Many years ago, I bought and enthusiastically played and replayed Squad Leader (from Avalon Hill, designed by John Hill). The next module Cross of Iron equally captivated me but the 2 modules that followed that, made rule assimilation difficult with the successive rule books revising earlier rules. When Advanced Squad Leader (ASL) was announced, I thought this would be a new edition, bringing all the (now disjointed) rules from the existing system together into one orderly rulebook. Well it wasn't, Advanced Squad Leader surprised many by essentially totally replacing the earlier stuff (except for the boards). In my disappointment, I wrote to Avalon Hill, suggesting that they do a 'Captains Edition' of ASL, by updating the basic game with new standard counters for all nations from the first 4 modules and updating the rules from those games into a single volume, allowing the captains edition to serve as an introduction to the world of ASL. It never happened and as ASL became progressively bigger and basic SL became unsupported, I stopped playing both. I say all of this because Combat Normandy strikes me as being close to the captains edition of the game that I always wanted. The rules are similar to the original Squad Leader game but with bells and whistles from the later modules added as historically appropriate to this particular action. Critical Hit have managed to get these rules into a 16 pages format (with clear print using a 2 column presentation), although the page count of later editions is likely to grow, as presently, many of the rules are not explained in sufficient depth. Regrettably, Critical Hit have not used the 'programmed learning' system as seen in the old Squad Leader (which introduced rules bit by bit with each new scenario) so those who have never been exposed to the SL / ASL system will have a lot of detailed rules to digest in one go. It is difficult to discuss Combat without making direct reference to SL / ASL because this game is a very close relative to those two systems. Obviously they deal with the same subject, that is, tactical World War Two, using squads and individual vehicles with a scale of 50 metres to the hex. The maps are the same as those used in an earlier Critical Hit ASL module, labelled 'All America' and this alone sets the tone of the game being a Squad Leader clone. Certainly the language of SL is here, squads, half squads, support weapons, NCOs (read leaders), bypass movement, stairwells, line of sight, Morale Check (MC), defensive fire, AFV overrun, smoke, wall, hedge, close combat (CC) and fire for effect (FFE) are just some of the many terms that are to SL / ASL friendly and as a consequence, the rules of Combat are more easily read, or should I say interpreted. Yes, interpreted, because in their present form, the rules often fall short of fully explaining a procedure, leaving the player having to check against other rules or using SL experience to compensate. The rule writer has assumed the reader has some knowledge of the SL system rather than ensuring that the rules have absolute clarity. I used to own 4th edition Squad Leader and even in it's 4th edition, questions were still being raised but in Combat, the under explanation is so prevalent that to fully address the problem the rules would best benefit from a rewrite, which would probably only increase their length by a couple of pages or so. I am led to believe that a new rulebook (V 1.2) is being prepared. On the positive side, the rule brevity does appear to evidence an ethos of wanting to make the rules tight and to eliminate all those dreadful 'rule exceptions' that appear to follow so many ASL rules. I am left with the impression that the intention of the design was to take an ASL type of design and strip out all the ultra detailed chrome to present a system more in keeping with the original Squad Leader system. If that is so, it generally does a good job, until it comes to the combat system. I am at a total loss to understand why a game apparently aiming to reduce complexities, introduces so much mental arithmetic into the combat calculations. To test the system, I set up the first scenario 'The milling crowd'. It has few units and does not use artillery or vehicles but within moments of play, I became a confused victim of the rulebook, charts and combat process. Play shuddered to a halt as I flicked between rules and game charts to simply bring on a unit and subject it to defensive fire. The squad and support weapon counters do not display any information, rather, each player has a play aid card, where everything has it's own line of factors. For example, a German squad has a range of 12 hexes with a different level of firepower for each of those hexes. The squad also has an inherent machine gun with a range of 16 hexes and different levels of firepower for each of those hexes. To show how the combat plays out, lets say 2 German Squads and a MG42 (machine gun) combine their fire against a stack of two American squads in a building 6 hexes away. Then the following process is typical: 1. total German firefactors at 6 hexes (33 for each squad + 16 for each inherent MG + 54 for the MG42) gives 152 fire points - I know this because I have had to work it out on my calculator! 