Moments in History is now part of the Critical Hit group, publishers of ASL modules. The leading light of this business being an effusive individual by the name of Ray Tapio. Mr Tapio is as they say "not afraid to try something new" (short-hand for makes mistakes). So let's grasp the nettle on this one up front. The box in which Royal Tank Corps (Cambrai 1917) comes is really crappy, constructed of the sort of card which a short spell of rain could render pap and an internal stiffener that just begs to be lost. You should not (you will remember) judge a book by its cover, but I do think you can judge the marketing decision. As Miss Britney would say "Ooops".
My version of the game had another unpleasant feature in its box - a Richard Berg game for free (I got A Famous Victory). Unpleasant for me (I jest), but pretty good if you liked his stuff. The impression one gets is that the weeny Royal Tank Corps box is the freebie.
But enough, putting aside the box, let us to the contents. Both the map and counters have suffered cruelly at the hands of critics. The map is just the right side of professional (defined as better than I can do) but not by much. It endeavours to show a view of the trenches and woods. Unfortunately the map (my version anyway) is executed in greenish-brown on brownish-green with khaki area edges. Although I did not find these too hard to spot I am in the minority, and most folks find the need to mark the borders of the areas in red. Borders in an area game are a difficult decision. I use very garish red lines on my maps because I believe game maps are intended to be played upon, not admired as graphical representations of the terrain. Royal Tank Corps works the other way, I think it hopes you will enjoy it as a quasi-map, but this does significantly interfere with play. Even I found some areas where size and other features "broke up" the big picture.
Oh dear, not doing too well are we. What about the counters criticised for their use of a helmet icon? Well here I am pleased to report I materially depart from the critics. These are nice big thick counters with clear icons, factors and set-up areas (or turn of arrival). The different icons clearly allow us to spot a stosstruppen from the common-or-garden Hun, and the tank units stand out nicely.
The rules are short, pretty much without examples and show evidence of being crammed up. In addition, for a game in the Storm over Arnhem family where there is numerous combat types (each with different modifiers) a set of player-aid cards would have been very useful. So we may summarise that so far Royal Tank Corps is (we hope) an educational experience for Critical Hit because it has slipped up on a number of key areas.
The game is an area-movement game influenced by Peter Perla's They Met At Gettysburg from the Duke of Taranto (Ted Raicer). Although Ted tweaks the system a bit, he still stays within its confines so that you get the benefit of a rules base you know, but with appropriate amendments for subject. Those of you who read Gary Haggerty's review of Deathride: Mars-la-Tour will know my major gripe with this system is the Fresh/Spend mechanism. In this system one selects an area and activates it. The activations can be anything from a move to an assault. Once activated the units are flipped over to their "spent" side with much lower factors. This works well in an assault (leaving you open to the counter-attack against reduced factors) but it makes less sense at Gettysburg where a stroll down a road can leave you quite as tired as charging up a hill through the fire storm. Fortunately, though this can still grate, the terrain over which both sides contested was usually chopped up so that the effect of crossing even your own trench system as reserves would not be conducive to total order in the ranks.
The terrain runs from +4 for Cambrai, +3 for a good trench system or useful wood through to +1 for The Green Fields Beyond. It is marked with supply sources and key victory points. A key feature is blocking terrain. The Germans having chosen their terrain have a useful chain of hills that can deny spotting to British artillery. I am not sure this works completely historically but it certainly gives one a feel for fighting perpetually beneath the other chap's observers. (Didn't we have aircraft to help here?). The range of the map goes far beyond the immediate area of the attack which probably constitutes one third of the trench front. This is a common feature of World War One games (Joe Miranda did it in his recent Verdun) but not always helpful since it encourages "adventures".
Counters represent brigades for the Brits and regiments for the Germans. The tanks travel around in battalions. There are clear details on the counters to allow you to see which units are in the same division. This is important for modifiers and support barrages.
The players set up historically with lots of reinforcements especially for the Germans. There is nothing clever here, both sides get what they did historically and must work with it. However, if the British pull off a dramatic victory they will get a release of units. Victory is achieved immediately upon the British securing Cambrai or one other area (which happens to have a key railway in it). Otherwise you play for fifteen turns and compare victory points for VP areas held. Each turn is one day, but 15 turns is not a short game.
