Recently, Strategy & Tactics Magazine published a game about the Seven Years War. This is a strategic game covering all seven years of this conflict. The game turns are seasonal, i.e. Spring, Summer, etc.

Units represent brigade size units. All units have the same value: 4 for infantry, 2 for cavalry, etc. In the middle of the cardboard counter is a letter representing the quality of the unit: "G" for Guards (the best), "V" for Veterans, "L" for Line, and "R" for Rabble, the worst class of troops. Since this is the SYW, most of the units are G or V.

There are units for light infantry, artillery, supply trains and engineers. These engineers are your most valuable units. They allow you to cross rivers, lay siege to cities and set up field fortifications.

On the back sides of all units is a national symbol for hidden movement. There are off-map holding boxes to deploy units off the map. A few units and leaders, only, are usually placed on the map.

Leaders have a strategic and a tactical value. Strategic values aid in marching and recruiting while tactical values modify combat. Frederick has the best of both ratings: "3", while Marshal Daun has both "2s" and most of the other commanders have ones or zeroes. The biggest goof seems to be the listing of Charles of Lorraine as a Frenchman and giving him a "2" tactical rating. Wasn't he the big loser at Leuthen? One wonders how this error got past the publisher. I suspect foul play, i.e. Marie Theresa has agents working for Decision Games!

The campaign map looks very good. All the important fortresses and terrain are in place. Rivers are located in hexes, not along hex sides as in other games. This is important, because you must stop your advance unless your units are accompanied by engineers. Otherwise, if you start on a river, you can only follow it rather than cross. And you can bet that there are plenty of rivers on the map to cross, and these greatly affect your plans. There are various charts along the border of the map. The most important chart is the Discipline Chart. You will have this one memorized after a few turns.

There are really only two game scenarios. One is an introductory game covering the first two years of the war. The other is the campaign game covering the entire SYW. As I discovered, the campaign game is quite long--expect to spend at least seven hours at it. Although you have only 31 turns, with three movement impulses per turn, it seems like 93 turns. You do a lot of things in one turn, so let's go through one game turn as an example of play.

An Example of Play

First comes the Historical Events Phase. You roll two dice and something happens. Commanders may get sacked, the Ottomans invade Europe, there are advances in North America, and you may even receive a correspondence from Voltaire!

Next comes the Diplomacy Phase. You collect diplomacy points, make treaties, exchange prisoners, etc. You can roll dice on the Diplomacy Conflict Table. These rolls may have no effect, or you may turn neutrals into allies or enemies into neutrals. You may even use espionage against an enemy state to discover its strength or to instigate a diplomatic incident.

Then we have three Impulse Segments. Prussia moves first and conducts all of its combat and sieges. Then the Coalition moves, conducts combat and sieges, etc. You go through this process three times.

Movement is determined by the roll of a D6 (six-sided) die. One adds the leader's strategic value and other modifiers to the die roll, the result being: no movement, fall back, march with attrition (lose one unit), force march with attrition. Movement is very unpredictable and it really gives one the feel of the period.

Oddly enough, you can move freely during the winter. In the 18th Century, all armies went into winter quarters. Not only would attrition be terrible, but the roads were bad and movement was slow. It seems that only Alte Fritz was willing to campaign during the winter and he only did it at the end of winter to gain a strategic advantage. I believe that this should be changed. There should be one Impulse Movement during the winter and if the Prussians don't move, then neither does the Coalition.

In combat, you add up the strenght points of all the units involved. Determine the ratio, and modifiers are added and subtracted from the die roll. The results are in percentages. (There is a chart on the side to help you determine how many strenght points you lose.). An "M" means that you roll on the Discipline Table. You may pass , fail or become demoralized (which slows movement and reduces combat capability), or desert (become a prisoner or be eliminated). There is a lot of work involved in an average combat, and you only do this once or twice an impulse segment.

Fortresses

You have two options against fortresses: an assault or a formal siege. An assault is like regular combat, but the attacker's odds column is a few spaces to the left, in the chart. In a formal siege, you must have an engineer, and an artillery unit. You then contruct field works. Then you roll dice to see if there is a breach; then you handle it like a normal combat. A formal siege takes longer, but the attacker faces fewer loses.

If you are in a hurry and are willing to take losses, you may want to assault the works, but if you cannot afford the casualties, then you should conduct a formal siege. The Coalition tends to assault, while Alte Fritz goes for the formal sieges. My major gripe with siege combat is that most sieges during this period were formal sieges and there are few examples of the besieger attacking the fortifications without first laying out entrenchments and breaching the walls with close range artillery fire.

Then you rally any demoralized units with the discipline table. The next task involves logistics. Unless you are in a friendly fortress or are pillaging or use a supply unit, you roll for attrition. You may be in full supply or lose some units from attrition. I have no problem with the logistics rules. They seem to have no effect on the campaign. It was Alte Fritz who said food and fodder were the real commanders of his army. It has gotten to the point where I do not replace any lost supply counters.