2. Go to the fire table and cross index the fire factor with a percentage die roll (use 2 x D10s), the die roll (say 33, is modified with a +25 for fire at a building) this gives a result of C/M+20 3. C/M+20 means 1 American squad is flipped to a half squad and the other must take a morale check but add 20 to the dice roll. 4. The basic troop quality of an American squad is 55, it gets a +10 for being in a building and a +5 for being with another unit (there are a total of 19 possible morale modifiers altogether on this chart) so it's modified troop quality is now 70. Roll the dice and add the 20 point penalty (from the C/M+20 result), if the score is less than the troop quality then the unit has passed. If it fails by 1 - 20 the testing unit would be pinned, if it failed by more than 20 it would instead be disrupted. As you can see, there is quite a bit of maths involved. Some may like the idea of weapon ranges being always measurable, frankly, certainly when taken across the whole game, I think its too much maths and not enough fun. I have not tried combat with vehicles or guns yet, each of these have their own chart for each target. That is for example, there are 3 different German vehicles in the game, so there are 3 bazooka charts (1 for effects against each vehicle), 3 Sherman tank charts, 3 x 57mm anti tank gun charts (get the picture) and each chart is substantial, having at least 5 lines of information/figures on them to co-ordinate facing, range and the degree of kill. It's a shame that the combat side of the game is so unfriendly because the sequence of play is actually very good, giving lots of very interactive play, being divided into 3 main phases as follows. 1. Command phase .... a sort of joint admin phase in which all yellow markers (pin, disrupt and casualty) can be removed or reduced i.e. a disrupt reduces to a pin. 2. Fire + Movement phase .... a joint phase using alternate impulses, the first player selects a unit to move and/or fire (or a group of units if platoon move/fire is used), the impulse then goes to the other player who does the same and then the first player goes again etc. etc., this continues until both players pass consecutively. Units are marked after movement and fire, multiple fire is allowed when appropriate and of course one or both players may be desperate to end the phase early in an effort to try and recover some units in the next command phase before they degrade into actual losses. 3. Melee Phase ..... also a joint phase and very reminiscent of the melee phase in Squad leader. The first time that I played this game, I was forced to stop early on turn 1. I had read the rules and felt quite comfortable with them, assuming that since much sounded like Squad Leader, that it would roughly play the same - surprisingly, it doesn't. My grasp on the rules was actually much less than required. I reread the rules, especially concentrating on the full page that gives examples of play. Then on one of the maps, I set up a small firefight with a couple of squads and a machine gun on each side and re ran that about half a dozen times. Even with this preparation, my opening moves of scenario 1 creaked along. Though happy that I understood the game mechanics, I found the constant referral to charts and the resulting mathematics frustrating. I imagine the game is intended to appeal to those who want a tactical game but shy from the size of ASL. In it's present form, it is probably comparable in terms of complexity with the Gamers Tactical Combat series, although I expect a second edition rulebook will make this the less complex of the two games. The quality of the components are fine. All the counters are the small 1/2" type and are presented on one sheet, squads have their 1/2 squads printed on their reverse and the counters are clean as all unit information is presented on a separate quick reference card (small print) rather than the counter face. The lack of information on the counters might even encourage some to develop their own rules and charts to make their own unique game. There are 3 maps (16" x 25" each) in total, each using over size hexes (nice, apparently to encourage miniatures to be used but mainly helpful when dealing with stacks), basically, if you've seen a SL board you will know what to expect. The 3 play-aid cards (plus the free replacement for one of them) are again nicely set out though the print is smaller than I would have wished for. 15 historical scenarios complete the package, they come in their own booklet (called a firefight booklet - which is a typical example of a number of occasions in which new labels are used rather than recognised dialogue, i.e. firefight instead of scenario). The scenarios are set out in standard SL format, although a nice touch is that the familiar drawing on each scenario has been replaced by a real photo, showing a terrain feature and the hex number that the picture relates to. Two ten sided dice are also provided. The artwork on the box is very good, the artist's painting shows a group of Para's huddled around a Sherman tank and I can well understand the frustration of those who have complained that their boxes have been damaged in the post through inadequate packaging. Whilst the cover artwork is strong, the rear of the box is a let down as it does not give the buyer sufficient information about the contents, system, gaming time, solitaire value etc that is so helpful when buying games. All in all, 15 scenarios and 3 maps does provide plenty of replay value to those who are happy with the system. I should state that I have a preference towards low complexity and playable games (which is why I bought Combat in the first place) and in that context, I find the excessive use of charts and mathematics in Combat somewhat tedious and it is this combined with the ambiguities in the rulebook that most strongly influence my opinion of the game. As a final thought, many of the trappings of this game are rooted in the original Squad Leader game by John Hill. That game was an amazing step forward in game design and I think it would have been appropriate for Critical Hit to recognise in the game credits, the contribution that John Hill made to games of this ilk. Back to Perfidious Albion #100 Table of Contents Back to Perfidious Albion List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by Charles and Teresa Vasey. 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