The Turn sequence opens with Initiative Determination (offering as it does the opportunity for two turns in a row). For the first three turns the British have the initiative but thereafter it depends on die-rolls. These are modified for the British by each tank unit still on the field and by taking key areas, while the Germans modify for each stosstruppen unit. As tanks tend to vanish at or before the time the Stosstruppen appear this should provide a neat model of the offensive/counter-offensive cycle. The British can, however, stay the Evil Hour by taking key terrain areas that also contributes to the modifiers. Counting these items each turn can be a pain, so you may prefer to run a notepad of comings and goings.
After initiative both sides receive reinforcements. These arrive by key railway lines and retention of Cambrai is useful for the Germans here (as it is for other reasons). The Germans receive a great deal of reinforcements, especially the elite Stosstruppen units.
Clear for Action
Finally we clear for action and enter the Artillery Bombardment Phase. Both players set off activating units (or stacks of units) alternately. Bombardment is split into two target varieties - counter-battery and The Rest. You have to select which before you fire. However, the same Area may be bombarded twice in a turn to hit the units not targeted the first time. Each battery has a range (though the irregular areas can occasionally make this worked strangely). Range and blocking terrain can reduce the value of artillery considerably. The bombardment resolution is of the usual form (lead unit plus modifiers plus 2 or 3 dice) versus (doubled terrain plus 2 dice). The key therefore is to get the lead battery to be one of the major units (values of 8 perhaps) as supporting units add one irrespective of their fire strength. This system means that the actual weight of fire can bear little relationship to the value of the individual fire units. Ted has a very clever rule here for hurricane bombardment to which I refer below. The Terrain values are reduced where the area contains over four units. So massing two divisions in your trenches may not be a good idea, and certainly catching two divisions in the open should bring a smile to many a Royal Artillery face (writes Stonker Vasey).
The two scores are now compared. If the defender outscores the attack then no damage is suffered and the batteries are flipped over. If the gunners have the result then the differential is used to inflict casualty points. These spend or eliminate units (no retreating from shells) but it takes a lot of CPs (six) to eliminate a fresh infantry unit. However, even in a trench area (Doubled TEM of 6) a big bombardment might hope to net this at least. Since spent units are reduced in value and cannot activate it at least keeps their heads down.
Because the battle was fought after both sides had used up most of their shells at 3rd Ypres Ted has an Ammo shortage rule. If the attacker's die roll exceeds 8 then "Out of Ammo" markers are placed. These are removed in the turn on a die-roll, but the chances of removal decrease for the British as the battle continues and shell stocks are shot off, it increases for the Germans as shell stocks arrive and then declines to the same chance (one in six). It is very likely therefore that the major artillery phases of the battle will be very concentrated. But here comes Hurricane Bombardment. Ted allows this bombardment to use three dice for the attacker so it should chop up a few more units BUT at the cost of making the dice score over 8 most of the time. So heavy firing is followed by running out of shells. This is a very elegant solution.
Before the dust can settle the initiative player (and only he) goes into the Rolling Barrage/Interdiction Phase. This is the clever stuff of artillery work using far less ammo. A Rolling Barrage marker can be placed in an area adjacent to a friendly unit or adjacent to another Rolling Barrage. The effect of this is to reduce the movement cost by 2 movement points to a minimum of one. This means that your assault troops can move through areas usually made expensive by adjacent enemy units or terrain type. It simulates the creeping barrage pattern "walking in front" of your assault troops. Using this properly is vital to victory so remember to calculate the position and retain spare batteries (those useless horse batteries for example). Interdiction increases movement for the enemy.
Thus one can pulverise the line with hurricane batteries, block counter-attack forces with interdiction, and hammer a path through the enemy position with a rolling barrage. Splendid, this is indeed the storm of steel.
But before your ringing head can clear the assault forces are out of their trenches and moving forward. The Assault Phase in this kind of game usually consists of alternating activations. However, Ted wishes to simulate the big attack so the initiative player starts activating one area at a time and keeps activating until he runs out of units, chooses to halt OR loses an assault. The next player then follows the same procedure. This can mean when you are the defender watching a massive assault complete before your eyes unable to intervene - you (as gamer) may know what is happening, but your HQ is trying to understand what is happening from the fractured reports. Where's that bloody runner?
Units activate to either Move or Move And Assault. Apart from crossing watercourses (tanks need a bridge) the cost of movement is a function of enemy interdiction (machine-guns for you Monte Cassino fans). It costs but 1 MP to enter an area that is not interdicted, free of enemy units and not adjacent to them either, but entering an area with fresh enemy units (to go to the other extreme) costs 4 MP. Movement into an area adjacent to fresh enemy units costs 2 MPs. Since Infantry movement is five or six ones chances of getting into a non-adjacent area to assault on increased considerably by having Rolling Barrages deducting two (or reducing to one) the cost. Your average brigade, that is not adjacent, could not make the cost of 6 MPs to move adjacent but add a couple of rolling barrages and 6 turns out to be 3 (as Jimmy Hendrix didn't say).
