Campaign Series Middle East 1945-1985

by

 Matrix/Slitherine 

 This time around we have another Matrix/Slitherine game to review, and once again it is based on a John Tiller game. It seems you could throw the proverbial cat and hit one. Just a caveat - I do not endorse cat throwing. Some of the proverbs that have been handed down to us really make me wonder about our ancestors.

 Campaign ME is a tactical game on the squad or platoon level. It is based upon the Talonsoft game Battleground 10, and it was released in 1997. Campaign ME gives us scenarios from 1948 to 1982. The majority of the scenarios involve Israeli forces versus the various Arabic speaking countries around Israel.


General Features:

• Numerous different platoon types; infantry, machine guns, mortars, artillery, trucks, halftracks, APC's, tanks, helicopters, landing craft, etc.

• 3D art, 2D art and 2D NATO icons for all platoons.

• Sound files for movement and weapons.

• Armour facing of armoured vehicles.

• Classification of hard and soft targets.

• Classification of infantry combat capabilities.

• Night vision for certain tank types.

• Hidden Fire for certain unit types.

• Clear and lay minefields.

• Build Improved positions and trenches.

• Lay light and medium bridges.

• Day and Night transitions during the course of a scenario.

• Ability to set Opportunity Fire against Hard, Soft, Other and Anti-aircraft platoons.

• On-map thermometers for Action Points, Morale and Strength for all platoons in all map views.

• Three Fog of War levels.

• Desert and Mediterranean terrain classifications within the map editors.

• Civilians.

• Comprehensive manual.

• Numerous display options allowing the customer to set up the game to their requirements/preferences

 The middle east during the cold war was a testing ground for various weapons systems of Nato and Warsaw Pact countries. The game allows you to go from WWII weaponry to almost state of the art. To be honest, I have always liked the campaign series of games and have bought every iteration of them. The work that Matrix/Slitherine, and The Campaign Series Legion has done on the various games has only sweetened the deal.

 The conflicts the game covers are as follows:

First Arab-Israeli War in 1948
Suez Crisis of 1956
Six Day War of 1967
War of Attrition
October War of 1973
Invasion of Lebanon in 1982
Algerian War of Independence
Egypt in Yemen
United Kingdom in Aden
Libyan - Egyptian Border War 1977

 There are over 130 historical and hypothetical scenarios. There are also four simplified 'boot camp' scenarios to help get the player up to speed.The game also comes with three linked campaigns. 

 The countries' armed forces that you are allowed to play are:

  France, United Kingdom, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Algeria, Libya, Generic Pro-West and Generic Pro-East. Each of these countries have a fully functional Order of Battles, based on historical TO&E's, from Company to Corps level. Combined, there are well over a thousand unique platoons available.

Let us first take a look at the game's graphics. For us older Grogs who still or did at one time own the Talonsoft games, they are a sight for sore eyes. I always liked the game play on the older Talonsoft games, but the graphics were never to my taste, and I always had difficulty just looking at the map and distinguishing what each unit depicted really was. You could click on any unit you wanted to check, but this was time consuming, and not something the player should have to do. The game now comes with seven view modes. There are three 3D, and four 2D levels of zoom.

 As a solo wargamer I always liked the AI in the Campaign Series games. The Campaign Series Legion has worked hard to enhance the AI even more. They have tried to match the AI behavior to the year, nation, and scenario itself. As is the case with most wargame AIs, they do better at defense than in attack. That is not to say that I haven't been caught with my pants down by the AI. The AI's use of artillery in the game was also a strong point for me. Attacking or defending many times left me with a "what do I do now" look after my silicon troops were scattered after a bombardment.

 Because of the nature of modern warfare the game has four levels of height for helicopters:

Ground

Nap of the Earth

Low

High

 For those of you who like to tinker there are map, battle, and scenario editors. The map editor has forty-nine levels of elevation and no size limit, as long as your computer hardware is up to it.

 This game shows itself to be a keeper by its vast scale in time and conflicts. Instead of being a game with ten to twenty scenarios of the same battle, you get warfare from WWII to almost modern tanks and weaponry. you have even more to conjure up by using all of the editors. With their use you can match up pretty much any combination of East versus West.

