Liaison 1914 by Edward Spears Review

 

 Those who know me or are regular readers will be well aware of my obsession with WWI. It goes without saying that I'm going to have a fairly extensive WWI book collection, though I've said it just in case:). Only a handful of those books I'd class as poor or were difficult to get through, on the other hand a good number of them I thoroughly enjoyed and I'd really struggle to make a list of my top ten without feeling I'd left out many books well worthy of a place in the list. Then we have those that wouldn't just be in my top ten WWI books but be in my non-fiction military history top ten list and, finally, a handful would be vying for a place in my all time favourite books ever, no matter the subject matter or genre. Carry on reading to see where I'd place Liaison 1914.

 

 

 The book is a fairly hefty tome at 469 pages and a further 119 pages of Appendices and Index. Altogether 589 pages to delve into (see, I can count and add up). The book is a narrative of the authors time in Belgium and France as liaison officer between the British and the French. At  the time Edward Spears was a young, highly literate lieutenant with the Royal Irish Hussars, but due to his fluency in French he was made liaison officer between Field Marshal Sir John French the British Expeditionary Force commander (BEF) and the French High Command. As you can imagine, he was in a fantastic position to understand what was going on at the time, most likely better than anyone else on the Entente side at that time. This means this book, his narrative of the retreat from ⚔ Mons, a retreat that could have wiped out the BEF before they even started, would\should make an engrossing read, a real page turner...and it does, with bells on! 

 

 All the major Entente players in France and Belgium make an appearance at some point to a greater or lesser degree. He manages to bring these men, with such immense responsibility on their shoulders, to life just as well as any great author. You can really get a grasp of their personalities, including both good points and their flaws. He also manages to convey to the reader the urgency and perilous nature of the circumstances he and the Entente as whole found themselves in at the time, not helped by the inherent  mistrust (remember until now France had always been the British natural enemy and it had been Prussians i.e Germans who had saved the day for us against the French 99 years previously at Waterloo) which at times broke out into anger between Sir John French and commander of the French armies, Joseph Joffre.  This obviously didn't help the situation and it was more luck, excellent low level leadership and bravery of the men at the frontline that managed to save the day and put the Entente into a position where they could strike back, which they did do with the famous battle of ⚔ The Marne and then the so called Race to the Sea, until both sides were worn out and dug in. Digging-in created the famous trench system that ran from the northern coast right down to Switzerland, though this is beyond the scope of the book which ends on September 14th.
 

 

 For me, this book in particular really brought to life those historic days and helped me understand not only what was going on during that near disastrous period of the War but also how it must have felt on the ground for those involved. When I read military history books, memoirs in particular, I always have a feeling I'm listening to ghosts from the past, many cut down during or not long after the events told, but in a small way still alive on the pages of the book, so they aren't forgotten.

 Edward Spears was one of the first British officers in France due to the nature of his role and, over the course of the War, he continued to serve as liaison officer. He had been wounded four times by the time the War ended and had earned a chest full of medals and awards, he managed to survive the War. I truly wish he'd written several volumes to cover his entire War experience, but sadly that's not going to happen. Before his death at the good age of 87 in January 1974 he had been interviewed for the BBC's famous and "must watch" 1964 documentary The Great War and so appeared several times over the course of that excellent documentary. He also appeared in one episode of the WWII documentary, A World at War, talking about his WWII experience. If you search the web you can find some of his Great War interview clips.

 

So at the start of this review I talked about the WWI books I've read and where this one would go with regards to my top ten list. Well I can't say what number it would be but I will say it's a definite for my all time top ten books of any genre! As for just WWI books, it easily deserves a place in my top five! Anyone with the slightest bit of interest in WWI must at some point read Liaison 1914. I'd even recommend it as a great read to those who haven't shown any interest in the War, though I reckon by the end of it this would be the first book of many they'll end up reading about the War:) Go out and treat yourself to a copy, or if you know of someone who can't decide what to get you for Xmas then look no further!

Thanks for your time. Until the next time have fun, oh nearly forgot, have a Happy Xmas and New Year!

A quick mention of a good companion read A Frenchman in Khaki by P Maze
  

Tigers Unleashed the TSS Series: News from behind the scenes!

The story starts many years ago when on the Gamesquad forums are heard a WW2 version of the highly complex but apparently bug ridden modern tactical wargame POA2.5 developed by HPS Sims. Though news of what appeared to be an uncommunicative and reclusive developer named Scott Hamilton didn't instill much confidence it was even being worked on. So, when in the autumn of 2012 Tigers Unleashed suddenly appeared on the scene available to purchase I was taken aback but in a good way.  As soon as I had the money I bought it, and then came the disappointment. Not only did it have it's fair share of bugs it just didn't play how I'd imagined it to, I didn't see the complexity and to be honest never gave it enough time before I was asking for a refund and removed the game. Refund was given no problem, however I soon started to regret this hasty decision....

