Three campaigns of the British Empire (to form a Quad with the First Afghan War issued in Strategy & Tactics) should yield something of value, and, with a French trio (battles of the Legion - Algeria, Dahomey etc.) in the offing, the opportunity for more colonial gaming. Joe has produced some very simple games recently and these have left me feeling we were swerving too far towards the Britannia style of game. The Sun Never Sets manages to strike a happy medium away from the complexity and charts of (say) a Kevin Zucker game but without going to the blandness of Byzantium. The essence of the game is moving around maps in "columns". Some of these will be led by commanders (who have recruitment, combat, movement and supply advantages covering the staff as well as the Great Man - Wolseley's Ring), and given the disadvantages of being without a leader the number of columns is pretty much limited to the number of leaders. This being so (apart from supply columns) one is considering a game with maybe no more than five stacks a side. This gives a quick game (compared to the "continuous front" type) but exposes you to greater risk in your decisions. This is operational combat as I like it. To the style of operational warfare Joe has overlaid the sort of Chaos which, over a game, can lead perfectly good players to their own version of the Little Big Horn or Adowa. Supply without a supply train is dice-driven with a very large range of results which can leave your army demoralised and open to defeat (Manzikert with rifles) if it cuts loose from its supplies. Movement is dice-driven so at that vital moment (and only at that vital moment) a column decides to check its oxen for galls while you perish in a mass of Zulus. On to this heaving mass comes the usual Joe Miranda Random Events Chart that can overturn your plans. Now Chaos is a very realistic feature if you enjoy realistic games, but many (most?) gamers do not enjoy anything of the sort. Accordingly, it is vital that The Sun Never Sets moves along smartish if you are to accept the vicissitudes of fortune. Its one thing having your reinforcements vanish because Lord Lymeswold has decided to change policy in a three hour game, quite another in a nine hour. Fortunately the game keeps a good pace, BUT do not play The Sun Never Sets if you find defeat arising from external features to be too irritating. You should also not play the game if being defeated as the native annoys you (and especially if you cannot stomach a defeat by the lesser breeds without the law). The VPs are often not based on the effects of Random Chance, so The Sun Never Sets has elements of an adventure rather than a competitive game. Definitely something the colonial fan will enjoy. The counters are sturdy and workmanlike (but I fear some errata is needed with some of the Chinese) as are the maps. The latter will not win prizes with Theophile Monnier but they pass the time of day. The counters are divided into Veterans (British line or main Zulu Impis), Line (Indian Army horse, Madras Line), and Rabble (chinks, darkies, Australians and other sundry fellows). There are also Fanatics, who are Rabble with Attitude in Melees. Get a bunch of the latter on you led by a good commander and you will be spitting redcoats for a week. The counters are rated over a number of types (see combat below) which for Artillery includes Light (small muzzle-loaders), Field (large muzzle-loaders and early breechloaders), Mountain (screw guns), Advanced Breechloaders (French in Morocco) and Rocket batteries. Machine-guns come in two varieties the early Gatlings (which are always jamming) and fully-automatics. Infantry are armed with one of; Muzzle-loaders (Napoleonic stuff - Chinese infantry matchlocks), Rifled Muskets (ACW and Crimea stuff), Breechloaders (Martini-Henries), Advanced Breechloaders (magazine rifles), and sword and spear. Cavalry have their own (powerful) melee category. By playing with these available categories one can achieve anything from a British force under Wellesley fighting the Mahrattas to d'Amade's French in Morocco (he salivated). There are three main campaigns each with scenarios and free/historical deployments. The sequence is: Events (each player has his own chart) Reinforcements Movement Battle Logistics, and Rally The Events Chart covers the usual sort of stuff you expect in colonial games. The Colonial Office can order you to evacuate the map (if the Natives are ahead on points - First Boer War style) or to advance (geographical VPs go up but only if the Brits are ahead of the game). Reinforcements can be despatched (for example, the force sent for the second invasion of Zululand), replacements delayed or increased, war correspondents appear (allowing, inter alia, the naughty natives to spy on your camp via their subscription to The Times bloody reptiles!). There are a number of dice-modifiers available to cover pluck