VAE VICTIS (Issues #11 and 12) Issues of Vae Victis may be obtained in the US from Boulder Games. Vae Victis returns to its Napoleonic roots in issue # 12 with Denis Gabriel's Vittoria 1813, one of the battles in Spain that marked France's long, downward Iberian spiral. Joseph and Marshal Jourdan are in retreat here, trying to escape from four converging Allied columns with the remains of the army, Joseph Napoleon's court, the artillery park, and the Imperial baggage. This is a relatively simple, and familiar, game (cf. Napoleon's Last Battles): brigade level Napoleonic Igo/Hugo with locking ZOC's, cavalry charges, and ranged artillery. Graphics are good, with a rather bland map offset by colorful figures on the counters with much time lavished on uniform detail - Highlanders, KGL, raggedy Gardes Espagnols, et al. The leader counters have portraits, of course, and I amused myself by guessing which movie actors VV used as models for the British generals. I spotted Michael Caine as Wellington [Ed. Now, there's a stretch.], Charlton Heston as Dalhousie, and Nigel Hawthorne as Graham. Unit strengths are hidden as counters are flipped over unless involved in combat (which pretty much negates the neato unit pictures), commanders provide combat and morale bonuses, and engineers hustle about blowing up and repairing bridges. There is some tactical detail: cavalry is rated as either heavy or light, and units are given combat modifiers to simulate morale and fighting spirit. As I mentioned earlier the French are involved in a classic fighting retreat, but I don't think the Allies have much of a chance of beating them. The estimable game designer and industry gadabout, Mr. Charles Vasey, puts the French strength at about 10,000 men too high (one smells the hand of some right bank Bonapartists at work here), and this, coupled with a nice succession of river lines to hide behind, gives them a solid advantage as they sidle off the northeastern corner of the map. I was disappointed by Vittoria, finding it rather bland, without much character, lacking the creativity which often elevates VV's games, and fairly one-sided. The only readily obtainable competition, though, is the recent Joe Miranda entry for S&T, about two years back. The folks at Spanish SimTac, though, are threatening to do this battle next. I'll betcha the French won't have 10,000 extra muskets there! Then, after two bummers in a row - Rocroi and Vittoria - along comes Nicolas Stratigos' Arnhem to save the day. If you don't know what this game is about, then you must have picked up this publication while looking for that elusive Leather Catalogue. Here we cover the Nijmegan-Arnhem corridor on battalion level with daily turns. Sounds suspiciously like SPI's Arnhem you say ? Well, think again, pilgrim, this is an original, quick but surprisingly detailed version of this oft-gamed battle. With a typically spare but colorful map and icons on the counters, "Vae Victis" has by now settled into an easily recognizable graphic pattern- some might say rut, as all their games do look the same, regardless of period. I think it works fine for Arnhem, but I would like to see some variation down the road. And with all the movie stars making guest appearances in Vittoria, I was expecting to see Gene Hackman, Robert Redford, and Sean Connery glowering from the Arnhem leader counters, but sadly only anonymous faces stared back at me. Not even a Wallace Shawn. For such a small game, Arnhem shows a remarkable amount of detail and sophistication. Units are broken up into their divisional/kampfgruppe formations and players alternate activations, either six units from one formation that are within command range of their leader, or general activation, when any three units on the map can activate with appropriate penalties for lacking direction from the higher-ups. Similar to Piercing the Reich, combat is part of movement and comes in three flavors, March, Normal, and Prepared, depending on how many MP's you have to spend and whether you're in a hurry to shove a blocking force out of the way or have time to call up artillery and air support. This being a Market Garden game, bridge-blowing appears, as well as engineers ready to ferry Robert Redford (sans photo) and the boys across the Neder-Rhine in a blaze of glory. Weather, artillery bombardment, and airdrops all contribute to adding a satisfactory amount of detail without lots of fiddly rules. Old-line American gamers, raised on SPI's Arnhem and Victory's Hell's Highway, have battled over this terrain many times before. As usual, the 1st Airborne should be able to capture both sides of the Arnhem bridge with astounding ease, considering that historically they only slipped one battalion in there and spent the rest of the battle trying to break through to them. The Germans are in the familiar position of trying to consolidate their scattered forces and achieve a proper balance between hammering away at the Airborne defenses and conducting a grim defense of the river line at Nijmegan. Familiar, true, but you can't ask for a more dramatic situation and the activation system provides a new twist to a well-known subject. "Vae Victis" continues to be my favorite wargame magazine. Back to Berg's Review of Games Vol. 2 #25 Table of Contents Back to Berg's Review of Games List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1997 by Richard Berg This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com