I would like to take a moment to recognize the Buffalo Bills of wargaming, those gamers whose fated side of the table is opposite one of history's great commanders on the eve of his greatest victory. Varro at Cannae, Frankie and Alex at Austerlitz, Tilly at Breitenfeld, and almost any British general versus Rommel (or so it seems). And for these gallant masochists, we now greet yet another new game company, this one basing itself in Germany: Moments in History. As a new player on the scene, one best go with something familiar and popular, and Rommel is certainly that. Then again, any game with "Fox" in the title has got to be worth a try, at least from my point of view. To wit, Triumphant Fox, a simulation covering the Gazala battles of May-June, 1942. The Gazala battles represent one of the better situations in all of wargaming. Rommel's panzer divisions are poised to outflank the Allies and drive on Tobruk, but the Free French Brigade, holding out in Bir Hacheim, stretches their supply lines to, perhaps, the breaking point. The Allies have two, strong armored divisions, but their doctrine sucks wind and they are badly dispersed, with infantry divisions critically out of position. Decisions for both sides are immediate … and crucial. As john Madden would say, "Lotsa good stuff goin' on down there." MiH is out to make a big splash, visually if nothing else, and with TF they do not disappoint. The map is quite pleasing, with the standard "If this is N. Africa, it must be time form the ole Tan 'n Brown," this time replete with a throng of charts, tables and boxes in the margins to keep track of the usual gaming effluvia. The counters, though, are quite colorful, perhaps a bit too much so for my taste, with pastels pervading: orange for the British Air Force, fluorescent yellow on red for the 1st Armored Division, lime green for the Italians (but not for the limeys, it would seem), etc. I prefer the more drab olive and khaki shades, myself, but the fonts and graphic layout of the counters is top-flight, easy to read … and they look good on the map. While I don't think TF is up to Afrika's level, at least you don't get a situation where you become color-confused and attack your own units … as our estimable editor did in one of his more brilliant moments. The rulebook is laid out in GMT-style format, with plenty of graphics, boxed examples and designer/historical notes to break up all of those boring old rules. But within those drab paragraphs are some of gamedom's best ideas in some time. Dirk Blenneman, along with his developers, brother Ulrich and US-based John Kranz, have imbued TF with a depth and subtlety rarely seen in operational WWII games. TF is a regimental/battalion level treatment of Gazala, and all of the tactical niceties of mechanized, desert warfare are nicely covered. The key to N. Africa games is how well the designers simulate the ebb and flow, thrust/counterthrust of desert warfare. To this end the Brothers Blenneman have come up with the Operations Cycle. OpCyc is essentially a modified version of Richard Berg's TCT system - indeed, much of the game has a distinctly Bergian flavor -- wherein players roll dice to determine who has the initiative to perform the next operation. These Initiative rolls are modified by air interdiction and the Initiative-plus DRM, a rather vaguely described method of preventing one side from running away with the game. Each, consecutive time your opponent wins the Initiative, you roll the, adding one each time, until you "win" back the Initiative. Momentum thus tends to swing back and forth quite freely. The Initiative winner may pass, conduct an air strike, or activate a Formation. The concept of formations is certainly not new, one for which the designer gives credit to Jack Rady's old Duel for Kharkov … although Jack is not the only designer to have ever used it. A formation is, essentially, a division plus any attached independents. Formations may activate several times during a turn, limited by the different levels on the Formation Activation Track, an excellent method of demonstrating the relative effectiveness of various units. Axis Panzer divisions top out at 7 per turn, British Armor gets 6, while such ne'er-do-wells as the Italian and South African footsloggers hover between 3 and 4. Each activation, in turn, gives the formation a steadily decreasing number of Action Points to be spent on movement, combat, refitting, or minefield clearance. So, the more you activate a formation, the less you can do with it. And since formations can only receive a limited number of activations at the end of a turn, pushing a division to its limit may knock it out for the next few game turns. In all, a superb method of simulating the high-speed, high-stress nature of mechanized warfare. A movement action allows you to move only one stack at a time, so it behooves one to keep one's divisions nice and concentrated, a factor which hurts the oversized and badly strung-out Allied formations. The stacking limits, simulating, as they do, the relative differences in tactical doctrine, give the Axis a huge advantage by allowing them to lump all sorts of panzer and flak units with their infantry regiments, creating some truly frightening, combined-arms battle groups. Moving adjacent to an enemy unit allows the parent enemy formation an opportunity to declare a Reaction Activation; if the enemy HQ rolls within its Reaction Rating, it may activate … albeit with a lower number of actions points. Those reaction-activations, however, are counted against that formation's turn total, so a good tactic is to try and feint a defending division into burning up action points through reaction. If the enemy unit doesn't react, spending