 Over the next few days something was bugging me about it, so as I had no spare cash at this point I asked my Mum to buy the actual CD for me as a slightly early Christmas present, and I'm so glad I did (sadly this situation at a later date was used against me when someone decided I'd pirated the game and contacted Scott with this information. Thankfully at that time, unknown to many, I was already good friends with Scott). As soon as it came I reinstalled and decided to contact Scott about the issues  I had found and also my thoughts overall about the game. I could see by this point the immense potential this game had if it's problems could be fixed and features enhanced. Scotts reputation however made me feel I wouldn't get a response so when this lengthy yet very interesting reply came I was rather surprised.

 It quickly became apparent to me Scott really wanted and needed some committed people to help test the game and get involved in improving it and getting it to reach it's potential it also became apparent on how committed he was to the game. So from that moment onwards I haven't stopped helping Scott and the other long term team member Jeff in trying to get the game to reach it's amazing potential. It seemed all this time he was wanting people to get involved and help out, he wasn't some recluse who kept it all very secret. To show how much he had needed people to help test and give feedback was when after three months of testing he told me he had had more feedback from me in those three months than in all six years of previous development. Another major thing quickly became apparent aswell, it was going to be a long drawn out process and not one for the impatient. The game is so complex plus with just one of us doing the code (Scott) that even minor issues can take weeks to fix and may require whole sections of the code to be rewritten. This can then have some knock effects which will need to be fixed as they become apparent in testing. To give you an idea of how complex the game is I once asked Scott if he could modify something regarding LOS (can't remember exactly). His reply was an explanation of how the game deals with sighting, it involved photons and god knows what else, so wasn't just a case of a quick number change here and there in the code. I suppose as POA was also made for the military then it had to be this complex to model new offensive and defensive technology.

 Due to the games complexity and the time it can take to fix things or add things any patches released have been very few and far between. Leaving a customer base extremely unhappy and convinced the game is dead and abandoned. Tigers Unleashed is another POA2.5 Or future customers are put off buying it. Yet work hasn't stopped since the day of release. I doubt a day hasn't gone by where nothing was done. Apart from the testing I've created more or less a whole new set of unit symbols for more or less every vehicle and Infantry type in the data tables. I've also added loads of new sound effects. As far as testing goes I have over forty pages in Outlook containing all the emails I've had in reply to my own and I'd say I've sent Scott three or four times that many.I promise that we who work on it are also extremely frustrated about how much time it is all taking. I'll say here and now when at times it seemed we had taken one step forward and then, yet again, another two steps back I felt like throwing in the towel. However we have all become firm friends and we all still believe in the game and it's future potential is just to great to abandon and leave behind. So we continue to work on it, over the course of the few years I've been involved the odd person has come along to join us but soon left as the game does require alot of commitment and belief. One other drops in every now and again and that's Harry (Hello Harry). He really gets into the nitty gritty and will be very valuable in the later stages of testing and all the obvious things are working as they should be and I hope start getting close to it's full potential.

 Alot has been done and achieved over the last four years, most of it the player wont really notice but needed doing. Alot of code has been fully rewritten which will help with any future bugs etc by speeding up the fix process. The game also has some new features the player will notice and I'd say nearly all game features have been improved on to some degree since release. My latest test patch is playing better than ever when it comes to a game being derailed by a bug or crash. Infact those who haven't played the game since near the release will definitely notice the all round improvement to the game. Saying this we still have a long way to go. Currently there are two biggies that need to be done. The first is that the AI needs a total going over, both it's defensive and offensive capabilities need work. The second is that there are still some issues regarding actual combat which need ironing out so that the game plays out in a realistic manner. Then we have my own personal wants and requests. I feel the game needs some new ways of getting over information to the player say at the end of each turn I've done a couple but the stock scenarios do the game little justice and they need reworking. More aswell as better use of current features, for instance the combat report could and should be something that can immerse the player aswell as add tension etc to the game. SOPs based on distance to enemy be added which in turn when set with the current set of SOPs for the AI during scenario creation will help improve it's performance immensely. Scratch built, unique, non geomorphic maps created, some creating the actual terrain a historical battle was fought on. Make sure all weapons, ammo, vehicles and infantry types in the data tables are also in the games extensive TOEs the players can pick from when creating a new scenario. Last I suppose on the list is the campaign feature which isn't actually working so the award\medal system doesn't work. Again this is something that will get done as we'd love to make actual campaign disks once the game has reached it's potential and I guarantee when that happens it will sell and sell well.

 Looking back I've really enjoyed testing the game and have made a great friend in Scott. I also gained new skills making the new default unit set which I really enjoyed doing and I feel not only enhances the game visually but also helps the player with regard to knowing exactly what vehicle, AFV or infantry type it represents.The new sound effects also help with the immersion aspect. That's the additions I've personally have made to the game besides which it also sports an endless list of fixes and improvements, aswell as new features, some obvious and others not ,which again improve the game experience. So what is easily the most complex and deatiled tactical wargame ever developed for civilian use is improving at every step and the next patch is the one I think were players notice the game making good strides towards it's full potential. Which is a great thing as I reckon we wont see a tactical wargame of this complexity released to the public for a very long time, if ever.

