A game from Vae Victis using the system in La Matz on Verdun was a foregone conclusion I suppose and the whole thing looks very smart indeed (although I have yet to make the French stand long enough for a real game). The Verdun rules are nice and simple, without too much Bergian stuff. The limits of a magazine game mean that we are using regiments although losses are in battalions. This means that we must use "pertes" markers. A key feature of the game is using artillery to neutralise defenders, so that is another set of markers. But there, I am pleased to say, it ends. There are no rubber routers or the Seven Degrees of Disorganisation. There is a set of rules translations on web-grognards (spookily like my La Matz version including an extraneous use of tank groupements which are not in the Verdun rules - not that I'm suggesting the little shits nicked my work of course). The set-up is wrong in these translations but you can spot this in the French rules. Each game turn is a day long and hexes just over half a mile across. Units are infantry and artillery with a few aircraft acting as artillery. Infantry come in two flavours - the PBI variety and the stosstruppen. Whether these latter are the real thing does not matter as they effectively act as a model for the German initial attacks. As they suffer losses first after a while the attacks become less effective which could just as easily simulate combat friction as the loss of elites. The counters are very nice with the stosstruppen in coal-scuttles, and the Army of Africa in khaki. Most infantry units are three step regiments (use a loss marker for the first loss then flip the counter). However, the game provides French battalions to allow you to cover more terrain by breaking up regiments. Each French division or German corps has an HQ marker for command control (helpfully colour-coded to the underlying units). As it cannot use exploitation movement there will be a brake on German advances eventually though with a six-hex radius it will not have much effect in the historical zone. The sequence is two player turns (German then French) since the game only covers the first five days there is not much need for a switch mechanism. The sequence is as follows: Command Phase: checking your units are within range of HQ Bombardment Phase: inflicted losses and neutralisations on targets Movement Phase: all units (including bombarded artillery if the back of the counter is right). Combat Phase (including artillery support for each side). Exploitation Phase: infantry in command and stosstruppen may move 4 MPs Second Combat Phase: Exploiting units may attack (with, rather unbelievably for attackers, artillery support). Reorganisation Phase: you remove your own Neutralised markers Artillery interphase: both sides fired artillery are flipped back over Second Player Turn (as above): It says 1-6 above but I think it means 1-7. The translation says 1-8! Advance turn marker You will immediately notice the only area of asymmetry is the recovery of fired artillery. Our German chums hit the French trenches on the first turn and (heavens) the whole lot is recovered and ready to fire again in the French player turn. Of course any German artillery that does so fire is not available for the next German Player Turn but this means that the French player is not really going to be doing much counter-attacking as he will be met with maximum artillery fire. This can result (rather as in the Normandie ' 44 game) in a one-sided game in terms of player activity. ZOCs are semi-solid as you can move if you begin in a ZOC but must stop on entering another. Stosstruppen of course manage to be rather more slippery and the French have a difficult choice with whether they split into the maximum number of battalions. At one step each they can vanish quickly, but they do gum up the line. Combat is not mandatory in ZOCs so that we have a situation that is not very like World War One. Stacking is five steps a hex which makes the opening German set-up rather difficult since it prohibits two full-strength regiments in one hex. Combat uses the usual odds CRT with column shifts and dice adjustments. The results are losses and retreats. There is enough flexibility to have the occasional French bunker holding out, but in general defenders retreat and attackers slowly accumulate losses. The usual WW1 theme that attackers take more losses than defenders do not apply in Verdun 1916 in the early turns anyway. Attackers headed by stosstruppen attacking neutralised defenders are looking at a +4 to the dice. They should win though may take losses. Concentric attacks, attacking with multiple divisions, stosstruppen and neutralisation affect dice, but terrain (including trenches and block-house counters) affects the odds column. With added artillery support to both sides the French artillery is usually tasked with spoiling the odds on important battles. Artillery is the major German advantage and he has a lot of it. Both sides have divisional units (8 hexes range) and Corps batteries (range of 12 and heavier fire). The effect of the artillery does not really fall off in the course of the game and this may not be right, as movement and ranges should keep most combats in range. This is especially so as fired artillery units have movement factors. The combat targets are nice and clear with Verdun being at the bottom of the map and the line of fortresses before you. There are two scenarios allowing you to play the whole field or just the east bank of the Meuse. In my experience the Germans are through Bapst's 72nd Division too easily, though the other more concentrated French divisions are tougher. With no reinforcements for two days (so six German movement and combat phases) and then only four regiments, things look pretty horrid for our French chums. Of course bad artillery dice may slow this down but it seemed to me unlikely to work. Furthermore, units moving without going through ZOCs do so at double speed. The sight of German artillery whizzing across the devastated zone led to a house rule here! Verdun 1916 is a professional piece of design with lots of good ideas, but I do feel that it condemns the French player (possibly correctly) to a very uninteresting role. The chaos of bringing forward German artillery and HQ assets is simply not there, and I find it hard to believe that Bapst can hold. Although the main chassis is strong, I think it needs more development to become a balanced and entertaining game though one is tempted to use Royal Tank Corps to make it into an area game. Back to Perfidious Albion #104 Table of Contents Back to Perfidious Albion List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 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