CUIDAD DE PATRIOTAS

(CITY OF PATRIOTS) 

FROM

TRAFALGAR EDITIONS

I expect that many, like me, first learnt about this bloody episode in Spanish history from the celebrated painting by Francisco Goya reproduced below.  

Tres de Mayo or The Execution

However, Goya's painting that relates most specifically to Trafalgar Editions' game depicting the Spanish uprising in Madrid during the Peninsular war is this second painting.

Goya's Dos de Mayo or The Fight Against the Mamelukes

Indeed the game's very short introductory scenario, designed to familiarise you with the basic game system, is entitled "The Charge of the Mamelukes."

To set the scene in its historical context, Madrid had been occupied by the French since late March 1808 and the Spanish king, Charles IV had been forced to abdicate in favour of his son, Ferdinand VII, but both were being held by the French in Bayonne. General Murat was in command in Madrid and appeared to be intending to move Charles's daughter and her children along with Charles's youngest son to Bayonne as well.  These actions were what sparked off this brief and bloody uprising on May 2nd [Dos de Mayo] 1808.  Quelled by the end of the same day, the spontaneous rebellion was followed on the next day by harshly repressive reprisals in which several hundred Spanish citizens (madrilanos) were rounded up and summarily shot, as immortalised by Goya's painting.

Cuidad de Patriotas presents the action of that day of rebellion in simple area-movement form with a brief set of rules and Trafalgar Editions' customary excellent quality.  So, it's with many thanks to the company for providing me with this review copy and giving me the opportunity to explore this unusual and highly individual event depicted with some equally individual features.  

The mounted map board vividly lays out the districts of Madrid in bold colours.  Each district is further divided into a number of neighbourhoods.  For a French victory, you need to control six out of the eight districts by end of the game's six turns, other wise it's victory to the Spanish player.  The quality of a French victory can range from Decisive to Pyrrhic!

Inevitably the Spanish player's task is, somehow, in the face of many more powerful French units, to delay and delay... and delay.  For the French player, it is constantly to move and attack.  Each district must have all its neighbourhoods cleared of Spanish units and occupied by at least one French unit, at which point it comes under permanent French control and cannot be re-entered by Spanish units or have their reinforcements appear there, nor do the French units have to remain there to maintain control. It's not so much a race of the hare and the tortoise as the steamroller and time!

As mentioned the components are of very good quality, especially the mounted board and the counters.  The latter have perfectly rounded corners and press out smoothly with none of the occasionally irritating side tags found in some games.

There are rule books both in Spanish and in English and the latter suffers slightly in being printed on plain white, A4 sized paper that doesn't quite match the smoother, glossy Spanish booklet.  The Play Aids are double-sided again to accommodate Spanish and English text.  The package is rounded out with an attractive, neat draw-string bag (a little small for its purpose), a pack of Command cards and a 10-sided die.

Though the basic rules are a bare six and a half pages long, there is quite a bit of originality to be embraced that takes them beyond the ease that might be expected for the suggested novice wargamer.  Also like many games that have fairly brief rules, you need to concentrate carefully in your reading.  The rules on Reinforcements are a good example of what I mean.  Their detailed explanation comes on page 11, five pages after the basic rules and is located after optional rules, designer notes and a full page table of Troop Composition.  Among them is the information that "the French player receives reinforcements from out of the city and from the accesses marked on the map."  This instruction can only be fully understood when you link it up with the overall information on page 2 about neighbourhoods "In some neighbourhoods there are flags with numbers and letters.  They are the barracks where the French and Spanish troops were stationed and are used to introduce reinforcements.  There are also French flags at the entrances to Madrid, they are entry areas for other French and some Spanish reinforcements."  Put these details together with the following play aid,

and the Order of Battle display cards (seen below) and you're nearly there for knowing exactly where to place most of your reinforcements.  Sometimes you will still need to locate the hard to find name of a road on the map board that some French troops arrive on to solve it.  I have to say it wasn't plain sailing!