 So I'll leave with this. I promise you, behind the scenes work has never stopped on the game and it will continue until Tigers Unleashed is flying on all cylinders and stands dominant as the greatest tactical WW2 wargame ever made, which Scott, Joseph and myself fully believe it can and will be. Even at that point we'll keep working away with new games in the series. A great thing about TU is that any new game will share the same exe file so only the actual data tables and obviously scenarios are different. This means all work done on a new game is also being done for TU. So when working on a new game for the series Scott is also working on TU for no actual extra work..if you follow:) I hope this helps ease any worries about what's happening with the game. Now back to testing....

One more thing. People must understand that TU is really a labour of love and really just a one man project. There is no money to hire people to do things like pay for another coder etc. Those who work on it are unpaid and doing it for free, because of faith in the game and also to help a friend continue with his labour of love:) TU is a work in progress and will be even when it has surpassed it's original design because things can always be improved or added too. This means TU will continue to improve long into the future. So when you look at the game remember it's growing like a person, currently it's at the primary school age which means it still has alot of growing and maturing to do:)

Note: I'll keep you updated on progress as much as possible, however until you hear work has stopped on TU (not happening),  which I'd post here,  we will be busy working away at the game.

United Bricks New Releases!

 

TIGER LEADER

BY DAN VERSSEN GAMES

What I'm going to say may have started to become a touch familiar, nay repetitive, if you have read my previous reviews of DVG games, especially as they have all been from the Leader stable of games.  Is it my fault that their production quality is some of the finest and most reliable in the hobby ?  There's no getting away from the fact that they put out consistently top-notch physical components - unboxing is a sheer delight  - and this from a company much smaller than all the really big names.

My one and only slightly adverse criticism of the new edition of U-Boat Leader and its American counterpart Gato Leader was the small size of mounted main gaming board and the fact that DVG then published as an "expansion" a decent sized board for them along with some fairly irrelevant plastic ships.  Well, Tiger Leader, which came out a year before them in 2015, hasn't even got that minor blip!

I'd go so far as to say that it is one of my favourite game boards in their series.  It's a four-panel, mounted board and fractionally over the standard 22" x 17" folio size that many companies put out as paper maps.  In the central play area is a magnificent sepia map of the Ardennes where that last desperate throw of the Third Reich, namely the Battle of The Bulge, took place.  Even more amazing is that this map is ultimately purely eye-candy, as once the main "Battle" Phase of the game gets under way, it is overlaid by six generic terrain pieces [in the same fashion as the earlier Thunderbolt/Apache Leader game].  Equally odd is that out of the nine excellent campaigns the game offers, the Bulge isn't included.
How can you leave out the Bulge? [sob]

However, as a war gamer who cut his teeth on hexes, these large, four-hex tile overlays are very impressive.  They are made of substantially thick, durable, glossy card-stock: double-sided so that you can fight in three different terrain localities - Europe, Desert and Winter.  They get a big, loud "Len's 10" from me [apologies that that metaphor's probably only understandable in the UK, not sure how many countries we've sold it to - so other nationalities can google "Strictly Come Dancing"].  So too do the two counter sheets that include the substantial numbers of Polish, French, Russian and American troops to fight against.

Along with the units are a wide range of Damage markers, one side for Armour damage, the other for Infantry damage, the inevitable red Stress markers, enemy Battalion counters and, of course, your own German units.

Ultimately, you will be selecting some of those evocative Tiger tanks, but if you're like me that will be some time in the future, as there are nine Campaigns to choose from starting with Poland 1939, France 1940, Russia, North Africa and Europe 1944.  There's nothing to stop you dashing on to those legendary monsters and don't let me stop you.  Perhaps it's just my OCD tendency, but I like to work my way gradually through the historical time-line!

And, naturellement, in a DVG product, lots of lovely cards to drool over [didn't I tell you I always sleeve mine - now you know why!] : German unit cards, German Commander cards, Battalion cards [in three types - Assault, Supply and Command] Event cards, Special Condition cards and Objective cards.  Some of them will be placed on the main mounted board called the Tactical Display Sheet, that I've already waxed lyrical about, some on the large card-stock display called the Head Quarters [sic - yes, it really is divided into two words]Sheet.  Not sure where you quarter your arms, legs, etc!

Apart from the map section I've already detailed, the two separate Displays provide you with Holding boxes for all those lovely cards, a detailed Sequence of play and enough information to just about cover all aspects of the game without reference to the rule book.  This tends to be a good feature of this series, but is for me one of the strongest and most workable examples in those games I possess.

As always the Rule Book is very substantial in quality and detail, following what I've come to recognise as their signature design.  First comes the Campaign Set-Up taking you step by step through each process while enumerating all the relevant details about the counters and the cards with carefully labelled and itemised pictures, exactly when needed. Though, in one way, there is more detail here, each step is so easy and straightforward that I've found the process simpler than expected. 