 There is a 207 page manual (PDF) that comes with the game. It is very inclusive of whatever the player would need to know.

 The user interface for the Campaign series has been described as  clunky or non-user friendly. The series was, after all, coded twenty years ago. The newer game's user interface has been streamlined from the older versions.To sum it up Campaign Series Middle East is a good tactical game of the years of warfare it portrays. If you are interested in the progression of warfare from WWII to modern, or are just in a WWII rut then take a look at Campaign Series Middle East 1945-1985. I have been in touch with Jason Petho of the Campaign Series Legion, the developers of the game. In 2017 you can expect a Campaign Middle East 2.0 version.

 This was a review of the 1.02 version, the following is a rundown of the update:


FIXES
• Revised Linked Campaign Game Strength Point carry-over issue
• Revisions to the Unit Viewer (F3)
• Fixed several issues involving airstrikes
• Fixed another off board artillery bug
• Fixed occasional edmap launch crash bug
• Adjusted vertical positioning of 2D bridges and ford for engine, edit and edmap

ENHANCEMENTS
• Implemented Options  Mouse Wheel Zoom
• Implemented Options  Hex Contour Widths  1/2/3
• Implemented Options  Cursor  Small/Standard/Large for varying cursor sizes
• Implemented Options  Cursor  Enhanced for a frosted cursor
• Implemented Options  Details  Persistent, a toggle that indicates whether the Damage Report persists until click (or the Esc key is pressed), or vanishes after a delay automatically
• Added terrain feature: Ditches (hexside anti-tank ditches)
• Added terrain feature: Crests (hexside)
• Added terrain feature: Water Block (hexside)
• Added terrain feature: Industrial (hex, for desert terrain)
• Substituted a new engine toolbar, with new OP FIRE button, revised Climb/Descend buttons
• Revised Top of Stack/Bottom of Stack buttons
• Substituted BoxArt style command and results dialogs
• Substituted square nation flags for roundels in the Organization Editor
• Improved diagnostic logging
• For terrain and counter draws, set compiler option to optimize for speed
• Implemented ON_CYCLE as hot key (TAB) for faying hex’s terrain about available alternatives
• Elevation Delta now saved between sessions for engine, edit and edmap)
• All airborne helicopters flying in the Low or High flight zones now have a spotting capability, even if unarmed reconnaissance or transport

GRAPHICS
• Revised a few 3D terrain and vegetation tiles
• Revised 2D terrain and vegetation tiles
• Revised Iraqi 3D graphics
• Revised United Kingdom 3D graphics
• Special graphics and units that are amphibious have been given appropriate graphics
• Revised all 3D graphics with a muted look, allowing 3D units to stand out clearly against the terrain

DATA
• Updated Weapon.pdt file, revising existing information and adding new information for new units
• Updated 09,14,22,23,24,30 platoon.oob files with additions and corrections

SCENARIOS
o New Scenarios by Jason Petho:
o No Match for the 100 (Bir Gifgafa 1967)
o Tourney - Set A01 - High Noon
o Tourney - Set C01 - Hack and Slash
o Tourney - Set C02 - The Villages
o Tourney - Set D01 - Dancing in the Desert
o New Scenario by Jim Mays:
o Tourney - Set B02 - A Furious Charge
o New Scenarios by Alan R. Arvold (available in the mods folder):
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #1
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #2
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #3
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #4
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #5
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #6
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #7
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #8
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #9
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #10
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #11
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #12
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #13
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #14
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #15
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #16
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #17
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #18
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #19
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #20
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #21
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #22
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #23
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #24
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #25
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #26
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #27
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #28
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #29
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #30
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #31
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #32
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #33
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #34
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #35
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #36
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #37
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #38
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #39
o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #40
o Revised Suez Linked Campaign
o Revised all affected scenario/campaign maps with new Industrial terrain hex
o Scenario Modifications to:
o The Crossroads
o Off to Giddi
o Bootcamp 3
o Battlefields of Old
o Raid Into Libya
o Into the Ring
o A Taste of Sa’iqa
o Into Africa!
o The End in the Sahara
o Hot Knife Through Butter

MODS
We have included a number of user made modifications that may enhance your gaming experience. It is recommended to use the JSGME Modification Enabler Software that is included as part of the installation. See Section 16.3 for instructions.