Order of Battle Play Aids

When you've set up your units on these displays, the disparity in the forces is all the more striking.  First of all, more than half of the Spanish units are civilians and more than half of all the Spanish units have only a strength of one.  In total, they have 46 strength points.  In contrast, the French are all military units.  They have 32 units, but 11 of those are four strength and each can be broken down into 4 single strength counters.   These are essential both for the massive punch they have in combat and that they can be broken down in order to spread out to occupy the many neighbourhoods needed to gain control of six out of the eight districts that lead to victory.  In total, the French muster 90 strength points!

The shot above gives you a clear idea of the quality of the large counters - as mentioned earlier, not a marring side-tag in sight.

So there's the overview of the contents and a glimpse of the opposing forces.  Now to the sequence of play and the game's system.  

PHASE 1 REINFORCEMENTS, EVENTS AND COMMAND CARDS

New random Event chits are drawn and each player plays one chit.

Place reinforcements.

Draw command cards.

PHASE 2 COMBAT AND MOVEMENT

Unlike the majority of area movement games, there is no variation in cost whatsoever between entering a friendly or enemy area or adjacent to an enemy area.  Movement couldn't be easier - 1 MP (movement point) per area.

Combat on the other hand is a different matter altogether. You only have combat within an area; there is no combat between adjacent areas.  Combat resolution begins with a very familiar simple differential between total attacker and defender strength points, with a few equally obvious modifiers for such things as unit type, card play and Event chits.  Roll on the Combat Table and apply the loss in points to the loser.  However, how those loss points are applied is distinctly unfamiliar and took some getting used to.  At first it seemed straightforward.  If all individual units are higher in value than the loss, then all losing units simply retreat 1 or 2 areas.  If the combat loss is equal to the strength of the weakest unit, then the unit is dispersed - i.e. removed from the board. If French the unit is automatically returned as a reinforcement on the next turn, if Spanish roll the D10 and a result of 6-10 it too automatically returns as a reinforcement, but a roll of 1-5 eliminates it.  Any other units are retreated.

However, any loss result greater than the strength of one or more units will cause some element of immediate elimination and possible dispersal and retreat.  I couldn't discern a simple, logical process to work this out, but had to rely on following the summary of results.  Fortunately, this summary is fairly short and with practice becomes familiar.  Bu it wasn't initially helped by the use of "scattered" instead of "dispersed" at one point and "retired" instead of "retreated".   Just a bit more focus in proof-reading would have avoided this.

Close up of the strongly coloured map board

PHASE III THE UPRISING BOX

(Note that the sequence of play printed on the back of the rule book labels this phase as REVOLT BOX).

Each player keeps a tally of combat points lost for units and characters (i.e. leaders) and these are called the player's Fury Points and at the end of the turn the French total is deducted from the Spanish total.  The result is called The Uprising Box and determines which player draws 3 Event chits and the other 2 Event chits at the beginning of the next turn.   Again all seemed very simple, as all of these scores are reset to zero at the beginning of a turn.  However, the second example in the rule book for this Phase contradicts the rules by stating that each player started a turn with +2 Fury Points which was added to that turn's casualties.  As this didn't seem to make any sense, I simply disregarded the example.

The basic rules end with the Victory Conditions.

An automatic Spanish victory occurs, if the French do not control at least 2 districts by the end of Turn 4 - an outcome I cannot foresee ever happening.

Otherwise, the French win, as stated earlier, if they control at least 6 out of the 8 districts.  If the French win, you determine the scale of victory which runs from Decisive to Pyrrhic with the proviso that if the French lose 22 or more points their victory shifts down a level meaning that a Pyrrhic level victory would shift to a Spanish victory!

Continuing on from the basic rules, there are a few optional rules that add a little more colour and detail.  They cover such things as cavalry charges and special French cavalry movement, officers and significant historical characters, unit support, further combat modifiers, French garrisons and fog of war for Spanish civilian units which are randomly drawn and set up face down.  Most are simple and easy ti introduce and personally I would choose to play with nearly all of them as standard.

The rules booklet is rounded off with something I always like to see, namely Designer Notes, a troop Composition Table and rather oddly only now do we get the rules for Reinforcement Placement and the Set-Up and Reinforcement Schedule.

The last neat touch is to present an historical narrative of the day, hour by hour, giving details along with the appropriate unit and where to place them. 