Select one of the nine Campaigns and a specific Objective.  Each Campaign will tell you the difficulty level, any additional Special Ops points [SOs], the terrain type and the Commander Skill levels and any special features.  The Objective card next provides how many SOs you have available to spend on buying units and other resources, the number of weeks the Campaign lasts, Battalion points for randomly selecting the necessary enemy Battalion cards, specific rules  modifications to the Campaign and the Evaluation table to determine your level of success at the end. 

If you are totally new to the Leader series of games, this may already be making you wonder if this game is for you, all I can say is that it is a very smooth process and reads far more dauntingly than the actual execution of what I'm describing.  Though my developed familiarity with the overall systems may have influenced my next statement, I genuinely believe - and I am being as objective as possible - that this game is easier to learn, flows more smoothly overall and plays more quickly.  What I have also found is that it is just as easy to lose!

The next step is one that appeals to me.  In the previous DVG games I've reviewed your unit and its commander were one and the same.  Buy a submarine and you choose one of the cards that represent the vessel and named commander at different levels of ability usually from Recruit to Ace, the same with your planes that were governed by the level of the pilot's skill.  In Tiger Leader, the SOs you've been allocated are for buying purely the units that you will use to fight the Campaign - a few more SOs may come your way during the following weeks of fighting - but by and large most of what you buy now will be what you're stuck with as they suffer and get shot up or eliminated. 

[Here's a typical combination of a machine-gun team and some transport.  They don't have to go together, but the combo allows your vehicle to move your men forward and then both the transport and the infantry can fire.  If the infantry are by themselves they can either move or fire, not do both.]

Then you choose, for free, one Commanding officer for each unit.  Once again, each of these Commanders do come in six levels of ability.  What prevents you just grabbing an Ace for each unit is the Campaign card that designates how many of each level of ability you may choose for up to seven units.  For example, the Polish campaign allows you 3 Recruit, 2 Green*, 1 Average and 1 Skilled Commander.  You'll notice that one level of Skill is starred.  Any units that you buy above seven have to be allocated another of the starred levels.   So, if I bought nine units I'd end up with 4 Green Commanders in total.  

[Tank Commander Dietrich hopefully on his way to Ace status, with all the necessary stats.  Notice that, like the images used for units, these aren't photo shots but sketches.]

Another very good wrinkle is that the assignment of Commander to unit can be changed at the beginning of each week.  You have three categories of units: Infantry, Armour and Unarmoured - obviously each type of unit must have the relevant type of Commander.  No giving an Armour Commander to an Infantry unit.

The next step is to draw a Special Condition card that will affect all the Battles in a given week.

One of the beneficial Special Condition cards - overall these cards have a balance of positive and negative effects and many of the negative ones can be cancelled by paying SO points.

Then it is decision time.  How many Battalions am I going to choose to fight at the start of the week and which of my units am I going to allocate to take on each Battalion?   Just choose one and send in all your men and you'll probably gain an easy victory, probably reaping about 3 VPs.  Do that for any of the Campaigns that last three weeks and you'll end up with about enough VPs to earn yourself an Evaluation ranging from Dismal to the lowest level of Adequate.

[ Just one of your likely adversaries, a fairly meaty Infantry Support Battalion. ]

One advantage of this game is that you don't lose any VPs for your own units and Commanders that are eliminated.

So, it's off to our first Battle of the week and the draw of an Event card which normally will affect only this particular battle.

As with Special Condition cards, about half have good, half bad outcomes.  Notice here a very familiar image - one of its earliest manifestations being a stylised version on the 1st edition of the famous Squad Leader game. 

Six random tiles are drawn to form the battlefield; you place your units on the bottom row of map hexes and the enemy units' positions are randomly selected by dice rolls in the top two hex rows of the map.  Most Battles last five turns.  As with previous Leader games, your units that have a Fast Commander will activate first to move and/or shoot, then all the enemy ones  and finally all your units with Slow Commanders.  A very satisfying, simple chart and a single die roll provides the A.I. for enemy movement.

Here is the set-up of my forces in an early Campaign with a tank, machine-gun unit and transport in the light cover on the left flank and two more tanks on the right flank.

Combat too is very easy with a few, typical modifiers, such as terrain.  For you, hit the enemy and it is eliminated - couldn't be simpler.  For the hits scored by enemy units, it's draw one of the double-sided Damage markers and apply the appropriate side of the marker: either Infantry or Armour.  As a result your units tend to survive longer than the enemy ones, as they may take several different types without being eliminated, though two of the same type usually will kill.  There is the rare chance of an Explosion and bye-bye unit and Commander.  It is rare, but in the second week of my first campaign, I had three tanks and each turn the Explosion damage was drawn when a unit shot at a tank.  Don't say I didn't warn you!

At first sight this asymmetrical procedure for Combat may seem to hand it to the Germans on a plate.  Experience of playing the game disproves that notion.  The range of damage, the limited ability to remove some of it between each week of Battle, the choice of a Commander who might help in the process, all add greatly to the narrative produced by the game and this draws you in to the atmosphere of the game.

