Perry Moore appears to be the Renfield of Wargaming. Cursed by fate to live on the fringes of the designing world, he has attempted, again and again, to make his consumers happy with a series of games that, in the main, are the cardboard equivalent of dead flies. For the most part, wargamers have been content to leave him locked in his cell, Victorian straightjacket in place. Now, however, Perry has, in best Renfield fashion, brought us a real, live kitten to play with. Landships is certainly one of this year’s more pleasant surprises. Until recently, World War I tactics was not a hot topic. Not since the downfall of SPI have there been many games on the subject, and few are the gamers who can point to a tactical level WWI game with anything other than derision. That situation has changed. If you are a WWI fanatic, or just might be interested in seeing how military technology grappled with the problems of static, trench warfare, Landships is just what you ordered. Landships presents the player with an in-depth view of the tactical/weapons evolution that occurred between 1914-1918. The game presents this in a series of scenarios (22 in all) which, if played in chronological order, show the progression of attempts to deal with the trench-bound deadlock in (mostly) France. This game has it all, from machine guns and artillery barrages to flame throwers, poison gas to airplanes, and finally, those cataphracted monster forerunners of the tank, the “landships”. For those of you that want a little variety in their diet, Landships also has scenarios on the Middle-East, Italian and Russian fronts too! You get all of these goodies in a game that is easy to play, with complexity in the same range as that between Panzer Leader and Sands of War. The game also has quick-start rules and a jump-right-in scenario (with Rommel in France!) for those of you who like to play before reading all the rules. The physical components, like most Clash of Arms game, are absolutely beautiful. The box art depicts a bunch of limeys in a trench about to get there butts plowed by a Teutonic tank. The four, double-sided geomorphic maps (100 meters to a hex scale) by Rick Barber are top of the line, down to the spiffily-reproduced detail of the trench line system. The counters are just as good, if not better … on the whole. The vehicle and aircraft counters are done in silhouette and color, and some of the landship counters even have camouflage patterns on them! In contrast, the infantry and artillery counters are a bit boring. Both unit types are drawn as black outlines. This is, in itself, not bad, but contrasts rather badly with such as the colored vehicle counters. The game also comes with a chart sheet that contains every thing you need to know. This is one thing I like to see in a game, if alone for its time-saving aspect. The rules, however, prove once again to be CoA’s Achilles Heel. Clash of Arms has an unfortunate habit of writing rules that are more Byzantine than a weekend with Justinian. The rules in Landships are not as bad as that, but they still have problems. Case in point: there are two types of dice (a sixer and a ten sider) used in the game. The rules don't clearly state which die to use when until somewhere in the middle of the rules, where it is most inconveniently buried. Disorganization abounds, although it is not as horrible as it sounds. You simply have to study the rules a bit more than usual. After playing a few scenarios, any confusion or questions you may have will clear up. The game system is actually very simple. Infantry and cavalry is represented at platoon level, while vehicles, aircraft and ordinance counters represent individual pieces of equipment. Landships handles the usual complexities inherent in tactical level games by the structure of the sequence of play. For example, while infantry units can move only one hex at a time - in contrast to the landships which can move a whooping three to five hexes - they can do so twice per turn. This allows defensive fire, a mechanic which is always a gluteal pain to simulate, to occur in-between the enemy infantry movement phases and at the conclusion of tank movement. This may seem a bit convoluted at first, but it is easy to learn after playing a few times, and it definitively reduces needless complexity. The most detailed systems in the game belong to vehicles and artillery. The artillery is divided into on-board and off-board. Both can be used for indirect fire with the aide of a forward observer, although only the former can be used for direct fire. For indirect fire to take place, the forward observer has to spot the target, be able to call in the request and then, with luck, get permission to use the batteries. The game also features different flavors of ammunition: high explosive, shrapnel, smoke and poison gas. And the players’ delight, artillery barrages, come in different types of packaging, including hurricane and drum fire. The difference lies in how the fire points from the different batteries are used against the target. When it comes to landships, there are a lot of interesting bits of chrome. They range from mechanical breakdowns from excessive speed and trench crossing, to specific firing arcs for individual weapons, to crew moral for the Germans. With the exception of two or three scenarios, most situations present only one side with landships, while the other has the anti-tank weapons (maybe). To balance this off, the game includes some scenarios on the hypothetical 1919 offensive. The infantry is represented in a less spectacular fashion. They have four ratings: range, firepower, morale and movement, although these tend to be similar for all units. Not only that, there are only two generic nationalities, blue (for the allies) and gray (for the axis). This was probably done to save on counter space, as the optional rules section contains modifications to spread the values out a bit for the different nationalities. There are also other modifiers for small arms combat; the nasty ones for machine guns come vividly to mind. The objective here appears to be presenting foot sloggers in a simple, yet interesting, way without over-burdening the player. The aircraft are the most abstracted part of the game. Even though you get all those beautiful airplane counters, they have limited use. They can observe for artillery barrages, bomb, intercept and strafe. In most cases, you just place the counter in the hex, survive any flak or attack from intercepting aircraft, and carry out the mission (which usually involves one die roll). Landships provides the gamer with a basic, simple, tactical system, to which is added plenty of chrome and detail, and lots of color and spice. It allows the player to see WWI tactical combat without burying him alive and killing the fun of the game. For those of you who are fans of games of this period, I recommend that you get this game. CAPSULE COMMENTS: Graphic Presentation: Excellent. Playability: Good; accessible rules … after the initial, but typical, CoA confusion. Replayability: Excellent; game is designed to play scenarios in sequence! Wristage: It’s tactical; ‘nuff said. Creativity: More in the overall concept than in the game systems. Historicity: Very flavorful, rather insightful. Comparisons: Available WWI tactical games are rare … and out-of-print. This is as playable as anything WWI Tac Maven, David Isby, ever did. Overall: A breakthrough game for both WWI and Perry Moore. Clash is on a roll. from CLASH OF ARMS 4 17”x11” geomorphic maps, backprinted; 480 counters; Rules Book; Charts. Boxed. CoA, Phoenixville PA. c.$32 Back to Berg's Review of Games Vol. II # 15 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