Signifer

La Petit Armée

review by Greg Rice

This an enticing idea: an all-in-one, everything-you-need wargame in a box, complete with carrying strap. The set has a 2 by 3 foot folding hardboard gaming board, with half a dozen foam board hills, a couple of farm building groups, each with some fields, two town blocks with half a dozen buildings, 20 trees, some hedge and stone wall sections, a bridge, and felt road and stream strips.

The armies (French and Austrian in the review set) each have six infantry units, three cavalry units, and four artillery pieces, along with three command stands, a total of 204 figures. The figures are the plastic pieces from the board game Risk, about 8 mm from feet to eyes, all in shakos. They are painted in a simple but clear fashion, with some Austrian line units having different cuffs, and plume colors used to indicate type of unit. Cavalry “brigades” are painted in the colors of representative cavalry regiments, although there is no distinction in molding. The figures are all mounted on magnetic bases, and steel movement stands fitted to the units in column are provided, also with magnetic bottoms. Each army has a steel sheet-lined box in which it fits neatly on its magnetic bases. Trees are also on magnetic bases and have a similar storage box. These worked well enough that only one figure and a tree had broken off their bases in shipping.

The set includes a set of rules, rulers, ten-sided dice, casualty caps, a variety of markers, and some welcome instructions on how to get it all back in the box when you’re done with it. The rules are fairly simple, with a move-defensive fire-offensive fire basis and command pips for control, followed by reaction rolls for each moving unit. The presentation is reasonably clear and the author is responsive: an e-mailed rules question was answered promptly and a phone number is also provided, so a struggling beginner has a fighting chance of playing a game on his own. Games are based on army point allowances, with terrain density determined by dicing and placed alternately. Players place objective points and dummies on each other’s side of the table and attempt to capture them before they reach casualty break points. A couple of test games produced a quick battle, with most delay (aside from looking up rules) due to the command response procedure.

Although I found them uncompelling, they are acceptable for an introductory game. The problem is that there is no obvious way forward from the starting point. The rules are almost entirely divorced from historical organizations and settings, so there is no hint that this might be a source of fresh ideas and enjoyment. While there are national army lists, with required units and point balances, they construct commands called corps which have only a vague relationship to historical orders of battle. The rules mention brigades (the basic unit) and divisions, but the “division” (commanded by a “lieutenant” figure) is a rules convention which changes composition from turn to turn to maximize pip efficiency, not an organizational structure.

The figures are entirely generic, so there is no connection with actual units, and only a distant color correspondence with historical uniforms, closing off another source of interest. Metal figures can be substituted at additional cost, which could help with this limitation.

The terrain is the strong part of this package. There is enough stuff to make up a very attractive table top, with terrain appropriate to the table size and troop density. The material is nicely constructed, clearly scratch-built, and instantly inspires the “That’s neat - I’ll bet I could do that,” reaction that marks another innocent being sucked into the hobby. More bits and pieces are available at very reasonable prices to expand the basic set.

Experienced gamers will find the rules and figures wanting, while I fear that potential new gamers will see this as a very expensive board game rather than a step into a new world. The figures will not be useable with more common scales, so will be a lost investment should the buyer move into the hobby more seriously. Part of this is inevitable, of course: good metal figures nicely painted would cost more than this complete set. As it stands, the price is very reasonable for the physical quality of the components.$225 from Signifer, PMB 149, 2001 E. Lohman, #110, Las Cruces, NM 88001, tel (505) 525-2378, e-mail: signifer@zianet.com/signifer

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