To defeat a Battalion you have to destroy a set number of unit points, but there is also a point at which the Battalion is reduced to half strength [gaining you half the VPs].  So, you may decide, if possible, to avoid further combat by manoeuvre - not always an easy thing to do - until the end of this Battle and return the next week to finish the Battalion off with a fresh force.

Standard to all the Leader series is the Post Combat phase at the end of each week, when Experience is logged and possibly spent to upgrade the ability of a Commander, if he has earned enough points, attempt repairs and replacements depending on whether you've gained SOs and acquire new Commanders if any have been killed in the previous week's fighting.

Personally, I've had a thoroughly good time with this game.  The different elements introduced have greatly appealed . Among these  are the Operational Display on which your enemy Battalions are placed according to information on their Unit card and the rule that means they may advance or retreat week by week, the Tactical Movement chart already mentioned, the difference of having a map and terrain to fight and manoeuvre over, the combination of unit and Commander discussed in more depth earlier, the flavour given by the Damage chits and learning the best combination of units to meet a particular type of Battalion.

Despite my strongly favourable reaction to Tiger Leader, I was aware before I started that there had been quite some criticism of this particular addition to the Leader stable of games.  Especially, intimations of it being "broken", poor rules and lack of difference between units had made me wonder what to expect.  From extensive reading, my view is that most of the adverse comments boil down to the old realism/historicity argument.   First and foremost, the rules as written I found clear, consistent and easy to follow.  To repeat an earlier point,  they were easier to assimilate than any of the three previous Leader games I've reviewed.   They provided a good flow to all my games; even when I made monumental mistakes, they weren't mistakes in the rules!

Admittedly there are only small differences between the stats for the tanks, but at the level being focused on I wouldn't expect anything else.  Certainly, there is at least and I would say more difference here than between the submarines in U-Boat and Gator Leader.  But added to that there is the difference between individual Commanders and between their different Skill levels.  So. I would feel safe in saying that the differentiation is not one that is in any way out of line with the other Leader games.

Mutters about the sameness of all the battles, I would strongly refute.  I soon learnt that fielding the wrong combination of units against specific Battalions was a quick way to a losing situation.  Only one oddity that struck me was that there were limitations on the ability of some of my units to fire/move, but not on similar enemy units - if that bothers you then it's dead easy to give your enemy the same restrictions.  However, I felt that the game intended to handle that distinction through the movement limitations produced by the Tactical Displays A.I/. system.

The campaigns are tough, even the Poland 1939 one.  As at least one commentator has pointed out, you certainly don't romp through 

the Polish units.  If that's what you want to do, just give yourself some more SO points to field more units.  Perhaps, they are tougher than they ought to be, but then I don't find much fun in a situation where I really can't lose. 

Here are some of those Polish units

I'd rather have what I've got in this game than spend my time killing loads of enemy units with no trouble at all and then find that I've lost because the victory conditions say I should have killed even more.  Many other games I've played on the Polish campaign tend to do exactly that to achieve what they call balance!

So, bottom line for me - a fun experience, giving a very different feel from both air and submarine warfare [and so it should], broad brush approach that works, good clear rules, ace quality physical package in all departments [cards, counters, boards, rule book].  Nuff said, I hope.

                Gary Grigsby's War in the West

                           By                   

       2by3 Games

 

 Gary Grigsby's War in the West; what a lineage this game has to look back on. One of the reasons I bought a computer was to play 'Bomb Alley'. His first game is listed as 'Guadalcanal Campaign', and it came out in 1982. Thirty-four years later we are still playing wargames programmed by him. Looking at his list of games, I am trying to total up the amount of hours I have played all of them. I think I'll stop that, because it might add up to more time than I spent with my children; maybe I should make him an honorary  family member.

 War in the West, with the 'Operation Torch' DLC, is a massive undertaking.  Unlike the older 'War in the East', this game has to simulate a larger amount of area and the inclusion of both a very large ground and air war. In 'War in the East', the map was 25k hexes; WITW comes in at 36k hexes. 

 Every type of air or ground unit that saw combat in the European theater of war is present. Paratroop drops and armored assaults  along with amphibious invasions are replicated.  

  The air war in WITW is a game in itself, with a few scenarios just for the air war. You can issue orders and even command the bombing campaign against the Axis. That is on top of being able to run the entire tactical Air Forces of the Allies. For those of us who are still employed  or are not yet living as hermits, you can also let the AI issue all of the separate orders. The gamer gives directives to his AI air marshal, and he fills in all the minutiae.

 The naval war was being lost by the Axis in 1943 with the invasion of Sicily. The naval war in the game is abstracted and is mostly used by the Allied player to order amphibious landings on the continent. Playing as the Allies, the huge armadas of air and sea are at your disposal.

 Playing as Germany, once Italy is knocked out of the war, you will be filling the shoes of the OKW (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht)  . There is one hitch: you must also keep your eyes on the eastern front and its needs. The war with Russia is still going on while your troops are battling the western allies. While it is all fine and good to stop the allies on the beaches, it will be pointless if Berlin falls behind you. The game uses the 'Eastern Front Control Option' to deal with the Russian front. It can be utilized in the longer scenarios. If you are using the EFCO, the war ends when Berlin is captured or until early August 1945. Units can be moved to and  from each front and also be pulled from the battle line for refit.

