Dirt, the bęte noire of game reviewers in the 1980's, has become an acceptable, if not quite laudatory, element of design. Games with more dirt than a stack of tabloids, such as ASL and World In Flames (V?, VIII? … XXIII?) command some of the more rabid followings in the hobby. Elegance and simplicity may be paradigms of design, but, when pursued to a logical conclusion, they often result in a boring sameness. One only need pick up random issues of Command to see what "Krim-inalization" can lead to. So, dirt has it's place. The right amount of grit gives a game character and identity, separating, if not necessarily elevating it, from the herd. One had better make sure, however, that the dirt isn't piled so high that the game becomes one big morass of mud. In-between doing maps for everybody this side of National Geographic, Mark Simonitch, the Head Unicorn of Rhinoland, has managed to produce about a game a year, each using substantially different systems and mechanics. Decision in France, another D-Day special, is the latest addition to the growing Rhino stable, and, like it's forebears, it is familiar enough to start playing after a brief scan, but unique enough for the quirkiest of gamers. This unique quality does not come without a price, however, and despite some elegant little rules, DIF has it's share of dirt. The components of Decision in France show Simonitch's classical leanings. The map covers the base of the Brittany Peninsula to Antwerp, and just south of the Loire to the northwestern coast. The colors are muted but complementary, and, despite a lengthy shoreline and profusion of rivers, there is nary a map ambiguity to be found. The counters use standard NATO symbols for divisions and brigades, and silhouettes for special units, such as Nebelwerfers, 88 guns, and Heavy Tanks. The colors come in reassuringly familiar shades: green Americans, tan Brits, feldgrau Germans, blue Luftwaffe, and the inevitable black and white SS. The layout of the rulebook is clean and clear, using space and font well to ease the task of reading and absorbing. The copious use of illustrated examples is commendable; the lack of a bibliography is not. Also unfortunate are a number of typos and grammatical snafus; maybe it has something to do with the word, "Decision"? One does note Rhino's return to zip-lock packaging, a marketing choice that will please neither store owners nor gamers, other than those who judge worth by price. A brief glance at the sequence of play can be somewhat deceiving. It looks familiar enough: Movement, Combat, and then Supply. In DIF, though, movement, combat, and supply are quite out of the ordinary. Take movement. Rhino games have often featured slow rates for infantry. At 8.5 miles per hex, and 3 day turns, the movement rate of 2 or 3 for infantry would seem to be glacial. This oddity is compounded by the curious decision to give roads, clear, bocage, and woods terrain the same movement cost for footsloggers: 1. Add a +2 MP cost to leave an enemy ZOC, and you begin to wonder if anyone will ever go anywhere. Truck Points, assigned on a one-to-one ratio to divisions, partially alleviate the problem, allowing the dogfaces to travel 8 hexes by road. The Allies have plenty of trucks, though the combat commanders must compete with the quartermaster for their use. The Germans, though, have one, measly truck, which is usually assigned to some far-flung reinforcement. The trucks help to get things rolling, but what really saves DIF from a bad case of The Slows is the inclusion of two forms of movement: tactical and operational. Tactical Movement is by far the most interesting mechanic. Any unit may always move 2 hexes, regardless of such inconveniences as ZOCs, terrain, or movement points. I was initially skeptical, fearing all sorts of cheap little maneuvers to slip units through gaps and holes. In play, however, the rule tends to simplify local movement without leading to bizarre infiltration tactics. Because of the high unit density of the first few turns, there are no holes to ooze through. Once the Allies have attritioned the Germans and staged their breakout, the ability to ignore ZOC's makes sense as a representation of a more fluid combat environment. A genuinely elegant rule. Operational Movement doubles the movement rate of motorized units and adds 2 to that of infantry. Units which utilize Op Movement must forgo combat. But unlike most games with a similar mechanic, Op moving units may end their turn in an enemy ZOC, though in so doing they are Disrupted. Disruption is a sorry state of affairs wherein a unit may not attack and may not affect retreats. The German player pays a price for Operational Movement, as he is often subject to strafing, rolling on a chart to see how many steps are lost to the ever present Allied air forces. Units can also make time by being put into Follow-up Reserve status. This is especially useful for armored units, which can shoot the gaps caused by combat and engage units behind the front lines in so-called Mobile Assaults. As at St. Lo, when the Allies breakthrough, they are definitely going places. Despite the slower than average movement rates of infantry, the designer has ensured that, given the right circumstances, things will move along right smartly. Despite a rather conventional appearance, combat in Decision has its share of unusual features. If both sides have more than 6 steps, 2 dice, rather than 1, are rolled to determine losses. There is considerable dirt in the fourteen separate combat modifiers, some of which, such as Elite Bonus and Armored Superiority, are quite involved. The use of named step loss counters for every four-step division is another shovel full of mulch. Since there's nothing generic about divisions in Decision in France, you have to get the ID numbers right, or else there will be a map full of Evil Twin divisions. Simonitch