Designed by Joe Miranda The two earlier OTT games in S&T, Marne and Mons, had some very strange maps or rule problems, not to mention situations that lacked a certain something, so they slipped beneath my radar. Verdun did, however, call for playing. Joe Miranda has made a reputation for writing "simple" rules, often in a style close to the old S&T, with a few very clever twists that give the game its simulation value. His Wars of the Imperial Age (if that's the name of the Risorgimento, 1866, Russo-Turkish and Franco-Prussian War series) are excellent for exposing the key issues of command that caused armies to bumble in the period. Over the Top! continues the same tradition with some very clean rules. So far the errata (often the bane of S&T) is restricted to set-up errors. The sequence opens with a Friction dice-roll that includes some concepts of random events. Extra replacements can be received (or what you have can be lost), Morale points received or lost, Command fail or succeed, in short anything that prevents you for predicting too certainly. It immediately confronts you with the problem, for some gamers, with Joe Miranda. That is, that he believes in inflicting the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune on his gamers. Command is now checked. Joe's belief is that to understand the World War One general is to forgive him. He wants you to experience the dislocating effects of command failure caused by the operations. Our of command units are not useless (they do suffer a column shift though) but they do not, for example, exploit in the Breakthrough Phase. The line may be broken but you just sit there in impotent rage as 15 Brigade is busy digging in on the first phase line. What sinks you is that HQs (which are very helpfully colour-coded to their troops) are both slow (2 MPs to 6 or 5 for infantry at Verdun) and short-ranged (2 hexes). A successful advance and exploitation is probably going to leave much of your front-line out of command. Of course you can push your HQs up into the front line of the attack, but if enemy artillery suppresses them you will suffer much greater loss of command. An optional reconnaissance phase follows where aircraft and dummy counters entertain. Movement now occurs. Verdun's hills act to slow down advances but the trenches seem no more difficult than the "open" terrain behind. ZOCs are more important here. The lower scale means that road movement up the Sacred Way is pretty speedy. Note that friendly artillery can move in this phase, and still shoot in the coming Barrage Phase. More than somewhat odd! Reinforcements and replacements are received. The latter can go straight in at the front. At Verdun the rhythm of the battle is handled by having French replacements increase (and Germans decrease) over the battle so that there will be a distinct falling away of performance for the Germans, eventually permitting French operational counter-attacks. There then follow two barrage turns (Phasing then non-Phasing Player). Although artillery can inflict losses, especially if it is massed, it also suppresses units. A suppressed unit suffers two column shifts (removing, for example, its trench advantage) in combat. It cannot advance after combat or use Breakthrough Movement and moves at half speed. Imagine the effect of a defender's pre-attack barrage suppressing your assault troops! It must be said that the French can do just that in the game, there seems little in the way of surprise. Finally we get to fight! The assault phase pits numbers against terrain and defenders. Trenches on a hill can yield a three columns shift (from 5:1 to 2:1 for example). You can clearly see how vital it is to suppress the defenders with artillery fire and inflict the 2 column shifts on them. Each counter is back-printed (unless very small) and losses and retreats are suffered, though perhaps not as horribly as one might expect from the designer of the "bloodbath" result from Reinforce the Right. Breakthrough Movement The real results of combat come in the next phase - Breakthrough Movement - in which the fighting troops (infantry, machine-guns and cavalry get a half-move) but they leave the artillery and HQs behind (all that re-registering you know). Some units (Shock formations) may exploit even if Out-of-Command, which is what individual initiative will do for you every time. If you can push beyond exploiting your initial victories you have the beginnings of mobile warfare. But it is more easily said than it is done. Finally in our sequence we remove suppression counters from friendly counters. As noted above HQ range (these are divisions in Verdun) is very limited (two hexes) and for large divisions one will inevitably face some excess over Command Span. If attacking HQs are busy cursing as they crawl forward through the mud scattering telephone lines behind them the defenders have different concerns. They constantly have to judge the safe location in case of a breakthrough, both in terms of combat and in