In passing I should note that the artillery seems to redeploy forward very quickly considering the conditions, but perhaps they did this at Cambrai?
Assaults have a different offensive defensive combat routine. The Attacker takes the strength of the lead unit (which cannot be artillery), plus one for each support unit, plus one if you have a whole division's infantry, plus two dice. Cavalry can only support a cavalry assault (which will be weak) and 51st division will not support tanks. A typical British assault is one tank battalion plus three brigades of infantry from the same division, which is worth ten (from memory). The defender adds the factor of one defending unit, the bombardment factor of an artillery unit in the target area (providing the lead unit is infantry), plus one for supporting fresh units, plus one for a SOS barrage (same div artillery), the printed terrain value plus two dice. So a typical solitary Boche regiment in a trench area facing our British assault might have a value of seven before the dice scores. The attackers are automatically spent (equivalent to 8 casualty points). If the attacker is outscored the lead unit perishes. If the assault involved entering the area the losing attackers are returned to their original area, except for Stosstruppen who are dead (gulp!). Where the defender is outscored then the differential is inflicted as casualty points. These kill much more easily that do artillery - four casualty points will finish off a fresh unit. Units can retreat, be spent or be eliminated.
Overruns may occur for tanks and Stosstruppen, but the use of Rolling Barrages is vital to give units the movement value to press on through the target using a pattern of adjacent barrages, moving into the enemy position.
Tank units breakdown on a dice score (unmodified) of 7 or more. So a failed tank assault with a high score will kill the lead tank and cause another to breakdown. Due to my rotten die rolling I rarely lost many tanks. There is a limited capacity to rebuild broken-down tanks.
After the activations have swept back and forward the Phase is over. As ever with such a system spent assaulting units are a welcome target for counter-attacks with their much lower values. At the cusp of the battle it can take several attacks by both sides to really determine who will hold key terrain. The advantage of moving last is considerable.
Finally the Administrative Phase. One checks for Immediate Victory which is easiest described as breakthrough to Cambrai. All ammunition checks are made to see how many units are re-supplied. All spent units are now returned to Fresh status. Finally we come a very interesting attempt to cover fatigue. Although rushing through shellfire and machine-bullets in full pack and through mud and chaos is a tiring occupation, we often like to assume in our games that a unit is either dead or fully ready for action. On turn 4 Ted institutes his fatigue check. You throw 1d6, divide by 2 and round down (so a score of one to three will result). This number of areas may be fatigued by the other player if the units entered play within the given turn range. This means that units must have been on the map for at least three turns (three days) before there is a risk of fatigue.
Fatigue only affects infantry and cavalry, and a fatigued area is immediately spent. This is a simple, but effective way of recording battle fatigue. When on the defence the enemy player can be expected to pick the key attacking areas, which, in turn, might be expected to be the ones doing the most (and getting the most tired). However, when on the attack the units selected for fatigue are those in the target areas, and there is no reason whatsoever that these units should be fatigued. Fatigue can become a method to put your opponents to sleep an effect more awesome than an artillery bombardment. Although the number of areas cannot be guaranteed (beyond one a turn) you can without any fear know that when your infantry jump out of the trenches the opposition will be in a catatonic state. This bears no resemblance, I would submit, to any effect known to military history. Not since Obi Wan Kanobi reminded the storm troopers that "These are not the droids you are seeking" has an opponent be rendered so incapable of action. There are other ways of handling fatigue. This one has only one advantage, its simplicity. I would not recommend the use of this rule.
Putting aside the Fatigue rule the system works remarkably well at simulating the battle. Artillery receives its proper importance. Assaults can leave one open to counter-attack - though the losses taken across open ground are minor unless you "lose" the assault, even here it may be no more than 25% (one unit). I wonder too at the areas in some places. The game's major problem is, however, its inordinate length. I reckon it will take a couple of sessions to play. Since no scenario was provided you can only experience the German Counter-attack if you first play the British Attack. The lack of finishing, as the awful presentation of the game, detracts from, but cannot disguise the underlying value of the game. They can, and do, materially reduce one's enjoyment of the game.
[Good News, Bad News: Ted Raicer informs me that he has done a German Counter-Offensive scenario, but does not know when Moments in History will publish it].
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© Copyright 2001 by Charles and Teresa Vasey.
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