Well illustrated rules

To sum up, Cuidad de Patriotas is an essentially light and intriguing exploration of a brief and small. but significant event in the Peninsular War.  The game is very attractively presented in all aspects and the rules are generally short and comprehensive, with one or two grey areas that would have benefited from a little more detail and clarity.  With a maximum of six turns and a small unit count, it provides a swift game that can easily be played in a single afternoon or evening's play.

As always it's with many thanks to Trafalgar Editions for kindly providing this review copy and their rapid replies to my rare queries on a few rules.

LIMITS OF GLORY

NAPOLEON'S EASTERN EMPIRE 

FROM

FORM SQUARE GAMES

Almost a year ago, I reviewed the prototype of this game.  I was majorly impressed by the quality and the originality of this game.

What I had to say then can be found by clicking on this LINK.

The game was launched later last year on Gamefound and rapidly reached its target for publishing and was a complete sell out.  Roll forward less than a year and here is the published product safely and proudly in my hands with many thanks to Andy Rourke, the game's designer and founder of  its publishing company Form Square Games.

In this brief reprise, I mainly want to highlight the extra notch or two by which the final professionally published game extends the existing qualities of the prototype.  Perhaps the most obvious step up is the map which suffered in its original draft from a strange abnormality in the colour of the sea.  Here, below, everything is as it should be with a perfect translucent blue sea, but my photograph still cannot capture just how strikingly bright the whole effect is.

Next come the counters - identical in every way to the prototype, but just that bit sharper and perfect in the images; especially the circular counters, two for each leader, one of which goes on the map and the other marking their Glory Points on the Leader Displays.

The Leader Displays too reveal the same increased precision with the background colouring and outlined cartoon images distinct and clear.

However, what I want to comment on most is the rule book.  In its prototype it was a simple set of black and white A4 stapled sheets.  It did the job clearly, despite the originality and novelty of so much of the rules.  The final product deserves my wholehearted praise and approval.  It's magnificent!  So here goes for a quick dip in, from the front cover...

to the admirable index on the back page.

Everything about it signals quality perfection.  Physically, it is a delight to hold and turn the substantial, smooth pages and reading the rules is a pleasure.  Large print and spacious layout complement the presentation and add to the ease of reading and comprehending what you read.

Substantial illustrations simply enliven the text...

while the majority serve to support and clarify the explanations.

The text, as in the prototype draft, is designed to be read consistently in chronological order.  This may seem an odd comment to make.  Surely all rules should be read in chronological order?  True, but I know many experienced gamers often turn to certain sections (e.g. Combat or Movement) for a preliminary scan.  This game and series introduces so many intriguingly original, yet simple, mechanisms and takes you carefully step by step through them at each appropriate stage of the game play that I think it worth emphasising.

There is so much to like about this presentation from the massive main headings for each stage of the rules to the comprehensive alphabetical Quick Reference page on the back of the rule book.  Understanding of the rules is supported by the many examples, all immediately recognisable by being highlighted in pink background boxes, and a factor I always like is the detailed explanation of all  the Events, which are particularly important in this game.

The richness and the attention to detail throughout in the artwork, the colour, the cartoons drawn from the historical period and the sheer physical quality contributes so much to the pleasure of the game.  It also testifies to the designer's love and appreciation of the game's subject and his desire to communicate this in a way that is so much more than just a set of rules.

If you did not back the boxed version of this game, it is still possible to buy the folio magazine version either directly from Form Square Games  or Second Chance Games.

And finally, I am more than happy to say that the second game in this series, Maida 1806 is well under way and shortly you will be able to read my review of the prototype here on A Wargamers Needful Things.

STALINGRAD ROADS 

FROM

NUTS PUBLISHING

What's in the box

Stalingrad Roads has been a game that I have been waiting for with great anticipation and enthusiasm and, I confess, some trepidation about its eventual realisation, as it continually seemed to be coming...but not yet.  So, at last, with a resounding cheer, it's a reality and I must give a big thanks to Nuts Publishing for not just sending me a copy to review, but a bonus of the neoprene map...only the second one that I've ever owned.  Stalingrad Roads is the third in a series that began with Liberty Roads and was followed by Victory Roads.  These first two were published by Hexasim, another games company I greatly admire, though with them my focus has been on their excellent Napoleonic series.   