• Alan R. Arvold Ode To Arab-Israeli Wars – This is a scenario set based on the Arab-Israeli Wars created by Alan R. Arvold.
• Ode to Arab-Israeli Wars – This is a 2D graphics modification by Petri Nieminen (aka Crossroads) to provide the players of the Ode to Arab-Israeli Wars scenarios an authentic look and feel when playing the scenarios.
• Alternate 3D Bases – This is a 3D graphics modification that simplifies the roundels in the 3D view, making them easier to distinguish against the terrain.
• Black 2D Unit Profiles – This is a 2D graphics modification that converts the coloured unit graphics to black silhouettes.
• Black Unit Info Box – This is a UI graphics modification that removes the background information when using the Unit List, making the unit information easier to read.
• MausMan 3D Graphics – This is a massive 3D graphics modification that converts all 3D terrain graphics to a smaller scale.
• NATO Icons w. Transp. Background – This is a 2D graphics modification for NATO symbols that removes all colour coding and just displays the black outlines.
• NATO Icons w. White Background – This is a 2D graphics modification for NATO symbols that replaces all colour coding with a white background.

MANUAL
The manual has been revised to 1.02 UPDATE standards. It has also been combed through; revising graphics and grammatical errors, in addition to incorporating comments from users (inclusion of 2D and 3D screenshots, for example).

Robert

Game: Campaigns Middle East 1945-1985

Developer: The Campaign Series Legion
Publisher: Matrix/Slitherine

Date of Review: 1/15/2017

Competition Time!

A CHANCE TO WIN THE LATEST STRATEGY HIT CIV VI!

 

 

 

 



 

 

All you have to do is comment in the comment box at the bottom of this article (say what you what as long as it's not offensive) and promise to spread the word about the blog when you have the chance, plus don't forget us during your browsing sessions:)

 

Closing date will be 1st Feb. Winner announced on the 2nd Feb:)

 

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE

Edit: One thing. If you're coming up as "Unknown" then you will have to leave your name in the comment box otherwise I have no name for the draw:)


A SECOND CHANCE TO WIN!!

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High Treason: The Trial of Louis Riel

By

Victory Point Games

 Before this game arrived, I did some digging on BoardGameGeek and found these other games about trials:

 'Trial' - 1971

 'Jury Trial' - 1996

 'The trial of The Century' - 1996 - really this is a spoof 

 'Nuremberg: Trial of The Century' - 1999

 'Trial Lawyer' - 1975

 'The Trial of Socrates' - 2009

 Other than the Nuremberg and Socrates trial games, there are no other famous trial games. There isn't one about Louis XVI or Charles I, for example. So the pick of the trial that sent Louis Riel to the hang man seems an odd choice. That is, if you are looking at it from non-Canadian eyes. For the Metis (mixed Native American and French-Catholic ancestry in Canada) and other western Canadians, the name Louis Riel is probably pretty well known. He was, and continues to be, a polarizing figure in Canadian history. The stranger fact about Mr. Riel is that his very sanity was, and is in the game, a very large part of the trial and his legacy.

 To give you some background information, Louis Riel was one of the founders of Manitoba and a politician in 1869 who was a leading person in a small rebellion of the Metis against the mostly English ancestry central Canadian government. It was effective enough to force the government to agree to a compromise about land rights, called the 'Manitoba Act'. Mr. Riel then fled Canada and lived in the U.S. for about fifteen years until a new powder keg of Metis grievances exploded in Saskatchewan. He came back to Canada to fight against the government forces, but this was not 1869. The railroads enabled the government to bring large numbers of actual troops and Mounties to crush this rebellion. During the years in the U.S., there was some question about his sanity, and how much of a grip he actually had on reality, along with some religious mania. I am just condensing his much greater history and that of the western expansion of the Canadian government to give the reader some background. Before the board game, I had no idea whatsoever about the man and his cause, and it opened up a whole new historical vista for me to explore.

