4 22"x17" maps; 1500 counters; Huge Rules Book. Lots of Charts. English translations of the two. Boxed. Contact your favorite Mail Order House. $? Reviewer's Note: Ebro was originally published in Spanish, and my review is based on an early, badly flawed translation, forcing me to throw out entire rules sections that were unreadable. I believe that the publisher has commissioned a better version; if so, I would strongly suggest waiting to order this game until you see how that turns out. While the American board wargaming scene continues to consolidate, the European wargamers are definitely in growth mode. From the Spanish company Vae Victis (no relation to their French namesakes, although the French SimTac - the Napoleonic boys - appears to be distributing Spanish Victis' games here in the States) comes an announcement of plans to publish games covering every battle of the Spanish Civil War. Sounds ambitious, and while I don't see any lines forming at the box office here in the States, it doesn't sound any worse an idea than some I've heard lately. Their first chapter in the epic is La Batalla del Ebro by Eduard Farré and Joaquin Ruiz, and this is indeed a game of great scope, detail … and sheer weight. The Ebro was the penultimate battle of Spain's lamentable struggle, where the Republicans (the Good Guys, although now thoroughly dominated by a Stalinist/Communist cabal), in July, 1938, launched a major offensive along the Ebro river. Literally catching the Nationalists (the Bad Guys, and clearly on the ascendant at this late stage of the war) napping, the Republicans scored impressive gains in the first 10 days or so but then ran out of gas, as all of their operations tended to do. The Nationalists rushed their best troops, the Italian and German "volunteers", to the area, and began a long war of attrition along the stabilized Ebro front. By November they had pushed the Republicans back across the river, in the process inflicting heavy casualties that effectively finished off the Republican war effort. But this was a battle that the Good Guys could have won, if only they had been able to sustain the offensive, and the subject presents many offensive and defensive opportunities for both sides. How ambitious are the VV d'Espagna boys? Four "half" maps and 1,500 counters (seems like more) cover the Ebro saga by going all the way down to battalion/air squadron level, that's how ambitious. Graphically Ebro a mixed bag. The hefty box is graced by an unusually ugly painting of what looks like Jack Radey paddling across a lake in a rowboat, heading for a night raid on girls' camp, while being strafed by an ME-109. Wargaming's most radical designer attacked by a fascist fighter plane; how appropriate. Where do these companies find such graphically talentless people? Must be relatives. The map also sports some unusual graphic choices- greenish purple swamp hexes abound, and the whole effect is almost as garish as the legendary John Hill Sinai game from the 70's - but the counters are swell, quite colorful and nicely drawn. As they need to be, since most units have a minimum of six ratings. My counters were all printed reverse side out, forcing me to make the huge mental leap of having units' full-strength being on their backside. A little disconcerting at first, but you get used to it. As unsettling as the counters may have been, they were nothing compared to the rulesbook. While the maps and countersheets are bilingual, the rules and charts were written entirely in Spanish accompanied by an English "translation." I sincerely hope that by the time you're reading this Vae Victis d'Espagna has commissioned a better translator, because the version that I read approached futility. Reading them was very heavy sledding; yes, they were in English, but a densely overwritten English that rarely made much sense. A monologue by Cheech Marin, in his Tommy Chong, pot-haze days, comes to mind. Try this example on for size. In case you can't tell, it's the rule for air interception. "Specific mission for the aerial units, unless they are similar to the reaction attack for the land units. Interception can only be attained by aerial equipment identified with that finality in the Interception charts attached to each game, when it is possible to vary the list of suitable units depending of the period and place. In any case, as a general rule for this, we can say that it is a mission reserved for those units identified as fighters." Sounds like a Ross Perot speech.