My knowledge of the first two Roads games is purely of their physical appearance which, in both cases, was lavish with vibrant colours on the map and counters. Nuts Publishing has gone for a much more austere map and counters that in their simplicity of layout and contrast of ochre and grey have a distinctly retro feel to them.

This is a major aspect that may divide players.  I’m certainly in the camp that favours the austerity of the pale wintery palate of the map that suits the span of November to March deep in Russian territory. With the counters I have mixed feelings, not so much for colour, but size. In fact, I found the multiplicity of badges on the units in the first two games distinctly distracting and one For those with the modern gaming taste for the larger and more lavish the better, they may be too small and too simple.  Nonetheless, they are totally practical and clearly readable with the standard three number sequence: attack strength, defence strength and movement.

In all other respects, the contents should be uncontentious.  The game contains a substantial number of double-sided Play Aids, all on thin, glossy card.  An item I wish all games provided is an identical terrain, combat and weather chart, one for each player.  Thumbs up to Nuts Publishing for that.  So much easier than passing one backwards and forwards across the table and much more appealing than one player having a photocopy.  

Both players have double-sided charts that explain the many individual Support markers each side may potentially have in the course of the game.  Three more contain set-up charts for the different scenarios and a final four combine a variety of functions.  One side of each presents a variety of other play aids, from holding boxes to player specific charts, while the others provide more set up displays and one contains a mini-map for the introductory learning scenario, Wintergewitter.

Wintergewitter mini-map

...and how it appears if played on the full map

The rulebook (partially seen above) is a similarly attractive, glossy product of 22 pages of rules, 4 pages of scenarios and a 1 page index. It’s very compact and functional and, though the print size is fairly small, I’ve found it easy to read.   Illustrations are limited, but focus extensively throughout the excellent, detailed examples of the central elements of Combat, Retreat and Exploitation.

The rules themselves are an interesting blend of the familiar and the unusual.  The core of the system is a fairly basic one common to even early hex and counter games of  the igo-ugo format with the Soviets having the first half of the turn and the Axis having the second half, founded on supply check, movement, combat and reinforcements and replacements.  

However, a level of added complexity derives from both players having a Support Phase as well as specific individual Phases.  These latter Phases apply mainly to the Soviet player and for that reason I would recommend that a more experienced player take the Soviet side at least for the first few games.

Combat and Weather Charts on back of the rule book

A number of points looked daunting, but in reality weren’t. The first such was the weather table and its rules.  My one complaint here is that the explanation of the lettered code used in the table is given in the reproduction of the chart in the rule book and on the back cover of the rule book, but not on the Play Aids - an odd choice!  When I saw that Snow and Mud are the only two weather conditions, I feared I might be in for a mass of complexity.  However, as Snow predominates, it has been largely been dealt with by factoring it into movement rates and other data on the terrain chart; as a result it turned out easy to handle.  Apart from obvious ground features, especially rivers, being dealt with through the weather table, so too is cloud cover which affects air support markers.  Both sets of conditions have handy tracks and markers on the map as reminders - a welcome help.

Explanation of Weather Effects on Cloud Cover and Rivers

Perhaps surprisingly, weather does not affect supply, though supply itself is handled in a novel and interesting fashion.   Apart from a direct trace of 4 hexes to map edge supply hexes, roads and rails are the key.  This is a familiar rule; what is unusual is that you check HQs first for being in supply and then those that aren’t are removed from the map.   They will return to the map in the Reinforcement and Replacement Phase which is the last Phase of each player's turn.  Unfortunately, as the rules don't clearly specify, it must be assumed that they return by the same process as unit reinforcements arrive.  In the final step of the Supply Phase all combat units are checked for whether they are within command range of an HQ on the map.  If not, then they are marked as out of supply. 