Mind you, there are a lot of fortresses, and you have three movement segments to get to one. A better way of handling this is to check for attrition at the end of the movement impulse if you do not have a supply unit or you are more than six hexes away from a fort. Does anyone have a better idea?

Replacements

Replacements come next. During the three seasons only leaders can recruit. This costs you a diplomatic point. During the winter you multiply the number of friendly fortresses by a multiple for the number of replacement points. You purchase your replacements with these points. Austria, Russia, France and Britain have "Field Army" units. These are automatically replaced. The effect you get is one of 0. zombie" armies, because no matter how hard you beat up the Austrians, et al, they come back from the dead!

These nations all have off-map resources, so I do not complain about the numbers, but rather the quality of the replacements. I think that units should be replaced at one value lower than their original status, e.g. Guards return as Veterans, Vets return as Regulars and so on. Maybe it would have been better if these nations received extra replacement points. Prussia can only buy replacements with points, but after awhile, Prussia could only buy a lot of low quality replacements to beef up Alte Fritz's army.

Results of a Solo Campaign

I played this game solo to see how it all works. The Coalition's strategy was to wear the Prussians down through attrition. Prussia planned to throw most of its forces at Austria. Russia had to move a great distance, so it was ignored during the first year. HanoverBritain were assigned to cover the French.

Freddy invaded Saxony and layed some formal sieges, but it took awhile to subdue the Saxons. Meanwhile, the Austrians attacked Silesia. They chose to assault Prussian fortresses, suffering large losses, but capturing the fortresses in the end..

1757: The last of the Saxon fortresses fall to the Prussians. Daun and most of the Austrians march back to Prague. There is a battle in front of Prague and the Prussians win. The Austrians leave one unit in Prague and retreat. Eventually, Prague falls to the Prussians and they advance on Olmutz and Brunn, ending the year near Vienna. The Russians take Konigsberg and advance towards Kolberg, suffering no attrition. During the summer's diplomacy phase, Hanover Britain turns neutral, a major disaster for the Prussians. The large French army advances swiftly, under Charles of Lorraine, and take Minden.

1758: Take time out for research and discover that Charles of Lorraine is an Austrian. Oops! He is removed from play. The nearly destroyed Austrian army of the previous year rises from the dead and returns to the field as strong as ever. Prussia marches back to beat the Rusians and then the French. There is no help from the Diplomacy Table, but Fritz gets a nice letter from Voltaire.

1759: Fritz's reduced army holds on and he defeats a Russian army force that is trying to advance on the Fatherland. It is a major Prussian victory, but Fritz can't afford Pyrrhic victories such as this one. Meanwhile, the French want to attack, but they can't get any favorable die rolls for initiative. Austria moves slowly through Silesia. Prussian reinforcements are used to strengthen the garrisons rather than Fred's field armies.

1760: Russia advances in the usual way and once again is defeated in the usual way, with Fred losing a lot of troops. The French army finally moves, but with a favorable die roll, Fred wins again. He only has a few units left now. The Empire decides that it's a good time to declare war on Prussia. The Prussians call it quits and trust that "balance of power" politics save their country from total partition.

Some Final Thoughts

The Diplomacy Phase was decisive. Losing Hanover-Britain as allies crippled the Prussian cause. Save for a few units lost through march attrition, logistics had no effect on the play. Although Prussia won most of the battles, the "zombie" armies of the Coalition powers came back again and again for more punishment.

I am lukewarm about this game. It isn't that bad. It just needs a little more playtesting and a little more polish. Maybe the folks at Decision Games should call on us folks in the SYWA to playtest any future games in this era. Feel free to write to them and offer your services. Despite some of the negatives, I will play it again. The only real barrier is that this game takes a considerable amount of time to play.

The game's pluses include the events segment, the diplomacy segment and the movement. The minuses include logistics, sieges, "field armies" and the many rolls on the Discipline Table. The immediate changes that I would make are to limit winter movement to one impulse and to allow only formal sieges of fortresses.

I have not decided what I will do about the logistics system. I am influenced by S & Ts game, Frederick the Great. In that game you have to build depots every few hexes; and detach a strength point to guard that depot. There is no better way to illustrate what a "Line of Communications" looks like. The further you advance, the weaker your army gets. A simple way of showing how hard it is to guard your supply lines. Maybe one of the readers has a better idea.

Finally, the text and articles that accompany the game are very good. It is fairly basic, but it can be used to introduce this period to others. Additionally, the game could be used as a guideline for a campaign for miniaturists. You get a good order of battle and other features that will make your campaign a lot of fun.

Strategy & Tactics No. 163
$15.95
Decision Games
PO Box 4049
Lancaster, CA 93539-4049