I recently had the good fortune to be invited on a brief battlefield tour to the Western Front. This prompted me to get stuck into some preparatory reading, and supplement this with having a crack at whatever appropriate board wargames were available. I got hold of a copy of the Ypres: 1915 game from the Microgame Co-Op, playing this was most useful in my subsequent appreciation of the location on the ground.
I think that a combination of reading decent books, walking the actual ground, and wargaming the event is very advantageous in getting a good understanding of any battle. May I strongly recommend Ypres as a place for any British military history enthusiast to visit? Once you've got across the Channel, it's not a great distance to travel. There were 3 major battles around Ypres (so you get "3 for the price of 1"), and there are some marvellous small museums at sites such as Hill 60 and Sanctuary Wood. It is also possible to stay, in nearby Poperinge, in Talbot House (the place where the Toc H movement began), which is a great help in getting a feel for the period.
Ypres: 1915 in particular
World War One battles, on the Western Front, are not easy to wargame. Ypres: 1915 has done very well to capture the essential elements of a major WWI battle. Alan Sharif has already reviewed the game favourably, and in detail, in PA 98. I shall simply agree with his good opinion of the game, and supplement Alan's comments with my own observations.
Ypres: 1915 recognises the key role of infantry as being the fighting arm which holds ground. Artillery is extremely important, but a bombardment which is not combined with infantry action is ineffectual. The best possible opening for the Germans is to have favourable weather and wind direction for their opening turn, and release a sizeable proportion of the gas available. This will have devastating results, displacing the Allies from their trench lines, and making a dent in divisional morale.
The rules allow the Germans to re-roll weather a second, or third time, (but cannot revert to an earlier roll). From my reading of the history, there is a strong argument for allowing the Germans to delay the attack almost indefinitely! Second Ypres was the first major German use of gas. The Germans had prepared for this new form of attack well in advance, with gas canisters being dug into front line positions over a prolonged period.
The prevailing winds generally favoured the direction of the German attack, but once the gas canisters were ready, the weather then delayed the attack as the wind changed direction, and continued to blow towards the German lines for a prolonged period: much to the embarrassment of the German meteorologists. April 22nd was a much later start date than originally intended. To reflect the above, players could agree to allow the German player even greater leeway in repeated weather rolls.
Furthermore, the German player could be required to deploy all 20 gas markers on the map before the game starts (the Germans had no flexibility to relocate dug-in canisters after 'kick off), multiple markers may be permitted in a hex, but only one marker in a hex can be used in a single turn.
The morale rules work extremely well to show the deterioration of divisional coherence. With morale levels at 8 or 9 or higher, then morale checks (2D6, roll higher to fail) will generally be favourable. Once morale levels drop below this, things start to fall apart. There's a very important rule, which could easily be missed. If the morale dice roll is greater than twice the morale level, then the unit is eliminated, and the morale level goes down by 2. Therefore, with a morale level of 5, and an unlucky roll, a division will lose a unit, drop to morale level 3, and the rest of the division is suddenly rather fragile. I think this reflects history rather well. divisions can keep up a good fight for a period, but only for so long, and then a collapse can come quickly.
The initial phase of the game is not a lot of fun for the Allied player! As the gas cloud advances, he watches his units falling back with divisional morale dropping. Initial counter-attacks will be very limited, and he will have quite a while to wait before his reinforcements appear in strength. I've only played the game once, with a friend. It took us about 4 hours to get through 2 game turns (and we are both experienced gamers). The Germans had put in a strong advance in the Northern (French) sector, as they did historically. I suspect that the town of Ypres would have fallen before too long (historically the Allies always held the pile of rubble formerly known as Ypres). Still, this is an excellent game for giving an insight into the Great War, and I recommend it.
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© Copyright 2000 by Charles and Teresa Vasey.
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