 This is a good time to discuss 'victory conditions'. Playing as the Germans, it is pretty much an unattainable goal of complete victory. You are up against too much of everything everywhere to be able to pull your irons out of the fire. The person playing the Germans is trying to do better than the historical outcomes at any given time. This is not a game where you start in 1936 and can change your country's strategic options in the coming war. You will be put in the Allied or Axis shoes mid-war and will have to play with the cards that you were dealt. I only mention this because some players don't like games where they cannot have a complete and utter victory, instead of just winning on points. I like to play games where I start in desperate situations, so to each their own.

 This is the scenario list: 

 The game includes 3 main campaigns and 7 smaller scenarios:

• 1943 Campaign - 3 July 43 to 3 Aug 45 (109 turns)
• 1944 Campaign (May Start) – 11 May 44 to 1 Aug 45  (64 turns)
• 1944 Campaign (D-Day Start) – 30 May 44 to 6 Aug 45  (62 turns)
• Air Campaign – 1 May 44 to 28 May 44  (4 turns)
• Operation Husky – 3 July 44 to 20 August 45  (7 turns)
• Salerno to Rome 43-44 – 9 Sept 43 to 28 June 44  (42 turns/multiplayer only)
• Battleground Italy – 10 July 43 to 4 May 45 (95 turns)
• Breakout and Pursuit – 25 July 44 to 9 Oct 44  (11 turns)
• Westwall – 17 Sept 44 to 10 Dec 44  (12 turns)
• Bulge to the Rhine – 16 Dec 44 to 10 Mar 45  (12 turns) 

 With the addition of the 'Operation Torch' DLC you gain these scenarios:

• Torch to Tunisia (10 Nov 1942 - 26 Jul 1943 - 37 turns)

• Battle for Tunisia (Feb 1943 – June 1943 – approximately 20 turns)

• Rommel Attacks (Feb 1943 – March 1943 – approximately 6 turns)

• Operation Dragoon (8 Aug 1944 - 18 Sep 1944 - 6 turns)

• Operation Diadem to the Gothic Line (11 May 1944 - 27 Sep 1944 - 20 turns)

• Breaching the Gothic Line (25 Aug 1944 - 4 May 1945 - 36 turns)

• Weakest Link (13 Sep 1944 - 10 Feb 1945 - 20 turns) is an air only campaign covering the attacks on the German oil and fuel industries

• Pointblank Directive 1944 (16 Jun 1943 - 5 Apr 1944 - 42 turns) is an air only campaign covering the early strategic bombing efforts by Bomber Command and the US 8th Air Force

• 1945 Campaign (16 Dec 1944 - 4 Aug 1945 - 33 turns) starts with the Battle of the Bulge and covers the entire western theater of operations.

•  The 4th Supreme Command (3 July 1943 - 4 Aug 1945 - 109 turns) is a hypothetical Grand Campaign that assumes Hitler had been assassinated in March 1943, and that the Axis armies were in a better situation in the summer of 1943.

  
 The hypothetical campaign is not that far-fetched. There was actually a bomb on board Hitler's plane on that date; unfortunately it malfunctioned.

 For those of us who like to game  the Italian campaign it is here in a big way. You can play from the invasion of Sicily to the fight for Rome itself. If you are a battle of the Bulge fanatic it is here also, but be aware that you are running the entire front in western Europe, not just the small area where the Bulge was fought. 

 As the Allied commander you get to choose where and when you will invade.  The game is an empty canvas  that you can use to make your own decisions. Playing as the German high command you can decide to fight on the beaches as Rommel wanted, or to gather a huge armored fist off the beaches to throw the allies into the sea, as Rundstedt wanted. As the German player you have no idea of what will happen. You have to try and make educated guesses on what the Allies are going to do.

  This is not only a large game it is also a complex one. As the commander for the entire western front you are responsible for not only warfare, but also logistics. There are many things you will want to do each turn, but do you have the resources to pull them off? In complexity it would fit right between 'War in the East' and another Grigsby title 'War in the Pacific'. You can play against  the computer, hotseat, or multiplayer. With new updates, the multiplayer options have changed and now include 3 and 4 player games. You can also have 2 player cooperative against the AI.

  The audio component of the game is top notch. The obligatory sounds for battle, etc. are great, but where it really shines is the background music. On most games the first thing we do is usually try and shutdown the background music; I've actually played the various .wav files to just listen to them.

 To sum it up, the game works as a simulation of land and air combat in the second half of WWII. It is complex, and you will probably be a bit overwhelmed at first. It does come with a manual, over 300 pages long, a living manual ( for all the changes in its many updates), and a players handbook that comes with many one page guides to help you along the way. All of the manuals, etc. have printer friendly versions included. There are also a few videos included to help the newbie along the way.

