One of the finest tactical games that can be played is GDW's Avalanche. It is highly complex, a realistic combined arms approach, and a game that has many subtle approaches to limited tactical goals. The simple goal of killing the enemy, or out killing the enemy if you like, is presented. It is a goal each side has. What each side has to do it with is marvelous: ships, tanks, air strikes, artillery, heavy weapons, armored cars, half-tracks, paratroops, engineers, and on and on.

It is a game that has few problems. The rules are tight and the artwork is the best I have ever seen in a wargame.

After particular attention is given to the rules and countersheets (before you punch them out, please) you get into the action. As the Allies you had bloody well be prepared for some nasty surprises. The combined German tanks and mechanized infantry can throw off the most determined attacks. The Germans have some nasty problems to deal with as well. The Allied naval gunfire and German shortage of troops cause many difficulties.

The problems that exist in the game can be dealt with rather easily with one exception. The easy ones first.

Landings

When the Allied player lands initially there are certain penalties for overstacked partial beach hexes. For every overstacked battalion on the beach subtract one from the die roll when firing at that hex with artillery. Treat partial beach hexes as value 1 terrain instead of value 2. When a combat occurs in an overstacked beach hex the Allied player may only have one battalion fired upon and may only have one battalion fire (his choice).

Bridges

When constructing bridges both the Americans and British may build one per turn. When destroying enemy bridges you must move across the bridge and expend two additional movement points to destroy the bridge, with one exception: engineers may destroy enemy bridges by moving adjacent to the bridge and expending two additional movement points.

Terrain

This is the hardest problem to face. Understandably the rules state that when a unit or units are in a hex with multiple terrain features you will use the lowest elevation. Considering the complexity of this problem will show you why this particular rule was written. However, this game is so beautifully constructed that this rule jars the potential and lowers the overall game. I want to offer a different rule that will change this consideration.

Try this for terrain: The defender is always assumed to be in the highest terrain for the purposes of combat. This little sentence can cause a lot of problems as you can see when you view the map (for instance, hexes 2534 [N] , 2422 [S], 0320 [N], and 3420 [S] ). Hex 2534 [N] has a small amount of terrain of one value and the vast majority of the hex is another value. Hex 2422 [S] has the same problem, threefold. Hex 0320 [N] has small amounts of high terrain with the lower terrain containing the road. Hex 3420 [S] is a hex with two levels of terrain, the higher split in half by the lower.

So the problems seem to need justifications of the rule when only small, roadless amounts of terrain exist at higher elevations. For instance, if a unit has just enough movement points to get to hex 0320 [N] but not enough to move off the road, how can the higher terrain defense value be justified?

If this were an operational game I would not be bothered by these considerations. But Avalanche is a tactical game and movement points are much more important. The rule can be justified by applying common sense and a little grease.

1. If the defender has been in the hex for more than one turn then the problem ceases to exist.

2. If the defender reached the hex with some movement left (even a fractional MP), then the problem should not exist.

3. The rules state that in a hex containing only one building, only one company may utilize that building for defense. Thus, when more than one unit occupies a hex with fractional amounts of high terrain, only one unit may be considered on the higher terrain.

4. Except for 3 above, when a unit is attacked, it defends as if it were on the most advantageous elevation present in the hex.

Credits

Frank Chadwick came up with the bridge rule. The other two rules were developed by Martin Miller and myself from our extensive playings of Avalanche.