and incompetence (the mixture as before). Some events apply only to certain scenarios; the French and Brits fall out in China, the US Fleet turns up in China to rescue Jackie Fisher, Lou-Lou can get killed by the Zulus (I imagine Flashie will be involved in this when the relevant package is opened), there are Fashoda incidents, Italians in the Sudan and Charlie Gordon. The Natives (as the game charmingly calls them) get their replacements fiddled with, cause terrible atrocities, have visions (leading their followers to get fanatical), not to mention attrition, uprisings, earthquakes and poisoning wells. If you are very good you can even get a Jihad. It's all there folks, and it will work surprisingly well if you enjoy rationalising a story from your games. But, do remember losing a game on the back of a random event can be less than fun and Joe includes no VP balancing factor. Movement is simple but unpredictable. The British forces are not only slowed down by supply trains (if they wish to operate in strength) but by the Terrain Effects favouring the Natives. The result can be awesome Zulu panzer forces (in SS colours too!) rushing around the map and dismantling your weakest stack (if they can work out which it is under the usual Miranda hidden stacks). The dice (influenced by your leader's Strategic Value) can stop you moving (bad news if in the desert), cause attrition and allow up to triple moving. On the whole one must campaign without trusting in much of a chess game. You can easily be Custer advancing beyond support into the teeth of the whole Sioux nation. Combat has been criticised by my Honourable Friend the Member for White Plains (R Berg Esq) for being too tactical, but I found the method very atmospheric (something the said critic's games seldom are), and its extra time compensated for by time saved elsewhere. Matters open with both sides deciding Tactical Superiority (a dice plus Strategic Rating). The superior player (not always the British player) fires first in each round, and since combat results are applied immediately after they are scored the first fire can be a great advantage. However, where the natives have Superiority but no artillery they are still going to get shelled before they close. Command ability cannot avoid range (though Osman Digna used to manage this trick by hiding in wadis and letting the Brits come to him). The rounds of fire open with long-range weapons, artillery, rockets and machine-guns. Each type of weapon fires with modifiers and causes demoralisation or losses and demoralisation. After the "artillery" the rifles fire (once again each by type, so breach-loaders fire separately from muskets), and finally (if anyone is left) hand-to-hand combat where the natives usually have an edge. A small native force is going to be shot to pieces before it ever closes for action (especially against later magazine-rifle units). However, if the rifle-fire is ineffective the white troops may not survive the ensuing rush. After combat if one side has lost (or had demoralised) more than half of its force and the other side has avoided this there is a retreat and a pursuit. There does not seem to be anything like the rushing slaughter after Isandhlwana. Whoever was the strategic attacker the combat is always decided the same way, so once engaged the natives are assumed to close for action, not force the Brits to attack in a different fashion. This is much as it was. Though Colonel Callwell ("Small Wars")would have proposed that after a powerful artillery bombardment the Natives might decamp without closing. Demoralisation prevents the units from getting a dice modifier (+2 for veterans for example) but does not stop them fighting. Demoralisation of a demoralised unit means elimination so that one may wish to avoid combat after being attacked until your Rally Phase (which is of course neatly placed after Battle). Supply, apart from those useful "one wagon feeds all" trains, comes from dicing in the terrain. A clear hex can feed between two and 20 units, so raiding forces can take a risk, but a large army needs supply (and a regular supply of supply too!). Units in excess of forage are demoralised (oops!) which strips them of combat modifiers and puts them once stage closer to death. The retreat from Kabul can clearly be seen here, as can other major feats of poor generalship. Rivers, fortresses and the railway in the Sudan can all help, but the logistical side of warfare is demonstrated without too much book-keeping. Optional Rules Optional Rules are provided in great number. Engineers are provided to build laagers and to storm fortress gates. Reconnaissance rules (as well as spies) are provided to check those hidden stacks. Small roadblock units can be attacked during movement but at an attack disadvantage (was this what happened at Rorke's Drift)? Units entering an enemy ZOC may be ambushed (actually intercepted