terms of avoiding being cut-off themselves. Much of the rest of the rules are standard S&T stuff. Combat uses two CRTs the Barrage chart and the Assault Chart. Artillery definitely should be kept well back, but its range of 3 or 4 hexes (for most divisional guns) still puts it at risk. The Barrage chart will not inflict losses on the firing guns but enough shells can crater the ground (not that I ever experienced the opportunity!). This acts as an enemy trench for combat and stops all movement (one can see this being adapted for Passchendaele). The Assault rules are unexciting, if not as bloody as I feared (as German). Shock troops (in the case of Verdun probably flame-thrower-armed engineers) add to the die roll (rather than alter the column). This makes them particularly valuable against forts that not only clobber the attackers with a -2 column shift but they also only fall on if a DE or DZ is rolled. At 3:1 there is a 1 in 3 chance, doubled with those handy-dandy engineers. A very clever rule for Army Morale is optional. Normally Army Morale rules come into play when you have done something terrible. Here, however, they represent good morale allowing you to put in just that extra move or combat. The Germans opens at Verdun with 10 Morale Points. These can be used to increase speed (how useful for HQs) or to increase attacks by a column shift. I spent 70% of my allowance on my opening attack and it paid a healthy dividend. The French start with only 3 but get more as the battle continues, allowing their defence to firm up (They Shall Not Pass) or even to counterattack. We used the optional artillery rules which require a spotter (so no shelling HQs or artillery units far behind the front without terrain) but woe to him who faces spotters on a hill with lots of range (six miles) you can smash up reserves nicely. Poison Gas rules we found were also very effective. Without terrain disadvantages they were the weapon of choice (though limited in number) on key artillery shoots. There are also aircraft and Fog of War optional rules. Each scenario has its own rules. Verdun (for example) has special rules to reflect the scale and to allow the campaign to be extended to 16 March. We found the system worked well as a basic World War One game if somewhat slowly. However, I have serious concerns on the precise simulation of Verdun. I found the Germans repeatedly achieving faster advances and suffering lower casualties than they did historically. I also managed to unglue the entire French line (from one side of the map to the other). To put this in context the original German attack was on about six-ten hexes on the right bank of the Meuse, I was attacking on both sides of the river. Once into action though the Germans experienced the fall of in performance that was the curse of World War One. Suppressed units were useless in attack and the French gunners proved adept at suppressing them. The HQs slowed down and fortresses proved resistant (as no fives or sixes were scored). The map itself has some odd features (although they may not of themselves cause the unhinging of results I note above). Brabant was part of the French trench system, and Samogneux (which is where the map has the trench line) was in the rear and held for some days. Forges has also mysteriously crossed the trench lines (and become a city hex!). The maximum advance of the Germans historically was pretty deep on the Douamont/Vaux front but no more than one or two hexes on the rest. I simply cannot believe the Germans will be stopped in the open countryside that the game portrays behind the main trenches. There is no second position. Perhaps a real difficulty is the one day a turn scale. The long struggle for Mort Homme and Côte 304 really cannot (I think) be simulated. These positions are a few hexes apart and within one hex of the front line. Without trenches they are unlikely to hold up the Germans as they did. Nor can they provide the "machinegun stopping a division" feel of the real thing. In general the combat results are very Raicer-ish, that is, favour attacking. This arises simply from the CRT rewarding the application of greater numbers. The more troops you throw in the greater the chance of winkling the defender BUT the lower the chance that you lose more attackers. The first seems sensible the second is not. Attacking losses must be linked to fire-levels and size of target, defending losses to numbers hitting them. Carefully chosen attacks with maximum stacking and a good artillery shoot can overcome even the trench effects. Certainly that's the way to hit the trenches but the risk here in one step loss (and maybe none)! The flip side is that the local counter-attack is simply not possible (because its advantage - local superiority - is subsumed by general numbers), so no waxing your moustaches with pinard for you mon brave! Interesting but ultimately an iteration from real Verdun. Back to Perfidious Albion #101 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