The Game

The situation is ideal for a wargame, being very mobile and giving both players the opportunity to attack and defend.

Designer David Bolt is a "World War I veteran designer," the author not only of 3W's Lodz edition but also of The Cossacks are Coming! for Peoples' Wargames and Home before the Leaves Fall for Clash of Arms Games.

Lodz 1914: First Blitzkrieg is a detailed study of the Lodz battles; however, it is much simpler than Cossacks or Home. It comes with one full sized map, 720 counters, 4 player-aid cards on cardstock and a rules booklet. The scale is two miles per hex and one day per game turn. Military units are mainly brigades and regiments subordinated to divisional, corps and army HQs. Lodz 1914 is available in both a ziplock and a boxed edition.

Let's now turn to the game system by looking at the sequence of play:

A. Weather Determination Phase
B. German Supply Phase
C. German Reinforcement/ Replacement Phase
D. German Movement Phase
E. Russian Reserve Movement Phase
F. German Combat Phase
G. German Reserve Movement Phase
H. Russian Supply Phase
I. Russian Reinforcement/ Replacement Phase
J. Russian Movement Phase
K. German Reserve Movement Phase
L. Russian Combat Phase
M. Russian Reserve Movement Phase
N. Night Phase
O. Final Phase

Weather determination is important for movement allowances of ground units and for the availability of Air Points.

Most of the other phases are also pretty standard. Here are a couple of exceptions: Movement can be conducted in two different ways. The back of unit counters depicts the national flag of the country in question. Units move across the map showing only this flag. You can determine the identity of enemy units either through combat or through reconnaissance by cavalry, a few motorized units, or by Air Points. If you are playing solitaire or if you want a quicker game, Lodz 1914 includes an optional rule without Hidden Movement.

In the Night Phase one corps per player may move using Forced March. This is an excellent method to "get into position" for the next game turn.

Most of the maneuver units are infantry or cavalry brigades and regiments. These units have values for their combat strengths, their support points (mainly machineguns), and their morale/ efficiency. If units lose combat or support points, the owning player places a strength point marker below the unit. Full strength German infantry brigades have 12 combat points; therefore it is not possible to eliminate them quickly. Artillery is integrated into HQs and is divided into direct firing, indirect firing and heavy artillery.

The main emphasis in Lodz 1914 is on a detailed combat system (that's the reason why we all play these games, isn't it?). David Bolt came up with the U S E D IN C 0 M B A T subsystem which represents:

• Unit morale,
• Support from HQs,
• Entrenchments,
• Disrupted & Out of Supply units,
• Indirect & Heavy Artillery,
• Charges,
• Off March Attacks,
• Machine gun points
• Bad Weather,
• Airplane Support Points, and
• Terrain and Flanking effects.

For each combat, after combat odds determination, you check with the help of this list for any modifications. These are either additions to or subtractions from the die roll or column shifts - as the owning player desires.

So first the average unit morale of both sides is checked. Then any support from HQs in range, whether the defender is entrenched, whether disrupted or out of supply units are involved, whether indirect or heavy artillery is supporting, if the attacker declares a charge, whether the combat is an Off March Attack (attack during the Movement Phase), how many machine gun points are firing, if the weather favors the de- fender, whether airplanes are supporting and if the terrain and the deployment of the attacker ("flanking") may all result in modificatio This is certainly detailed but, because of this subsystem, is difficult. In my opinion this is a welcome change from the usual "determine the odds, then roll a die" routine.

Lodz 1914 comes with three scenarios. In addition to the campaign game you'll find the "Battle of Kutno" introductory scenario (just three game turns) and the "Battle of Lodz" scenario which allows players to pick up the campaign at its most dramatic point historically-the encirclement of the German XXV Reserve Corps southeast of Lodz.

If you prefer games at the Standard Combat Series or Ring of Fire-family complexity, Lodz 1914 isn't a good choice. However, if you like the OCS or TCS and would like to simulate a mobile World War 1 battle, then Lodz 1914 should satisfy you.

Lodz 1914: Historical Account