there seems no real ambush). Forces can evade (if they have more cavalry or are Natives in the jungle or the mountain). [As an aside the presence of supply-trains should in my view reduce the ability to evade, and Zulu veterans should perhaps count as cavalry)]. Finally, Natives who destroy British units can acquire their rifles to use as "muskets". The scenarios have lots of special rules. One can negotiate while marching on Peking (no thanks matey I've read Flashman). There are civilians to rescue in the Sudan. Rivers require special treatment in both China and the Sudan. There are fleets (both ocean going and riverine), railroads and the telegraph. The scenarios open with the Anglo-French march on Peking in 1860. Sir Hope Grant and the (soon-to-be) Comte Paliakao must capture the Taku Forts and march on Peking. (Sadly there is no Yi Concubine counter, but you can get the US Marine Corps - what a crappy trade hien). In the Zulu War the usual dozy British strategic plan (well not so dozy if this was a Kaffir War against the Xhosa, but it isn't) has four columns just asking to be destroyed by the nasty Zulus, but what a cost they must pay to do so. The Sudan campaigns give a lot of play. You can start with Billy Hicks invading Khordofan. After that disaster a short scenario has Charlie Gordon in Khartoum, can our chums save him (or will nasty old Gladstone triumph - boo hiss yar)? Finally, an Omdurman scenario takes you over nearly three years of the River War. You will swiftly note that the scale of the maps can alter (in the Sudan it is 20 miles to a hex, but four in China) as well as time (two weeks in Zululand feels like two months in the Sudan). In each case the power of the rifle means the Natives have to mass numbers to last through the fire storm. This may also open them to supply losses. Faced by massed Native armies the British must also optimise stack size and supply ability. This in turn may encourage the Natives to break down and attack the supply lines. There is a lot of play value in these games before the best strategy (if such there be) emerges. Equally you may feel at times utterly defeated when a plan misfires. Resign and restart (with your opponent's consent). The Zulu War opens with a difficult choice for both sides. The Zulus really need a big advantage in numbers to push through the fire so anything more than two armies is asking for defeat in detail, unless you use a small force to harass supply-lines. The British are asking to beaten unless they can join their columns into (at most) two forces. But this reduction in strategic choice (and supply difficulties) can make for a hard game. The range of combat results is impressive. I have had everything from an Terrible Ambush, to a Bloodless Victory. The lack of cavalry means that the Zulus cannot evade, and assuming the Mounted Infantry cannot help the Brits (until the Lancers and Dragoons arrive) combat will be frequent and bloody. The Chinese campaign gives the Chinese one major advantage - lots of hard-riding Tatar fanatic cavalry (Flashman's comments not withstanding). This permits the major Chinese force led by San-ko-lin to avoid attacks by the powerful major Allied forces (handsomely equipped with artillery) and attack small forces sent to clear towns or escort supplies through from the river-head. However, old Sam Collinson is going to face supply problems in massing a big enough army to damage the Allies. Similarly the major Allied forces will need to keep together in large stacks using supply shipped up-river and then escorted through to permit the destruction of Peking and the seizure of the Palace. There are a mountain of Sudanese scenarios starting with Hicks Pasha, they progress through Gordon's arrival, the Nile and Suakim operations, and the Kitchener campaigns. As yet I have not had time to play these (and build railroads too) but I have already received ample value from the two minor sections of this excellent game. The Sun Never Sets is not a highly detailed simulation of each campaign, but neither is it the usual bland inappropriate system into which history has been shoehorned. There is a lot of clever stuff hidden away in here, and Joe Miranda has sought to use a number of techniques which give a good overall effect at a small loss of accuracy but a major saving in time. For example, the supply rules with their highly variable supply capacity per hex may seem odd (although not as odd as what sometimes happened) but their effect is to teach you that with large armies you either have a wagon train or take a risk. Overall a very good package and I still have the Mahadiya to conquer! Back to Perfidious Albion #96 Table of Contents Back to Perfidious Albion List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 by Charles and Teresa Vasey. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. 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