Close up on the Combat Table

The other intriguing feature is the Combat Results table.  Though it is the standard CRT with an odds ratio and 2D6 roll, unlike the very conventional single columns for each ratio with either an Attacker result or Defender result or a split result for each, there are three columns.  The first column gives step losses, strangely in the rules labelled under the heading Application of Attrition Results, but then referred to from then on by the more familiar phrase "step loss."  The second and third column respectively provide what are called Attacker Tactical Results and Defender Tactical Results.  At first sight, several of these look familiar - AR, DR, DR1, DR2, DR3 and Eng - but the last one Eng definitely does not mean the well known Engaged Result which normally is much the same as "no effect." Here the Attacker has to roll 2D6 again and apply only the Attrition Result i.e. more step losses.

And now for something completely different

On top of these are several new results: E, F, S and R.  Unlike "E" usually meaning Eliminated, here it means Exploitation and its effect is influenced by a surprising number of additional rules for a single CRT result.  It is a Tactical result only found in the Attacker columns and allows a limited number of units to make exploitation and attack moves in the Exploitation Phase that immediately follows the Combat Phase.  The number of Attacking units allowed to take part is changed by such things as whether an armoured attack had been declared and terrain.  Added to that, the type of units chosen may mean that some can only move, while others can both move and attack.  Again an interesting and new approach replaces what is usually handled by the standard, conventional Exploitation Phase of many games.  On the other hand, the F, R and S are all Tactical Results that can only occur for the Defender and mainly add extra choices between retreats and additional or reduced step losses.

The final and crucial development in the novel twists to well known war game tropes is the Support Phase - what I might call the Good, the Bad and the Ugly (well, ok the last adjective doesn't apply) of the rules.  The fact that it is given its own separate Phase and both players get a double-sided aid to explain the use of each support marker signals its importance.  First of all, there are far more potential Support Markers in this game than I have come across before in most games.  Then the Soviet Player has four separate Available Marker holding boxes, while the rules for Support markers take up almost a full page of rules and unfortunately several other Phases separately contain details that affect the use of Support Markers.  At this point when learning to play the game, I began to feel that a little less might have been a lot better.   When mastering the information about the markers and the rules that govern them became far heavier to memorise than the whole Combat process itself, I felt a little overtaxed.  However, though they do add quite a bit to the learning process and to the complexity of game play, they also add a lot of chrome and historical feel to the game which I enjoy and appreciate.

Just a few of the many and varied Support Markers

So far, I've concentrated on what I would call the expected generic areas of rules as well as some of the intriguing individualities of the "Roads" system.  The last part of the rules that I want to consider are those designed specifically to simulate historical elements of this campaign, Operation Uranus.  Considering that this was a major and crucial Soviet offensive, it's not too surprising to find in the Sequence of Play a Soviet Offensives Phase.   The Soviet Player starts the game with one Soviet Major Offensive marker and will gain two Minor Offensive markers as reinforcements.  The conditions for launching a Major Offensive are closely bound up with the Support Markers just discussed, though the player is at liberty to choose the moment of launch whenever those conditions are met. 

Also highly important is the Stavka Phase.  This covers rules for releasing Reserve units generally during the course of the game and none of these reserves could be more important or valuable than for release at the beginning of the Major Offensive!  The Stavka Phase is also vital for withdrawing units and rebuilding them.  So far, these are all areas of the rules that help to give the Soviet Player both their characteristic feel and specific punch for this campaign.  The final element of specifically Soviet rules should be equally familiar to students of this period of the war and that is Soviet Lost Momentum.  The negative effect of these rules is closely bound to the number of times Soviet HQs move - a good incentive for ensuring that your HQs stay in supply and so don't have to execute lots of movement to return!

The final special Soviet Phase is the grand sounding Operation Mars Progress Phase.  This is designed to cover how a parallel Soviet Offensive launched by Stalin in another sector might have impacts on Operation Uranus.  It couldn't be easier to apply, as it is abstracted into a simple 2D6 each turn, from Nov IV to Dec III.   Depending on the dice roll, the marker on the Operation Mars track will either stay still or move on the track.  Possible outcomes may be a Soviet Collapse or a Soviet Breakthrough.  If neither has happened by the Dec IV turn, this Phase no longer occurs.  