 So enough about that; how is the game? Victory Point Games, who call themselves 'The Little Game company That Could' is the producer of this game. Wargamers might be more aware of their Napoleonic '20' series games. 

 The box is small, but the components are well done, with one caveat. I did have two counters that had one side of their printed face start to come off at a corner. This might have been my fault, as I did not use a razor knife to take them out. The first few came out so easily and with really no cardboard excess that I didn't think I needed to use one. Victory Point Games even includes a small napkin to deal with any left over charcoal on the counters.

 The components are as follows:

 50 Trail cards
 12 Juror cards
 1 Game mat
 2 Player aid cards
 1 counter sheet
   These include: 18 religion, 18 Language, and 18 Occupation markers
 The rules book 

 You can either play historically or you can add 5 'What If' variant cards to the deck. As with most games, when you set them up you will put the 'current round' marker on the game mat to show what round of play you are on. Then you take the 'evidence of guilt' and  'evidence of insanity' markers and put them on the '0' space on their tracks.

 The rounds are as follows:

 Jury selection
 Trial in Chief ( part one)
 Trial in Chief (part two)
 Summation 
 Deliberation

Start of the Game

 Jury selection is a very important part of the game, but it is not as cut and dried as most of us think. I will use two quotes from the designer to illustrate this. He is also a practicing attorney, so he should know.

 "The goal of jury selection is not discovering whom you want to keep on the jury, but whom you wish to excuse from it".

 "Remember your goal in jury selection is to sneak onto the jury those who, after the Trial in Chief cards are played, should be the most inclined to support your cause (Prosecution: English, Merchant, Government Worker, and Protestant; Defense: French, Farmer, and Catholic). Don't let the starting values of the various aspects fool you during Jury Selection! It is where they end the trail that matters, and there will be a lot of  of cards played between Jury Selection and Deliberation. Examine the deck, look at your Trial in Chief Events on them, and play to your cards' Event strengths!" 

 Each of the first three rounds both sides are dealt seven cards. You are able to use five and keep two for the last round. So you will be using a total of fifteen cards during the first three rounds, and saving six for the summation round. 

Game Mat and six juror cards

 You start with twelve jurors and both defense and prosecution use their five cards to find out as much as they can about the jurors. Are they French Canadian farmers or English government workers? Then both sides pare down the jurors until there are only six left. 

 The cards are a mini-history lesson by themselves. At anytime during the first three rounds you can ask for a 'Mulligan'. The only downside of this is you get one less card than you would normally. So if you kept two cards and asked for five, you would only get four and so on.

 You are able, by use of the cards, to lock both jurors and the religion, ethnicity, and their avocations' aspect tracks. Locking the jurors to your side is a very strong way of play. In the deliberations part of the game, a locked juror can sway others that he has something in common with. This can produce a snowball effect on the jury. 

A French Canadian Farmer juror card about to be locked for the defense

 If, at the beginning of the deliberation phase, the evidence of guilt marker is not at least in the number box two or higher, the prosecution has not proven its case and the defense wins. If the evidence of guilt marker is in the number two box or higher you continue with the deliberation phase. The evidence of insanity marker helps to sway the jury to the defense. If it is at a zero or a one, nothing happens; for each number over one you move the aspects marker toward the defense. After the deliberation phase, it is a simple process of adding up the guilt value of each juror. The aspect tracks influence the guilt value in a plus or minus way. If the guilt value is a combined score of 99 or lower the defense wins. If the score is 100 or above the prosecution wins.

