Vae Victis 12 is, as ever, lovely to look at and has for its subject a game on the original Wellington's Victory - the Battle of Vitoria in which three "Armies" of France were caught in a trap by converging columns of British, Portuguese and Spanish troops. The result was a massive collapse of morale and the removal of the forces from Spain, although I believe Suchet continued to rule in Valencia. It was not, however, a mean fowt fight losses being about 15,000 in total out of combined armies of say 140,000. Which translates (to me) as the French being nudged off the field rather than flattened.
Denis "Sledgehamer" Gabriel has the advantage of the artistic support of the VV boys (and their counters are simply scrumptious, I can see the Siggoid going into melt-down) but the basic game underneath that feels like Napoleon At Waterloo with a few bits and bobs. A brief hack through will bring out what I mean. Counters represent brigades with their strength recorded off counter on rosters, some of you might need to keep a scratch pad to help here. Some units also have a qualitative advantage getting an Attacker or Defender modifier (occasionally both). The British tend to be good on defence and the French on attack, which is as it should be and the reverse of the strategic situation.
Differential
The differential in strength is very suspect. Commandant Lachouque claims 80,000 Allies facing 40,000 French (but the Good Commandant leads with his heart rather than his forearm), I have seen 60,000 French as another figure but there was a considerable numeric advantage for the Allies and I believe a qualitative advantage too since the French were in full retreat. More of this later because I believe what we have here is not the real situation (though it may be more playable).
Command is limited to the traditional functions supporting troops with a modifier and rallying them by tackling them in full rout. Combat is (I think but remember this is all my translation) mandatory so we are into the happy land of soak-offs and massing numbers (stacking is only two units high). Results are in terms of steps lost (on the roster), routs and retreats. Attackers need 3:1 to get the advantage on assault (2 negative results, one neutral and three positive) and given the difficulties of massing and stacking on a good line we are in for a lot of losses and fighting. As Ed Wimble has often pointed out, massing numbers is really only possible when you have the flank of a unit, where units engage in line it is natural 1:1 country.
The mixture of French excessive strength and the pro-defender CRT makes for Allied losses. To add to the fun counters are kept upside down until in combat so that even if you could spot your opponent's roster you will find it hard to know what you are fighting against.
Exchange Results
One difference from Napoleon At Waterloo is that there are no exchange results - only one side suffers losses, something I do think is correct. I believe the CRT could do with considerable improvement especially with hour-long turns if you wanted more Napoleonic feel, but you will at least have a traditional game to play.
The map is clear, clean and attractive lacking the colour-intensive hexes of the typical American boardgame - look at Three Sunglasses of Gettysburg for example. The counters have nice clear illos on the reverse in generic types (infantry, artillery, convoys, heavy and light cavalry). The fronts are excellent. Only three numbers (original combat value, move and the modifier) and a colour band for "corps" affiliation. The writing is a bit wee though. It is the sprites that seize the imagination. Gaming is very much a matter of Le Gloire especially for those who arrived out of the toy soldiers hobby (and to this day, for no very good reason, I still buy plastic figures).
Sprites
Vitoria 1813 takes infinite pains with its sprites. The French come in a variety of poses (including plenty in non-parade uniforms) with mostly line and a grenadier, plus Spanish units. The cavalry include some splendid cabos d'oro (dragoons)and some exciting hussars and chevaulegers. The Spanish troops on the Allied side are in the new sky-blue uniform with a rather splendid lancer unit. The Portuguese appear to be line with no cacadores.
The British include Highlanders, KGL light, Rifle Corps, line, Guards, Household cavalry, dragoons and Bock's German Heavies plus a myriad of Light Dragoons. The only naughty I spotted was the Allied artillery pieces should be grey not green - tsk tsk (writes Mr T.Spotter of East Sheen). I wondered if one needed the "hidden" side but it has a valuable effect in reducing the clutter of the different unit types, which are then revealed at combat.
Let's talk about numbers. I will use John Naylor's figures from Wellington's Peninsula Victories as my source. He gives the Allies 75,000 men (of which 8,000 cavalry and 75 guns) against 57,000 French (of which 9,000 cavalry and 104 guns).
| Force | Infantry | Cavalry | Artillery |
|---|---|---|---|
| French | |||
| Gazan | 50 | 10 | 15 |
| D'Erlon | 27 | 5 | 3 |
| Reille | 23 | 7 | 7 (plus 2 grand parc) |
| French Total | 100 | 23 | 25 (plus 2) |
| British | |||
| Hill | 41 | 5 | 6 |
| Wellington | 27 | 8 | 5 |
| Dalhousie | 20 | 0 | 3 |
| Graham | 42 | 5 | 4 |
| British Total | 130 | 18 | 18 |
Assuming the Allies to be correct (so as give us a relative position) each artillery point is about 4 guns, so the French should have a maximum of 25. Given a lot of pieces are in the park this probably represents about a 10% overvaluation of French artillery points. Allied cavalry gives about 450 men per point, so French cavalry points should be 20, once again 10% toppy. Total numbers for the Allies indicate about 450 men per combat point, which would indicate that 57,000 men should come out to 127, about twenty points over target.
That is a very serious imbalance, amounting to about a sixth over target. Frankly if you want to get the balance (and the combat system does not favour the Allies in any case) you need to shave 5 Artillery points (NOT parc), 3 cavalry and 12 infantry. I suggest you slice these off the largest units at one a unit. With that change you will readily grasp why Wellington thought he had trapped the French. I cannot see any reason to favour the French qualitatively at this stage of the war. Helpfully the roster system permits exactly this sort of work.
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© Copyright 1997 by Charles and Teresa Vasey.
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