All in all, these rules work together very well with a minimum of effort and plenty of flavour, as do the brief rules on German Superiority and Major Soviet Successes.  The very last section to consider is the Fortress Stalingrad Supply Phase.  This can be declared by the German Player, if both hexes of Stalingrad are German occupied and these units are out of supply.  It brings with it a substantial level of extra rules and is cancelled if the German units in at least one Stalingrad hex regain normal supply and, of course, may recur if both hexes again are out of supply.  It is obviously highly historical and again strongly adds to the game's "feel."  Whether it is worth the extra complexity and rule commitment will, I think, be dependent on the individual players and I would suggest that players discuss its implementation.  I'd expect more experienced gamers to go for it, but less experienced might like to leave it out until they felt comfortable with the overall system.

Finally, there are the Scenarios which offer a very good range in both length and complexity.  Without doubt the Wintergewitter Scenario is truly "introductory", as the rule book says, aimed at getting to know the basic, underlying "Roads" system. 

The three shorter scenarios range from 3 to 7 turns and use a reduced section of the full map.

Operation Uranus - a 3 turn blast that sees the campaign kicking off, using part of the full map.  Be careful to note the reminder that you use the set up for the full campaign, except for those units whose hex placement is in red.  The rule book advises playing this, above all, to familiarise yourself with the rules that pertain especially to this game's situation and I would go along with this suggestion.  Its brevity allows you to learn and make mistakes and try it out again.

Operation Star and Gallop - seven turns.  This has the advantage again of fewer turns and units at their last gasp.  It also follows on from the fall of Stalingrad and so helps again to experience situation rules specific to this game without having to master the added depth of the Fortress Stalingrad rules.

Backhand Blow - 5 turns.  It too has the same advantages as Operation Star & Gallop and having encountered this in several games devoted wholly to this part of the war, I greatly relished having this to play as a scenario.  In my view a great bonus.

Finally, it's the main attraction, the full campaign game scenario:

On The Brink of Disaster.

Soviet forces poised to launch their envelopment

A substantial 17 turns.  Fairly modest on map counter presence at start, with plenty of reinforcements to follow for both sides.

Initial Soviet Set Up Forces

Inevitably the full campaign for me remains the major draw in any game, but it's always pleasing when there are several shorter scenarios, as here, which all provide a solid play session.

 The Origins of Surface -To-Air Guided Missile Technology

German Flak Rockets and the Onset of the Cold War

by

James Mills

  This is the most technical book that I have ever read from Casemate Publishers. It goes through the tentative steps that the UK and the US made toward SAMs (Surface-To-Air Missiles), before and during World War II. The real crux of the book is the Allied and Russian scouring of Germany after the war for technology and designs of the German SAM programs. Much like Operation Paperclip (the US grab for German scientists, whether they were war criminals or not), this is a story of who is able to grab who and what before another country finds it.

 To tell this story, the author takes us back from the end of the war to the German designs and testing that took place before then. As usual, with the German Wunderwaffen programs, it is a tale of too little and too late, which is a tremendous blessing for the Allied and Russian Air Forces. It shows how the Germans were going in so many directions at once. They were working on both guided and unguided munitions. 

 The main part of the book is taken up by the story of the UK and US attempts toward producing a SAM. Then it goes on to show how each of these nations combed Germany for scientists and technology from the German projects. The US Nike SAMs came out of the collaboration between the scientists. The book then shows how France also got into the race to find information. Then the author goes into his conclusions about this hidden part of history (until now). Next, there are an extensive number of Appendices which also includes a look at the Russian attempts to appropriate the knowledge for themselves. 

 This is not an easy book to read. That does not mean that it is not engrossing. It is much more for history readers that are also military tech lovers. This is not just a strict book of who did what and when they did it. There is a tremendous amount of 'how' that are in these pages.

 Thank you, Casemate Publishers, for allowing me to review this deep and interesting book. It tells a tale that needed to be added to the military history of World War II and its direct aftermath.

Robert

Book: The Origins of Surface -To-Air Guided Missile Technology: German Flak Rockets and the Onset of the Cold War

Author: James Mills

Publisher: Casemate Publishers

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)