 Once both parties have the rules and sequence order down pat, the game really only takes between thirty minutes to an hour. Where it really shines is the ability for replay. One would think that a historical trial would become rather stale after a few play-throughs. In reality, all of the different cards and the strategies that a player can use keeps it fresh. The use of  'What If' variant cards also helps to keep the game from getting stale. The game, while being both small and short, means that the gamer doesn't have to take up much space with it or leave it up for any long period of time. For a two player game that is going right now for $20.79, you cannot go wrong. In the 'Publisher's Note', Alan Emrich writes that he would like to see games made of other famous trials, with a list of them. I concur wholeheartedly with his ideas and most of his trial suggestions.



 Robert


 Designer: Alex Berry
 Publisher: Victory Point Games 
 Date of Review: 12/21/2016
 
 

Enduring the Whirlwind

The German Army and The Russo-German War 1941-1943 

By 

Gregory Liedtke

 I can hear the muttered groans: "another eastern front book". Just wait a minute, first because the book is fantastic, and second because it is not just another history. The author has spent a lifetime studying the eastern front, and not only that, he has come up with a new thesis. He challenges the etched in stone belief that the Germans were swamped by the Russians and could not keep up with the material and manpower losses. That should have perked up your ears.

 To begin with, the book is a treasure trove of information. It is not for the casual reader, or for someone looking for an overview. This book is a historian's goodie bag of minutiae about the German army and the first two years of the campaign in Russia. There are notes and references on almost every page. The bibliography is a full twenty-six pages! You will get the history of the OstHeer in the different operations during this two year span. The book not only shows the toll taken on the German Army, but also shows the terrible losses of men and materials that the Russians had to try to replace in that span of time.

 This is the first book of a new series called 'The Wolverhampton Military Studies' brought to you by the University of Wolverhampton. To quote from the series editor "With everyone of our publications we want to bring you the kind of military history that you will want to read simply because it is a good and well-written book, as well as bringing new light, new perspectives, and new factual evidence to its subject." With this first book in the series, they have succeed admirably. 

 The first chapter of the book goes back in time to show the state of the German armed forces in 1919, and its tremendous growth spurt from 1933 on. It also shows the tremendous in-fighting between the rival services. All of this growth was based on a resurgent Germany to be ready for a major war in the mid 1940s. Hitler's miscalculation of the effect his invasion of Poland would have on the western allies is crucial to understanding that in reality the German armed forces where not ready at the time for a large war. Having bluffed and been able to conquer on the cheap until June 1941, you can see that in no way was Germany ready for a war on the scale it fought in Russia. 

 The details of the book show that contrary to other histories, women were used in the work place at a higher level than the Allies at times. The surplus of armaments on hand were usually greater than their losses at most points. One thing the book brings out is even when the equipment was available in Germany, it was usually sitting by the rail heads unable to be shipped to where it was needed. The shortage of railways and of trains was felt from the beginning of the War in Russia until the end.

 The author has shown that between June of 1941 and July of 1943, the Germans were able to mostly make up for their losses on the eastern front. The author's hypothesis can be summed up in the last lines of his 'Conclusion': "In short, the German Army was able to generate forces of prodigious strength three times in the space of two and one-half years. If these efforts were ultimately insufficient to produce victory between June 1941 and July 1943, the root cause of Germany's failure during the Russo-German War reside elsewhere." He is able to show that the German Army was sufficiently staffed and equipped by the start of the Battle of Kursk. There are only two points I would like to make on this assumption. The death and wounding of so many veteran soldiers in the first two years of war certainly had an impact on the Heers ability to function. Being able to fill a manpower shortage is not the same as still having the core elements of your army's 'old hands' at whatever post they filled. The other point is that many authors have shown that Kursk itself was not a bloodbath of armor and men for the Germans as was once believed. They have shown that the defensive battles after Kursk were the real blood-letters of the German Army in 1943. I would like to see the author continue and do a book on the German losses from July 1943 to may 1945, and be able to see what he is able to glean about the actual Germans' ability to replace the losses in this time period also.

 All-in-all, it is an excellent and well written book that lives up to the editor's ideas for this new series of military history books. I cannot wait for more in the series to be released. Thank you Mr. Liedtke and Helion&Company for this great read.


Robert 


 Author: Gregory Liedtke
 Publisher: Helion&Company
 Distributor: Casemate Publishers