VON MANSTEIN'S TRIUMPH
FROM
NAC WARGAMES
Initially, I was drawn to Von Manstein's Triumph purely by the bold dynamic box art. It may be good advice not to judge a book by its cover, but I'm more than glad that this striking picture caught my attention and made me explore further!
The game is published by NAC Wargames, itself a branch of the Spanish Publisher, Ediciones MasQueOca. Up to now, the latter company's focus has been on providing Spanish and Portuguese language versions of well-known designs. The company's avowed intent now is to focus on historical wargames that relate to the history of Spain.
Though Von Manstein's Triumph may geographically and in terms of nationality lie outside this intent, I can only express my delight that this superb design from Francisco Ronco has been one of their choices. It's also warm thanks to NAC and Ediciones MasQueOca for providing this copy for me to review.
First of all, its components live up to the extremely high standards of the company's past publications and secondly, the design brings a series of new twists both to the field of block units, area movement and card-driven games.
Though Manstein features in the title of a fair number of wargames, including at least two that cover the siege of Sevastopol, all those that I am aware of utilise the standard hex and counter system that is the basis of much wargaming design.
Starting with the components, every item ticks the box for excellence. The map is a deluxe mounted version sporting a Spanish text version on one side and an English version on the other.
This direct, overhead view picks out clearly the sombre relief, the trench defences, clearly marked VP flags, ferry points and heavy soviet shore batteries, along with all necessary charts and a simple combat display for transferring your units to. Your forces are wooden blocks of first-rate smoothness. I mention this because of the tendency of several more recently purchased block games I possess to have slightly ribbed or striated surfaces - not as good for sticking power.
An additional point in this attention to quality is the inside of the sturdy box, which instead of the usual plain white cardboard is printed with similar details to those on the Playbook.
A touch of box quality
As usual there is the familiar set of adhesive labels to apply, though as the photo shows this is a relatively low block count - so not an onerous task. The units are based on divisions that possess from 2 to 4 individual blocks identified by colour-coding and a number of independent units identified by white colouring. It is this colour coding which brings my single criticism of the presentation. First, the typical black dots that indicate the strength of a unit are very small and hard to make out against the generally dark background of the labels. but the major problem lies in distinguishing the colour-coding of the divisions when playing under artificial lighting.
Having initially played in normal daylight, they were perfectly identifiable and attractive, but later play on a wintery evening revealed the problem of clearly differentiating units, especially as divisions begin to intermingle.
On the other hand, praise goes out for the sheet of counter stickers containing two identical sets. Although I've never had a problem with ones peeling off other games, this is always a nice sign of a company's careful attention to potential player needs.
Next up is a single sheet of cardboard markers, ranging from the obvious turn marker to a colourful range of assets, including bunkers, anti-tank guns, armour and pioneers, as well as minefields, area control markers for the German player, and trench destroyed markers.
They all punch out perfectly with the much appreciated, rounded corners that are becoming a more familiar item from many companies.
At the heart of game play are the two decks of cards, one for each nationality. I find the backs of the cards particularly appealing, with their strong feel of wartime propaganda posters.
Included with them are similar-sized cards giving each player's card manifest, terrain effects, counter and marker effects, a very useful short-hand list of modifiers to the number of dice thrown in combat and finally the Sequence of Play. All these and the larger Play Aids, one for each player that summarise the usage of all the different cards in the Player Decks, are helpfully printed in Spanish on one side and English on the other.
All in all, an admirable package, completed by what's becoming almost the norm in board wargames, a separate rulebook and playbook. Both are very glossy products with an abundance of illustrations. The Playbook starts with 5 pages of photographs that show the Set-Up map section by map section; a very useful asset indeed. Next is a page and a half of Design Notes and slightly more than a page of Player Notes, followed by six pages of Historical Commentary. All this is rounded off by a five-page example that takes you through the first turn of the game - once more a feature that is always welcome, however easy to understand the rules are.
These two photos show the consistently high level of illustration used throughout.
The Rulebook is supported to the same degree with pictorial examples and, basically, the Sequence of Play is ultra-simple. Apart from a preliminary German Bombardment on Turn 1, each Turn follows two identical Phases; the German Action Phase and the Soviet Action Phase. Each Player's Deck of cards contains four different types: Assault, Reaction, Order and Combat Support. Though essentially simple, play is by no means simplistic and what might, at first, seem an igo-ugo system has a degree of back and forth play that means that both players are totally involved and engaged.
Another distinctive feature that helps the game to shine is the asymetrical design of the decks. Both players have a core element of Assault cards, but even here there are distinct differences, as the German player has far more of these that are dual action allowing them to interrupt the Soviet Action Phase. In the same way both the Order and Combat Support cards include a mix of near identical cards and those specific only to one player. By these means the decks create the appropriate emphasis between the attacking besieger and the defensive besieged. [Here I would love to see the system adapted for ancient or medieval siege warfare.] A final point to make about the cards is that both players draw to full hand size at the end of each Player Phase rather than at the end of a complete Turn. This adds greatly to keeping both players constantly absorbed in the game play
As the cards are the very heart of the system, I can think of few games that go to such lengths to make sure that you both understand them and then can use them with the minimal amount of effort and rule checking. First of all, they are introduced in detail, step-by-step early in the rule book and then a three-page section at the end of the rulebook summarises each one. As shown above, each player has a player aid that sums up the use of both his cards and his opponents, as well as most of the counters used in the game.
One of three pages summarising each card's usage
Oddly there are one or two German counters not included on the large player aid, though they are all clearly explained in the rule book and covered by the three small playing-card sized aids that cover Terrain effects, Counters and Markers and Combat dice. Finally, each card in your Action Deck pictorially shows how to use it. Consequently, after a few games, you'll find yourself playing smoothly with each card's use easily fixed in your head.
Front cover of the Playbook
So, how does the game play out. Being the besieger, the drive and onus of the action is naturally on the German player. They have certain advantages, the most obvious being hand-size which is 8 cards as against the Soviet player's 6 cards. They also have more cards that can inflict hits as opposed to the Soviet ability to place bunkers and minefields and, though both sides start in defensible trench areas, predominantly it's going to be the German player who's leaving their own protection behind to advance into the Soviet trenches. As mentioned earlier, the German player also has more double-use cards that allow an immediate reaction during the Soviet player Phase.
Generally, the German player will be seeking to soften up areas with air strikes and heavy or superheavy artillery in order to weaken Soviet blocks and destroy the fixed coastal batteries printed on the map. The Soviet player for their part has field artillery and the power of those coastal batteries, as well as the ability to place bunkers and minefields. Other abilities from card play cover ATs, Stugs, fighter cover and fighter escorts and mortars, while the map itself includes those powerful coastal batteries that are so important for the German player to destroy, ferry crossing points an anti-tank ditch and a plethora of trench lines.
It is, like any siege, a difficult grind forward for the attacker, but the variety of action and play and counter-play of cards, all so simply, but effectively introduced whether as Actions, Orders or Combat Support, makes the experience a continually dynamic and tension filled one. Whichever side you play, you'll find yourself fully engaged and immersed the whole of the game.
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