Following the twin disasters of Sedan and Metz, the French Second Empire collapsed and the German army moved to surround Paris, and found it had a serious problem. At the end of tenuous supply lines and surrounded by a sea of French armies the Germans might starve before Paris. Those Imperial formations which had survived were joined by new Republican units raised by Leon Gambetta and Charles Freycinet. These regional armies began to operate in such a way as to surround the major Parisian siege operation, and if the Army of the Rhine in Metz had not surrendered when they did the Germans might have had their bluff called and been obliged to lift the siege. However, France was itself faced with major difficulties. Its armies were no where near the quality of their German opponents (but they did possess numbers), its body politic has sustained terrible damage and its generals remained as unlucky, fractious and negative as they had been under the Empire.
La Campagne de La Loire covers the operations of the Armies of the Loire in the region Tours, Le Mans, Orleans, Chartres pushing towards Paris. The game scale is brigade or divisional with each formation having multiple steps rather than using rosters. Turns are weekly. The area covered being split by the Loire (a considerable river at this stage) and fed by a number of parallel railroads. The French open the game facing a couple of divisions and the First Bavarian Corps, soon to be reinforced by three Corps from Metz. However, by the time they finish receiving troops and replacements the French will vastly outnumber their German opponents, and the French can hope to pull the German forward until his supply-lines are weakened. Alternatively by a policy of constant attacking the French can reduce the Germans and harry them so that they cannot rebuild their armies. This campaign was one of hard vicious action fought in the winter.
Not only does La Campagne de La Loire contain the usual pretty regular units that decorate all Vae Victis games but there are the irregular formations of the "petite guerre". These are Garibaldini and chasseurs for the French raised as the National Morale goes up and down, and the Uhlan patrols of the German cavalry units. These forces fight desperate little wars in the gaps between armies and in covering the vital railroads that feed the major formations. I saved Chartres from de Sonis by a cavalry raid that cut his supplies at Nogent-le-Routrou, in a way which my then infantry forces never could have done.
Movement is slow (and bedevilled by a movement system that uses half-points) so you constantly regret a mispositioning by one hex. Out of the zone of armies you can strategic-move but the intrusive irregulars can expand this zone, although always within range of their own supply lines so the Long Range Desert Patrols are not in evidence. As German player I sensed the fear of being in a sea of Frenchmen, and constantly having to keep all their armies pressed back. One French Corps can use the railway to strategically position and once again the more of the network the French retain the better. Major damage to a single German Corps can result in a gap in the defensive structure.
Headquarter formations provide the necessary artillery without which battles cannot be won, and together with multi-step formations both sides has tough formations. The later French forces noticeably reduce in Morale values (used for a number of purposes) and steps per unit. In addition these units can assist in a vital defensive function of Marching to The Sound of The Guns in which non-phasing formations can move up to three hexes to join in combat. The HQ (or unit) must make its Competence/Morale rating less the movement cost to reach the target hex.
These late arrivals can tip the scales. However, that shameful old Republican the Chevalier de St Simon soon discovered by putting his poxy cavalry brigades next to my reserves he could freeze them! The combat is odds driven with modifiers (including the ever popular deducting a negative number) which may give a retreat number and a loss level. The latter is translated into steps lost depending on the number of units present. So a French attack composed of lots of weakened formations is going to suffer more step losses than the tight Teutons - clever work that.
Battles and cities captured all influence French National Morale. This in turn lifts (or reduces) the number of franc-tireurs reporting for duty and replacement points. Properly handled the French can cause serious attrition to the Germans (who need to withdraw entire corps to recover them). In a very neat move Imbach permits the operations by the Armies of the North and East, as well as the Paris force to influence Morale. (One simply dices against a given number to win the relevant battles all fought at the actual time). A nice piece of chrome for those of us interested in Faidherbe and his ilk.
Our playing did not extend to a full game yet as we both believed that the system needed to be measured before one risked a deep attack. There are certainly fiddly bits which some of you may reject. We felt the "petite guerre" was worth the hassle, but the hidden movement counters seemed to be more effective at confusing the owners whereas the other side disregarded them. Not Chaos, as Gareth remarked, but confusion. Designwise the "?" counters that cover the units are an appalling slip-up. The icons on the counters are quite simply the finest in the hobby (you even get Breton Marines and Zouaves/Turcos), so why cover them with silly pastel coloured "?" counters. Instead we should have had flags of the two sides to give colour to the proceedings. Fortunately we abandoned hidden movement in favour of seeing what we were doing.
As between La Campagne de Gettysburg, 1863 (see elsewhere) and La Campagne de La Loire I prefer the point-to-point movement and combat system of the former, but La Campagne de La Loire remains an exciting and testing game. My suspicion is (as ever with Vae Victis) that they have over-cooked the French chances, but maybe not. Certainly the spirit of the thing is right. The French feeling themselves with a mountain to climb and a powerful enemy to subdue, the Germans feeling fragile and surrounded. I fear many German players will opt for the soft-option and not move much beyond the Chartres/Orleans axis going for the tactical victory. This is an exciting game on a topic that I had not thought practical. All this and brilliant little figures. Excellent!
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© Copyright 1997 by Charles and Teresa Vasey.
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