[Ed. I thought it was lifted from the 3DoG command rules.] Luckily Ebro features mostly tried and true, Igo/Hugo, early WWII stuff, so I was able to make lots of (hopefully astute) assumptions to fill in the gaps. But some sections, including the long and very complex air rules, were so unintelligible that I was forced to play without them. Knowing most air rules at this level, that could be a blessing. Between galumphing through the rules and lots of heavy guesswork, I'd say that Ebro is a battalion-level "Europa", a frightening thought in any language. There are 29 types of infantry, from the International Brigades, to Coastal Defense troops and Falangist Militia, as well as 11 types of artillery, 5 varieties of engineers, and more airplanes that you can shake an aileron at. Units have an average of 4-6 ratings for movement, assault/attack, artillery, range, and stacking cost, all listed in what looks like "1 font" type on the counters. It's a good thing my employers just added a vision care plan. Sequence The basic sequence is Igo/Hugo, although there is some sort of a shifting initiative system that allows Igo and Hugo to swap positions, a good idea for simulating the constant swings in initiative that marked this battle . Kursk it ain't, but there is a fair amount of armor cruising around the map, accompanied by respectably detailed armor and antitank mechanics. Lots for engineers to do, and of course the bulky style of air rules - at least as far as I could make out - that have made "Europa" resemble Aunt Ephie's holiday fruitcake for decades. The Europa trappings aside, some originality occasionally shines through the murk. Most units fight with assault strengths after movement, and with higher attack strengths if they have spent the entire turn adjacent to the defender, a good way of simulating the partially trained, easily disorganized combat troops who needed a couple of days to pull everything together before hitting the enemy. This is also one of those rare games that tries to add division and corps-level leadership as a combat bonus, and some sort of ill-defined coordination rating to make it difficult to combine multiple divisions in one attack. Most of the commanders are a mediocre bunch, anyway. Combat in Ebro does have some new, and interesting, twists to it. Units that perform prodigiously in combat become fanaticized, turning them into a battalion full of John Waynes for an indeterminate period of time. Higher odds ratios allow the attacker to follow up with "breaking and exploitation movement" (that's exploitation combat to us), something which I'm not sure belongs in this war outside of the cavalry and armored units, but a good idea nevertheless. What saves Ebro from herniatic oblivion, though, is the inherent situation. The Republicans blow across the river, snapping up scattered Nationalist garrisons and gaining ground at a feverish pace. But their armor and heavy artillery are forced to wait 2-3 turns for the engineers to build some heavy-duty bridges, and, in the meantime, the motorized Condor Legion shows up to reinforce the Fascists. I immediately threw them into the fight, catching a few Republican battalions in the open without anti-tank support (still waiting for the bridges, heh heh) and stopped 'em cold. This is important, since the Republicans must try to grab as much territory as they can, then dig in and hold on grimly, so much of the game rides on when and where the German tanks land their blow. Stop the Republicans soon enough and the Nationalists can bring their hefty air and artillery superiority to bear, starting a battle of attrition that the Good Guys will inevitably lose. For the Republicans, it becomes a desperate situation of trying to build up some reserves to get the offensive moving again. As best I can tell, Ebro does a fine job of recreating the details of the actual battle. The half-trained, half-equipped status of most of the troops, and the amateurish nature of their commanders, are well represented. Even without the air rules I still got a good sense of a style of war dominated by artillery and air-delivered firepower. And for sheer breadth of unit and airplane type, Ebro certainly rivals any other game. Let me reiterate that Ebro, even with its garbled English translation, is not unplayable as it stands. Unfortunately, after being forced to discard several rules and make up others, the version that I ended up playing was probably somewhat different from the one that was designed. The bare bones exist for a detailed, original game on an absorbing battle new to most American gamers. But like an archeologist, you'll only be able to play Ebro if you dig up those bones, clean off the dirt, and arrange them in a skeleton that somehow vaguely resembles the original monster. CAPSULE COMMENTS Graphic Presentation: Ranges from quite nice to jarringly surreal. Playability: Depends on two things— have they fixed the translation, and if not, how much work are you willing to do ? Regardless, not the most accessible game I've played. Replayability: How did you answer the above two questions? Certainly the situation is a lively one that offers many possible strategies. Wristage: About what you'd expect. Historicity: 29 types of infantry, 11 varieties of artillery, and planes, planes, planes. A truly impressive piece of historical research. Creativity: "Europa" with battalions, but with some fresh ideas thrown in. Comparisons: The only battle-level SCW game extant. And see "Creativity" note, above. Overall: A nicely flavored, rather fat, chewy piece of chorizo. But not for the faint of heart. Back to Berg's Review of Games Vol. 2 #26 Table of Contents Back to Berg's Review of Games List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 by Richard Berg This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. 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