The Sun Never Sets: Three Campaigns of the British Empire is the latest in Joe Miranda's set of 19th Century warfare simulations. Using a system that accounts for logisdcs, technological differences and politics, Joe has opened an interesdng window on the undersimulated British Army's Victorian campaigns. Players can march against the Chinese during the 1860 Arrow War, invade Zululand in 1879, or struggle in Egypt and the Sudan during the 1880 and 90s. Depending on how much you know, the games in Sun will either fall flat or get you involved. The two maps with the game are very basic, almost plain, with the key terrain features being forts, rivers and roads. Given the operational nature of the games, the plain maps were useable, efficient and effecdve. Combat units are rated for combat strength, weapon type, morale and movement. Weapon type and morale are keys to the game system, with weapons ranging from advanced breach loading artillery through machine guns to swords/ spears and morale ranging from veteran to rabble with a few fanadcs thrown in. The units are backprinted with their country's flag where appropriate and setup informadon. Leaders are included, rated for tacdcal and strategic capabilities, and movement, and all are quite important to play. Finally, there are a lot of game markers, including column markers that provide fog of war. In all, this is a non-flashy solid visual effort. The rules include eleven pages of basic rules, six pages of optional and game specific rules, eight pages of scenario information, plus random events tables and Joe Miranda's design notes. I'd read this latter section first. It sets the tone for the game and gives you a good feel for what Joe is trying to do. The rules are basically complete, but...and its a big but...they are almost unplayable. Correction: you can play the game, but you might not play it exactly the same as someone else might. There are some straight gaffes, like having both players in the Zulu scenario identified as the "first" player. There are some references to earlier versions of the game (green stripes units mentioned in the Random Events Table that do not exist). There are some omissions, like the specific Naval landing Rules, which really hurts the Arrow war scenario. And lots of clarifications. All of these (running to five pages) are available from DG. More proofreading and development would have been appreciated. Make that "any". Sun is an Igo-Hugo game with a random events, movement, combat, supply sequence. Random events are a Joe Miranda specialty. Dollops of history, like what happens when the French Prince Imperial gets wasted in Zululand, or the Taiping Rebels go berserk, and globs of politics, like the Colonial Of fice panicking and ordering an evacuation if the natives get too lucky, add a lot to the flavor and replayability of the game. The killer bees of the random events -- the "pick a hex and attrit enemy units" -- can still hurt in a game with territorial victory conditions (like Peking in the Arrow War), but the attrition is not immediate elimination: it's demoralization which can hurt during ensuing combat. I like the events table. Movement is varied and depends on a die roll for individual columns. The roll can nullify movement or allow up to 3x the movement rate, with Leaders using their strategic capability to affect the roll. Units can die off during the march, even if only moving one hex. This movement system had lots of possibilities for maneuver and lightning strikes, if enough map space is available, but it also carries seeds of dismay, particularly when one column gets to move 18 hexes and the support column doesn't move at all. This system can ruin your day. I like it. Combat Combat uses a three-tiered resolution system. Artillery fires, then the nnes. and only then, melee, with the combat results (demoralization and elimination) taking effect immediately after each phase. Units with the same morale and the same weapons type can band together, but units with the same weapons type but different morale cannot combine. I haven't worked through the math to ascertain whether there is a benefit to combining fires or firing each unit separately, especially veterans with their +2 fire modifier. Rolling separately adds to the time to resolve combat and probably works to the advantage at different times for each player. The British will want to maximize damage to their enemies at artillery and rifle range while the Zulu, for example, will kick some butt with their veteran spear carriers in the melee phase...if there are any Zulu lett. The system has a lot of feel for the period; even better, it makes sense, although I would like to know how the game was balanced and playtested; I'll bet it used the combining of like units. Leaders can add their tactical values to a unit or units firing and the side with the highest tactical valued leader gets to go first in appropriate phases. Nice touch! After three phases a victor is declared if someone has over half his initial force eliminated or demoralized. Loser has to retreat, losing demoralized units if retreating through an enemy ZOC. One exceptionally nice touch is that units from separate hexes attack separately, a function of the sketchy communications at the time. Supply is an ever constant problem. Units have to be at a supply depot, on a road (and there are no roads in Zululand), or be with an expendable supply unit to be cenain of supply. Others have to forage, which is a terrain based dieroll. If the terrain doesn't support the number of units you have there, the excess are demoralized, or eliminated if already demoralized. You spend a lot of time worrying about supply -- or you should! Victory is predicated on killing enemy units and leaders and taking territory. In a nice touch, Joe insists that British control means a British Garrison, which will spread your forces piecemeal in a hurry if you try to grab too much territory while the enemy has good forces available. How Do the Scenarios Play? The Arrow War is a straight forward attack by the British and French, with the Chinese trying to bar their way to Peking. The map section is very thin, so maneuver is limited. The Allied march toward Peking, stomping on Chinese columns and forts in their way. I lost interest after a couple plays. It was better when Flashman was there. Zulu was a different story. With visions of Zulu movies dancing in my head, I set out to show the British could do better...and promptly had my head handed to me, a la Chelmsford. The initial British deployment in tour separate columns is an invitation to disaster, and the invasion should not be attempted immediately. On the contrary, the Zulus actually have a chance to invade British territory and do some damage while the Redcoats try and regroup. The counter invasion will unlock British reinforcements, so it's a dicey call. I enjoyed this game from both sides and still do.. The three Sudan scenarios were intriguing, since I knew next to nothing about the situation. I enjoyed playing the scenarios, the initial Mahdists rebellion, the first failed British counteraaack, and finally Kitchener's successful campaign, combined with reading about the situation. Unfortunately, all the games played much the same way with most of the battles taking place in victory point towns. There are enough forces on both sides to make things interesting, and the optional rules add a lot, especially the captured weapons rule. These scenario/games didn't appeal to me as much on replay as Zulu, but provided some fun while I learned. I liked the system; it certainly does what it intended, once all the clarifications are in place. You do Bet as good feel for what was important and what was crucial. The wildly varying movement allows the natives to surprise you if you aren't careful, which adds to the fun, until you learn how to plod ahead like Kitchener. The battles will play out somewhat the same after a while, despite the numerous die rolls, random events etc. A good effort on a difficult subject. CAPSULE COMMENTS Graphic Presentation: Plain vanilla, but effective. Playability: Good, once all the clarifications are received and learned. Replayability: Limited for Arrow War; high for Zulu, marginal for the three Sudan scenarios. Wristage: Lots and lots Creativity: Excellent Historicity: Captures the Victorian aura quite well. Comparison: Only game on this subject matter - the Zulu War (Dennis Bishop) - was somewehat unusual, but interesting.. The Brits make an appearance in Manchu (S&T). Overall: Good effort on a difficult subject. Interest will depend on what you know and like. Back to Berg's Review of Games Vol. 2 #28 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. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com