 One other thing we have to discuss is the price. Yes, it is a digital download of  $79.99 US for the base game and another $19.99 for the DLC. To put it into perspective, a three hour night out with a friend will run anywhere from $50-100 US or even higher depending upon your taste. This game is going to give you literally hundreds of hours of playing time. It is money well spent.  

 Of course, a few days after I had written the above, the Matrix/Slitherine holiday sale kicked in. The base game is now just $39.99 and the Operation Torch expansion is only $9.99. Pick this game up now. It was worth it at almost $100; it is certainly worth it at only $50.

 Robert


Game: Gary Grigsby's War in the West
Developer: 2by3 Games
Distributor: Matrix/Slitherine Games
Date of Review: 11/21/2016

Editor Comment: Go check out our interview of Joel Billings!

 

Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm Players Edition & Reforged DLC Review





I purchased Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm not long after it was first released. Though I'm not normally into modern warfare, I am massively into the WEGO mechanic. For those unfamiliar with this term, I'll explain. For years, most wargames followed the IGO/UGO mechanic, mainly because [pre digital wargames] IGO/UGO was the only way to be able to play a wargame between two players. Though some games did vary it a bit with initiative and impulses, on the whole one player moved/fired etc and then the other player would do likewise, hence I GO - U GO.  

However, wargames on a computer opened up whole new possibilities when it came down to wargame mechanics. So, we saw wargames played out in 'realtime' where the clock kept going and players (or yourself and the AI) simultaneously made their move; games like Close Combat followed this path. Also you still had wargames using the old IGO/UGO mechanic right up to this day.  In fact, it's still the most used mechanic. Then, along came Combat Mission with its WEGO mechanic. Here you and your opponent, be it another player or the AI, plot your moves and once happy and you've both clicked for the next turn the game would then, like a movie clip, play out in front of you for 1 minute as you watch, biting your finger nails, your pixeltruppen follow your plotted moves.

I fell in love with this mechanic there and then. I loved the tension it creates, plus in Combat Mission you could replay the turn as often as you like from all angles, so you'd never miss out on any action, unlike realtime games where you could miss out on all sorts as you're dealing with something across the map. So from then on, any game using the WEGO mechanic instantly gets my attention. IGO/UGO at lower scales feels a bit forced, REALTIME too fast and can end up a clickfest, where as WEGO fits the bill perfectly. This is why I purchased Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm. A purchase I certainly don't regret.

Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm is set during the Nineteen Eighties and the Cold War has gone HOT! The game is kind of a sequel, but more a major upgrade of a previous game called Flashpoint Germany, a wargame published by Matrix back in 2005 (whose scenarios became Red Storms DLC. See later in the review). The game features 20+ scenarios, in which you can play as either the NATO side, whose forces consist of USA, UK and West German, or play as the WARSAW pact  commander Soviet forces. Plus there are four campaigns, that's right FOUR campaigns, giving you the chance to play as one of the NATO nations or as the Soviets. In the campaign you have a 'core' force which gets carried over from one mission to the next, getting repaired and replenished between each scenario. You also get 20+ maps of central Europe, mainly focused on Germany and based on real world data.

 As mentioned at the beginning, the turn mechanic is WEGO with a very clever twist. The turn length all depends on your nations command, control and communication ratings which can be affected by electronic warfare and casualties. This is called your command loop and a major feature of the game is to get in your enemy's command loop, which means you can react more quickly, as you get the chance to issue more orders than the enemy.

NATO has the upper hand from the get go here. So, for instance, you as the NATO player have a 12 minute loop; this means twelve minutes of game time will move forward until you get the chance to issue orders again. Now, at the same time, the WARSAW pact player may have a 30 minute command loop and so has to wait thirty minutes. This means the NATO player has had two opportunities to move before the WARSAW pact player gets his second chance. As I'm sure you can see, over the many hours a scenario usually plays out in, this can have a massive effect on the outcome. Nail biting stuff!

The game has an extensive TOE for all sides based on their real life eighties counterparts. Add in dynamic weather, counter battery fire, air strikes, helicopters, mines, fortifications, obstacles, recon units, active FOW and NBC unit capability. Now why have NBC capability? I'll tell you why, not only does it have chemical weapons, there are also tactical NUKES!! That's right Nukes! Sounds like overkill..well I'll tell you this, the first time I nuked I still lost!!

I found the UI to be very good indeed. The player has lots of info at his fingertips and issuing orders is straight forward. The game has lots of player options that can affect the actual game and its difficulty or let you change the colour of things, like fire lines and unit highlight box etc etc. It's all well thought out and you can see the devs have really given some thought about the UI and what different players may want and so have given you the tools to change certain things to fit your taste. In fact, going further, the game is also mod friendly and if you check the forums you'll find lots of mods and user made scenarios out there, even ones set during WW2 or the swinging sixties! At the end of a scenario you get an AAR which breaks down how each unit performed, as well as issuing out awards to those units that stood out during the battle. I love this kind of immersion\chrome.