another Action Point produces a Hasty Attack. The bad guys can still try to escape your trap by retreating … and woebetide the defender who fails such an attempt. If he stands and fights, the attacker may then spend one or two more points to escalate to Regular or Prepared Attack. This allows the attacker to bring to bear other adjacent, friendly units, air support, HQ support points (representing artillery, engineers, recon, etc.) and The Dreaded Rommel Bonus, more on which below. Results are in step losses - the defender may translate these into hex retreats - and Disruption checks. Units who fail such check are really in trouble: they can't move or react, they lose their ZOC and they are halved in combat. I'm rather curious as to the rationale behind so severe an effect, one that borders on virtual collapse. On top of all this, victorious attackers can get "bonus" points, allowing him to follow up his assaults. Being the desert, Supply is crucial. Supply is traced to HQ's, which then trace to a road and thence either off-map or, for the Allies, to Boxes or Tobruk. Lack of supply is a major hindrance, and this places the Axis in something of a dilemma, since their lines don't run much past Bir Hacheim and they need substantial resources to secure their objectives. Another interesting mechanic is one remarkably similar to that seen in CoA's recent Kolin. Every ten operations moves the Sudden Death marker one space further along, and, if the combined initiative dice equal or exceed the SD Level the turn immediately ends. Verrrrry Intershting … but somewhat opaque in its explanation. Throw in some pre-turn Random Events - storms, Rommel's plane crashes - optional hidden movement (highly recommended), British Armor doctrine, Italian Surrender, and you now have an overview of a very dense package. Sound confusing? Well, fear not, faithful reader, because along with all the game components, for a buck or two more, you can get the official MiH Fox Tutorial Cassette, wherein developers John Kranz and Uli Blenneman wax renardish, explaining all. Laugh as you might, it really helps! Makes you wonder why nobody thought of doing this before. Even with all of this, one of the key mechanics in any North Africa game is how the designer(s) handle the Man of the Hour: Erwin Rommel, a commander whose level of genius is relatively proportional depending on with whom you are speaking. In recent games, such as The Legend Begins and Afrika, Erwin was good for some nice DRMs and movement bonuses. In TF, though, Rommel approaches levels of deism usually reserved for 7 Foot Nike salesmen. Units stacked with Rommel gain bonuses for action points, combat, victory, mine clearance, refitting, disruption checks … and leaping tall buildings. A good man to have in a dark alley, it appears. There is little doubt where the designers' empathy lies - the title, alone, gives that one away. But if you lose the opening coin toss for table side, you're in for a long, dusty afternoon. There are three solitaire, training scenarios, and the cassette strongly recommends you start there. I, being a Pro Tester, of course, ignored this advice. Wrong again, Mr. Bunthorne. Follow that sage advice, as it will save you a lot of head scratching, page turning, and repressed shouts of "Merd!" It was, therefore, after a couple of false starts that I finally got through a viable version of the campaign game. The book says 8+ hours ought to do it; they should have underlined the "+". I recount the game's flow to show you just how Zeus-like Rommel can be. The Axis get a +3 Initiative bonus for Game-Turn 1, giving them, pretty much, free rein, so that by the end of the turn Rommel and his merry DAKers had driven back the British 7th Armored, captured Bir Hacheim, and cleared all the minefields encircling it, thus opening up the vital supply line around the Allied flank. In Turn 2, the Allies won the first initiative and sent the 1st Armored thundering south to challenge the Axis breakthrough … whereupon Rommel set upon them with the 15th Panzer, eliminating one infantry and 4 tank brigades, effectively destroying the 1st Armored. The Free French, now stuck out in the open, were overrun faster than a Texas armadillo, and the turn ended with the Germans knocking on the gates of Tobruk. "That's all she wrote, folks." Who cares, though … no matter how hard I was getting shellacked, it was a fun, exciting game. The Operations Cycle ensure lots of tension and shifting momentum, and, with the reaction rules, no player must sit back and simply take it. Players get a very good feel for the particulars of armored tactics as well as the doctrines of the opposing armies. Triumphant Fox is a well-crafted game with an original system full of creative flourishes, all backed by solid research and developmental work. CAPSULE COMMENTS Graphic Presentation: Highly professional, but a bit too pastel for me. Playability: Once you've got the hang of it - play those three learning scenarios, men - tense and exciting. Excellent solitaire. Replayability: Weighed down by the Axis Walkover Factor. Wristage: Acceptable, but not inconsequential. Creativity: Lots of exciting, new mechanics here … very high on the Create-o-meter. Historicity: Detailed notes reveal detailed research. Excellent feel for desert warfare, but a bit much in the Rommel area. Comparisons; Lots of good games in this area, including GDW's Fall of Tobruk and People's Gazala. TF is right up there, and state-of-art makes it meatier than any of those. Overall: A remarkable first effort for MiH; certainly one of this year's best, so far. Remember to get the tape! from MiH One map, lots of counteres, buy it now. 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