Alesia (Vae Victis 21): The map is very attractive, the counters exactly as good as you would expect but oh dear how utterly boring this game is. Combat is the usual dozy mixture of morale tests, disorganisations and routs, all of which is guaranteed to increase dice rolling and fail to simulate history. Let us be clear about one thing, after 90 minutes of combat you will have an utterly decisive result to most combats. One unit will not have run away (but rallied in the Rally Phase) as this game might suggest. As is often the case with Vae Victis games the "rate of combat" effect is far too slow (half speed at the least). People get killed in battle. When they engage in hand-to-hand combat the results are more decisive than trading volleys and this game is about very close combat indeed. If the design team cannot accept these brutal truths they should abandon the trade now. The game has many good ideas, although using areas would have improved many things and little loss in detail, but the sheer Bergoid tedium of its combat system led to its prompt removal from our table. I wonder if it can be given the Flowers Of The Forest treatment? Crete 1941 (Vae Victis): An area paratroop game with the usual stunning graphics. This one works pretty well as a game, but do not expect it to be easy. The Brits (and Greeks and Dominion cousins) defend their airfields ferociously and there will be a lot of German dead before you batter your way in. The Allies do not move a great deal but usually have plenty of men around the key areas. German air support is useful but can suffer in range of British AA. If the Royal Navy sinks the sea-borne convoy the task is going to be very hard. The system uses areas but is not really in the Storm Over Arnhem style. One I shall return to, I can provide translations via my e-mail address. Back to Perfidious Albion #98 Table of Contents Back to Perfidious Albion List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 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