Reinforce the Right

S&T # 180

by Joe Miranda

Reviewed by Richard Berg

No sooner had this one hit the ground, then the comparisons between it and Ted Raicer's 1914: Glory's End started to pop up all over E-mailand. Given that the subject matter and scale are identical, such was inevitable. And, without making you wait until the end, except for Joe's rather neat-o set of political and campaign variants (something he has always done well) and his slim victory in the "Wrong Side of the River" cartographic contest, Raicer's version is, at least at this point, the one to play.

First, the maps. As I was setting RtR up, I thought I'd see how the two maps compared. Turns out that Joe and Ted disagree in 8 separate places as to where rivers should run vis à vis cities. If I were Ted, I'd start wearing my Thomas More autographed hairshirt for this one, considering Joe's cartographic reputation, because Joe's map is more accurate 5 out of the 8. Granted, a couple are interpretational, and mostly all are non-events (e.g., no one's ever going to get to Orleans). One, however, was a standout: Abbeville, just NW of Lille and an important city along (and north of) the Somme. Ted's 1914 runs it south of the Somme. Why? Seems Ted didn't want the German player to use hindsight and do what the real Germans did (avoid it, I think); so he made it more difficult to take by re-routing the river. Ted R, the Andrew Golatta of Design for Effect.

That aside, Ted can relax in the face of this competition. Not that RtR isn't fun… sort of. The players still have those age-old problems, the ones that seem to provide most of the fascination inherent in this situation: where do I commit, when, and with how much? And, to that end (alone) RtR provides a fairly good situational model. However, with the one major difference between the two systems - ZOC, or lack thereof - Joe stumbles and falls into a trench. (By the way, his entrenchment mechanic is quite good.) Joe gives virtually anything alive - and some not, like fortress hexes - a ZOC. Doesn't take the French player that long (took me 2 turns, and I'm slow on the uptake) to figure that all he has to do to deny The Marne line to the Germans, in easily sufficient time for his two reinforcing armies to arrive, is to play speed-bump with all those doomed 1-1-6 cavalry units (which, to make matters worse, can retreat when faced solely by infantry). The effect is to slow the Germans down far greater than in reality, at least as they enter France and try to swing SW to Paris.

And mention of Paris brings up another point. Hey Joe! the Germans are looking to take Paris. Why do we need two columns of Victory Points -especially the body count ones - for more things to keep track of than anyone really wants to do? I'll be honest (a sure indication, by the way, that there is little of that about to happen): I ignored the grotesquely overwrought VP mechanics and said, if the Kaiserettes take Paris, they win.

Even with this somewhat sour taste, the game is rather nicely produced with a minimum of errata (except for some set-up hex problems). It's certainly a game I would consider worth my sub money, because it provides a fair amount of "situational" play tension. It's not bad and you haven't been "had"; it's just that there's something better to be had.

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© Copyright 1996 by Richard Berg
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