has supplied two charts to help organize the proceedings, and they are de rigueur to maintaining sanity. Gotta think step loss markers would have made things even easier. Players may also select from two combat options. The attacker may attempt a Determined Assault before he attacks, increasing his losses, but improving the chance of advancing. (An excellent optional rule forces the British, strained for manpower, to use Canadian or Polish units to absorb the extra loss). A Determined Defense may be invoked AFTER the combat roll, allowing the defender to roll on a separate chart. This may reduce the number of hexes the attacker may advance, though possibly at a cost in defender step losses. Instead of some ironclad rule forcing the Germans to stand and take heavy casualties, Determined Defense tempts the player into gambling his troops on holding ground. Another elegant little rule with an important, cumulative effect on play. Retreat and advance after combat is a whole 'nother sub-system to contend with. When retreating, units may not only pass through enemy ZOCs but even through enemy stacks. This, and a number of other odd and lengthy rules, guarantees that your thumbs will get a workout while flipping through the rulebook. Another intriguing connection between movement and combat also deserves mention. If a unit moves, it is placed under a movement marker. The fog of war then rolls in, as the opposing player may not examine units under the marker. The big drawback here is that units without a movement marker are doubled in the defense. The only way to move and avoid a marker is to go only one hex and not end adjacent to an enemy unit. This rule simulates three things at once. First, it reflects the uncertainty of mobile operations by concealing unit strengths and identities. Doubling the strength of immobile units represents the power of fixed and prepared positions. Finally, the 1 hex exception encourages deliberate, gradual withdrawals. At the cost of hassling with movement markers, the rule not only adds to the simulation value of the game but discourages the micro-manager from constantly shuffling his counters. Of course, no game on France '44 would be complete without some sort of restrictive supply rules. Simonitch's solution is a pastiche of several design ideas. Supply in DIF comes in two flavors. General Supply, traced during a player's Supply Phase, requires a 5 hex path to a road and then to a supply source. Out of Supply results in being restricted to Tactical Movement, having the Attack Factor equal to a unit's number of steps, and various other unpleasantries. The worst of the lot is Attrition, which entails die rolling to see how many steps shuffle off to Buffalo, Bournemouth, or Bremerhaven. The Allies are further subject to rules governing petrol supply. In the Allied Initial Phase, the player must distribute petrol to all his units using Truck Points (TPs). No petrol means no supply, at least until the end of the turn, when General Supply is traced. Truck Points, as noted earlier, are in high demand, as they motorize combat units, provide petrol supply, and are used to advance Supply Heads, the primary source of petrol. The further a unit is from the petrol supply source, the more TPs are needed. During the early fighting in the bocage, petrol is not much of an issue, but when the breakout occurs and speed is of the essence, you'll be cursing your lack of Deuce and a Half's. Logistics is primarily, and properly, a headache for the Allies. With minimum fuss, the supply rules do a fine job of confronting the player with some of the same dilemmas which plagued Eisenhower. DIF also has a dizzying number of rules which help supply campaign chrome: Weather, Air Units, Carpet Bombing, Corps and Army HQs, 15th Army Restrictions, German Scratch Units, Evacuation, Major River Crossings, Partisans, Paris, Patton, and so on. But wait, there's more! Optional Rules include Airborne Assaults, Army Group Boundaries, Traffic, German Naval Movement (not to be confused with Ferry Limits), and Hitler's Will. How Simonitch got all of this into a 19 page rulebook, and then had room for three scenarios, designer's notes, and hints on play, is beyond me. Even more remarkable, it all works, both as a game, and as a simulation. Decision in France is, in fact, two very distinct games in one: a pounding match in the bocage, and a freewheeling war of maneuver after the breakout. It's quite a trick to design a game that covers two such distinctive combat environments. It's an even greater feat when that game is as fun to play as is DIF. CAPSULE COMMENTS Graphic Presentation: Solid. Playability: Despite some unfamiliar mechanics, not bad. Solitaire acceptable, but not great. Replayability: The bocage fighting will be pretty much the same, but after the breakout anything can happen. Wristage: OK Creativity: Many original ideas and much to mull over. Comparisons: Certainly no shortage of contenders and pretenders here. I remember SPI's old Breakout and Pursuit as being pretty good, but then, wearing sideburns and bell bottoms, what the hell did I know? GDW's Highway to the Rhine was such a hash that only a few brave souls ever played it. Victory Games' France, 1944 (?) came and went with nary a murmur … or a sale. Command's recent Victory In Normandy is popular, but overlong, if not overblown. DIF is as good or better as anything I have seen or remember. Overall: A good way to spend a Saturday, having some fun and maybe even learning a thing or two. from RHINO GAMES 1 map, 400 counters, 20 page rulebook, charts and cards. Rhino Game Company, P.O. Box 5660, Vallejo, CA, 94591-0660. c. $30 Back to Berg's Review of Games Vol. II # 14 Table of Contents Back to Berg's Review of Games List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1993 by Richard Berg This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com