebook. They are both in black and white. The Lace Wars rulebook is forty-two pages long, and the Cockpit of Europe rulebook is twenty-three pages long.  Some people might look at them and believe they are daunting to behold (more on this later). However, they are well set up and take the player through the different concepts in an easy manner. The counters seem larger than their 5/8" size. On one side is a beautiful recreation of the unit's actual uniform jacket. The flip side is the unit's name and rating, etc. This side is in large type and easy to read. The officer counters also have all their ratings  displayed large enough to easily read them. They also have small portraits of the officers when they could find one available. I cannot say enough about the counters; they are extremely well done. It also comes with a fantastic forty-four page Historical Commentary that is better than most articles about the war. There is so much else that comes in the box. I will give you a list:

Two, two-page French and English HQ Display Charts

Turn Record Track and Peace Index & Operation Track etc.

Cockpit of Europe Counter Guide

Cockpit of Europe Terrain Effects Chart, The other side shows how to setup Battlefields

Sequence of Play

Four sheets of Tables

Allied Campaign Plans, Opposite side has the French Campaign Plans

Cockpit of Europe Unit Class Summary

Cockpit of Europe French OOB Book

Cockpit of Europe Allied OOB Book

Two sheets with Officers" Mess, Recovery Box etc.

Two sheets of 'Wings' A through J to use for battles

 In a word, it has anything you can think of that a player might need to play a deep simulation like this. All of the tables are in black and white. The Counter Guide and Terrain chart and a few other are in color.

These pics are of the Print & Play map

 So, in a nutshell this has all of the trappings of a monster game without the size. I will tell you straight off, anyone looking for a light or medium complexity game please avert your eyes. This simulation, and its brothers, were meant for the grognard. Some gamers who are used to the sweep of panzers across the steppe might think the game slow. For those of us who have wished and prayed for an operational game about the Austrian War of Succession, our prayers have been answered. There have been some games about the war, but almost all of them center on Frederick the Great's part in it. For me the battles in the Cockpit of Europe are the end all and be all. My birthday is May 11th, the same day the battle of Fontenoy was fought. Just hearing the name de Saxe gets my ears to perk up. This is a piece written in the latest Lace Wars rulebook to give an overview of the system:

"Focus of the Series

The Lace Wars series examines the wars of the 17th through 18th centuries (with an option to move into the 19th Century) at the Operational level. In the military thinking of the period, there was no written doctrine entitled ‘operational art’. It was either strategy or tactics. So, by Operational I mean you play the part of a theatre commander. Above you are the Monarch and his or her cabinet (or a republican senate), and the diplomats, and any allied rulers, and all the faceless socio-economic forces. None of which are in your control, though you may be able to manipulate them. Under you are the combat Units, the regiments, brigades, battalions, and war-bands, plus a logistics net and a motley group of generals. These also are not entirely under your control. Generals have personalities of their own, and combat Units have variable strength and cohesion. Since you are in the middle, ‘winning the war’ is not all that vital, and is usually not made the focus of the game, even when the situation is a balanced one. Most historical situations are not balanced. But, the system does provide a balance between you and your opponent, which is all that really matters. This is done by making you chase after personal Prestige. Campaign Plans (CPs) are the key to earning Prestige. They are essentially a set of ‘mandated objectives’, but you usually have a lot of leeway not only in resolving them but in picking them. This way, you can experiment with different strategies. In fact, the series is intended to give you lots of scope for experimentation. The system does not absolutely constrain you to a particular course of action, but it rewards you if you hit on the correct strategy and penalises you if you make mistakes. As you might expect with an operational-level game, the core elements in the Lace Wars series boil down to managing your Units effectively, supplying them, outmaneuvring your opponent, and winning in combat. In the period covered by the series, battles were infrequent but important, sieges were all-important, armies were usually fragile instruments, and supply was centered on the establishment of a network of depots. If you can maintain your forces in being while accomplishing some Campaign Plans, you have a good chance of winning. "

 This is a link to the Lace Wars Quick Start Guide on Red Sash's website:

LW QSG (redsashgames.com)

 How does it play? Like a simulation of an 18th century war, focused on operational warfare. The tactical module is an added attraction. The tactical battles play out much like other games that have 'Battleboards'. Movement is slow compared to most other wargames. The period relied on depots, and while sacking was not uncommon, a king did not want to add a burned out shell of a province into his realm. As I had alluded to, the movement will seem glacial to gamers that are used to 20th century games; even Napoleonic warfare has more movement to it. The simulation rewards you if you can play as an 18th century general. If you go into it with the mindset of Zhukov or Guderian, you will quickly fail. 

 The simulation has everything an 18th century general would have to contend with:

Lines of Communication

Fortifications

Formations

Siege Artillery

Auxiliaries

Leadership

 This is just a small taste of what you will have to deal with while playing. The rulebooks are filled with excellent quotes from many of the generals etc. of the time:

"The French are what they were in Caesar's time, and as he described them, brave to excess but unstable" Marshal de Saxe 

"A pack mule can go on the campaigns with Prince Eugene of Savoy, and still learn nothing of tactics". Frederick the Great

 This was one of my Grail games, and after reviewing it my mind has not changed one bit. It is a labor of love, as is the whole series, of one man's vision to bring the War of the Austrian Succession to a wargamers table. In this, Red Sash Games has hit the bullseye in the target. This is not a simulation to start on your road to becoming a grognard. This is one of those jewels of wargaming that you find after you have traveled that same road for awhile. Thank you Red Sash Games  for the chance to review this beautiful, and excellent simulation.

 The Lace Wars from Red Sash Games are on the pricier side of wargames. However, they also offer 'Print & Play' options for all of their games at incredibly low prices. I myself would suggest to save up and buy the games ready made. Then you have nothing to do but open the box and start playing, or at least start reading the rulebooks.

Red Sash Games:

Red Sash Games Home Page

Cockpit of Europe:

Cockpit of Europe (redsashgames.com)

Robert