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.