Now I loved the game and not that long ago to coincide with the release of its DLC a huge update came out upgrading the game to 'The Players Edition'. This update improved all aspects of the game and is the version you'll purchase if you buy the game today (It's actually just had another major update which adds a host of new features for instance a new Intel Map screen). Now I do have some quibbles with the game. I've always been suspicious of how units can spot and shoot each other across city hexes, plus I find at times Infantry could be a bit more difficult to kill, though it's a lot better in this respect than many other wargames out there where infantry are just endless canon fodder. Some of the issues raised in the forums will, the developers say, be ironed out in the next game/expansion in the series, Southern Front. Southern Front will, as the title suggests, cover the fighting further south. There is also talk of a WW2 game (yes please) at some point in the future.

I truly feel Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm will go down in wargame history as a classic of its time. I have no hesitation recommending it to all wargamers. So go read the forums and make that purchase!

As mentioned further back Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm has a daddy and the daddy was called Flashpoint Germany. Red Storm is bigger and better than its father but the scenarios its daddy packed where just too good not to upgrade with all the bells and whistles Red Storm can bring to the table. So to rectify this along comes Flashpoint Campaigns: Germany Reforged

The expansion includes 17 new scenarios plus 43 different variations with the original Flashpoint Germany maps totally redone for Red Storm. Not only do you get the four maps from Flashpoint Germany, you also get a brand new, extra large, map 'Eiterberg' - it's nearly twice as big as all other maps, so the player can create some huge battles.

If you love Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm then buying the expansion Flashpoint Campaigns: Germany Reforged is a no brainer.
  

Tabletop Wargames: A Designers and Writers Handbook by R Priestly & J Lambshead

A Review

 

 

First I need to apologise to Pen and Sword regarding the delay in reviewing this particular book. It's partly down to ill health but also if I'm honest with myself I've found this particular review difficult to start as the book isn't normally the sort of thing I'd read so was nervous about reviewing it. I'm out of my comfort zone:)

 

Now onto the book. The authors come with excellent credentials and are easily qualified to write a book like this. R Priestly created the world renowned Warhammer and Warhammer 40K system for Games Workshop. Dr J Lambshead designed the computer wargame Fredrick Foresythe's Fourth Protocol which was the first icon driven game and was also the editor of Games & Puzzles and Wargame News. He has also written a number of books for Games Workshop and Osprey. Finally he is the author of SF&F novels published by Baen Books. So with their experience you know you're in good hands and in this book they share this experience which can only help any of you out there who fancies designing a game yourself or help you with any tinkering or modifications you want to do with a current system.

The book is divided into nine chapters with a References section and finally an Index at the back of the book. The first chapter is an introduction that lasts twelve pages and eases you into the book. The next chapter talks about scale. The scale of a wargame is of vital importance in how the game will play and effects everything. Next comes a chapter on "The Language of Design". This deals with wargame and design jargon for example talks about "LOS" or line of sight. Following this is a chapter called "Alea Iacta Est", the famous line supposedly said by Ceaser, translated "The Die is Cast". So,  it doesn't need to much working out to know this chapter deals with Dice and randomness with in a wargame design. Chapter five "Presenting a Games Rules" is self explanatory. How many wargames have you played that have had rules that only an enigma code breaker could decipher? So it's an important aspect of any game design. Also talks about tables, not an actual table like the one you'll be playing on but tables in the rules. Chapter six "Skirmish Games" talks about skirmish wargames. Chapter seven "English as She is Writ" kind of goes hand in hand with chapter five. Again dealing with how to convey your system and rules to the player. Chapter eight "Expanding the Rulebook". This chapter deals with creating expansions to your core rule set. For instance adding new armies etc. The final chapter "Campaigns as Wargames" deals with creating campaigns for your rule system.

The book is full of photographs and is very well written as you'd expect from a book that talks about how to write rules. It's also full of useful information for those contemplating designing a tabletop wargame. Not sure how relevant it is for those wanting to design a hex wargame, but several of the chapters would be useful. I'd also say it's aimed at those who have little to no experience in designing a wargame, well it's certainly of more use to them. Saying this it wouldn't hurt for anyone be it novice or experienced in giving it a read. I say this because so many wargames come out and then forums are full of players totally confused by the rules. I think until you've actually tried you don't realise how difficult it is to convey to others your new game solely by the rulebook and what you've written. So maybe some of the chapters in this book would be of use to even a published wargame designer. Please don't expect a book that really goes into great detail and depth and covers every aspect under the sun. At 149 pages it should be apparent this book doesn't do that. It's more an overview with helpful advice of what the authors consider the main aspects of tabletop wargame designing. Aspects which will be relevant to pretty much all types of wargame systems. Your not going to come away with knowledge that's going to make you design some new innovative award winning game. It's just helping relative newbies dig decent foundations to their game design. If your looking for more than that then your prob best looking elsewhere.

The book is 149 pages not including the Reference and Index. Priced at £14.99 it's also not that expensive for such a niche book and wont break the bank. Certainly cheap enough to buy to see if it has any useful info for you as you start out on your game design. I would certainly appreciate it if I was about to start out on a tabletop wargame project.

Published by Pen & Sword it's available in all good book shops!