One of the veterans of the game-kit (or DTP) market Randy has a solid reputation for building good games for which you just do not happen to pay a lot. This one came out in 1995 but has a more recent edition. You can obtain the game from Randy via randym@unm.edu for $14 plus postage. Boulder Jim also stocks these games (Boulderg@aol.com). My review covers the first edition but I do not think much hangs on this. The map (28" by 42") is neatly done to show the Meuse between Yvoir and Blaimont (the area where 5th and 7th Panzer Divisions had to break through). The main terrain (other than the river) is woods, towns and villages with some hills. The second edition has a more detailed map but I find the old one easier to "read". The French formations are in position on the map guarding the river and its five (wired) bridges. However, before the bridges can be blown the retreating units of the light cavalry divisions must be withdrawn (they enter from the east) followed all too soon by German units. During the game various French units arrive and the Germans arrive at the rate of four battalions a turn (with certain limits as to which units these battalions must be drawn from). The Germans face an exploding bridge in 5 out of 6 occasions, and so may just get one bridge left undestroyed. If their crossing is delayed the French reinforcements may just cork the bottle. If they break through fast enough the French are unlikely to be able to slow them down in the open country. The combat system is rather neat (and I am sure I have seen it somewhere else). Each unit has three factors: Combat -Effectiveness-Movement. Combat is the number equal or lower to which one must dice to get a hit. Effectiveness is the number equal or lower to which one must dice to avoid the effects of a hit (a Saving Throw). To add to the fun the terrain effects are modifiers to Combat and Effectiveness, and the Germans get a number of very important combined arms advantages. A combat dice score of 1 is ALWAYS a hit, and an Effectiveness roll of 6 is ALWAYS a failed test, so there are no invulnerable positions. A battalion of French croc (older men) infantry will be 3-2-4 (the North African regulars are 3-4-4) with German infantry at 5-4-4. So firing in the open the French will hit 50% of the time (scores of 1-3 to hit) and the Germans save those for 67% of the time, leaving damage (the target unit eliminated) about one sixth of the time. The Germans will hit 83% of the time and the crocs recover one third of the time for a loss rate of 56%. The route is therefore open for a lot of casualties. However, sit the croc in a town and his Combat value improves to 5 and his effectiveness to 4- the same as the German. Interestingly armoured units are seldom powerful, but they are important in helping the values of all units in combined attacks. The sequence adds a neat twist here. When you decide to attack a hex it gets to fire back first. A large German stack (say at a river crossing) is going to have maybe three companies of tanks and two battalions of motorised infantry. Using the combined arms advantages this lot will get hits on scores of 1-5, and probably 1-3/4 for the armour. This may mean three hits, and on a poor recovery maybe two losses. That is pretty fierce, and reading accounts of the fighting not inaccurate. Indeed until the North Africans arrive the French are pretty much reduced to holding terrain and hoping to inflict losses without much counter-attacking. The unit level is battalion (with companies for armour) and reminds me of Lost Battles from SPI with all the bits of a division displayed. A French infantry division will have nine infantry battalions, an engineer battalion (used for blowing up and mending bridges), an anti-tank unit, two artillery units and a recce unit. The elite (if unsupplied) 1st DCR (Heavy Armoured Division) has six companies of H39 tanks and six of the heavier B1 (the one that looks like a Warhammer 40K tank), a recce unit and three artillery formations. In general "soft" units will have an effectiveness of 1 or 2 and it is inadvisable to hold a line with artillery. German recce formations at 8-5-10 are pretty ferocious, reflecting their equipment, training and flexibility. In general German formations are faster, more deadly and tougher on defence. The Germans do have a notable couple of problems - they are attacking across a river, and they are attacking. The latter means that if the French can hold the terrain they will have key advantages shooting at German attackers coming in over the clear. The former is part of the whole problem for the Germans. They may be lucky and capture a bridge intact, otherwise they line the bank firing at poor odds and facing losses as they cross in inflatables. There is no solution to this but to tough it out and to use the Luftwaffe to pound the ground. Once across the Germans should be able to crumble the defence until it is forced back on reinforcements seldom able to cover the whole front and woefully weak on the counter-attack. That's pretty much where it was, the French must hope to cause enough losses to give the Germans too many problems or force them to waste time in seeking to flank positions. Game Start The game starts midway through May 12 (the day before the main German thrust arrived) and is played in five turns a day (one of which is a night turn) until the night of May 15 (a full 18 turns). The sequence is Air Phase (Germans only, and day turns only), Allied operations (each stack moves and fights), German operations) and Turn end. The game cracks on leaving you a lot of time for the dicey system, which generates a wide range of results. Air turns are carried out using a daily ration of strikes. You can launch air strikes (you attack units of HQs with a value of 5 - a panzergrenadier battalion!), interdiction (which increases movement costs for those of you who want to slow down reinforcements), reconnaissance and observing for ground artillery. A stack moves and fights in the operations phase before the next stack. Movement in ZOCs causes reaction fire which can be pretty devastating (and free for the enemy). It must keep an eye of the links of unit to divisional HQ and then to Corps HQ. Such links are the area into which the Panzers need to direct themselves. Artillery (other than self-propelled) may not fire in the phase in which it moves but it can project its fire (if some spots for it) up to four hexes. It provides by far the best chance to damage the Germans for the French. Not only does artillery fire not suffer prior defensive fire but a heavy battalion can have a Combat value of 6 (automatic hit in the open). Defensive fire support is made at 50% of normal value (no fire plans). The effect of the combined arms rule (which only benefits the Germans) covers the training at high levels common in the German army. An attacking unit's effectiveness in increased by one (thus blunting the effect of defensive fires); the defending units then reduce their effectiveness by one (making the defence even weaker unless an anti-tank unit is in position. our units increase their Combat values by one and they take the losses before infantry. This forces the French to kill companies instead of battalions (because a hit kills a counter). The net effect of all this is that French reserve formations mostly act on the defensive using terrain and their artillery. French first-line formations are not as heavy on the fire as German ones but just as tough in the morale/training area. Armour is itself quite weak, but with a natural 1 giving a hit you have to watch it, and its effect is primarily to shield and reduce losses for its accompanying panzer-grenadiers. That seems to me to be a pretty good description of the verities of this particular campaign, and all achieved at little gaming pain. There are lots of rules to cover the various ways across the Meuse, Rommel himself, and the fuel status of 1st DCR. Five scenarios cover: 1.the historical scenario 2.an improved (and supplied) arrival by 1st DCR 3.Extra Luftwaffe support 4.French preparations (two infantry divisions deployed in the right place), and 5.Belgian withdrawal (permitting better return of the French forward elements, but at a cost of faster German reinforcements, six battalions instead of four). Each has its own VP adjustments, and victory is determined by kills and the exit of German units from the western edge of the map. Rommel at the Meuse is a well-designed game whose combat system gets rid of the CRT entirely. It has a good feel for its topic and a lot of historical thought. Clearly the effect of the timing of a established German bridgehead is very important in determining victory. If you get unlucky then you may not win but is not that always the case? Physically the counters are pretty decent. They come on thinnish card so you can just cut them out. The little tank illos are very pretty indeed. You will not find the components in any way reducing your pleasure. The research is excellent and the rules clear. A very good game indeed for those of you who like a hard World War 2 battle. The second edition improves counter colour and makes the map prettier. Back to Perfidious Albion #97 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. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com